I was just looking at some threads where people talked about making a dos machine and i stumbled across some how-to-guides in the internet. maybe a few of you know a thing or two they want to share about making custom pcs (for dos gaming). i myself have had 2 dos machines, one of which i made myself (for the most part), and i am thinking about starting to work on a third, the ultimate dos machine. so if you have any tips or recommendations on hard- or software, please share! (Maybe some of you even have pics)

to get started, i will post some links:

The Ultimate Space Quest Computer, a project by a huge SQ fan (obviously)

sorry, but i can't find the second page again, so this is it.

Now, about the Specs:

-I was thinking about a Pentium 120 or 133, because of GTA for example.
-Hopefully 16MB RAM should be enough
-two HDs, both approx. 1GB
-An SB 16 or Compaq esa1986 or whatever that thing is called (i had it in my first machine, and it sounded pretty good) Maybe I'll add a Roland MIDI card later
I don't know about the graphics yet, so please share everything you know!

This is all I've got so far, please let me know what you think about it!

well for graphics i have good experience with a old Trident 9680 2mb pci card.

Cirrius Logic or Tseng would probally be good too, or maybe S3 Trio64.



My old dos machine is a celeron 366Mhz, and it works fine with the old dos games that im playing.
other specs are:
ABit BM6 motherboard
128MB SDRam
Trident 9680 2MB Ram.
Asus 52x CDROM drive
old 235Watt PSU
10/100 Mbit NIC
60Gig Seagate Harddrive
floppydrive / with my custom made bootdisk, for when i want to boot dos up.
Soundblaster AWE 64 Value ISA card.


the NIC is for when i boot up WinXP on it, so i can download old games straight to the machine.

good setup, but i was going for a little slower machine. you've probably experienced timer issues when playing space quest for example. and also, 60GB is an enormous amount for dos. do you use dos or dosbox for that machine?
btw, i had a S3Trio 64 in my first dos machine, but that one was too fast (266 or something like that) for some of the older games.

Im using dos, i have divided the big harddrive up int 3 partitions:

Partition 1: 6gig with windows XP OS NTFS file system
Partition 2: 2gig formatted with FAT32, (this is the only partition that show up when i boot up with my dosbootdisk)
Partition 3: NTFS file system, backup of files ect.

When i boot up with my dos bootdisk Partition 2 is the only one showing up and get drive label c: So i only have this in dos:

Floppydrive A:
Partition 2: C:
CDrom drive: D:

Partition 2: Is also having all the files for cdrom, sound, mouse ect.
the only files on the bootdisk is the standart boot files, and then autoexec.bat and config.sys , so it boots up fast in dos.

Im not that old(26 years old) so i havent played older games than from approx 1992, so i havent had issues with games run too fast on this machine.

hmm i could try run Space quest on it to test if the game can run on my pc.

edit: guess i cant, since the games is ESA protected, so i cant download the game

that sounds like a good win-dos hybrid machine. i think i still have the SQs lying around somewhere.

Check. Definitely going to work. Even 100 mhz will do, 133 is so much better. Note though that you'll have to use slowdown software (like moslo) to run some older games (Robocop 3, Mechwarrior 1, about anything that uses vector graphics).
Check. 32 would be even better, but some games (Space Hulk is one I know for sure) screw up when given above 24.
Check. I'd advise against full-size partitions though, for the sole reason that the cluster size would be pretty wasteful then.
Check. I have some doubt about compatibility, though. Sound Blaster Pro 1 might be a bit better.

Can you tell me something about that one? No idea why use one - is it better then MIDI device built into your Sound Blaster?

I know that. I already have that prog.

I think i have some 16 and 8 MB RAM modules lying in a drawer. could be worth a check.

About the soundcards: The compaq thing is fully sb compatible, even slightly better, but hard to get (i don't know wether mine's working)
The Roland MT-32 is probably the best - and most hard to get - midi card there was. you can use it along with your sb 16 for good sound an midi. try for example king's quest 5 or 6 in dosbox and choose the roland in the setup. you will see the difference.

Say, if I was to lay my hands on a Roland card... would I need an additional pair of speakers for that one? Or is there a possibility of connecting both it and the SB equivalent (ESA 1887, IIRC) I have to a single pair of speakers?

that i don't know. i only know that you can use both cards, but i never thought about the hardware aspect.

just partition a drive, and dual boot :)
what Im doing, mind you I do want to build a special DOS games pc..

