eXo

Thank you Jason.

I've noticed that recent versions of Launch Box removed the ability to hit ENTER to launch a game. They rely on the mouse. In a keyboard only setup, that only leaves me with the option of hitting Ctrl-P. Is there a way to re-enable the ENTER key in the current build or beta? Thanks!

Status update: MT-32 and General Midi / SoundCanvas lists have been completed. 760 games have had Roland MT-32 support added and 485 have had General Midi/Sound Canvas support added. 45 Games have had Tandy 3-Voice support enabled, and I'm still running counts on the number that had CMS\GameBlaster support added. If you don't understand what any of this means, don't worry! I'll be providing some write-ups in the near future to shed light on these options. The main thing to know is that the sound options are astounding now, and you don't have to jump through hoops to benefit from it. My current project is going through and finding games that allow saves to be imported from previous games, and setting them up in such a way that this is possible within the structure of the project. I've tested it with the Krynn series and gotten it to work there. So now I'll be working on the other identified series that have this feature. Over on the discord server a small but passionate team of folks have really stepped forward to assist the project. Python is chugging through a list of all games that supposedly have cd audio, and verifying they actually do. This has helped me to identify many games that were either missing their CD, had a bad rip with garbled or no audio, or simply weren't set up right. He has also been very active in our #bug_reports channel, and has been absolutely invaluable in helping to identify problematic issues throughout the collection. @Smiling Spectre is going through all of the games that old-games.ru have and checking them against eXoDOS to identify games on their site that are not in the eXoDOS collection. He has also been very active in assisting with image issues, and has become our resident bounty hunter when it comes to finding a rare or missing game version. @Jemy Murphy has been back to making major progress on his game launcher. The #dos_game_installer channel is a great place to keep up with his work. @bigjim has recently located a few games on our missing list, continues to find missing manuals, and has been very active in helping @Jemy Murphy with the #keyb2joypad_project Between the bug fixes, the game updates\improvements (cd audio, original media, etc), the sound improvements (tandy, mt-32, sc-55, GM, cms/gameblaster, etc...), the video improvements (higher resolutions, adding CGA composite mode to older titles, the 3dfx upgrades, switching out early PC versions for enhanced Tandy\PCjr ports), the new games, the new manuals, and all the other things we have done that I know I am forgetting about, I am very excited about this next release. For nearly 10 years eXoDOS has been a project that allowed people to easily play DOS games. With this release that is changing. It is now becoming the easiest way to enjoy thousands of DOS games in their best possible presentations while giving the user the option to hear and see these games in multiple ways. There are dozens of games that were released with broken video and audio drivers. Thanks to assistance from a dosbox developer and all around DOS genius, Ripsaw, many of these games have been fixed and will be presented here with working audio or enhanced audio for the first time. Thanks to @Python , dozens of games have had their options changed to launch in the highest possible resolution. I've spent time going through and fixing\enabling 3DFX in every game I could find support for. And through all of this, the master database has grown to include checks and balances to track most of these changes. I'm very proud of the work being done on eXoDOS. As soon as I have decided how many new games are going to be added to the next release, I will release an ETA for it's release. If you are interested in following along, helping out, or just hanging out feel free to join the discord at : https://discord.gg/37FYaUZ

Glad you found the packs. They are seeded from pleasuredome.org.uk, however you have to have an account there and you have to build up ratio to be able to seed them (as the system won't know you already have them when you first join). You can find us over at https://discord.gg/nY6zagn

eXoDOS is a project I started over 10 years ago. V3.11 is the latest version of it and was released over the past year. One of the big changes in it was the addition of launchbox as a front end. Win3x0 is a sister project focused on windows 3 games. It has only had one release, which still runs the old front end. Currently I'm working on exodos v4, which is a fairly massive addition. After that I'll begin working on win3x0 v2, which will be launchbox compatible. I'll probably also rename it to eXoWin3x for simplicity sake. At some point, I'm looking at doing a Win9x pack, however there are some technical hurdles that have to be solved first. If you are interested in any more detail, I recommend the discord channel. The full size of all 5 volumes should be around 400gb or so off the top of my head. Maybe closer to 350. Definitely not 200. Sounds like you missed a volume? There are 5.

