"The file you've specified for the application path was not found"

[Maxstate]

Hey guys,

A week or so ago, Launchbox was working fine and I was playing all these old MS-DOS abandonware games that I got in a big ole pack.

Between then and now, something happened where, I think, Launchbox tried to update itself and I aborted that procedure prematurely. The reason for canceling the update was because I thought it was something else, and only figured after the fact what was really happening. 

When I tried to restart LaunchBox afterwards, it gave some sort of error. I think that some NET 3.0 files were missing or some such. Well, no worry I thought to myself, I'll just install the new version cleanly. That worked, but I've not gotten my games to work ever since.

My problem is that, no matter how I point Launchbox to my stash of MS-DOS games, something goes wrong. If I 'add games' and select MS-DOS and go through the motions, it tends not to find any but the very first game in the list of about 1700. Despite me pointing to a folder that contains them. If I grab all the games and drag them into Launchbox, I get the screen asking me what kind of games they are and whether I want to run them from their spot or move/copy them. Whatever I choose there, populating Launchbox with the games goes well (and all the metadata is created correctly, the games are recognized and the right images are found for its cover, etc.) but whenever I try to launch them, I get the error that I've attached as an image.

Mind you, running the setup/configuration *works* and starts up in its Dosbox window (!). But starting the actual game, doesn't. I've checked the MS-DOS platform XML file to see whether there's anything wrong with the path and have tried some tinkering, but it all looks fine. The games run when I start them manually, also (Dosbox). 

I've tried reinstalling Launchbox completely, tried all the other various ways of adding the games, nothing seems to work. Does anyone have any idea what's causing this and how I can fix it? Should I try version 11.8 and see if that works? That's the one that worked originally.

Thanks in advance...

 

Edited February 4, 2021 by Maxstate

[Headrush69]

By chance were you MS-DOS games from eXoDOS? I ask because importing them directly doesn’t work as it normally points to a BAT file, but some can be started directly with DosBox.

Have you tried restoring an older MS-DOS.xml from your Launchbox -> Backups folder to replace the current one in Launchbox -> Data?

[Maxstate]

58 minutes ago, Headrush69 said:

By chance were you MS-DOS games from eXoDOS? I ask because importing them directly doesn’t work as it normally points to a BAT file, but some can be started directly with DosBox.

Have you tried restoring an older MS-DOS.xml from your Launchbox -> Backups folder to replace the current one in Launchbox -> Data?

Hey, thanks for the quick reply! I have never heard of eXoDOS. I've only used Dosbox before this to manually approach and run the games one by one. Launchbox was able to launch them previously, but not anymore. 

I deleted all my backups / the entire Launchbox folder, so that's a no. I wanted to start fresh/clean - because that's what worked last time. No luck now.

Is there anything else I can post that would help narrow down the problem?

[C-Beats]

Could you rerun the installer and let it complete all the way and let me know if you still have the issue? You can point it to the same directory and it will overwrite what it needs to (doesn't touch your data at all).

[Maxstate]

12 minutes ago, C-Beats said:

Could you rerun the installer and let it complete all the way and let me know if you still have the issue? You can point it to the same directory and it will overwrite what it needs to (doesn't touch your data at all).

Change nothing else? just rerun the 11.9 installer? Alright, I'll report back 

[C-Beats]

Yeah. Make sure you point it to the right location. Don't want it creating a LaunchBox folder IN your LaunchBox folder (if that makes sense, sorry coffee hasn't fully took hold just yet)

[Maxstate]

2 minutes ago, C-Beats said:

Yeah. Make sure you point it to the right location. Don't want it creating a LaunchBox folder IN your LaunchBox folder (if that makes sense, sorry coffee hasn't fully took hold just yet)

Haha yeah it was about to do that, so I removed the second "/Launchbox". Sadly, same error

https://imgur.com/Kg2aMxO here's the folder

I've tried copying the games into /Games/MS-DOS manually, which netted the same error. They're in /Oldies currently.

Edited February 4, 2021 by Maxstate

[C-Beats]

Can you do the following:

1. Find a game that you get this error with, then right click that game in LaunchBox and select "Edit" to bring up the Edit Game window. Then check the application path of that game and make sure the file exists in that location
2. Make sure you don't have an emulator set for some reason on that game
3. Make sure if using the default DOSBox that you a \\LaunchBox\ThirdParty\DOSBox\ folder and that there are files in it.

[Maxstate]

1 hour ago, C-Beats said:

Can you do the following:

1. Find a game that you get this error with, then right click that game in LaunchBox and select "Edit" to bring up the Edit Game window. Then check the application path of that game and make sure the file exists in that location
2. Make sure you don't have an emulator set for some reason on that game
3. Make sure if using the default DOSBox that you a \\LaunchBox\ThirdParty\DOSBox\ folder and that there are files in it.

