.Pif files are just for Windows, but there's nothing to stop you using a bat file in the game directory, so for example, doom you could just have a file called d.bat with

@echo off
C:\utils\slowdowntool.exe /switches
call Doom
C:\utils\slowdowntool.exe /turn off

Then instead of running doom.exe, you can just run d.bat and it will run the slowdown tool as well, then quit the tool once you quit the game.

sneeker wrote on 2024-12-11, 16:53:

.Pif files are just for Windows, but there's nothing to stop you using a bat file in the game directory, so for example, doom yo […]
Show full quote

.Pif files are just for Windows, but there's nothing to stop you using a bat file in the game directory, so for example, doom you could just have a file called d.bat with

@echo off
C:\utils\slowdowntool.exe /switches
call Doom
C:\utils\slowdowntool.exe /turn off

Then instead of running doom.exe, you can just run d.bat and it will run the slowdown tool as well, then quit the tool once you quit the game.

Ahhh. Awesome. Thank you. I'll have a play around. Now that I have a new and bigger HDD, I'll need to uninstall all the games and re-install them again. So I can go through them individually and set up a custom .bat file. 😀

What's wrong with just writing the batch files for your games as is?

Harry Potter wrote on 2024-12-12, 10:28:

What's wrong with just writing the batch files for your games as is?

I’m not sure I follow. I do plan on having them all installed under a DOS Games folder this time around, so the directories will be different. Besides, I’ve formatted the old HDD now, so they’re all gone. 😅

I meant to keep the games and simply write the batch files for the games as they are now, but I see that this is infeasible. BTW, if you want to compress the games and decompress them upon access, on an old Win98 system, I had DriveSpace, as the hard drive was too small, but it couldn't compress the hard drive, but I was able to create batch files to decompress the programs, run them and recompress them on exit. If you're using Windows, you can use the console version of 7Zip, but its LZMA2 technique didn't seem to work properly on large files, but other techniques worked propery. For DOS, the DOS version of RAR works fine. I'm working on my own compression techniques, but they are nowhere near ready to be used. 🙁

Harry Potter wrote on 2024-12-12, 12:54:

I meant to keep the games and simply write the batch files for the games as they are now, but I see that this is infeasible. BTW, if you want to compress the games and decompress them upon access, on an old Win98 system, I had DriveSpace, as the hard drive was too small, but it couldn't compress the hard drive, but I was able to create batch files to decompress the programs, run them and recompress them on exit. If you're using Windows, you can use the console version of 7Zip, but its LZMA2 technique didn't seem to work properly on large files, but other techniques worked propery. For DOS, the DOS version of RAR works fine. I'm working on my own compression techniques, but they are nowhere near ready to be used. 🙁

I'm not sure it will help @DustyShinigami as he didn't ask about archiving but it's interesting to me. Do you try to develop your own archiver?
Anyway in DOS I run games and utilities in batch files by decompressing them and archiving only new and changed files after I quit. I use Imp 1.1 archiver as it's faster than zip with better compression ratio. I tried 7z, rar and ace but wasn't satisfied.

I am working on several compression techniques right now, but most of them are very slow and buggy, and the ones that aren't provide a very poor compression ratio and are intended for text. 🙁 And you're right: this won't help DustyShinigami's question.

sneeker wrote on 2024-12-11, 16:53:

.Pif files are just for Windows, but there's nothing to stop you using a bat file in the game directory, so for example, doom yo […]
Show full quote

.Pif files are just for Windows, but there's nothing to stop you using a bat file in the game directory, so for example, doom you could just have a file called d.bat with

@echo off
C:\utils\slowdowntool.exe /switches
call Doom
C:\utils\slowdowntool.exe /turn off

Then instead of running doom.exe, you can just run d.bat and it will run the slowdown tool as well, then quit the tool once you quit the game.

So what exactly is ‘@echo off’. Does that do anything specifically?

I’m in the process of testing this out with Doom, but using Novert. What command would I need if I were to quit the game, if anything? In order to let it know when to disable it after playing.

Thanks

https://ss64.com/nt/echo.html

@echo off simply tells command.com not to display each line of a batch file, and when you exit a DOS program from Windows, Windows will by default display the end output of the program and tell you it ended. Just press the close button, and you will end it. Since it is a local configuration, the config will end, and Windows will continue as usual. Does this help?

Harry Potter wrote on 2024-12-19, 19:46:

@echo off simply tells command.com not to display each line of a batch file, and when you exit a DOS program from Windows, Windows will by default display the end output of the program and tell you it ended. Just press the close button, and you will end it. Since it is a local configuration, the config will end, and Windows will continue as usual. Does this help?

It does. Thanks. 😀 Does that work with comments too? Like when you put REM at the start of a command you don’t want to initialise any more, but you still see it?

It does. If you want to reenable displaying of commands, type @ECHO ON. Also, it will automatically reset upon exit of the batch file or when you start a new batch file.

Harry Potter wrote on 2024-12-19, 20:03:

It does. If you want to reenable displaying of commands, type @ECHO ON. Also, it will automatically reset upon exit of the batch file or when you start a new batch file.

Awesome. Thank you.

You're welcome! 😀

I take it there's no option to enable/disable the likes of EMS/XMS per game? That it has to be initialised by DOS first? Most games I've tried are fine with EMS, but I know Beneath a Steel Sky isn't. Would be useful to add some sort of command in a BAT file per game.

Or alternatively...

There is that tool of Phil's that gives you multiple options to choose from. But if you load one, is it possible to go back to that menu in order to choose another? Thanks.

You should be able to change the setup but only if you reboot the system. When in plain DOS, Ctrl+Alt+Del usually performs a warm reboot.

Harry Potter wrote on 2024-12-26, 20:45:

You should be able to change the setup but only if you reboot the system. When in plain DOS, Ctrl+Alt+Del usually performs a warm reboot.

I guess that would make the most sense. But yeah, I think Phil's custom setup would be the way to go in this case. Saves having to modify the autoexec/config in Windows each time.

Can’t get Phil’s DOS Starter Kit to work. Is it redundant now? I put all the necessary files in C:\DOS - CD-ROM driver, mouse driver, EMMS.EXE, Himem.sys - but each option doesn’t do anything. 😕

Try https://www.bttr-software.de/freesoft/boot.htm. That site should have some alternate boot programs.