Beyond 640k conventional...
Author
Good old DOS games, such as Master of Magic, require conventional memory to run. On modern OS, this area is never even thought about...
However, the old games still needs a certain amount of free conventional RAM (in addition to XMS/EMS).
The example game, Master of Magic, requires 582k of free conventional in addition to it''s 3MB EMS usage.
Somehow, it must be possible to cheat a program to use any random 640k patch of RAM as it''s conventional area. A loader, maybe, or even by emulating an entire system (though a loader would be preferred).
Now the question:
Does anyone know of how to make, or knows of an existing, tool for cheating DOS games to use another 640k RAM allocation for it''s conventional environment?
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Tino Didriksen
Project JJ
Using a 32-bit DOS extender you could access up to 4GB. See DOS4GW. Using the introductory 16-bit extender that came with MSVC 1.52, I could access up to 2MB of RAM in real mode.
I wanna work for Microsoft!
I wanna work for Microsoft!
Get windowsME, it plays all old games with its DOS emulator just fine. I have winME and master of magic runs just great on it (but without sound).
Possibility
Possibility
Author
I have Windows ME. No luck running anything on that, since it''s DOS only has 560k conventional and I need 585k.
And since WinME won''t allow me editing config.sys (it reverts the file to 0 byte on each reboot) I can''t force more conventional free.
The exe file is not made for DOS4GW, and as such won''t run through it.
Sitting here with 512MB RAM it''s very annoying that 25k can make such a fuzz...
--|--
Tino Didriksen
Project JJ
And since WinME won''t allow me editing config.sys (it reverts the file to 0 byte on each reboot) I can''t force more conventional free.
The exe file is not made for DOS4GW, and as such won''t run through it.
Sitting here with 512MB RAM it''s very annoying that 25k can make such a fuzz...
--|--
Tino Didriksen
Project JJ
The best way I have found to play old (and cool !) games is a separate MS-DOS 6 partition with the original DOS on it. It doesn''t have to be very big, around 250MB is enough for the OS and lots of games. The problem may be newer sound cards and such, but if you have something SB or GUS compatible, then everything should be fine.
quote:Original post by Jezral
I have Windows ME. No luck running anything on that, since it''s DOS only has 560k conventional and I need 585k.
And since WinME won''t allow me editing config.sys (it reverts the file to 0 byte on each reboot) I can''t force more conventional free.
The exe file is not made for DOS4GW, and as such won''t run through it.
Sitting here with 512MB RAM it''s very annoying that 25k can make such a fuzz...
--|--
Tino Didriksen
Project JJ
Boot the system into DOS mode from floppy.
That recalls old memories of my first tries with MemMaker and after this tweaking and rewriting config.sys and autoexec.bat so many times...good old DOS.
Oh and by the way I remember another game ''Caribean Disaster'', the programmers of this game are/were the most untalented coders I''ve ever seen (I hope they read this
):
The game came on CD-ROM
It was for DOS (WIN95 didn''t exist those days)
It needed a HUGE amount of conventional RAM to run
It (of course) needed a CD-ROM and Mouse-Driver
BUT you were NOT allowed to use something like EMM386 if you wanted to have sound!
So please tell me how to free 590 KB of conventional RAM if you cannot use EMM386 but need mouse and CD-ROM?
Yesterday we still stood at the verge of the abyss,
today we''re a step onward!
Oh and by the way I remember another game ''Caribean Disaster'', the programmers of this game are/were the most untalented coders I''ve ever seen (I hope they read this
):The game came on CD-ROM
It was for DOS (WIN95 didn''t exist those days)
It needed a HUGE amount of conventional RAM to run
It (of course) needed a CD-ROM and Mouse-Driver
BUT you were NOT allowed to use something like EMM386 if you wanted to have sound!
So please tell me how to free 590 KB of conventional RAM if you cannot use EMM386 but need mouse and CD-ROM?
Yesterday we still stood at the verge of the abyss,
today we''re a step onward!
Jezral, to run master of magic on winMe is very easy, simply:
install the game
go to my computer
go to c: drive
go to mps folder
go to mom folder
double click on magic.exe
and have fun
It runs perfectly fine right from within winMe.
Possibility
install the game
go to my computer
go to c: drive
go to mps folder
go to mom folder
double click on magic.exe
and have fun
It runs perfectly fine right from within winMe.
Possibility
Author
"Insufficient memory. You need at least 583K free. Try removing all TSR''s."
That doesn''t look ''perfect'' to me...
I know I can make a boot floppy, but the point of the matter is to get old games to play without having to bloody reboot just for it.
--|--
Tino Didriksen
Project JJ
That doesn''t look ''perfect'' to me...
I know I can make a boot floppy, but the point of the matter is to get old games to play without having to bloody reboot just for it.
--|--
Tino Didriksen
Project JJ
It sounds somewhat amazing to me that no one ever programmed a kind of a "DOS emulator" which would simulate having 640k of free conventional memory no matter what.
I''m not up to the job of creating such a program, but anyone who is, would get lots of users and fame...
rk
I''m not up to the job of creating such a program, but anyone who is, would get lots of users and fame...
rk
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