Find the best free programs like DOSBox for Mac. More than 5 alternatives to choose: Boxer, GeoMAME for OS X, PCSX2 and more.
Police, Space and Hero's Quest. Iceman was decent. I still have the Wolfenstein 3.5' iD handed out at a local convention, 1 year prior to retail.
Blood II - greatest weapons in a FPS. Voodoo doll, black hole gun, phantasm ball They did release the Police Quest series(not sure when) in a boxed set that was supposed to work with WinXP.
I saw it twice and never bought it and I really regret it. I had fun as a kid playing police quest and police quest 2. There were in fact THREE Police Quest collections. The first was called 'The Four Most Wanted' and included PQ 1-4, including both the original and the remake of part one, and printed documentation. The second was 'Collection Series' (Sierra had a large line of this-PQ was one of them). It was the Four Most Wanted, but also included SWAT and appropriate documentation.
The third was after Sierra got bought out by Vivendi Universal. This is the same as the Four Most Wanted, except. It only included the remake version of part one, and it's 'designed to work in WinXP' only means that it includes a pre-configured DOSbox (supposedly this version actually WILL NOT work on an actual MS-DOS machine). Also, all the documentation is on-disc, as PDF files.
Personally, I own the Collection Series release and am quite happy with it. Now, remind me to check my car's tires before leaving the police station.
The resident X-Multiply fan. Should be up everyone's alley who likes arcade style games. It was made free to download by the original devs, so no reason not to try it out. I'll have to go get that.
TastyStatic is a nice update to the idea. Runs natively on new Windaz. Nice collection of stuff I missed, ObiWan. I've recently re-acquired Outlaws, just forgot to actually get around to trying it out. @ null: I've only played Gateway II out of all the Legend adventure games, and it wouldn't really surprise me if it was a high-water mark for them. I've got a new copy of Police Quest around here somewhere. Any thoughts on Quest For Glory series?
I've just got the second game out of that series. I've been meaning to go through the other remakes of the King's Quest games; I played the remake of the first around the end of last year. Any thoughts on Quest For Glory series? Yes, PLAY THEM. In fact, pretty much anything by Sierra Online pre-sellout is good.
King's Quest, Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry. Hell, just everything. In the battle between LucasArts and Sierra, I was always firmly Sierra.
(That's not to say I dislike LucasArts though. The Dig is a must-play) I've never played any of these unofficial fan-remakes that some groups have been pouring out though. I need to sometime. But the originals (or the Sierra-authored remakes) were a huge part of my childhood. I learned all sorts of lessons. Such as you can defeat a Yeti by throwing a pie at it, you can make baby antwerps by holding your sword straight up (and they're CUUUUUTE), and that sometimes you can get the sound effects to work by lying to the game and telling it you have a Thunderboard when you really have a Soundblaster. Lately, my PC gaming has revolved around the Heretic and Hexen series (in fact, what inspired this topic was my recently acquiring Heretic II and Hexen II at a local Goodwill).
After I'm done, I'll need some mods. I remember a lot of people hating this back in the day, but it actually isn't so bad. The point of derision seems to be that it incorporates Tomb-Raider-esque platforming elements. It still plays like an FPS though (despite being third-person) The resident X-Multiply fan.
The lack of love Heretic II gets is kind of baffling. It's not as pretty as I used to remember (at least, as I remember from my impression the last time I played it some years ago), but at release it did look better on systems (I used to feel that some games looked better with crisper pixels - before the filtered textures that are standard today - and this probably still is true for some games).
The weapon set isn't too bad, although I wish they'd tightened up combat - it's trying to be half Hexen, half something like Xbox-era Ninja Gaiden, and it's honestly not doing either incredibly well. But for the time period, it's not a bad effort at all. I do feel it starts to lose steam late in the game, and the endgame is deserving of ridicule. A fun story - during development, they discovered that they were duplicating effort on coding some of the weapon effects (particle trails for example) and had to tighten things up to prevent that.
Mainly, I think this represents a failed chance to take the series in a new direction. I prefer Ninja Gaiden for this kind of thing, including for setting, but that series arguably has lost its way now too. There are some moments where the art shines through the veneer of unimaginative standard fantasy and FPS-style puzzle trappings, and it reminds me why I respect this game. Hexen II.yeah, my copy of that game came from a Goodwill too. Just a disc that came along with somebody's PC. I actually prefer this one to Heretic II, in part because of the retention of the first-person perspective, in part due to the really trippy architecture. I've seen it criticized as a blundering first effort with badly-proportioned areas; this may be true but it lends some charm.
Good textures here too - and with the relatively simple architecture the brilliant 2D work at Raven can shine through. I weep that they've gone to shiny normal and bump mapped DOOM III style maps recently; hopefully that'll change.
I haven't played through all the characters in Hexen II; Assassin (lol, why is she dumber than the fighter?) is really tough to play as at times, in large part due to the trickiness of using the grenade weapon. The bosses are horrendous damage sinks.
The mod adds a new character; nothing too imaginative but still a refreshing new way to play. The mod's settings are very nice and I think the Tibet-inspired area gives you a nice feeling of progression and you're ready to wrap up the outing after that. Just having the feeling of satisfaction when you're done is something I wish more of these titles would have stuck with. Despite my feeling that DOOM is somewhat plodding at times, I never really felt the same way about the original Heretic. One thing it's got going for it is that I always found the settings more imaginative and interesting, and it felt like the game tackles a somewhat smaller range of environments with more variety and cohesion than DOOM did. Nowadays.I probably don't like the environments so much, but there's still a few levels which remain favorites. The weapons, even though they're little changed in functional aspects from the DOOM originals, have a better balance of ammo available for my play style.
Of course, this is the game that introduced the Tome of Power - from the time I started playing I've simply hoarded them for bosses, so many of the upgraded attacks simply don't get used in the usual playthrough (gotta love that super stave bash though, and the giant fire mace balls). Of course, the only way to play this is to get the five-episode version. I forget how well the two last episodes stack up, but I remember that the first three, at least, have many classic moments in them. Hexen mods.I think Deathkings is somewhat less quality than the original game, and the original game is odd to play at times. Not bad, but it represents the most unorthodox way of approaching the FPS / adventure hybrid seen in most of these other games - in large part because of the reliance on melee attacks for two out of the three characters. Argh, Maulotaurs.
