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I'm trying to run an old MS-DOS program that was written to use VT52 escape codes.

Some Microsoft knowledge base items (such as Q101875) refer to a 'third-party console driver' called VT52.SYS. I'm guessing that this added support for VT-52 escape sequences to MS-DOS, in the same way that ANSI.SYS adds support for ANSI escape sequences.

Does anyone know where it could be obtained, or whether it's possible to get VT52 emulation in MS-DOS by other means?

(Standalone terminal emulator programs wouldn't be suitable -- like ANSI.SYS, this needs to be a memory resident driver).

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  • What was the original hardware/software configuration? Was this expected to be run over a serial port to a terminal?
    – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen
    Commented Jun 19, 2019 at 13:12
  • See my comment of 10 Jan 2017 - it's a DOS program (DR Logo) that emits VT52 escape codes and expects the screen driver to respond to them.
    – john_e
    Commented Jun 19, 2019 at 13:22
  • It is just a very uncommon requirement so there might be more to it.
    – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen
    Commented Jun 19, 2019 at 13:36
  • Another option would be to use a DOS that emulates a VT52. DOS Plus did.
    – ninjalj
    Commented Apr 24 at 11:23

6 Answers 6

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This post appears to contain original .ASM source code for a VT52.SYS (but it may not be the same VT52.SYS you've seen references to). You would need an assembler (like MASM) to assemble it:

https://web.archive.org/web/20190624115445/http://www.delorie.com/opendos//archives/browse.cgi?p=opendos/2003/12/04/09:58:08

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  • 3
    Unfortunately, once this odd link goes dead (which is almost certain, given the form of the URL), this answer will have little value for future spelunkers.
    – user12
    Commented Jun 19, 2016 at 14:52
  • 1
    for questions of the form "where can I obtain X" a link is arguably the most useful answer when X is a copyrighted piece of software which the author has posted on his own website (or in this case, posted to a mailing list which is archived on the author's own website). however, your point is taken. a more SE-friendly answer would be something along the lines of "here is a list of VT52 escape codes, write a device driver to handle them". I'll see if I can find such a list.
    – Ken Gober
    Commented Jun 19, 2016 at 18:02
  • @jdv Perhaps post a SHA-256 hash then? It can be used to identify the file on P2P or search engines and verify the contents well into the future even after the Internet itself is replaced.
    – snips-n-snails
    Commented Mar 25, 2018 at 17:13
  • (The hash would be for individual files, not web pages. Would it be facilitating piracy to provide a hex-encoded unique numerical identifier for a file?)
    – snips-n-snails
    Commented Mar 25, 2018 at 22:17
  • @traal I think the reluctance to accept URLs is mostly because they are low-quality information that has a poor lifetime. Publishing some obscure hash intended as a breadcrumb for someone to find a file seems like it will just raise more questions than anything. Someone would have to publish a whole FAQ on what the hash is, and how to use it (probably using mealy mouthed guarded language). There really isn't a good answer for how SO is supposed to handle this sort of data. It's just a bad fit.
    – user12
    Commented Mar 26, 2018 at 14:33
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The VT52 terminal escape codes should work fine within VT100 or VT220 Emulation. Later generations are able to support earlier codes. VT240 is the first terminal to support color displays as color for instance. This is VT color not ANSI. You should be able to run something like Putty on a windows computer and then attach to your device over the serial port.

The VT52 is an 80x24 screen resolution with 7x7 character space, That means each character fits within a 7x7 grid. Modern characters are defined in a more vertical rectangular space so that might stretch your image somewhat but will be completely usable.

If you want to see the physical machines that are the terminals themselves, check out this link.

http://terminals-wiki.org/wiki/index.php/DEC_VT52

http://terminals-wiki.org/wiki/index.php/DEC_VT100

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    There is no 'device' to attach -- the situation is running an MS-DOS program (DR Logo) that outputs VT52 escape codes to control the screen. If DR Logo used ANSI-style escape codes then installing ANSI.SYS would solve the problem, but ANSI.SYS doesn't support VT52 escape codes.
    – john_e
    Commented Jan 10, 2017 at 10:28
  • Windows (pre Windows 10 anyway) comes with a telnet server as an optional component. You can then connect to it with Putty (or something else) that can interpret VT52 escape coded.
    – Brian
    Commented Aug 19, 2019 at 15:20
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I found a copy at PCJS.org, inside an OS/2 development boot floppy: http://www.pcjs.org/disks/pcx86/os2/misc/football/87058/

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    As much as this feels like helping, single-link answers are not great for SE sites. In general, a link to some single resource on SE Retro, however helpful now is just not going to be useful in the future. It might have been best to take this to chat.
    – user12
    Commented Jun 19, 2016 at 14:45
  • It is in fact much easier to just submit the URL to archive.org and have them capture it if they haven't already.
    – Rowan Hawkins
    Commented Aug 21, 2019 at 1:18
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Downloading VT52.SYS from a virtual machine on pcjs.org requires a few steps that may not be obvious if you're unfamiliar with the website:

  1. Go to a PCjs virtual machine (like the one that @john_e already posted)
  2. Make sure the desired disk, "OS/2 FOOTBALL (v7.68.17)", is loaded in drive A:
  3. Click the Save button
  4. Click OK on the "Check your Downloads folder for FOOTBALL-76817.img" alert message

At this point, the disk image should be in your Downloads folder, but some browsers (like Chrome) put up additional barriers. In the latest release of Chrome (version 65), before the download is permitted, a message is displayed at the bottom of the window:

This type of file can harm your computer. Do you want to keep FOOTBALL-76817.img anyway?

Prior to Chrome 65, there used to be Discard and Keep buttons, but now Google makes it even harder: you must click Show All, and then you'll see both the Discard and Keep options.

Once you finally have the .img file, you can mount it. On macOS, that's as easy as double-clicking it. On Windows, you may need to install some third-party software first, like OSFMount.

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  • Also, I'm puzzled by criticisms of posted links, because according to this site's section on "How do I write a good answer", it says that "Links to external resources are encouraged", along with some context. Sadly, links do die, like the original post's link to Microsoft for Q101875, but archive.org can often help. KB articles are a special problem, which is why I created a KB archive on GitHub, where you can find Q101875 and other old KB articles that Microsoft has apparently abandoned.
    – jeffpar
    Commented Mar 25, 2018 at 17:12
  • That's ridiculously helpful.
    – wizzwizz4 ♦
    Commented Mar 27, 2018 at 6:16
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MS-DOS Kermit had a terminal emulator built in. It should be VT100 compatible, and thus VT52 backward compatible. I don't know if Kermit was based on a driver or whether terminal emulation was part of the app.

You might be able to download MS-DOS Kermit and check it out.

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  • Kermit is for communicating with OTHER systems. It runs on top of MS-DOS as an application - it is not a replacement/addon for the MS-DOS command interpreter.
    – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
    Commented Mar 26, 2018 at 16:26
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The Vetusware abandonware site archives a copy of v3.12 of the vt52.sys driver. I hesitate to link directly due to the somewhat uncertain legal nature of such sites, but it shouldn't be difficult to find should one want to.

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