Good for you Javaguy! Please share the specs, parts and everything else! btw, i have just gotten a Sony 24x CD-ROM Drive for my machine. I was very eager not to get anything faster, because i want my machine to be an authentic dos pc.

cool
actually, there seems to be a thing bout graphcis card up there..
can you switch between cards on a PC?
I would build an old PC
but I cant, no cash, no way of getting cash.
I just built the PC im on at the moment with parents ?600 so im using any money I get to dos it up :)
im getting a decent graphics card and dvd drive for new games over christmas, but as I said im also getting windows 3.1 for free so thats good.

my comp specs:

3.0ghz intel p4 ht tech 1mb l2 cache 800 meg FSB
760megs of ram
old geforce 4 FX card
old 40x cd rom drive
200 gig sata drive (2 of which is my 3.1 drive e:)
31/2 floppy for sim city 2000
intergrated sound
so fun all round
(except for graphics card)

1.77 ghz intel pentium 4 processor
256megs of ram
160gigabyte hard drive
internet keyboard and optical mouse

Thats my computer :)

thanks for sharing. that's all very fast machines. i believe you both use dosbox, don't you? i am now trying to find two 1GB Harddrives for my machine, so if anyone has recommendations or experience in that area, your help is welcome!

a computer for old game's eyy

You might be better off looking for a 2GB one then partitioning it appropriately. That is, if your motherboard can handle a HDD of that size.

it should. 133 MHz Pentiums usually come with a 1-3 GB HDD. I even once had one with 4,6 GB, So that shouldn't be a problem. Do you know a good partitioning programm for DOS (Did i mention i wanted to only use DOS instead of some dos-windows combination?)

Windoze 9x bootdisks - fdisk can be used to format in FAT16, AFAIK.
There should also be something like that in the DOS (or freedos) installer.

i'll see if i have that disk lying around somewhere. i should. i always had a partitioning program on a red disk that i can't find.

Hey folks, looks like I'm getting myself a P120 tomorrow. Still got some parts left from my olde 486 -> will install them.

The machine has 16 megs worth of Ram (supposedly in two sticks), but if it has two free SIMM sockets left, an upgrade to 24 will be a pinch.
1 GB HDD - not bad, and I just got my 800 MB back from a friend of mine. Will get 2,1 GB back from the office here on the beginning of January.
The thing also has a soundcard and a GPU, but I'll probably stick in my old ones - that is, unless the GPU is 8 MB or better.
The soundcard will be most likely replaced with my trusty ESA 1887.
I think I'll stick one of the HDD's in an exchangeable socket, so I can put games on it easier.
I'll probably make it a dual-boot DOS/98 machine, not unlike my first PC (that was DOS/3.1, later DOS/95).
Heck, I even want to use the same old case that my 486 had.

A genuine 486 would be better, but this one comes with monitor, mouse and keyboard - for a total of 220 PLN (that's approximately $50), so it's quite a bargain.

great to hear, horseman!
i just found my partitioning program, and also a 1100 MB Harddisk that seems to be functioning pretty good, and i recently got an Apple 14" VGA Monitor from a friend. i think 14" is ideal for dos, since something like 21" wouldn't look to great with a 320x200 resolution. last but not least, i tested my ESA 1886 with a 98 machine and King's Quest 5, and it's working properly. i think i will buy my machine in january or february, since it'll take me a while to get everything assembled.

http://photobucket.com/albums/v13/th...MyNewOldPC.jpg
Still working on reassembling it. You see, I hated the case it came with, and the old PSU certainly wasn't the best either - so I went with the old ones that were in my 486 way back.
Right now it has a 1 GB HDD and 32 MB RAM (4x8MB SIMM's, but it also has a free DIMM slot), the SPU is one of ESS's ESA 18xx models, and the GPU is an S3 Trio 64 V+ - not sure it that's 2, 4 or 8 MB RAM, but I suppose 4 / 8 to be more likely.
I'm adding two USB ports to it - the mobo has a controller but no integrated ports.
Also, I'm on lookout for another HDD socket - this is because of a little quirk I'm planning: the main HDD will run under Windows 98, while the one in the socket - when installed - will run the machine in DOS.
The 800 MB HDD I've got for this purpose will suffice for DOS gaming, but not much more - just found a few badsectors on it, which suggests it's a bit past expiry date already.
:ok:

Looks good, horseman.
How are you going to do that thing with the removable harddisk?

Not sure if it will actually work out, but will check that today.

Boot sequence set to HDD first, CD-ROM second.
Primary Master HDD set to autodetect.
Primary Slave fixed.

The HDD socket is connected to the Primary IDE cable, with the drive set as Master. The '98 drive is set as Slave.

DOS HDD is FAT-16 and installed with DOS 6.2 or 7.1 (have yet to decide on that).
Windows HDD is FAT-32 and thus will not be seen by DOS at all.

