Automenu 4.x?

Sorry, no. I had a quick look at that and that wasn't it.

I have been searching online and there are a lot of DOS menu programs. I have not found the one I am looking for but some of them have been interesting. QuickMenu III is quite powerful it seems. Does anybody know what the dimensions of the .PCX file need to be in order to use it for a background image? How many colours can it have?

rick12373 wrote:

QuickMenu III is quite powerful it seems. Does anybody know what the dimensions of the .PCX file need to be in order to use it for a background image? How many colours can it have?

Looks like 640x416 and 16 colors. It will tile smaller images and display higher-color images, but only in 16 colors.

there is also a 2018 text-based launcher here: New MS-DOS Games Launcher / Menu System App , might be of interest

Not sure this is what you mean, but my actual retro gaming PC has an old menu system I use called:

Fastmenu Gold

Can't recall which version right off hand, and I do remember that it had nag screens so you would buy it and be able to customize it a bit more I believe? Still it was pretty easy to learn and allows you setup categories for your software. So I remember I have like an Arcade category where all the arcade ports of games would be found, along with a Space Combat category that mainly has all my Wing Commander games within it.

Basically it would work by creating a small .bat file when you created the menus for each game. So it would basically start the game for you, and the .bat had a command to bring it back to fastmenu when you exited the game.

I have decided to use the more advanced QuikMenu III anyway. I don't think I will ever find the same program I used back in the day. In regards to the wallpaper I tried a .PCX that was 640x416 and 16 colors but it gives an error message. Can't remember what the message was as I am at work right now. I converted a .JPG to a 16 colour .PCX using IrfanView but I think it is not saving it as a true .PCX. Neopaint also would not open it. I need a program that converts a .JPG to a compatible .PCX. I might try and load the image in to Neopaint and then save it as a PCX.

* Had a look at Fastmenu Gold and that is not it either. It was a bit more basic looking than that.

** It is not Launchbox either.

rick12373 wrote:

Back in the 90s I had a DOS menu program that I really liked. It was easy to use and setting up sub menus was a breeze. I do not remember what it was called and I have searched around online and have never found anything that looks like it. It didn't really have any graphics to it's interface (it looked similar to a lot of setup/installation menus for games). It could have been done with the DOS default character set. I remember that apart from adding sub menus and naming items about the only thing you could do to customize it was change the colours. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I would love to have it back again. It may have been programmed by an amateur at home, maybe that is why I have never seen it anywhere. I am not sure how I got it in the first place.

Could you be referring to a program called POWERMENU by Brown Bag Software? I used it all the time and it was very handy.

May I ask a question? Is there any way for users to change the colors displayed on this board? It is a bit difficult to read.

cripster wrote:

rick12373 wrote:

Back in the 90s I had a DOS menu program that I really liked. It was easy to use and setting up sub menus was a breeze. I do not remember what it was called and I have searched around online and have never found anything that looks like it. It didn't really have any graphics to it's interface (it looked similar to a lot of setup/installation menus for games). It could have been done with the DOS default character set. I remember that apart from adding sub menus and naming items about the only thing you could do to customize it was change the colours. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I would love to have it back again. It may have been programmed by an amateur at home, maybe that is why I have never seen it anywhere. I am not sure how I got it in the first place.

Could you be referring to a program called POWERMENU by Brown Bag Software? I used it all the time and it was very handy.

May I ask a question? Is there any way for users to change the colors displayed on this board? It is a bit difficult to read.

I googled Powermenu and looked at the image results. That may be it believe it or not. I will try it when I am back home. I have found out over the past few days how many menu programs there are for DOS. There are a lot!

MenuWorks?

jcs wrote:

MenuWorks?

No, I think it might be Powermenu as mentioned previously.

Direct Access?
Re: Anyone using Direct Access?

jesolo wrote:

Direct Access?
Re: Anyone using Direct Access?

Nope, I think it is Powermenu.

Legitimately necro-posting to show the menu program that I just found on a 3.5" diskette after ~5 years of searching. My memory was only 1 border (unlike DA's 2 sets of borders), I could not recall if the menu items had colon or bracket, but they were all uppercase, and a blue background. I thought it was called "Menu.exe", which is how I found my way to this forum, but it was "Menu.bat" - so close. I have not seen any screenshots, so in case anyone else stumbles in via search like I did, the program on my end was called Pushbutton Menu, from 1987/1988. It even still has all the menus & submenus intact.. Neopaint 😁.
I am so very happy. (even though I appear to have misspelled Chopper Commando and put Duke Nukem 2 on there twice :OD )

I love a good necro thread! That wasn't the one I was looking for though. Mine didn't have the letters to select the menu options and I remember using the arrow keys and enter to go up and down the menus.

I'm partial to DA5.

It can nest submenus and other fun stuff. Works on as low as an 8088 in herc mode, to modern iron with vga.

Jolanxbl wrote on 2025-03-19, 11:55:

Legitimately necro-posting to show the menu program that I just found on a 3.5" diskette after ~5 years of searching. My memory was only 1 border (unlike DA's 2 sets of borders), I could not recall if the menu items had colon or bracket, but they were all uppercase, and a blue background. I thought it was called "Menu.exe", which is how I found my way to this forum, but it was "Menu.bat" - so close. I have not seen any screenshots, so in case anyone else stumbles in via search like I did, the program on my end was called Pushbutton Menu, from 1987/1988. It even still has all the menus & submenus intact.. Neopaint 😁.
I am so very happy. (even though I appear to have misspelled Chopper Commando and put Duke Nukem 2 on there twice :OD )

Load meu plz

Wow, this thread brought back a LOT of memories.

While I never really used any of these, Norton Commander and Windows were my go to at the time, I had seen many of these in use elsewhere.

I just put Quick Menu 3, Fastmenu Gold 7, and Direct Access 5 on my DOS 6.22 rig to play with. I have to admit, I like them all! Wish I had tried them sooner.

Really wish I could obtain a registered copy of Fastmenu Gold 7, really like how it looks and feels as a GUI. While looking into that, I discovered the author of it has since passed. That really drives home how old some of this stuff really is now. I remember much of it like it was yesterday, but it's been 30'ish years. Crazy. How time flies.

I use DA5 with the free version of the android dosbox port. The main limitation on the free version is restricting to just one configuration, but if you just load the menuing system, you can pick from there!

It accepts mouse input, and setting the emulation to touchscreen immediate for the mouse, you can literally just tap the menu items you want. 😁

Dungeon Master runs like a champ in mouse mode that way, because the movement UI buttons are tap triggered. Right button click is the only obstacle, and DM doesnt use it.

Just about any point-click game will run fantastically.

Great use of a cheap tablet.