LaunchBox

If you’re not familiar with DOSBox, here’s a brief intro: it emulates a PC that runs MS-DOS; it is an open-source DOS emulator for Windows, Mac OS S, BeOS, and OS/2. This had to be brought up because LaunchBox used to be nothing more than a good looking frontend for the aforementioned DOSBox. But mind you, that was at first, when LaunchBox was first rolled out to the public. Nowadays, LaunchBox also provides support for emulated console platforms and modern PC games.

This means you can use LaunchBox to manage all your games – modern PC games, emulated games, DOS games. From a central location, LaunchBox’s quite good looking interface, you can view all the games in your collection and you can launch any game in your collection. If you’re a gamer, if you want a stylish and efficient means of managing your games, you’re very well advised to give LaunchBox a try.

LaunchBox provides support for any Windows edition from Windows Vista onward. Developer Jason Carr explained that Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 8.1 are fully supported. Carr also explained that LaunchBox will work just fine on Windows XP, but this Windows edition is no longer supported and “we are no longer testing for the platform.”

LaunchBox won’t actually install itself on your Windows PC. The application’s setup wizard will not install LaunchBox on your PC. It will extract LaunchBox to your PC. The default location is My Documents, but you can change it to something else if you want to. What does this mean? It means that LaunchBox is portable. It also means that to get rid of LaunchBox, you won’t have to uninstall it, you just have to delete the LaunchBox folder.

By default, a Welcome prompt shows up when you launch LaunchBox. Its goal is to help you quickly get started with LaunchBox. To achieve this goal, it features links on how to install a DOS game, how to import games from Steam, how to import your ROM collection, see what LaunchBox can do.

Speaking about what LaunchBox can do, here’s a quick look at its main features: install DOS games; import games from ROM files, Steam, D-Fend Reloaded, LaunchBox ZIP Package; manage emulators; update notes from TheGamesDB.net; view all the games in your collection; customize the way LaunchBox displays info on its interface; launch any game in your collection; launch random game.

Alongside LaunchBox, which is free software, there’s a paid version called LaunchBox Premium. It features color themes, custom saved filters, custom fonts and spacing.

Thanks to LaunchBox you have an awesome means of managing your collection of games and launching any game in your collection. If you’re bored and don’t know what to play, just hit the Random button.