Hi all.

I wasn't sure which forum to put this in and thought this was as good as any.... :-)

I'm operating Windows 7 Ultimate, and, when it comes to some "old" games, it's a hit-or-miss when trying to get them to work (such as using Compatibility mode, etc.).

I'm sure a lot of you have heard of a program called "DOS Box". Have any of you heard of a program called "D-Fend"?

I believe this D-Fend has the DOS Box program inside of it.

I was trying to use this program to get an old game up and running, an action/ adventure game called "Realms of the Haunting" (also referred to as "ROTH".....anyone out there ever played it??).

It's a fairly old game, DOS-based, and I used to be able to get it to run back in the Windows 95 & Win 98 days.

Using the D-Fend program, I was able to get ROTH installed correctly. But, when I go to actually run the game, I get a message from the game itself popping up on my screen, telling me to "Insert the CD"....which, as you might have guessed, I already have the CD in the drawer.

Anyone out there have any experience with D-Fend? How about just getting ROTH itself to run in Windows 7 with some tricks or "tweaks"?

Any help tips, or suggestions are appreciated!!
Pez

I have no experience with D-Fend Reloaded (or the old original D-Fend).
D-Fend Reloaded is a front end to DOSBox. If you installed D-Fend and don't have DOSBox on your computer, that could be a problem.

Make sure you have a recent version of D-Fend Reloaded that works with Windows 7.

Realms of the Haunting had 4 CD's I believe.
Are you sure you have the right one in the drive?
If so, make sure the correct drive is mounted.

Pez,
Your problem might be the settings used for the ROTH game in D-Fend (Reloaded). As with any DOS-Box program, you must tell it when "real" hardware is required. If you don't, that hardware will not be seen.

Since you already have a ROTH entry in D-Fend, right click on it and select Edit. You will see all of the parameters required for DOS-Box and will need to adjust Drives. Left click on Drives and you will see what hardware is associated with ROTH.

Given your problem, you should not see a CDROM type in the table. You must add a CDROM entry using the correct Folder/Image name. Click on the ADD button to enter the required data. Don't forget to use the TYPE button to select CDROM.

I use D-Fend frequently - did you define a permanent Mount for the optical drive?

Hi all; thanks for all the replies!

Sorry for the delay in responding; I was on a mini vacation!!

Robert: Yup, you were right....I had not "added" the CD ROM drive. And thanks for all those detailed instructions (left-click on Drives....use Type to select CD ROM....). I've got ROTH up-and-running now.

And InlandAZ: You say you use D-Fend frequently? What tweaks do you think I could use on this game? When I'm in the game's environment and using the movement keys to navigate around, things are kind of choppy/ stuttering.

I don't mean the audio is stuttering, I mean the actual movement of my character (first-person POV) is choppy and not smoothly fluid; it's like he moves chunks of space at a time.

Any helpful tweaks, info, and suggestions would be appreciated.
Pez

Pez,
There are several settings to look at. Start D-Fend but don't start the game. Right click on any specific game and select Edit. Now you will be able to change settings.

Look at DOSBOX Settings and try a higher priority. Look at CPU and experiment with the settings.
It is not likely that other settings will cause the jerky movement but you could experiment with the video settings.

It's possible that you won't be able to make some games run very well.

I use very few tweaks; I've got fairly fast a quad core I'm using.

Do check the CPU settings under each profile. If a game runs sluggish try setting the value to max. I also never run games in full screen mode, but that's a personal thing, I just like the image quality better running in a window. If you do the same, there is a graphics setting keep the original Aspect Ratio, make sure you check it.