Windows Windows 98SE to DOS drivers question

Hello all, i was debating whether to put this in general discussion or off topic as windows 98 is 18 years old now, but hey ho.
Anyway, my question is i want to build a DOS gaming computer and i was wondering if i install windows 98 will the drivers all still be working in DOS mode? or would i be better off just installing DOS?
Thanks for any help in advance

 

Windows 98 is based on DOS, isn't it? you can exit to DOS?

Drivers will be the same if you need them in either, you will probably have to install them yourself though IIRC there is a CDROM driver that installs itself with Win98 if you boot it "Install with CDROM support" or something like that.

I assume you will be running DOS games, yes? in which case you'd be fine with either.

 

Thanks, yes i'd be running DOS games, as i am already working on a 98 gaming PC, so just DOS games for this

 

Install DOS.

Windows 98 (95 onwards) came with DOS as the boot system but MS-DOS 6.22 was the last full fat, and fully featured version.

Some games may need an extended memory XMS (Himem.sys) setup and some may need an expanded memory setup EMS (emm386.exe). so having a full autoexec.bat/config.sys you can edit will mean all the available resources can be used for gaming.

A lot of old games requires more extended/expanded memory than windows allows. Even in the days of DOS, I still needed to use a boot disks to get some games to work (X-Wing & TIE-Fighter were the worst), with different configs.

Sample Config.sys:

Code:

DEVICE=C:\Dos\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=C:\Dos\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
FILES=30
STACKS=0,0
DEVICEHIGH=C:\Dos\ANSI.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CDROMDriver\MTMCDAI.SYS /D:123

Sample Autoexec.bat:

Code:

@echo off
SET SOUND=C:\CREATIVE\CTSND
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 
SET PATH=C:\DOS;C:\
LH C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:123
LH C:\DOS\MOUSE.EXE
LH C:\DOS\DOSKEY.EXE

Windows 98 stripped out most of these options, windows 95 was more DOS-ish but still not good for DOS games.

 

That's a blast from the past, I remember only having 1MB of RAM on my 286, which couldn't utilise EMM386 to convert extended memory to expanded memory so I just had 640K to play with. The extra 384K was totally unusable!

Still, managed to trim autoexec.bat and config.sys down to the bare minimum to give me around 620K of conventional memory.

It would all be going fine till one of the missions where you had to ID one of the many Corellian Corvettes...... OUT OF MEMORY!!

 

lol, yeah i know that feeling.

Went from a 1MB 286 to a 2MB 386, it was like going from a 750cc mini to a 3.0Ltr Jag (for wing commander II). (and what seems like a stupid amount of £££££)

At least by that time I did not have to remember to park the Hard Drives heads before turning it off!

 

Is Dosbox not an option on a modern pc?

http://www.dosbox.com/

I use it to play loads of old games on my Win10 PC - Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, etc and it works great

 

depends wether the OP is resurecting an older machine,

If the OP is going to use modern HW then DOSBOX on a modern OS is the only way as the OP will need to slow down the system clocks to make the games playable. (ie not to fast as many where linked to clock speed 33/66Mhz not 3.2Ghz)

 

As much as I lke Dos Box, there are some compatability issues to get around. Sounds doesn't always work as expected. There really is nothing like having the correct real hardware for the job of old school gaming.

I keep my eye out for the old stuff but it never appears very often and even when it does its stupidly expensive.

 

Thank you for all the feedback, I will definitely be using DOS then, I was originally just going to use 98 because I know more about 98, I've never actually used DOS outside of windows 9x and DOSbox, yes I am redirecting 4 old computer that someone had dumped on the pavement, one is now a windows 98 gaming machine, one is on its way to becoming a windows xp gaming machine, and one is not even started being a DOS machine, no clue what to do with the 4th computer, probably go in my pile of computers in my room, thank you for all the help, I shall probably be posting build threads on all the PC's on here, going to have fun playing with DOS, as never used it on a physical Pc before (my first home computer was windows 2000( I'm 16 which explains me not knowing much about DOS))

 

I meant the DOS drivers. So flat DOS and the DOS you get if you exit Windows dude.

 

ahh memories, my personal best without memmaker or Quemm was 617k free conventional memory. (623k using those tools)

 

No Problem

If you get stuck just ask back here.

A quick point on using DOS: (quick overview)

Your PC will be setup by Two editable text files:

Config.sys (loads first and controls memory and System device setup)
Autoexec.bat (loads Dos drivers and environment setting)

It does not treat memory as one single amount of one type,

The first 640 KB of memory, is conventional memory (this is where all programs actually run). Everything is loaded here unless told otherwise!

The next 384 KB of memory (upper memory area (UMA) ), is normally reserved for hardware but can be arranged into "Upper Memory Blocks - UMB" (Himem.sys in config.sys file) for use by drivers, so you can free up more of your 640KB for programs. (the more 640KB you have free after boot the better). (look up Devicehigh and Loadhigh commands for dos)



Next the HMA (High Memory Area) originally the PC could only address 1MB of memory (due to an address limit) The HMA allowed a work around to restart the addressing but with a larger address (up to 16mb) of extended memory.

Extended memory XMS, Without getting into to much detail, this memory is used by programs through an API (to allow longer addresses) (check with the game/program as to which is needed XMS or EMS).

Expanded memory EMS, Is just another way of organizing extra memory through a different API. (without getting complex)

Both have benifits and draw backs and as such some games/progams will want one type while others will want another, so something to take note of later down the line.


As a rule the first 640KB is the only memory with a direct CPU conection (no driver API etc) so the more that is free for your game the faster/better it will run. Commands like memmaker will help set up a better optomized config, but learning the how and why will always help squeeze that extra few KB out of your system.

 

Kids have it easy these days, none of them will know our struggle back in the day.

 

True that, pesky kids!

 

I would still much prefer to do everything via the command line back in the old days, to me its actually faster than messing about with drag and drop.