I have just uploaded D-Fend Reloaded 0.3.2 to Sourceforge. Besides the new French and Russian translations (thanks to curieux and skatz) its a big bugfix release (13 bugs fixed and 8 mostly small improvements; also see the changelog).
If you already use D-Fend Reloaded you can simply update to the new version via the "Search for updates" function from the help menu. (Although the installer is now multilingual too, it will appear in English because the installer remembers the last chosen language. To change the installer language for further updates and data package installers open the setup dialog and change the "Installer language" in the "Language" tab.)
If you haven't used D-Fend Reloaded yet, you can find different installation packages on the project homepage.
Hi skatz,
thank you for your updated Russian translation. I compared it with the old translation and my editor told me only a few things have changed. So I don't like to create a "New Russian language file for DFR 0.3.2" record on Sourceforge. But I cannot rate the importance of the changes. So if you tell me your changes are really important, I will bring your language file to Sourceforce. Otherwise I will keep it here and use it as Russian base language file for the next release.
And this leads us to the next topic: No, I haven't started working on D-Fend Reloaded 0.4.0. But I have already some nice ideas (besides the already discussed new profile adding wizard). Before I will begin to do something for DFR 0.4.0 I will update the demo games packages (ok, by now I does not contain any game but this will change). At the moment I look for shareware and freeware games and other free programs. So if anybody has some nice games that should be in this "Show me what DOSBox and D-Fend Reloaded can do" package, just tell me. (Of course as already mentioned above, they have to be legally includeable.) I will see, what games are downloadable from the Apogee / 3D Realms website the next days.
Additionally I have another nice idea: In the good old times of BBS there were a lot of ansi images, editors, etc. DOSBox 0.72 does not support ansi graphics but 1.) some CSV builds does and 2.) with nnansi one can use ansi commands within any DOSBox version. (NNAnsi is GPLed and it's a com file, so loading it in DOSBox is no problem.) I have also found the latest shareware version of "The Draw". (The Wikipedia article for The Draw links to a download site which offers a version with "Registered for: ... Serial number: ...". The Draw is from '93 but anyway I think using this version wouldn't be a good idea. And the shareware restriction consists mostly, as far as I found out, of the deactivated macro recorder. So I will include the also a bit newer shareware version.) Do you know any other good ansi recources which should be included ? (Of course again, only if it's legal to distribute the images or tools.)
That's even better. (I haven't tested ansi things in DOSBox much yet.) I've found an ansi art collection (>100 files) and it thought I had a file producing simple ESC commands (as text) on the screen when trying to show the file. (But of course I have no idea, which file it was.) And I thought I have read sometime ago something like "Is DOSBox supporting ansi graphics?" - "No, DOSBox is an emulator for old games and nothing else. Not a general purpose system emulator and not for other special interests."
I've justed "type"ed a few of the images and everything looks fine. As I already said: Having some ansi art images and tools in my demo packages is just an idea from today and I haven't looked at the things for a longer time. (And unfortunately I probabily won't have time before weekend.)
Before I will begin to do something for DFR 0.4.0 I will update the demo games packages (ok, by now I does not contain any game but this will change). At the moment I look for shareware and freeware games and other free programs. So if anybody has some nice games that should be in this "Show me what DOSBox and D-Fend Reloaded can do" package, just tell me. (Of course as already mentioned above, they have to be legally includeable.) I will see, what games are downloadable from the Apogee / 3D Realms website the next days.
The mention of Apogee / 3D Realms suddenly reminded me of Epic MegaGames. They were the creaters of some nifty games back in the days, the kind that has shareware versions.
The latest encarnation of the company, Epic Games, has apparently licensed their old stuff into another company, Epic Classics, that still sells them through mail order, which means full versions are out of the question.
The shareware versions, though, can be downloaded from this other site:
Their stuff is nowhere as good as Apogee / 3D Realms', but hang me if that Epic Pinball shareware version wouldn't look cool in anybody's DOSBox setup. It's easily one of the best pinball games ever made for DOS, and it has lots of eye and sound candy to boot.
So if you tell me your changes are really important, I will bring your language file to Sourceforce. Otherwise I will keep it here and use it as Russian base language file for the next release.
I think, you may keep it. There were only two buttons and one checkbox. (And in 'Current drive setup' I can not guess what is current - drive or setup 😮 )
But old texts are, well, understandable.
Only questionable caption is 'Complete games' in install builder dialog. I rendered it as 'Full Games' (looking at 'vollstandige'). Maybe it should be changed when you make the second tab visible.
And the next idea. May you post/mail new executable to translators before release, for testing purpose? (Maybe hidden link on your site?)
Or it would be too difficult?
yes, it spells "Guten Tag" with a single "t" and it's a bit formal for a forum, but thank you anyway. I must say I have very little time at the momemt, so I still haven't started working on the games package yet. But I hope I will find some time on the weekend.
