Editing the Launcher

[Doesnotcompute83]

Hello all,

This is something I have discovered almost a decade ago when I purchased the Vivendi's version of "The King's Quest Collection" on clearance at retail.

Anyway, it is easy to edit the Sierra launcher for the QFG collection as it appears to be taken from the one used for the Vivendi's SQ and KQ collections.

First, open up SierraLauncher.ini.

From here, you can edit the comman lines to add more games to the launcher. This is particular useful if one wants to add the QFG2 fan remake to the launcher to have all the games in one launcher. That said, the code below is of the fan remake:

Game3Name=Quest for Glory 2 - Trial by Fire (VGA Fan Remake)
Game3Prog=other
Game3path=qg2vga
Game3Exe=qfg2vga

As you can see above, I left out the Game3Cmd= line from the code. This isn't needed as this line is used to run dosbox commands. You can either leave it out completely like the example above, or if you want it to be consistent with the QG5 line, you can just leave anything after the equal sign blank. For exmaple: Game3Cmd=

Also, change the line NumButtons=5 to the number of games you want to add. For example, if you just want to add the fan remake, change the numbuttons to 6. If you want to give the two QG1 games their own buttons rather than using the dosbox launcher (after opening it via the collections launcher), you can too, though it would need some minor edits - for those not familiar with commands, I might edit my launcher to have the two versions of part 1 on separate buttons and give instructions here.

The following is for those not familar with commands: for the above code to work, I added a new folder in C:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Quest for Glory Collection\ labelled qg2vga, hence the gamepath3 line above. As for Game3EXE, that is where the exe file name of the game goes to. If you renamed the exe file in your folder to something else (for instance, to match the naming conventions used for the other QFG games), be sure to use that name in the ini file.

I added the code between QG2 original and QG3. Once added, be sure to re-number the games in the list so that the QG3 name, prog, path, and exe would have the number 4 and so on. For example, Quest for Glory 3 would now be re-numbered to 4 (Game4Name), Quest for Glory 4 re-numbered to 5, and Quest for Glory 5 re-numbered to 6.

Also, you can replace the launcher pic in the launcher by using a bitmap file no greater than width: 400, height: 407.

Below is a picture of my launcher:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v201/doomsaber/Screenshot%202016-08-31%2003.20.40.png

[Doesnotcompute83]

If you want to add QG1EGA and VGA on separate buttons, one would have to edit the DOSBOX QG1 config file. For this to work, one would have to make a copy of the dosboxQG1VGA_single.conf and rename one to dosboxQG1EGA_single.conf. Unlike the dosboxQG1VGA.conf, which is a global config file (the same one can be used for all the games in the same launcher, these single config files are game specific.

After you make a copy of the single config file and renamed one of them to dosboxQG1EGA_single.conf, open dosboxQG1VGA_single.conf with notepad. Once
opened, delete the following line of code starting with "ECHO" to "if errorlevel 1 goto pqvga"

After it is deleted, delete :pvga, cls (the one under :pvga) and then delete the following line of code:
:pqega
cls
cd ega
SCIV.EXE
exit

:exit
exit


From here, you can delete any blank space between "cls" and "scidhuv.exe" to tidy up the code. It should looke something like this:

# ipx: Enable ipx over UDP/IP emulation.

ipx=false

[autoexec]
@echo off
mount C ".."
c:
cls
scidhuv.exe
exit

Once done. Save it and then open up dosboxQG1EGA_single.conf. Similar to editing dosboxQG1VGA_single.con, start deleting the lines from "ECHO" to "if errorlevel 1 goto pqvga."

Nex delete the following lines of code:

:pqvga
cls
scidhuv.exe
exit

:pqega

Once that is deleted, delete the following last two lines of code:


:exit
exit

From here, your code should look like this:

# ipx: Enable ipx over UDP/IP emulation.

ipx=false

[autoexec]
@echo off
mount C ".."
c:
cls
cd ega
SCIV.EXE
exit

Once that is complete, you then edit the launcher to add QG1EGA. Because the EGA version is the first in the series, I put this before the QG1VGA - to make things simple, copy the QG1VGA lines of code and paste before the one you copied from. From here, rename "dosboxQG1VGA_single.conf" in Game1Cmd to "dosboxQG1EGA_single.conf". You can leave "dosboxQG1VGA.conf" alone as it is a global conf - as mentioned before, both games can use the same config. Once that is done. you can rename "Quest for Glory - So You Want To Be A Hero (VGA)" to better reflect the EGA version. I renamed it as "Hero's Quest - So You Want To Be A Hero (EGA)", but any other name that differenates this to the VGA version is fine. You can just rename the title by replacing the "V" with an "E".

Once you have finished editing this, re-number all the lines below QG1EGA and change NumButtons=7 to NumButtons=8 (if you have followed the step in the initial post to add QG2VGA). Otherwise, change NumButtons=6 to NumButtons=7.

Lastly, to change the aspect ratio to 4:3 and to disable EMS, open all the non single conf in the QG collection (you can look at the launcher ini for the specific name of the conf) one by one. Search for aspect by pressing ctrl+F and typing in "aspect." Once located, change the code as follows: aspect=true

After the code has been changed, look for EMS and change the true to false. It should look like this: EMS=false

Disabling the EMS would prevent crashes to QG1VGA and QG3 (thanks, rev.prmiller for the heads up.)

Do this for each game.

[mistermiller]

Neat idea. I'd suggest that they edit the DOSBox configs, as well, to true aspect for the 4:3 look, but also disabling EMS. EMS has some crashing glitches on QFG1VGA and QFG3.

[Doesnotcompute83]

Originally posted by rev.prmiller:

Neat idea. I'd suggest that they edit the DOSBox configs, as well, to true aspect for the 4:3 look, but also disabling EMS. EMS has some crashing glitches on QFG1VGA and QFG3.

Thank you for letting me know about the 4:3 look and disabling EMS. I will make the edits and post instructions on how to do so here tonight.

[mistermiller]

Originally posted by Doesnotcompute83:

Thank you for letting me know about the 4:3 look and disabling EMS. I will make the edits and post instructions on how to do so here tonight.

To be honest, I'm not sure exactly why the games have different DOSBox configs anyway. I edited my GOG.com version to use a single DOSBox configuration file, because disabling EMS doesn't affect QFG2 or QFG4 at all. Really, each game COULD use the same configuration file.

aspect=true
EMS=false

[Doesnotcompute83]

Originally posted by rev.prmiller:

Originally posted by Doesnotcompute83:

Thank you for letting me know about the 4:3 look and disabling EMS. I will make the edits and post instructions on how to do so here tonight.

To be honest, I'm not sure exactly why the games have different DOSBox configs anyway. I edited my GOG.com version to use a single DOSBox configuration file, because disabling EMS doesn't affect QFG2 or QFG4 at all. Really, each game COULD use the same configuration file.

aspect=true
EMS=false

True considering that the configuration file (not the single one) is generic per se. I guess Steam has uses separate ones to be organized. Then again, the steam version has a launcher within a launcher for QG1, which is redundent.

I downloaded Visual Basic from the MS site since I want to make a launcher of my own. The "hard" part would be re-learning how to make gui programs and using c++ or c# (which I knew how to).