Alone in the Dark is a timeless classic that deserved much better than a slapdash, barely functional Steam release it got. Incorrectly set game speed, broken aspect ratio, exclusive fullscreen only, no multi-monitor support, but worst of all - no Steam Overlay! This prevents you from using Steam Input, Notes, or even Screenshot functions.

First things first, we must find your game's installation folder: In your Steam Library, right-click on your game's title, select Manage, and click on "Browse Local Files".

The Steam version of Alone in the Dark comes with a strangely janky configuration setup, which is responsible for all of its troubles. We must fix this situation by first stitching together its two config files:

• Make a copy of dosboxAlone1.conf, and rename it dosbox.conf
  
• Open the file dosboxAlone1_single.conf in Notepad. Select and copy all of its content.
  
• Next, open our new dosbox.conf, in Notepad, scroll it down to the very bottom, and paste the contents of dosboxAlone1_single.conf there.
  
  

Since whoever put this steam release together didn't bother to make any quality of life adjustments to the default DOSBox configuration, we must do it ourselves.
Search our new dosbox.conf for the following lines:

• output=, and set it to output=opengl or output=direct3d.
  
• fullresolution=, set it to fullresolution=desktop, so DOSBox doesn't try to change your screen resolution and screw up your window positions every time you run the game.
  
• aspect=, set it to aspect=true to maintain proper aspect ratio.
  
• scaler=, set it to scaler=hardware2x, so the resulting fullscreen image remains crisp, and not an antialiased mess.
  
• finally, cycles=, set it to cycles=6000. This will make the game's double-tap run controls a lot more responsive.

Save our new config file, and close the notepad.

• Go into the DOSBOX sub-folder rename the file dosbox.conf that resides there to something like dosbox.conf.bak
  
• Now copy our new, unified dosbox.conf fron the game's root folder into DOSBOX sub-folder.

The main reason why the Steam Overlay doesn't work in this game, is because it is configured to launch with a batch file instead of an executable. We now need to address this.

• In the DOSBOX subfolder Shift-right-click on the dosbox.exe, and select "Copy as path"
  
• Back in your Steam Library, open the game's properties, and under the "Launch Options" paste the full path to the DOSBox you just copied, follower by -noconsole -c exit %command%
  The resulting line should look something like:
  
  "D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Alone in the Dark 1\DOSBOX\dosbox.exe" -noconsole -c exit %command%
• Close properties and launch the game through Steam!

Congratulations! You can now take screenshots and use steam input as you please!
The overlay itself will work, but only update with the game's screen, unless you want to do some further DOSBox manipulations outlined in this guide.