VOGONS


First post, by Triassic

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So here's my problem. I have several DOS games I want to run (Arena, Daggerfall, Battlespire) and ideally, I want to be able to avoid finding the directory to start these games every time I want to run them.

ie:MOUNT C GAMES
C:
CD ARENA
ARENA

or:MOUNT C GAMES
C:
CD DAGGER
FALL.EXE Z.CFG

But unfortunately, it seems to only allows one program to run at startup when I use type under "# Lines in this section will be run at startup." in configuration. I've tried installing multiple version of DOSBox (all with slightly different names), but, no matter what I do, there is only one version of DOSBox (the original) with one configuration file option. If I try and install multiple DOSBoxes, only one will show up on the All Programs list, hence I can only configure one, stopping me from simply having one DOSBox for each game I want to run (copying and pasting to All Programs or adding another DOSBox to All Programs STILL doesn't enable the configuration edit option). In addition, I can't find any older versions of DOSBox with the .conf file in the DOSBox directory and not under All Programs.

So, I have a few questions. First off, is there a way to configure multiple games to run at startup (that I can choose from)? If this doesn't exist (which I don't think it does) is there a way to have several DOSBoxes installed that lets me configure each one (currently, only the first installed DOSBox shows up under All Programs and even when I add the others I can't configure them)?

And lastly, if neither of those are possible, does anyone have a link to older versions of DOSBox that contain the dosbox.conf file under the DOSbox directory (C:\DOSBox) and NOT only under All Programs?

Thank you for reading this, any help would be appreciated.

Reply 1 of 4, by DosFreak

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You don't need several copies of DOSBox. What you need to use is either .bat files to launch your games (not recommended), different .conf files for your games (recommended) or a frontend like DBGL (Highly recommended in your case).

The .conf shouldn't be in "Program Files", it should be with your games or in your profile. Don't try to work around it since you'll just cause yourself trouble.

You should only be writing files to your profile or directories you create yourself NOT system directories like \Windows or \Program Files.

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
Make your games work offline

Reply 2 of 4, by MiniMax

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(and see the last section of my 60 seconds guide)

DOSBox 60 seconds guide | How to ask questions
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Reply 3 of 4, by Zorbid

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Another option is to use the choice command with gotos to branch your autoexec.

@echo off
CHOICE /C:NAD None, Arena or Daggerfall?
echo.
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 SET GAME=EOF
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 SET GAME=ARENA
IF ERRORLEVEL 3 SET GAME=DAGGER
GOTO %GAME%

:ARENA
MOUNT C GAMES
C:
CD ARENA
ARENA
GOTO EOF

:DAGGER
MOUNT C GAMES
C:
CD DAGGER
FALL.EXE Z.CFG
GOTO EOF

:EOF

See here for more details about the choice command (and batch files in general).

But from what you describe, DOSFreak's advice to use a fronted seems the best option (you can tune easily tune the configuration for each game).

Reply 4 of 4, by Triassic

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Update: Thank you everyone for all the input.I eventually ended up going with Mini-Max's suggestion, and it works great.