A desktop program launcher for dosbox? This is nice!

[haywire]

If there is interest, I may package this up in some way so that others can use it. It is or at least was open source. What we have here is a program launcher of sorts for dos. It can do 1280x1024 x256 colors on any computer with vga (or dosbox of course) I know there is some type of program launcher frontend for dosbox, but I still kind of prefer this. Here we see the Dos gui desktop at 1280x1024 on my vector linux desktop, which is 1600x1200.

www.subcultureproductions.com/linux/cap1.jpg

Next we see the dos desktop full screen... I realize the icons look boxy, but I'm not sure the icon format supports transparent backgrounds so...
www.subcultureproductions.com/linux/cap2.jpg

Next we see the desktop again, but a bit cleaner I suppose. The background image can be scaled.
www.subcultureproductions.com/linux/cap3.jpg

Next, a bit darker or grungier, but cool...
http://www.subcultureproductions.com/linux/cap5.jpg

Icons can be made any size I suppose, Fonts, background image can be changed. You can create, delete or move
icons however you like. Screen res can be changed, and so on. Interesting anyway...  Let me know what you think.
Not bad for basic programming...
Steven

[sledgehammer]

So, being used to running games, but impressed with what you've done, I have a stupid question:  do the games shown (star trek, space invaders, etc) run in dos (or linux)?

[haywire]

Everything is running in dos... Inside a dosbox window I should say.

I copied this gui setup to my ancient superdos machine (pentium 200mhz) it works well stand alone as well, on top of freedos as the actual DOS/OS.
Wait that sounds confusing... I should say this gui works well on top of msdos or freedos on an actual machine, or just as well virtualized in dosemu or
dosbox.

This gui desktop is just a pretty shell. When you click on an icon, the dos program related to the icon starts. When you end that program, it goes back to the dos desktop shell you see here in the screenshots. Everything runs in the same window/dosbox instance, but only one program can run at a time.

I have run multiple instances of this dos desktop on vectorlinux at once. In that case you just point and click whatever you want in each window.

Setting up icons is easy, just define the icon, and put in path to exe and exe file...

Steven

[sledgehammer]

Are the games up-to-date?  In other words, would the kids we give our "computers for kids" computers to be able to run modern games.  I use dosemu for foxpro programs, but the video resolution leaves a bit to be desired. Your stuff looks pretty modern.

John

[haywire]

These are all dos era games, but still good in my view.... A couple are from the late 80's but most of the games I generally play are from 1995+
The good news is that most are abandonware and are therefore available as free downloads at various websites. Here's one of the better dos games
sites, with screenshots and even videos of many games... - www.dosgamesarchive.com

From there, you can look at the games before you download or try them on your system. That site and most sites now even let you know if the game works in dosbox...

Remember, there were some incredible games and applications made for dos. Many software and games companies continued to use dos instead of windows for years after windows because they could create faster games and better graphics by NOT using windows.

Steven

[haywire]

I probably screen shotted prematurely. About 1/2 the icons I installed for apps don't run correctly. 

I think some programs need the total conventional ram and so they won't load from the graphic shell.
Back to the drawing board I think. This is what I've had in mind anyway, now I guess I figure out how
to make this kind of thing work better. Its not much use if 1/2 the dos apps I try won't load. Grrr...

Steven