21-06-2005, 04:30 PM
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#1 | ||
    Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Boston, United States
Posts: 36
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Well, seeing as most abandonware runs on DOS, I thought that it might be a good idea to compare the various versions of DOS available for the PC and judge which one is the best. Here are the results of the comparison. Feel free to comment on anything I say.
MS-DOS 5 and PC DOS 5: Generally decent and runs just about everything. Memory management could be be better, but if you're good at configuring your system, that's OK... MS-DOS 6: Well, basically this is DOS 5 with some fresh new tools and with a nice memory manager added. Usable but frankly most of the tools aren't that useful for gamers and other DOSes do the memory management thing better. PC DOS 6.3: IBM's take on the whole "let's add nice tools to DOS 5" thing. In general the tools are nicer than those found in M$ and the memory management is slightly better too. PC DOS 7 (2000): The ultimate classic DOS. Nice tools, support for the years above 2000 and the euro symbol and the nicest memory management out there: Let's just say 617KB free in the bottom 640KB and that's with SCSI CD-ROM drivers and EMS enabled... This is the version you want. FreeDOS beta9: An almost finished DOS fully under the GPL. Quite usable and decent compatability (MOST games will work) Still, I'd wait for 1.0 to come out... DR-DOS 7/ OpenDOS: A semi open-source version of DOS that can be gotten for free. Includes some advanced networking and multitasking functions but gives me some problems with some games. ROM-DOS Personal: Another "freeware-for-personal-use" version of DOS. Reasonable compatability and small size but no automatic memory management. Reccomended for experts. |
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21-06-2005, 05:49 PM
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#2 | ||
 Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: ,
Posts: 172
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I generaly use the DOSbox and this workes fine for me, but if I had to choose It would be PC DOS 7.0 just because you can't beat that 600+ Kb of memory.
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21-06-2005, 06:23 PM
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#3 | ||
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Boston, United States
Posts: 36
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Heh, I prefer real DOS to an emulator, especially since DOSbox is so darn slow on my computer. Can't even run a decent game of Doom...
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21-06-2005, 09:07 PM
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#4 | ||
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: ,
Posts: 172
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Try using CTRL-F8 and CTRL-F12 for changing the speed. And if you want to play classic Doom and your modern PC try downloading ZDoom This emulator enables you to run it perfectly under Win2K or WinXP. And you can play it in all resolutions up to 1600x1200
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22-06-2005, 09:55 AM
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#5 | ||
 Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: ,
Posts: 15
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You compleatly left out ms-dos 7.1!
Apart from the better memory manager, PC-DOS compleatly lacks fat32 and LFN support! Some of us like to use windows together with DOS, and in these cases, pc-dos is not an answer. The only reason you had problems with OpenDOS is because of the lousy EMM manager. Just use another one  I also have above 600kb free (don't remember how much exactly) with ms-dos 7.1, and that's with essential tools like killer and doskey installed, LFN support and CD-drive support. |
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22-06-2005, 11:43 AM
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#6 | ||
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Boston, United States
Posts: 36
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M$-DOS 7.1 (aka Windoze 98's DOS mode) is OK but it requires more manual configuration to get a nice memory profile. PC DOS will automatically set stuff up for you. The lack of LFN and FAT32 isn't really a problem for me, as no DOS software actually needs it... BTW, my 617 KB free includes DOSKEY, a mouse driver, EMS emulation, Adaptec SCSI driver, a SCSI CD-ROM driver and the CD-ROM extensions. There's no way I could get that kind of free space without a memory manager.
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Linear Mode
