I guess it's because it's a "local" config file (whatever that means in the context...and it doesn't make sense, in my opinion - after all, I always want the drives mounted). So I put it in the "global" one and now it tries at least but whatever is "MSDOS2~2" (well, with "~" occupying the top) in DOS doesn't seem to work in the text file. Maybe it's because it's not an English keyboard?
I have no idea what you're trying to do there... The global vs local config file approach is very sensible and useful, and offers a great deal of flexibility. You configure globally how you generally want to play games (e.g. always enable fullscreen, set up the paths to the Roland ROM files, etc.), then you have game specific overrides in the individual game folders.
How most people do things is that your game folder contains a C subfolder, and that subfolder only contains the game files for a single game. So you don't emulate a full computer with a big C drive full of games, that'a s bit pointless as you're only playing a single game at a time anyway... You just have game-specific C drives for each game that you mount from your local config file.
There are several versions with just .img files but also one with all the files (mostly .LFL).
The IMG files are floppy image files. They are dumps of the original floppies that you can also mount, then install the game onto the hard-drive as you would on a real computer.
The LFL files are the game specific files; that archieve contains the installed game then.
But I guess with those "already installed" files I won't be able to tweak settings?
For most DOS games you can tweak the settings post-installation, e.g. change graphics or sound settings. You still need to find out how to do that, e.g. for Sierra games you need to run `INSTALL.EXE` to change the settings (the name is misleading, it's not only used for installing the game, but also to change the settings post-install), in some games the setup utility is called `SETUP.EXE` or `SETSOUND.EXE` or something else, then in some other games you need to use some command line parameters or edit a few config files.
Also, is there any way to center the video game screen in full screen? Because otherwise it just occupies the top middle space.
It's centered by default; in fact, you cannot have the graphics displayed non-centered. But when these games start, they don't display the UI that occupies the bottom third of the screen.
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Anyway, this is the reason why we need a good manual for the project... It can be difficult and overwhelming for people who did not grow up with DOS to find out all this information. In any case, I won't be able to educate you on all the little details in a few forum posts, but I've uploaded a ZIP file with
Maniac Mansion Enhanced and
Zak Enhanced configured for Tandy sound and with a nice EGA shader, which is pretty much the ideal way of playing the DOS versions of these two games. That should give you a starting point for other games as well, perhaps.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SwltJV764yOglKuY3faY9l-0L8YoBWUa/view?usp=sharing
Just unzip somewhere, then you can run the games by just starting DOSBox Staging in the game folders (where the `dosbox.conf` local override config is).
In case of Maniac Mansion, you'll need to press SHIFT + M at the startup screen to enable mouse support -- don't ask, that's how that particular game works...
A few comments about the config:
- This is the config for Maniac Mansion, and as you can see you don't need many parameters for DOSBox Staging as it has sensible defaults (as opposed to regular DOSBox).
- I like to have the graphics displayed smaller than fullscreen, "viewport_resolution = 960x720" accomplishes that. You can remove that line for 100% fullscreen (while keeping the correct aspect-ratio).
- I like to use a shader for EGA games that emulates single-scanline EGA monitors. You can remove the "glshader" line if you don't want that (that would emulate how EGA games look like on double-scanned VGA monitors)
[dosbox]
machine = tandy
[sdl]
fullscreen = on
viewport_resolution = 960x720
[render]
glshader = shader/crt-aperture.ega-lores
[autoexec]
mount C "C"
c:
MANIAC
exit
This is the EGA shader in action at 960x720:
......
