Play some of the best 2-player games of the era, including Super Mario Kart™ and Street Fighter® II Turbo: Hyper Fighting. An all-new feature lets you rewind a minute or more based on. As of September 2016 it is still possible to install and play Shockwave content on Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 or later and Firefox on Windows, and Safari on Mac OS 10.7 to 10.10.5.

An open-source, free, multi-platform frontend for DOSBox

Latest news: DBGL has a new home at https://dbgl.org! Also, DBGL version 0.93 is now available with some new features and many bugfixes.

Introduction

DBGL is a Javafrontend for DOSBox, based largely upon the proven interface of D-Fend.

DBGL serves as a frontend / Graphical User Interface to DOSBox. It tries to make creating DOSBox configuration files a little easier by offering a relatively simple interface, some shortcuts and a little bit of intelligence. Once your DOS games are configured in DBGL, its very easy to setup or start them, or alter their configuration or associated DOSBox version.

Initial work for the frontend was done in 2006, and the product has gradually improved over the course of the years. Still, it is by no means finished, it's a work in progress. Source code for the complete program is available, please feel free to hack away.

Features

To name some of its features:

Installation

Just extract the archive to any dir (*) and start launch.exe (Windows), or ./dbgl (Linux). Mac users can simply drag the DBGL icon into their Applications folder and start it. Please note that you MUST have the Java Runtime Environment installed. DBGL 0.9x requires Java (x64) 8 or higher. On older systems, you may use DBGL 0.83 which requires Java (x86/x64) 7 or 8.

The archive contains DBGL with some pre-configured templates and the latest DOSBox release, so you can get going instantly.

Since the frontend was written in Java, it should be relatively easy to port to another platform. If anybody is interested in another build, please let me know.

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Download

DBGL v0.92, using Java version 8 and up, 64-bit only:

DBGL v0.83, using Java version 7 or 8, either 32-bit or 64-bit:

Ubuntu / Debian-based Linux users: Rob Savoury has been so kind to provide a PPA for easy installation of DBGL v0.83 on a Unbuntu system using the following commmands: For more information, please see his post on Vogons and the PPA's webpage.

openSUSE (Tumbleweed) Linux users: Martin Hauke has been so kind to provide a package on OBS for openSUSE for easy installation of DBGL on a SUSE system using the following commmands: Users of older openSUSE distributions like Leap 15.x need to add the Emulators repo first:

Note 1: If you can't use a modern Java version for whatever reason, try using a DBGL version prior to 0.79 which should run on Java 6.

Note 2: On DBGL startup, Windows may or may not ask whether or not to allow the program to establish connections to other machines. You can choose 'Block' since DBGL doesn't need to connect to other computers, communication takes place on localhost only. In case you don't want to use the 'Send To' functionality, you can choose to disable it in the Settings dialog window, that will also get rid of the Windows popup.

Note 3: Some users have reported problems starting up DBGL. Please make sure you're using the right package for the right environment, and you have Java 64-bit installed when using DBGL >= 0.90. Some users have reported that setting a JAVA_HOME environment property helped.

Attention Linux users: When using DBGL on Linux with an older version of KDE, specifically using the library gtk2-theme-oxygen, you might experience crashes. If so, either use a different theme for GTK2, or try to update gtk2-theme-oxygen to 1.4.6 or later.

GamePackArchives

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The following game pack archives can be imported into DBGL using the menu: Profiles -> Import...

Please note that you should not extract these archives. Just store the game.dbgl.zip file somewhere on your disk, and let DBGL import it. Enjoy the games!

1. The Elder Scrolls: Arena

   This is the game as provided for free by Bethesda Softworks on elderscrolls.com, complete with screen captures, customized DOSBox configuration and game documentation.

2. The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall

   This is the game as provided for free by Bethesda Softworks on elderscrolls.com, with screen captures, customized DOSBox configuration and game documentation.

