VOGONS


First post, by The-Kiwi

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Beginning maybe 12 years ago, I began to experience an itch regarding the games I played while still new to PCs, when MS-DOS was the X86 OS of choice. I assembled several "period" desktop systems, and collected a few CDs from eBay that I either no longer had myself, or else only had in floppy disk form, however, life doesn't always remain in the background. I never used those PCs nor those game CDs.

I now have a spare middle-aged PC, with an AMD A64 4000 single core processor (Socket 939, 2.4 GHz), in an Abit KN8 motherboard, with 3 GBs of RAM, the usual AC97 MB chipset's audio, running an nVIDIA NF4 chipset, on Windows XP (SP3, 32-bit), currently with a Power Color Radeon HD 3650 GPU (uncertain about the GRAM amount, and thinking if I proceed that an nVIDIA Geforce GT 240 might be better).

My intention is to keep exposure to the Internet to a minimum. Thus, I looked for AV protection that actually worked from have been installed offline. Only Panda Dome seemed to like my system, after I tried several others that wouldn't complete the install. When the shift from the command line to graphical UI arrived, I was ready, and therefore a frontend to DOSbox looked favorable to me.

But D-Fend Reloaded has been stuck at its last 2015 update, and Launchbox won't work in older Windows versions.

I hoped coming in here, where it's DOSbox as the main concern, I could get some worthwhile advice about which other frontends I might consider.

Kiwi

Reply 2 of 12, by creepingnet

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I used to use D.O.G. myself when I was using a Acer Aspire D250 Netbook as my main laptop (running Windows 7 "Darned Horribly Crippled Edition"). I loved it, you could customize everything. I never had much luck with DBGL.

~The Creeping Network~
My Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/creepingnet
Creepingnet's World - https://creepingnet.neocities.org/
The Creeping Network Repo - https://www.geocities.ws/creepingnet2019/

Reply 3 of 12, by The-Kiwi

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I played RPGs, and an occasional deep space strategy game, all strictly PC-oriented. Never owned any console systems. D.O.G. appeared to be oriented toward the earlier gaming console stuff, and didn't get much attention when I was trying to research some of the front ends that the DOSbox Wiki mentioned.

I am now and was then a fan of the SSI Gold Box series, and modern updates to the turn-based party games, of which there just aren't any now!

Kiwi

Reply 4 of 12, by creepingnet

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
The-Kiwi wrote on 2020-10-29, 23:25:

I played RPGs, and an occasional deep space strategy game, all strictly PC-oriented. Never owned any console systems. D.O.G. appeared to be oriented toward the earlier gaming console stuff, and didn't get much attention when I was trying to research some of the front ends that the DOSbox Wiki mentioned.

I am now and was then a fan of the SSI Gold Box series, and modern updates to the turn-based party games, of which there just aren't any now!

Kiwi

What's funny is I was using D.O.G. specifically for what you mentioned. I had the entire Ultima Collection on there, plus the SSI AD&D Series stuff ("Forgotten Realms" pack). Used to go for a walk on the weekend to the local Izzy's Pizza buffet with my D250 in hand and munch on PIzza while playing Ultima VI and Dungeon Hack.

~The Creeping Network~
My Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/creepingnet
Creepingnet's World - https://creepingnet.neocities.org/
The Creeping Network Repo - https://www.geocities.ws/creepingnet2019/

Reply 5 of 12, by The-Kiwi

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

The Ultima series is one I ought to look at, although back then, something turned me off after the first or second of them! I loved Might & Magic, and enjoyed some of the Wizardry games, but those seemed very tough, and I had to be in a really special mood to play them! I never finished one of them, got pretty close, and lost patience (Wiz 7, I'm sure).

Reply 6 of 12, by creepingnet

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
The-Kiwi wrote on 2020-10-29, 23:38:

The Ultima series is one I ought to look at, although back then, something turned me off after the first or second of them! I loved Might & Magic, and enjoyed some of the Wizardry games, but those seemed very tough, and I had to be in a really special mood to play them! I never finished one of them, got pretty close, and lost patience (Wiz 7, I'm sure).

Yeah, admittedly, Ultima really did not start getting good until Ultima 4, and really hit it's stride with Ultima VI and Ultima VII parts 1 & 2 as those were the open-world "sandbox" ones where the towns and overworld and caves were all a part of the same map basically, and you could do complex things like make bread. Generally though, I use Exult for Ultima VII though because I like some of the additional features it gives me. I, II, and III to me are more games to visit after the good ones out of curiosity of the series or to learn how the series came to be.

~The Creeping Network~
My Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/creepingnet
Creepingnet's World - https://creepingnet.neocities.org/
The Creeping Network Repo - https://www.geocities.ws/creepingnet2019/

Reply 7 of 12, by xcomcmdr

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

AmpShell was made first for Windows XP and I wrote it.

It requires .NET Framework 4.0 (the last version to be supported on XP). The client profile of .NET 4 (lighter to download) is fine.

Edit : I've been considering to go back to .NET 2.0 and make it work also on Windows 98 that way.
I don't know if it will be worth the effort, however.

Reply 8 of 12, by The-Kiwi

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Thank you. In order to get the new XP install protected by an AV, I tried everything that claimed to run in XP from an offline install. Nothing I tried would work until I installed the various NET Framework versions up through 4.03, after which Panda Dome would install and run. I'm not planning for the old PC to be connected to the internet a lot, but I wanted the Thumb Drive covered on both ends of any transfers from my main system.

I have CDs from two game collections for almost all of the SSI RPGs, save for Spelljammer and (I've had to edit the other in here I had in mind later, after I looked it up!) "Dark Sun" is what I had in mind.

Kiwi

Reply 9 of 12, by xcomcmdr

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

So, I tested XP in a VM, and it runs but throws errors. I guess I didn't test it on XP for far too long. I'll fix it and make a new release shortly.
Sorry for this inconvenience !

Reply 11 of 12, by xcomcmdr

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Here's the fix.

Attachments

Reply 12 of 12, by The-Kiwi

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Nearly as I can tell, the majority of the listings from the DOSbox Wiki for Windows Frontends are dormant. Several others, even older, are still showing up in Google searches. I counted four currently active, including AmpShell.

My requirements are pretty basic, I never played any arcade games, console games, or even a majority of what was released over the last almost-forty years that I've owned desktop systems. When I found a game I liked, I played it over again several times, typically, because other than in that so-short interval between 1989 and 1993 when SSI's games were coming out two, three, & four each year, my specialty area has mostly been quiet since the late 1990s.

Once again, thank you for your answers, all of you.

Kiwi