A windows version

[isiolia]

can you run DOS on current day computers?

You could, but there's little reason you'd want to.

[CRTGAMER]

can you run DOS on current day computers?

You could, but there's little reason you'd want to.

I'm in the process of dumping older DOS games into the Win 7 64 bit Laptop, running them with DOSBOX. Rediscovering the older games running exactly the same way as in my AT Computer. I used a DOS Menu program in the AT computer to avoid the command lines to switch games. I setup DOSBOX to automatically mount the DOS Subfolder as C drive, mount the optical drive as D Drive and load Power Menu which in turn lists all the DOS games.

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 31#p302431

There are a quite few good DOS EMUs, Retrocade leading the pack. MAME is listed as ARCADE MACHINE EMULATOR in the green box.

Kicking around thoughts on making a Guide for Virtual Windows and DOSBOX.

One of my DOS Backup Discs pulled from the AT Computer, recognize any games?

[Cronozilla]

can you run DOS on current day computers?

Yes, you use an emulator on Windows. (it's actually been emulated since Win. 2000) There are more encompassing environments, though. CRTGAMER mentioned DOSBOX, pretty much the goto one.

If you're not on Windows, the WINE environment will translate the DOS information to Linux base (which also works in OSX). So it's not even emulated there. (Though ... there are also DOS emulators)

[RCBH928]

Just wondering, I will of course be using DosBox( which does not run theme park well )
but its funny coming from you guys, since many of you say that emulation is the wrong way to go, it has to be the original.

[isiolia]

Just wondering, I will of course be using DosBox( which does not run theme park well )
but its funny coming from you guys, since many of you say that emulation is the wrong way to go, it has to be the original.

A few things to consider there though:

First, PCs have never really had one set hardware configuration in the first place. Where console games might be written to take full, specific advantage of particular set of chips, PC games would be more flexible out of necessity. There still may be issues with some titles, but overall you're looking at software made to run on a range of standard hardware.

Second, a lot of what's been mentioned has been virtual machines rather than complete emulation. While a VM can incorporate full on emulation for non-native code, what's far more common is virtualized native execution. MS VirtualPC/VirtualBox/VMWare/etc aren't emulating an x86 CPU, they're just serving to filter access to the one in your machine.

Third, because it can potentially make things easier. Gaming on DOS 6.22 or 7 (Win95) could often mean tweaking startup files n' all.
Your modern PC doesn't tend to have a Turbo button to unclick (and even if it did, it'd still likely be too fast). While I don't doubt DOS would boot on a modern machine, I'm not as sure about its ability to access USB or PCIe devices (at least not MS-DOS). You'd likely run into similar problems with pre-XP Windows as well, and probably even XP within a few years (official support is done in 2014).
It's a lot more likely that a currently-developed program will work with your modern hardware, and that DOS (or whatever) will in turn work well with the virtualized hardware it provides.

[MrPopo]

Just wondering, I will of course be using DosBox( which does not run theme park well )
but its funny coming from you guys, since many of you say that emulation is the wrong way to go, it has to be the original.

Emulating DOS is much different from emulating a regular console. When you get down to it a DOS emulator will send the same commands to the CPU that you would get if you were natively running DOS. So the big things a DOS emulator does is provide the environment for DOS games to run in (as they use commands that don't exist on modern Windows anymore) and throttle the CPU so that your computer acts like a low-end machine (as many DOS games had timing based on your clock speed, and go out of control on new machines).

[CRTGAMER]

Just wondering, I will of course be using DosBox( which does not run theme park well )
but its funny coming from you guys, since many of you say that emulation is the wrong way to go, it has to be the original.

I have multiple removable boot hard drives on a desktop that originally came with Win XP. Separate Boot C Drives of Win XP Pro, Win 98SE, Dos 6.22 with Win 3.11. The sound drivers are the biggest pain, the newer built in sound cards do not have drivers for DOS 6.22. A workaround would be to pop in an older Soundblaster 16 which in turn caused memory conflicts and also bogged down the Win XP mode. Programs like MOSLO help but are not perfect for throttling down native DOS. That said, DOS 6.22 and Win 3.11 Workgroups does work in silence in a "Last Gen" XP ready computer with IDE hard drives. I have the crazed curiosity to see if DOS 6.22 would work in the son's newer desktop SATA drive setup.

DOSBox is really idea, it has multiple auto memory bootups for HIMEM, EMS and Clean Boot for DOS4GW protocols. No more Config.sys and Autoexec.bat Choice Menu settings. DOSBox sets the computer speed to the DOS era, my Intel Duel Core becomes a 486DX. Even the sound driver is smooth, both Sound Blaster 16 and Gravis Sound Card can be enabled at the same time.

[isiolia]

I have the crazed curiosity to see if DOS 6.22 would work in the son's newer desktop SATA drive setup.

Probably, provided the BIOS was set to Legacy/ATA/IDE Compatibility/whatever it calls it as opposed to AHCI.

Might run into issues with HDD size though, unless you use FreeDOS, as that has large disk FAT32 support.

[Cronozilla]

Just wondering, I will of course be using DosBox( which does not run theme park well )
but its funny coming from you guys, since many of you say that emulation is the wrong way to go, it has to be the original.

A few things to consider there though:

First, PCs have never really had one set hardware configuration in the first place. Where console games might be written to take full, specific advantage of particular set of chips, PC games would be more flexible out of necessity. There still may be issues with some titles, but overall you're looking at software made to run on a range of standard hardware.

Second, a lot of what's been mentioned has been virtual machines rather than complete emulation. While a VM can incorporate full on emulation for non-native code, what's far more common is virtualized native execution. MS VirtualPC/VirtualBox/VMWare/etc aren't emulating an x86 CPU, they're just serving to filter access to the one in your machine.

Third, because it can potentially make things easier. Gaming on DOS 6.22 or 7 (Win95) could often mean tweaking startup files n' all.
Your modern PC doesn't tend to have a Turbo button to unclick (and even if it did, it'd still likely be too fast). While I don't doubt DOS would boot on a modern machine, I'm not as sure about its ability to access USB or PCIe devices (at least not MS-DOS). You'd likely run into similar problems with pre-XP Windows as well, and probably even XP within a few years (official support is done in 2014).
It's a lot more likely that a currently-developed program will work with your modern hardware, and that DOS (or whatever) will in turn work well with the virtualized hardware it provides.

Yes. Outside of going to an inner city school and getting a PC from 1996, you'll have to make due (Even then not everything will work)

[neilencio]

what the guys say above. Also, the reason why most people from here frown upon emulation is simply because an emulator on the PC will not give you the authentic console experience - the controllers, the native resolutions, the actual cartridge, etc (there are also others who frown upon emulation based on ethics).

DOSbox and VMs are different from this in the sense that you'll still have the same authentic experience (you're still playing using a keyboard and a mouse, on a PC monitor, after all.) It's more about making your PC backwards compatible than making it act like a completely different machine.