DOS ain't dead

FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! (Users)

posted by mceric, Germany, 21.11.2021, 18:35

Hi everybody,

as said, I would rather assume that the problem of FreeDOS is NOT loading a cache. But it is always good to load as few drivers as possible when trying to narrow down what might cause problems with the games.

Which includes skipping caches, if any are loaded (UHDD, LBACACHE, CDRCACHE, etc.), in spite of those being very unlikely to cause problems. As well as skipping LFN drivers (LFNDOS, DOSLFN) to not be tempted to use non-DOS style file/directory names (with spaces etc.) and other odd things.

As Jim had written, maybe the user just had forgotten to first change to the directory of the game before starting it? That might explain why a game fails to find some files.

And as Rugxulo and I have written, maybe the user has copied games from CD/DVD and left the files/directories read-only, which could confuse some games.

But I do recommend loading XMS drivers to have enough memory free and because modern games like to have memory beyond 1 MB. To actually recommend Jack's software as part of the solution: HIMEM (or JEMM386, JEMMEX etc.) may have issues with memory detection or A20 control. Note that there can also be TOO MUCH memory free. You can limit XMS to 15, 31 or 63 MB, for example, or to less than 2 GB, to avoid sign overflows. Classic DOS games never expected computers to ever have more than 4 GB of RAM and even much lower amounts can start to confuse them.

And: Try using Jack's XMGR instead of HIMEM! It helps to compare different driver brands and your BIOS or hardware may have properties which confuse HIMEM, while XMGR might be able to see through the confusion.

Also try to avoid any EMM/UMB drivers, those add complexity and possibilities to fail which you do not want to add until after you have proven that the games do work in general. You can also use various XMGR, HIMEM etc. command line options to modify A20 control settings and memory detection settings, in case the BIOS reports something misleading. Read the docs about available options, or at least read the /? screens

---
FreeDOS / DOSEMU2 / ...

Complete thread:

• FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - liljames2k, 13.11.2021, 20:50 (Users)
  • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Laaca, 13.11.2021, 22:51
  • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - rr, 13.11.2021, 23:35
  • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Rugxulo, 14.11.2021, 06:37
  • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - liljames2k, 20.11.2021, 05:48
    • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Zyzzle, 20.11.2021, 09:03
    • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - mceric, 20.11.2021, 11:25
      • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Rugxulo, 21.11.2021, 14:35
    • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Japheth, 20.11.2021, 11:27
    • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - tom, 20.11.2021, 12:09
    • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - jhall, 20.11.2021, 18:30
      • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - jhall, 20.11.2021, 18:34
        • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - tom, 20.11.2021, 19:04
          • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - tom, 20.11.2021, 19:14
            • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - tom, 20.11.2021, 19:28
            • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Khusraw, 21.11.2021, 16:54
              • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - tom, 21.11.2021, 17:17
              • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - mceric, 21.11.2021, 18:35
                • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Zyzzle, 22.11.2021, 06:18
              • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Rugxulo, 21.11.2021, 19:03
                • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Japheth, 22.11.2021, 14:36
                  • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - tom, 22.11.2021, 22:00
                    • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - rr, 23.11.2021, 21:15
                      • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - glennmcc, 24.11.2021, 04:16
                • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - mceric, 23.11.2021, 01:07
                  • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - rr, 23.11.2021, 21:07
        • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - rr, 21.11.2021, 12:38
          • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - rr, 21.11.2021, 13:24
          • FDOS works fine, but Old Games not! - Rugxulo, 21.11.2021, 14:44
    • Don't panic! (FreeDOS works!) - Rugxulo, 20.11.2021, 19:34
      • Don't panic! (FreeDOS works!) - tom, 20.11.2021, 19:46
        • Don't panic! (FreeDOS works!) - mceric, 20.11.2021, 20:12