Frontends:AmpShell
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Introduction
AmpShell is an easy to use front end for DOSBox written in C# (.NET). It is designed to be tiny, easy to use, fast, and has started as an improved version of DOSShell.
It can run on virtually any machine having the .NET framework installed.
Windows Vista (or Windows Seven) machines already have the .NET framework, and almost all Windows XP machines have it nowadays.
For GNU/Linux or MacOS users, the Mono librairies have to be installed.
AmpShell has been successfully tested on Windows 98SE, Windows XP, Windows XP x64 Edition, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and GNU/Linux Ubuntu 9.04.
It is free software licensed under the GNU GPL v3.
Features
- No hassle! AmpShell will not prompt for the location of DOSBox's executable, unless it cannot be found. The location of the user's default DOSBox configuration file is also automatically searched (if it's not known or the file is unavailable), and not prompted for, even if it cannot be found (the user can set where it is in the 'Tools' menu).
- AmpShell also looks for mousepad/gedit/kate/notepad if no games' configuration files editor is set (it can be set in "Edit -> Preferences...") and sets wichever comes first as the default editor.
- Be international! AmpShell uses Unicode (UTF-16) for character encoding, so eveyrone can use it worldwide.
- Be user-driven!
- Games can be moved (drag & drop) between categories (since v1.0.1.2)
- Games and categories can have the same name multiple times, it will work (since v1.0.1.2, they have an unique random number used for identification).
- AmpShell saves the window's size (and whether or not it is in fullscreen) when the user exits, and restores it on the next run.
- Besides, in the tools menu, you can :
- Select the location of DOSBox's executable
- Select the location of the default DOSBox configuration file (or cancel it)
- Select the location of the default DOSBox language file (or cancel it)
- Run DOSBox (the default configuration and language files for DOSBox will be used)
- Be simple! AmpShell is heavily inspired by DOSShell, but add to it missing features (such as being able to delete a category) and other ideas for games configuring, such as :
- Easy CD mount Put the path to your .iso/.bin/.cue CD image file (or folder, like the root of a CD drive) and voilà! It will be automaticly mounted as 'D:'
- Easy configuration For each game you can also provide a custom DOSBox configuration file, or tell the front-end not to use any configuration file (the later can be useful for troubleshooting purposes). You can also edit them from inside AmpShell with your text editor of choice.
- Easy Setup You can also provide the path to the game's setup executable, and run it whenever you want.
- Easy Install If you want to install a game (such as a PC CD game), you can provide a directory path that will be mounted as 'C:', provide the path to the CD image, and when you run the game, you will only have to launch the CD's installation program.
- Easy hack You can also provide wichever additionnal DOSBox commands you may need. They will be run before the game is run.
- Categorization. Most users only have a handful of games, so only one category will be useful. But you can add as many categories as you like.
- Multi platform. It's only dependancy is the .NET framework.
Future Plans
- Now implemented : make a window to manage user preferences (available in "Edit -> Preferences...")
- Now implemented : make a text editor for games configurations (the user's text editor is used)
- make other preferences available (and move tools' menu preferences in 'Edit -> Preferences...')
- add a whole lot more of preferences
- being able to drop a game on a category to add it automatically
- being able to remove/re-enable the menu bar, the tools bar, and the status bar
- make the possibility to use a custom DOSBox executable (for users having multiple DOSBox versions) for games
- have a default icon (or an user icon) for games instead of plain text
- make other view modes available for categories (tiles, list, details, small icons, large icons)
- add an image to all controls having an Image property
- make translations possible with a simple xml file
- Use of JumpLists (Windows 7)
For any feature request (or bug report), please mail to noal (dot) maximilien (at) gmail (dot) com
Tips & Tricks
For games that are only runnable on the CD (ie. no hard disk install) such as Sam & Max : Hit the road, or Day of the Tentacle (PC CD version), you can run them easily. Here is a step by step procedure :
- When you create your game, instead of providing the executable, provide the directory that will be mounted as 'C:' (in order to save your games)
- Specify the CD image (or folder, like the root of a CD drive) that will be mounted as 'D:'
- Put additionnal commands in order to run the game. (example with Sam & Max : Hit the Road : -c "d:" -c "sam.bat") in the "additionnal commands" text box (or put them in a custom configuration file).
Screenshots
Main window screenshot. The other screenshot are only on the official web site, in order to save bandwith on this page.
Download
Visit AmpShell's website to download.