Speaking of Raven Software, the Elite Force games and the first two Soldier of Fortune games (I haven't played the newest SoF game, Payback or whatever it's called; it's by somebody else) are interesting enough. Especially in Elite Force II you can see they treated the license with great care, and it's a real gift for fans of Star Trek: Voyager. Soldier of Fortune games, meanwhile, tell a cohesive story and things are pretty much wrapped up by the second part in a way that seems to preclude a sequel - kind of a melancholy feeling when you get done, and I also don't really get what the last part of the story was really supposed to accomplish.
Lots of good stuff in there, but not as many chances to really let loose with the huge range of toys as I'd like. I also have two or three CD-ROM copies of CyClones for some reason. For whatever reason I always rather liked the architecture in some areas, and that soundtrack is so amazing it doesn't matter how dated it is. Again, could've done with a few different choices of direction for the control scheme and the weaponset, and of course in many places the architecture veers away from 'quirky' to 'empty and square.' You wouldn't happen to also have a spare copy of Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders or Hexen: Deathkings, would you? (Actually, I'm about to order those off Amazon.
They're the only games in the Heretic series I don't have). I agree about Hexen though. Even though I blasted through it in a marathon session about three years ago, it does tend to drag when you've killed all the monsters and are just wondering where you're supposed to go next. Having the same vibe with Hexen II so far, but the world has enough mysteries in it to keep me entertained. Now if only my cat would stop sitting in front of the monitor. Changing gears real quick. I still can't beat Wing Commander.
The resident X-Multiply fan. I just remembered a couple games I used to play: God of Thunder, a competent Zelda-like. Epic Pinball, a Pinball Fantasies clone (and, par for the Shareware course, the free table is the best one). There was also Extreme Pinball. I think someone mentioned Screamer already, but I have to give that one props too. It's somewhere between Daytona and Ridge Racer. I believe it had a sequel that was like Sega Rally.
And let's not forget Scorched Earth! Freeware classic. I don't see a lot of those Amiga ports mentioned too. There were some quality ones: Lotus III, Fire and Ice, Lemmings, and the mostly-intact Turrican II come to mind. Seriously, if you haven't played Lemmings for a while, you owe it to yourself- I booted it up the other day and it holds up great. And I know this is a shmups board, but there's no shortage of great RPGs and strategy games like the original Civilization, Breach II or The Incredible Machine. Ahhhh, nostalgia.
Don't get me started BTW has anyone tried those Flying Tigers games, speaking of shmups? Humans, think about what you have done. No love for the Crusader series? No Remorse and No Regret were downright amazing. Favourite MS-DOS games: - Command and Conquer - Command and Conquer: Red Alert - Crusader No Remorse - Crusader No Regret - Descent - Descent II - Duke Nukem 3D - Earth 2140 - Fallout - Grand Theft Auto - Mass Destruction - Pro Pinball: The Web - Pro Pinball: Timeshock! Crusader was listed in MadScientist's post.
I bought a copy of Crusader for PSX a long, long time ago, and it looked like it'd been dragged through the dirt for 20 years.should've been practically new but it never played right. I gotta pick those up again. I knew it was quality but it just conked out before I could get too far. Do yourself a huge favour and play them on a PC next time. GOG is selling both for $6/piece, and it's well worth the price for either. They both run under a variant of DOSBox (basically GOG's bundled version of DOSBox on Windows, and Boxer on Mac).
The PSX and Saturn ports of No Remorse were kinda crappy. The animation wasn't as smooth on the PC and the whole thing lagged like hell under heavy action. The music didn't sound the same either- it was lacking fidelity and tended to chop when the game was loaded down. Also the controls sucked, both games made pretty decent use of the keyboard and on the higher difficulties you often need to switch equipment on the fly (rather then toggling through stuff one by one).
No Regret wasn't even ported to the console, so you don't have a choice if you want to play that one. IMHO; Regret was better then Remorse, but both are extremely polished games. As a kid it was NES, the my parents got the might IBM Aptiva 486DX2. That was my only computer until university when I got a Pentium 4.
I did upgrade the 486 with an Overdrive clone and more RAM. Ultimate Doom was the first game I had, still remember spending weeks learning how to run it. Doom still holds up well imo. But you must play on Ultra Violence or Nightmare, and need to customize the controls a bit. Also had Dark Forces, and then came Descent.
Now that game blew me away and still does. Used to play Descent II over Kahn, I'd probably find it unplayable today. Syndicate and Z were other favorites. Much later when PC Gamer released the 'classics CD' I was hooked on Ultima Underworld, though had no idea what I was doing and never got too far lol. One of my greatest loves were space combat sims. X-Wing CD was my first, then TIE Fighter CD, and Privateer. Nobody makes games like these anymore.
Truly a lost genre. Ironically, I've been playing through quite a few of these recently on my FM Towns as I finally got my HD setup working again.
Just played through Syndicate and Wing Commander. Both still hold up great, had a blast.
Next up is Alone in the Dark and D&D Stronghold. I've never played Stronghold, but the graphics look awesome imo.
After that I want to finally play through Ultima Underworld. Seems weird that I'm playing all this Western stuff on my Towns, but way easier then messing around with DOS Box. One of my greatest loves were space combat sims. X-Wing CD was my first, then TIE Fighter CD, and Privateer. Nobody makes games like these anymore. Truly a lost genre. And a genre I still suck horribly at - Although I recently bought a Microsoft Sidewinder, so maybe that'll help me kill some Kilrathi.
Or is Wing Commander I generally just a hard game and I'm too stubborn to notice? By the way, I just remembered that a month or two ago, I wrote a list of PC games I own physical copies of. I'm gonna post that list, for the sake of sparking discussion (and if anyone wants to offer trades.
I'm looking for a CD-ROM edition of Wolf3D: Spear of Destiny). Note though that I haven't updated this list in awhile, so its missing some games I own (namely Heretic II and Hexen II). Let's all share our lists! Here's my list. These are all games I own legit, physical copies (disk or CD-ROM) of. NO DOWNLOADS.
