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DOSBox Question

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Started 2 months ago by Dragonlair
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Dragonlair

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I downloaded DOSBox some time ago after several comments were made about it's ability to let you play some VERY old games.

I finally decided to try to get some of the oldies that I lost with Vista to work. I was surprised to find the sound actually worked in Snarf. I have NEVER gotten that game's sound to work before - it's THAT old! FYI - It's an incomplete game by Everett Kaser.

I went to the site and found the instructions of adapting the shortcut for DOSBox to be used for the application and it works. My problem is that every product (game so far) that I've tried is in a window about 1/4 the size of my screen. How do I get the games to play in at least NEAR full screen? I think it's in the conf file but I don't know what parameter or value to use.

TIA!

Diane

Posted 2 months ago #
wizzard_of_ozz2004

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in the conf file, you'll see a line near the top that says fullscreen=false....just change it to true and you'll have your fix =)

Posted 2 months ago #
Dragonlair

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I tried that. It didn't make any difference.

I'm using the "short" method of actually editing the "target" in the shortcut properties. There is no "mount" command in the conf. file. I'm not sure I'm getting the conf file even read.

Posted 2 months ago #
wizzard_of_ozz2004

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Write down the steps you are taking, so I can understand a little better. Have you checked out my tutorial on how to set up dosbox to work for you? You can also hit ALT+Enter to make it go from windowed to fullscreen and back again. If none of that works, I'd try uninstalling dosbox and re-installing it. This is a problem that many users have fixed by doing so. Depending on how long ago you installed dosbox, you may want to re-download anyway as there has been a major update, 3 months ago, since the last one. Keep me up to date on how you're coming along. If need be, we can attempt to correspond in a more direct manner to help you get it figured out. =)

Posted 2 months ago #
Dragonlair

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Thanks for the Help, Wizz. I can FORCE it to full screen using Alt-Enter but I can't get it to do it on command.

I did download the new version. I was running .72 instead of .73. To explain what I did, I'll use Snarf. First, I edited the configuration file to have Fullscreen to be true.

Note - I NEVER use Program Files if I can help it, especially under Vista.
1. Created a copy of the DOSBox shortcut and renamed to the name of the game.
2. Right click on the shortcut and select Properties
3. Changed Target from C:\Activity\ZProd\Basic\DOSBox-0.73\dosbox.exe to C:\Activity\ZProd\Basic\DOSBox-0.73\dosbox.exe -conf "C:\Activity\ZProd\Basic\DOSBox-0.73\dosbox.exe" "C:\Activity\ZProd\Games\DOS\Snarf\Snarf.exe" (as explained in the tutorial I found on the DOSBox site.
4. Saved my shortcut changes
5. executed the game.
I end up with a small window as DOSBox starts followed by a 2nd small window with DOS in a box on a red background. That 2nd box either clears and is replaced or the entire window is removed and replaced by the game window - about 1/4 the size of my screen. I can force full screen by using Alt-Enter but it will not obey the fullscreen command.

BTW - I have 30 years experience with computers with a Master of Science in Computer Science degree. Believe it or not, my favorite language is FORTRAN! I'm not a novice. I must have something in my system that is preventing this command from executing properly but all I've done is install and change ONE default parameter. It's throwing me for a loop!

Thanks for any help!

Diane
Posted 2 months ago #
wizzard_of_ozz2004

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So you actually opened the conf file and changed the parameter and saved the file? You know there's an even easier way to execute your game. You can simply drag the exe for the game directly to the dosbox shortcut and it will open the game automatically...just throwing that out there for everyone else. You may not want to keep the fullscreen option enabled as some games don't work well with the fullscreen. In other words at the end of the day, it may just be easier to keep forcing it lol.

Unfortunately I can't test what you did to confirm or anything because I'm at college. If you're still having troubles, I'll take a quick look when I get home. Direct me to the download if this is the case.

Posted 2 months ago #
Dragonlair

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For the drag to work, you have to have a copy of the shortcut in each game's main folder - or on the desktop. You also have to have explorer open to the game's folder.

However, THAT WORKED! At least it worked for Egyptian Solitaire. It did force full screen for Snarf but I had no mouse control so I could not play the game. I also have to end with an "exit" command at a DOS prompt to terminate it.

