[ExoDOS Import]

30 minutes ago, eXo said:

I'd argue that DOS games were not intended for monitors such as that. I mean, first of all, DOS is one of the few game platforms that was active for a solid 2 decades. In that time it went from text only, to monochrome (both shaded and 4-color), to 16 color, to 256 color, to a palette of 16 million colors. During this time there was a high variable of screens with ever increasing refresh rates, less curvature, and better screen controls to minimize such issues.  I personally never had any curvature on my 386 and later machines as I could even things out using my monitor controls. Point being, things changed a LOT during that 20 years. 

Essentially, the games were not built that way because that's how the developers *wanted* it. They were built that way because they had no choice. But those people with higher quality setups had much less pronounced issues. Not to mention flat screen monitors actually did exist in the 90's, and it wouldn't surprise me one bit of the more well off developers were using them. 

MAME is a different beast. The actual manufacturer built those machines. And apart from operators who were swapping boards into normally incompatible cabs, the manufacturer knew exactly what type of monitor, what size monitor, and what specs each machine would be when it left the factory floor. So a MAME game was designed for that cab. A DOS game was designed for any number of countless PC compatible machines. What is "accurate" to you may not be "accurate" to someone else. DOSBox is designed to emulate the operating system and hardware interfaces that powered those games. I'd argue it is not designed to mimic the exact monitor you owned. 

I mean, if that type of accuracy is the goal here, then you need a serial port mouse, a gravis gamepad, a pair of $20 speakers, and box that makes really loud clicking sounds every time the games thinks it is accessing the disk drive. Might as well throw in the acrid smell of smoke for those of us who used their dad's or uncles computers. Also, I want it to take about 5 minutes from the time I hit start to actually load the game and I want to have to switch disks 10 or 12 times before the first level.  And when I get stuck in a game I want to have to drop to my terminal, dial-up to a emulated BBS, and watch it load character by character on an emulated 1200 baud modem. ?

I'm exaggerating a bit here for the fun of it, but the overall point stands. DOSBox makes old games run on newer computers. The high variability of hardware at the time makes it nearly impossible to recreate the exact way that you experienced the game versus the way I experienced it. For me, personally, scan lines and screen curvature were things to try and work around or minimize.

From an options perspective, I'd love to see those capabilities introduced at some point, but in relation to eXoDOS that becomes very tricky. As I mentioned before, I rely on several different branches of dosbox to get the collection working. Some of those branches are dead. 

DOSBox *is* the definitive dos experience right now outside of playing something on an actual DOS machine. Nothing will ever be the same as playing it directly on an older machine. Even though I was sort of joking above, all of those little things i talked about do play into what it was like to be a DOS gamer in the 80's and 90's. 

You want the "realest" display emulation? Don't emulate. Get an old SVGA monitor, hook it up to a VGA-HDMI adapter, and plug it into your machine. Voila - all the scan lines and curvature your heart desires.

Hah this is too real.  Right down to the 1200 baud dialup BBS's.  This post was such a trip down memory lane :)

With that said... I actually do have a (very high quality, flat screen, from the 90's!) CRT display I use specifically for retro gaming.  Its beautiful.  I'm sure it was insanely expensive in its day, but I got it for $5 at a garage sale ;). I really wish I saved my old CRT's when I first switched to LCD displays.

 

 

[ExoDOS Import]

21 hours ago, eXo said:

Yea, point the new ones over your old ones. Then use torrentcheck. As long as you don't have your sets combined, it will remove all the files that have since been renamed or deleted.

If your sets *are* combined, then I can make a torrent file for you of all 3 sets combined, which you could then use to strip out old files.

As far as adult games go, let me see what I can work up. I had a method to remove them from Meagre, but it was essentially a script that deleted the front end folders for ever adult game, so a manual listing. I was thinking for LB I could have two versions of the xml file. One with adult games and one without. Then it asks the user which one they want, and proceeds to combine the appropriate files to generate the MS-DOS.xml file. The other option is to have a script that tries to remove them *after* the fact, and that would be much harder.

I'll consider adding that functionality before I release the 3.11 packs.