I installed D-Fend (MUCH nicer than fooling around endlessly with vanilla DOSBox settings, although the scaling options can take a hike, it needs MAME-style non-integral scaling. Played Chasm: The Rift for a while.it's not the worst thing ever, but it's not really good either. Terrible interface, terrible method of switching between weapons (just one button to mash to frantically cycle through the whole pile of weapons just to get back to the weapon before the one you're using), terrible claustrophobic areas, terrible performance in DOSBox (kind of unavoidable though), terrible weapon selection (LOL at the machine gun model jacked from Unreal ), terrible. I can still get some enjoyment out of it, but not as much as I'd like. 640x480 would be a godsend but I can't swing it without causing the game's performance to drop down to nothin'. Unfortunately we're stuck using Simple or Normal CPU cores, no Dynamic core emulation for this game or you get a crash. I suppose I could play this fairly well on my Pentium box but I don't really care enough.
I am happy to see that I should be able to get Outlaws working great with its patches though (I installed the game to Win7 using a fan installer, but it's kind of a waste because there's still problems and the patches don't install on Win7 - I'll try installing them over the directory in DOSBox and migrating them to the Windows installation first, but I won't be surprised if I'm stuck playing in DOSBox). Yeah, I didn't know about D-Fend, but Boxer on Mac is a great deal better for games than vanilla DOSBox is.
It's crazy how much tweaking we still have to do 20+ years later to get our damn DOS games to work!;D Along those lines, I found an Amiga emulator called FS-UAE that's much, MUCH better for games than any of the other UAE variants. Yep, I can now stop mourning the loss of the Fellow emulator. It's worth looking into if you like computer games as a lot of the computer games from the mid-80s up until the Doom era were enhanced on that platform, with some DOS versions being serious downports. Humans, think about what you have done. I am happy to see that I should be able to get Outlaws working great with its patches though (I installed the game to Win7 using a fan installer, but it's kind of a waste because there's still problems and the patches don't install on Win7 - I'll try installing them over the directory in DOSBox and migrating them to the Windows installation first, but I won't be surprised if I'm stuck playing in DOSBox). Outlaws is pretty hard to get working nicely on newer computers.
But it's probably easier than figuring out how to run it in DOSBox, since it's a Windows only game. I used to experiment with Virtualizers for early Windows.
The only problem (back then) was that they were more geared towards business programs than gaming, and none of them could do DirectX, Glide or OpenGL. That middle one in particular is why I stick to my classic desktop (which has a Voodoo 3 in it). Granted, I've heard some of the virtualizers are becoming competent gaming platforms. Someone earlier mentioned that Heretic II players need to back up their saves.
The resident X-Multiply fan. I am happy to see that I should be able to get Outlaws working great with its patches though (I installed the game to Win7 using a fan installer, but it's kind of a waste because there's still problems and the patches don't install on Win7 - I'll try installing them over the directory in DOSBox and migrating them to the Windows installation first, but I won't be surprised if I'm stuck playing in DOSBox). Outlaws is pretty hard to get working nicely on newer computers.
But it's probably easier than figuring out how to run it in DOSBox, since it's a Windows only game. I reckon I've got three choices: - Install on classic Win95 machine - Install the patches on XP Mode and transfer over - Install Windows 95 or some such on D-Fend and then install Outlaws on that. I am happy to see that I should be able to get Outlaws working great with its patches though (I installed the game to Win7 using a fan installer, but it's kind of a waste because there's still problems and the patches don't install on Win7 - I'll try installing them over the directory in DOSBox and migrating them to the Windows installation first, but I won't be surprised if I'm stuck playing in DOSBox). Outlaws is pretty hard to get working nicely on newer computers. But it's probably easier than figuring out how to run it in DOSBox, since it's a Windows only game.
Yep, one of my favorites. I've played it on multiple OS'; most of theme are a nightmare to run on-at least after you pull out your rifle scope. Oddly enough, it runs perfectly on Windows ME, aka the worst OS that nobody owns. Yess numerical hotkeys, just what I always wanted! Btw this is seen in pretty much the oldest FPSes ever, right back to the Catacomb 3-D games. Oops I can bind a mousewheel to Quake, and the fast weapon switch means a delay doesn't matter. If Chasm had parity with Quake it would implement something better, like, you know, an actual console for binds.
This has jack shit, except for the lousy 'next weapon' key, which is also quite slow in part because of the rather laborious weapon presentation / put-away animation (you can continue to cycle and watch the ammo counter, and if you remember how many shots you had or spot the default shotgun, which uses no ammo, you can guess where you are in the cycle - but it's still slow to cycle weapons that way). Take a look at the terrible binds menu in this game, it has about 10 different bindable keys and you can bind EVERYTHING to the same key, which is even worse than not allowing you to clear a key (which is already a pet peeve of mine, along with games not allowing you to bind the del and backspace keys because they have a special function in the binds menu) But why is this game shit? Slow performance I can accept given how I'm playing it.
What's a problem is that it's not fun. I am at a place where the magically auto-hitting zombie ranged melee (?!) attacks (SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK IS IT DOING) are hitting me while I try to somehow get across molten lava onto a raised platform (and I can't simply jump over there due to an overhang). I can deal with the zombies in a fascinatingly tense standoff with the assistance of my old friend the intervening wall, but I can't get out across the lava without touching it.
I LOVE TAKING FORCED DAMAGE yes, I admit I hate Quake's engaging enemy designs and behavior, its varied weapon loadout, and its imaginative use of 3D arenas. You have certainly read my mind, you daring videogames connoisseur! Shambler and Scrag ain't got shit on overgrown scorpions appearing in every level, and The Cheetahmen. Hexen II had enemies which look a lot like The Cheetahmen here, except they actually had some dangerous behavior other than 'continually rush and shield bash you to death when you are pushed into a corner and can't maneuver around them' Every fight devolves into simply ducking around corners repeatedly (i.e. When fighting zombies) or sidestepping / jumping over scorpions or projectiles (i.e. The rocks thrown by those ogre things in the Egypt levels). You can't look up or down very far so god bless if you want to hit something right above or below you.
Locational damage just makes hitting enemies more of a chore; I seem to get decap kills against most enemies no matter what, no faster or slower than if I'm actually aiming, and asking me to aim at 320x240 is some kind of cruel joke anyway (though I still can do it). Chasm ain't Soldier of Fortune. Chasm has switches, keys, (occasionally) switches you shoot and destroy, (very rarely) exciting ceiling-mounted rocks that you drop on switches by shooting them, the famous and unexpected level design innovation of finding weak walls to shoot through, secrets that aren't counted, very boring mostly hitscan-type weapons, no status messages to let you know wtf that squiggly shit you just picked up IS, and supremely engaging flat environments. Chasm has a jump key, but most of the time you just mash up against the invisible ceiling; almost any platforms or open 'jumps' you need to make can just be run over, DOOM-style.
