DOSBoxFrontends

Frontends for DOSBox

A frontend pulls together the many functions of the program it is for and "stands in front of" it. It makes your life and the configuration a bit simpler.

DOSBox is controlled by its config file. Frontends are a nice graphical way to maintain or edit that config file.

If you are a newbie or you don't like editing dosbox.conf by hand then a frontend is the solution for you.

Incomplete overview of the Frontends available

Windows Frontends

• CBoxRun

A Windows-based DOSBox frontend that emphasizes ease of use. It can automatically download game information and screenshots from Wikipedia, and it has a nice config file editor with help for every field. Requires .NET 3.51.

Website: http://cboxrun.wordpress.com/

• DOSShell

x86 applications launcher plus convenient Explorer-like entries manager.

Website: http://www.loonies.narod.ru/dosshell.htm

• DOSBoxGui

A portable DOSBox frontend. Currently confirmed to run on Linux and Windows flavors.

Needs Tcl/Tk (which is an albeit free 20 MB big software compiler that you will need to assemble the program for your operating system).

Website: http://losfinkos.googlepages.com/dosboxgui

• DBFrontend - DOSBoxFrontend

It's a very simple frontend which allows you to have thumbnails of screen shots so you can easy recognize the game you want to run.

Website: http://www.ingoknito.de/produkte/dbfrontend/

• D-Box

A nice looking and easy-to-use frontend for DOSBox. It's open source and tries to distinguish itself from alternatives by having "the right set of features", which means not too few, and not too many features. Includes a fancy "floppy flow" user interface. Runs great on Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7.

Website: http://dbox.truben.no

• D.O.G.

D.O.G. is a work in progress DOSBox frontend, tested on Windows XP and 2000. D.O.G. is currently compatible with all DOSBox versions, from 0.58 up to 0.70. It will present you only with the available options of the selected DOSBox. D.O.G. also allows users to use not one DOSBox for their profiles, but an unlimited number. Switching between DOSBox versions is as easy as a click on a button. Besides the standard features of DOSBox, D.O.G. also extends these features with zip and 7-zip capability. Users can select a zip as a drive and D.O.G. will automatically unpack and repack the archive when running DOSBox. Besides this archiving capability D.O.G. also allows you to convert the captured Wave-files to the MP3 format of your choice and it allows you to convert the captured screen shots to a JPG format of your choice.

Website: http://www.freewebs.com/erikgg/

• DBGL - DOSBox Game Launcher

DBGL is an open-source, multi-platform frontend for DOSBox, based largely upon the proven interface of D-Fend.

Website: http://home.quicknet.nl/qn/prive/blankendaalr/dbgl/

• DosBlaster

Windows Explorer shell extension for DOSBox. You can launch DOSBox by right click on DOS executable files in your Windows Explorer.

Website: http://dosblasterx.sourceforge.net/

• Turbo Dos Box

x86/x64 very simple and small (~100KB no install needed) manager for configuration. Automatically mounts drives and can change all DOSBox options via XML setup, and can right click an EXE/COM/BAT and play it through DosBox by using the default configuration profile in "Right click and play" fashion.

Website: http://www.turboirc.com/tdb

• D-Fend Reloaded - DOSBox-Frontend Reloaded

In some way D-Fend Reloaded is a successor of the discontinued software D-Fend. Both environments look alike and D-Fend Reloaded contains all the features of D-Fend. Even the D-Fend config files are compatible with D-Fend Reloaded. However, unlike D-Fend, D-Fend Reloaded is open source.

The development objective for D-Fend Reloaded was (besides 100% D-Fend compability) to make the program operation more simple with respect to DosBox beginners. Simultaneously more features for administration and configuration became available.

Website: http://dfendreloaded.sourceforge.net/

• ScudoGR - ScummVM, Dosbox (and Windows) Game Runner

It's a simple interface to crate/run games for Dosbox, Scummvm and Windows. Games are created and managed by zip-files, which are easily importable by drag and drop. It uses several configuration files, it manages mounting/unmounting file (by dosbox 'imgmount' command or with daemon tools), and it's language-configurable.

