DOSBox Pure, LaunchBox & RetroArch

[Paultimate]

 

Now that we have an better ability to control dos games in Retroarch, we may need to reevaluate how DOS is imported into LB. Currently the standard method tries to do most of the work for us, however now that we can play in RA with just providing a .zip file the playground has shifted. 

 

Right now what is working for me is:

1. Import DOS games as if they were ROMs

2. Setup Retroarch to be the emulator for the MS-DOS platform

3. Wait for the config files to start rolling in

 

You can use your eXoDOS collection in this (obviously). test by importing a few games using the above method. No doubt LB will evolve their MS-DOS import in the near future, but as of now I have not seen a better way to import for RA use. Please comment if you have ideas. 

 

Below attached image is for people that haven't used this. Link is in twitter post above.

 

Edited December 23, 2020 by Paultimate

[Headrush69]

I was already using a Retroarch DosBox core for my Dos games and started testing this new core out.

So far things are running well and only a few of my DOS games needed adjustment. Since this core currently doesn't support dosbox.conf files, I had to readjust a few games by putting them into a zip which than the core properly found the executables. Including any iso images in the zip and they auto mount is also nice. Another nice feature is if using the zip archive, all saves are into Retroarch save files leaving your install "clean".

PS. Also playing with a alpha version of the PCSX2 core, quite impressive.

Edited December 22, 2020 by Headrush69

[Paultimate]

Yes, I really like the practice of leaving the collection itself in a pristine state, and having changes layered on separately in a separate directory.

[PurpleTentacle]

Oh! Glad to see this, as I was trying to figure out how I wanted to approach this. It's one of those things where I like having both options, although I might end up preferring using RetroArch as the default. I love how easy it makes setting up controllers & such, although I'm still trying to figure out how to bind specific keys to my controller (this is using the controller to act like a mouse & keyboard, with the left analogue stick being the mouse). 

[Headrush69]

I run BB in a cabinet that normally doesn’t have a keyboard attached. Initially it was because of the easier exit method that using a Libretro core provided. This core providing a virtual keyboard gives me the opportunity to add even more games. In the past I avoided many games to fit my limited cabinet keys. I’m finding the game pad mapping also works better than other DosBox versions I used in the past, with much less hassle.

[alissongamer]

I would like to take advantage of and ask some questions with you.
First of all, I found this new method of emulating DOS very good, since I think the Retroarch very practical, especially for me that I like to use everything by Joystick. But speaking of that, I wanted to know why some games are still in control, for example, in Duke Nukem 3D when I try to move forward, the character goes backwards, and when I press A / X (Xbox or PlayStation controller) on the Joystick he walks to forward sometimes. I tried to fix it and I couldn't.
Another question, I am a bit of a layman in the advanced parts of DOSBox and I was wondering if there is any guide on how to configure the games in the best possible way, and what are the differences between Sound, Video, etc. Soundblaster is the best one for example?

[Wally]

And another question by me: What slang (Vulcan) RetroArch CRT shader would you recommend for DOS games (the ones  of higher resolution than 240p)?

[Headrush69]

8 hours ago, alissongamer said:

I would like to take advantage of and ask some questions with you.
First of all, I found this new method of emulating DOS very good, since I think the Retroarch very practical, especially for me that I like to use everything by Joystick. But speaking of that, I wanted to know why some games are still in control, for example, in Duke Nukem 3D when I try to move forward, the character goes backwards, and when I press A / X (Xbox or PlayStation controller) on the Joystick he walks to forward sometimes. I tried to fix it and I couldn't.
Another question,

Are you using the default autoconfig for your Xbox controller? My Xbox 360 controller works right. You may have to go into the control option of the Retroarch quick menu and remap your controls.

8 hours ago, alissongamer said:

 I am a bit of a layman in the advanced parts of DOSBox and I was wondering if there is any guide on how to configure the games in the best possible way, and what are the differences between Sound, Video, etc. Soundblaster is the best one for example?

I would stay with the defaults unless you need to specifically change for a game. They are well set for most games and should work well.

7 hours ago, Wally said:

And another question by me: What slang (Vulcan) RetroArch CRT shader would you recommend for DOS games (the ones  of higher resolution than 240p)?

