EmulationStation manually configuring gamelist.xml to open DOS folders

dult.np

Hello everyone,
I'm manually scrapping my PC folder, I keep all my games in their respective folders, and I want to keep acessing them so I can run each game's setup script when I feel like it.
From what I've read about emulationstation's gamelist specification, I can use the <path> tag to point to a folder, like so:

<game>
	<path>./Alone in the Dark 1992/</path>
	<name>Alone in the Dark</name>
	<image>./Alone in the Dark 1992.jpg</image>
</game>

Is this the correct way to do it? Or should I use this setup with <folder> instead of <game>?
Best regards.

sirhenrythe5th

I also scraped manually.
Not only MS-DOS - everything :)
Best way to get artwork you really like and make your setup unique.

Concerning DosBox i found an easier way than yours.
I also kept the game-data in their folders, but wrote scripts for each game starting DosBox with the specific .exe, .bat or .com-file of the game.
That was a good way to have a gamelist full of startable entrys - and not folders.

In this gamelist i just opened the metadata of a game and entered the path to each artwork in "image path", i,e.: "/home/pi/.emulationstation/downloaded_images/pc/aloneinthedark.jpg".

dult.np

That's a good method!
But I still would like to keep access to the folder... Can I add metadata to the folder?
Best regards

mitu

@dult-np said in EmulationStation manually configuring gamelist.xml to open DOS folders:

But I still would like to keep access to the folder... Can I add metadata to the folder?

You can, but I think the process is manual - scraping might not work for folders.
As an alternate method - you can use a .conf file for each game and keep the game folders in rom/pc-data. The .conf method allows you to map your PC games' folders, map CD rom images add configurations/mapper files per-gam, add additional commands to run during startup. The .conf file should be easier for scraping.

See these topics for details: