DOS Gaming Made Easy with eXoDOS - 7500 games

[@RetroeXo]

Hey there. Thanks for covering my project. You mentioned the "coders" who work on this, which gave me a chuckle, as I wouldn't consider myself a coder at all. I just write everything in batch script and it seems to work well enough =)

[@BytesNBits]

Thanks for the project. It's a great resource for all us DOS fans. You're very modest. Anyone who can get this number of emulators / games / setups working deserves a medal.

[@L-double-J]

Your project rocks 🙌🏼

[@SomeCanine]

This must have taken forever to do all of this work configuring everything and gathering all of the relevant materials. Thank you for all of your work.

[@jakejollimore5453]

I just got it set up. Works great. I've run into very few problems and it was ridiculously easy to get going. I was up till two in the morning playing Darkseed last night lol

[@redwizardmatt]

Just putting this here. Thank you for the work you put into this project. I feel like our society has really dropped the ball with videogame preservation. We have libraries and museums dedicated to preserving every art form known to man, including film and radio, *except* video games. That's a crime in my humble opinion that we're committing against future generations, as well as against ourselves. Any and all acts towards preserving these pieces of our history deserves our full respect and support, and I'm very VERY grateful for the work that you've done here. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU.

[@hal58th]

This is a crazy amount of work they did. Thanks for sharing

[@BytesNBits]

It's a great project. Do check out their funding section if you find it useful - should probably have mentioned that in the video!

[@Red-Revolution708]

@@BytesNBitsPlease read my comment, love your vids, I watch all your vids all the time.

[@songsan807]

I had a dream or was daydreaming about playing my old DOS games again. Guess that dream is about to come true.

[@BytesNBits]

Great. Have Fun!

[@JoelFabiani]

All respect to @retroexo. Kudos all involved. Priceless.

[@BytesNBits]

I agree!

[@christianf.4833]

Bought a small elitedesk pc to make it a DOS gaming box using this. Great video.

[@BytesNBits]

Have fun!

[@user-Limaa]

nice dear, i´m looking for a Baremetal (stand alone DOS) like a dedicate batocera DOS with prompt, de FREEDOS don´t work audio well

[@marccaselle8108]

With freedos, if you want sound card sound, you'll have to install SBEMU inside the freedos folder and setup the files correctly. Freedos isn't compatible with lots of DOS games. MS DOS 6.22 is still the king, as far as compatible games go. 🙂

[@BytesNBits]

As @marccaselle8108 says you'll need SBEMU to get better sound but even then it's a bit hit and miss. I use DOSBox X running inside Linux to make a DOS gaming PC in this video. For me it was the best compromise. kzbin.info/www/bejne/kKvTmoOVorN5pJo

[@darkpadden]

Exo is a neat fellow been around for a long time.

[@BytesNBits]

Yes. Great project.

[@redwizardmatt]

Awesome video. I'm installing this right now. Thanks for the recommendation! I don't know if it's something you'd be interested in, but I for one would love to watch a video on some of your recommended games for Exodos now that I've got it up and running. I'm feeling a bit of choice paralysis and I suspect a lot of the others in the audience might as well. Also, it might be a little fun to talk about some of the old dos games. I know that I personally feel a lot of joy and nostalgia there and it doesn't feel like they get as much love these days as their console counterparts do. Really excited to try this out. Can't thank you enough!

[@BytesNBits]

Thanks. Great to hear you're enjoying your retro gaming. I'll have a think about the games videos.

[@wince333]

CRAAZZZYYYY ALEXANDRIA BIBLIOTHEQUE FOR retro games!! 🎉🎉🎉

[@BytesNBits]

Yes. It's a great project.

[@OwtDaftUK]

One big warning is to make sure you have a shit load of space on top of the load you used up to download this because once you star the unpack process it suddenly needs a load more.

[@BytesNBits]

The full download package is massive. I use the download on demand which is still big but you only download the game files you need

[@kingforaday8725]

Thanks for this. Does the install change or move any of the files in the large download file? So in other words I can install this on my computer and then give the download files to a friend to install on their computer, etc, etc, ect, ect...... Other than a windows 10 computer Ive not seen any recommended system requirements. Like will it work on an i5? 8GB of RAM? An integrated video card or an add in card thats something beefier with 8GB DDR or whatever. Also will want to add SCRUUM and Dreamm. What size hard drive for the whole catalog?

[@BytesNBits]

I think exodos keeps itself within it's own folder system so just copy that to a hard drive. The full download + media files is around 900GB so you'll need 1TB at the very least. DosBox will run on pretty much any PC but you might find some of the later games run a bit slower depending on processing power. Have fun!

[@jonathont5570]

Been using it since Version 2, seems like forever. They also have a great WIN 3.1 as well that is really good.

[@BytesNBits]

Thanks for the tip. I'll try out the Windows version.

[@chrisgebben2043]

oh to note the did the same thing with Windows 3.# games as well wtih "exowin3x" the instructions should be nearly identical right and also you by default need a torrent file opening program yes? and are they safe?

[@BytesNBits]

I use QBitTorrent. That seems fine.

