Another nerdy post! Yeha! Header image credit goes to TouchArcade.

Hot on the heels of my last post that focused on adding small tweaks to stock iOS 9 using modified iTunes Backups, here is a post about a previously jailbreak-only application running on normal iOS: DOSPAD. (A limited version of DOSPAD called iDos is available on the AppStore. This post is about the fully featured emulator.)

In case you’re wondering out loud, “Why would you want an MS-DOS emulator on your iPhone/iPad?”: Check out this YouTube video (Mac OS 8 on iPhone) and this article on TouchArcade (classic DOS games on iPad) for inspiration. DOSPAD is obviously more fun on iPad because of the added real estate and features, but it works on iPhone as well.

To follow through with this tutorial, you either need:

a jailbroken iOS device or

a computer with Mac OS X running the latest version of Xcode (available in the Mac App Store for free). You will also need to sign up for a free developer account using your Apple ID. Please refer to this excellent tutorial from the folks at iDownloadblog for instructions.

Alright, so you’ve got Xcode 7 set up with your developer account. There are three ways to go from here. The first one works by creating an .ipa file from the latest version of Dospad available on the lichtie Cydia repository. Though it’s one step longer than way 2, it doesn’t rely on Xcode and the code working together.

Way 2 uses the source code of Dospad that is available on GitHub to compile the lastest beta of the app yourself. The GitHub has been updated in April with a bunch of fixes (thanks to litchie and yoshisuga).

Finally, way 3 is for jailbroken users and is the easiest method

It should be noted that, since ways 1 and 2 rely on a free developer provisioning certificate, you’ll have to re-do the process every seven days because the free certificate expires every week.



Way 1: using the “iOS App Signer” and the .deb file

This way of installing DOSPAD will give you exactly the same app that you would get if you’re downloading it via Cydia. This means it might be more stable than the Beta from GitHub.

Open Xcode and create a new project. Choose “iOS” and “Single View Application” and “Next”. Enter “dospad” and click “Create”. In the bundle ID field, enter “com.mycompany.dospad”. Connect your iDevice. Next to the Play and Stop buttons in the top left, select the “dospad” target and your device. (Screenshot) Click “Fix Issue” (Screenshot) Download and run “iOS App Signer” (direct link) Download the DOSPAD .deb file from the official Litchie repo (direct link) (the repo is back up with an updated version of dospad! yay) (md5(dospad.deb) = 131753909186aa92a4ae5a897ae2d942) In “iOS App Signer”, click “Browse” and select the “dospad.deb” file you just downloaded. Next, choose the provisioning profile that matches the bundle id you entered in step two. Press ”Start”, choose a destination folder, click “Save” and wait a few seconds. When the status text at the bottom of the window reads “Done, output at…”, you can move on Open iTunes and select the App Library Drag the new dospad.ipa file to the app library. Find the (blank) DOSPAD app in your iTunes App Library Connect your iDevice to your Mac Drag the DOSPAD app from the App Library to your device (a small sidebar will appear on the left of the screen when you start dragging). Wait a few seconds.

Done!

Way 2: Using Xcode and the source code

This way of installing DOSPAD will give you the latest beta with changes and additions that might not be availabe in the Cydia release yet. Keep in mind that it’s a beta, so things might be unstable.

Download the DOSPAD source code from the GitHub page (“Clone or download” => “Download ZIP”). Extract the contents of the .zip and navigate to the new “dospad-master” folder. Double-click the “dospad.xcodeproj” file in the “dospad-master” folder to open the project in Xcode. Select the “dospad” project in the left navigator. Then select the “dospad” target and the “General” tab. (Screenshot) Change the Bundle Identifier to something else. Connect your iDevice. Next to the Play and Stop buttons in the top left, select the “dospad” target and your device. (Screenshot) Click “Fix Issue” (Screenshot) Click the Play button to install the app on your device and run it. (If you see a huge number of compiler warnings, that’s ok. I got 335 warnings.)

Done! That’s six steps less than way 1, but since people tend to get lost in Xcode and their brain turns off when they see source code, way 1 is probably easier to go for most.

Way 3: Installing DOSPAD through Cydia

Jailbreak your iDevice. (visit http://www.canijailbreak.com/ to check whether that is possible.) Open Cydia and go to the sources tab. Tap “edit” and “add”, then type/paste “http://cydia.litchie.com/” and tap “add source”. Wait for Cydia to refresh. Go to the search tab and search for “dospad”. Tap on “DOSPAD – dosbox for iOS”. Tap “Install” and “Confirm”. Tap “Back to Cydia”. Go to your homescreen and tap DOSPAD to open it! (note: dospad doesn’t launch if you’ve modified your resolution using Upscale!)

Done! That was easy!

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