3. Apogee Freeware Collection

   This is a collection of all the freeware games found on 3drealms.com, complete with screen captures, customized DOSBox configuration and game documentation.(Adventure Fun-Pak, Alien Carnage, Arctic Adventure, Beyond the Titanic, Bio Menace, Dark Ages, Kroz, Major Stryker, Monuments of Mars, Pharaoh's Tomb, Puzzle Fun-Pak, Stargunner, Supernova, The Thor Trilogy, Trivia Whiz, Word Whiz, Xenophage)

4. Apogee Shareware Collection

   This is a collection of all the shareware games found on 3drealms.com, complete with screen captures, customized DOSBox configuration and game documentation.(Blake Stone, Boppin', Commander Keen 1+4+6, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, Crystal Caves, Death Rally, Duke Nukem 1+2+3D, Hocus Pocus, Math Rescue, Monster Bash, Mystic Towers, Paganitzu, Raptor, Realms of Chaos, Rise of the Triad, Secret Agent, Shadow Warrior, Terminal Velocity, Wacky Wheels, Wolfenstein 3D, Word Rescue)

5. Epic MegaGames Collection

   This is a collection of all the shareware and freeware Epic (Mega)Games found on classicdosgames.com, complete with screen captures, customized DOSBox configuration and game documentation.(Adventure Math, Ancients 1: Deathwatch, Brix (version 2.0), Drum Blaster, Electro Man, Epic Baseball, Epic Pinball, Extreme Pinball, Heartlight, Heros I: The Sanguine Seven, Highway Hunter, Jazz Jackrabbit, Jazz Jackrabbit: Holiday Hare 1994, Jazz Jackrabbit: Holiday Hare 1995, Jill of the Jungle, Ken's Labyrinth, Kiloblaster, LineWars 2, One Must Fall 2097, OverKill, Radix: Beyond the Void, Seek and Destroy, Silverball, Solar Winds: The Escape, Space Chase III: Showdown In Orbit, Super ZZT, The Adventures of Robbo, Traffic Department 2192, Tyrian 2000, Xargon, Zone 66, ZZT)

6. id Software Collection

   This is a collection of all the shareware games from id Software found on classicdosgames.com, complete with screen captures, customized DOSBox configuration and game documentation.(Commander Keen: Keen Dreams, DOOM, Heretic, Hexen: Beyond Heretic, Quake, Rescue Rover, Spear of Destiny)

7. PLBM Collection

   This is a collection of all the freeware games from PLBM found on plbm.com, complete with screen captures, customized DOSBox configuration and game documentation.(Abductor, Ack-Ack Attack!, Crawly-Pede, Galaxi, Gravity Well, Heli-Jeep, Hyper Tank, Island Hopper, Kerboom!, Meteor Rescue, Nitro!, Pong-Out, Revenge of Froggie, Roxx, Scud Attack, Spaced-Out Invaders, Speed-Kar, Splat!, Stalactites, Star Fortress, Submarine Fury, Swar, Viper, Zee Artillery)

8. Soleau Collection

   This is a collection of all the shareware games from Soleau found on classicdosgames.com, complete with screen captures, customized DOSBox configuration and game documentation.(Alpha Man, Ant Run, Balloon Challenge, Banyon Wars, Battle for Atlantis, Blind Wars, Block Man 1, Block Man 2, Bolo Ball, Crusher, Crusher Castle II, Dotso, Doubolo, Gold Hunt, Isle Wars, Numlo, Sea Run, Sink'em, Spider Run, Tribolo, Wordle, Wordmax)

9. Ancient DOS Games Collection

   This is a collection of freeware, shareware and demo games as reviewed by Kris Asick from Pixelmusement in his webshow called Ancient DOS Games, episodes 1 to 46. Also included are three of his freeware games, complete with screen captures, customized DOSBox configuration and game documentation.(Captain Comic, Command & Conquer, Cybersphere (Plus), Dangerous Dave, Descent, Flightmare, FX Fighter, Jade Fighter Arena, LineWars, Magic Carpet, Caverns of Zeux, Round 42, Sango Fighter, Snarf, Space Fortress, Star Gladiators 2, StarMines 2, Dark Forces, Stunts (4D Sports Driving), Supaplex, System Shock, Tank Wars, Teenagent, Thor's Hammer)

