DOSBox Pure vs js-dos

DOSBox Pure is a DOS game emulator fork that runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, either as a standalone desktop download or as a RetroArch core. It opens ZIP and DOSZ files, DOS programs, configuration files, folders, and CD, floppy, or hard disk images. For gamepads, it can detect games and apply controller mappings, or let users map controls to emulated keyboard, mouse, and joystick inputs. Each content item has 10 save-state slots, though complex late-era DOS games may have problems and states depend on using the same game and video or CPU settings. Users can create an 8 to 1024 MB hard disk image and install an operating system from a bootable CD-ROM or floppy image. The emulated NE2000 network card cannot connect to the real internet. Graphics include 3dfx Voodoo PCI emulation, with OpenGL hardware rendering by default and a software option that uses more CPU. MIDI music can use SoundFont files or ROM files for MT-32 emulation. It is free to download; donations are welcome.

js-dos provides a JavaScript API and player for running DOS and Windows 9x programs in a browser or Node. It supports DOSBox and DOSBox-X backends, including Windows 95 and 98 system images through DOSBox-X. Developers can add the player to a webpage from its CDN, install it from npm, or download it from GitHub releases. A basic player needs static website hosting and no backend, but the page must be served over HTTP rather than opened with the file protocol. Browser IPX networking uses WebRTC-NET for IPX servers, peer and alias connections, and shared network instances. Game progress is kept in browser storage by default, which may be wiped; cloud saves can be enabled with a secret key. Custom save storage is supported through filesystem change hooks, and local persistence uses OPFS. All users can read sockdrive storage, while subscribers can write to it to save progress and install games. The site describes WebGL-backed 3Dfx rendering. Mobile support is marked production for v7 and work in progress for v8.