dosbox help

[bradhig1]

I tried to make a new conf file to start jill of the jungle but when dosbox starts it just goes to the z prompt

jill.conf.txt

[Serguei2]

Try c:\Jill_of_The_Jungle

 

Space doesn't work with dosbox.

[wierd_w]

You only need a single .conf.

 

You can append lists of commands at invocation with the -c argument.

 

I have 3 conf files for different soft synthesizers, and abuse the shit out of the -c argument.

 

For instance, your dosbox invocation could look like this:

 

Dosbox --conf /home/user/.dosbox/GM.conf -c "mount c /home/user/.local/dosgames" -c "c:" -c "cd doom" -c "doom" -c "exit"

 

In more recent versions, you can even specify cycles this way with a -c argument.

 

 

[mr_me]

Are there any error messages?

 

Try enclosing the path in quotes:

mount c "c:\Jill of The Jungle"

[youxia]

http://dfendreloaded.sourceforge.net/

 

You can just drag and drop games on it.

[mr_me]

You don't need a front end.  In Windows, you can just drag and drop a file on the standard Dosbox shortcut.  It doesn't execute the file but it will mount the directory.  Then you can just type the command, "jill.bat" in this case.

 

edit:

I haven't had the need for game specific conf files, but if you are going to use them, you have to reference it when starting dosbox.  For example you can create a new dosbox shortcut, edit the target, for example ...\DOSBox.exe" -conf "c:\path\to\jill.conf.txt". 

Edited July 28, 2022 by mr_me

[youxia]

20 minutes ago, mr_me said:

You don't need a front end.  In Windows...

Hey, you don't need Windows either. You can just install Linux and live in the matrix, like a true 1337 haxxor.

[MrMaddog]

Or just get the whole Trilogy for free at GOG, everything's all set up and still DRM free! ?

 

https://www.gog.com/game/jill_of_the_jungle_the_complete_trilogy

[DragonGrafx-16]

18 hours ago, Serguei2 said:

Try c:\Jill_of_The_Jungle

 

Space doesn't work with dosbox.

Too many characters...

 

DOS has an 8 character limit for files and directories unless you're using MS-DOS 7, and that's Windows 9x.

 

When I used to use DOSBOX I had it set up to automatically mount an emulated hard drive and just navigated it like the real thing. Though, I've not really done this since getting real vintage hardware that natively runs MS-DOS 6.22.

[Serguei2]

27 minutes ago, DragonGrafx-16 said:

Too many characters...

 

DOS has an 8 character limit for files and directories unless you're using MS-DOS 7, and that's Windows 9x.

 

When I used to use DOSBOX I had it set up to automatically mount an emulated hard drive and just navigated it like the real thing. Though, I've not really done this since getting real vintage hardware that natively runs MS-DOS 6.22.

You don't use c:\Jill_of_The_Jungle directly in DOS but on Windows.

 

Just create a .bat file in a game directory like this c:\dosbox\dosbox  C:\Jeuxdos\conan-the-cimmerian -conf dosbox-0.74.conf

 

Once dosbos is running write CONAN and press enter.

[mr_me]

Although dosbox doesn't display long names, the mount command inside dosbox does take long directory names as input.  If it has spaces, surround the path with quotes.  You can also just drag and drop the directory on a dosbox shortcut in windows.

Edited July 28, 2022 by mr_me

[eightbit]

14 hours ago, youxia said:

http://dfendreloaded.sourceforge.net/

 

You can just drag and drop games on it.

 

I gotta go with this just for the ease of use. Well, my go to is always a real system and not emulation to begin with, but if using Dosbox I would recommend this frontend. I have used it in the past and it makes loading stuff really painless.

[wierd_w]

(mutters that you can just create shortcuts in windows / linux, which include the -c "foo" syntax. There is precisely zero need for any front end at all.)

[youxia]

4 hours ago, wierd_w said:

(mutters that you can just create shortcuts in windows / linux, which include the -c "foo" syntax. There is precisely zero need for any front end at all.)

I must admit that a small part of why I posted here, is because I knew these kind of replies will be inevitable, and their ridiculousness amuses me to no end. It happens every single time in the advice threads: "well, akshually, there's no need to do things the easy way. It's better to do them the convoluted way, because that's the way I do it! (even though I also use the easy way for nearly everything else)".

 

Now, there's nothing wrong with using shortcuts, writing your own scripts, or generally being a CLI/Notepad++ type user, but some people might prefer not to deal with all this. And that's what the advice threads are all about: showing people options. I'm not sure why is it so hard to comprehend this simple concept.

 

And, to state the obvious, D-Fend Reloaded is a well-respected frontend which does much, much more than just launch DOS games, though having them organised in one place with super easy editing of all the countelss DosBox options is a reason enough to use it.

[wierd_w]

*shrug*

I kinda like the manual flexibility of essentially being able to define custom autoexec.bat right on the invocation line. It's not like I am having to type it every time.  I also like not having a bunch of things installed that do the same things.

To me, I can have a single DosBox deployment, (eg, a single folder containing all my DOS games), and a minimum number of .conf files to contend with. This is not the case, with say-- WINE containers, which each have their own baked in registry, dependencies, et al, and thus have a bonafide NEED for a manager, like Lutris.

 

I have just a handful of .conf files that establish keymaps for joysticks, and set up the midi device chain for GM synth to be properly routed (to MUNT for MT32 games, and to FluidSynth for GM games, for example), and the rest is all handled by the -c syntax entries.  Processor clock with the cycles=XXX syntax, et al.

 

This has all the earmarks of a sysvinit vs systemd spat, but I personally prefer the manual method. I find it to be the most flexible, with the minimum install overhead.

 

[mr_me]

Frontends are great but it's up to the OP should they want to install it.  Both options should be covered.

