I realized that since with every GOG game that's played through Dosbox you have another copy of Dosbox in that game's folder, it'll be much easier to save space by simply taking the files after installing the game and using them with some kind of a frontend. Otherwise it's about 10MB for every game just for the Dosbox install! It's especially bad now with games from the same series being split into separate installer, so you can't install them together and have only 1 Dosbox folder per the whole series, like it used to be with Quest for Glory or Might and Magic 1-5.

So which frontend do you think is the best for this, coupled with using my own original games as well?

I found this great Frontend comparison chart but it hasn't been updated for a year, and this list from the same Dosbox wiki describing the various frontends that's also a year old.

Which one of these do you think is the best? I'd also like to be able to use the game setup to change the sound and in some cases make them run with Roland MT-32 and/or ScummVM.

Btw how do you stop your mouse going over the edge of the windowed Dosbox? It makes reaching the edges in QfG hard as it always moves past them, so you have to slow down and meticulously seek out what you want in order not to get out of the game.

Edit: I forgot to add, D-Fend Reloaded and DBGL seem like the best choices, any tips on which of the two (or another one) you'd recommend? Thanks!

Well, not used any of those front ends, so can't help there. What I would add is a couple of points. First, 10mb really is nothing these days. There are beneifts to having DosBox in each game, for instance some versions are more compatible with certain games than others, the whole game can then be made portable etc. Have tried this frontends for various things and whist they can be useful, I have always found them to be constrictive, and not do what I want the way I want it. That may be the age demographic though, I don't like clients either, I prefer to do things myself, my way.

The difference is when you have 50 Dosbox games or more, that becomes a whopping 500MB. Or even with QfG1-5 and MM1-5 it's already 10 games (okay, 9) with their own separate Dosbox installs, so you're at 100MB, and why not save the space if you can?

Not everyone has a large HDD or uses external HDDs, as netbooks or laptops with smaller HDDs or SDDs are used, and even if you have a lot of space, why waste it when you can use that space for something else?

I personally have a 1TB disk but I don't see a reason why not to use a frontend or a regular Dosbox with shortcuts for each game instead of having GOG installs taking up more space than they should.

Also frontends allow you to have individual settings stored for each game, like in a real DOS, which is great, and unless I'm mistaken, there aren't any games now that benefit from an older version of Dosbox. If they are, you can always have a separate version of Dosbox for it (or if the frotend lets you use an older version it's even easier), and if you like using clients yourself, then why don't you just have several different Dosboxes and launch the games from them, instead of using the GOG client - their default install? A frontend just gives you a menu from within which you can do everything instead of going into each folder to find the ini file or the setup exe, you know, so it seems facetious to pull the age argument, since GOG simplifies things even more.
With frontend you actually have to put more work into it.

I agree with nightcraw1er.488 and I also realized that if I want my controllerprofiles detect a Dosbox game automatically I have to use separate installs otherwise it won't detect the game since the .exe would always be the same in the same location.

Wait, what do you mean? I thought when you use a frontend you install the game in it, right? So it has its own ini file and everything, and the only difference is that you can make multiple games use the same Dosbox folder instead of having one x times for each game. Just like when you use Dosbox normally, without any shortcuts to launch the game, like I used to do.

Since you execute a game in a virtual environment (Dosbox) no 3rd party profiler software can differntiate which game Dosbox%.exe is playing apart from Dosbox's own mapper that is.

What kind of other software do you want to use with the games?

Logitech profiler.

How do you actually get to use it though? I'm just curious, because I'm using my integrated graphics card to play the old games, since they are so old and I can't imagine why would you need to use a profile with DOS games?

Well, I wasn't really thinking about Gog games, as you can already have a front end for that - Galaxy, although it does indeed still install all the dosbox necessities I its required. I think the thing here s having 50 games installed in the first place. I currently have the most games installed at one ever possibly, and that is 4. I have a storage system where I keep all installers, saves, mods etc. which is usb 3, so to install say van helsing, which is huge compared to most dosbox games takes a few minutes. Don't see any saving grace for having your whole library installed. I do also have various games portabilised on usb sticks and what npt so I can play on any machine. To note, my win 10 install is a 500gb ssd, win 7 is a 256gb ssd Linux is on a 64gb ssd, so not a lot of room, although I do also have a smalll data drive hdd.

As a side note, you could try launchbox, that has the ability to launch dos games, emulated games etc. From a unified front end.
https://www.launchbox-app.com/

I use it to configure my gamepad.
I really don't understand why integrated video hardware comes into this discussion though. :^?

Yeah, I love Launchbox. It was originally conceived to be a DOSBox frontend, too, although now it's a frontend to everything. I can't speak to other DOSBox frontends, so maybe those are easier, but with Launchbox you can have it create a basic config file which you can then edit to your liking and it also has a command line that you can fill when setting up the app file to launch from, provided you have some level of comfort with those (I'm terrible with them but I've seen enough tutorials to get by okay).

I had some experience with D-Fend Reloaded a few years back.
At the time It was quite easy to use, and had no trouble with using it.
However, all I really needed it for was swapping config files, and I've learned to do that manually since... and having bothered to reinstall it on this laptop.
But if you don't to hav ea seperate config file for each game (and link to it in a shortcut) D-Fend would be a good place to start.

Don't know about the other frontends, so I can't help you there.

I also use D-Fend Reloaded for a handful of old games which have yet to be released on GOG or Steam which I still have the discs for. I like using it for mounting floppy disk and CD-ROM images for some older games as I find the interface similar to Virtual Machine Software such as VMWare Workstation and Virtual Box.

Some successes I've had with it:

-Installing Gumboots Australia from original floppy (Key-disk Protected). Originally tried with USB floppy drive, then made image as Floppy disk support post Windows XP is crap. Key Disk games require floppy in drive first time it is run as a form of copy protection. Plus floppies deteriorate badly, I've lost many due to humidity when I lived in Northern Australia or just wear.

-Installing Where in the World is Carmen Sandiago CD-ROM edition. Keep ISO mounted.

-Installing Lemmings (Originally Key-Disk Protected). 286 Mode, some issues on higher settings.

-Installing Mech Warrior 2 and Ghost Bear's Legacy expansion (Swap ISO images as physical discs can't be read properly by dosbox). Keep images attached for CD Audio in game.

-Installing Ultimate Doom and Gravis Ultrasound driver folder to mount folder to play Doom with enhanced music! I've never used (Only had Creative Sound blaster or compatibles) or will ever own a Gravis Soundcard as they are rare and expensive collectors items nowadays.

-Quarantine (Had to look up code sheet as I bought it off ebay) sucks that there is no music as it was a combo disc with 3 games (Game had CD Audio). Had the same issue with 2nd hand Prince of Persia Trilogy (Original Broderbund games NOT Ubisoft)

-Shadowlands (RPG) needs 286 mode and will run too fast on 486 or higher CPUs.

-Freeware Apogee and Epic games. Most Ok expect One Must Fall 2097 as need to slow down both config and in game as it runs too fast.

-Shareware version of Zone 66. Will try again but back when I tried dosbox on it's own I couldn't get both sound and music to work. Installed Gus patch to this version. Both Sound Blaster and Gravis Ultrasound now works with both Music and Sound FX instead of Music and no sound or PC speaker for Sound FX.

Failures:

-William Shatner's Tek War. Installs OK, game itself runs (Build Engine like Duke3D) ok but FMV sequences glitches, pauses etc. I don't know if it is due to damage of the original media (I've had the Disc resurfaced), limitations of dosbox as this is reading FMV off ISO image.

-Ken's Labyrinth. Freezes as soon as I'm in game. ???