When both HD's are inserted, the computer will read the DOS drive first and boot from it.
When the DOS drive is out, the computer will only read the '98 drive and boot Windows.
Pretty simple, we'll see how it is going to work out.

Does not exist. MT-32 was an external MIDI synthetiser connected to the souncard's MIDI port.

What you are looking for is Roland LAPC-I.
Here is a picture of the thing. MT-32 is integrated on its circuit board.

BTW, I think I'll be on a lookout for a cache chip - this motherboard currently has 8 KB L1 cache and 0 (really!) KB L2 cache - and there is an empty cache slot present.

i always thought of the mt-32 because in the setup it said "roland lapc-1 or mt-32".
maybe the mt32 synthesizer was to be connected to the soundcard for recording music using special programs.

I was wrong about the 0 K L2 cache - seems to be a bug in Everest. I'm getting a cache chip anyway.

I'm just looking for a Pentium 133 miditower(i want a small one). there are very few of those on ebay.

Mini tower won't be bad either - that's (supposedly) the type I am using right now, and you can fit about everything that's neccesary - altough it will take a bit of effort to avoid having the case cluttered with cabling.

The HDD mobile rack has been purchased. Unfortunately, I was unable to obtain another EasyTouch-produced unit - which is a bit annoying since I already use two of these things - but the configuration works exactly as I expected.

I'm going to get a new cooler for the CPU, and do some cleaning & greasing on the PSU fan. If everything goes well, the noise will be drastically reduced (it's quite silent now, in fact, but I want to achieve as silent as possible without resorting to passive cooling).

I am wondering wether a Roland LAPC could be fit into such a minitower. It looks pretty big.
That thing with supersilent cooler is actually a very good idea. maybe you could make a pc from 1994 with the ergonomics etc. from 2004. That would be cool.
how are you going to use the removable HD for transferring games? do you have a bay on either pc?

To me, it looks like LAPC will fit by a small margin. To my knowledge, the cases are standarised (or at least semi-standarised) in terms of length, while height varies between each size.


About the data transfer, I have a different bay on the other PC, I guess I'll just have to make an occasional switch or use CD-R/RW discs for transfer purposes.

Later on, I'll probably either use a null-modem connection (that is, IF my current machine will support it), or connect both computers in a miniature LAN.

I wonder if I could find DOS drivers for USB memory storage devices... that would solve everything in a pinch.

good to hear that. you can find a link to USB drivers for DOS in the vintage computing thread.
if you need anything for DOS, go there. do you know anything about using two soundcards (lapc and sb16/pro)??

Nope, and not sure if that would work or not.
There are three possible results, though - both cards working, only one of them working and neither working.
If you manage to obtain an actual external MT-32 syntethiser and connect it to the MIDI port of your Sound Blaster card, everything should go well.
Though it's still worth giving LAPC-I and SB combo a try. You might actually be lucky.

still, lapcs are hard to get and verrry expensive - most people that are selling them know what they're holding in their hands.

I just got an old U.S. layout keyboard from a friend. It has two cables: a serial and a ps/2. Quite a find, says I!

Been working on reducing the noise of my machine.
First, I've cleaned out the PSU of all dust and greased its fan - soundless now.
Then I tried to use a newer CPU cooler - but the thing produced so much volume it was insane. I dismantled it and replaced the fan with the former one, but left the newer heat sink. Should improve the cooling efficiency a jot.

Now I am looking for a way to muffle out the HDD, because it's still quite loud (loudest component ATM).

I think there are special noise reduction, 5.25" frames for HDs. You can get them from eBay.

:omg: How many topics you have about that?

Anyway, you could see my answer at the one in the Technical Stuff section ;)

I've found a good 2-button mouse (Microsoft Basic Mouse Serial and PS/2 Compatible)
and now I'm looking for the Roland LAPC. I'm still wondering about the SB/LAPC
Combo thing. Even if you got both of them to work, how would you get both cards to output into the same speakers?
Anyway, I am now collecting the software. I was thinking about FreeDOS, Cutemouse, SHSUCDX (The FreeDOS CD expansion), The Creative manager and lots of others. I was going to open another thread about these things in the technical section soon.

I'll be trying to jury-rig a PS/2 socket, so that I can use a PS/2 mouse with my PC until the local electronics store gets the actual component.

Accidentally, I came up with an idea that might be quite useful with my current config - see, my 800-meg DOS HDD has some weird jumper configs that make it work as Master - WITHOUT a jumper. That given, I came up with an idea of installing a jumper-switch connected to both HDDs - thus, I can swap DOS and Windows HDD's without much hassle, and have access to both.

