Great!

BTW, it seems DOSBox ECE has been discontinued, so in the future its features will have to be accessed through either DOSBox-Staging or DOSBox-X.

rcblanke wrote on 2024-02-10, 12:14:

DBGL 0.98 was just released on the website, no changes since the last beta build. Please keep in mind that it now requires Java […]
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DBGL 0.98 was just released on the website, no changes since the last beta build. Please keep in mind that it now requires Java 17 or newer!

For the upcoming release I'll try to focus on supporting more options from the various DOSBox forks that are floating 'round.

Regards,
Ronald

Thanks for your work! it is excellent, I am using it both in windows and in my two Linux pc's (Fedora and Mint) and it works great!!!
What a great news that you are going to focus on the extra options of the DOSBox variants. I think that nowadays the two most important forks are DOSBox staging and DOSbox-X.

Once again thanks to you for creating the best frontend for DOSbox!

A new stable version of DOSBox-Staging (v0.81.0) has just been released. It has tons of new features and improvements, some of which may require changes to DBGL.

Here are the release notes.

EDIT: Unfortunately, it seems I was right to think changes to DBGL arr going to be necessary. Right now my only profile using DOSBox-Staging shows most options as unavailable, even the ones in common with regular DOSBox. Therefore, it's using DOSBox-Staging default options.

Interesting, I'll have a look when I can find some time to check what's going on. But please realize that it will probably take quite a while to improve support for all these features... :p

I get it, the release notes are huge, and who knows what internal changes lie beneath. I'm not exactly the biggest fan of DOSBox-Staging either, so far I've preferred to use DOSBox ECE and / or DOSBox-X to get features like Glide or Roland MT-32 emulation.

However, with DOSBox ECE apparently no longer in development more users are likely going to migrate to DOSBox-Staging, and keeping up to date with its progress seems the best option.

EDIT: Figured out why so many DOSBox options were not available on my setup. Turns out thatwhen I added the new DOSBox-Staging build to DBGL I pointed the config file to DOSBox-Staging.conf instead of DOSBox.conf. Now some options remain obscured, but most of the usual settings can be changed.

Hello, I recently upgraded to DBGL 0.98 final and now I've lost all of my games. I downloaded the latest zip file and extracted the update to my DBGL folder and started it up and now all I get is a blank database. I've done this before many times without any problems, so does anyone have any idea what's gone wrong and how do I get my games back which are still in the root folder? All the profiles and images are also still there so I have no idea why they are not showing. I would appreciate any help. I do not want to start from scratch. 🙁

PS. Where is the game list information stored?

After further investigation, it looks like the database file has been overwritten and I haven't made a backup. Is there any way to rebuild the database without having to add all 4000+ games manually one by one? 🙁

Thanks!

PerryRhodan wrote on 2024-02-24, 13:10:

Hello, I recently upgraded to DBGL 0.98 final and now I've lost all of my games. I downloaded the latest zip file and extracted […]
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Hello, I recently upgraded to DBGL 0.98 final and now I've lost all of my games. I downloaded the latest zip file and extracted the update to my DBGL folder and started it up and now all I get is a blank database. I've done this before many times without any problems, so does anyone have any idea what's gone wrong and how do I get my games back which are still in the root folder? All the profiles and images are also still there so I have no idea why they are not showing. I would appreciate any help. I do not want to start from scratch. 🙁

PS. Where is the game list information stored?

After further investigation, it looks like the database file has been overwritten and I haven't made a backup. Is there any way to rebuild the database without having to add all 4000+ games manually one by one? 🙁

Thanks!

OMG.
When I changed from D-Fend Reloaded to DBGL years ago I tried to use the conf files, there was an option to do It that DBGL was offering to me if I can recall correctly, but It couldn´t read the conf. files so I went one by one to do It, I had like 300 or so video games, then was not so bad, but was really tiring, but reading you is like a sidereal catastrophe in which two planets collide and trillions of souls die, as if installing the DBGL were only a little worse than if the death ray from the Death Star in Star Wars was aimed at our planet and would also hit the moon in a great shot making Darth Vader jump and high five with his favorite general.

OMG, 4000 video games to config one by one AGAIN.