   ^{ADG logo © Pixelmusement}

10. Ancient DOS Games Collection II

    This is a collection of freeware, shareware and demo games as reviewed by Kris Asick from Pixelmusement in his webshow called Ancient DOS Games, episodes 47 to 98, complete with screen captures, customized DOSBox configuration and game documentation.(Abuse, Amulets & Armor, Animal Quest, C-Dogs, Cash Invaders, Catacomb (Abyss 3-D), Caverns of Xaskazien, CD-Man, Crime Fighter, Cyberdogs, Electranoid, Excelsior Phase One: Lysandia, Galactix, Googol Math Games, Highway Hunter, Kosmonaut, Lacewing, MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat, Moraff's World, Paku Paku, Reaping the Dungeon, Scorched Earth, SkyRoads (Xmas Special), Space Adventure, Star Quest I, Star Wars: TIE Fighter, TechnoVenture, Telengard, Ugh!, Visual Star Trek, X-COM: UFO Defense)

    ^{ADG logo © Pixelmusement}

11. Ancient DOS Games Collection III

    This is a collection of freeware, shareware and demo games as reviewed by Kris Asick from Pixelmusement in his webshow called Ancient DOS Games, episodes 99 to 133, complete with screen captures, customized DOSBox configuration and game documentation.(3D CyberPuck (a.k.a. 3D Ball Blaster), Amulets & Armor Classic, Aquanoid, Betrayal at Krondor, Carmageddon, Crusader: No Remorse, Descent II, Earthworm Jim, God of Thunder, Impulse Tracker, Advanced Tactical Fighters, Lawn Mower, Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds, Out of This World (a.k.a. Another World), Rogue (a.k.a. Dungeons of Doom), Roketz, Sango Fighter 2, SimCity 2000, Skunny Kart, Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri, Words of Jesus, Worms, Worthy Opponent)

    ^{ADG logo © Pixelmusement}

12. Ancient DOS Games Collection IV

    This is a collection of freeware, shareware and demo games as reviewed by Kris Asick from Pixelmusement in his webshow called Ancient DOS Games, episodes 134 to 176, complete with screen captures, customized DOSBox configuration and game documentation.(Amy's First Primer, Blood, Cannon Fodder, Chopper Commando, DreamWeb, Full Throttle, Jetpack, Nitemare-3D, Sam & Max: Hit the Road, Slipstream 5000, Squarex, Squarez Deluxe!, Street Rod (Special Edition), Street Rod 2: The Next Generation, Xerix, Xerix II: The Caverns of Mars)

    ^{ADG logo © Pixelmusement}

13. Ancient DOS Games Collection V

    This is a collection of freeware, shareware and demo games as reviewed by Kris Asick from Pixelmusement in his webshow called Ancient DOS Games, episodes 177 to 258, complete with screen captures, customized DOSBox configuration and game documentation.(Albion, Alien Breed: Tower Assault, Alley Cat, Alone in the Dark, Assault Rigs, Backlash: A Turret Gunner Simulation, Big Red Racing, Blackthorne, Galactix, Game-Maker, Gladiator, Hoosier City, Hugo's House of Horrors, Lemmings, Lords of the Realm, Master of Magic, Mega Man X, Pickle Wars, Popcorn, Redneck Rampage, Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure (Little Big Adventure), Roboman, Shooting Gallery, Railroad Tycoon Deluxe, Star Control II, Strife, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Syndicate, The Dig, The Dungeons of Grimlor, The Incredible Machine, Ultima Underworld, Velcro Mind, Where in Europe is Carmen Sandiego?, Whiplash)

    ^{ADG logo © Pixelmusement}

Random bits of in-depth Information

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To start a profile, press enter. To run the setup for a given profile, use shift-enter (as in D-Fend). Ctrl-enter and F2 bring up the profile-editing screen.