Edited July 29, 2022 by mr_me

[zzip]

I know in Linux I can just have a shortcut to the game and launch it and make Dosbox kind of transparent.

 

But I have so many DOS games installed that I would clutter my desktop with launcher icons to each.  Plus I have lots of games for other emulators.   That's why I use a front end,  it organizes my retro game collection and doesn't clutter up my system's desktop or menus

 

As others have said, it all comes down to personal preference

[wierd_w]

That's what I use the whisker menu for. You manage/edit it with something like alacarte.  (or, just use the start menu on windows)

 

 

No need to clutter the desktop.  No need for a front end; you have an application launcher already.

[mr_me]

22 hours ago, mr_me said:

Although dosbox doesn't display long names, the mount command inside dosbox does take long directory names as input.  If it has spaces, surround the path with quotes.  You can also just drag and drop the directory on a dosbox shortcut in windows.

Correction, all that has to be done is drag and drop the executable file "jill.exe" or "jill.bat" onto the default Dosbox shortcut icon.  It automatically mounts the directory and runs the file, no need for a custom shortcut command, script, conf file, etc.

[eightbit]

Creating batch files with specific command line switches is nothing new to most people who use frontends. I can (and do) do that if there are a dozen or so specific games I'd like to just run a simple batch file to play. However I am not doing that for thousands of games. See, I am a dirty DOS pirate (and I'll make no reservations about that) and my collection is quite vast. Sometimes I like to pop around and launch games and for me at least a frontend is necessary. No way in hell I am drawing up a batch file for every game in my collection...I don't have that many years left afterall

 

Same goes for M.A.M.E. for so many years. Sure now launching the executable provides a built in game selector but it wasn't always that way. When M.A.M.E. really started adding tons of games I found it very necessary there too.

[zzip]

On 8/6/2022 at 1:26 PM, eightbit said:

Creating batch files with specific command line switches is nothing new to most people who use frontends. I can (and do) do that if there are a dozen or so specific games I'd like to just run a simple batch file to play. However I am not doing that for thousands of games. See, I am a dirty DOS pirate (and I'll make no reservations about that) and my collection is quite vast. Sometimes I like to pop around and launch games and for me at least a frontend is necessary. No way in hell I am drawing up a batch file for every game in my collection...I don't have that many years left afterall

 

Same goes for M.A.M.E. for so many years. Sure now launching the executable provides a built in game selector but it wasn't always that way. When M.A.M.E. really started adding tons of games I found it very necessary there too.

I created my own front-end that can manage command line switches on a per-game basis.   It might be that 90% of the games work right with the default settings I use,  but some might need PAL instead of NTSC, or more memory, different OS version or swapped joystick ports-   I can mark that in an info file, and when you select the game it will send the right switches to the emulator.  It's a little bit of configuration, but much easier than managing hundreds of batch files.

[Keatah]

For MAME, most of my emulation setups use a simple shortcut for each game, every game follows a base configuration as defined in the standard ini file.. Desktop shortcuts are able to send a few extra specialized commands to MAME if needed. Everyone knows how to point-n-click to open a game. Fancy front-ends IMHO are to be reserved for stand-alone cabs or special custom setups. Current game count is around 180 games - and I only add a couple of new ones each year.

 

I do DosBox in similar fashion. Here I have a few base configurations that try to cover everything. And if something doesn't work in those I'll simply make a specialized & customized configuration. Having worked with real hardware over the ages, and DosBox in recent times, I find DosBox easier and far more convenient to work with.

 

And then there is the speed and storage aspect. No not making games run at 2000% normal. But rather setting up and loading and whatnot. A breeze especially if you're accustomed to pushing files around and shit. I remember back in the day purchasing my 1st 2nd-HDD. Needed another drive because C:\ was filling up. And gosh! What've we got today? 20TB for what a 540 Megger cost in the 90's? WOW!

 

I consider DosBox, like MAME and some stand-alone emulators (Stella & Altirra) to be mini operating systems in and of themselves. Not quite a virtual machine. Maybe more like an OS extension kit of a sorts. IDK!

[MrMaddog]

 

On 8/6/2022 at 1:26 PM, eightbit said:

Creating batch files with specific command line switches is nothing new to most people who use frontends. I can (and do) do that if there are a dozen or so specific games I'd like to just run a simple batch file to play. However I am not doing that for thousands of games. See, I am a dirty DOS pirate (and I'll make no reservations about that) and my collection is quite vast. Sometimes I like to pop around and launch games and for me at least a frontend is necessary. No way in hell I am drawing up a batch file for every game in my collection...I don't have that many years left afterall

 

Same goes for M.A.M.E. for so many years. Sure now launching the executable provides a built in game selector but it wasn't always that way. When M.A.M.E. really started adding tons of games I found it very necessary there too.

When I first used DOS-SVN-Dawn, for it's CRT shader, I had to combined different config files because it uses only one file unlike the official DosBox.  And I also made batch files to launch them through a frontend like LaunchBox.

 

Of course later on, LaunchBox would support different versions of DosBox but I'm not about to scrap all those batch files I made...

[mr_me]

I don't have a ton of DOS games but I have a couple that I know are cpu speed sensitive e.g. Deathtrack, Wing Commander.  They along with more CPU demanding games all work really well with the default configuration.  Don't know why that is, must be some auto configuring, but it works.  The only custom thing that I want to look into is CGA composite emulation, if it's possible.  And that's not game specific.

[The Usotsuki]

If you use "dosbox -machine cga" it does support CGA composite mode.

 

You can test this in GW-BASIC:

screen 2

out &h3d8, inp(&h3d8) and 251 '(on)

out &h3d8, inp(&h3d8) or 4 '(off)