Need some insight into DOSBox setup...

[galiman]

First of all, I'd like to say this is a great addition to GBPVR. Very nicely done.

Through Gamezone I discovered DOSBox and have found it to be an exceptional DOS game emulator. But I have found, at least in my case, that each game emulated by DOSBox ideally needs to have a separate configuration file. If you loaded the game through the command line of DOSBox (without going through Gamezone), you simply add the argument: -conf whatevergame.conf to the game's executable to start the game, and it will start with its own special settings. In Gamezone, there is a place for an argument to the executable, but it it generic for all ROM's loaded. I do not see how to apply an argument to an individual ROM's executable.

Is there a way to do this?

Thanks for your time and effort.

[idkpmiller]

To be honest I tried it with probably only a single game and have never seen anyone comment about it. I suspect you may be the only one using Dosbox...

The addition of rom paths to support multiple directorys was not tested with dosbox for the reason above - no interest.

From what you are describing it would seem the quick way around your problem is to use xtraEmulators, have you tried that?

Let me know how you get on, if you have an idea on how dosbox should work within gamezone, please let me know and I will try to accomodate.

Cheers

[galiman]

I'm not sure how using XtraEmulators would solve the problem. The only place to put an argument for XtraEmulators is in the XtraEmulators tab, just like the only place to put an argument for DOSBox is in the DOSBox tab. This means any argument is applied to all ROMs in a blanket manner and cannot be tailored for individual games.

I think that putting the argument in the ROM tab for each individual game executable would do the job, although I have no idea how hard that would be or even if it is feasible.

For instance, now your ROM paths tab has:

System:
Name:
Extension:
Path:

Maybe you could include an argument box:

System:
Name:
Extension:
Path:
Argument:

Again, I don't know how hard that would be or even if it's possible.

I may not see your point about XtraEmulators, though. How could this be done using it?

Thanks for taking the time on this.

Edit: I just got it...in XtraEmulators I could set up each game as a separate emulator, therefore each would have its own configuration file. Duh! The only downside to that, though, would be the game itself would be listed in the emulator menu in Gamezone. Oh well, not pretty, but it should work.

[idkpmiller]

I just tried the whole 4 games I have for this emulator and they all seemd to work fine with a single global conf file. what sort of things are you finding you need to put in to the game specific conf files?

How many games do you use Dosbox for? as of course xtraemulators is not really a suitable for hundreds or even tens of games.

For instance, now your ROM paths tab has:

System:
Name:
Extension:
Path:

Maybe you could include an argument box:

System:
Name:
Extension:
Path:
Argument:

This would need every game to be setup in gamezone which is something I am not keen to do, I prefer global setups for all games of the same emulator. Incidentally I have each of my 4 games in a DOS directory and it is the DOS directory I add to the ROMPath not each game directory individually.

After a quick flick through the dosbox site to remind myself about the emulator, what about this?

in the manual arguaments field if you added %FILECONF% as a variable then I could get gamezone to tag the launching of a dosbox game with "-conf gametobelaunchedfilename.conf" to the end of the commandline.

do you think that would help?

[galiman]

I have a wireless PC gamepad with which I prefer to play my games. I never have much cared for the keyboard, which is how a lot of DOS games are played. In the DOSBox configuration file you can map a gamepad, joystick, or whatever to the keyboard. But every game uses different keys to do things. For instance, 'jump' may be [space] in one game and [enter] in another. So each game needs to be individually mapped, which means an individual configuration file.

If you launch DOSBox outside of Gamezone, you must mount a virtual C: drive then change the directory on this virtual drive to your particular game directory and from that directory you launch the executable for that game. When you launch the game executable, you can add the switch '-conf whatevergame.conf' to launch it with its own configuration file. Of course I don't know exactly how your plugin works, but it seems to mount the virtual C: drive, change the directory to where the game executable is located, and then launches the executable located wherever you have specified in the ROMS path tab.

Again, I don't know how you have programmed your plugin, but if you added a text box in the ROMS path tab to specify the location of a configuration file, could you not just add that as a switch on the commandline to the executable when your program launches it?

Forgive me if I have no idea what I am talking about.

Thanks again for your time.

[idkpmiller]

I am understanding why you need the game specific conf files and totally agree with your reason.

As for adding additional attributes to the ROMpath I really don't want to do that as I said that would make you have to configure every game in gamezone and it is something I have so far managed to avoid.

I can knock up my idea for supporting a game specific .conf file, if you are prepared to PM me with your email address, I will need you to test it for me!

Thant sound ok to you?

Cheers

[galiman]

I'll be glad to help if I can. I will be going on vacation beginning tomorrow, though, so I will not have much time if any during the next week.

Check your PM, by the way.

Have a good day.

[idkpmiller]

work commitments and home life have forced gamezone dev work to take a backseat for the moment. so enjoy your hols....