Thanks. I don't take any money for this stuff. Would be too easy to seem like people are paying for the games instead of my time.

It's easy, but it takes a few steps. Specific instructions are posted on my discord channel. Here is a quick copy paste: To merge your eXoDOS launchbox files into an existing launchbox installation, do the following: copy .\data\platforms\MS-DOS.xml from the exodos folder to your launchbox folder move .\Manuals\MS-DOS*.* from the exodos folder to your launchbox folder move .\images\MS-DOS*.* from the exodos folder to your launchbox folder move .\eXoDOS*.* from the exodos folder to your launchbox folder

3.11 has launchbox included with it. No need to migrate anything. You can get it from pleasuredome.org.uk or the-eye.eu among other places.

Well... Let's see. 1. 3.11 is out. 2. Launchbox does have manuals in it. As well as copy protection, extras, etc... 3. I'm not sure which games have "missing" images for this person, but I suspect they are games that were never released, and so they never had a box. All games should have screenshots and title screens. Games that had commercial released should have box art and usually scanned media as well.

Yes, it will be packaged with launch box, however it will be launch box next rather than the older version I had packed v3.11 with.

I thought Yoda stories was win16 as well, and was surprised when I found out was only for win95. Most likely just an installer issue. The files are probably the exact same format. But since the game doesn't officially support win 16, I didn't try to make it work.

It runs in full screen just fine for me, but that is on a Windows desktop. I've never attempted to use any of my collections on that particular port of dosbox. I have to imagine it's an issue with the port though, since my version seems ok.

What are you talking about? I created a Win3xO torrent collection as well as eXoDOS, so it's natural that both come up in topics together

I don't have an ETA yet. It won't be a few weeks. Too much new stuff.

there will still be a merged pack. it will be version 4.0 though. Lots of changes coming to it.

Ah, I replied with this status update to a post I didn't know existed... Lol. There is a different thread I had been active in and posted the discord link. https://discord.gg/Nd5xtDZ After reading through the thread I did want to state there seems to be a little confusion. While I have no problem with syntax_x, and I appreciate him making this post, he is not directly involved with eXoDOS. I also don't recommend following his post. You are better off using my v3.11 projects as they already have launchbox set up. V4 will be setup with launchbox.next.

