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[Doink]

I'm currently using defend i know there are one or two other front ends out there are they any better?

[The Fifth Horseman]

D-Fend is quite bugged. The one frontend I'd come anywhere close to suggesting is DBGL, but... you don't need a frontend at all!

You see, you can copy the DOSBox shortcut and set the copiues to use different config files - or "stack" new settings from a second declared config over the default one - and the Autoexec section of the configs can be used as a fast and convenient way of making them automatically run a specific game.

It's easier than it sounds once you've done it two or three times, personally I have over three dozen games configured that way (with twice that still to go). Once you've set it up, all you need to run the game is double-clicking a shortcut - and since there's no frontend, there are no crashes or compatibility problems that sometimes occur to people using D-Fend and the like.

[Juanca]

Originally Posted by the_fifth_horseman

D-Fend is quite bugged. The one frontend I'd come anywhere close to suggesting is DBGL, but... you don't need a frontend at all!

You see, you can copy the DOSBox shortcut and set the copiues to use different config files - or "stack" new settings from a second declared config over the default one - and the Autoexec section of the configs can be used as a fast and convenient way of making them automatically run a specific game.

It's easier than it sounds once you've done it two or three times, personally I have over three dozen games configured that way (with twice that still to go). Once you've set it up, all you need to run the game is double-clicking a shortcut - and since there's no frontend, there are no crashes or compatibility problems that sometimes occur to people using D-Fend and the like.

Sounds interesting... could you make maybe a tutorial doc. how to do it?
Anyway it is part of the charm to run the dos games in the old way ( but definitly not very practical for persons with many games)

[Doink]

Thanks Trying DBGL now. Will try your manual method sometime.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Sounds interesting... could you make maybe a tutorial doc. how to do it?

I'll try to.

First copy the DOSBox shortcut somwhere - your Desktop or a directory on your Desktop will do just fine.
Now, right-click the shortcut and go to Properties >> Shortcut tab >> Target Element box. It will contain something like that:
"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.exe" -conf "C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.conf"

Now, if we change it to:
"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.exe" -conf "C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\dosbox.conf" -conf "C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.70\Configs\power dolls.conf" -noconsole
It will run the settings from Dosbox.conf and then override them with any present in Power Dolls.conf (which only has to contain the settings you want to change from your standard config - autoexec section, scaler and graphics config are all that's usually needed.

You might notice the example "Power Dolls.conf" is ran from a Configs subdirectory. This isn't neccesary, but I find it easier to maintain order in my configs that way.

The autoexecs of both configs are executed both, in the order the config files were declared, so the one from Dosbox.conf is executed first and then followed with the one of Power Dolls.conf.
That's really the whole trick.


Only thing is, if your Dosbox.conf is set to run Norton Commander from its autoexec you'll have to remove that line so it does not interfere with the games' autoexecs. The way I did it, Norton is ran from an autoexec line included in NC.conf which my "plain" standard Dosbox shortcut was set to run right after the standard config file.

PS. I'll write a more detailed guide with example illustrations early next year.