eXoDOS v4

[eXo]

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

Edited February 25, 2019 by eXo

[Lordmonkus]

Absolute madman.

[Retrofrogg]

But what about Daikatana?  

[Styphelus]

Is there a way to update and older set? I have version 2.0. I don't want to download 400GB all over again.  

[eXo]

there are posts about it here.

 

Essentially you have to create a folder called exodos, and put your old folder inside of it. Make sure your old folder is also named exodos.

 

Then grab the torrent, point it to this folder, and it should run a hascheck and not download files you already have.

[yeappa]

How to use LaunchBox.zip in exodos 3.11 archives?

please help

On 4/25/2019 at 9:11 PM, Styphelus said:

Is there a way to update and older set? I have version 2.0. I don't want to download 400GB all over again.  

 

Edited May 3, 2019 by yeappa

[eXo]

run setup.bat and it handles it for you.

[eXo]

I'm currently trying to wrap up the version 4.0 release, with a target release of August.

Here is the current list of new features, changes, etc...

 

The following is a list of changes, from an over view perspective, that have been made to the version 4.0 release (so far). New changes will continually be added to this list.
•    All 5 volumes have been combined into a single project.
•    MT-32 \ SC-55 Project – Added support for 797 MT32 games, 501 Gen. Midi/Sound Canvas games.
•    Nuked OPL3 – Added support for 22 OPL3 games to use the Nuked OPL emulator
•    Gravis Ultrasound  - Enabled in 249 games
•    CMS, GameBlaster, Covox, Sound Source, and Innovation sound options added to a handful of games each (those that support them).
•    Enhanced Tandy check – 80 games with enabled Tandy 3 Voice sound. This includes enhanced Tandy versions enabled over their IBM versions.
•    PC Speaker Upgrade check – All games from 1988-1992 checked for optimal quality sound. Dozens of games previously set to PC Speaker have been upgraded to adlib \ sound blaster.
•    CD \ Rip Replacement – All games marked as CD at moby games checked against eXoDOS. Rips were removed in lieu of clean CD images.
•    Composite Video – PC Jr and CGA games upgraded to DosBOX ECE in order to take advantage of its advanced composite modes.
•    CD Audio check – All games marked with CD-Audio (from multiple sources) were checked. This led to clean CD images and changed settings which have enabled CD Audio in dozens of games that previously were not using them.
•    RPG Save Game Transfer Support – All known games that support the importing of save games from previous games have had scripts added to them to allow you to move all supported save games around to games which support them. This is all built into the games standard launcher, so it works with any front end that uses my launch files.
•    ScummVM Updated – All DOS games ScummVM currently supports have had ScummVM launch options added. The full screen prompt during install now changes this setting for both DosBOX and ScummVM.
•    3DFX Update – All 3DFX games were checked and upgraded to DosBOX ECE, along with replaced glide drivers. This removes prior issues that forced full screen, caused flickering, and other issues with frame rates.
•    Pixel Perfect patch support - An alternate launch file for each game now exists in the extras folder. This will launch the game with ECE and enable pixel perfect output. This is the most accurate, per pixel, representation of the original game image.  Some games will not run properly in ECE, which is why this was built as an optional launch and not rolled into the main launch. This patch also upgrades the emulation of the PC speaker and uses the Nuked OPL emulator for all midi.
•    Missing Manuals project – Multiple users have trolled the computer museum, archive.org, old-games.ru, and other sites to find as many of the missing manuals as possible. To date, over 1,000 have been added, including multiple “extras”, such as maps, reference cards, etc…
•    Linux Support project – v4 will include scripts that allow the pack to be run on linux
•    Major bug squashing initiative led by @Python  – Unfortunately we don’t have a count of how many bugs have been squashed, but typically I address between 10-30 a day, and have been at that pace since last fall. 
•    Old-Games.ru / TDC acquisition projects: @Smiling Spectre compiled spreadsheets of all DOS games listed at old-games.ru and in TDC15/16 that are not currently in eXoDOS, and then subdivided into English vs Foreign. These lists contain thousands of games. Nearly all old-games.ru entries have been added to date, and the TDC list provides a road map going forward.
•    Application of the NewRisingSun patches, which fix timer, sound, and other issues in many Sierra games. This includes the addition of “ultimate versions” of games such as King’s Quest 4, Space Quest 3, Monkey Island, etc… These ultimate versions are in addition to standard versions. Explanations in what each version adds are in the launch menu.
•    Patches and enhancements for dozens of games such as Elder Scrolls, Ultima, and the like have been added.
•    retropie support via @Jemy Murphy 's dos game installer, including standardized joystick to keyboard mapping for most action, racing, and shooter games. 

[eXo]

Locked it down today. V4 will have 704 more games. On top of all the other stuff.  Grand total of 7,000 games.

[ClassicGMR]

Nice! I'm still on V2 from IPT

[eXo]

eXoDOS v4 is just DOS.

 

After I get it out I'll be working on Win3xO version 2, which will be launchbox compatible. No idea what the eta is on that right now though. I'll have to dig in and get an idea of how many new games might be going in, and how long it takes ti import everything into launchbox.

[Kinio64]

Hi is there any chance to swap zip compression format to more modern 7zip? This would save a lot of disk space for us. 

Thanks for great job

[eXo]

Your second point isn't accurate at all.

Just because a folder gets created in there didn't preclude it from seeding. No actual files are changed.  

 

Edit: seems like the fellow I was replying to deleted his posts.

Edited September 9, 2019 by eXo

[eXo]

No idea what you are on about. 

First you wrote something about how if you hash check the torrent it will dump your installed folders. That is 100% false. Only software like torrent check would do that 

 

Second, if you want an "archival" copy, then it doesn't matter if you can move the games, since it would still have to expand launchbix, the metadata, and everything else.

 

Third, ransomware and the way you choose to seed is your problem and has nothing to do with eXoDOS.

 

 

[vahacris]

a lot of stuff is going on on forum but from what i see nobody notice that eXoDOS v,4.0 is already out !!!

great work eXo. thanks a lot for that  

[eXo]

released on labor day weekend.

[TheNewClassics]

Thanks for all the hard work eXo and team. Hey @Jason Carr, was there any possibility of making Pause Screens work with DosBox? The package eXo and the group put together has a lot of extra helpful materials, would be great to be able to access them mid-game. I tried pulling it up and it didn't seem to cooperate.

[eXo]

We've also found that the game load screens break eXoDOS for registered users. The ability to turn this on or off based on platform would be beneficial for this reason. The current process is to just bulk edit.

Edited September 11, 2019 by eXo

[Jason Carr]

The challenge here for pause and startup screens is that they don't work well with batch files, because then I don't have direct access to the DOSBox exe for finer control. I do have it on my list to look into though, but honestly it may or may not be possible to pull off, unfortunately.

[Voljega]

Didn't have time yet (I just discovered today it was released) to download the collection and won't have for a while, nor the needed space on my hard drive, but I just want to thank you eXo and all the people who participated to this amazing release !

Edited September 30, 2019 by Voljega