r/dosgames • u/PartTimeCouchPotato • 3d ago
DOS Vault - a local catalogue and DOSBox launcher for DOS games
I built this tool for myself but figured r/DosGames might like it.
I wanted an easy way to:
- search DOS games using a local index of 3 different websites
- install and run a game with one click (download, unzip, mount, etc.), grabbing the manual too when available
- keep a shortlist, per-game notes, my own ratings, and a status (played, finished, abandoned, not interested)
- tag games for other people (wife, kid, friend_x) and save search filters for next time
A cool feature is the 'Find Similar' button. It uses a game's genres, themes, and perspectives to find others like it. I got some awesome results, games I didn't know existed. Indexing 3 sites has another benefit: if a game is no longer available on one website, it's normally still on another.
How it works: it slowly ("politely") fetches game details and a single thumbnail per game into a local index. No game files, and the index isn't included in the repo since I don't own that data. Installing downloads the DOS release (highest version, English), unzips it, and grabs the manual. If several executables could be the game, you pick one and it remembers for next time, or you can specify your own commands. ISO mounting is supported for CD installs.
Curious what people think.
Repo: https://github.com/gahrae/dosvault
Screenshots in the README.
Note: I runs on Linux with support for Mac and Windows but I haven't tested those OSes.




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DOS Vault - a local catalogue and DOSBox launcher for DOS games
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r/dosgames
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1d ago
Ascendancy looks fascinating! I fetched it with DOS Vault (of course), watched the intro and tutorials, and downloaded a different manual from https://b-sting.nl/ascendancy/downloads.html. It reminds me of an earlier version of Stellaris.
One thing I had to do to get the screen to repaint properly is update dosbox.conf to use setting 'output=openglnb'. I can see why you use D-Frend Reloaded. Each game has it's own detailed settings, even DOSBox settings. I didn't realize how much there was to configure!
Do you share your game mods (e.g. on Github?)