Forums - D-fend Vs. Boxer

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- - D-fend Vs. Boxer (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=11175)

This is the first thread I ever start here, I hope I'm not abusing the board, I don't think so since I searched for "boxer" in the forum and nothing appeared.

Well, the case is that everybody who uses a "loader" for DOSBox over here seems to be using D-Fend, if I'm not wrong. I haven't tried it, I use one called Boxer. I don't know how many people are using it, but at least it's recommended in a tutorial linked in the Spanish Wikipedia entry for DOSBox. It goes like this:

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...fran/Boxer.png

My question is: Has somebody tried both D-Fend and Boxer --and possibly other DOSBox "loaders"--, and can he tell which is better and why? Boxer covers my needs and I'm not thinking on changing it, it's just that I was curious.

Why don't you go ahead and do that, and let us know how it goes.

I was merely hoping somebody had already done it because, as I've said, I'm just curious and in no need of any upgrade. But I might take the glove, in case nobody has tried both I might do so and then post my opinion --if I'm idle enough, what seems unlikely right now...

EDIT: Considering the matter realistically, I don't think I'll download and install a program I don't need just for the sake of it, but I'll add a little info I found. (It's curious how it's always easier to find something in a site [such as Ab] through an external search engine such as Google, than through the site's own internal search engine.)

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.p...DOSBoxFrontends

Quote:

D-Fend - DOSBox-Frontend The largest DOSBox Frontend availabe. This frontend has supports for all DOSBox features and allows you generate default profiles for your system. It's also the only frontend which supports the unsupported cvs features. Because of its profile system and its intelligent mount system it's great for newbies and people using the cvs version of DOSBox [?]. *Now supports Screenshot viewing for each Game Profile* Website: http://members.home.nl/mabus
Boxer - DOSBoxers The smallest (in filesize) of the frontends available. It tries to keep up with the stable DOSBox version and allows you to edit every aspect of dosbox.conf. Great if you want a very small frontend which just gets the job done. Website: http://www.pcgamester.co.uk/

[/b]

So, it seems that D-Fend's main advantages are its profile system and "intelligent mounting system". As for the profiles, you can create and use them in Boxer as well --in the screenshot above only one existed ("Default") because Ctrl+F11/F12 has solved 99 per cent of my problems so far. As for D-Fend's "mouting system" I don't have a clue about it; what Boxer has is an AUTOEXEC.BAT copycat, it may deter newbies who don't have a clue about DOS and DOSBox syntax but it's handy dandy for me, see below at the bottom:

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...ran/Boxer2.png

More info:

http://www.abandonia.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4369

Quote:

d-fend isnt just for newbies ... its the best way to manage your dosbox games

I agree. I installed D-Fend for my nephews, so I had some opportunity to play around with it and I must say it's probably the best dosbox frontend available. [...]

It works mighty well, but for some reason Master Of Orion save games dissapear when I use it.

Just for the record. D-Fend IS easy to use, but it makes DosBox unstable. Some games gets #¤&%ed up, others won't play at all, and sometimes strange things happen... Like Dreadlord loosing her savegames. [This guy was Tom Henrik :kosta: ] [...]

I've switched back to DosBox, after it permanently corrupted my game of Dungeon Master 2 (wherein I was right at the end :ranting: ). [...]

I personally prefer Boxer, works perfectly, and never had it "*meep* up" a game. ;) [Me neither.][/b]

Ladies and gentleman, if someone has actually tried both I'd still be interested in his input. ^_^

You know, what I'm waiting for is a system that will take a zipped archive, mount it, load it, and run the relevent executable all in one so that DOS games can be as easy to run as a console emulated system. I know that's not exactly realistic at the moment, but still would be cool.

Man, when I started reading your post I though you were being ironic, but after having read it I leaned towards thinking that you're lazy! LOL Please dispel my uncertainty.

well, if someone's interested what i use :D, for "auto execute" i use autohotkey

there s an example of my dosBOX bot

Code:

 IfWinExist, DOSBox 0.65`,Cpu Cycles:**** 3000`, Frameskip**0`, Program:** DOSBOX

{

}

else

{

run C:\programs\DOSBox-0.65\dosbox.exe, D:\programs\DOSBox-0.65

}

WinWait, DOSBox 0.65, Cpu Cycles:**** 3000, Frameskip**0, Program:** DOSBOX

sleep 1000

WinActivate

send mount C C:\gamez\{enter}

send mount D D:\{enter}

send**cycles 15000 

send d:{enter}

send mount e e:\ -t cdrom{enter}

send c: {enter}

return

you know that you can type
cycles 10000
to get the same effect ? instead of sending the F12 sequence ?

I can't say much about the frontends. Both are windows only.
Boxer was made for a much older version of DOSBox. So it misses a lot of settings compared to
D-Fend.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Data @ Jul 27 2006, 09:33 AM) [snapback]245402[/snapback]</div>

Quote:

you know that you can type
cycles 10000
to get the same effect ? instead of sending the F12 sequence ?
[/b]

whops =] thx

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Data @ Jul 27 2006, 09:33 AM) [snapback]245402[/snapback]</div>

Quote:

I can't say much about the frontends. Both are windows only.
[/b]

What are you linux? Isn't there a front end for linux or are you too hard core for front ends?

Not that I use front ends either, but I'm windows and I used DOS the first time around.

personally, I have yet to use a frontend for DosBox. So far, messing around in the config file is enough.