Will see how it will work out, but I'm not thinging of this idea as a permament thing - only an experiment.

Jury-rig: failure. The mouse works as before - doesn't budge, but the buttons work. Tested with two different mice.

Jumper-switch: failure. The switches don't seem to work.

sad to hear. Anyway, I found out what that thing about the roland mt-32 was. When you take a look at the spellcasting 301 manual, it says there that you can hook up your lapc to a roland mt-32 and the amp of your stereo. you hookup your speakers to your soundblaster or other soundcard, and voila! you have roland for music and creative for sound.

Great to hear that.

After a little testing, these two switches seem to be faulty in general, so I'll try with some other ones tomorrow.

Jeez, I'm dumb...
I thought the switches were wired this way:
1---2

3---4

5---6

While actually they are wired that way:
1 . 2
| . |
3 . 4
| . |
5 . 6
And alternate between the pairs (so, pins 3 & 4 are always on, and the pairs are 1&3 and 2&4 OR 3&5 and 4&6, depending on the switch position). :eeeeeh:

It came to my mind accidentally, but in the end worked out. right now, I've placed the jumper-switch inside the PC's case - now if I want to switch between OS'es I pop off the case and punch the switch. Works flawlessly.


Thinking of further electronic enchancements inside the PC. Putting in circuit boards with more easily accessible shortcuts to HDD jumpers and motherboard clock/FSB controls, is one good example - great for overclocking, eh?. :evil:

I'll try to wire up another LED so that I'll see right away if the HDD priority is switched or not, without opening the case.


I'm still unable to locate a PS2/COM connector, maybe I'll have to make one by myself.


The flat IDE cabling is annoying me - it just takes too much space inside the case. And it looks like all the computer stores in nearby area have ran out of round ones - I'll have to buy some normal cables and mod them.

Just a question: What do you do for a living? You seem
to know an awful lot about computers. Are you some
kind of computer mechanic? Anyway, It's nice to hear
you solved the problem. How can you make a PS2/COM
connector by yourself? And how do you get the LED to
show wether the switch is turned on?

I don't do anything for a living - yet (I'm only 18). I know this much because - like for many Abandonians - computers are my hobby. I just love fiddling with complicated stuff. :)
For last year and a half, I am sort of practicing being an IT at office of a certain political party - they've got several PC's, all old (or horribly old), and there is a lot that needs to be done just to keep them running.

And - given that - saying I'm a sort of a computer mechanic is quite good way of describing it.

Since such connectors exist, it's only logical that with some effort one can be constructed by anyone with some basic skills.

I'll try figuring it out today, with one of those ready connectors and a voltage probe. :D

Or maybe I won't even have to: this looks like what I was looking for! Now just let's hope that an electronics monkey like myself can put that together...

Easy - by patching the LED between the switch and hard drive.

I have two of those lying around here. Give me your Address and
the money for shipping and I could send you one of them :sneaky: .
Kidding. Anyway, I'm still thinking wether to get a laptop or a tower. I have
a TFT with both a DVI and a VGA input. I use the DVI for my Mac mini. Do
you think I could hook up a dos pc to the VGA input and use it with the screen when my
mac mini is not running? That way, I would have better expandability and a far better
screen than with a dos laptop.

Hi guys yesterday I got an old pc from a school that was chucking it out. It's a Hp with the following specs

Intel Pentinum 166 MX
32 MB Ram
2.5 GB HDD
Three and a half inch floopy
Modem (56k I think)
1USB Port
Network card
32x Cd-rom (That I Installed Myself)
Windows NT4 Workstation (need to change that to Windows 95 c for now)And a 14inch screen

What I will do to make it a dos gaming Pc

1 Reformat
2 Install windows 95c
3. Check harddisk for errors
4. Reformat again
5. Put Ms-dos 7.10 on
6. Install windows 98
7. get an old sound card for it.
Note I am going to reformat twice so I can use scandsk to check the harddisk in windows after the first windows install. I also found an old error filled installation of windows 95b in the boot menu I skipped the password logged in and found that it had been installed when the computer had been built used for awhile and then windows Nt4 Workstation was put on when the got a network.
Any Opinions

Edit left out what I planned to do to it.

Sounds great! Just one thing - there also is a scandisk in
DOS (6.2 I think), so you wouldn't have to install win95c
just to do that. But the Specs look great. In the last week,
I made a list of games I wanted to play on my machine by
memory, just to see what I really wanted. 30 or so games
so far.

Okay then I will get craking on it after I finish my holiday. :ok: that starts today and ends on tuesday.

I'd think so.

