VOGONS


First post, by ConjurerDragon

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Hello,
I’m currently playing Bards Tale I that came with backing Bards Tale IV on Kickstarter. It included all 3 parts of BT and an installer.

Unlike other games using DOSBOX like those from GOG however, when I start BT1 I get 3 windows:
1) DOSBOX Status Window with some info about my joystick that is not even used or supported by BT1
2) the Bards Tale I-III emulation launcher and
3) the DOSBOX windows in which BT1 runs

When I close any of those all others close too.

So - is there an easy way that the installed game
- does not check for the joystick as it’s useless for the game?
- that once the game is started the other 2 windows are closed without stopping the game?

Reply 1 of 4, by VileR

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In stock DOSBox, you can set joysticktype=none so that it doesn't know or care about any joysticks. I'll wager that there's a DOSBox config file somewhere in that package they concocted, so you could try setting it there.
As for that and the extra window issue, I'd ask whoever put together that "emulation launcher", since it has nothing to do with DOSBox. But it's probably easier to just take those three games and play them in a normal DOSBox build instead. 😉

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Reply 2 of 4, by ConjurerDragon

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VileRancour wrote:

In stock DOSBox, you can set joysticktype=none so that it doesn't know or care about any joysticks. I'll wager that there's a DOSBox config file somewhere in that package they concocted, so you could try setting it there.

In the subfolder it has a windows.conf that contains

[autoexec]
mount a .\data\disk -t floppy -freesize 1.14
mount c .\data\bt1 -freesize 64
c:
bard
exit

[render]
aspect=true

Could I simply add the line joystick=none you mentioned to any place in that file?

Reply 3 of 4, by VileR

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If it's an incomplete .conf like that, you'll need to put that line under a [joystick] section (see the default config file of a normal DOSBox installation). Gotta say I'm not sure what the benefit would be, since as you say the game doesn't use a joystick anyway, but that should do the trick.

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Reply 4 of 4, by ConjurerDragon

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VileRancour wrote:

If it's an incomplete .conf like that, you'll need to put that line under a [joystick] section (see the default config file of a normal DOSBox installation). Gotta say I'm not sure what the benefit would be, since as you say the game doesn't use a joystick anyway, but that should do the trick.

The benefit is that the status window at least does not display the joystick message every time I start a game that does not even use a joystick.

Edit: Tried it and it works fine. Thankyou VileRancour.