Mageslayer needs dos prompt but incompatable with dosbox

[heartofdestany]

Hello,  I would like to launch Mageslayer through Launchbox, however I have a slight issue, The map stitching in Mageslayer requires a dos propt window to be open, DOSbox cannot launch this game. Leaving DOSbox open seems to work favorably, however DOSbox closses upon opening Mageslayer this way through Launchbox. Is there a way to suppress DOSbox from closeing when it realizes the game is not compatable?

Edited June 3, 2017 by heartofdestany

[SentaiBrad]

There is a way to make DOSBox not close on error, but instead wait for you to close it. I don't exactly remember how to set that up. In DOSBox Daum I know I have that set up, so that way I can see errors and fix them.

[heartofdestany]

thank you. at least now I know there is hope. I would search it but I'm realy bad at turning things into valid google searches.

[Belgarath]

I thought MageSlayer was a Win95 game?

[heartofdestany]

It is a Windows 95 game, however a lot of Windows 95 games required a DOS window to be open while certain parts of the game are gotten to, in Mageslayer it is the map stitching that causes a hang when no DOS window is open. Windows 7 has no DOS anything whatsoever, same for XP, Vista, 8, 8.1 and 10.

So even though, mageslayer is not a DOS game per say, I do need DOSbox open while I play it, for it to function normally.

Edited June 4, 2017 by heartofdestany

[SentaiBrad]

I wonder if @eXo knows... He loves that era. If it is a Windows 95 game though, even if it does utilize a DOS prompt, I'm not certain vanilla DOSBox will work. You might need a fork of DOSBox.

[eXo]

I've gotten quite a few w95 games running in dosbox. I'll give this one a go and see what happens. Unfortunately I'm out of town for the next week. So I'll dig in when I'm back.

[syntax_X]

Run dosbox as an additional app for the game, even if it is closing dosbox it will reopen it as an additional app. Not sure if it will close on exit.

You could write a short batch file to monitor your games exe and close dosbox when it closes if that's the case.

I would also recommend unchecking the use dosbox/scummvm boxes.

[heartofdestany]

Thank you syntax_X, that worked for me, I had no idea launchbox could do that, I got it in a drawing and don't alot about it's functions. This has been a real learning experience for me.

Thank you everyone for your time.

 

[syntax_X]

Does the dosbox additional app close when you exit the game or stay open?

[heartofdestany]

It stays open. There is a "wait on exit." toggle does that work for fixing that?

Edited June 5, 2017 by heartofdestany

[syntax_X]

no it wont, what is the exe name of the game you are running?

 

[heartofdestany]

D:\Games\Mageslayer\mageslay.exe is the full path if you need it for anything.

Are you cafting me a batch file?

[syntax_X]

your dosbox path is what I need

[heartofdestany]

oh sorry it's early where I am.

D:\Games\Mageslayer\DOSBoxPortable\DOSBoxPortable.exe

[syntax_X]

Try using this as the additional app

mageslay.bat

If it closes dosboxportable before mageslayer gets a chance to load edit the batch file and increase the first timeout to 3 or 4.

Edited June 5, 2017 by syntax_X

[heartofdestany]

Will Mageslayer still be able to access DOSbox for code interpretation when a map transition occurs? DOSbox has to stay open the whole time Mageslayer is running will this close DOSbox and leave Mageslayer open?

[syntax_X]

It opens dosbox portable, then waits 2 seconds before checking the tasklist for magslay.exe
If it finds magslay.exe then the batch file stays open and continues to check every second.
The second it doesn't find magslay.exe it will close dosboxportable and close the batch.
It should also run minimised.

 

Using it by itself will just load dosboxportable and close it 2 seconds later.

Edited June 5, 2017 by syntax_X

[heartofdestany]

Cool thank you.

[heartofdestany]

That didn't work, mageslayer crashed with a fatal error an gave a code address of c00005