Boxer: The DOS game emulator that’s fit for your Mac.

EDIT: Citation Needed… http://www.aarongiles.com/history/index.html

Boxer bundles DOS games into gameboxes, a self-contained app-like package format that appears as a single file in Finder and can be launched by double-clicking. Each gamebox is a self-contained DOS ecosystem that contains the game and everything it needs to run: drives, configuration settings, documentation etc. They're path-independent, which means they can be stored wherever you like, moved around, backed up easily, and shared with friends, without needing to reconfigure anything inside the gamebox.

You can create gameboxes by drag-and-dropping game CDs, floppies, disc images or folders onto Boxer's game import window. Boxer guides you through the game's installer if needed, then packages the game up into a gamebox (and rips its CD if appropriate).

Boxer aims to make games require zero configuration and zero knowledge of the emulator's esoteric inner workings. It automatically pre-configures dozens of games that need custom emulation settings, and more automatic configurations are added as they are found. If needed though, you can tweak common emulation settings (like CPU speed and mouse behaviour) while you play, using Boxer's inspector window.

The inspector also lets you add cover art to your games, again by drag-and-drop: images are processed to look like shiny game boxes and become the Finder icon for the game. These icons fit in especially well in the DOS Games folder - the default location for imported games - which can be optionally given an iBooks-style wooden shelf appearance.

Additionally, the inspector lets you add and eject DOS drives by (all together now) drag-and-drop, at any time while you're playing a game. This lets you easily hot-swap CDs and floppies. To this end, Boxer also auto-mounts any CDs or floppies you mount while playing, and removes them from DOS once they're ejected.

Boxer's emulation window lets you resize and zoom it to your heart's content, and allows you to toggle between rendering filters (HQx etc.) on the fly. There's a new renderer which has much sharper graphics at large window sizes, and has markedly improved fullscreen support (allowing you to access the menu and switch to other applications - handy for checking up a PDF game manual for instance, which Boxer incidentally scans gameboxes for and displays in the Help menu). While you’re at the DOS prompt, the window also displays a slide-out program launcher tray; while you’re running a game installer, it displays installation tips instead.

Apart from that, Boxer has the usual trappings of a Cocoa app: proper menus, sane keyboard shortcuts, integrated Apple Help and automatic application updates.

I think that about covers it.

Thexder HD was released on PSN recently, btw.