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DOSBASE Here!

Discuss any other databases that use the GameBase Frontend, whether in pre development, development or publically released.

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eXo
New Member
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2012 9:41 pm

Thu Feb 20, 2014 8:36 pm

a majority of your "missing" games can be found in my collection.

You also have several games on your missing list that do not exist. A Brief Tryst for example was never released, and there are no known prototypes of it.

It also appears you are missing several thousand games.

Have you created game lists from cd textfiles and archive dot org? There are many games on both of those sites that I do not see in your game base or your missing list.

Ultimately, apart from creating a gamebase, you are duplicating work that others have already done.

If I were you, I would simply take something like TDC or eXoDOS and create a gamebase from those files.
pondo198
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Posts: 62
Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2010 11:09 pm

Fri Feb 21, 2014 6:49 am

Thanks eXo. The two collections you mentioned are exactly what I have been using since I started this project. The list you are referencing was created almost two years ago. Games may be on that list that were not available in eXoDOS v1.0, as they are in your updated releases. I should get back here sometime and correct that list. Also, the database was reflective of games 0-9, A,B, and C letters only. Since that posting the database is finished (mostly) through letter K and now has over 7500 games. Games that are not presently found in TDC or eXoDOS are added, and most are usually shareware or Japanese/Korean/Chinese games. You will see that I have also contributed much of these files to TDC.

Your collection is great. I only wish to expand on the work you have already done, by adding additional 'Extras', as well as rewriting your launch files to allow for video mode, shareware/commercial, editors, add-ons, etc etc...
eXo
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Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2012 9:41 pm

Fri Feb 21, 2014 1:28 pm

If you are using first releases of eXoDOS then you will def. be missing lots of info. My latest release, V2, brings eXoDOS up to over 6,000 unique titles (no dupes, no multiple versions of the same game, no shareware + commercial, etc.) The only time I bend from that rule is if the shareware or game version was totally different from the full release or a second version. TDC just put out release 7 which has brought them to over 10,000 files.

Hargle and myself are in the process of running dats on our sets to synchronize our work, which will allow him to absorb all the games I have found and vice versa.

In my V2 eXoDOS release I have a DBGL converter for example that takes my entire collection and creates gamepacks out of them for use in DBGL. DBGL then allows the user total control over the conf file.

I'm not a gamebase user, so I can't speak towards the benefits of using it, suffice to say for those who do use it I'm sure they are happy to have a dos collection of some sort.

That said, if you are only at letter K and you have over 7,500 games then I would be quite concerned about the content in there. TDC has an entire team of guys working on it that have been going full blast for several years, and they are only at 10k (including multiple versions, shareware, registered, etc). Meanwhile, I have scraped multiple dos websites (including long lists of interactive fiction), I've scraped TDC, and my entire database (with compilations and expansion packs), tops out around 7,500 games (A-Z). I find it difficult to believe that both TDC and myself have spent so much time on this, and yet on your projected path you would have nearly 20k games by the time you reach Z.... Something seems a bit off there...
pondo198
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Posts: 62
Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2010 11:09 pm

Fri Feb 21, 2014 5:12 pm

The eXoDOS and TDC definitely set the 'bar' in the DOS collections area. DOSBase is merely designed to incorporate these great collections into the gamebase front-end.

As true as it is, that your V2 collection contains many more missing titles than the V1 did, you are still missing titles. I think that it has been stated a few times by hargle and others, that the DOS collection may, indeed, never be complete. But by having a team of people working on it, new and missing titles will keep popping up.

I assure you, there is little to nothing out of place here. The total numbers in DOSBase is correct. But please keep in mind that the l;isting is just that - a listing. Not all games are present. Out of 7500 listings, only 6827 are contained in the database. Also, the database lists "compilations" simply for archival information.

I think, in the end, that the most important thing about DOSBase, is that it will be more of a 'library' of information about each entry, rather than just a means to play each and every game. Sure, you'll be able to play them, but the database conatins tens of thousands of extras, including cheats, trainers, walkthroughs, advertisements, covers, screenshots, full game descriptions, maps, and more.