GamePackArchives are plain zip files, optionally containing captures. In the root of the archive is a special file called profiles.xml which contains all the meta-data for the game(s) inside the package. The xml is human-readable and well-structured which should make it easy to understand.

Please note that there are certain restrictions (currently) when exporting complete games; For one, they have to reside in a directory below the dosroot.

DBGL can optionally use the DOSBox 'Multiple Config Files' functionality (which is enabled by default), to use incremental config files. What this means, is that your game profile only stores the differences compared to the main dosbox.conf file. Then, suppose you want to switch all profiles from say output=surface to output=opengl, you only have to alter the main dosbox.conf setting to instantaneously alter all corresponding child profiles. Another advantage is that the resulting .conf files are smaller and simpler. 'Multiple Configuration Files'-functionality is available in DOSBox since v0.70 (or CVS since october 2006). An example:

Profile information is stored in the various [ID].conf files in the 'profiles' subdirectory. Normally, only _changes_ (to the default settings) are stored in these .conf files. So, suppose you create a profile and you only change the cycles value and store the profile, then only that specific cycles setting is stored in the .conf file (well, together with the autoexec section and captures setting, obviously). Upon running the profile, dosbox is started with dosbox.conf as its base settings file, together with [ID].conf which overrides the cycles setting and contains a set of autoexec commands to run the game. However, if you should choose to disable the 'Multiple Configuration Files' setting (for example when using the official DOSBox release v0.65), ALL settings are stored in the [ID].conf file and only that file is handed over to dosbox to lauch the game. In that case, dosbox.conf is only used to provide default values for the profile-editing dialog.

Templates are stored in ./templates/[ID].conf files and also only contain differences between your settings and the associated dosbox.conf settings.

Config-files, captures, file-links and mounting locations are all relative to the dosroot folder, if possible. That's what makes DBGL highly portable; for example, if you have DBGL on an external harddrive with all your games stored in the dosroot, then changing the hdd's driveletter would be totally painless, all games would still work without any reconfiguration. You could even move the DBGL directory structure to another drive and/or subdirectory, everything would still work.
If you would decide to store your games in another location than the dosroot folder, absolute paths will be used. It will work, but you will loose the portability.

It works as follows: Two entries are used in Settings.conf to specify the locations of the 'DATA' and 'DOSBOX' directories (either relative to the DBGL dir, or using an absolute path). The DATA dir specifies the folder in which DBGL expects the 'captures', 'profiles', 'templates', 'export' and 'xsl' subdirectories. More importantly is the subdir below the DATA dir called 'dosroot'. If you would decide to move your game-files into that subdirectory, DBGL will treat all mounting and game-related information relative to that special location. Likewise for DOSBox versions; put them in a subdirectory of the DOSBOX directory setting to make them relative. If possible, document links are also stored relatively to the DATA folder. Note that the DATA and DOSBOX directories are '.' by default (i.e. the DBGL directory itself).

The migration dialog can be used to alter existing DBGL profile information with absolute paths to use relative paths instead. So, for example, if you select your '/Users/Me/Documents/Dosgames' as 'From' location, DBGL will update all profiles that are somehow using that directory location to use (a subdirectory under) the dosroot instead, to make it relative.

When editing a profile, you can doubleclick on the mounting list to add or edit an entry. The dosroot (.) is used as the default mounting location. If you browse and select a game executable with no mounting locations defined, DBGL will autocreate one.