It's a horrible installer, really. If It´s like that, I choose death.

Hi Alexis, I like DBGL, but it could certainly do with more import/export options and also the option of backing up all the important database files or even just a reminder for people like me who don't know where all the info is stored. Unfortunately, it looks like I have no choice but to reinstall 4500 games one by one again, as I've accidentally written over the database.script file and there doesn't appear to be any way to retrieve it. Out of desperation, I've even resorted to using data recovery software without success.

You're so right! The thought of having to manually import 4500 games again definitely feels worse than death. The Grim Reaper has just taken two years of my life, aargh! 🙁

I've just downloaded the REMOVED, so I might as well use Launchbox from now on. You live and learn.

Calm down people. I've sent you a Private Message a few days ago, PerryRhodan.

When I changed from D-Fend Reloaded to DBGL years ago I tried to use the conf files, there was an option to do It that DBGL was offering to me if I can recall correctly, but It couldn´t read the conf. files so I went one by one to do It, I had like 300 or so video games, then was not so bad, but was really tiring, but reading you is like a sidereal catastrophe in which two planets collide and trillions of souls die, as if installing the DBGL were only a little worse than if the death ray from the Death Star in Star Wars was aimed at our planet and would also hit the moon in a great shot making Darth Vader jump and high five with his favorite general.

I think the D-Fend importer works quite nicely, thank you very much.

1OMG, 4000 video games to config one by one AGAIN.

There is existing tooling to recreate the database from data in the profiles folder.

It's a horrible installer, really. If It´s like that, I choose death.

There is no installer, it's a zip file that you have to extract. And I've documented the upgrade instructions many many times, and have always strongly advised to create backups of existing data. I'm sorry, but there is not much DBGL can do when a user overwrites data, or removes it from the filesystem.

Hi Alexis, I like DBGL, but it could certainly do with more import/export options...

If you'd exported all profiles to a GamePackArchive before the problematic upgrade (the exporter is available in DBGL since 2010), nothing would have been lost as that GamePackArchive could just as easily be imported again. I'm not sure what more 'import/export options' you'd need?!

HI rcblanke, I apologize if I rubbed you up the wrong way. I truly appreciate all the hard work you've put into DBGL, as it's definitely one of the best free frontends available for MS-DOS games. 😀

What is the tool you referred to for recreating the database? The only file I no longer have is the database.script file. I still have all the profiles, captures, and games folders, so is it still possible to rebuild the database and get all my games in DBGL back?

Thanks!
😀

That's cool, and I can fully imagine the awkward feeling, loosing a lot of work. Please contact me directly using the Vogons Private Messages system (the icon left from the 'Bell' in the top right) or by email, we need to exchange some data.

Ronald

This is just an excellent piece of work. Everything works so far on an elderly Dell Optiplex running Arch Linux. I have a question on the GamePackArchives. Some are Demo, Freeware and Shareware. Are these accurate? If its a Shareware, is it still available for purchase? I see that Heretic can be purchased on GOG - is it the same one? I'm assuming there's a way to upload the full exe file from GOG. What I'm driving at is are the games really incomplete as compared to the ones bought. Sorry for the noob question.

> What I'm driving at is are the games really incomplete as compared to the ones bought. Sorry for the noob question.

Yes. The versions included in the game packs usually include the first episode (out of three, or six) of the complete game. That's how it usually worked back in the day, you downloaded or got from a computer magazine the "shareware" version, the one that was freely distributed, and if you liked it you ordered the full version for a fee.

Neville wrote on 2024-02-29, 09:44:

> What I'm driving at is are the games really incomplete as compared to the ones bought. Sorry for the noob question.

Yes. The versions included in the game packs usually include the first episode (out of three, or six) of the complete game. That's how it usually worked back in the day, you downloaded or got from a computer magazine the "shareware" version, the one that was freely distributed, and if you liked it you ordered the full version for a fee.

Thanks so much for the clarification.

I have just installed DOSBox-X, DOSBox-staging and DBGL onto my Linux Mint 21.3 system. I'm trying to set up DBGL and I am having some issues. DOSBox-x and DOSBox-staging were both installed from Flatpaks in the Software Manager.

