I'm not familiar with Hyperspin, and I'm a little confused about what you've done with DOSBox.
For example, I don't understand why STONKEEP.PROF was entered at the DOSBox command line.
But maybe some of what I say below will help.

You need to mount a folder as a C: drive for DOSBox.
You also need to mount a separate D: drive to mount the .iso file you made from the CD.
Since the game needs the CD to run, you'll always need to mount these folders each time you play (or add the lines to mount them in your .conf file for the game)

Something like this to mount the DOSBox folder as a hard drive and the iso file as a D: drive...

MOUNT C C:\DOSgames
IMGMOUNT D C:\Images\stonkeep.iso -t iso

(substitute the names of your folders and the paths to the folders)

More on the MOUNT command here
http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/MOUNT

Before playing, you need to install the game onto the DOSBox C: drive through DOSBox's command line with

D:\setup

or maybe it's
D:\install

or whatever file the game uses for installation.

You can use
DIR D:
from the DOSBox command line to check what the name of the installation file might be. Sometimes "install" is for the DOS version while "setup" is for the Windows version, but it depends on the game.

Once the game is installed, you add whatever commands you need to switch to the game folder on C: and start the game. Maybe something like

C:
cd stonkeep
sk

If those commands don't work when typed into the DOSBox command line, they won't work when added to the end of the dosbox.conf (or Stonkeep.conf) either.

If you use a .conf file other than the default, you have to tell DOSBox to use it). Check the bottom of this page here for a brief description of how to tell DOSBox which .conf file to use
http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Dosbox.conf

So you might have a shortcut pointing to
C:\path-to-dosbox-folder\DOSBox.exe -conf "C:\path-to-config-file\Stonkeep.conf"

mccorkled wrote:

I have tried for a week or so and I cannot get this to work right which is unfortunate because I have been told that every game needs its own prof or conf file.

Not really. There are various ways to do things.

I can't see most of your images at the moment, but your stonekeep.conf will never work, especially because you're not mounting anything as drive C. A .conf file for DOSBox has to have the complete contents of DOSBox.conf, and extra commands must be added in the [autoexec] section at the end of the file. I don't use D-Fend personally, but you probably shouldn't be manually editing your .conf file at all if you're using D-Fend.

I can also tell you that your D-Fend profile will also probably never work. According to what you say about dragging and dropping, SK.BAT is a file stored internally within stonkeep.iso . Thus, the file Z:\Hyperspin\Emulators\Microsoft MS-DOS\ROMS\STONKEEP\SK.BAT is a nonexistent file that D-Fend cannot access. From the looks of things, you should probably be using D:\SK.BAT .

You should probably take a look at the 60 Seconds Guide in the Guides subforum. Get the game running without dragging and dropping, and without using RocketLauncher (whatever that is) or D-Fend; worry about the rest later.

skitters wrote:

I'm not familiar with Hyperspin, and I'm a little confused about what you've done with DOSBox. For example, I don't understand w […]
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I'm not familiar with Hyperspin, and I'm a little confused about what you've done with DOSBox.
For example, I don't understand why STONKEEP.PROF was entered at the DOSBox command line.
But maybe some of what I say below will help.

You need to mount a folder as a C: drive for DOSBox.
You also need to mount a separate D: drive to mount the .iso file you made from the CD.
Since the game needs the CD to run, you'll always need to mount these folders each time you play (or add the lines to mount them in your .conf file for the game)

Something like this to mount the DOSBox folder as a hard drive and the iso file as a D: drive...

MOUNT C C:\DOSgames
IMGMOUNT D C:\Images\stonkeep.iso -t iso

(substitute the names of your folders and the paths to the folders)

More on the MOUNT command here
http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/MOUNT

Before playing, you need to install the game onto the DOSBox C: drive through DOSBox's command line with

D:\setup

or maybe it's
D:\install

or whatever file the game uses for installation.

You can use
DIR D:
from the DOSBox command line to check what the name of the installation file might be. Sometimes "install" is for the DOS version while "setup" is for the Windows version, but it depends on the game.

Once the game is installed, you add whatever commands you need to switch to the game folder on C: and start the game. Maybe something like

C:
cd stonkeep
sk

If those commands don't work when typed into the DOSBox command line, they won't work when added to the end of the dosbox.conf (or Stonkeep.conf) either.

If you use a .conf file other than the default, you have to tell DOSBox to use it). Check the bottom of this page here for a brief description of how to tell DOSBox which .conf file to use
http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Dosbox.conf

So you might have a shortcut pointing to
C:\path-to-dosbox-folder\DOSBox.exe -conf "C:\path-to-config-file\Stonkeep.conf"

I had in the part to mount the C drive in the conf previously. It still tries to mount the conf folder. Does each section of the path need to be 8 characters of less or only the file name?

Jorpho wrote:

Not really. There are various ways to do things. […]
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mccorkled wrote:

I have tried for a week or so and I cannot get this to work right which is unfortunate because I have been told that every game needs its own prof or conf file.

Not really. There are various ways to do things.

I can't see most of your images at the moment, but your stonekeep.conf will never work, especially because you're not mounting anything as drive C. A .conf file for DOSBox has to have the complete contents of DOSBox.conf, and extra commands must be added in the [autoexec] section at the end of the file. I don't use D-Fend personally, but you probably shouldn't be manually editing your .conf file at all if you're using D-Fend.

I can also tell you that your D-Fend profile will also probably never work. According to what you say about dragging and dropping, SK.BAT is a file stored internally within stonkeep.iso . Thus, the file Z:\Hyperspin\Emulators\Microsoft MS-DOS\ROMS\STONKEEP\SK.BAT is a nonexistent file that D-Fend cannot access. From the looks of things, you should probably be using D:\SK.BAT .

You should probably take a look at the 60 Seconds Guide in the Guides subforum. Get the game running without dragging and dropping, and without using RocketLauncher (whatever that is) or D-Fend; worry about the rest later.

When I installed stonkeep.iso it unpacked a bunch of files to the installation folder. One of them was sk.bat which is the command used to run the game after the cd is in. Basically the .exe file of any modern game.

mccorkled wrote:

When I installed stonkeep.iso it unpacked a bunch of files to the installation folder. One of them was sk.bat which is the command used to run the game after the cd is in. Basically the .exe file of any modern game.

Thank you, I am well aware of what a .bat file is. 😒 (Most "modern games" do not use them at all.)

mccorkled wrote:

I had in the part to mount the C drive in the conf previously. It still tries to mount the conf folder. Does each section of the path need to be 8 characters of less or only the file name?

As per your screenshot, you do not have to use 8-character names when mounting a folder.

I don't understand what you mean when you say "it still tries to mount the conf folder". Are you launching DOSBox from within D-Fend, or from a Windows shortcut?

mccorkled wrote:

I had in the part to mount the C drive in the conf previously. It still tries to mount the conf folder. Does each section of the path need to be 8 characters of less or only the file name?

There's no 8 character limit.

What do you have in your Stonkeep.conf file after these lines...

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
# You can put your MOUNT lines here.

Also how are you telling DOSBox which .conf file to use for the game?
By default it uses the dosbox-0.74.conf file in the AppData folder...
C:\Users\your-username\AppData\Local\DOSBox\dosbox-0.74.conf

So unless you tell DOSBox which .conf file to use (usually through a Desktop shortcut), it will use the dosbox-0.74.conf file that you haven't put the MOUNT lines in.

Jorpho wrote:

Thank you, I am well aware of what a .bat file is. :blah: (Most "modern games" do not use them at all.) […]
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mccorkled wrote:

When I installed stonkeep.iso it unpacked a bunch of files to the installation folder. One of them was sk.bat which is the command used to run the game after the cd is in. Basically the .exe file of any modern game.

Thank you, I am well aware of what a .bat file is. 😒 (Most "modern games" do not use them at all.)

mccorkled wrote:

I had in the part to mount the C drive in the conf previously. It still tries to mount the conf folder. Does each section of the path need to be 8 characters of less or only the file name?

As per your screenshot, you do not have to use 8-character names when mounting a folder.

I don't understand what you mean when you say "it still tries to mount the conf folder". Are you launching DOSBox from within D-Fend, or from a Windows shortcut?

Every modern game uses an exe...

The screen shot shows what I mean. I double click the Stonkeep.prof to launch the game and that screen shot is what comes up.

skitters wrote:

There's no 8 character limit. […]
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mccorkled wrote:

I had in the part to mount the C drive in the conf previously. It still tries to mount the conf folder. Does each section of the path need to be 8 characters of less or only the file name?

There's no 8 character limit.

What do you have in your Stonkeep.conf file after these lines...

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
# You can put your MOUNT lines here.

Also how are you telling DOSBox which .conf file to use for the game?
By default it uses the dosbox-0.74.conf file in the AppData folder...
C:\Users\your-username\AppData\Local\DOSBox\dosbox-0.74.conf

So unless you tell DOSBox which .conf file to use (usually through a Desktop shortcut), it will use the dosbox-0.74.conf file that you haven't put the MOUNT lines in.

I double click the Stonkeep.prof file located in Z:\Hyperspin\Emulators\Microsoft MS-DOS\Confs and the Dosbox window open with that screen shot I posted earlier.