To create a filter showing a certain subselection of your profiles, use ctrl-f. For example, you can create a filter to only display profiles with the string 'quest' in it's name by simply creating a filter with that title. To remove a filter-tab simply click on its close button, or double click on a tab to change it. More advanced filtering is also possible; for that you'll have to write a sql 'where clause' in the filter's condition field. Some examples:

• To show all your favorite games: GAM.FAVORITE=true
• To show all profiles with the first custom field filled in with MT-32: CUST1.VALUE='MT-32'
• To show the oldies: YR.YEAR < 1984
• To show all profiles with the text 'keys' in its notes and that have a setup: UPPER(GAM.NOTES) LIKE '%KEYS%' AND GAM.SETUP=true
• To display all profiles with apogee as developer or publisher: UPPER(DEV.NAME) LIKE '%APOGEE%' OR UPPER(PUBL.NAME) LIKE '%APOGEE%'
• To filter for action games: UPPER(GEN.NAME) LIKE '%ACTION%'

When using Gulikoza's or YKHWong's special DOSBox builds, you may have to place glide2x.ovl and the Shaders folder into DBGL's dosroot folder for it to work properly. This is necessary because DBGL's dosroot folder is the directory from which all DOSBox versions are started ('current working directory'). Those special DOSBox builds expect these files to be in the cwd, apparently.

dosbox.conf is never manipulated in any way by DBGL, but DBGL does have a button for launching a text-editor so you can manually edit the file. Changing the dosbox.conf settings is not recommended since its defaults are wisely chosen. Only system-specific settings - such as the output setting - should be changed from the default if that works better for a particular videodriver/platform combination.

Changelog

v0.93 ^(04/23/2021)

• Implemented Native Custom Command multi-editing (overload86).
• Implemented Template loading as opposed to reloading (overload86).
• Added support for DOSBox version-specific dynamic options (psoma).
• Implemented basic 'overlay' mount support.
• Implemented Gallery 'jump-to', fixed last launched game image being blank (Doom).
• Major speedup when importing (multiple, very large) gamepackarchives.
• Fixed fetching MobyGames screenshots and obtaining Pouet images from https://content.pouet.net (psoma).
• Fixed a problem opening links to files with spaces in its path; Also fixed a few 'Browse..' buttons, paths were incorrectly trimmed (Tomatko).
• Prevent possible 'null is an invalid node value' when exporting, and failure to export mapper files (overload86)
• Fixed thumbnail height on MacOS (rfc).
• No longer crash DBGL on DOSBox configuration mismatch, just log the problem and disable the controls (billy043).
• Follow the XDG specification, using ~/.local/share/dbgl for data files on Linux systems, and ~/Library/dbgl on MacOS (_Rob, arobbo).
• Added Slovakian translation by Tomas K., Polish and Spanish translation updates from ZeroX4 and Neville.
• Updated included Mac DOSBox build to Dominus' latest (0.74-3-3).
• Updated launch4j to 3.14 for improved JRE installation detection in launch.exe (Johnnydement and others).
• Updated all libraries, most importantly HSQLDB (from 2.5.0 to 2.6.0). Please note that this new library does no longer support the old 1.8.x database format. If you're currently using DBGL version 0.90 or 0.91, first update to 0.92, and only then update to 0.93.

v0.92 ^(07/13/2020)

• Added a first implementation of 'directory scanning for known games'. Currently, all files/games from the D-Fend Reloaded 'Auto setup templates' are recognized. You can try it out using 'Profiles'->'Import known games in folder' and selecting the directory to scan. After a while, it should show a dialog with the results. Simply select the entries that you want to import into the existing profiles list. Proceeding the wizard will allow you to select default DOSBox configuration settings (like machine, cycles etc) and optionally check the DBConfWS online database for game-specific configuration (when available).
• DBGL can now query MobyGames meta-data using a local database from 'Metropolis Launcher', very quickly. Note that cover-art and screenshots are still being fetched from www.mobygames.com, though.
• Added support for the DOSBox SVN OpenGL shader patch from ny00123 & jmarsh.
• You may now browse through the various captured images using the left and right arrow keys, or the buttons below the image.
• Various fixes related to MobyGames querying, especially in relation to (.gif) image data.
• Fixed 'Start profile manually with a specific DOSBox version' creating an incomplete .conf file (_Rob).
• Fixed possible issues when using symbolic links on Linux (_Rob). Also fixed a rare file path mangling issue (Epsilon).
• A few usability improvements, refactored more parts of the GUI code, updated translations.
• Updated all libraries, most importantly HSQLDB (from 1.8.1 to 2.5.0).

