DOS boot disk to play game

[043itsme]

I have a pc game that must be played through DOS. Need help getting to DOS, creating the proper boot up disk, and getting computer to read d: cd drive. I have Windows XP, but know I'm not to use Windows for commands or game. Tried several things, but not proper ones. Thanks.

[oink]

I may be off base here but I don't think that will work with xp, at least if you use ntfs. It may work if you use fat. I haven't made a dos boot disk since Win95 but I bet if you did a google search for dos game boot disk you could find instructions. Boot disk.com can give you a boot floppy with the dos cdrom drivers on it. If you have trouble with that I can did out one I made long ago(if I can find one that works) and give you the config.sys and autoexec.bat lines. You would have to figure out your own sound drivers and video (if you want more than 16 colors).

[LRI41]

Running DOS Programs- Advanced

“PC WORLD” 9-2002 PP75

Old Apps Find A New Home On Windows XP

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,428284,00.asp

Right Click on a DOS Program and Select Properties from the pop-up menu.
Most of the tabs in the Properties Dialog box will be familiar, but the “Compatibility”
Tab is new. The lets you set the program to run at a resolution of 640 x 480. You
Can also disable the default visual themes that Windows XP imposes on programs.

There is also a less obvious and more powerful tool, by modifying the Config.sys
And Autoexec.bat files. Windows XP lets you define a customized Config.sys and
Autoexe.bat for each Dos Program.

First copy the C:\Windows\System32\Config.nt and C:\Windows\System32\
Autoexec.nt files to the directory of your DOS Program, then edit them to
Reflect the configuration you want. Save them with a new name. Bring up
The properties dialog for the DOS Program, move to the Program Tab and
Click on the Advanced Button. Enter the Config and Autoexec filenames you
Created to run the program and Windows XP will run the program in its own
Customized environment. This dialog also lets you try to slow down the DOS
Programs based upon the clock speed of your processor. Programs that run well
On 50 Mhz can be unusable on an 850Mhz system without this emulation.

See also:
:

http://www.minnemacs.com/manyhighways/sandbox/xp.html


Running MS-DOS programs in Windows XP

http://asia.cnet.com/itmanager/tech/0,39006407,39069928-2,00.htm


[langalist] LangaList Standard Edition 2003-06-30
Date: 6/29/2003 9:21:20 PM Pacific Daylight Time

Making *Really* Old Software Work In XP

Reader Harley Witham ran into a common problem for users upgrading to XP
from earlier version of Windows. The one-click solution--- though
nonobvious--- is actually much easier than the ways Harley first tried:

Fred, I'm stumped! Have been running Win-98 on my old computer
and also some DOS programs I've been using for a dozen years.
(With a dozen years of data which would be a pain to attempt
conversion to any WIN program, if I could find one which was
compatible.)

Just bought a new SONY RZ22G Vaio computer with XP Home on it.
When I attempt to run these DOS programs in XP's DOS window,
they are very small and difficult to use. The window will not
enlarge to fill the screen, but is like a minimized screen.
I thought I had a solution: Make a DOS Boot floppy and run
these programs under pure DOS from it. Accordingly, I
formatted a floppy and transferred the sys files using WIN-
98's DOS. I then copied Himem.sys, EMM386.EXE, and a Device
driver for CD ROM to the floppy and it now reads as follows

device = himem.sys
device = emm386.exe NOEMS
DOS=HIGH, UMB
devicehigh = vide-cdd.sys /DIBMCD001
files=40
buffers=40

Problem: Computer boots, and all appears normal until I
attempt to change directories, at which time I get a message
"Invalid drive specification."

What am I forgetting? Anything you can suggest would be very
much appreciated. ---Harley Witham

Your way can work, Harley, and we'll get back to it in a moment, but
there's usually a much easier solution. You see, XP can usually handle
old software (including DOS apps) pretty well on its own, with three
caveats:

First, as you've seen, many old DOS apps (and games) were meant to run
at either 25 lines by 80 characters (if text) or maybe 640x480
resolution (if graphics), and sometimes much less for very early
software. You probably now run your system at a much higher resolution,
but the old DOS apps haven't a clue how to work in a larger environment.
The result can be a tiny window on your much-larger screen.

But XP offers solutions: First, each window in which your DOS apps run
can have its own properties: Right click on the window's menu bar, and
explore the options for window size, font size and style, and more.
Enlarging the font, for example, may make old text-based apps far more
usable on today's large screens.

You might also try altering the way the DOS programs actually run: In
XP, right click on the DOS program and select
Properties/Compatibility/Run in 640x480. XP will then try to run the app
or game in low resolution, restoring the classic look and feel.
Note that the "compatibility" property offers other options, too, to
fool older apps into thinking they're running on the hardware or OS for
which they were designed. This is one of XP's nicer features--- it's far
more flexible in handling older software than Windows 2000, for example,
even though XP is based on Win2K.

For more info, go to the XP help system, and search on "compatibility."

But there's some old software that XP won't handle: Some really, really
ancient software tries to control the PC hardware directly, bypassing
the OS. This is a trick used when machines ran at very slow speeds---
speeds about 1/500th as fast as today's. It's not only unnecessary now,
but actually causes trouble: If an app takes over the hardware and then
crashes, it will take down everything else with it--- including the OS.

This is actually one of the reasons why the early versions of Windows
got their reputation for being crash-prone--- a rogue app or game might
have a problem, but in doing so, would also undermine the OS causing it
to crash and thus taking out any other apps that happened to be running
at the same time: Only one program would have to fail for the whole
house of cards to come down. This is a problem that plagued all versions
of Windows in the 3.1 and 9.x families, including ME.