[@Auzweed]

Having issues. When going to set up exodos with the batch file, it brings me to a screen that says “to merge exo packs together, you will need to copy the files of all packs you wish to merge to the same folder” Then it lists: Content folder Exo folder Setup.bat file I’ve tried saving them in a folder and copying not sure what I’m doing wrong. I have reinstalled 2 times.

[@BytesNBits]

Have you had a look at the manual - www.retro-exo.com/eXoDOS%20Manual.pdf

[@MotorcycleRiderUK]

😮 just came across this now. Can this be installed on an external SSD and made as a portable device?

[@BytesNBits]

Yes. It's all self contained.

[@kingforaday8725]

So. Ive installd the full package. Howevr, about half the games will crash after launching???? They just close and goes back to launchbox.

[@BytesNBits]

Try running exodos outside of Launchbox to see if it's a Launchbox thing or if exodos is crashing.

[@Ultimategc13]

i download the link same link from multiple sources and i just get a ton of code and there is no way to run the program. What is the issue?

[@BytesNBits]

Did you get the same files as in the video? You should be able to run the .bet file to start the installation.

[@Ultimategc13]

@ got the link directly from the video I think. Plus other videos took me tot he same link I ran it and it got the same thing a bunch of code.

[@Ultimategc13]

Metal Jesus did a video same issues followed his video same thing

[@BytesNBits]

@@Ultimategc13 What sort of computer are you using and what operating system (Windows, linux, Mac). You'll need to be on Windows.

[@Astra8676]

Great Video, always well presented and full of info!! Do reckon you can transfer some of these games into Retropie!!

[@BytesNBits]

The full download package comes with all the games as zip files. You should be able to use those in any DOS emulator. eXoDOS takes those files and heavily optimises the way they are run so you won't get that expert setup.

[@hal58th]

@@BytesNBits That setup is the hard port though.

[@pgtmr2713]

Have you tried Twister OS. Retropie is on the desktop already and it has dos friendly programs on it. Box86, WINE. I knoe I've gotten Blakestone to work on it and Doom.

[@douglashaner6802]

Sounds great but i use Retrobat. Do i really need to install Launchbox 🤔

[@BytesNBits]

No. Retrobat should be able to work with exoDOS as well. Or just use it as a standalone system.

[@raziel8321]

The project is really great. Unfortunately, I'm more frustrated than satisfied at the moment. I bought a laptop specifically to use it as a pure ExoDos system. Windows 10 is installed. However, I can't install it. The bat file jumps to the mergei section without any input and then gets stuck there. Although everything seems to be correct and error-free.

[@BytesNBits]

That seems strange. I'm not sure why it would do that. Have a look in the batch file and see what it's trying to launch. You might be able to tweak it a bit if your system isn't matching what it's expecting.

[@hstrinzel]

Can ExoDOS be used with a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 ?

[@BytesNBits]

I don't think so, at least not easily. It's a Windows application but it does create a number of DosBox configuration files that might be possible to use in your Raspberry Pi setup.

[@CozMyN]

hi, im having a problem, when i move my mouse the games stutter, is there anything i can do?

[@BytesNBits]

I'm not sure. Is you PC a reasonable spec? It doesn't need to be high end by far, but not really low powered. Is it all games or just slightly more modern ones.

[@CozMyN]

@@BytesNBits I actually found what the problem was: the mouse polling rate. Having it on 1000 Hz especially. Reducing it to the lowest possible (125 Hz in my case) fixed the issue, but I have to do this every time I'm using eXoDOS. It's a bit strange because on DOSBox-X I don't have this problem. I tried searching for this online, but I didn't find much.

[@CozMyN]

I got a Ryzen 2600 and a GTX 1070 and I tested NFS SE, but all games, even the terminal before entering the game has the problem :)

[@BytesNBits]

@@CozMyN Great you've found the issue. If you've got a different mouse I'd give that a go to see if it makes it better. If you've got a wired one try that to remove some of the interface software.

[@apollolux]

This might handle games, but what about certain semi-popular DOS programs like music trackers, particularly Impulse Tracker? Does eXoDOS provide a mechanism to allow users to customize config for programs not covered by its internal list/add them to a user-provided list in such cases?

[@BytesNBits]

eXoDOS is basically a wrapper around DOSBox that fits inside Launchbox. It's very tailored to games. If you want to use some other software I'd go for a standalone DOSBox-X (the X version is easier to set up) installation separate to the eXoDOS setup. I made a video using a Linux PC but the setup is basically the same on Windows - kzbin.info/www/bejne/kKvTmoOVorN5pJo. Once you've got it set up you can then just install any apps you want as if it was a DOS PC.

[@apollolux]

@@BytesNBits Groovy, thanks for pointing me in a decent direction!

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

​@@apollolux there's also pcem and it's fork which precisely emulate a dos PC. More fidelity, but also more resources intensive, particularly if you want to go into later pentium territory

[@badbones777]

Is it possible to get this to work if as in my case I already have a launchbox setup, but I store the actual games on an external hard drive?

