# Opening .dsk file **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 9, 2018, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-dsk-file/825832 "2018-12-09T02:30:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2018, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-dsk-file/825832/1 "2018-12-09T02:30:28Z")
Okay, I had a yen to play The Ancient Art of War and found a site to download a Mac version. Unstuffing the file leaves me with a .dsk file, which based on my research seems to be some kind of primitive disk image, but the reading I’ve done seems to be all about duplicating these files, not about extracting the info/running the program on the disk image. Help! ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2018, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-dsk-file/825832/2 "2018-12-09T02:52:56Z")
Try [ShrinkWrap](http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/shrinkwrap) or [Diskdup](http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/diskdup). I’ll assume you have an old Mac or suitable emulator to run Motorola 68k binaries, because the game surely requires it. You could also try playing the older MS-DOS version. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2018, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-dsk-file/825832/3 "2018-12-09T02:55:49Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Try [ShrinkWrap](http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/shrinkwrap) or [Diskdup](http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/diskdup). I’ll assume you have an old Mac or suitable emulator to run Motorola 68k binaries, because the game surely requires it. You could also try playing the older MS-DOS version. Er…no. Emulator? Please elaborate. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2018, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-dsk-file/825832/4 "2018-12-09T03:16:37Z")
> [@TSBG](#): > > Er…no. Emulator? Please elaborate. The Ancient Art of War was written for older Macs that ran a completely different operating system on completely different hardware. An emulator well, emulates, a different computer, running as a virtual machine on your newer computer. One such emulator is called [SheepShaver](https://sheepshaver.cebix.net/). Note that you’ll also need a copy of the older MacOS, probably System 9 and a PowerMac ROM image, and the legality of those if you don’t already own an older system is questionable at best. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2018, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-dsk-file/825832/5 "2018-12-09T03:22:03Z")
I mean that Mac OS has run on different processors including Motorola 68000 and PowerPC models as well as Intel x86-64 processors, and not everything is backwards compatible, so old programs may not run as-is on your Macintosh. In which case, how do you run them? One way is to install an older version of the operating system in a _virtual_ environment. For example, [Mini vMac](https://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/dnld_std.html) and [Basilisk II](https://basilisk.cebix.net/) can do this, but are a slight PITA to set up. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2018, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-dsk-file/825832/6 "2018-12-09T03:45:12Z")
Even System 6 would probably work, since the Mac version of the game was released in 1987. System 6.0.8 is freely downloadable directly from Apple. As for ROM images, the Mini vMac site said that distributing them probably violated some license agreement, but apparently this has not been an issue for years, if it ever was a real problem, because the fact is some of the other emulators do come bundled with ROM images or have them available for download on their web site. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2018, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-dsk-file/825832/7 "2018-12-09T04:18:21Z")
Thanks for the information. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2018, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-dsk-file/825832/8 "2018-12-09T06:55:51Z")
btw [this page](https://www.gryphel.com/c/sw/system/index.html) (from Mini vMac) has links to System 7.0 and 7.5, as well as System 6 as mentioned above. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2018, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-dsk-file/825832/9 "2018-12-09T13:41:57Z")
Sheepshaver works pretty well, BTW.