Been experimenting with the LED displays - got the one in the case worked out to display 120 (as in 120 Mhz), figuring out my spare one was a bit harder but rewarding. It was the best logic puzzle I had since a year back - hours of fun. Right now I've managed to get it display 71/98 (guess why), depending on HI/LO setting normally used for Turbo function.

The damn fan just broke. I'll be checking out a bunch we have in the office, one has got to be compatibile.

Today I'll try to redirect the speaker output to the soundcard (been discussed on the forum a couple months back, still got the tutorial on my HDD). Got the parts for it already.

I must be more insane then normally - just came up with an idea to make a front panel for my PC. And yes, I mean THIS one PC.
Functions I could include:
1. Case fan on/off switch. Simple, easy, functional. That is, if I install a case fan (a good possibility, there)
2. HDD control. Instead of it being inside the PC, I can put it there under some removable transparent cover (to prevent accidental switching it on). Can also include a LED signalizer.
3. Soundcard mini-jack connector. My soundcard has got an internal output connector, so it won't be difficult.
4. USB ports. Well, I'm running Windows on it, so they might come in handy. Will have to buy a 3-port hub and butcher it a little, first.
5. CPU temperature monitor. Will have to build it myself, tho.

Got the PS/2 adapter worked out.
http://photobucket.com/albums/v13/th...th_Com2PS2.png
That's a graph of how the tutorial described the bridging of the cables in the COM and PS/2.
Result: one neat PS/2 socket that connects into a COM out of your motherboard. (the socket is drawn en face) - I made it from a spare COM port without any problem.

http://photobucket.com/albums/v13/th...th_Complug.png
I've worked out the COM plug to the mobo as well... (plug is drawn "transparently" from the back)

So I can try making THIS:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v13/th...2right2com.png
- a direct connection to the motherboard.

Now if I could just find another A4tech 4D++ mouse, it would be perfect. (4D++ was my second mouse on my old 486 - asynchronous operation, three buttons and two wheels speak for themselves).

Got more HDD & floppy cables -next step: cut them into stripes and rearrange into round shape, then tape up.

Hey I'm back and I am going to start setting up later.

EDIT Update Powered up Pc everything fine and I will be able to get cracking once I have unpacked.

EDIT2 I have unpacked from my holiday and I am ready to start so I will soon. I only had to unpack 3 things that were right next to me
EDIT3 O forgot to tell you that the hard disk is made by quartinum so i am planning to change it to a diffrent one whenI get get a 4gb one that is not that brand.
Because quartinum are slow and I do not want the pc to be to slow and I want more space for games.
Wow 3 edits.

I'd say you'd better either use that HDD as your secondary, or mount it in a mobile rack (provided you have a compatibile one in your main PC) to use as a mobile data transfer unit.

I've dug up a bunch of CPU fans in the spare parts storage we have in the office - since we'll be getting funds for better equipment soon, the boss felt generous lately and allowed me to take any and all parts I'd need.
I've greased and cleaned all the fans, then connected them to the power supply. I kept the least noisy one and returned all the others back to the office.
Mounted the larger heatsink on the CPU again (since the fan is 100% compatibile with that), removed the old thermal grease and applied new. Works well enough for me.

My speaker-to-soundcard experiment has failed, no effect at all. Duh. I'll have to see what was wrong and possibly re-do it all over.

PS2/COM connector has failed as well - not sure why, maybe I have screwed something up when I was building it. Either way, I've found a proper pre-made adapter here in the parts storage.

The IDE cables have been modded, as were those for floppy and LPT. Now they are sitting pretty well inside the case, without any criss-cross problems like I had before.

Bought the parts I need for the case fan assembly, the fan itself coming from a broken PSU (we have a few of these here in the office).

Bought an electronic thermometer. I'll dismantle it and assemble inside the computer case so that I can use it to monitor the CPU temperature.

Will get that USB hub tomorrow.

My speaker has broken off its wires, but that's fixable - I just need a few minutes with a soldering iron.

This sunday I'm going to a computer market - will be on lookout for extra parts, including an 8 MB PCI video card and a HOT-433 motherboard (a beautiful piece of kit, that - I just _need_ to have a working one).

Tried starting a few games on my machine. Robocop 1 and X-Com Apocalypse work nicely, Battletech:Crescent Hawks Inception doesn't.

Update current harddisk is bad sector free just need to get anopther harddrive one day after I have set it up. :ok:.
EDIT:Added Similey

Speaker fixed, another Speaker-to-SPU cable made.

I've dug up a couple - supposedly broken - mice here in the office, will be testing and fixing them.

Didn't have time to purchase the hub nor additional parts I'll need to install it. Oh, well, not like it's a top priority anyway.

Been thinking about further electronic madness, but decided to postpone the idea... for now.

