Minimum Requirements for VirtualBox

You can find full installation information and guides for VirtualBox on the VirtualBox website here.

System Requirements

  • An x86 64-bit processor, most recent Intel or AMD processor will work
  • 2GB RAM minimum/ 4GB RAM recommended
  • 300MB of available disk space for the application PLUS
  • At least 25 GB of disk space for the VM that Game provides
  • We recommend having even more space available if you want to be able to comfortably solve challenges in the Forensics Base which requires you to work with large files.

Host Operating System

Windows host:

  • Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2 (64-bit)
  • Windows 7 / 8 / or 8.1(64-bit)
  • Windows 10 RTM build 10240 (64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2012 / 2012 R2 / or 2016 (64-bit)

Mac host (64-bit):

  • Intel hardware is required (does not work on new M1 hardware)
  • 10.13 (High Sierra)
  • 10.14 (Mojave)
  • 10.15 (Catalina)

Installing VirtualBox

We recommend students with Mac computers that use the Intel chipset use VirtualBox, which is a free application.

Important Note: Currently, the new M1 MacBook Air, M1 MacBook Pro, and M1 Mac Mini computers with do not yet support virtualization, and VirtualBox will not run on an M1 computer.

You can download VirtualBox from the VirtualBox website. Follow the instructions on the VirtualBox website to install the software.

We have provided a video walkthrough inside the CyberStart Game Field Manual on how to get VirtualBoc up and running, and get your Game Virtual Machine working. Please watch this video closely and carefully as you set up your Virtual Machine.

Running the CyberStart Game VM in VirtualBox

1. Download the VirtualBox version of the CyberStart Game VM from inside the Field Manual.

2. Unzip the files into a place you'll remember.

3. In the unzipped folder, double click the file: 'cs_game.vbox'. If you have file extensions disabled, then you can recognise the file because it is the only file both called cs_game and with a blue box icon. Note there are other files with a similar icon in the directory, but only one of the names match.

4. After double clicking, the virtual machine should launch in VirtualBox. You'll see there will be a sidebar which the virtual machine has also been added to. In the future you won’t need to find the '.vbox' file to launch the virtual machine, opening Virtualbox and selecting the virtual machine from the sidebar will be enough (as long as you don’t delete the files from the computer).

5. You can then press the green 'play' button to boot the virtual machine.

IMPORTANT: The login details are username: agent and password: agent.

6. To turn off the virtual machine, just shut it down as if you were shutting down a normal computer.