Okay, so your very first suggestion has revealed the issue. I selected a random game: 'Abandoned places'. When I right-clicked and selected 'Edit' --> Launching, its file path just said 'ACE.exe'. I clicked Browse --> corrected the file path so that it looks like: Oldies\Ace\ACE.EXE. It now functions as normal. Huh.

I'm curious: why did it register the path like this? Is there any way to fix this issue without having to manually adjust all the paths?

Thanks a lot for your help.

Edit: I guess a workaround / hack would be to put all the games in the Launchbox root folder. But I'd rather not do that...

Edited February 4, 2021 by Maxstate

[C-Beats]

How did you import the games? I'd like to try and reproduce best as possible on my end so I can verify if this is just a process error or if we have a bug.

[Maxstate]

I'll try to be as accurate as possible, but to fully recreate my steps would take a long time as it's a bunch of games and the import process takes a while. I'll do it from memory, is that alright?

1. I place my folder of games ('Oldies') in C:/Games/Launchbox, where Launchbox is installed (version 11.9).
2. I start Launchbox and click away the 'Add Games' and welcome screens.*
3. I open the Oldies folder, select all the games in there (some 1700) and drag them into the open Launchbox window.
4. A window pops up asking me whether the games are MS-DOS, others, etc. I select MS-DOS.
5. Another window pops up asking me whether I want to keep the games where they are (bottom option), copy, or move them to the games folder. I select 'keep them where they are').**
6. It then locks up for a bit doing some stuff and is unresponsive.
7. It then asks me a series of questions, like whether I want to search the internet for the game's data, and what type of other information I want to find (game covers etc.), EmuMovies set-up, stuff like that. I just leave it on default and press next.
8. The green bar at the bottom of the Launchbox main window then fills up while it populates my library with the games. I think I can click 'FInish' on a separate window when it's all done. ***
9. I then try to start a game by right clicking it and clicking 'play'.

* = All the alternatives to this method produce their own separate issues. For instance, if I use Add Games --> MS-DOS and --> Select Folder --> /Oldies, it tends to find only one (1) game out of the 1700 and pretends like that's all there is in the folder. It's also one of the alphanumerically first games in the list, so like 007 James Bond or whatever.

** I have tried moving them using the option here, moving them into the Launchbox/Games/MS-DOS folder - it doesn't make a bit of difference.

*** I might not be completely right on the chronology of steps 8 and 9.

Let me know if you need anything else.

[Maxstate]

Hi, sorry for double-posting, but I wanted to ask again real quick: is there a faster way to 'fix' all of the paths or do I have to do that manually?

[Terminates Here]

I too am stuck on this one.  Importing MS-DOS games - Launchbox assumes the Application Path is the Launchbox folder and I have to manually edit the path to each EXE.  Too many to do by hand.  

I don't want to move my MS-DOS folders into my Launchbox folder, various complicated reasons, please no questions on that one.

[C-Beats]

Was your import done on a beta version or the live 11.9? I am trying to replicate and have been unable to. Would it be possible for you to remove a game then try the import again to see if you still have the issue?

[Terminates Here]

Wasn't using a beta, current 11.9 build.  Tried a number of delete-and-reimports and the issue keeps occurring.  

Edited February 22, 2021 by Terminates Here
correction

[Terminates Here]

I've been poking around in the MS-DOS.xml file for more info.  After my recent import, I've noticed for a game (say, Duke Nukem 2).  I keep my Launchbox games in a OneDrive folder called 'Emulation Essentials' - to prevent bloat, I only import selected games from a platform.  

The root folder is correct:

<RootFolder>..\..\Users\elect\OneDrive\Emulation Essentials\MS-DOS\Duke Nukem 2</RootFolder>

Application Path is shown as....

<ApplicationPath>NUKEM2.EXE</ApplicationPath>

However, Launchbox tries to locate NUKEM2.EXE relative to the location of Launchbox.EXE, rather than the RootFolder for the game in question.  It can't find it, and it  errors.

The only way to get the game to load is to manually input the entire path to the exe, I.e for Beyond Castle Wolfenstein....

<RootFolder>..\..\Users\elect\OneDrive\Emulation Essentials\MS-DOS\Beyond Castle Wolfenstein</RootFolder>

<ApplicationPath>..\..\Users\elect\OneDrive\Emulation Essentials\MS-DOS\Beyond Castle Wolfenstein\BCW.COM</ApplicationPath>

So the problem seems to be that Launchbox isn't using the RootFolder XML to locate the game, you have to manually direct it to the game folder from the location of Launchbox.exe.  

 

 

 

[Terminates Here]

Further info: Re-installed Launchbox 11.8.  The DOS games import without difficulty there.  This issue seems confined to v11.9.  

[Terminates Here]

Also discovered that the imported games still function in v11.9, providing they were imported in v11.8 first.  It seems that that v11.9 isn't setting the XML for ApplicationPath correctly on import, seemingly assuming the games are located in the Launchbox root directory.