Difference between revisions of "Adding DOSBox Games"

Revision as of 01:38, 21 June 2020

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 (like a new text file or anything really) 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.

If you're creating this from an empty text file or anything, enable file extensions to be sure you don't end up with something like: STUNTS.COM.evrdos.TXT

Adding folders

You might not want your game to run automatically, but instead you want to just start with the DOS prompt at your desired game folder, so you can browse folders and 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 named folder.evrdos inside the folder you want to start in.

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, instead of running the actual game as soon as you turn the console on.

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, you have two ways, using the example above:

Match the "folder.evrdos" file with a folder.png label like this:

...\Games\DOS\Duke 3D\folder.png (Notice it's inside the "Dude 3D" folder)

Or match the actual folder, "Duke 3D", like this:

...\Games\DOS\Duke 3D.png (Notice it's not inside the "Duke 3D" folder)

Dosbox.conf (Advanced)

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 that you've added using the .evrdos file, it will automatically load a dosbox.conf if 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 the DOS prompt and load your dosbox.conf settings, you just need to create this empty file: dosbox.conf.evrdos.

Attention: loading dosbox.conf files directly won't automatically mount your folder, so you'll need to do that in the [autoexec] section of your conf file, using the relative path from Retroarch to your folder. Example:

[autoexec]
mount C "..\Games\DOS\Duke 3D"
C:

This will allow you to load all your custom settings and start your DOS prompt in your mounted folder.

If you have any relative paths in your [autoexec] section, note they're originally supposed to be relative to DOSBox.exe, so you'll need to rewrite them to be relative to your retroarch.exe path instead, as shown above. Again, paths are not relative to dosbox.conf, but to retroarch.exe.

If you don't really need any custom settings from a dosbox.conf file, just add the folder as usual.

Again, if you're just loading .exe, .com, etc, directly, any dosbox.conf in the same folder will be automatically loaded.