DOSBOX: Strahd's Possession & Stone Prophet (GOG versions)

[quicksilver]

@clockwork42 copy the standard dosbox .conf file included on retropie (I can't remember where it's located I think in configs) to your /roms/pc folder

In the section at the bottom [autoexec]

Place this below, you can also rename the conf file to what ever you want :

MOUNT c "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/STRAHD/"
c:
cd RLOFT
RLOFT.BAT
exit

Edit: on a side note if you will be running a lot of dos games I would recommend putting all your dos game folders in a new folder, for example /roms/pc2/ and give pc2 0777 permissions

Keep all your .conf files in /roms/pc/

Adjust file paths in your .conf files to point to /pc2/

This way it keeps your PC folder nice and clean and you don't have to see all the dos game folders full of random files in emulation station.

[clockwork42]

@quicksilver said in DOSBOX: Strahd's Possession & Stone Prophet (GOG versions):

MOUNT c "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/STRAHD/"
c:
cd RLOFT
RLOFT.BAT
exit

That seems to work briefly. I get the orange Dosbox screen and it shows the introductory two lines of DOS-style text (no errors or anything) and then I'm back to EmulationStation again.

[quicksilver]

@clockwork42 remove the "exit" and try again. Shouldn't kick back to ES and should show us what went wrong

[clockwork42]

@quicksilver If I remove the "exit," I get the same exact result.

However, if I have it without "exit" but with @hermit's "call" before RLOFT.BAT, I get an error line. It goes by really fast and quits back to EmulationStation (despite not having "exit" listed in the CONF file). However, I do see it says "Unable to open resource file."

EDIT: Also, thanks for the tip about changing folders. I'll probably elect to do that also, even though I only have three DOS games at the moment. Handy tip!

[quicksilver]

@clockwork42 are you using the .conf that came with the game or the one included with retropie?

Can you post what's included below autoexec in the gog conf file included with the game?

[clockwork42]

@quicksilver There are a few different CONF files included with the game. Here's the autoexec parts from each:

dosbox_strahd_settings.conf:

[autoexec]
@echo off
cls
mount c ".."
imgmount d "..\game.gog" -t iso -fs iso
c:
cd RLOFT
sound
exit

dosbox_strahd_single.conf:

[autoexec]
@echo off
cls
mount c ".."
imgmount d "..\game.gog" -t iso -fs iso
c:
cd RLOFT
rloft
exit

dosbox_strahd.conf:

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
# You can put your MOUNT lines here.

EDIT: Until now I had copied the one with RetroPie and added just what you and @hermit had suggested.

[quicksilver]

@clockwork42 continue to use the retropie conf

Try this:

mount c "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/STRAHD/"
imgmount d "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/STRAHD/DOSBOX/game.gog" -t iso
c:
cd RLOFT
RLOFT.BAT
exit

Verify that my file paths are correct and upper/lower case matters

[clockwork42]

@quicksilver Same thing. Quick "unable to load resource" message, then quick exit to EmulationStation.

Your paths seem to be fine, but there is no game.gog file in the DOSBOX folder. That folder's contents (if it matters) are as follows:

The three config files I cited earlier are all located in the game's root directory, /STRAHD/ .

No worries regarding upper/lowercase. I'm accessing the Pi files directly, copying your text directly to the CONF file, saving it, and restarting the Pi each time we try something new.

[mitu]

@clockwork42 You don't have to restart anything :) if you modify the .conf or the .sh file, it's enough to re-start the game after the edits.

[mitu]

@clockwork42 said in DOSBOX: Strahd's Possession & Stone Prophet (GOG versions):

Your paths seem to be fine, but there is no game.gog file in the DOSBOX folder. That folder's contents (if it matters) are as follows:

The .conf file from the GOG installation references that file, which should be in the parent folder of the conf file.

[clockwork42]

@mitu Good to know. I'm never sure what needs to load what, so I'm quite used to restarting at least EmulationStation every time I edit a file directly by mounting /roms or /configs on my computer.

EDIT: Ah, yes. game.gog is in the /STRAHD root folder. Should I change the CONF file path accordingly?

[quicksilver]

@clockwork42 yes change file path so it points properly to game.gog

[clockwork42]

THAT DID IT! Thanks so much, everyone! (And thanks again @mitu for the TIE Fighter assistance earlier!)

Really quick, I'm going to take what I learned here and apply it to the next game (made by the same company before being redone by GOG) and see if I can make that work too. I'll post the results.

[clockwork42]

And Stone Prophet loads too with this. Fantastic. Honestly, thanks so much, everyone!

About the only things I could use moving forward on the PC end of things is a way to make DOSBOX constantly display fullscreen without stretching (not sure if there's one standard config file, or one in each game), and a way to configure DOSBOX games to use controllers rather than joystick/mouse. If anyone has handy links to either of those things, then awesome. If not, I'm happy to start googling.

[quicksilver]

@clockwork42 each .conf file should have a section on video setup. Not sure if there is a standardized way of setting up controllers, as I havent messed with that personally. I know @edmaul69 should know how.

[clockwork42]

@quicksilver I did notice that. I wasn't sure if I had to set it for each game, or if there was some general DOSBOX config file I could edit for that.

I'm pretty sure I saw controller configuration options somewhere. It was just kind of difficult to take that route until I had a few games actually boot. Thanks again for everything!

[quicksilver]

@clockwork42 if there is a setting that you find works best for all your games then make your edit and then use that .conf file as your basis for making any future .conf files

Though you may need to tweak settings on a per game basis because one size fits all approach won't always work. For example Oregon trail emulated CPU cycles needs to be slowed down otherwise game runs too fast.

[clockwork42]

@quicksilver Will do. I was never much of a PC gamer growing up, so I can't imagine that my DOS library will expand all that much in the coming years. With only three games currently, I definitely don't mind editing individual config files if it comes down to that.

[dudleydes]

@clockwork42 said in DOSBOX: Strahd's Possession & Stone Prophet (GOG versions):

way to configure DOSBOX games to use controllers rather than joystick/mouse

Is Strahd's Possession a mouse driven game? If so, then it's worth noting that it's not possible to map the mouse to a controller directly in DOSBox. You could try installing lr-dosbox where the mouse should automatically be mapped to your controller.

I use xboxdrv to map the mouse in DOS games. xboxdrv isn't the most user-friendly software but you have no joy with lr-dosbox, then I would be happy to share my configuration.

For other DOS games, it is possible to map keys to buttons and axes on a controller using the in-built DOSBox mapper program. You can find tutorials on its use in the docs: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/PC/#tutorials

[clockwork42]

@dudleydes I'm not sure if it is. I've never played either of the two Ravenloft games, actually. The third game I just got working (in a different thread) was TIE Fighter, which works on mouse or joystick.

I was assuming (perhaps wrongly) that as long as a game had joystick support, I should be able to map that to a controller's analog stick. That seemed to work for TIE Fighter upon being asked for joystick configuration, but I haven't done more than just make sure the game boots properly yet.

Thanks for the DOSBox mapper link. That helps for sure. I'll have to see how these games work with it before I look into xboxdrv. If I decide that's necessary, I'll @ you on this thread. Thanks!