How to Use

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Download and Setup

1. Download the Latest Release:

   • Visit the Releases page.
   • Get the executable for your system (e.g., DosboxStagingReplacer.exe for Windows).

2. Install GOG Galaxy

3. Install DOSBox Staging:

   • Install it from https://www.dosbox-staging.org/.

• You may install it or just use the portable version.

3. Run the Tool: Open a command prompt or terminal:

   DosboxStagingReplacer --help
   
   
   

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Command-Line Arguments

Option	Long Form	Description
-h	--help	Shows help message and exits
-v	--version	Prints version information and exits
-f	--file	The Galaxy database file [default: "galaxy-2.0.db"]
-d	--directory	The GOG Galaxy storage directory [default: "C:\ProgramData\GOG.com\Galaxy\storage"]
-b	--backup	Create a backup of the Galaxy database
-r	--restore	Restore the backup of the Galaxy database
-lb	--list-backups	List all backups of the Galaxy database
-la	--list-applications	Print all installed applications
-do	--dos-only	This flag signifies that any list operations will only be DOS related.
-lg	--list-games	Print all installed games
-sp	--show-playtasks	Shows all play tasks registered for a game
-rd	--replace-dosbox	Replace the DOSBox version used by the game with the one you specified
-alu	--all-users	This flag signifies that the operation will be performed for all users. Otherwise, it will get the most recent User.
-s	--search	Filter the list results when listing applications or games. [default: ""]
-dv	--dosbox-version	The version of DOSBox to use, specified by the application name from --list-applications. The specified version must be installed on the system. [default: ""]
-dvm	--dosbox-version-manual	The version of DOSBox to use, specified by the absolute path to the executable. Use for portable versions. [default: ""]
-rk	--release-key	The release key of the selected game, found using the --list-games flag. [default: ""]
-fmt	--format	The format used when doing any print operation [default: ".json"]
-o	--output	The name of the output file. If empty, the output will be printed to the console. [default: ""]
-cfsdf	--change-fullscreen-default	Replaces the predefined fullscreen value in the Dosbox config file with the Dosbox default [default: "yes"]
-crsdf	--change-resolution-default	Replaces the predefined resolution values (fullresolution, windowresolution) in the Dosbox config file with the Dosbox defaults [default: "yes"]
-cmpdf	--change-mapping-default	Removes the mapping value in the Dosbox config file [default: "yes"]

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Usage Examples

List Games

DosboxStagingReplacer --list-games

Filtered List of DOS-only Games

DosboxStagingReplacer --list-games --dos-only --search "keen"

Assuming the output would be something like this

[
  {
    "productId": 2070676386,
    "title": "Commander Keen Complete Pack",
    "slug": "commander_keen_complete_pack",
    "gogId": 2070676386,
    "releaseKey": "gog_2070676386",
    "installationPath": "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\GOG Galaxy\\Games\\Commander Keen",
    "installationDate": "2024-07-12 15:25:27"
  }
]

Replace with Specific Installed DOSBox

DosboxStagingReplacer --replace-dosbox --release-key gog_2070676386 --dosbox-version "dosbox-staging"

Replace with Manual DOSBox Path

DosboxStagingReplacer --replace-dosbox --release-key gog_2070676386 --dosbox-version-manual "C:\tools\dosbox-staging\dosbox.exe"

Backup and Restore

DosboxStagingReplacer --backup
DosboxStagingReplacer --restore

Export Output to File

DosboxStagingReplacer --list-games --format .json > gog_games.json

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Sample Flow

This is a sample flow how to use this application to modify an already installed game. This also assumes you have already have done the Download and Setup page.

1. Find the game via --list-games --dos-only parameters (You may use --search to narrow down the search)

DosboxStagingReplacer --list-games --dos-only --search "keen"

2. Assuming you already have found the key, use the --replace-dosbox flag

DosboxStagingReplacer --replace-dosbox --release-key gog_2070676386 --dosbox-version "dosbox-staging"

3. There you have it, the application will replace the necessary files and make the necessary modifications in the Gog galaxy database to replace the game from launching normally in Dosbox to Dosbox-Staging

4. You may need to restart Gog Galaxy to see the changes (Usually you do not, see my mastodon post on how it works).

Tips

• You can combine filters with list operations for more precise results.
• If using --all-users, ensure your account has access to all GOG Galaxy profiles.
• There is a GUI wrapper I made in powershell that uses this utility. You can get it here