QuickMenu III?
Automenu?
Magic Desk?

Gekko Menu

Direct Access?

http://theodor.lauppert.ws/dos/gui.htm

dirkmirk wrote:

just wondering if anyone knows what programme this could be or something similar I want to simply things for my kids.

All examples I've seen of trying to get the kids into Dad's old computer games were unsuccessful. Have you succeeded in this?

You can knock some of this up in batch files -

Eg a simple batch file (say menu.bat) that clears the screen and displays the menu. Then individual batch files called 1.bat, 2.bat etc to run each game and with a final command to go back to where the menu files are and run the menu file.

You can do a more sophisticated main batch file too. And there used to be ways to change screen and text colours in dos.

For a fancier interface You can combine this with a basic program to add extra features , tables, pages, etc. Coulld probably use other languages but basic is simple, interpreted and comes with dos.

feipoa wrote:

dirkmirk wrote:

just wondering if anyone knows what programme this could be or something similar I want to simply things for my kids.

All examples I've seen of trying to get the kids into Dad's old computer games were unsuccessful. Have you succeeded in this?

Haha, when my kids were little it was hard to stop them. What they really don't get now is why I bother with old hardware when there is dosbox. They have absolutely no interest in playing anything on old gear, I think they thought I was nuts last time I showed them my 386 running 3.1.

I had used a shareware program by Garry Spencer that just had a games.exe and games.dat in the root of c: for a friend that wasn't very good using the command line in DOS. He just had to type games and got a list where he could choose what game to run.

games.dat was just a text file and could be easily edited. The # line was what was displayed and the following lines had the commands.
For example:
#Warcraft: Orcs and Humans
cd c:\warcraft
war
#Warcraft II
cd c:\wc2
war2
#Wasteland
cd c:\wastelan
wl

You could also use a caret and have everything on the same line
#Wasteland
cd c:\wastelan^wl

Maybe take a look at Access. There is a speedy text-mode version, and Access comes in multiple graphical versions as well if you'd want to use icons and the like.

Norton Commander?

have a looksie here: http://reimagery.com/fsfd/menu.htm
Medley is a very small and nice menu 😀

Ultimately the big problem with these is that they take up conventional memory that may be required for applications to run.

There are some that are better behaved than others in that regard. Norton Menu, in particular.

Jorpho wrote:

Ultimately the big problem with these is that they take up conventional memory that may be required for applications to run.

True. Some may take up less memory, and some people may not perceive any problems, but generally, I prefer not to use them. Unless for occasional tinkering.

I have a copy of `point and shoot` dos menu software..

I always used to use Joost Sohipperheijn's GLANCE. screenshot

Jorpho wrote:

Ultimately the big problem with these is that they take up conventional memory that may be required for applications to run.

There are some that are better behaved than others in that regard. Norton Menu, in particular.

Some menus use clever ways to load the programs (for example, Access uses batch-file handling), resulting in virtually no memory usage.

This one is unused for you, but all PCs before windows 95 in my country used this one.

@ik777

so the program's name is "mdir3" ?

keropi wrote:

@ik777

so the program's name is "mdir3" ?

yup.