Checking the fans, I found one working perfectly smooth, and another that altough loud is also insanely powerful. Can't decide. :D

Got an idea how I can control the fan without a front panel. The former Turbo button and LED will find a use again - as fan switch and fan LED.

I was bored so I decided to use my machine to make up some recomendations for running windows 95 at a good speed with apps installed. go to my fourms to read it but to post you need to register it is in my signutures.

The Speaker-to-soundcard plug works 100%. The sound is a bit quiet, but that aside it's working flawlessly.

Mouse fitted, I'm working on repairing a few others too.

Got the USB hub, will work on it today.

I've noticed that the motherboard reports two of my memory chips to be EDO RAM.

Digging a bit in Google, I found out that EDOs are generally more efficient then normal SIMMs.

I'll be hunting for some more of these, then.

BTW... how come one could install 64 MB of SIMM memory in a single mobo slot? Some multiplier device that allowed plugging in several modules or something like that?

Even I can do that. :)

Umm... working one, right? Because my attempts didn't quite work...

Rearranged the HDD's, thus providing the space for the front panel.

Fixed all my fan problems by hooking the fans to a +12V cable (yellow) instead of +5V (red).

Managed to get the case fan working & be activated by Turbo button.

That's how it looks at the moment:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v13/th...h_Pict0005.jpg

...and internally:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v13/th...h_Pict0004.jpg http://photobucket.com/albums/v13/th...h_Pict0002.jpg

Nice looking PC.

Good stuff, horseman.

Swapped the CD-Rom drive I had in this one for one I had bought for my PC in the office, since that one is a bit older and has the built-in CD player. You know, mini-jack socket + volume control + play button. They don't make 'em like that anymore...

Any recommendations what games to grab for the first proper gaming session with this machine?

Grand thefto auto1

duke nukem 3d.
one of the finest dos shooters I ever played.

Don't have GTA, so duke it is. :evil:
Come, get some...

More then halfway done on the 3,5" panel, but still needs some work.

Digging in my spare parts I found another two 8 MB EDO chips, though one has got a note stuck that reads "faulty". Got to check on this. Still, even of that's true, I'll need only one more EDO chip.

So, Duke it is - and if I get the room sorted out, even today.
Next game to is already determined as CD version of Flashback.

i should also recommend blood :whistle:

Duke3d will run sweet on that thing.

Just tried running Crescent Hawks Inception again, to see if the failure really did sit in the GPU.

Nope.

"Incorrect opcode"

Seems like a CPU architecture issue, with the difference betweer Pentium and ealier x86 machines being what it is.

Or Dos 7/Dos 6 issue, since that cannot be ruled out either.

My DOS 6.2 bootdisk is somwhere around, but I can't get to it at the moment - there is a lot of junk blocking the room - so I'd like to ask if anyone of you knows of a place where I could download an image of this bootdisk.

try www.bootdisk.com

My brother makes PCs. It is his job, can you reckon!
All the PCs in our house are costumized by him.

Duke ran, played for about 1,5 hours then got a bit bored - for some reason, very few FPP's can occupy my attention for long.
But, well... still, Atomic Edition running in 800x600 and 44 kHz sound? Was fun for a while anyway.

For some reason I've missed this topic.

I have many P1 computers, most of them working but because I don't have a room to place it they all are in my garage. (together with extra 15" monitor)

When I'm done with the school I'm planning to create ultimate retro-gaming computer.

I wonder why you guys are not using DOS-mode in Win98? IMHO it is better then MS DOS 6.22 and other DOS flavors. And if you use it, you can play all cool windows based games + all DOS games.

It takes a bit to set it up properly (probably less time then it takes to set up real DOS 6.22) and if you are in DOS mode (it is not dos mode when you select shutdown >> rebote to dos mode, but DOS-mode created by DOS shortcut) and reboot computer, it will still load DOS untill you type EXIT.

In this topic I explained how I created shortcut and how to use it. I tested it with many DOS games and all of them worked.

It's a matter of preference. And in my case, also pathologic dislike (bordering on hatred) for Windows in all guises.

I understan that. In my case it is just a matter of functionality. Use win to move games trough network, and then just go to DOS mode. I still have that computer I was working on last year, and it is most of the times in DOS, and only once in a while back in windows.

I have to decide which computer to work on for my DOS machine. Here are my option:

P90
P100
P133
P166
P200
P233

I also have P350 and P450, but I don't plan to run DOS games on those computers.

SB16 for sound and Trident V64/32 for video card. Not sure about RAM and HD. I can go up to 128, but most likely will stay on or bellow 64MB. I got quite few hard disks, but most likely will use 4.9 for C drive and and bigger (up to 20GB?) for D drive, so that I don't run out of space for the games.