[@BytesNBits]

The ExoDOS downloader saves the files into folders in the eXo folder inside the Launchbox installation folder. So I guess it will all work but just not save the games to your external drive. I don't know if you can override the default save location.

[@chriswalsh3149]

If I were to install this, I would need 700gb + space to download the files. How much more space would I need on top of this to extract and intall everything? It seems like I need about 1500Gb of disc space. Am I right?

[@chriswalsh3149]

For full download and install that is.

[@BytesNBits]

Yes. You're about right with the disk sizes. It's a big download to get everything in one go. I use the on demand setup as there are a whole load of games I'll probably never try out.

[@tubeDude48]

At 3:40, that link appeared to be dead. I tried it on 3 browser's.

[@BytesNBits]

I've added the link to the description and that seems fine. Please try it from there.

[@tubeDude48]

@@BytesNBits - Nope, still does nothing. Just times out. I wonder if it is blocked here in the US? All your other links work.

[@Red-Revolution708]

It drives you ‘CRAZY’ but keep going lol.

[@BytesNBits]

@@tubeDude48 That's really strange. If you do a Google search for eXoDOS you should be able to find it through that. See if the Google link does anything? Try a different browser as well if you can.

[@tubeDude48]

@@BytesNBits - tried 3 brower's, none of them could find eXoDOS. I give up.

[@andrewdupuis1151]

thanks for dos box playing dos games

[@BytesNBits]

No problem 👍

Problem occured suddenly - cannot install any of this games anymore, it said Windows installer package cannot open. Check the source... Everything was good until now.

[@BytesNBits]

You might need to reinstall exoDOS.

[@ZeepANation]

Super amazing tool, but am I able to add my own abandonware content to eXoDOS?

[@BytesNBits]

I guess it will be possible but tricky. I'd probably use a separate DOSBox setup for your games. It's basically what exoDOS is doing.

[@ZeepANation]

@@BytesNBits that's kind of what I was worried about. Trying to run a specific CD but I can't tell if I'm running into mounting issues or if it's compatibility issues. I'm super new to emulators, but I've tried Virtual CloneDrive, PowerISO, and DOSBox. The CD in question has two files, (a Bin and a Cue). I had originally tried converting the Bin to an ISO and mounting that, but that didn't work. I can get the install wizard to run, but when I launch the game only the game icon on the hot bar shows up. I'm not even sure what to search to put me on the right track here.

[@mtcollinson1981]

Can this be run on a Mac ?

[@BytesNBits]

You'd need to set up a virtual pc.

[@umutkayacan7659]

Sorry for the late comment. Nice Vid 😅😅

[@BytesNBits]

Thanks. Thought you'd abandoned me :(

[@oldschooldriver]

great review i have 2 questions left: could you arrange games by genre? does it emulate online play?

[@BytesNBits]

If you integrate it with LaunchBox or another front end you can start to create your own lists, but I'm not sure if there are any pre made lists. Online play should be OK but I'm not sure how many of these games will still support it.

[@oldschooldriver]

@@BytesNBits thank you i play online via RetroArch, look for this as some alternative…

[@tonibahloni920]

What about Roland sound?

[@BytesNBits]

exoDOS sets up a lot of parameters for each game. You can override these if you want. Once you're in a game you're really running under DOSBox-X

[@vizionthing]

7500 game reviews incoming?

[@BytesNBits]

Lol. I do the setup you do the games.

[@LrLr-c7r]

4:00

[@Red-Revolution708]

I love your vids but hate emulation, I tried it they work then they don’t work it drove me ‘Mad’ but I love your vids you make it look easy. I bought a Trimui Smart Pro put the software in didn’t work 🤔 then I bought a Wii u to put software in, the Wii U it worked but failed, I bought LaunchBox for Big-Box drove me mad 😠 lol , tried Xbox 360 Xenia worked then didn’t work lol. I Love your vids though because I will keep trying got to, although at the moment lol 😅.

[@BytesNBits]

Sorry to hear you're having issues. Emulation is pretty good once you've got it set up correctly. It sounds like you've had a run of bad luck with the devices. Don't give up!

[@RetroeXo]

Try this pack. You don't have to wish e about emulation. It all works out of the box. That's the entire point of it

[@IKS_Opinion]

The ONLY problem of this videos is sound. But thank you anyway.

[@BytesNBits]

Hope you still enjoyed it.

[@simplyhard]

This video could do without the introductionary history lesson. Not every video needs to start off by excusing itself in guise of educating the audience for three minutes before it starts.

[@BytesNBits]

Some people like it some don't. Please just skip ahead.

[@lordterra1377]

You must be real fun at parties.

[@Auzweed]

Having issues. When going to set up exodos with the batch file, it brings me to a screen that says “to merge exo packs together, you will need to copy the files of all packs you wish to merge to the same folder” Then it lists: Content folder Exo folder Setup.bat file I’ve tried saving them in a folder and copying not sure what I’m doing wrong. I have reinstalled 2 times.

[@BytesNBits]

Have you had a look at the manual - www.retro-exo.com/eXoDOS%20Manual.pdf