A cheat way to remove old files when you just keep putting new versions over the old is to simply move the torrent's folder somewhere else.  The torrent client moves all the files belonging to that torrent to the new location, and all is good.  

For a combined set, just move one torrent to a new location, then move all the others to that same location.    

That provides those of us who've never bothered dealing with torrent utilities an easy way to get rid of cruft from previous versions

[ExoDOS Import]

You can help build ratio with the free(doesn't hurt your ratio to download them) MAME packs. They update monthly, on the last Wednesday, so lots of bandwidth is needed regularly.  The easiest way to go about it is to download them now, and when the next versions are added just rename the torrent folders to the next version and download the new ones on top of your existing files.

I'd recommend the merged sets, and particularly the CHD's if you have the HDD space.

 

Then you're helping the community, and building ratio.

[ExoDOS Import]

Fantastic!  Thanks man, for all your hard work.  Looks damned tedious, but it's so appreciated.  

[ExoDOS Import]

The tracker works fine.  It IS a private tracker, and you do need to do some wiki reading and understand how to use it and what the requirements are, but it's extremely reliable and well seeded as a result.

[ExoDOS Import]

1 hour ago, Newlander said:

will it remove the ones not in the set? i'd rather Vol I being separate if possible 

No,.torrent clients don't delete the contents of folders they're saving files to, they just add/update the new files

[ExoDOS Import]

15 hours ago, Dan said:

 

 

31 minutes ago, Newlander said:

is there anyway to split up a combined 2.0 set? as in all volumes are merged into one? so i can upgrade to v3? 

No need.  Just download them all to the same folder.

[ExoDOS Import]

10 minutes ago, Dan said:

Oh dear! So it's not very easy as harryoke and I were hoping! 

Would it be possible exo to have LB on the external drive too? And then have the games inside that LB folder?

Was really hoping to have LB local (along with all the media), with the games on the NAS (like to for the rest of my 10TB collection).

In windows:

 

Mklink /j C:\Launchbox\Games P:\ROMs\eXoDOS\eXoDOS\Games

 

Obviously, adjust folders as to where things actually are, but the command above would make it look like there was a Games folder inside Launchbox, but that would actually point to P:\ROMs\eXoDOS\eXoDOS\Games.  To Launchbox, everything would be on drive C:.  Thus:

P:\ROMs\eXoDOS\eXoDOS\Games\File.zip

And

C:\Launchbox\Games\File.zip 

both point to the same file .

 

So, you just move the XML's, then use links to trick Launchbox into thinking those files are local.

[ExoDOS Import]

I'd recommend making symbolic links if you need Launchbox installed elsewhere.  Be the simplest way to have LB think eXoDOS is local while the bulk of the data is actually elsewhere.

[ExoDOS Import]

Seeding it now.  

 

Thanks, eXo, and take care of yourself.

[ExoDOS Import]

Awesome, so I should just be able to point the new torrent at the current torrents folder to get a huge head start on downloading it, as the games themselves are largely the same?  Wonderful

[ExoDOS Import]

24 minutes ago, eXo said:

Vol 1-3 are done and ready for release. 

 

I'm still working on 4 & 5. Lots of new action games to add. Not hard work, just time consuming.

 

My suggestion is to not import exodos into LB at this time. Just wait for the release. Unfortunately, Any work you do now wouldn't carry over to the new pack.

Thanks for the heads up, eXo!  

[ExoDOS Import]

Really excited for a native import.  

I've considered Syntax's approach above, but honestly I've got so many projects on the go, I'd just as soon wait for the native system rather than monkey with it.  I've been following this for ages, and can wait a bit longer =)  

 

Always glad to hear it's still on the table and being worked on!

[ExoDOS Import]

Good to hear it's still being worked on!

[ExoDOS Import]

On 1/9/2017 at 4:39 PM, Jason Carr said:

Just to update you guys, @eXo is currently waiting on me to implement some stuff so he can officially move everything to LaunchBox. I am going to prioritize that stuff very soon.

I just wanted to toss in a huge THANK YOU right here.  Can't wait!