Will post more on this when I finaly get enough time to work on it.

As I said elsewhere, I suggest staying with a 486 CPU (fastest one you can get, but still nothing above a 486) and 24 MB RAM (compatibility purposes).
Windows 95 OSR2 should do the trick just nicely when it comes to networking with other machines.

Considering downgrading the 98SE on my PC to 95OSR2 for efficiency reasons - 95 will run at least twice as fast as 98SE does.

I'm planning on installing FreeDOS on my 500 MHz Celeron with 256MB RAM. Good thing is, the Vid/Aud devices are DOS compatible (I've got the drivers and all :max: ). Bad thing is, I fear it might be a tad too fast, so maybe a slowdown utility will have to be used.

That's way to fast...

Yeah, about four times too fast. But these parameters would be great for older Win9x games, they'd run like a cheetah on fire.


Nobody got any idea about that RAM thing I asked about? I am really curious...

Anubis,
Use the p133 It will run most games but and Run Grand Theft Auto well. If you don't wanna play Grand Theft Auto use the 100 or the 90 but keep in mind 486's are best.

My upgrade plans ... once again ... went to hell.
Man, I f***ing love how Murphy's Law controls our lives...

Still, I finally got that audio-out socket soldered and ready. Time to check if it does actually work...

Boo Murphys Law.

Audio-socket: failure. Will have to find another part and start over.

Seems like I have some pretty faulty RAM here. Multiple errors during file copy processes, and the machine is not able to calculate two matching checksums for the same file.

Had that before.

I'll be running Memtest 86 today.

When I put different modules, the Crescent Hawks Inception suddenly started behaving like it should (ie working), same for Syndicate. :D

Dam about those ram modules. My 166's ram the one I sold for 5 bucks is out of return time butthe ram has stated acting faulty me friends is demanding the money back but he can't return it anyore since we had an agreement on that so after buying it was only able to be return cause of faults for seven days after.
He says that if he could he would sue me. (why would that be worth it.)
Good thing it's not mine anymore :ok: About the sueing :roflol:.

5 bucks is not a reason to sue, IMO.
If the chips were allright at the time of sale, the deal was fair. Since it was a second-hand purchase, there was no warranty of their function either.

AFAIK, though, most RAM manufacturers offer lifetime warranty... so your pal might want to try contacting the manufacturer.

I went through Memtest86 a few times, and - oddly - no errors popped up. (but I still have one pair of chips to test)

Maybe the problems were caused by combining EDO and normal SIMM chips in the same machine... altough my old 486 did not have a problem with that. But then it was a pretty tough construction too, and didn't need the RAM to be paired either (and it's built-in memory test was quite something).

Well, either way, I'll try installing only SIMMs and making the checksum test. If it still fails, then something must be wrong either with CPU or the HDD (or HDD controller).
We'll see.

It wasn't RAM. It was my bloody HDD.

This 800 meg Western Digital piece was with me for ages, and it seems that it's breaking down now.

The files copied to the other HDD checksum correctly every time, not to mention faster.

And the 800 meg one has had a fair number of failed initializations recently.

I've put the 32 MB of RAM back, and it looks like I'll have to get my 2.1 GB HDD back soon.

PS. Zombie Wars work on the machine, albeit are quite slow compared to what I am used to... must be difference between 95 and 98.

Thats a shame weird the system I sold to my friend has got loads of bad sectors on the hdd I went there today. Strange but memtest says the ram is faulty.
The HDD is still hanging on thats good hey the floopy drive broke this PC is falling apart around my friend or is it he may be damaging it without knowing.

Here it's a pretty rapid case, as the HDD had only 2 badsectors appearing a few months ago.

But hey, it remained functional through 11 years of use and abuse - and until recently, without any flaws.
Show me a modern HDD that will last that long.

Thats long my1998 quatrinum HDD is still going but with 10 bad sectors it is a no no.

All the better argument for going oldschool, don't you agree?

Yip I agree. Just for the humour I live i n an english speaking country yesterday I bought a New 14" TV to replace the one I keep by my PC. The old one broke.
I always keep one here If I want to watch somthing while defraging the HDD.
The instructions were in Japanese. I got it working after 4 hours but sheesh. note to self never buy Tv from import shop. :roflol:

Not necessarily. ALL hard disks have bad sectors. Mostly you don't get to notice them because the internal drive logic moves the data to spare sectors and marks the old ones off so that they are not used again. It's only when the drive cannot recover the data or when it runs out of spare sectors that you get to become aware of them.