NT, Win2K, and XP get their reputation for being crash-resistant because
they don't allow other programs to take over key systems in the PC. In
this way, the essential services of the OS are protected from bad apps:
An app itself still may crash and burn, but it will have a very hard
time taking out the OS. This also protects other software that may be
running at the same time: No one software crash is likely to take out
everything, as can (and does) happen in Win9x: Instead, in XP, software
problems are usually confined only to the program that's having trouble.

Most software applications--- even old DOS versions--- are "well
behaved" (that is, they don't try to "own" the screen, or printer, or
hard drive, or other hardware) and can work fine in XP. But some very
old applications and games are badly behaved (designed to take over all
or some of the PC): XP won't allow that software to run because it's too
dangerous.

For that kind of software to work, Harley's boot disk idea is a good
one. But you'll also have to put the old DOS software itself on floppies
or on a non-NTFS partition of your hard drive, because on its own, DOS
cannot access NTFS drives. (See

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=10700681
for more info, including how to add NTFS drivers to your DOS
floppies.)

Fortunately, with most DOS/Win3/Win95/Win98 application software, the
"compatibility" system in XP will be all you need.

(BTW: The above also explains why XP uses different drivers and low-
level utilities from Win9x. Older Win9x drivers and utilities may try to
communicate directly with the hardware, which--- just like old DOS
software--- can cause trouble if the driver or utility hangs or crashes.
XP-style drivers and utilities tell the OS what they want done, and the
OS then does it. This makes it much harder for a bad driver or utility
to take out the PC--- but it does mean that old Win9x drivers and low-
level utility software won't work in XP.)







The August 2003 Issue of Smart Computing had an article on page 60, entitled "
MisApplications “which reads in part: " When running legacy software on a modern PC,
the main problem is configuring the system so that the old software has enough memory.
This seems odd, as DOS applications generally required less than 1MB of RAM and most
of todays PC's have 128MB. The problem is that DOS handles RAM much differently than Windows and can address only the first 640KB of system memory by itself. This is called conventional memory, and any memory above that is called extended memory. DOS programs needs lots of free conventional memory to run, and that's the main reason they refuse to work inWindows, regardless of the amount of extended memory installed in the computer.

The best way to adjust conventional memory settings and achieve DOS compatibility without interfering with Windows is to create a boot disk. This is a floppy disk that contains all the files DOS needs to load, and the floppy can be tailored to work with any type of DOS application. Unfortunately. manually editing the contents of a boot disk is something best left to the experts because the process varies depending on the type of application you plan to use, but you can make basic adjustments to MS-DOS programs directly from Windows.

Right-click the .EXE (executable) or COM (Command) file used to launch the DOS Program, Click “Create Shortcut”and then right-click the newly minted shortcut and click “Properties”.

Select Screen Tab and select "Full Screen" as many DOS programs do not run properly in a window. Also make sure the " FAST ROM Emulation and Dynamic Memory Allocation” boxes have checks in them. Click Apply before selecting the "Misc Tab." Here remove the check mark from the "Allow Screen Saver " checkbox. It sometimes helps to select "Exclusive Mode" in the "Mouse" box and disable any entries in the "Windows Shortcut Keys" section that the DOS program uses.

Click "Apply" and select Memory tab. This is where you'll need to refer to the documentation that came with the DOS software to see what type of memory it needs (expanded or extended) and how much conventional memory it requires to that you can select the appropriate entries using the checkboxes and drop-down menus. Regardless of the suggested settings, we’ve found that it often helps to set the Total value in the Conventional Memory field to 640 and set the Initial Environment to the highest available setting (which is usually 4,096).

Click Apply and try running the DOS software using the modified shortcut.


http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Q_20630699.html

I am trying to use Expanded Memory (EMS) for a DOS application . . . . . . . . .

Comment from mfutty Date: 05/30/2003 01:51AM PDT
It may not be a matter of the EMS which is showing as present - it may be the compatibility setting of the prompt.Compatibility mode provides an environment for running programs that more closely reflects the behavior of either Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows NT 4.0. These modes resolve several of the most common issues that prohibit older programs from working correctly with Windows 2000. Programs that experience issues after migration may benefit from being started in one of these compatibility environments.Log on as Administrator, Click Start, and then click Run, In the Open box, type the following command, and then click OK, where %SystemRoot% is the drive and folder in which Windows 2000 is installed: regsvr32 %systemroot%\apppatch\slayerui.dll Administrators can use a program shortcut to set the compatibility mode for a target program. This requires that the Compatibility-mode properties be correctly installed and registered on the computer by using the previous steps. To enable Compatibility mode by using a program shortcut: Log on as Administrator, Right-click the shortcut, and then click Properties, Click the Compatibility tab. This tab appears only if the Compatibility-mode interface has been properly enabled on the computer, Click to select the Run in Compatibility Mode check box to enable Compatibility-mode support for the program, Click either Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 compatibility mode in the drop-down box, Click OK to save the changes, Double-click the shortcut to run the program.


Troubleshooting MS-DOS-Based Programs in Windows

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314106

[oink]

Whew! I don't want to run any old programs that bad. Although, my old version of Wolfenstein 3D seems to work ok in xp with no editing at all. Duke Nukem works too. Haven't trie Doom yet. Hey! I used to like to play a game called Spectre. I wonder if that would work, if I could find it?