eXoDos Collection v4 retroexo@gmail.com ======================================================= ------------------------------------------------------- Contents ------------------------------------------------------- Description.......................................Sec01 Changes to 4.0....................................Sec02 Front-End.........................................Sec03 Setup.............................................Sec04 Emulators.........................................Sec05 Playing the Games.................................Sec06 Missing Games?....................................Sec07 Current & Future Volumes..........................Sec08 Troubleshooting...................................Sec09 Contact & Thanks..................................Sec10 Complete List of Added Games......................Sec11 ------------------------------------------------------- Description Sec01 ------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to eXoDOS Version 4.0! Please read eXoDOS Manual.pdf for detailed info on the new features. This pack includes 7,000 DOS games. The focus is on games that were either released in English or are fairly easy to play without a knowledge of it's native language. This is not every DOS game ever made, however it is a very high percentage of all commercial releases. There are thousands of freeware, homebrew, and shareware games that will continue to be added in future packs. The games have already been configured to run in DosBOX. Games which are supported by ScummVM will give you the option at launch as to which emulator you would like to use. Version 4.0 Adds 725 games. A Complete list of which can be found at the bottom of this text file. ------------------------------------------------------- Changes to 4.0 Sec02 ------------------------------------------------------- The list of changes & improvements this time around is massive. ? All 5 volumes have been combined into a single project. ? MT-32 \ SC-55 Project: Added support for 797 MT32 games, 501 Gen. Midi/Sound Canvas games. ? Nuked OPL3: Added support for 22 OPL3 games to use the Nuked OPL emulator ? Gravis Ultrasound: Enabled in 249 games ? CMS, GameBlaster, Covox, Sound Source, and Innovation sound options added to a handful of games each (those that support them). ? Enhanced Tandy Sound: 80 games with enabled Tandy 3 Voice sound. ? All games from 1988-1992 checked for optimal quality sound. Dozens of games previously set to PC Speaker have been upgraded to adlib \ sound blaster. ? CD \ Rip Replacement: All games marked as CD at moby games checked against eXoDOS. Rips were removed in lieu of clean CD images. ? Composite Video: PC Jr and CGA games upgraded to DosBOX ECE in order to take advantage of its advanced composite modes. ? CD Audio check: All games with known CD-Audio were checked to ensure they were working properly. ? RPG Save Game Transfer Support: All known games that support the importing of save games from previous games have had scripts added to them to allow you to move all supported save games around to games which support them. This is all built into the games standard launcher, so it works with any front end that uses my launch files. ? ScummVM Updated: All DOS games ScummVM currently supports have had ScummVM launch options added. Full screen launch options have been added to all ScummVM games as well. ? 3DFX Update: All 3DFX games were checked and upgraded to DosBOX ECE, along with replaced glide drivers. This removes prior issues that forced full screen, caused flickering, and other issues with frame rates. ? Pixel Perfect patch support: An alternate launch file for each game now exists in the extras folder (or the context menu in LaunchBox). This will launch the game with ECE and enable pixel perfect output. This is the most accurate, per pixel, representation of the original game image. Some games will not run properly in ECE, which is why this was built as an optional launch and not rolled into the main launch. This patch also upgrades the emulation of the PC speaker and uses the Nuked OPL emulator for all midi. ? Missing Manuals project: Multiple users have trolled the computer museum, archive.org, old-games.ru, and other sites to find as many of the missing manuals as possible. To date, over 1,000 have been added, including multiple ?extras?, such as maps, reference cards, etc? ? Linux Support project: v4 is Linux compatible ? Major bug squashing initiative: Unfortunately we don?t have an exact count of how many bugs have been squashed, but it has been thousands. ? Addition of the VG Maps library to each game that had an entry there. ? Patches and enhancement options for dozens of games such as Elder Scrolls, Ultima, and the like have been added. ? Third party utilities such as the Dos Game Launcher have been built and included as well. The eXoDOS Manual.pdf contains details on many of these new features. 4.0 is the first team release of eXoDOS. After starting a discord server for the project, several people showed up and began to help improve the collection. This led to exponential improvements with the project, and the most stable release yet. ------------------------------------------------------- Front-End Sec03 ------------------------------------------------------- The front end used is LaunchBox from Unbroken Software. The front ends website can be found at: https://www.launchbox-app.com/ LaunchBox goes way beyond a standard frontend by supporting direct steam library imports, a cloud games database for scraping metadata, and support for every emulator I have thrown at it. I highly recommend supporting their project and upgrading to the premium edition. I have taken time to mark some of the best DOS games as 'favorites' to help give people new to DOS a place to start. ------------------------------------------------------- Setup Sec04 ------------------------------------------------------- Run SETUP.BAT. The setup file will check for required files and warn you if any are missing. The eXoDOS collection can be run from any directory, as all launch files are designed to use relative paths to each other. Running the setup.bat file will extract all of the LaunchBox assets and the games front end assets/configs. It will also give you the opportunity to customize your set. This includes the option to remove Adult games from the LaunchBox menu. This removes games with sex or nudity from the LaunchBox XML file. This also does not remove violent games. Please make use of the ratings category in LaunchBox if you would like to filter the games further. You will also be prompted as to if you would like your global defaults to be Fullscreen or Windowed and whether or not you would like to default to Aspect Ratio On or Off. If you choose windowed mode, you will have the option between 640x480 or 1280x960. Once it is complete, simply run LaunchBox.exe to dive right in. ------------------------------------------------------- Emulators Sec05 ------------------------------------------------------- This collection uses DosBOX, ScummVM, and Frotz to play the games. DosBOX and ScummVM reside in their respective folders at: \eXoDOS\ScummVM \eXoDOS\DOSBox These are *different* from the ScummVM and DOSBox folders in the root folder, which are used by LaunchBox. Multiple versions of DOSBox are used to make these games playable. This includes 0.74, ECE, SVN Daum, X, and a dozen or more custom builds built to support specific games. ------------------------------------------------------- Playing the Games Sec06 ------------------------------------------------------- After downloading the collection and running "Setup.bat", simply run the LaunchBox.exe file. You will be presented with a list of all included games. The first time you attempt to run a game it will ask if you want to install it. Subsequent runs will directly launch the game. Initial install may take some time depending on the size (a few of these games are upwards of 8 CDs!). During install you will be prompted to choose whether or not to enforce aspect ratio, full screen or windowed mode, and if you would like to apply a scaler. Scalers can smooth pixels, making older pixelated games look a bit more modern. The default setting is normal2x. If you run the install file a second time, it will ask if you would like to un-install the game. Choosing "yes" will erase the installed files from your disk, but keep the original ZIP file. You will loose any saved games, high scores, or other settings you have defined since the game was installed. If you choose not to un-install the game you will get the chance to choose full screen or windowed again and another opportunity to change the scaler. If the scaler refuses to change, you will have to rerun the Setup file in order to extract clean copies of each games conf file. To do this from LaunchBox, you may right click the game and select 'Configure'. ------------------------------------------------------- Missing Games? Sec07 ------------------------------------------------------- Yes, there are still games missing. Some may have never been released for DOS, while others may have never had an English release. A maintained list of currently known missing titles can be found at the eXo...
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