Here is my .prof file
http://pastebin.com/DZzS0NKH

I even installed another game that does not require a cd (Abuse) and when I click the prof file, it is still trying to load this other directory... But when I double click it through DFend it loads the game...

mccorkled wrote:

The screen shot shows what I mean. I double click the Stonkeep.prof to launch the game and that screen shot is what comes up.

Now I understand. It looks like your .prof files have become associated with DOSBox – when you double click a .prof file, DOSBox acts as if you dragged and dropped the .prof file on the DOSBox window. Since DOSBox itself has no idea what to do with a .prof file (those are purely a D-Fend thing), you get an error message.

In other words, you're not supposed to start DOSBox by double-clicking a .prof file, ever. Somewhere along the way you probably double-clicked a .prof file and told Windows you wanted to open .prof files with DOSBox. That won't work.

If you want to make a shortcut using Hyperspin, you will have to use a different method. It looks like if you have a profile in D-Fend named "Stonekeep", then you can make a shortcut to "DFend.exe Stonekeep" (not Stonekeep.prof). Alternatively, you can make a .conf file (a complete .conf file, with an [autoexec] section at the end) and make a shortcut that launches DOSBox.exe -conf "whatever.conf".

It has been years since last I looked at defend, but doesn't it have the ability to create shortcuts for any given game that has been setup within the front end?

Jorpho wrote:

Now I understand. It looks like your .prof files have become associated with DOSBox – when you double click a .prof file, DOSBo […]
Show full quote

mccorkled wrote:

The screen shot shows what I mean. I double click the Stonkeep.prof to launch the game and that screen shot is what comes up.

Now I understand. It looks like your .prof files have become associated with DOSBox – when you double click a .prof file, DOSBox acts as if you dragged and dropped the .prof file on the DOSBox window. Since DOSBox itself has no idea what to do with a .prof file (those are purely a D-Fend thing), you get an error message.

In other words, you're not supposed to start DOSBox by double-clicking a .prof file, ever. Somewhere along the way you probably double-clicked a .prof file and told Windows you wanted to open .prof files with DOSBox. That won't work.

If you want to make a shortcut using Hyperspin, you will have to use a different method. It looks like if you have a profile in D-Fend named "Stonekeep", then you can make a shortcut to "DFend.exe Stonekeep" (not Stonekeep.prof). Alternatively, you can make a .conf file (a complete .conf file, with an [autoexec] section at the end) and make a shortcut that launches DOSBox.exe -conf "whatever.conf".

Finally some progress! I though .prof was for DOSBox (obviously) and changed it to DFend. When I click the .prof file now DFend opens and I get this...

I also made a shortcut "Z:\Hyperspin\Emulators\Microsoft MS-DOS\DFend.exe" Abuse
When I double click it DFend opens and nothing else happens. Can you tell me or show me how to make a .conf file?

As I said, it has been years since the last I looked at defend, but I believe that the profile files are nothing more than settings for setting up a game within defend. Use it for importing the game You still have to point it to the game files. Remember you still have to provide the game yourself.

Edit: Also, I noticed that you have this from a "crack.com". Know that this forum gives not support for abandonware or other illegal downloads.

collector wrote:

As I said, it has been years since the last I looked at defend, but I believe that the profile files are nothing more than settings for setting up a game within defend. Use it for importing the game You still have to point it to the game files. Remember you still have to provide the game yourself.

Edit: Also, I noticed that you have this from a "crack.com". Know that this forum gives not support for abandonware or other illegal downloads.

https://www.google.com/search?q=who+made+the+ … =utf-8&oe=utf-8

That was the actual developer haha.

Anyways... the profile works to load the game if DFend is already open.

mccorkled wrote:

Finally some progress! I though .prof was for DOSBox (obviously) and changed it to DFend.

NO. You are not supposed to start ANYTHING by double-clicking on a .prof file. Those files are not intended to be double-clicked on and that is why D-Fend is also giving you an error message. And just to be clear, .conf files are not supposed to be double-clicked on either (except maybe to open them in Notepad).

mccorkled wrote:

I also made a shortcut "Z:\Hyperspin\Emulators\Microsoft MS-DOS\DFend.exe" Abuse

That works for me. Is this a Windows shortcut, or some kind of shortcut in Hyperspin?

Can you tell me or show me how to make a .conf file?

This is discussed near the end of the 60 Seconds Guide I mentioned earlier.

