[GUIDE] How to add MS-DOS games to Steam

[Sopwith]

Ever wanted to run old MS-DOS games in Steam? It's actually quite simple.

YOU WILL NEED

- An installed version of DOSBox. May I recommend a custom-modded version that, in most cases, enables the Steam overlay! http://ykhwong.x-y.net/
- An MS-DOS game's complete files located somewhere on your hard drive.
- Patience

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In Steam, add a Non-Steam game. Browse to the DOS game's .EXE and add it to your list. (Note, if you need to link to a .BAT file, just choose a random .exe in the DOS game's folder, then change the destination to the .BAT file in the properties once added.)

2. Go to the properties of that game, and in the "Target" field, add the full path of your DOSBox main executable BEFORE the target of your DOS game. For me, I pasted "C:\Program Files\DOSBox SVN-Daum\DOSBox.exe" before "C:\DOS\Darksun\dsun.exe". Keep all the quotation marks.

3. For added goodness, at the end of the target field, add the following:
-fullscreen -noconsole -exit
This tells DOSBox to run the game full-screen, with only one window, and to exit after you quit the game. You can also specify scaler options, if you find one you like.

Again, in my example, the full text of my "target" field for my game was the following:
"C:\Program Files\DOSBox SVN-Daum\DOSBox.exe" "C:\DOS\Darksun\dsun.exe" -fullscreen -noconsole -exit

4. Play!


Wanting to get custom screenshots for back-splashes on your games list? If the overlay works, go right ahead and snap some. If not, try my guide here:
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/558749824872809556/
Though if you have a preference for a scaler (in the launch command line), make sure you do that before you generate any, otherwise, if you change the command line after you take screenshots, you'll have to move them (as you'll find out in the guide)...

Want to add a custom icon? Try my guide here:
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/558749825180761483/

I won't provide any support here for DOSBox, so please don't ask. There's plenty of documentation and help around Google. :)

[Raiden]

You only need OpenGL renderer for overlay, which is included in vanilla DosBox. But SVN is the best I agree.

For custom icons you might compile empty files to exe with the icon of your choice. Then you just edit the shortcut on Steam and use this empty exe. The only downside of this is the ugly shortcut arrow appearing on the icon.

[Sopwith]

I tried your method again just now (I think I remember trying it before to no avail) and I found that the infernal shortcut icon is no more. Must have been phased out in a recent update or something, and praise be to that. I made an accompanying guide and linked to it here. Thanks for giving me a lead.

[Sopwith]

The arrows came back... Upon reformatting (from a 32-bit to 64-bit OS - don't know if that matters), I noticed that many of my non-steam games got a "shortcut arrow" in the bottom-left. I eluded to this in my previous comment: I had come across this problem long before, and didn't know how to go about fixing it. Years later, when I got to writing this guide, and tried what I thought was the same method again, there were no arrows, so I declared them dead. What a fool I was. This time I tried a number of possible solutions, including some manual OS registry hacks, but nothing worked. I was about to give up hope, to lead a life constantly overlaid by a small, annoying, condescending little arrow in the bottom-left corner of my life...

There are three solutions that I found:

1) Use "Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover": Google, download and install this program. Run it and select "No arrow", then "Apply" and restart your computer. If you're lucky like me and the original poster of this idea ((SAS)U ID10T), then all those annoying shortcut arrows in Steam (as well as those for shortcut arrows over your entire OS) will disappear, and you will rejoice. Steam uses system resources / references to create its arrow icon, hence why (the right) registry hacks can work. This may not work on Windows 8, I wouldn't know.

2) Inject an icon into your launch program: For this you will need to download and install "Resource Hacker" (http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/). You begin by resetting the launch properties of the non-steam game (or just re-adding it), and assuming the icon of that launch program or file isn't the one you want (hence why you have the shortcut arrow problem), you (first, make a back-up copy of it in case this breaks something in your game) right-click on it in Windows Explorer and "Open Using Resource Hacker", then under Action -> Replace Icon. You'll need to locate the .EXE or .ICO you want to use (see below if you need to extract .ICOs from other files), then save and overwrite the original file. This should remove the annoying arrow, since we're not telling Steam to use a separate icon entity -- the program itself has the icon we want. In this case this means making a uniquely-named copy of the Dosbox main executable (you don't need to copy the supporting files, since the .exe is the only file that Steam needs for the icon) for every game, with a custom icon for each. Annoying, I know, but if you're a little OCD about these sorts of things like me, I'm sure you won't mind...

3) Extract or use icon picture files: You can use a program like "ByCyIconGrabber" to extract the icon files and save them as .PNG's, then link them as an icon file/image in Steam. The downside of this is that is in the "Detail View" layout of Steam, the icon appears tiny in the detail screen, where it should be larger. But there is no annoying arrow.

[BananaJane]

How do I do this if my games are .com files?

[Zetawilk]

Is it possible to use controllers with games injected in this manner?

[Sopwith]

Probably. You'll have to get into the documentation of DOSBOX. Another alternative is using a tool like AntiMicro {Google it} or something that can assign controller buttons to keyboard outputs.

[Jennfelde]

Why do ya'll bump 2+ year old threads?

[blunus]

Originally posted by amdusias:

Why do ya'll bump 2+ year old threads?

10k+ necros are still not banned for reasons. Nobody knows.

[Zetawilk]

Who gives a flying ♥♥♥♥?

[Vectif]

Originally posted by amdusias:

Why do ya'll bump 2+ year old threads?

It's counterintuitive.

"hey! Use the search function instead of making new threads!"
"don't necro/bump/engage in old threads!"

I don't think necroing matters, as long as it's a relevant post and not just nonsense or irrelevant to the original topic.

[The Badger (née Poignion)]

Originally posted by Rhaonoa:

Originally posted by amdusias:

Why do ya'll bump 2+ year old threads?

It's counterintuitive.

"hey! Use the search function instead of making new threads!"
"don't necro/bump/engage in old threads!"

I don't think necroing matters, as long as it's a relevant post and not just nonsense or irrelevant to the original topic.

I agree on that to a point, besides posts pre-necro can aid in the discussion.

[BananaJane]

Originally posted by Amdurian:

Why do ya'll bump 2+ year old threads?

You'd rather they make a new topic that asks the same thing and start the whole process over from scratch?

[haverespect]

Thanks for this just as simple as finding an executable but then changing path to the batch file..perfect!