Add PC - DOS Games

For PC - DOS games, Metropolis Launcher provides you the following import functionalities:

- multiple games, each game as a single packed file (e.g. .zip, .7z or .rar files) by either selecting one or more files or by selecting a directory

- a single, installed game, by selecting the game's install directory

- a single game, by selecting one or more install media (disk images, cd images)

Example 1 - Adding multiple games contained in packed files

For this example, we will use the Total DOS Collection Release 7 and add the games of year 1989. You can get the Total DOS Collection Release 7 from archive.org.

For this example we'll have 987 .zip files in the sub-folder "1989" of the Total DOS Collection and these are the steps in order to add them to Metropolis Launcher:

1. Open the Rom Manager

   - by pressing the Rom Manager button on the Settings page, or

   - by using the context menu (right click) on the main list in the Games & Emulation Main Screen and clicking the Open Rom Manager ... menu item.

2. Select Platform = PC - DOS

   The Rom Manager will show a (possibly empty) list of imported files on the left, a list of Files and Directories and their Configuration for each game on the top right and the MobyGames Database for PC - DOS games on the bottom right.

3. In the (empty) file list: open the context menu (right click) and choose the Add Games (Directory) ... menu item

4. After reading and accepting the message, browse to the directory containing the games (within .zip files) of the year 1989 and press OK

5. The Tag Parser Settings dialog opens up

   The to be added files will contain tags, for example:

   - attributes in parentheses: Maniac Mansion (Enhanced) (1989)(Erbe Software, S.A., Lucasfilm Games) [Adventure].zip

   - version information prepended by a "v": EGAINT v0.93.05 (1989)(Eric NG) [Action, Strategy].zip

   The Tag Parser scans all the tags and you can map one or more attributes to those tags.

   If a tag is newly added, the font of the tag will be written in bold. Else it will be in normal font weight. Please have a closer look at the newly added tags - Metropolis Launcher will have analyzed them and added appropriate attributes by itself.

   If the Tag Parser does not find any tags in the file names, you will be prompted with a message and the Tag Parser will be closed afterwards.

   In our example (Total DOS Collection games of year 1989) we have amongst others the following interesting tags:

   - "v0.01", "v0.91" etc.: this is version information, Metropolis Launcher should detect it as Version automatically

   - lots of publisher names "(Accolade, Inc.)", "(Activision, Inc.)" etc.: you can multiselect them (by the help of Ctrl. or Shift) and use the context menu (right click) to choose Set Publisher for ?? tags

   - "(EGA)", "(VGA)", "(EGA-Tandy)" etc.: these tags describe different versions, this info may be interesting so you can perform a doubleclick on these tags to have them added to the Additional Info field which results in the tag being shown alongside the game's name in the Games & Emulation list

   After looking through all provided tags press the OK button.

6. The games will be analyzed and added

   Metropolis Launcher shows a progressbar of the import process. When it is finished you will be prompted with an information on

   - how many games have been added

   - how many of these games have been mapped to game info (Metropolis Launcher should be able to automatically map more than 550 games to game info)

   - how many duplicates have been ignored (you will have a duplicate if you re-add a game that is already added)

   During the import process for each added game a directory with the same name will be created inside the DOSBox working directory. This directory is used for:

   - unpacking (if necessary)

   - writing new or altered files

   This directory is the working directory of the current game and will be mounted as the C drive.

7. Press the Save button

   After successfully adding games, press the Save button to save your changes.

8. (Optional) Link more games to their respective game info in the MobyGames Database

   Metropolis Launcher should have been able to automatically detect more than 550 out of 987 games and map them to the correct MobyGames information. For PC - DOS games  the identification is based on fuzzy logic and may result in few falsely mapped games or non-mapped games. If you want to link MobyGames info to one or more games yourself, do the following:

For the game in the file list (on the left):

8.1. Select the game

8.2. Select the appropriate game entry in the MobyGames Database and perform a double click on either side

8.3. Read and accept the information about linking games and replacing game names

8.4. Your game entry is now linked to the MobyGames information

     Games that are linked to MobyGames information profit hugely from the data provided by mobygames.com, for example genre, number of players supported, multiplayer game modes, description etc.

Dont' forget to press the Save button after linking games.

Example 2 - Adding a game from Install Media

In this example we have a CD image of Ecstatica (Ecstatica.iso) and we want to add the game to Metropolis Launcher:

1. Open the Rom Manager

   - by pressing the Rom Manager button on the Settings page, or

   - by using the context menu (right click) on the main list in the Games & Emulation Main Screen and clicking the Open Rom Manager ... menu item.

2. Select Platform = PC - DOS

   The Rom Manager will show a (possibly empty) list of imported files on the left, a list of Files and Directories and their Configuration for each game on the top right and the MobyGames Database for PC - DOS games on the bottom right.

3. In the (empty) file list: open the context menu (right click) and choose the Add Game (Install Media) ... menu item

4. After reading and accepting the message, browse to the directory containing the CD image and select it or double click it.

   If you want to add a game with more than one install media, select the CD images in the correct order then press OK. If you want the Tag Parser to correctly find volume information on the files, you can use tags like "(Disc 1)", "(Disc 2)" etc. in the file names.

5. The Tag Parser Settings dialog opens up

   With the filename "Ecstatica.iso", the Tag Parser wouldn't find any tags and will be closed automatically. However, if your CD image filename contains any tags read point 5. in Example 1.

6. The game will be added

   Metropolis Launcher added the CD image as well as a working directory for the game (you can look them up in the Files and Directories section of the Rom Manager)

7. Press the Save button

   After successfully adding the game, press the Save button to save your changes.

On first launch (see: Launch Games), Metropolis Launcher will be able to mount the CD image (as D: by default) and the working directory (as C: by default). You can now install the game within the emulator. After exiting the emulator, Metropolis Launcher will scan the working directory for possible new executables which you will be presented on the second launch.