I can't have you check these specific games from any download. They are not available as far as I know. Snarf is by Everett Kaser (www.Kaser.com) but it not on his site. If you contact him, he might let you have the game. The others are just too old or were received on floppies before the Internet was that widely used. My Backgammon game I tested is copyright 1985!

If there's anything more I can do, I'm willing to try. For now, I'll put that conf setting back.

Thanks!

Posted 2 months ago #
wizzard_of_ozz2004

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Just thought of something, try saving a separate version of the conf file named snarf.conf in the same directory as the dosbox.conf This may change your results. Of course, then you'll have to change the path to be -conf "C:\Activity\ZProd\Basic\DOSBox-0.73\snarf.conf" This may be where you're going wrong as well as you have dosbox.exe instead of dosbox.conf Not sure, just throwing around ideas.

Posted 2 months ago #
wizzard_of_ozz2004

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For those who are interested....Home of the Underdogs lists Snarf as freeware and notes that Snarf was one of the very first games released with it's source code...making it freeware basically. The link follows if interested. Looks like an interesting game to me, so I will check it out.

http://hotud.org/home/43-action/23420?lang=en

Posted 2 months ago #
Dragonlair

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I'm surprised Snarf is still available. Note - Everett Kaser says it is UNFINISHED so be aware of that. I realized why I wasn't getting the mouse to work with Snarf. It's so old, it only uses the keyboard. :)

Everett Kaser does logic puzzles now and is expected to have a new game ready for beta testing this weekend.

As for your idea, I'll have to try that. Maybe I misread the original tutorial I used.

Posted 2 months ago #
wizzard_of_ozz2004

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Keep me informed =)

Posted 2 months ago #
Dragonlair

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That's it! I changed the dosbox.exe to dosbox.conf after the -conf file and it worked. That explains why it didn't work. I was pointing to the wrong file as the configuration.

From your info, if I need to have a modification for a single game (and I probably should), I may be able to have it with the game and point to it rather than in the DOSBox folder. That would work better. Let me try that.

Posted 2 months ago #
wizzard_of_ozz2004

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yay! glad to hear we got it solved! Let me know if the individual conf's work. I've not dabbled with separate confs for each game. Interesting concept though, I would imagine that you would keep the conf the same for most all of your games. May be more of a hassle than a need.

Posted 2 months ago #
Dragonlair

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It works! You can use the "Edit Configuration" shortcut in the shortcut folder to customize any way you want. Then save it to the installed game (or other product) folder and then point to THAT .conf file in your modified DOSBox shortcut to run the game.

I re-checked the tutorial I had used to tell me how to customize the shortcut and I had MISSED that tiny part of ".conf" instead of ".exe".

It works like a charm now and I know how to customize each game as needed. I'll leave the default conf alone and make copies as needed.

One point - the new version of DOSBox does NOT put the default .conf file in the installed folder under Vista. It puts it in C:\Users\<username>\APPDATA\Local\DOSBox. That can also cause confusion when you're trying to point to it. It may do similar for XP.

Posted 2 months ago #
wizzard_of_ozz2004

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Excellent to know Diane. Glad I could be of some service =)

Posted 2 months ago #
reverseOrder

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In case you are interested, I found the final, registered version of Snarf v2.61. Other websites probably only have the original v1.0 freeware release before the game became shareware. Everett Kaser gave permission only to this website to distribute the final registered version.

http://www.classicdosgames.com/developer/everettkaser.html

Posted 2 months ago #
Dragonlair

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FANTASTIC! Thanks, ReverseOrder. I didn't know he had released it finally. He gave me what I have himself when I asked about the tile "Snarf" in Solitile years ago.

I just got the latest version and I will replace the one I have and see if it works any different.

BTW - all those old "partial" or DOS games other than Snarf are up to date and work under Vista. You can get them from Kaser's own site http://www.kaser.com

Posted 2 months ago #
Dragonlair

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I don't know how it's done in this new software, but this "problem" can be tagged as [SOLVED] (with a bonus of the latest version of a very very old game)!

Posted 2 months ago #

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