I also laugh to think of people trying to have multiplayer with this. Deathmatch, DM with monsters, Cooperative - they've sure ticked all the boxes, right? Well, uh, I guess it's a good thing they built the levels so open so that you can have proper DM in them, right?.runs to the helipad at the end of the first stage, gets a 'Level Complete!' Message repeatedly until boredom turns me away from the mysterious transparent obstacle.
Look, this game really has next to nothing going for it. It's got a kind of charm (WE LOST THE COMMANDER, rip old buddy, it's a good thing he spent four minutes boring me out of my skull before the first few levels, before they discarded any pretense of a story a few levels in) and is playable after a fashion (would I rather be playing CyClones? Hmm.but how many years newer is CyClones?
This game is post-Unreal!). However, it goes beyond 'aping' to 'blatantly ripping off,' but 'in a generally reprehensible and incompetent fashion.' So now I can't tell which health boxes are mega health and which are normal health, because they all look almost exactly like the huge health bonus from Quake.
The logo on human crates from Quake has been slightly modified to fit on various boxes and crates here. The machine gun, as mentioned before, is like some kind of unholy smashing of a Quake nailgun into the model of the Stinger from Unreal, kind of like how the prop guns from Aliens is actually built around a tommygun, except that the dinky peashooter doesn't have any of the charm of either the pulse rifle or its real-world base counterpart. Worst game ever? No, but this is near the bottom of my list. I found Wolfenstein more fun (up until the infamous 'Call Apogee and say Aardvark' maze, anyway). I think the positively horrible levels (that I've seen so far) of X-Men: Ravages of Apocalypse represent a distinct improvement over this, too. Probably the Witchhaven games also.
Here's another thing I loooooove about MS-DOS and old PC games in general. Do you guys ever explore your install CDs, and end up finding weird shit on them? I did that twice-once with the Ultima Collection, where apparently one of the programmers had downloaded and archived some newsgroup post and its followups. The post was a joke involving an old lady in a butchery and chicken meat that got bigger when hit. You'd have to see it in context, and the discussion was funnier than the actual joke. Seriously, how does this shit wind up there?
But today, I realized that despite having owned the original Hexen for years, for some reason it was not installed on my PC. I quickly rectified that. And then, on a whim, browsed the CD. What I found was a folder called 'IDSTUFF' which. Contained the full versions of other id Software games, but in a bizarre archive format I had never heard of before called mj3. A bit more investigating, and I found out these were a proprietary, encrypted archive of sorts, and you were supposed to order by phone and get a special number to enter which would allow them to unpack and give you installation files. Well, I doubt that phone number still works, so.
You know what, you guys know what I want to ask next, but I'm not sure if its against the rules or not, so I won't ask. (Feel free to answer, though!) The resident X-Multiply fan.
Official Homepage for DBGL: DOS Box Game Launcher An open-source, free, multi-platform frontend for DOSBox Latest news: DBGL version 0.82 is available with some bugfixes and a few usability improvements! If you're willing to volunteer to translate DBGL into another language, I'd like to know! Just know that you don't have to have any programming skills to be able to help!
Simply follow. English, Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Korean, Polish, Portugese-Brazillian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish and Russian are already covered, although some translation are somewhat incomplete. Volunteers are more than welcome.
More DOSBox-related links Other frontends. DBGL. DOSBox. Information. Game download. Game patches. Game emulators.
Introduction Hi everybody, DBGL is a for, based largely upon the proven interface of. DBGL serves as a frontend / Graphical User Interface to DOSBox (configuration). It tries to make creating DOSBox configuration files a little easier by offering a (relatively) simple interface, some shortcuts and a little bit of intelligence (DOSBox behavior). Once your DOS games are configured in DBGL, its very easy to setup or start them, or alter their configuration or associated DOSBox version. Initial work for the frontend was done in 2006, and the product has gradually improved over the course of the years.
Still, it is by no means finished, it's. Source code for the complete program is available, please feel free to hack away. Features To name some of its features:. Multi-platform: Windows, Mac OSX and Linux (both x86 and x64) are supported, and DBGL should be easily portable to other systems. Multi-language support; Currently, English, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Korean, Polish, Spanish, Swedish and Russian translations are available (although some are incomplete).
Highly portable: DBGL uses relative paths so that you can use the same DBGL installation on whatever disk/folder/location, and even. DBGL supports all of DOSBox' official configuration options, and allows the user to add their own option values (if applicable). Most unofficial/experimental options are supported as well, such as Glide, vsync, pixelshaders and the like. Multiple DOSBox versions support. You can configure/manage multiple DOSBox versions (v0.74, v0.73, v0.72, v0.71, v0.70, v0.65, v0.63 or custom/SVN builds) inside DBGL and associate a specific version per profile. What's more, it is possible to change the association to another DOSBox version either by keeping all configuration settings, or just the alterations from the default. Templates support.
DBGL comes with an extensive collection of example templates to simplify setting up a game for a specific PC era. And you can create your own templates on which to base your profiles. A simple, yet configurable interface which keeps track of dialog sizes, profile list column settings and ordering, the last selected profile and much more.
It also tries to assist the user when entering profile data (for example by pointing out when some information is missing, by reusing directory locations, by implementing auto-completion, auto-mounting, browsing inside ISO/BIN/(7)zip-files, etc.). Many fields in which to define meta information about your games, such as its developer, publisher, status, URLs, PDFs, etc. Also available are 10 extra fields for user-definable content. The ability to create desktop shortcuts on both Windows and Linux (Gnome and KDE) environments. Internet information querying!
DBGL can contact, or to receive information about a game or demo by using the profile's title. When multiple matches are found, DBGL will display a popup screen in which you may select the correct entry. Even cover-art and screenshots can be fetched and saved in DBGL.