Figured I'd drop in and provide an update; I'm close to finishing the phase of adding new games to the Action volume. Around 500 games have been processed for adding, so it's a very large update. Once I finish getting the games into the pack, I'll run a process to start importing the base metadata into launchbox. At that point I have to go through the entire set and make sure each game gets all of it's require data. So probably a few weeks of work there. At that point I'll put out Action v3.11. While working on the final volume of 3.11, I've also been working heavily on the release that follows it. I've decided to do away with the genre split. the next release will be a single, complete, eXoDOS release. Apart from merging the volumes, I am also adding quite a few other things. Some of those are: Manuals/Extras project. Hundreds of missing manuals have been located and added to the collection. Also, many extras and manuals have been replaced with higher quality versions. Currently I'm at 9gb of manuals just for vol 1-4, and another 10gb of extras (clue blooks, hint books, strategy guides, reference cards, journals, documents, etc...) MT32/Sound Canvas project. Games that have MT32 and Sound Canvas support are being given launch options to choose between the various sound cards. I have opted not to force any particular sound card, as each person has their own preferences. In addition to this, select Gravis and Tandy games are having those options added as well. In some cases these options simply sound a little better than their Sound Blaster counter parts. In other cases, they have a totally different score. It all depended on what the original sound designers provided with the game. I will provide documentation on the differences between these different sound cards with the full release, as I expect there to be a lot of questions about them. Patches\Fixes etc... Many problematic games have been identified and fixed. In some cases extra versions have been added, with launch options to choose between them. In other cases, special fan patches of games have been added, such as the NewRisingSun patches from the dosbox forums. One example of this is the KQ4 patch which enables the high res graphics on the original SCI floppy release (removed from later releases to shorten the number of disks), the AGI easter eggs, the amiga background sounds )emulated via the gravis ultrasound), the mt32 score, and the soundblaster effects. In other cases, disabled sound effects such as brief speech in Space Quest 3 have been patched back in and re-enabled. All of this will be packed with the newer version of LaunchBox as well as made compatible with LaunchBox.Next, the new version of the front end. Meagre support will remain, however metadata for MEAGRE is no longer being updated. New manuals and extras have not been enabled in meagre. Also, where-as all mobygames watermarks have been removed from the LB metadata, it remains in the meagre metadata. I initially thought 3.11 would be the final release for quite some time. However the eXoDOS discord channel has brought together a really great group of people, several of whom have spent quite a lot of time contributing to the above projects and enhancements. I plan to call the complete release v4. I will do any scan of moby games before releasing it to make sure nothing new has been added. I'm also hoping to have a comparison against TDC run soon in ordert o incorporate any games that may exist in TDC that have't migrated to eXoDOS yet. it's worth noting that one fellow at Discord is working on a front end of sorts that mimics MAME or FS-UAE, but with DOS games. he is using eXoDOS as the base set, and it appears that simply taking a game from my set and popping it into his tool will allow it to launch on any setup. He is also working on joy mapping so all of the action games can easily be played with a controller. He understands it all much better than i do, but for anyone who would like to run eXoDOS on a cabinet, HTPC, raspberry pi, etc.... His project will be a huge benefit to you. After v4 release, I'll start churning the machine towards an update of the Win3xO project. Based on feedback and suggestions I'll be renaming Win3xO to eXoWin3x. It's not as catchy in my opinion, but it is more descriptive of what it actually is and will allow those with familiarity of eXoDOS to know what they are getting into. It also makes it easier to then put out an eXoWin9x eventually, following the same naming convention. As of right now, the primary updates to the Win3x collection will be the addition of games and conversion to launchbox. I'm not sure if there are any improvements to be made on the sound side, as I'm not sure what type of compatibility exists between Win3x and Sound Canvas (MT32 would have pretty much subsided by then). If there is room for an audio project there though, then I'll look into it. And before anyone asks, yes, I am still looking at the possibility of a Win9x project, but no, the technology isn't quite there yet. PCem is getting close, but it still needs a handful of features to meet my requirements. As I have mentioned previously, it's not just about getting games to run, it's about doing it in a portable way that doesn't use up massive amounts of drive space dedicated to wasted virtual hard drive space. parent\child VHD relationships, expanding VHD's, and dynamic access to the VHD's are going to be needed. And again, please feel free to join our discord channel to follow along, ask questions, or enjoy the comradery of fellow DOS nerds and ne'er-do-wells.

Oooooor... Just be a little paint and wait for the next release that comes packed properly with LB.

=)!

Doesn't work that way. Torrent files are imprinted with the downloaders PID. You have to get your own, otherwise you are using someone else's ratio and putting them at huge risk of being banned.

For those interested in nostalgia and just shooting the breeze, I actually just started a discord server today for eXoDOS: https://discord.gg/nY6zagn Come one, come all. I'll be updating things there a lot more over there from here on out. It's become too difficult to keep up with the various forums I have exodos threads on. edit: I've created channels over there for bug reports, game submissions, announcements, and general chat. Great turn out so far!

Remember Dan, not every game supports scalers. So the game you tested on may not have been optimal. That said, to change the scaler, run the install file (even though the game is already installed). It will ask if you want to uninstall the game. Say no. It will now let you change options you set during the initial install. To run the installer on a game that has already been installed, right click the game and choose the "configure" link.

I'm going to quote what I wrote on Monday:

Yea, it was a real trip. I worked with donarumo online for like... 3 years? 4? Before we both realized we lived in the same area. We finally met up at a starbucks one day. It blew my mind that the one other person I was working with at the time happened to live so close. Good call on Ensemble, I left them out when listing local dev studios from back in the day.

Yea, I'm in Dallas. Been meaning to get over to the video game museum they opened a few years back in Frisco.