Introduction

Content of this page: DOSBox DFendX Directory structure Adding new profiles Running games

Introduction to DFendX

The information on this page will give you an overview about what DFendX is and how to handle it.

What is DOSBox ?

DOSBox emulates an x86 PC including all hardware needed to run DOS programs. With this you can run nearly all of your old DOS games and programs on modern operating systems like Windows or Linux.

Unlike most other emulators (like Bochs or QEmu) DOSBox not only emulates the hardware of an x86 PC but also an MS-DOS compatible operation system. This means you can start directly running your old games without needing to install some operation system first. (But anyway you can install a custom operation system inside DOSBox if you want to.) Additonally DOSBox is much easier to handle than any of the other emulators and virtualizers: There is no need to install any system driver etc. to use it. It is even possible to run DOSBox directly from a USB stick. You can just mount any real folder as a drive inside DOSBox (this means there is no need to use harddisk image files, but of couse DOSBox can also handle harddisk images).

What is DFendX ?

Even so DOSBox is easy to handle compared to most of the other emulators, there is no graphical environment to setup the hardware used by the games and if you want to run different games needing different hardware setups you need to keep different versions of the DOSBox configuration file and always need to start DOSBox using the right configuration file.

To make things easier for the user there a several frontends for DOSBox. They offer dialogs for setting up DOSBox for different games. Also some of them can handle additional data for the games (manual files and captured screenshots).

DFendX is a DOSBox frontend for the Windows plattform. Inside DFendX you can manage your games just like links in the start menu. Inside the profile editor you can setup every option DOSBox is offering. To make things even easier there is a profile adding wizard which will only ask you very few question and try to automatically setup all nessessary things for you. Addtionally DFendX can store additionally files (like manuals) together with each game and can manage and view/play captured screenshots, sound and videos. You can even use your captured screenshots in the games list instead of plain text links.

Long time ago there has been a freeware frontend called "D-Fend Reloaded" (a rewrite of an even earlier frontend called D-Fend). But some day the development of this program has been stopped and it has been very quiet on the internet. DFendX is a fork and modernization effort of D-Fend Reloaded. It is 100% compatible with D-Fend (you can upate from D-Fend to DFendX by just replacing the program file if you want to). But by now DFendX has many new features D-Fend Reloaded never had.

Directory structure

You can place the games, you want to manage inside DFendX, in any directory you want to, but there will be some advantages (easier moving games from one installation to an other) if you keep some rules when storing games.

The normal installation ("User mode") has two main directories for storing data: The program directory and the data directory

The program directory (usually C:\Program files\DFendX)

In the program directory all program files needed to run DFendX and DOSBox will be stored. DFendX will not write to this directory after installation any more. (This means DFendX is compatible to the Vista way of dividing program files and data files.)

The data directory (usually C:\Users\YourName\DFendX)

All user files (programm configuration, game program files, manuals, captured files, etc.) should be stored in this directory and its subdirectores. The games files are stored in the subdirectories of the data directory:

• Settings: This folder is used by DFendX to store its configuration files.
• VirtualHD: This folder will be mounted as drive "C:" inside DOSBox (as long as you do not change this behavior for a profile). If you place your games in subdirectories of this folder you will be able to access them inside DOSBox without having to setup anything special in DFendX. Additionally you cannot damage your Windows installation if you accidentally delete your whole virtual harddisk inside DOSBox as long as you have only mounted this folder as drive "C:" inside DOSBox and not your whole real harddisk.
• Capture: DFendX will create a subfolder in this folder for each profile you create. (Of course you can also define some other capture folder.) The profile capture folder will be used by DOSBox to store captured images, sounds and videos. DFendX will show the captured files for each profile just below the profiles list. All you have to do is select a profile and you will see the corresponding screenshots etc.
• GameData: DFendX can create a subfolder of this folder for each profile you have (optionally and even of course also in any other folder). You can store addtional game files (like manuals etc.) here. You can access the content of this folder also via the information area below the profiles list or via the profile context menu.
• Confs: This folder is used to store the prof files for the games. Each prof file contains one profile. You can add your old D-Fend profiles just by copying the D-Fend prof files to this folder. (Attention: D-Fend stores each profile in a DOSBox conf and a prof file. If you import the whole content of the D-Fend Confs folder (via the import function from the file menu) you will have each profile twice. It is recommended to only import the prof files (because they contain more information than the corresponding conf files).
• AutoSetup, Lang, Templates: This folders are used internally by DFendX to store the auto setup templates, the language files and the normal profile templates. Of couse you can manually add templates by copying them to this folders but are is also the much more easily operated template editor inside DFendX.

Adding new profiles

The absolute easiest way of adding games to the list (if the game is stored as a zip file) is draging the zip file to the DFendX program window. DFendX will copy the game files to a new created subdirectory of the games folder and will try to automatically setup the new game via an auto setup template. If there is no auto setup template matching to the new game, DFendX will aplly the default template to the new profile. In most cases this will result in a correctly working new profile. But this way of adding new games does not allow the user to influence the process of profile creation. (Of couse you can edit the new profile later like any profile via the profile editor.)

The easiest way of adding profiles while letting user influence the process is via the profile adding wizard ("Add with wizard..." in the "Profile" menu or F3-key). The profile wizard will only ask you the really nessessary things: The name for the new profile, the exe file to execute inside DOSBox and some game settings. DFendX already knows over 350 games (the auto setup templates). If you add a known game it will offer you to completely automatically setup the game for you. If you want to add a game DFendX does not know, it will offer you to choose a template (of the type "low CPU power", "normal", "3D graphics"). Additionally you can add some information like author, publisher, language, year etc. to the profile and that's it, your new profile is ready.

Running Games

If you have defined a profile for your game, starting the game is very easy: Double click the profile name in the profile list on the right side of the program window. (Or select the profile and press Enter or select the profile and click on the "Run" toolbar button.) DFendX will run the game inside DOSBox. If you capture any images inside DOSBox (by pressing Ctrl+F5) or any sounds (by pressing Ctrl+F6 to start/stop) or any videos (by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F5) DFendX will show you this files in the bottom area of the program window. If you click on a screenshot, you will get a bigger preview and if you click on a captured sound or video file, DFendX will play the file.

See also:

Content of this help file
Adding profiles with the profile wizard
Internet link: DFendX homepage
Internet link: DOSBox homepage
Internet link: DOSBox-X homepage
Internet link: DOSBox Staging homepage