VOGONS


DOS boot menu

Topic actions

First post, by blackmasked

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Is it possible to customise DOS boot menu in such a way that it shows description for each option on the list, similar to what PXE boot offers these days? Let's say I have 3 menu options - conventional memory, EMS and XMS. For each of these I'd like to add description at the bottom of the screen listing games that are best suited for these specific settings. With the multitude of games I have on my retro dos machine, is simply don't remember which one of them requires XMS, or wchich one hates memory managers and will only run with conventional memory. It doesn't look like vanilla DOS 6.22 or 7 has that kind of funcionality built in and I struggle to find any extensions that would add something like that

fog1.png
Filename
fog1.png
File size
56.18 KiB
Views
663 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

DOS build: Gigabyte GA-586T2, P200 MMX, 64MB RAM, Tseng ET6000 4MB, Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold, Roland SC-55mkII, Yamaha MU-80
98SE build: MSI MS-6163 Pro, PIII 650MHz, 256MB RAM, Voodoo3 3000, Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Platinum, Yamaha SW1000XG

Reply 3 of 5, by blackmasked

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I was hoping for something similar to the PXE menu I have setup using syslinux.

syslinux-menu.png
Filename
syslinux-menu.png
File size
14.19 KiB
Views
593 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

DOS build: Gigabyte GA-586T2, P200 MMX, 64MB RAM, Tseng ET6000 4MB, Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold, Roland SC-55mkII, Yamaha MU-80
98SE build: MSI MS-6163 Pro, PIII 650MHz, 256MB RAM, Voodoo3 3000, Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Platinum, Yamaha SW1000XG

Reply 4 of 5, by gdjacobs

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

I haven't tried it, but autocon might offer more flexibility to do what you want to do.
http://www.bttr-software.de/freesoft/boot.htm#dosboot

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 5 of 5, by blackmasked

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Looks promising. I'll give it a go.

DOS build: Gigabyte GA-586T2, P200 MMX, 64MB RAM, Tseng ET6000 4MB, Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold, Roland SC-55mkII, Yamaha MU-80
98SE build: MSI MS-6163 Pro, PIII 650MHz, 256MB RAM, Voodoo3 3000, Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Platinum, Yamaha SW1000XG