Website: http://www.scudogr.it

• GR-lida - ScummVM, Dosbox and VDMSound

A front end written in QT4 and released under GPL license. Although the website is only available in Spanish, the program itself is also available in English. It can display games using pictureflow which is a clone of Apples Cover Flow.

Website: http://www.gr-lida.org/

Mac OS X Frontends

• Boxer

Boxer makes it easy to run your favourite DOS games: without editing configuration files, without typing command line parameters, without mounting folders, without learning a confusing frontend; without doing any more than clicking on a game in Finder.

Website: http://boxer.washboardabs.net/

• DBGL - DOSBox Game Launcher

DBGL is an open-source, multi-platform frontend for DOSBox, based largely upon the proven interface of D-Fend.

Website: http://home.quicknet.nl/qn/prive/blankendaalr/dbgl/

• D-Box

A nice looking and easy-to-use frontend for DOSBox. It's open source and tries to distinguish itself from alternatives by having "the right set of features", which means not too few, and not too many features. Also includes a coverflow like "floppy flow" user interface.

Website: http://dbox.truben.no

• Radnor

Sveinbjorn Thordarson has created the frontend "Radnor" for the MacOS X 10.3 or later version of DOSBox.

Website: http://sveinbjorn.vefsyn.is/radnor

• Petit dosbox

Petit dosbox is a very easy to use interface to help you running the emulator, and will keep your last configuration for the next time you use it.

New updates have included a Game Manager and more configuration options.

Website: http://web.jet.es/guilly/slouc/software_petitdosbox.html

Linux Frontend

• DOSBoxGui

A portable DOSBox frontend. Currently confirmed to run on Linux and Windows flavors.

Needs Tcl/Tk.

Website: http://losfinkos.googlepages.com/dosboxgui

• D-Box

A nice looking and easy-to-use frontend for DOSBox created in Java. It's open source and tries to distinguish itself from alternatives by having "the right set of features", which means not too few, and not too many features.

Website: http://dbox.truben.no

• DBoxFE

DBoxFE creates and manages configuration files for DOSBox. You can create different profiles for your games, etc.

Need to run:

* KDE 3.1.x / 3.2.x

* Qt 3.1.x / 3.2.x / 3.3.x

Website: http://chmaster.freeforge.net/dboxfe-project.htm

• pyDOSBox

The program is still in alpha stage but usable.

Website: http://www.panayotis.com/prog/scripts/pydosbox/index.html

• DBGL - DOSBox Game Launcher

DBGL is an open-source, multi-platform frontend for DOSBox, based largely upon the proven interface of D-Fend.

Website: http://home.quicknet.nl/qn/prive/blankendaalr/dbgl/

• GR-lida - ScummVM, Dosbox and VDMSound

A front end written in QT4 and released under GPL license. Although the website is only available in Spanish, the program itself is also available in English. It can display games using pictureflow which is a clone of Apples Cover Flow.

Website: http://www.gr-lida.org/

Incomplete overview of discontinued Frontends

Windows Frontends

• D-Fend - DOSBox-Frontend

The largest DOSBox Frontend availabe. This frontend has supports for all DOSBox features and allows you generate default profiles for your system. It's also the only frontend which supports the unsupported SVN features. Because of its profile system and its intelligent mount system it's great for newbies and people using the SVN version of DOSBox. *Now supports Screenshot viewing for each Game Profile*

However recently Anthony announced officially that he stopped his work on D-Fend.

Website: http://members.home.nl/mabus

• Boxer - DOSBoxers

The smallest (in filesize) of the frontends available. It tries to keep up with the stable DOSBox version and allows you to edit every aspect of ((dosbox.conf)). Great if you want a very small frontend which just gets the job done.

Website: unknown

• DOSBOXer

Scott Duensing at Jaeger Technologies has created "DOSBOXer" for Windows. There is no mention of this software on his website anymore.

Website: http://www.jaegertech.net/