the start menu? Seriously since all those are so different I really don't know what you are aiming at and the Start Menu is probably as good for starting those games as frontend would be. Just throw all these into a start menu group called Games...

Heh. Isn't Windows a frontend in itself for DOS games? Or any game for that matter?

Hey guys don`t kidding me. 😠

Im searching or a replacement for the explorer(a shell-replacement ), where I can start my games. Specialy for Windows 98SE (98lite - Edition)
I would like to configure Scumm,Mame ,Raine & Final Burn and Windows Games only to click the name of the game to start.(with a Gamepad)
Simple and Easy!!!! 😁

(Not going to start search the game and click and so on)

I'm not kidding you, but this is not going to work like this, only if you invest a little work and make yourself some shotcuts (you can make shortcuts to your games with ScummVM and Exult via command lines and I guess Mame does that as well, Dosbox does it too). Because all these engines are so DIFFERENT there is no quick and dirty front end like you want it.
You could use a game pad mouse driver or something like that to drive the mouse cursor via your game pad or you assign special keys...
You could use a shell replacement for Windows (if you search for that you will find them) but you will still have to set your links up similar to the start menu links.
If you do the start menu links properly you have essentially the same as you want only with Explorer as shell.

What's wrong with Explorer anyway?

This is easy: Google for "emulator frontend" or something like that. There a a lot of good frontends, that can also be used for Wndows games.

Examples: GameEx (requires fast machine), AdvanceMenu, MaLa...

All of these are controllable with a Joystick/Gamepad.

There are other alternatives. I use a nice little program call "QSel", which is Shareware. It's a nice little launcher that can run from a variable drive letter. It has no Joystick support, but with tools like Joy2Key (Bad) or XPadder (Great!) you can let the Joystick/Gamepad emulate the mouse.

No matter which tool you're using, you will have to get creative with how to launch the games etc. I've been looking at a lot of frontends, but there is not one that fits every need, and all of them have to be customized.

A word about Shell replacements: i've tested some of them ,and they are usually not worth the hassle. You have a _lot_ of customization to do, and in parallel lose a lot of Windows functionality. For a Gaming-only machine these progs may be a solution, but if you work with your PC and use it to play games from time to time i wouldn't use a Shell replacement. That's just my opinion.

Hi guys first thanks for the quick answer.

I need it for a old PC should be only a gaming PC.(P3-1GHZ)
"GameEX" is for me a quite good solution.
From my experience I would never use my working Machine for gaming.

friendly greetings
THANKS 😁

From my experience I would never use my working Machine for gaming.

Hehe.

talisman2