The "Current drive setup" label appears on the last page of the profile wizard. Below the label there is a list showing all currently mounted drives (by now only the ".\VirtualHD" drive). This whole thing was only made to inform the user which drives there will be in the new profile. (The profile wizard is subject to change in the next release.)
The "Complete games" string is used in the "Build installer packages" dialog. By now there is only one thing you can do in this dialog: Create installer packages from the installed games. The next version will also allow you to make installer packages for templates and auto setup templates. Therefore the dialog will get three tabs on top "Complete games", "Templates" and "Auto setup templates". Because there are already some internal data structures for this new functions in 0.3.2 there is already the single "Complete games" tab.
I have never thought of having such a success with D-Fend Reloaded. So I have not thought of making beta versions or using things like CVS. I think it would be a very good idea if I try to get a little bit more professional with D-Fend Reloaded. At least making an official beta version for a restricted circle of testers would be good and should be makeable with little effort. But by now 0.4.0 is far, far away and my interal feature wish list is getting longer and longer.
no, I haven't slept or went on holiday last week, I just worked on the new "Programs & games demo package for D-Fend Reloaded". By now there are 80 games and programs in my list with together 322 MB installed. A big load of nice shareware and freeware games. You can find the list of the new package here. If you know any game still missing, just tell me.
At the moment I am thinking of how to split the big list into smaller installer packages by genres. Because a compressed installer package for all 80 profiles would still be 145MB. The new packages should be on the server by the beginning of next week. And then we can open the official D-Fend Reloaded 0.4.0 wish list.
I have justed copied the new games and programs example packages to Sourceforge. These packages contain 86 freeware and shareware games/programs to be used in D-Fend Reloaded. A full installation of all 6 packages will result in about 345 MB of new software on your harddisk. If you already have a D-Fend Reloaded installation, all you have to do to install one of the example packages is clicking on "Next" for four times. All games are already preconfigurated and also developer, publisher and license information are provided in the profiles.
As already mentioned, there is only shareware and freeware in the packages. There is no abandonded ware in any package. All freeware games will show a "I'm freeware just copy me" message or have a readme file telling the game is freeware. For the shareware games I have also added the publisher homepage to the game information in the profile (if there exists a homepage anymore).
I am not planning to update these packages in the next times, but if you have any interessting freeware/shareware you think that should be added, you can of course tell me. And if you think for any of the games there are wrong license information, please tell me, too.
D-Fend Reloaded 0.4.0 feature wish list
With this, I declare the D-Fend Reloaded 0.4.0 feature wish list to be opened. What would you like to see in the next version ? Some things I have already on my todo:
New, more powerful profile wizard (completely automatic setup via the new auto setup templates, using the normal templates, more intelligent mounting setup).
First start wizard (will use the installer language as program language and tell the user "Here you can change to language. If it's already correct, just click 'Next'." and will ask the user if he wants automatic update checks - because they are deactivated by default).
Setup of codepages like setup of keyboard layouts.
Making floppy disk images bootable (because mounting them and "Sys A:" won't work).
Smarter initial folder selection when opening the game/setup exe dialog. (At the moment the games base directory will be shown if the game/setup exe field is empty. It would be better to take the folder from the setup/game exe if this is already defined as initial directory for the game/setup exe.)
The mount editor should show a warning message if the user trys to use the same drive letter twice and also if the user trys to mount the root directory of a drive.
I don't know how much time for working on D-Fend Reloaded I will have in the next weeks but anyway I will try to finish 0.4.0 by the end of April.
Which already brings me to my first request for the next version: It would be nice if there could be some kind of folders in the profile list. Then I would for example install your packages to a folder named "Alexander's Game Pack 1" etc. and keep my own collection "untouched".
And BTW: did you really keep your Ramona high scores from 1991? 😀
Is there a way to adjust the autoexec part on a per game basis? raptor needs something typed into the DOS window prior to running the game for a cheat to work.
AMD Ryzen 3700X | ASUS Crosshair Hero VIII (WiFi) | 16GB DDR4 3600MHz RAM | MSI Geforce 1070Ti 8GB | Windows 10 Pro x64.
Is there a way to adjust the autoexec part on a per game basis?
Yes, just select the profile you want to edit, press Ctrl+Enter (or F2 or choose "Edit..." from the context menu or from the "Profile" menu) and select the category "Starting" in the profile editor. There you'll find a edit field labeled "Autoexec.bat".
(And BTW D-Fend Reloaded 0.4.0 will additionally have a "Finalization" edit field for commands that need to be run after the game.)
J.B. wrote:
It would be nice if there could be some kind of folders in the profile list. Then I would for example install your packages to a folder named "Alexander's Game Pack 1" etc. and keep my own collection "untouched".