v0.91 ^(02/08/2020)

• Added support for importing multiple gamepacks in one go (mgtroyas).
• Fixed dosbox conf canonical file location for some scenarios.
• Fixed check for default Dosboxversion when initiating add game wizard (Luke Jensen).
• Provide basic support for importing GoG profiles (using 'mount c ..' or consisting of multiple confs) (Luke Jensen).
• Improve jre support on MacOS (Jorge).
• Take .cue/.iso/etc into account when determining canonical game dir (pantercat).
• Mark games for export with path containing pathseparator (Neville).
• Support a few more booter extensions (Neville).
• Properly update profiles and templates list on dosboxversion update.

v0.90 & v0.83 ^(07/06/2019)

• Added support for both DOSBox 0.74-2 and 0.74-3; The Windows and MacOS builds now come with DOSBox 0.74-3.
• Fixed getting game and screenshot data from MobyGames.
• Removed TheGamesDB as a web data source (for the moment); their legacy API was recently taken down, and using their new API will require some work.
• Fixed sorting on column custom11..14 and exporting the data in those columns (hoarder).
• 0.90 is a major update! It's a partial rewrite of DBGL in an effort to make it more robust and future-proof. 32-bit Java support was dropped, and it requires Java 8 or newer to run. Furthermore, some usability improvements got implemented, such as that DBGL will now display a list of all your changes when multi-editing profiles. Also, translation files can now be written directly in UTF-8 without the need for unicode/native2ascii. That being said, most of DBGL's user interface has remained the same.
• 0.90 also features improved database connection management which might prevent lockups when the database-file is temporarily unavailable (jtalbot).
• 0.90 adds more experimental DOSBox options: fullborderless, glfullsync, fmstrength, xsensitivity/ysensitivity, circularinput and deadzone. Added mame for oplemu and emsboard+emm386 for ems. Removed collapsemode (Ant_222) and fixed [midi]mt32.reverse.stereo, mt32.verbose, mt32.thread to use true/false instead of on/off.
• 0.90 features an option to override the default executable file for a DOSBox version, for example when using DOSBox-debug builds (RyanFialcowitz).
• 0.90 will store user-generated content in the ~/.dbgl folder by default on Linux environments. If you want, you can still have the old behaviour (storing all data inside the dbgl folder itself) by editing the dbgl shell script, please see this.

v0.82 ^(10/25/2017)

• Implemented basic support for Yesterplay80'sDOSBox ECE. This means support for the latest integrated Munt configuration settings, Ant_222's experimental Pixel-perfect tweaks, the Voodoo patch and the most important FluidSynth switches.
• For those who do intend to use DOSBox ECE with DBGL, make sure to add the following values in the 'Dynamic options' (File -> Preferences -> Dynamic options):
• Fixed regression in Mac build (since 0.80d) related to line breaks causing the dbgl startup shell script to malfunction (victoria).
• Added option in AddGameWizard to create a unique mapper file for the new game (jjh76).
• Pressing the [*] button next to the mapperfile field in the profile editing dialog will also use a unique mapperfile for the profile. It is even possible to use this feature in a template, so that when the template is used for a profile, a unique mapperfile is used in the profile.
• Fixed crash when trying to load a corrupt .gif file (Neville).

Screenshots

Future work

• Rename an existing profile configuration file
• Write more documentation on DBGL usage for readme.txt
• Add icon selection option for desktop shortcut creation
• Implement long-to-short-filename-translation
• Add an option to use profile titles for captures directories

Contact the author

Hi there, my name is Ronald Blankendaal, you may contact me by mail, or use the information provided at Vogons (rcblanke).

Of course, bug-reports and/or suggestions are very welcome. Please let me know what you think!

License

DBGL is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.