- Update your MacOS Sequoia (but DON’T UPGRADE TO TAHOE if I were you) if you haven’t done so yet. Also, since I have a MacBook Air M2, I stuck with MacOS Sequoia and avoided upgrading to Tahoe. Sequoia is snappier for me on this laptop. And I’m more productive with this older version of MacOS on this older laptop.
- Open https://dosbox-x.com in a browser. And download DOSBOX-X for “ARM-based Mac.”
- In your Downloads folder, you will find a “dosbox-x-macosx-arm64-20260102233440” (or something similar) directory. I moved it to my user’s home directory. And I renamed it to something easier to use(“dosbox-x-macos-arm64”). So the absolute path of this directory to me is “/Users/<username>/dosbox-x-macos-arm64”.
- Make a “working directory” for your DOSBox-X. I made a “/Users/<username>/DOSBox-X-Working-Directory” for this.
- Open “/Users/<username>/dosbox-x-macos-arm64/dosbox-x” in Finder(please note that I haven’t got the sdl2 version working, so use this non-sdl2 version). Double click “DOSBox-X”. An “Apple could not verify “DOSBox-X” is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy” error is expected. Click “Done”.
- Click the Apple icon on the upper left corner of your main screen. Go to System Settings -> Privacy and Security. Scroll all the way down to “Security.” Click “Open Anyway” for “DOSBox-X was blocked to protect your Mac.”
- Click “Open Anyway.” Provide your administrator password or Touch ID if asked.
- Set your DOSBox-X working directory to the one you created earlier. Then click “Yes” to “Do you want to use the selected folder as the DOSBox-X working directory in future sessions?”
- Click “Open System Settings” to the “Keystroke Receiving” pop up. Toggle DOSBox-X under “Input Monitoring” in order to “Allow the application … to monitor input from your keyboard even while using other applications.” Your administrator password or Touch ID may be requested. Then click “Quit & Reopen” when you see the ““DOSBox-X” will not be able to monitor input from your keyboard until it is quit” pop up.
- DOSBox-X is ready. I suggest you refine its configuration.