It's like the old MAME32, but for DOS.

As far as unique and missing titles go. They are still out there. As complete as both TDC and eXoDOS are, there are still more games to be found and added. I have, for example, added several registered versions of (previously) shareware titles, that I have personally contacted the authors for permission to do so. Also, there are a number of games that are now available in languages other than English. There are literally thousands of titles in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, and other languages, that have not been currently added to the collections. This may be, in part, to the fact that there is currently a debate over how these titles are to be titled (English translation, pin-yin, etc). But, either way, these games exist.

Even Brief Tryst, that you mentioned earlier, did in fact, exist in one form or another. There was a German based forum group devoted to the game, who had a lot of information about it. Apparently, the game was extremely buggy, but still playable. Sadly, the group is now inaccessible (even through the Internet Archive), so I can't confirm whether or not the release was actually commercial, fan-made (from source code), or just a shareware demo of the game.

For some missing titles, please see my folder on hargle's FTP. You'll find a few of the international titles there.

I am not in this to 'compete' for the worlds largest DOS collection. I, like I assume you are, am it to help the community locate and preserve all the old DOS games that we can. Your collection is awesome, and is probably the most 'complete' of any DOS collection available. It is great that you and hargle will be combining your collections. What will this do for eXoDOS? I hope that you are still going to keep updating and releasing new versions. It was your collection that essentially got me on board with TDC, to begin with. Thanks eXo!
anormal
New Member
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Feb 26, 2014 8:28 am

Sun Aug 17, 2014 11:45 am

hi friends, any news in this collection?
pondo? exo?
i checked TDC7 today and it's missing some standard games (V for Victory released 4 games for example)

also i discovered many dupes, and know how to clean them, for example, check any games with a [a1] version, if the com or exe file ends in MsDos (and no other differences) you can safely delete it as dupe,
MsDos signature was used as vaccine from old msdos virus, if you added this to executables, this virus didn't infect the file...

etc...

pm me please, i also got my old abandonware collection i compiled in 2004, i am from Spain, so many other versions could arise if you cross-check yours with my collection
Nekto
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Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2009 3:51 pm

Thu Sep 11, 2014 8:15 pm

anormal wrote:i checked TDC7 today and it's missing some standard games (V for Victory released 4 games for example)
If it's CD game, such seems are not placed to TDC systematically still.
TDC 8 is out.
subzero1970
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Posts: 43
Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:33 am

Sun Sep 14, 2014 9:24 pm

was hoping to download this but the files have gone
pycur
New Member
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2018 8:04 pm

Re: DOSBASE Here!

Wed May 29, 2019 3:40 pm

Hi there!

Faith chosen me to make the dos games all together in one place.
It's not gamebase based, but I would like to inform everybody, that I'm also making a dos collection all-in-one anything I found in many abandonware sites, online players, archive.org(excluded about 2000 ZZT games), and so on...from about 10 sites so far... :)
So I make a bunch of ZIP files compatible with D-fend, also d-fend exported games.
Here's a pic about it in action:
https://i.postimg.cc/B6kcHDrF/dfend.jpg

I now have 6696 conf files ready for action.
I have about 9330 unique games, and all the files need 320 GB space uncompressed now...

I just want to ask some advice how to share it, how to make it long life on the internet?
And because of this size, where to upload? :D

Thanks in advance!
I also picking off duplicates as I find them during the progress.
dax
Ice Cool Member
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Location: Poland
Posts: 810
Joined: Tue Sep 04, 2007 1:45 pm

Re: DOSBASE Here!

Thu May 30, 2019 9:45 am

The fastest way is Google Drive or eventually create torrent on a popular torrent site :)
Last edited by dax on Fri May 31, 2019 12:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I love Gamebase's creators and compilations
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.mad.
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Location: Lancashire
Posts: 2256
Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2005 3:30 pm

Re: DOSBASE Here!

