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Play all of the Internet Archive’s MS-DOS games offline!

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IA Launcher
===========

**A DOSBox frontend for the [Internet Archive MS-DOS games
collection](https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos_games)**

IA Launcher is a graphical games launcher for all those georgeous
MS-DOS games from yestermillenium. It uses the Internet Archive to
download games on-the-fly and DOSBox to play them offline. [Visit the
IA Launcher website](https://ialauncher.created.today/) to see a list of
all the included games.

**Hurrah! IA Launcher now has its own Windows installer! You can
download it [here](https://rtts.eu/download/IA%20Launcher-2.2.1-amd64.msi).**

You can also install IA Launcher using `pip3 install ialauncher` on
any operating system. Continue reading for detailed instructions.

![Screenshot of IA Launcher](https://i.imgur.com/WQhGrQy.jpg)

Features:
---------

- Batteries included! Thousands of games playable out-of-the-box
- Graphical user interface for quickly browsing through title screens
- Easily add new games to the list (if you do, please send me a pull request!)
- Automatically downloads game data from archive.org
- Saves state such as savegames and settings for each game

Installation
------------

First of all, get yourself a snazzy retro looking PC. Or just use your
current computer running your operating system of choice. Start by
installing the following dependencies:

* [Python](https://www.python.org/) version 3.8 or higher
* [DOSBox](https://www.dosbox.com/) version 0.74 or higher

Now you can install IA Launcher using `pip`. Open a command-line
window and type the following command:

pip install ialauncher

Depending on your system, you might have to use `sudo` and/or the
`pip3` command instead of `pip`. If the previous command didn't work,
try this one:

sudo pip3 install ialauncher

You can now launch the interface using the `ialauncher` command. To
see the available options, type `ialauncher --help`.

*A useful option is `--slideshow X` which turns IA Launcher into an
awesome screensaver, displaying a new DOS game title screen every X
seconds!*

Special Keys
------------

- Arrow keys: navigate through the games list
- Enter: launch the selected game
- Alt-Enter: open DOSBox without starting the game
  (useful for debugging, see "Troubleshooting" below)
- Shift-Enter: reset game state before starting game
  (warning: you will lose your save files!)
- Space: jump to a random game
- A-Z: Jump to the first game that starts with the letter A-Z
- Esc key: exit

During gameplay, you should also be familiar with the [DOSBox Special
Keys](https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Special_Keys). The most important
one is probably `Ctrl-F9`, which immediately exits DOSBox and
returns to the games menu.

Troubleshooting
---------------

### Help, my game doesn't run correctly / has no sound!

Welcome to the world of MS-DOS where you are constantly fighting with
IRQ values, memory managers and setup programs. Thankfully, the
default DOSBox configuration runs nearly all DOS games perfectly out
of the box. Also, all the games in the `games` directory have custom
DOSBox configurations (where needed) and startup commands in their
`metadata.ini` files. However, you will certainly end up in situations
where you have to reconfigure a game. Try the following:

- Press Alt-Enter to start DOSBox with the game directory mounted as
  the `C:` drive.
- Use the `dir` command to see which files are present
- Use the `cd` command to change to the game subdirectory, if needed
- Look for a file named `install.{bat,exe,com}`,
  `setsound.{bat,exe,com}` or `setup.{bat,exe,com}` and execute it

Hopefully, the setup utility will allow you to change the sound card
parameters. DOSBox emulates all kinds of sounds cards, so try the
following and it will probably work:

Sound card: Soundblaster or AdLib\
Address/port: 220\
IRQ: 7\
DMA: 1

### Help, my game doesn't run at all!

Each game's metadata, including the command that starts the game, is
stored in a file called `metadata.ini`. In many cases IA Launcher
provides the needed commands to install and setup the game when run
for the first time. However, in other cases the commands listed in
`metadata.ini` simply assume the installation was already done with
default settings. In these cases, try the following:

- Press Alt-Enter to start DOSBox with the game directory mounted as
  the `C:` drive.
- Type `mount a .` to mount the game's directory as the floppy drive
  (many games assume they are being installed from a floppy disk)
- Type `a:` to switch to the mounted floppy drive
- Type `install` and follow the installation procedure, accepting all
  the default values

After the installation has finished, try launching the game again and
hopefully the default startup command will now work. If not, keep
reading...

### Help! The default startup command is incorrect!

Here is how you can easily change the command(s) that launch a game:

- Press Alt-Enter to start DOSBox with the game directory mounted as
  the `C:` drive.
- (optionally:) Type `echo cd [directoryname] > dosbox.bat` to put the
  `cd` command in the file named `dosbox.bat`
- Type `echo [command that launches the game] >> dosbox.bat` to append
  the command that launches the game to the file `dosbox.bat`
- Execute `dosbox.bat` and verify that your game now launches correctly

When you exit the emulator, IA Launcher will save the contents of
`dosbox.bat` to the `emulator_start` variable inside the game's
`metadata.ini`. The next time you launch the game, the `dosbox.bat`
file will be run automatically.

More advanced logic can be created with batch file syntax. As an
example, here is the contents of `emulator_start` for the game SimCity
2000:

if exist sc2000 goto run
    mount a .
    a:
    install
    :run
    cd sc2000
    sc2000

You can also [mount CD images](https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/MOUNT) and
get CD audio while playing:

imgmount d Quake.cue -t iso
    if exist quake goto run
    d:
    install
    :run
    cd quake
    quake

Did you get a previously not-working game running by changing the
`emulator_start` variable? Or did you add a new game and captured a
nice title screen? Please send me a pull request!

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