Powerful multi-profile editing; selecting multiple profiles to edit will open the profiles editing dialog as usual, showing the common settings or greyed-out settings that differ among the profiles. You can then change the settings as you like (as you would normally do with a single profile). Whether its changing a DOSBox associations, querying MobyGames for information, creating desktop shortcuts or deleting certain profiles, its all possible in a single action. Basic support for 'Windows system integration', meaning you can use the Windows Explorer, right-click on a game executable, and select Send To - DBGL to add the game to DBGL's profiles list. Easily create duplicates of existing profiles (ctrl-d). Profile/Game Export: Just select the profiles that you want to export in the list, choose File-Export in the menu and go through the wizard to export your profile(s) or game(s).
Profile/Game Import: Click File-Import in the menu, and select a package (.dbgl.zip) to import. You will once again enter a wizard that leads you through the steps. Review package information, select the profiles or games that you want to import and off you go!
Some example game packages to try out are available. Filter tabs; you can add a filter to the profiles list by typing ctrl-f.
This creates an inner tab in the profiles list showing a certain subselection of your profiles. For example, you can create a filter to only display profiles with the string 'quest' in it's name, but (much) more complicated filtering is also possible. When multiple profiles in the list are selected upon filter creation, DBGL will keep that selection in a filter tab.
Support for so-called. Has the ability to export your game-list to a file, such as a plain TXT file, a basic.CSV. (7)zip-file mounting support (using a dosbox version that has integrated, for example Ykhwong's or Gulikoza's).
Performance: DBGL can easily handle thousands of profiles (using the database engine and GUI library, caching game screenshots and by using lazy loading when possible). Support for setting custom environment variables to globally override certain DOSBox settings (as explained ). No data replication; all DOSBox profile information that can be stored in the.conf file is stored in there, and only in there.
Extra information such as the profile's Title, developer name, status etc. Is stored in a single human-readable database file (database.script).
What this basically means is flexibility: you can start a profile without even using DBGL (dosbox -conf dosbox.conf -conf profiles lemmings.conf), if you want. D-Fend profiles importing (both for and the original but discontinued from MabusRaeen). Fully automated build system.
Anyone who wants to contribute something codewise, should be able to build the DBGL packages by just downloading the source package and using. Main DBGL screen (Windows 7) Importing D-Fend profiles. (Windows XP) Editing a profile (Ubuntu) DBGL in Chinese (Mac OSX) Installation Just extract the archive to any dir (.) and start launch.exe (Windows), or./dbgl (Linux). Mac users can simply drag the DBGL icon into their Applications folder and start it. Please note that you MUST have the Runtime Environment 1.7 (or higher) installed, it will not work without the JRE1.7, or with an older version.
(.) Due to certain restrictions imposed by DBGL's envisioned portability in combination with, it is currently not advised to store DBGL in a folder below 'C: Program Files' or 'C: Program Files (x86)'. A better location would be C: DBGL or%USERPROFILE% DBGL where UAC does not apply. The archive contains DBGL with some pre-configured templates and the latest DOSBox release, so you can get going instantly. Since the frontend was written in Java, it should be relatively easy to port to another platform. If anybody is interested in another build, please let me know. Download First-time installation Upgrading an existing installation Download the appropriate archive for your operation system and extract it to a directory of your choice.
Just download the JAR and overwrite the single file in this zip archive. It is always a good idea to make backups of your profile information when upgrading; this means the /profiles, /captures, /db and /templates folders. Special note for users upgrading to DBGL 0.74: Some additional library files are necessary. Besides updating DBGL.jar, just put and in your DBGL/lib folder. Special note for users upgrading to DBGL 0.76: One additional library file is necessary.
Besides updating DBGL.jar, just put in your DBGL/lib folder. Special note for users upgrading to DBGL 0.77: Two additional files are necessary. Besides updating DBGL.jar, just put in your DBGL/lib folder, and in your DBGL/templates directory.
Special note for users upgrading to DBGL 0.79: Multiple new library files are required. Besides updating DBGL.jar, start by removing all existing.jar files in your DBGL/lib folder.
Then download the full 0.79 package for your platform, and extract all files from the archive's lib folder into your DBGL/lib directory. Special note for users upgrading to DBGL 0.80: One additional library file is necessary. Besides updating DBGL.jar, just put in your DBGL/lib folder. Special note for users upgrading to DBGL 0.81: Some additional library files are necessary. Besides updating DBGL.jar, just put, and in your DBGL/lib folder. Extract and run ant Note 1: Java Runtime version 1.7(or higher) is required to run this application.
If you can't use version 1.7 or 1.8 for whatever reason, try using a DBGL version prior to 0.79 which should run on older JVMs. DBGL does not run on Java 9, support will come in the next release. Note 2: On DBGL startup, Windows may or may not ask whether or not to allow the program to establish connections to other machines. You can choose 'Block' since DBGL doesn't need to connect to other computers, communication takes place on localhost only. In case you don't want to use the 'Send To' functionality, you can choose to disable it in the Settings dialog window, that will also get rid of the Windows popup.
Note 3: Some users have reported problems starting up DBGL. Please make sure you're using the right package for the right environment, and you have your environment setting properly configured. Attention Linux users: Make sure you have the packages 'libsdl-sound' and 'libsdl-net' installed (sudo apt-get install libsdl-sound1.2 libsdl-net1.2), because otherwise the included DOSBox build will NOT run. /usr/bin/java should be (a symbolic link) pointing to the 1.7+ JVM (sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jre). If you're having problems starting up DOSBox inside DBGL (some error message saying 'Can't init SDL DirectFBCreate: Initialization error!' ) chances are you're using the.
It seems this Java distribution has a problem in the implementation. Please use openJDK or Oracle's Java Runtime as a workaround. When using DBGL on Linux with an older version of KDE, specifically using the library gtk2-theme-oxygen, you might experience crashes. If so, either use a different theme for GTK2, or try to update gtk2-theme-oxygen to 1.4.6 or later. GamePackArchives The following game pack archives can be imported into DBGL using the menu: Profiles - Import. Please note that you should not extract these archives. Just store the game.dbgl.zip file somewhere on your disk, and let DBGL import it.