I added,

imgmount D "Z:\Hyperspin\Emulators\Microsoft MS-DOS\ROMS\Stonekeep\Stonekeep.iso" -t cdrom
mount C "Z:\Hyperspin\Emulators\Microsoft MS-DOS\ROMS\Stonekeep"
c:
sk

To the end of my .conf file and everything is working now. The problem was I installed DOSBox/Dfend in portable mode but it was still hiding the .conf files in User\Appdata\Local

Edit: When I renamed the .conf file to Stonekeep.conf it is not working anymore.

mccorkled wrote:

I added, […]
Show full quote

I added,

imgmount D "Z:\Hyperspin\Emulators\Microsoft MS-DOS\ROMS\Stonekeep\Stonekeep.iso" -t cdrom
mount C "Z:\Hyperspin\Emulators\Microsoft MS-DOS\ROMS\Stonekeep"
c:
sk

To the end of my .conf file and everything is working now. The problem was I installed DOSBox/Dfend in portable mode but it was still hiding the .conf files in User\Appdata\Local

Edit: When I renamed the .conf file to Stonekeep.conf it is not working anymore.

Well that is progress.

But by default, DOSBox version 0.74 looks specifically for the .conf file named "dosbox-0.74.conf" that's in the \AppData\Local\DOSBox folder

If you rename that dosbox-0.74.conf file, DOSBox won't be able to find it.
DOSBox may create a new "dosbox-0.74.conf" file in the \AppData\Local\DOSBox folder, but it won't have the mount lines you added to the one you renamed.

If you want to rename the .conf file, you have to point DOSBox at it.
For example you could make a Desktop shortcut and point it at your DOSBox.exe file (right-click your desktop where there is no icon, choose New from the menu, then Shortcut, browse to your dosbox.exe file, etc.)
Once the shortcut is made, right-click it, choose Properties from the menu, and edit the target line so it says
"C:\path-to-dosbox.exe\dosbox.exe" -conf "C:\Users\your-username\AppData\Local\DOSBox\Stonekeep.conf"

If you move the Stonkeep.conf file, you need to edit the -conf path to point to the new location.

Once you have a working desktop shortcut, you may be able to add the line
"C:\path-to-dosbox.exe\dosbox.exe" -conf "C:\Users\your-username\AppData\Local\DOSBox\Stonekeep.conf"
to Hyperspin or Rocket Launcher.

Yes that works! Thanks. The people on the hyperspin forum said that you can point rocketlauncher to the .conf or .prof files to load the games and apparently there were a few people using this method. Since I cannot figure that method out, I will just make a shortcut for each game I guess.

Is that what people typically do for their DOS games?

mccorkled wrote:

apparently there were a few people using this method.

Maybe you should be talking to them..?

I can think of a way that it might be possible to configure Windows to launch DOSBox by double-clicking on a .conf file, but it would definitely be nonstandard and I don't think anyone here has mentioned doing it before.

Is that what people typically do for their DOS games?

No one has ever mentioned Rockerlauncher on these forums before, and practically no one has mentioned Hyperspin.

mccorkled wrote:

Yes that works! Thanks. The people on the hyperspin forum said that you can point rocketlauncher to the .conf or .prof files to load the games and apparently there were a few people using this method. Since I cannot figure that method out, I will just make a shortcut for each game I guess.

Is that what people typically do for their DOS games?

I would guess most people use a desktop shortcut for their DOS games -- not because they configured it themselves, but because they bought the GOG.com version of the game -- and GOG makes a desktop shortcut and integrates dosbox into the installation.

Jorpho wrote:

Maybe you should be talking to them..? […]
Show full quote

mccorkled wrote:

apparently there were a few people using this method.

Maybe you should be talking to them..?

I can think of a way that it might be possible to configure Windows to launch DOSBox by double-clicking on a .conf file, but it would definitely be nonstandard and I don't think anyone here has mentioned doing it before.

Is that what people typically do for their DOS games?

No one has ever mentioned Rockerlauncher on these forums before, and practically no one has mentioned Hyperspin.

Have been for a while now...
http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/topic/10487-dosbox-help/page-4
I came here because I need more help.

skitters wrote:

mccorkled wrote:

Yes that works! Thanks. The people on the hyperspin forum said that you can point rocketlauncher to the .conf or .prof files to load the games and apparently there were a few people using this method. Since I cannot figure that method out, I will just make a shortcut for each game I guess.

Is that what people typically do for their DOS games?

I would guess most people use a desktop shortcut for their DOS games -- not because they configured it themselves, but because they bought the GOG.com version of the game -- and GOG makes a desktop shortcut and integrates dosbox into the installation.

Interesting. I only have 10 or so old cd games from the 90's

I can think of a way that it might be possible to configure Windows to launch DOSBox by double-clicking on a .conf file, but it would definitely be nonstandard and I don't think anyone here has mentioned doing it before.

I used to have that. On Windows XP, Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types tab -> find the entry for CONF file type -> Advanced -> edit the 'open' action -> set 'application used to perform action' path to dosbox.exe and add -conf "%1" to it. Alternatively you can add a context menu entry 'launch in dosbox' instead of the default double-click 'open' action.