DOSBox Games From a Thumbdrive?

[Collector]

Is there any interest in a utility to automate setting up games to run in DOSBox from a USB thumbdrive?

[Tawmis]

Is there any interest in a utility to automate setting up games to run in DOSBox from a USB thumbdrive?

I could totally see that, since you can get thumb drives that hold 8GB of data (for example). That's a lot of Sierra games you can throw on a thumb drive and virtually play on any machine you throw the thumb drive in! Count me in as interested.

[dotkel50]

Me too.

[Collector]

I could totally see that, since you can get thumb drives that hold 8GB of data (for example). That's a lot of Sierra games you can throw on a thumb drive and virtually play on any machine you throw the thumb drive in! Count me in as interested.

Like the entire SQ and/or LSL series? Roger and Larry to go!

[Tawmis]

I could totally see that, since you can get thumb drives that hold 8GB of data (for example). That's a lot of Sierra games you can throw on a thumb drive and virtually play on any machine you throw the thumb drive in! Count me in as interested.

Like the entire SQ and/or LSL series? Roger and Larry to go!

Amen! Would be great for when I go on trips and such, to have all that on a thumb drive - and I could go from my main PC to my little travel laptop.

[Collector]

I have started to work on it. I still have a few things that I need to work out. I might do a second set of installers for the purpose of installing to a thumb drive. Right now I am working on a way to automate the creation of a batch file menu that would display a list of the available games on the drive in a way that can accommodate the later addition of games without displaying nonexistant games. I also need to find out if there is a way to change DOSBox machine types on the fly from within DOSBox. You can do it from a command line or batch file starting DOSBox, but I don't think there is a way to do it once DOSBox has started. It would make it easier to mix AGI and other games in the menu and be able to more easily adapt the thumb drive to other platforms. I doubt you change it once DOSBox has started, but Qbix would know for sure. I don't know how much he still reads these forums. If he does not see this, I'll have to PM him.

[Qbix]

At the moment, the current machine type can not be changed during runtime.
The next version has a kind of hack to allow it. (as DOSBox can restart itself then)

[Collector]

Is that in the current SVN or just planned?

[Qbix]

current svn.
just check all the new options that config.com supports

[audiodane]

Is there any interest in a utility to automate setting up games to run in DOSBox from a USB thumbdrive?

I could totally see that, since you can get thumb drives that hold 8GB of data (for example). That's a lot of Sierra games you can throw on a thumb drive and virtually play on any machine you throw the thumb drive in! Count me in as interested.

I setup all my KQ and SQ games onto a thumb drive over a year or so ago (whenever I found and joined this wonderful place). I seem to recall even having a thread about it, or at least in some other thread requesting you add "portable install" options to your existing installers. My current thumb drive's paths are ALL screwed up because I began working on a menu system for them all but got sidetracked by life and work and never got it completed. I was also at the time trying to find out a way to change settings from within DOSBox itself, and while some of them could be changed, not all of them could. Having that ability would have enabled me to use some old 80's style pascal code to create a menu system (ala Seirra's SETUP application) that would read real-time the folders available and put them in a list, and would kind of "self-heal" and add/delete entries every time it was run so that if you added a game it would still show up. I still have hopes to one-day do that, but it would require DOSBox to allow completely new conf settings mid-stream.

If you have a method of not only installing them "portable" style but (more importantly) having an easy way to invoke each of them, I'd be extremely interested. I previously just had a whole bunch of .BAT files, one for each version of the game. Each folder had its own dosbox.conf file, and each batch file involved DOSBox with the specified conf file.

I'd be more than happy to help in any practical way possible.

thanks,
..dane

[Collector]

Long time no post! Welcome back. I mostly have it worked out how I want to do it.. I am just waiting for the next version of DOSBox before I release it.

[audiodane]

yes, long time no post! Things are ever busier at work AND home. Seems I can never quite catch up anymore.

Can you share your approach with the portable installers? Would you be willing for some constructive criticism while we wait for the next DOSBox release? Are you looking to include some sort of menu interface, or just plain installations, or what?

..dane

[Collector]

What I have creates a DOS menu and returns to the menu on game exit. The menu has an exit, too. Of course you can also just use the titlebar close button. I was also trying to make it flexible enough to add more games at a later date and have the menu be updated.

[audiodane]

can I have a sneak peak of the menu? Is it ala dos bootscreen menus?

So you are already planning to enable a unified "game starter" menu within a DOSBox session, and then invoke a DOSBox "reconfig" mechanism per each game, yes?

If so -- total awesomeness!

[Collector]

can I have a sneak peak of the menu? Is it ala dos bootscreen menus?

Menu.png (1.61 KiB) Viewed 3421 times

At this point it is just functional. I may try to make it more aesthetically pleasing.

So you are already planning to enable a unified "game starter" menu within a DOSBox session, and then invoke a DOSBox "reconfig" mechanism per each game, yes?

If so -- total awesomeness!

Yes, that is why I am waiting for the next version of DOSBox before I pick this up again. It will allow me to switch back and forth between Tandy and SVGA_S3. Think AGI and SCI games in the same menu with optimal settings.