Thu May 30, 2019 3:47 pm

pycur wrote:
Wed May 29, 2019 3:40 pm
I'm also making a dos collection all-in-one anything I found in many abandonware sites...
archive.org
The best answer is in your question.
Just upload any missing / new files to an archive account.
and link put links on your page to files already available for download.

most (if not all) DOS games are already available on that site. ;)
Which will save you re-uploading hundreds of Gigabytes.
Download links are fast, and have been active for years!
pycur
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Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2018 8:04 pm

Re: DOSBASE Here!

Fri May 31, 2019 1:28 pm

Thanks for the tip! Archive.org is sure has many games, but I make these games to have infos about creators, detailed genre, and year info. And ready to use in D-fend, however it will need MY edition of dfend too, because some games needs different versions of dosbox. Most of them runs fine in Megabuild SVN version with menu bar(i need it to pause dosbox at any frame to get a specific pic from it), but some needs 0.70, newer not working, or some needs 0.74 official with better dynamic cpu support.
I will try to contact them to ask some question, about it.

Will you need a link for it too? :P
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.mad.
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Location: Lancashire
Posts: 2256
Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2005 3:30 pm

Re: DOSBASE Here!

Fri May 31, 2019 6:23 pm

pycur wrote:
Fri May 31, 2019 1:28 pm
I make these games to have infos about creators, detailed genre, and year info. And ready to use in D-fend

Will you need a link for it too? :P
I still think Archive is going to be the best solution if you are going to re-upload your custom pre-configured collection. I am not sure about cost or data limits or hosting terms (if any).
but links seem to last a very long time.

a huge torrent will die pretty quickley, unless it's hosted on seed boxes. :wink:
and i guess that won't be a cheap. :P

when you have something uploaded.
YES, please share the link!.
Seiya
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Joined: Sat Aug 02, 2008 2:08 am

Re: DOSBASE Here!

Sun Jun 23, 2019 6:39 pm

pycur wrote:
Wed May 29, 2019 3:40 pm
Hi there!
I now have 6696 conf files ready for action.
I have about 9330 unique games, and all the files need 320 GB space uncompressed now...
wow, very nice collections
pycur
New Member
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2018 8:04 pm

Re: DOSBASE Here!

Sat Jul 27, 2019 7:02 pm

Small info:
7 701 profiles are ready for action.
But I have to wait until all the files are complete, then I recheck all at once in the gui for typos, then export them to a zip file, each game a zip, and it will also need my special d-fend with the used dosboxes. Because there are some game that only runs on 0.72, others runs fine in 0.74 svn, but svn version cant provide dynamic cpu for massive games like fps games, and they have the official 0.74 version.
I hope it will be finished this year, or maybe in the end of September. :)
pycur
New Member
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2018 8:04 pm

Re: DOSBASE Here!

Wed Nov 13, 2019 3:25 pm

It's SHOWTIME!

I was collecting as many DOS games as possible.

It was originally intended to work with any d-fend and dosbox configuration.
But it turned out, that there are a bunch of games that requires different versions of dosbox...so they are included too...

Usage:
Extract the included d-fend to any directory, then run it with the blue iconed d-fend.exe .
In the D-Fend GUI choose File--Import--Import archive file...
Then select the games you want to add to the GUI.

You may mass import games only with manual operation:

CLOSE D-FEND!!!
----------------
then use total commander:
- Collect the games to a folder(or use all games)
- Select all zip files
- Select file--extract
- Extract all the zips into Dfend main directory(that must be on the opposite panel in total commander).
- Select yes to all to overwrite the InstallReadme.txt file from each zip file...
- Then go to the main directory
- Select all the conf files (alt and + or just press + and set *.conf) and DELETE them, they are only for manual use of dosbox...
- Select all the prof files (alt and + or just press + and set *.prof) and MOVE all selected files to the Confs folder.

Run D-fend and see if it loads the prof's database.

Then select a game and double click on it to run.

Enjoy.

I made this database between 2016. october 10 to 2019. november 13, as of today.

It contains 8219 zip files, all files are different games.

If you import so much games(3000+) dfend gets slow(10-15 seconds /click) but works.


Have fun!

It's just for fun!

Really!

Image

All games imported needs 320 GB disk space!

https://www.mediafire.com/file/4oyskchn ... rrent/file

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