Quote:
Originally Posted by _r.u.s.s.
cause then they wouldn't get what actually happens and come asking about every little error
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The number of DOSBox questions in Game thread are absolutely enormous. Mostly because, in effect, you have to learn DOS type commands to utilize it fully. Some of these commands are less than intuitive. Front Ends in comparison make DOSBox use very easy and you can do quite sophisticated things without much difficulty. I have used front ends for years now, and have had little in the way of problems.
If people knew about front ends, by having them mentioned in the DOSBox help FAQ, for example, we wouldn't have DOSBox setup or tweaking questions literally every 5 posts in every game thread on this site! And may I say, if you do something wrong in DOSBox, or DOSBox gives you an error, isn't that the same person coming here asking how to fix it? For every front end question we would get, we get twenty or more DOSBox questions.
If you spent any time at all in the games threads you would see how DOSBox questions come up very frequently indeed. If we had 'promoted' front end more, I think we would, at the very least, have half the amount of time being taken replying to the same DOSBox questions over and over again, as gamers that have only ever used tabbing and mouse clicking in boxes for every other game/utility they use, rather than DOS commands in the form of mount d d: -t cdrom! (And that's one of the easier commands in DOSBox!) Does it not make more sense to click on the Drives tab, click on the CDRom tab, click on the down arrow and choose the 'X' drive, then a few clicks to do the hard drive, a couple clicks for sound, graphics and cycles and your done! I have 4 pre-set profiles that between them run every DOS Game I have and one that runs 90% of them. Once this profile is set up you can install a new game in a couple clicks, and thereafter just open the front end and double click on the game title to run it.
When I think of what you have to do in DOSbox to set up different soundcards and graphics modes and more sophisticated things for a game, I KNOW it will generate a 100 times more questions - because average gamers don't want to/know how to fiddle with DOSBox commands.
I believe that front ends aren't mentioned because hardcore PC gamers are elitist. They spit on front ends like they spit on casual games like the Sims. They LIKE that it's hard and therefore they keep their special status, and it makes their lives seem more full to be constantly showing others how to mount a hard drive or CDRom , etc in DOSBox. If everybody was told about front ends there would be many fewer questions and the advice givers wouldn't feel so important. They don't care that retro PC gaming could be 5 times bigger if more average gamers knew about front ends, and they don't care how many gamers, trying their first DOS game, are told to get DOSBox, get confused and frustrated with the command structure and give up on retro PC gaming altogether - all the time never having being told of front ends!!
I know I am beating my head against a brick wall, this is just another symptom of hardcore PC gaming: Keep it as hard as you can, that keeps lots of people else out, and that helps them feel 'special' about the skills you have that others don't or can't manage.... Bit like when a hardcore gamer says to a newbie 'why don't you just build your own PC?' I might like retro PC gaming, but I am not sure I like the attitudes of retro gamers on this site.