Enjoy the games! Epic MegaGames Collection This is a collection of all the shareware and freeware Epic (Mega)Games found on, complete with screen captures, customized DOSBox configuration and game documentation. (Adventure Math, Ancients 1: Deathwatch, Brix (version 2.0), Drum Blaster, Electro Man, Epic Baseball, Epic Pinball, Extreme Pinball, Heartlight, Heros I: The Sanguine Seven, Highway Hunter, Jazz Jackrabbit, Jazz Jackrabbit: Holiday Hare 1994, Jazz Jackrabbit: Holiday Hare 1995, Jill of the Jungle, Ken's Labyrinth, Kiloblaster, LineWars 2, One Must Fall 2097, OverKill, Radix: Beyond the Void, Seek and Destroy, Silverball, Solar Winds: The Escape, Space Chase III: Showdown In Orbit, Super ZZT, The Adventures of Robbo, Traffic Department 2192, Tyrian 2000, Xargon, Zone 66, ZZT). Ancient DOS Games Collection This is a collection of freeware, shareware and demo games as reviewed by Kris Asick from Pixelmusement in his webshow called, episodes 1 to 46. Also included are three of his freeware games, complete with screen captures, customized DOSBox configuration and game documentation. (Captain Comic, Command & Conquer, Cybersphere (Plus), Dangerous Dave, Descent, Flightmare, FX Fighter, Jade Fighter Arena, LineWars, Magic Carpet, Caverns of Zeux, Round 42, Sango Fighter, Snarf, Space Fortress, Star Gladiators 2, StarMines 2, Dark Forces, Stunts (4D Sports Driving), Supaplex, System Shock, Tank Wars, Teenagent, Thor's Hammer) ADG logo © Pixelmusement. Ancient DOS Games Collection II This is a collection of freeware, shareware and demo games as reviewed by Kris Asick from Pixelmusement in his webshow called, episodes 47 to 98, complete with screen captures, customized DOSBox configuration and game documentation.
(Abuse, Amulets & Armor, Animal Quest, C-Dogs, Cash Invaders, Catacomb (Abyss 3-D), Caverns of Xaskazien, CD-Man, Crime Fighter, Cyberdogs, Electranoid, Excelsior Phase One: Lysandia, Galactix, Googol Math Games, Highway Hunter, Kosmonaut, Lacewing, MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat, Moraff's World, Paku Paku, Reaping the Dungeon, Scorched Earth, SkyRoads (Xmas Special), Space Adventure, Star Quest I, Star Wars: TIE Fighter, TechnoVenture, Telengard, Ugh!, Visual Star Trek, X-COM: UFO Defense) ADG logo © Pixelmusement. Ancient DOS Games Collection III This is a collection of freeware, shareware and demo games as reviewed by Kris Asick from Pixelmusement in his webshow called, episodes 99 to 133, complete with screen captures, customized DOSBox configuration and game documentation. (3D CyberPuck (a.k.a. 3D Ball Blaster), Amulets & Armor Classic, Aquanoid, Betrayal at Krondor, Carmageddon, Crusader: No Remorse, Descent II, Earthworm Jim, God of Thunder, Impulse Tracker, Advanced Tactical Fighters, Lawn Mower, Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds, Out of This World (a.k.a.
Another World), Rogue (a.k.a. Dungeons of Doom), Roketz, Sango Fighter 2, SimCity 2000, Skunny Kart, Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri, Words of Jesus, Worms, Worthy Opponent) ADG logo © Pixelmusement. Ancient DOS Games Collection IV This is a collection of freeware, shareware and demo games as reviewed by Kris Asick from Pixelmusement in his webshow called, episodes 134 to 176, complete with screen captures, customized DOSBox configuration and game documentation. (Amy's First Primer, Blood, Cannon Fodder, Chopper Commando, DreamWeb, Full Throttle, Jetpack, Nitemare-3D, Sam & Max: Hit the Road, Slipstream 5000, Squarex, Squarez Deluxe!, Street Rod (Special Edition), Street Rod 2: The Next Generation, Xerix, Xerix II: The Caverns of Mars) ADG logo © Pixelmusement Random bits of in-depth Information To start a profile, press enter. To run the setup for a given profile, use shift-enter (as in D-Fend). Ctrl-enter and F2 bring up the profile-editing screen.
GamePackArchives are plain zip files, optionally containing captures. In the root of the archive is a special file called profiles.xml which contains all the meta-data for the game(s) inside the package.
The xml is human-readable and well-structured which should make it easy to understand. Please note that there are certain restrictions (currently) when exporting complete games; For one, they have to reside in a directory below the dosroot. DBGL can optionally use the DOSBox 'Multiple Config Files' functionality (which is enabled by default), to use incremental config files. What this means, is that your game profile only stores the differences compared to the main dosbox.conf file.
Then, suppose you want to switch all profiles from say output=surface to output=opengl, you only have to alter the main dosbox.conf setting to instantaneously alter all corresponding child profiles. Another advantage is that the resulting.conf files are smaller and simpler. 'Multiple Configuration Files'-functionality is available in DOSBox since v0.70 (or CVS since october 2006).
An example: dosbox captures=. Captures 9 memsize=4 cpu cycles=10000 autoexec mount C '.'
C: cd adv amazonge amazon.exe exit.As they say, beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder. Profile information is stored in the various ID.conf files in the 'profiles' subdirectory. Normally, only changes (to the default settings) are stored in these.conf files. So, suppose you create a profile and you only change the cycles value and store the profile, then only that specific cycles setting is stored in the.conf file (well, together with the autoexec section and captures setting, obviously).
Upon running the profile, dosbox is started with dosbox.conf as its base settings file, together with ID.conf which overrides the cycles setting and contains a set of autoexec commands to run the game. However, if you should choose to disable the 'Multiple Configuration Files' setting (for example when using the official DOSBox release v0.65), ALL settings are stored in the ID.conf file and only that file is handed over to dosbox to lauch the game. In that case, dosbox.conf is only used to provide default values for the profile-editing dialog. Templates are stored in./templates/ID.conf files and also only contain differences between your settings and the associated dosbox.conf settings. Config-files, captures, file-links and mounting locations are all relative to the dosroot folder, if possible.
That's what makes DBGL highly portable; for example, if you have DBGL on an external harddrive with all your games stored in the dosroot, then changing the hdd's driveletter would be totally painless, all games would still work without any reconfiguration. You could even move the DBGL directory structure to another drive and/or subdirectory, everything would still work. If you would decide to store your games in another location than the dosroot folder, absolute paths will be used. It will work, but you will loose the portability. It works as follows: Two entries are used in Settings.conf to specify the locations of the 'DATA' and 'DOSBOX' directories (either relative to the DBGL dir, or using an absolute path).