It's very game specific and personal preference, I tend to start without a shader for DOS games as the ones I'm running look better. When I do use a shader I usually use CRT-hyllian and than google for alternatives for that specific games if I don't like the looks.

[aleph_naught]

I am absolutely loving DosBox-Pure, its .zip support is a life-saver when it comes to organising roms and I love the simple streamlined launch menu. Unfortunately I've been unable to find a way to change its default drive mounting settings; it always mounts the root folder in the .zip as "C:\" which is fine for some games, but a real pain for games which are expecting a floppy disk or CD-ROM to be present in A:\ or D:\ and especially for games requiring Installation or Setup to a folder on C:\. Not only does this require figuring out what the game is expecting from the oft-mysterious error messages of the DOS era, before performing a series of awkward command line operations to swap mounts around and make directories as needed, but I've been unable to find a way to either save a drive mounting scheme once set up or to change DosBox-Pure's defaults.

Ideally, I could just change the defaults to mount the game folder to D:\ and mount a specified folder as C:\ to act as a universal hard drive, since many games which don't require installs (or are pre-installed in the ROM) will quite happily run from any mount point. I know it's possible to embed disk images in the individual ROMs which will automatically mount as A:\ or D:\ but doing that for 3000+ games is.. yeah.. nah.

[Your Friendly A.I Overlord]

First of all you must keep in mind that Dosbox Pure isn't finished yet.

3 hours ago, aleph_naught said:

Unfortunately I've been unable to find a way to change its default drive mounting settings; it always mounts the root folder in the .zip as "C:\" which is fine for some games, but a real pain for games which are expecting a floppy disk or CD-ROM to be present in A:\ or D:\ and especially for games requiring Installation or Setup to a folder on C:\.

From the Dosbox Pure Github https://github.com/schellingb/dosbox-pure#start-menu-with-auto-start :

Mount ZIP as A or D drive

"If you have a ZIP file you want to load as a fake floppy disk or fake CD-ROM, there are multiple options.
The easiest is to rename the file from .ZIP to .D.ZIP (to use the D: drive).
You can also edit the RetroArch .LPL playlist file to add a #D after the file like game.zip#D.
A third option is available inside DOSBox Pure with a new remount command that can be called with REMOUNT C: D: to remount the C: drive to D:. This can for example be used in a startup batch file."

 

But for me the easiest is using .zips from the eXoDOS set, where everything is contained in one zip, even iso's.

If your .zip contains an .iso, Dosbox Pure automatically mounts the root folder to C: and the .iso to D:.

When you run a game for the first time Dosbox Pure askes you to set the game's executable. But if the game must be configured first, run the setup .exe. After that go to RetroArch's menu and press: shift or L2 or R2 + Restart.

 

Then set your main executable for the game.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Koroth

[aleph_naught]

Thanks folks! Yeah definitely not throwing any shade at the devs, it's an amazing core.

Was aware of the automounting options above but unfortunately my DOS roms aren't cooked that way (and recooking them would be a lot of work!) - sounds like my best bets would be either renaming the ZIPs so they automount to D: by default, or grabbing the eXoDOS set, which looks amazing.

[LegzRwheelz]

I know I am late to the party but thats me, lol.

So I have known about DosBox Pure since the initial public release but I gotta admit, Dos gaming is the final frontier in emulation for me. I am quite intimidated by it and don't even know where to begin. So I just looked up eXoDOS and this seems really sweet and like a lot of the guesswork has been taken out of the equation but I am still a bit skeered 🤭. So can somebody please do me a favor in giving me the quick'n'dirty in explaining how eXoDOS will integrate with DosBox Pure and LB? Additionally, I have MANY hard drives attached to my pc (14), will this interfere with DBP mounting to D drive or is the mount sandboxed within retroarch and not related to the actual drives in my system? I am getting ready to tackle this and do realize that the best way to learn is by getting my own hands dirty but the way I learn is by reading and getting a fair understanding of what I am doing and what behavior to expect when configuring.

EDIT: I found a video and see that exo provides a .bat that integrates with pre-existing LB setups. This is cool. So my question is this: when I run this bat, will it automatically recognize that I have DBP setup as an emulator?

Edited September 4, 2023 by CtinD