This idea sounds very useful. (When building the example packages I have used a portable installation to keep my normal collection untouched.) But at the moment I'm not sure how to implement something like this without rewriting to much. I would prefer some smart way of changing the base & games directory. Because this really needs some thinking, it will probably not make it to the 0.4.0 release, but the idea is very nice and I definitivly would like to implement this.
J.B. wrote:
And BTW: did you really keep your Ramona high scores from 1991?
Hmm, I must have forgotten there was a highscore. But yes, beginning of '91 must have been the time I got this nice little game. Ok, even at the time Ramona was a quite simple game, but now for me its pure nostalgia. I think I got this game on a 5 1/4 inch disk. Later I have surely archivated it in some arj or lha archive on a 3 1/2 inch disk and again some time later, when I have copied all of my floppy disks to two CDs, it must have managed even there not to get lost. And here it is, 17 years later, and as good as on the first day. 😀
I really love to see this old treasures still running. And with DOSBox they will be useable for ever.
1. Inteface: Put some menu on tray icon : restore/about/quit (and anything else you want).
2. OS: Read CD Image feature does not work under XP SP2. Does it work on Vista? I've tried to compile code you used - it cannot get extended reading mode. If you skip this check, it reads first track (on one track disk that IS iso image) and fails to read data after it. Maybe you may allow this bahavior (with warning, of course) ?
3.Small bug: When you add template from prifile, in profiles list profile without icon will have the icon from the first iconed profile in this list. That is, if only 'DosBox DOS' have icon, it will spread over all list.
1. Inteface: Put some menu on tray icon : restore/about/quit (and anything else you want).
For me there is no need to have a menu on the tray icon, because the only thing I need is the restore function. But I can make a tray icon menu anyway. Besides "restore" and "quit" I could only think of "Add profile..." to be useful in the tray icon menu. Do you have any further suggestions ?
skatz wrote:
2. OS: Read CD Image feature does not work under XP SP2. Does it work on Vista?
For me it's working, but I have only tested it with one track CDs.
I know, the read CD function it quite simple but first D-Fend Reloaded is not a full featured CD ripper and second it's the best I could get to work. Originally I wanted to use code from the FreeBurner project (a Sourceforge CD burning program written in Delphi). The CD ripper from the included exe just worked fine but as soon as I compiled FreeBurner myself the program stopped working. A function like GetCDSize calls a low-level function which fails and the error code is ignored by the pascal function, so it reports 0 bytes to read. Because I don't know the ASPI and SCSI low-level command structure and the error codes, I don't understand what is going wrong there.
skatz wrote:
I've tried to compile code you used - it cannot get extended reading mode. If you skip this check, it reads first track (on one track disk that IS iso image) and fails to read data after it. Maybe you may allow this bahavior (with warning, of course) ?
Yes, adding some
1 result:=DeviceIoControl(Volume,FSCTL_ALLOW_EXTENDED_DASD_IO, nil,0,nil,0,I,nil); 2 if not result then begin result:=(MessageDlg(LanguageSetup.ReadImageNoExtendedAccessWarning,mtWarning,[mbYes,mbNo],0)=mrYes); 3 end;
code should be no problem.
Perhaps the DeviceIoControl error is due to opening the device the wrong way (which Vista accepts but XP not). At the momemt DFR opens a device by opening the file "\\.\<DeviceLetter>:". but today a have read when searching for "FSCTL_ALLOW_EXTENDED_DASD_IO" on the net, CD drives can also be opened by "\\.\CdRom<DeviceNr>". If you can compile D-Fend Reloaded, you can try to replace the OpenVolume function in the ReadDriveUnit.pas by this function:
1function OpenVolume(const Drive: Char; const WriteMode : Boolean = False): THandle; 2var VolumeName: String; {array [0..6] of Char;} 3begin 4 //VolumeName:='\\.\A:'; VolumeName[4]:=Drive; 5 VolumeName:='\\.\CdRom0'; 6 If WriteMode 7 then result:=CreateFile(PChar(VolumeName),GENERIC_READ or GENERIC_WRITE,0,nil,OPEN_EXISTING,0,0) 8 else result:=CreateFile(PChar(VolumeName),GENERIC_READ,FILE_SHARE_READ,nil,OPEN_EXISTING,0,0); 9end;
I haven't tested opening the device by "\\.\CdRom0" yet, but perheps this helps. - And if not, at least we know a new method that doesn't work.
skatz wrote:
3.Small bug: When you add template from prifile, in profiles list profile without icon will have the icon from the first iconed profile in this list. That is, if only 'DosBox DOS' have icon, it will spread over all list.
That was due to a missing default icon in the image list in this dialog. Already fixed.