The DATA dir specifies the folder in which DBGL expects the 'captures', 'profiles', 'templates', 'export' and 'xsl' subdirectories. More importantly is the subdir below the DATA dir called 'dosroot'.
If you would decide to move your game-files into that subdirectory, DBGL will treat all mounting and game-related information relative to that special location. Likewise for DOSBox versions; put them in a subdirectory of the DOSBOX directory setting to make them relative.
If possible, document links are also stored relatively to the DATA folder. Note that the DATA and DOSBOX directories are '.' By default (i.e. The DBGL directory itself).
The migration dialog can be used to alter existing DBGL profile information with absolute paths to use relative paths instead. So, for example, if you select your '/Users/Me/Documents/Dosgames' as 'From' location, DBGL will update all profiles that are somehow using that directory location to use (a subdirectory under) the dosroot instead, to make it relative. When editing a profile, you can doubleclick on the mounting list to add or edit an entry. The dosroot (.) is used as the default mounting location. If you browse and select a game executable with no mounting locations defined, DBGL will autocreate one.
To create a filter showing a certain subselection of your profiles, use ctrl-f. For example, you can create a filter to only display profiles with the string 'quest' in it's name by simply creating a filter with that title. To remove a filter-tab simply click on its close button, or double click on a tab to change it. More advanced filtering is also possible; for that you'll have to write a sql 'where clause' in the filter's condition field. Some examples:. To show all your favorite games: GAM.FAVORITE=true. To show all profiles with the first custom field filled in with MT-32: CUST1.VALUE='MT-32'.
To show the oldies: YR.YEAR Preferences - Dynamic options): fullresolution: desktop windowresolution: desktop output: surfacepp surfacenp surfacenb scaler: normal4x normal5x normal6x device: mt32 fluidsynth oplemu: nuked ems: emsboard emm386. Fixed regression in Mac build (since 0.80d) related to line breaks causing the dbgl startup shell script to malfunction (victoria). Added option in AddGameWizard to create a unique mapper file for the new game (jjh76). Pressing the. button next to the mapperfile field in the profile editing dialog will also use a unique mapperfile for the profile. It is even possible to use this feature in a template, so that when the template is used for a profile, a unique mapperfile is used in the profile. Fixed crash when trying to load a corrupt.gif file (Neville).
V0.81. Added 4 new custom text-fields for profiles (RetroFAN). Always scale thumb to max dimensions fitting in the clientarea (display resolution), and auto center thumb dialog. Altered language dropdown in preferences dialog to also show the native language names. Show program version in about dialog (Giorgos). Added new XSL for.
Fix for setting 'fullresolution=desktop'; In some cases the 'fullresolution' dropdown in DBGL would not allow selection of the value 'desktop' (Jan-Peter). Fix for thumb/file order on Windows platform (marquisor). Fixed rare crash-bug when deleting thumb images (Neville). More accurately determine linux desktop folder for shortcuts (Giorgos).
Fixed CSV profiles-list export column names (proper casing and proper custom labels). Fixed MobyGames profile reader for 'Bong Bong' (no developer, no developer link in Credits section and no closing add credits link). Removed support for searching hotud.org now that the website is offline. Spanish translation update from Neville, French translation update by max buttjer. Updated SWT libs to 4.6.2.8, Jersey to 2.25.1, CommonsIO to 2.5, CommonsLang to 3.5 and JUnit to 4.12. V0.80. Added basic event logging and a new dialog (File-Log.) to view DBGL's log (history), sort it, filter it (right-click on a table field), enable or disable it, or clear the log.
Implemented basic statistics for profiles, DOSBox versions and templates such as creation time, number of starts, etc. Fixed grabbing screenshots and cover-art from MobyGames. Many improvements for Linux and Mac users; Implemented alternative DOSBox startup mode for both platforms which should help when using for example YkhWong's DOSBox builds (Lewis). Also fixed the automatic creation of dosbox.conf for a newly added DOSBox version (Jan Baumann) and improved the logic for opening the associated application upon clicking a link. A workaround on Mac systems where browsing for the DOSBox executable inside a DOSBox.app wasn't very user-friendly. Now you should be able to simply point to your DOSBox.app (Jan Baumann).
A few improvements for the Add Game Wizard: Allow for choosing the DOSBox version in the wizard when installing a game from source media, and fixed a weird error message when using CD cue+bin images located in the dosroot folder or below. Some minor GUI improvements here and there such as button sizes for high-dpi systems. Major cleanup of source code layout and the translation files.
Updated SWT to 4.5.1 and commons-lang to 3.4. The new LOG dialog. V0.79.
Implemented DOSBox configuration sharing - share your DOSBox configurations with the community. A small database and HTTP RESTful service allows for submission and retrieval of configurations. The submissions are moderated by hand for the coming time. Once accepted, your submitted configurations become available to other DBGL users so that they can use them for setting up their game configuration. If you're a developer and are interested in using this public RESTful service, please contact me via Vogons or e-mail. Added support for the -fs and -size parameters when using the DOSBOx imgmount command. If you'd like to use the hdd image-mounting feature using an existing DBGL installation, you need to make a manual change in settings.conf.
Please find the line for imgmounttype (around line 278) and add hdd, like so: imgmounttype=iso floppy hdd. Added support for booting from a specific drive letter (for example 'boot hdd.img -l C'). Fixed a regression (since version 0.75c) when using multiple booter images, on opening of the profile-editing dialog only the first image-file would be filled in.
Refactored and improved boot/mount/imgmount command parsing. Improved opening links associated with a profile so that the correct external application is used (Jan Larres). Fixed importing GamePackArchives with very specific files on Windows systems (Neville). Fixed a couple of rare crash-issues, various minor interface improvements. Added a Greek translation by BraiNKilleR, a Slovenian translation from R33D3M33R, a Finnish translation from Joona Murtovaara and a Portugese-Brazillian translation by Odmar Miranda.
Some translation improvements for Spanish and Polish done by Neville and ZeroX4. Upped the system requirements from Java 1.5 to Java 1.7.
Updated launch4j, commons-io, commons-lang and Junit. A jersey-2.13 lib was added and SWT was updated to 4.4.2. On Linux systems, GTK2 is used in favor of GTK3, for the moment.
You can find the new 'share' function in the profile-editing dialog; one button to share your configuration with the community, and one to search for a configuration in the on-line database, based on the game's title. V0.78. Fixed mobygames.com information querying, added support for querying.
