Ask HN: Play your favorite DOS retro games on mac

#1

Post by melvinodsa » Thu, Feb 19, 2026, 3:03 PM UTC

I am feeling nostalgic about games like Dangerous Dave. Haven't found a good hack to do that. Thinking of utilising my over powered macbook to host LLMs offline and use agents to build those games.

Any simple stage games, you can think off for me to start?

Re: Ask HN: Play your favorite DOS retro games on mac

#2

Post by vunderba » Thu, Feb 19, 2026, 3:13 PM UTC

Why would you use an LLM to build a game that already exists? DosBox-X works perfectly for old retro games (Commander Keen, Dangerous Dave, etc) and runs on Macs.

https://dosbox-x.com

Re: Ask HN: Play your favorite DOS retro games on mac

#3

Post by bityard » Thu, Feb 19, 2026, 3:17 PM UTC

vunderba wrote: post #2

Why would you use an LLM to build a game that already exists? DosBox-X works perfectly for old retro games (Commander Keen, Dangerous Dave, etc) and runs on Macs. https://dosbox-x.com

Right? Or run FreeDOS in a VM, or one of the many DOS emulators in a browser, etc.

Can't see what an LLM has to do with any is this.

Re: Ask HN: Play your favorite DOS retro games on mac

#4

Post by MisterTea » Thu, Feb 19, 2026, 3:32 PM UTC

bityard wrote: post #3

vunderba wrote: post #2

Why would you use an LLM to build a game that already exists? DosBox-X works perfectly for old retro games (Commander Keen, Dangerous Dave, etc) and runs on Macs. https://dosbox-x.com

Right? Or run FreeDOS in a VM, or one of the many DOS emulators in a browser, etc. Can't see what an LLM has to do with any is this.

> Can't see what an LLM has to do with any is this.

"If the only tool you have is a hammer ..."