Difference between revisions of "Adding DOSBox Games"

Revision as of 05:31, 7 August 2019

DOSBox Games are a special case for the Game Scanner.

Read further below to learn how to properly add them.

Note: DOSBox games always need to be extracted. Each game should be in their own separate subfolder, inside your DOS games folder.

Adding executables

Previously, the scanner would add every single .exe file in your game folder, and some games have lots of executable files that don't need to be clogging your playlist.

Now, since version 1.0.4, you just need to create an empty file and name it like "your_executable_filename.extension.evrdos", and it will work like a link to it for the Game Scanner.

For example, if you want to add Duke3D.exe, you need to create an empty file in the same folder, named Duke3D.exe.evrdos

If you want a STUNTS.COM file, create a STUNTS.COM.evrdos file in the same folder.

Adding folders

You might not want your game to automatically start, but instead want to just start with the DOS prompt at your desired game folder, so you can run anything you want, like SETUP.EXE to install or set up your game before playing it.

To do that, just create an empty file called folder.evrdos inside the folder you want.

For example, you want to start the prompt inside your Duke Nukem 3D folder, but while being free to run SETUP.EXE or anything else you need to.

If your Duke Nukem 3D folder, which contains files such as duke3d.exe and setup.exe, is located like this:

...\Games\DOS\Duke 3D\

Just create this empty file:

...\Games\DOS\Duke 3D\folder.evrdos

It will show up as an extra cartridge in your inventory menu, and playing it will make you start the DOSBox prompt in that folder.

Folder Labels

If you want to add a label to a DOS folder, just follow this pattern for the same folder example above:

...\Games\DOS\Duke 3D.png

Basically, a image file named as your folder. Notice it's not inside the "Duke 3D" folder.

Dosbox.conf

dosbox.conf is a configuration file that DOSBox uses to store various system settings and initialization values that define your emulated environment.

Learn more about it here: https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Dosbox.conf

When you run an executable file which you added using the .evrdos file, it will automatically load the dosbox.conf found in the same folder.

If you use the folder.evrdos method to start at the command prompt, it will not load that configuration file.

To be able to start in a folder and load your dosbox.conf settings, you just need to create this empty file: dosbox.conf.evrdos.