What does installing those games mean though? I don’t want game folders in my C: SSD disk. Or is it a virtual disk and the game files are installed elsewhere?
There are DOS games that run directly from the .EXE and others that need to be installed on the hard disk. DOSBox standalone, its different forks and Pure, need a virtual disk, to install. The difference is that:
DOSBox needs a folder with emulator configuration files and program files, in disk image, installed and all the files it requires. eXo is a file, that someone configured sometime and shares it with everything inside.
Pure, it does not require external configurations, just the image or installation file of the game and the Core configures everything automatically.
Visually, it is literally like this:
PURE: the executable files of the game, without modification and the virtual disk “pure.zip” which is saved in “saves”.
DOSBox: an eXoDOS file, pre-installed and pre-configured. (That chorizo weighs 1.8GB).
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I don’t know what your personal campaign against eXo is but I feel this is the wrong place for it.
Aside from that, your description is a little misleading.
The *pure.zip is NOT the virtual disk. The virtual disk is not a file, it is an environment created on the fly when you execute a file inside the disk from the menu. The *pure.zip just contains any changes to the virtual file system that take place while the game is running. (i.e. audio device or joystick etc. settings.)
You could, if you had the need, mount a actual virtual disk file inside Pure, but this is not happening here.
Also your tiny 3.3MB install is obviously not a CD audio install, or the CD image would have to be included inside the zip. (Which would bring the file size up to over 500MB.)
I grow tired of how quickly these particular help sessions degrade.
FYI, there is at least one comment in the forum, by the core developer, saying he may add support for eXoDOS conf files. I am uncertain where your animosity comes from.
You say I say stupid things, you say I tell lies. I think you’re getting neurotic.
Yes, zip files are folders. DOSBox can mount any folder as a virtual disk, you know that well. You know them, don’t you?
I knew you were going to tell me about the Monkey Island CD, I did it on purpose, because the original 3 megabyte game offers more graphics and sound options than the exo compilation. 
You can also use the CD version with music and then add the Voices patch, but it still doesn’t reach 600MB.
I don’t have any problem with eXo compilations, I have them all and more, the ones that are coming out right now, that no one here has, but I’m not going to talk about the things I do with that.
The only one responsible for what you say, is you. If you want to share piracy or comment, “with eXo games it’s better”, that’s your problem.
But I would like to know if the forum rules have changed, because I’m going to be very happy. I’ve had comments censored for just mentioning it. @BarbuDreadMon
And please @Duimon don’t dirty this forum, this is a very respectful community.
guys, take it easy.
Alexb3d is correct that we don’t promote or encourage piracy here, but as long as nobody links to anything or anywhere that distributes pirated materials, we should be okay.
A lot of people apparently use the eXo bundles for DOS games, and that’s fine. Pure isn’t designed for it, specifically, but if it’s what someone has, there’s not a whole lot of point in telling them to re-rip/dump their game just to get away from it if that’s going to be more effort than just making it work (which I guess is Duimon’s point?)
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eXoDOS is excellent, the only problem it has is that it does not work in PURE. lol
80% of the bugs reported in github, are from using exo.
There are games that do, there will be many, but the most demanding and with configurations, do not work.
To give two vital examples, DOOM and Monkey Island do not work in PURE. PURE is made to work with zip, eXo works unzipped, so does DOOM, Monkey still does not work. O_o
For my part, I don’t intend to make people change their library, but if the error is exo, it must be said and I always recommend you not to use “pre-compiled” either from exo or any other.
For two reasons, it gives problems, and using the original way, you get much more improvements and experiences that the game offers. I will explain this better later.
It’s good what Duimon says about having an option, but reconfiguring each game with a .conf file to make PURE work as DOSBox standalone, seems to me a mistake.
Now, what Duimon means, is a mystery to me, because eXo does not include “dosbox.conf” files, this is a batch file O_o
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OK maybe we can have a constructive conversation now. 
The zip files that everyone is using are not meant for DOSBox-Pure. Technically, they are not meant to be used in DOSBox either.
That is the root of everyone’s problem when they try to use them.
Just because Pure can use zips (Which is very cool!) everyone tries to load the eXo zip.
The zips are meant to be “Installed” using the eXo interface. The dosbox.conf files exist within a different archive, not in the individual zip file.
The run.bat is used as a batch file at runtime but the options needed for the game are still contained in either the default or an individual dosbox.conf. They can be a valuable resource for troubleshooting a problematic game.
It might also be appropriate to mention that I have a very strong DOS background. I am intimately familiar with both the hardware and the software. For me, restructuring the folders and files, editing the batch files, (Or eliminating them in favor of the [autoexec] section of the conf file.) is all second nature.
I also have a fairly strong DOSBox background and am more familiar with the eXo structure and methods than most. (Having shared a community with eXo for over a decade.)
These two truths are probably shared by the average user.
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I have had eXoDos games work on Pure. Not every Single One but quite a Few.
I think IF you can’t use it thru Dosbox Pure then use the CD/Floppy Images/Install Folder to install the Game with
Sounds Great Idea to Me.
Can Talk about it BUT can’t give Links and Name of Website to get them be Named
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Well, we have to exercise discretion regarding talking about it here, too. It’s better we just avoid that sort of thing altogether whenever possible. I really just meant specifically as it related to eXoDOS. We all know it exists and that people have/use it, so no point in pretending otherwise, but that should be about as far as it goes.
I use Pure and DOOM works fine running from the eXo zip, without doing anything else.
Same with DOOM 2. Same with Heretic and Hexen. Same with Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Shadow Warrior, Blood, etc.
9 out of 10 eXo games will work in Pure without any modification. So i’m not sure what you are doing differently.
Why use the eXo, if you are going to use the native installation?