You should be able to deal with 10 bad sectors using SCANDISK or a similar program. It's only when the rate at which bad sectors are found keeps on increasing that you should junk the drive ASAP.

If you have a Windows 98SE os, you don't want a bigger than 20 gigabyte harddrive, as the internal workings of the OS will slowly corrupt its own files. My 160gb one had a field day when I tried playing games, LOL time for windows XP :crazy:

Windows 95 can only handle up to 2gb! But, for old games, it works just fine :ok:

You can partition a second drive into lots of tiny pieces to use as cd drives for games like Crusader: No Remorse. That way you don't even have to think when loading it up, no loading cd drivers or nothing :D


I used to have a 133mhz compaq that I ran dos-games on. It was great, and it even had an experimental AGP slot on it. The AGP worked, and it even liked my card that I put in it (16mb, 4x card) but the thing didn't work so well, as I hard to completely shut power off to the MB in order to get the card to shut off :crazy:
It had an on-board ESS audio like the laptop I had, and both Tyrian and Crusader were happy with it. I had both serial and ps2 mice, no that was never a problem for me, as well as both keyboards. The ESS was compatible with both Roland and Soundblaster, and I could make it play with both with the windows sound config system when I wanted to. Of course, most of the games I want to play sound more like midi on roland, and I like the more soundblasterish sounds instead of mutilated musical instrument sounds of midi LOL

My old 800 mb hdd died completely a few years ago, so I was using a 2gb hdd until the computer itself had a major motherboard malfunction (mostly due to the abuse of tinkering over the course of 3 years) and the AGP rigging. What's awesome is my uncle has a box with the same set up (that flat compaq box) that I have grown used to (had an acer in the same way) that he says I can mess with.

Uhh... you sure about that?
I had been using W98SE with a 32 GB HDD for data (OS running off a 4 GB one) and now it's 40 & 80 (Windoze on 40), with ~65 GB on the 80 GB HDD used as a FAT-32 partition (earlier 15 are occupied by Linux partitions).

Windows95c or b should not go with more than 4GB HDD they can handle more but these days windows98se is so cheap it is a bad idea.

Man, I missed some stuff while my connection was broken. I'm still thinking about the DOS PC thing...gotta get myself some cash...

Far out my PC suddenly disconnected yesterday I played around and then for a random reason it was suddenly working. Stupid Windows XP and stpuid ISP turns out some egghead crashed ther server by tring to download about 10000 things at once.This is what I see on the ISP website I think yeah right.

Win 95 can only handle partition sizes up to 2 Gbi. It will handle disks which are larger than this provided that they are partitioned. Of the top of my head I cannot remember the absolute limit for disk drives in Win 95. It may well be 20Gbi.

I consider myself fortunate that my first computer (a Gateway P90) came with an ESS card, not one of the usual Soundblasters. At that time it had a better set of midi sounds than any of the other mass market sound cards and they still sound very good and often better than current cards. It too has a very wide range of compatibilities including the usual Soundblaster emulation (which sounds better than a native Soundblaster) and a really nice Adlib emulation which really sounds quite musical.

No windows 95c and b can handle fat32 and can handle drives and aprtitons over 2gb to a max of 8 I think

There is great scope for confusion here. :D

FAT32 was introduced when Windows 95 OSR2 was released; I suspect that is what you mean by 95c.

95b only had FAT16 (ignoring diskette formats).

I had b using a fat32 drive so the argument continues.

That is only possible if you had somehow obtained the OSR2 upgrade and had applied it to 95b. However, MS's policy was that the only way to get OSR2 was as part of a new system. However, it was placed on various warez sites and some dealers stretched the definition of "new system" and would supply it with any new hardware.

MS's stated reason for restricting its availability in this way was that they didn't want the inevitable high support load and bad feeling that would result as those with insufficient knowledge and experience proceeded to screw up their file systems during the upgrade.

I know all this because I tried and failed to get a legitimate copy of it myself. I still run 95b (or I did until I lost a critical sector on a disk) and have been stuck with FAT16 which is far from ideal.

Come to think of it you arte right only new systems got 95b and osr2.0 since 95b was minior updates to a. My local dealer sold us our second computer running 95c he also secretly gave me a copy of 95c0sr 2.5 for buying a mouse so that I could update the old pc's old one I reformated and resinstalled one day when is was bored and but 95c on our old 486.

:ok: Aye. Had one in my first x86 too - in fact, it is the one I installed in my current oldscool machine - and got another with the machine that contributed the motherboard to the aforementioned construct.

Lucky rembers second pc's onboard sound.
Note I do not remember anything about the first pc exept it was a 486 50mhz or 66mhz mabey. Even there imy memory is flakey.