To Whomever Finds This Webpage,
In 2022, while looking for a job, I wrote an interactive DOS batch script to create what amounted to virtual DOS machines in DOSBOX. It could create and install any DOS based OS up through Windows 95. While making it, I had the idea to try and turn it into a game, a game where you could explore these old versions of Windows which I found so cool. I thought about making some sort of text based adventure game like Colossal Cave Adventure, but simpler. I had experience making anime style visual novels, and had the idea to combine the two together, something in the visual novel would guide you in the DOS part of the game. Thus, the basis of DOSGirls was born.
The story was inspired by my experiences the two years prior to making this game. In case you have somehow forgotten, a virus called COVID-19 sent the entire world into a panic and everything shut down. In the span of 3 days my girlfriend broke up with me, all my concert and spring break plans got canceled, all the stores and restaurants closed, and my college said I had three days to get all my things out of the dorm room I had spent the last 2 years and had my first kiss in and go home. Heartbroken doesn't feel like a strong enough word. I spent that summer taking online heartbreak recovery classes, getting into a toxic online discord relationship with a girl with blue hair that ended as quickly as it started, and trying to repair my faith. While things got a bit better in 2021, it was still in a broken world that I moved away from my family for a job. The week I arrived into the middle of nowhere, my job went from once a week in office to once every other week. I had never felt so isolated. So my desire with DOSGirls was to combat it, all of it. I wanted a funny, fun, bright game where you could enjoy the simple pleasure of eating a meal with a cute girl and good friend. A dating sim where you actually went out to eat and a conversation. Where you can hug and cuddle in DOS, but in an emotional, romantic way. I composed all the music myself, feeling inspired to try to do more piano and string arrangements after seeing Rick Wakeman do a solo piano concert. I included a download link to the soundtrack below and included an arrangement of Tell Me from my album The Donut Queen that I made especially for the game, but never fit it in. The game was "finished" in 2023, but never saw a release for multiple reasons. The main one being that there were bugs in the browser version and I was uncomfortable distributing old windows versions for download. This version still has some audio bugs, but the big game breaking one has now been fixed. The other reason was the game was voice acted using very primitive AI before it became the hot button issue it is today. Still now that the bugs were fixed, I felt I would like to give Lilly and the DOSGirls their time to shine. I am extremely fond of this project and want people to experience it, so please forgive the primitive AI that may or may not ethically use voice work from actual voice actresses. The voice acting really brings these girls to life in a huge way, and that wouldn't have been possible without this early AI. I hope you can understand.
A Few notes before we get started: First is that this game is best played with two screens, be it a laptop and a tablet or phone or a desktop with two monitors. One running the game and one running JS-DOS, both buttons below. Don't worry they open in new tabs. Second there are many, MANY typos that I am too lazy to fix. Third, there are some audio bugs in the game, don't worry you can download the soundtrack to listen at your leisure. Finally, please make sure you run the game using the DOSBOX X emulator core for at the last connection, otherwise it will crash. You can find it in the settings before booting up the DOS part.
With that, I will now leave you to enjoy my game. Have fun eating food with Lilly, poking around old operating systems, and helping some folks out around DOSTown. This game is truly a piece of my heart, so thank you for taking the time to play it. May God bless you and keep you.