Dosbox
 

At last, I have mastered this great bit of kit! (big cheer)
It took me some hours but I got there. Have any of you wonderful people
got any hidden tips that I should know about?
Go on, I promise to keep it a secret!

Cheers

Gaztop (Also known as newbie)

Oh, I definitely do. :D

When you go in the shortcut properties, you can modify it to declare multiple config files. So you declare your basic config file and some other one. This is incremental, so if for example the second config only is supposed to change resolution and scalers, you only have to leave those settings and can delete all the others.

One exception are the [autoexec] sections of the config file - these are executed in the order in which the config files are loaded.

So you can use the main config file to mount the games directory, and the second config file to load settings for a specific game and run it.

In other words, it's possible to make shortcuts that start specific games and then close DOSBox window on exit.
The best thing about this? No steenkin' frontends.
I've done it with - literally - dozens of games. Works like a charm every time. :D

A good tip: if you have a lot of Dos games, use a front end like Dosbox Game Launcher (which is my favorite).

Advantages:

- Separate setups for each game. Very handy when you're running games that are sensitive to cycles and other settings

- Screenshots! A small thing to some, but handy if you're playing lots of games you don't know very well.

- The ability to go directly to setup of a game without needing a separate link

- easily load multiple image files instead of having to type loooooong imgmount lines

etc.

Oh, yeah: you can make a bin/cue of any DOS game and load it in Dosbox using imgmount.

Never heard of a batch file?

Batch files are a bit of a nuisance - I use those when I absolutely have to. A frontend gets the job done in a second while with batch files you need more time than that and if you ever move or rename the files, you need to edit it again. When a game has 5-6 CDs, it becomes a bit tedious ;).

Also, batch files are usually kept in the game folder and I absolutely do NOT want "foreign" files in game folders. I try to keep the game folders as clean as possible except for save games.

1) batch files are best saved on your virtual C
(And as I never use a frontend I start dosbox with my virtual C mounted with C prompt ready).
2) You can mount all the ISOs in one line in dosbox-(5 or 6 ? no problem)-, change them ingame with CTRL+F4
3) Aslong you keep the same folder name for your ISOs you never have to rename anything.

So what?

One of the reasons why I use the dedicated shortcut/config combo. 123 games set up this way, counting those where I have both CD & FDD versions set up (Space Hulk, Dune, Flashback) or multiple episodes (Secret Agent, Traffic Department 2192) as single entries.

Have a look. The first is autoexec of my main DOSBox config, the second is the autoexec from the dedicated config for Command & Conquer (unlike other settings in incremental config files, the autoexec sections are all executed, the order of execution being the exact order in which they were declared).

If you have hundreds of games, working with batch files just doesn't cut it. I used to mount a single folder and start from there too, but it's simply no longer efficient. With every new Dosbox version released, I need to go through every game I have, testing to see if they still work and if small problems have been solved. If I had to fiddle with batch files (which I did at first), I would lose tons of time because it's simply a lot slower and even if you work with batch files with parameters, you still need to manually enter them.

In other words, batch files aren't an option unless you'd like your C root to contain 500+ batch files. And as I already said, I try not to contaminate my game folders. Front ends are handy for a reason - you can keep it seperate from your games without needing to pollute your virtual folder.

You may have hundreds of games, batch files are only needed for the CD games that are ISO'ed/BinCue'ed whatever 'ed..., the others don't need that. A couple of keystrokes for the floppy ones, that's all.

Pollute my virtual C? It can have the needed batch files, and your front-end also need to store files for every game.....

Editing the batch files when dosbox updates? Why? the only thing is add the virtual C mount in the new DB conf under [autoexec], the batch files never had to be edited t'll now.-(can change maybe, who knows ...)-

You're happy with your solution, I'm happy with mine, Fifth is happy with his, and there are other solutions, some even type everything at the prompt, why not?
Aslong as it suits your needs and you're happy with it, in the end it's all that matters isn't it?
Each his own I guess red_avatar, each his own.
:)

You do realise that I have over 500 original CD games for DOS right :P I'm working on an archive of every single one of my CD games on my hard drive (1TB drive so plenty of space) but using batch files, it would be a much less "clean" solution. The front end puts it all in its own folder, NOT in the virtual drive. Easy to get a very cluttered root otherwise, with important files getting lost in the chaos of batch files. A lot of games dump crap in the root which I try to remove as much as I can.

I just like nicely sorted folders, clean folders, etc. You should see how my DBGL window looks like - every game has a score depending on how well it runs, developer, publisher, release date, amount of CDs, type of game, etc. I run a tight ship ;). With that many games, it's either that or sinking.