D.O.G. is available at http://www.freewebs.com/erikgg or just google "D.O.G. DosBox".
Well I'm not much a manual creating type man as you'll see in the online manual present on my site (only the main screen explained) but I'll do my best to guide you through.
D.O.G. enables you to use whatever official DOSbox version you want to use.
When starting D.O.G. 1.53 for the first time it will detect that there are no DOSBox's configured and so gives you a quick reminder that you need to configure one. When adding a DOSBox to its configuration, D.O.G. will detect the version you are using. Clicking OK will add the DOSbox version to the configuration.
To start DOSBox with D.O.G., do the following :
1. Start D.O.G.
2. Configure the DOSBox you have when promped to do so. When starting.
This is very easy to do so, just browse to the DosBox.exe, select and let D.O.G. detect the version and fill in the rest.
3. Then D.O.G. will open up.
4. Click in the menu profile->Add Profile.
5. Then give it a name and select the exe to start. The setup exe isn't a mandatory field. D.O.G. will automatically fill in the capture and the conf file paths. If not filled in D.O.G. will complain about that when clicking ok. If so, then just click inside the editbox and D.O.G. will fill in the paths when it has the right information from you, like the profilename and the exe, if it doesn't fill in the paths then you can always browse or fill them in yourself.
6. Normally within D.O.G. it isn't nesscarry to mount any drives as D.O.G. will detect the misconfiguration and tries to fix it. But remember this crashes some games as they require a certain path to be present in DOSBox (their installation path).
7. If you need to mount a drive then go to the drives->drives tab and click add harddrive. Then select the directory you want to become a harddrive. Then select the DOSbox drive that represents the directory in DOSbox. Then OK, the drive should be visible in the list.
8. Then OK for the Profile Manager.
9. The profile should be visible in the Profile List on the main window.
10. Double click to start the game.
Also, with D.O.G. you don't need to worry about the DOS 8:3 rule as D.O.G. converts the Windows long path to a DOSBox short path.
D.O.G. also enables you to use itself on removeable drives like USB sticks, therefor the paths <DOGDrive> and <DOGHome> are available :
<DOGHome> : the directory in wich D.O.G. is placed.
<DOGDrive> : the parent directory of the D.O.G. directory.
These paths are filled in / replaced by the correct paths for your drives. This is done for all paths inside D.O.G. so when you see such paths pop up after you selected a file/directory then you know what D.O.G. is doing.
You can do a right click on a profile to view the conf file (the file configuring DOSbox). In the Autoexec section are the DOS commands being used to start your game.
When running games and DOSBox closes on you before you can see anything, then edit your profile and goto the tab : DOSBox->Console and unselect the Exit DOSBox when program terminates. DOSBox closes because maybe something in the game went wrong. An error message or something should appear.
When you are using DOSBox 0.63 and DOSBox crashes on you for no reason "the windib trick", then select the option Apply "cannot create rendering" error fix in the tab Screen->Screen Settings.
With DOSBox 0.65 and up this option is not available as DOSBox does it for you. The thing D.O.G. does do is erase the SDL_VIDEODRIVER variable for these versions, as this does slowdown and sometimes crashes DOSBox.
These are the basic functions of D.O.G., but it doesn't stop there as D.O.G. also allows you to categorize your profiles, allows you to optimize processes before starting DOSBox, convert screenshot captures and sound captures to JPG and MP3. And so on and on.
If you still experiance problems with DOSBox it is best to make screenshots and attach them to the posts.
Have fun,
Erik.