If it works for you, excellent, use them.
Of course there is confusion, if every time someone asks, you tell them and many others, “use eXoDOS”. I have nothing against eXo, I don’t recommend any pre-configured compiler. But you don’t stop promoting eXo.
The .conf are native to DOSBox, and eXo uses this emulator for everything.
Everything you have said is very interesting, but it is off topic, we are talking about DOSBox PURE.
What is my point? I will show you with two examples.
This is how PURE was promoted:
What do you offer to help. this:
It’s totally out of step with the original idea, plus, I’m noticing. You do NOT need to create a .conf that calls the .bat. You can load the .bat directly.
In PURE you don’t need neither .conf to configure the hardware, nor a .bat to configure the game. All this is taken care of by the emulator.
I am using and configuring this Core with the idea that it is an IBM-PC x86 emulator, and it works as such, I install and configure it in the same way as I did back then and I have had no problems. Out of 703 games, only 3 have given me emulation problems, which is actually one, because the other one doesn’t support it.
And before you tell me that DOSBox is not an x86 emulator, please open DOSBox, type “intro” and press “enter”.
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Yes and no.
When you load the eXo zip, you start the interface with the executables.
What do you load? DOOM.EXE or run.bat?
The eXo games are loaded from the batch, which presents and configures all the options offered by any eXo package.
This file has a number of parameters and settings that are changed with each choice, whether you select SoundBlaster or Canvas, the batch configures the midi output and copies/replaces the DEFAULT.CFG file with those parameters and it works.
Edito: When you select Gravis Ultrasound, the game does not recognize the gus because the ultrasnd directory is somewhere else. Then, you have to change the directory path manually or unzip the game and create a new .zip with the files in the main directory.
I wonder, what do you need from this with every game?
That is, if it works with the SoundBlaster and Canvas, but if you want GS, you have to make additional configurations.
If you run DOOM.EXE directly, you have to manually change the GUS directory.
Obviously, when you use a zip with the original DOOM executable or install from a floppy, you need to copy the ULTRASND folder and configure the game. But that’s the whole point.
If I’m using eXo, it’s supposed to be all set up. added to this. The extra step, the selection interface loses the autoplay. And the lack of the other options for example, the Ablib or the enhanced GUS driver.
Of course the exo can be configured, but why do I have that piece of junk that takes up 3 or 4 times more than the original.
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For me, the whole eXo + Pure combination is about being able to load DOS games as if they are console roms. A single archive file for each game without needing to install them and break them into folders and subfolders of many files. This is essential for frontends as well and much easier to scrap for media assets and box art.
This also scratches a certain itch for me, the being able to easily load DOS games while lazily sitting on my couch and using just a console game controller (Pure also has some handy pre-configured gamepad schemes for many games). I don’t mind if certain niche options (like the Ultrasound setting) don’t work outright. Soundblaster or using a soundfont works and that’s enough for me. I don’t expect everything to work this way obviously.
That’s it. For me it’s all about convenience, portability and laziness. Of course, due to the complex nature of some PC games, this can’t work with every game. Portability and convenience have their limits. But honestly, i was very surprised about how so many games do work outright. I was expecting less than half to do so but the ratio if far higher. Even games with CD redbook audio that i always had trouble with in the past just work outright.
So i don’t mind if i can’t make Red Alert work this way because the 10+ games i tried before worked nicely. Red Alert isn’t the kind of game you play from the couch with a gamepad anyway. Now if i really want to be accurate and install/play those games the correct way and make them all work 100% of the time, i wouldn’t even use DOSBox at all, any version of it. I have PCem/86Box for that.
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As for your DOOM question, i load the DOOM.exe. I can also load the SETUP.exe to make some changes, that also seem to work. In some games i had to load the SETUP.exe first and save my changes to make them work at all. These settings are saved in a separate folder in the “saves” directory in RetroArch. This way the archive itself isn’t changed in any way.
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This is the philosophy of PURE, and it works with any executable game in zip.
Actually they are not working perfectly, if you don’t care about Ultrasound, there are people who do and look for it, this happens in all exo. But there are more problems, I just gave you an example.
You don’t care and use what you have. That’s fine, you use whatever you want, but that’s the problem.
You tell me what. you don’t mind GUS, and you configure it by the SETUP.EXE?
Then why don’t you use a normal executable zip like the ones from Total DOS Collection?
I insist, you use whatever you want. But the subject of this post was a game that could not be loaded, because of eXo.
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Can people ask for Help IF they can’t get it to go?
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Because the eXoDOS pack is already curated perhaps? You get a single archive per game, usually the final/best version and a very simple filename, just the title and the year of release, which is easier to scrap. Total DOS pack looked very messy the last time i checked. Lots of different versions for each game. Probably also much harder to scrap due to the extra info in the filenames.
Would the Total DOS pack archives work the same way eXo does with Pure? Load and play like a console rom?
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Only when exo does NOT work
I am not promoting anything my friend, PLEASE understand, I was only answering the question by the OP.
And answering it in the context of the original question.
Most users want an experience like that of the other emulators, having a conf file bypasses the menu and runs the content directly.
Contrary to your assertion, this setting in the Pure OPT…
dosbox_pure_conf = "inside"
…shows the intent by the core developer to support this.
** Note that the setting is called dosbox_pure_conf. (dosbox “PURE” conf)
Pure fully supports conf files, and many settings that the Retroarch interface doesn’t support can be set in the conf. To not use a conf file actually limits the power of the core.
Additionally, using the *.dosz extension bypasses the core choice dialog (If loading content in the Retroarch UI.) and loads Pure automatically. Once again giving the user a more familiar experience.
You have your favorite way to run games in Pure, but your views may not be shared by everyone else. I am only offering a more graceful alternative.
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