Platform: DOS

DOSBox-ECE, DOSBox-Staging, DOSBox-X, DOSBox Pure: these are variants that support new features (DOSBox has not been substantively updated in at least a decade) such as Glide support, support for running Windows9X, better graphics options, and other new features. eXoDOS uses vanilla DOSBox, ECE, and Staging, retroarch is developing DOSBox Pure, and DOSBox-X was one of the first variants that could boot Win9X, but -X is generally out of use and not maintained.

eXoDOS has an exhaustive archive of almost all DOS games configured to run in DOSBox or one of the variants. It stores its games in a bit of an obfuscated/serpentine manner. This is how to convert an eXoDOS game to a standalone (assuming you have the DOSBox variants all installed):

• decompress the game folder from the desired game's zip file in $EXODOS_ROOT/eXo/eXoDOS/

• take note of the name of the game's folder in that zip file... you'll need it in the next step:

• open then $EXODOS_ROOT/Content/!DOSMetadata.zip file and find the game folder name, and extract the dosbox.conf file to the same dir you have the game folder in

• open the dosbox.conf file, and at the bottom of the conf files, remove /eXoDOS from the file paths

• take note of the kind of dosbox.conf file it is: vanilla Dosbox, Dosbox-ECE, or DOSBox-Staging

• Extract supporting files (manuals, code wheels, etc) from $EXODOS_ROOT/Content/GameData/eXoDOS and make sure to check the Extras folder (it's like five subfolders deep) in addition to the Manuals folder.

eXoDOS games are all preinstalled and ready to go. Before eXoDOS you generally downloaded the DOS installation media and had to go through the steps to figure out how to install/run the installer of the game within DOSBox. It also generally has expansions and a lot of user content, although this is still a work in progress, and it has about every available manual scan and documentation files for the games.