Multiple smaller GUI-related improvements; a fix which should properly remove a Gallery's tooltip on deactivation of the main shell, properly update main Gallery image after returning from a DOSBox session when the DBGL thumbs pane is not showing, flush cached image data when removing a thumb, so that when a new image is captured inside DOSBox, the Gallery will show the new one (instead of the old, removed one), a fix to prevent very large images from extending way beyond the edges of the screen. Added 'open captures folder' to profiles list context menu. (BaldyOldFart). When using the 'Confs In game directory' mode, the relative captures folder inside the profile's.conf was broken for DOSBox versions after 0.72.
This has been fixed. (BaldyOldFart). A fix to prevent saving.conf files in DBGL's main directory (when in 'Confs In game directory' mode) whenever the profile's main game directory cannot be determined (incomplete autoexec section).
An improvement to prevent changes to.confs when switching the associated DOSBox version in multi-edit-mode - some combo lists could get set to 'altered' while their value was not actually changed. Allow D-Fend (Reloaded) import on systems other than Windows as well. (krull1981). Added Arabic translation from Mohammed.
Implemented some resource bundle pre-processing to remove duplicate translations, and no longer include extended debug information inside main jar to reduce package size. updated launch4j to 3.3 Adding a new game profile in DBGL using Windows 8.1. V0.77. Fixed mobygames.com, pouet.net and hotud.org information querying (as all sites were altered recently, DBGL was unable to parse their search-results).
Redefined the entire default templates list, and provided the possibility to add the new list to an existing DBGL installation (Templates - Import default templates). PLEASE NOTE that a new file is required for this to work. Simply put in your DBGL templates directory. The new list was made using Trixter's to more accurately match the speed of a particular system, and contains all kinds of specific machine configurations that could be useful. Implemented (rather basic) DOSBox profiles import. Currently, profile meta-data, links and captures are imported. You can find the feature in the main menu (Profiles - Import D-Fend (Reloaded) profiles); Please note that after importing the data, I would strongly recommend to also migrate the imported profiles (Profiles - Migrate profiles).
This action will adjust all absolute file and link locations to use relative locations instead. After the migration, you can simply move all game data to DBGL's dosroot folder, and you're done (DarkOppressor). Revamped and restyled the main menu somewhat, and fixed some bindings on OSX such as for 'Preferences' and 'About'. More improvements for the OSX build: Fixed possible dead-lock when quitting (main DBGL dialog would close but the application remained active in dock), fixed DBGL version info (IIGSUser), and altered shortcut keys to use the standard modifier CMD instead of CTRL. Implemented template duplication and.conf viewing by using the mouse right-click context menu, and moved dosbox.conf editing from the editing dialog to the context menu.
Implemented drag-'n-drop support for confs, gpas, etc.; simply drag these files onto the profiles list to open them. Added assistance in creating a profiles filter; by selecting one (or more) category value(s) in the tree on the right side of the filter creation dialog (as shown in the image on the right).
Adjusting the tree selection(s) will instantly update the filter condition, and consequently the 'Result' text-field. Note that some values can be expanded one more level deeper, in which the individual words that make up the value can be selected. For example, the value 'Action, Adventure' in the category 'Genre' will have the subitems 'Action' and 'Adventure'. Selecting one of these items will create a 'Genre LIKE%' subcondition, as to filter on any genre with the substring 'Action' or 'Adventure' in it. Implemented a (crude) DOSBox installation detection function to help defining an initial DOSBox version when no DOSBox version is included in the DBGL package (such as in Linux packages). Should work on Windows (%programfiles%), OSX (/Applications) and Linux (/usr/bin), but it only detects DOSBox version 0.74 as of now.
Allow for proper cancellation of a multi-edit dialog (correctly stopping threads) so that the the profiles list is correctly updated and no exceptions do occur. Implemented workaround for (rare) crash-bug in Gallery, see. Added box-sized tiles in gallery view mode, and made the background color changeable (for now just by hand editing settings.config (gui gallerybackgroundcolor=r g b, for example gallerybackgroundcolor=215 215 215). Included a Spanish translation update from Neville, and a completed Polish one from ZeroX4. Updated Launch4j to 3.1.0-beta2, SWT to v4.3. This release comes with a new set of templates using speed measurements made with. And a tool to assist in creating filter conditions.
V0.76. Implemented 'Gallery View' mode; instead of using a table to browse through your profiles, DBGL can now display the profiles as icons (in 3 different sizes; small, medium, large) as well.
This was implemented using the which allows for nice custom styling and good performance. It supports multi-select, and should thus behave mostly the same as the regular 'Table View' mode. Hovering over a profile-icon will display the extra information about the profile that is normally shown in the table columns. PLEASE NOTE: You will need the new file if you want to upgrade an existing DBGL installation!.
Some interface improvements; implemented showing/hiding of profile screenshots and notes (Neville), made web-search results table sortable by clicking on columns (kolano), and optimized thumbnail caching somewhat. Fixed crashbug when trying to import GamePackArchive containing native commands, but with at least 1 profile without actual native commands.
(Neville). Implemented data dir redirect in case of set env.
Variable (dbgl.data.localappdata=true or dbgl.data.userhome=true) or read-only DBGL dir. All DBGL data is written to%LOCALAPPDATA%/DBGL (on Windows) or /.dbgl (on Linux and OSX) in that case. Also, if no dosbox version is included in the DBGL folder, then no default dosbox version and templates are generated on first startup. Also, a (without pre-compiled DOSBox and templates) was added. All these changes should provide for easier inclusion in Linux Repositories such as (dostux), and makes it possible to put DBGL in a read-only folder such as c: program files dbgl. Please note that for this to be implemented, I had to make the database folder relative to the data folder (thus no longer relative to the main DBGL folder).
Implemented a workaround for a potential DBGL startup problem regarding SWT not being able to write its dll files to a specific directory below user.home, by redirecting that location to DBGL's lib directory, instead. (Jurjen Bakker). Added support for the DOS 'loadhigh' command. Improved custom autoexec parsing. Fixed a minor regression regarding changing a custom column's name.
(kolano). Added (partial) Polish translation from ZeroX4, and updated the Italian (code120), French (Max Buttjer) and Korean (ykhwong) translations. Updated SWT to 4.2.2 DBGL using 'Gallery View' mode.