I have created a script to start each DOSBox and it works from the CLI. The scripts are in /usr/bin, named "dosbox-x" and "dosbox-staging". The script for DOSBox-X looks like this:

1#!/bin/sh
2flatpak run com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X $@

If I try to find my DOSBox installations in DBGL I am told that the installations cannot be found.

I have tried to manually add these two DOSBoxes to DBGL but it just doesn't work. What I am entering for DOSBox-X is as follows:
Title: DOSBox-x
Path: /usr/bin/
Executable: dosbox-x
Config File: ~/.config/dosbox-x.conf

Entries for DOSBox-staging are similar.

How does one set up DBGL to work with these DOSBoxes?

Calab wrote on 2024-03-12, 04:33:

How does one set up DBGL to work with these DOSBoxes?

It has something to do with how Flatpaks are sandboxed. Use the non flatpak version of Dosbox-Staging. Download, uncompress and point to it in the config. Dosbox-X does not provide a portable version for Linux but you can compile it yourself.

Edit: have you tried entering the flatpak command on the executable line?

Hi folks. I am running the latest version of DBGL on Linux Mint 21.2. My kids each have their own Linux laptops and my intention is to make it easy for them to launch various educational and adventure games. The issue I am having is consistently getting results from Moby Games. For example, I am trying to get it to pull information for this game: https://www.mobygames.com/game/1199/freddi-fi … ing-kelp-seeds/

But, regardless of how I search, it always returns no result:

1Information: MobyGames returned no results for "Freddi" !
2
3Information: MobyGames returned no results for "Freddi Fish" !
4
5Information: MobyGames returned no results for "Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds" !

Any tips for getting it to pull the information? Thank you.

Cameo5767 wrote on 2024-03-12, 13:58:

Calab wrote on 2024-03-12, 04:33:

How does one set up DBGL to work with these DOSBoxes?

It has something to do with how Flatpaks are sandboxed. Use the non flatpak version of Dosbox-Staging. Download, uncompress and point to it in the config. Dosbox-X does not provide a portable version for Linux but you can compile it yourself.

Edit: have you tried entering the flatpak command on the executable line?

I was able to get DOSBox-X to work but had no luck at all with DOSBox-staging.

For DOSBox-X I created a script named dosbox-x and made it executable:

1#!/bin/sh
2/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=dosbox-x com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X $@

...and used that as the executable.

I used ~/.var/app/com.dosbox_x.DOSBox-X/config/dosbox-x for the config file location.

snoad wrote on 2024-03-16, 23:51:

Hi folks. I am running the latest version of DBGL on Linux Mint 21.2. My kids each have their own Linux laptops and my intention […]
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Hi folks. I am running the latest version of DBGL on Linux Mint 21.2. My kids each have their own Linux laptops and my intention is to make it easy for them to launch various educational and adventure games. The issue I am having is consistently getting results from Moby Games. For example, I am trying to get it to pull information for this game: https://www.mobygames.com/game/1199/freddi-fi … ing-kelp-seeds/

But, regardless of how I search, it always returns no result:

Copy code to clipboard

1Information: MobyGames returned no results for "Freddi" !
2
3Information: MobyGames returned no results for "Freddi Fish" !
4
5Information: MobyGames returned no results for "Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds" !

Any tips for getting it to pull the information? Thank you.

Hi snoad,

You don't get any results because this is not a DOS game. By default, DBGL filters out all results which are not either DOS or PC BOOTER. If you want to change that, look in File->Preferences, Web Information Archives tab, last field.

Ronald

rcblanke wrote on 2024-03-18, 21:04:

Hi snoad,

You don't get any results because this is not a DOS game. By default, DBGL filters out all results which are not either DOS or PC BOOTER. If you want to change that, look in File->Preferences, Web Information Archives tab, last field.

Ronald

Thank you for the clarification. I removed the filters and now am getting much more results.

Am I right that DBGL only pulls info from the latest release of the game? For instance, Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds was originally released on Windows 3.x in 1994. On MobyGames, it shows that there has been several re-releases since then, the most recent being 2014 on Linux. First I tried adding win3x to one of the filters in Preferences, but the game still wasn't showing up. I then cleared the filters and the game was showing up, but as a Linux game released in 2014.