Scraping MS-DOS games

Spiky

So I decided to scrape metadata for all my games, but realized it will be hard to do for MS-DOS games, as there are usually more files in game folder. For example RetroPie says I have 125 games, even though there are only 10. How do you deal with this?

I can only think of solution where I create .sh file for every game and put all game files into another directory (outside of PC folder).

jonnykesh

@spiky If you only have 10 games then just add the info manually.

edmaul69

@spiky yes making .sh files and having the files in a different folder is a much cleaner way and it is the way i do it.

simonster

I made a folder in /home/pi called dosc and then created .sh files for each game manually.

Spiky

thanks guys, will do the same then

gordonfreemanjr

@Spiky I’m aware the topic is quite obsolete, but I’m approaching the same problem.

What would be the content of the .sh file?

sirhenrythe5th

This is the way it looks in my setup (spoken for "SimCity2000"):

#!/bin/bash
/opt/retropie/emulators/dosbox/bin/dosbox -c "mount c /home/pi/pcroms" -c "c:" -c "cd SC2000" -c "SC2000.EXE" -c "exit"

shavecat

I found another way to scrap it .
made the folder a zip file .
then scarp it
then in the gamelist change the ".zip" to "/" folder .
thats it (just have the same name of the zip and folder file)

gordonfreemanjr

@sirhenrythe5th OK, but won't the scraper scrape both, the .sh and .exe/bat files then?

sirhenrythe5th

@gordonfreemanjr no, because there are only the *.sh-files in the "~/roms/pc/" -folder.
I outsourced the whole folders with the content of the MS-DOS-Games to "~/home/pi/pcroms" to get rid of all the files in the gamelist ;)

gordonfreemanjr

Oh, so there's more messing with the config than I thought... I'm assuming you have to edit DosBox's default folder somehow then?

gordonfreemanjr

@sirhenrythe5th Wait, again:

So, the roms/pc folder contains ONLY .sh files, is that correct?
All DOS game folders are moved over to another folder, which the .sh files address?
2.1 Can I create a folder for all other game folder - say, DOSBOX DATABASE - inside the roms/pc foder, with the roms/pc containing only the .sh files?
What if a game needs to be installed?

sirhenrythe5th

@gordonfreemanjr

yes
yes.
2.1.) yes. and it has not to be in the roms/pc - folder, i used the root-folder instead and created the new folder "pcroms". You have to direct DOSBOX in its config-file to scan this path.
either install it and move the resulting game-(main)folder to your new path or install them in your new folder directly. It is the same procedure as with the preinstalled-packages, which come allready fully configured in their folders ;)

gordonfreemanjr

@sirhenrythe5th This is amazing! Thank you so much, I can't wait to try this.
In the script, is there a space right after "bash"? Or is the:

/opt/retropie/emulators/dosbox/bin/dosbox -c "mount c /home/pi/pcroms" -c "c:" -c "cd SC2000" -c "SC2000.EXE" -c "exit"

a separate line after an ENTER?

sirhenrythe5th

it is a space ;)

gordonfreemanjr

@sirhenrythe5th It doesn’t work.

![alt text]

Looks like it’s trying to mount roms/pc as the C:/ anyway. I’ve copied your setup and created the pcroms folder in the /roms directory, leaving just the .sh file in the roms/pc directory.

Might a long folder name (including spaces) be the problem? Also, I’m using lr-dosbox instead of the regular dosbox.

Here's my SH file:

#!/bin/bash
/opt/retropie/emulators/dosbox/bin/dosbox -c "mount c /home/pi/pcroms" -c "c:" -c "cd 007 - License to Kill (1989)" -c "BONDE.EXE" -c "exit"

Any ideas?

mitu

Might a long folder name (including spaces) be the problem? Also, I’m using lr-dosbox instead of the regular dosbox.

lr-dosbox doesn't support .sh files.

-c "cd 007 - License to Kill (1989)"

You know that DOS doesn't support filenames with more than 8 characters, right ? 007 - License to Kill (1989) is not a valid folder name under DOS (not in this form anyway), you should rename it to 007 and re-try.

gordonfreemanjr

@mitu Thanks. I knew something was wrong with the folder name, just didn't quite remember what the DOS naming restrictions were. Thanks for the reminder.

Has DOSBox already generated some config files I should delete before?

mitu

@gordonfreemanjr said in Scraping MS-DOS games:

Has DOSBox already generated some config files I should delete before?

Most likely no. As an alternative to a .sh file, you can use .conf files with the commands added to the autoexec section.
For instance, assuming your game is in /home/pi/pcroms/007, you can create a 007 - License to Kill.conf file in your pc rom folder containing:

[autoexec]
mount c /home/pi/pcroms
c:
cd 007
bonde.exe
exit

They're easier to write and they're supported by lr-dosbox . Plus, you can just start dosbox without any games and enter the commands one by one to check if they're ok.

gordonfreemanjr

@mitu Amazing! I’ll do that.

If I use a .conf file this way, can I still save a game specific config via the RetroArch menu? Will it work? (I use it mostoy for the „cycles” option).