Questions tagged [ms-dos]
MS-DOS, the Microsoft Disk Operating System, its OEM-branded versions, and x86 DOS clones in general.
224
questions
14
votes
1answer
1k views
What was the first two-panel file manager for DOS?
I'm trying to settle a debate between me and some colleagues about two-panel file managers in MS-DOS/PC DOS.
According to my own recollection the first was DV.EXE (DualView IIRC), but some of my ...
7
votes
1answer
521 views
Hardware for higher resolution VESA modes
What computer hardware was needed to run something like Duke Nukem 3D smoothly at the 640x480 or 800x600 VESA modes at the time (1996-1997)?
I was wondering if this was possible with contemporary ...
19
votes
2answers
2k views
How do I connect a command prompt to a serial line in MS-DOS 6.22?
I am currently experimenting with DOS and am trying to run the command prompt on the serial terminal through QEMU. This is the command I have been using.
command >COM1 2>COM1 <COM1
This ...
23
votes
3answers
6k views
Why might Quake run slowly on a modern PC?
I noticed back in the DOS gaming era that DOS games ran slowly in hi-res modes. I was surprised to discover that this could be true on a modern machine.
I booted a 2017 i5 7200u (I think) laptop into ...
2
votes
1answer
222 views
How do you start a minimized MS-DOS session on Windows 98 SE?
How do you start a minimized MS-DOS session (i.e., launch a Command Prompt window that is in the minimized state) for Windows 98 [version 4.10.2222]?
I thought the solution would be:
start /min
But ...
1
vote
0answers
96 views
MS-DOS Bear/Teddy Bear Spooky Halloween game?
In about 1993-4 I played a (probably free or shareware) MS-DOS game about a bear/teddy bear entering a house which was "spooky", I believe related to Halloween. Graphically it was primitive, ...
4
votes
1answer
235 views
"GAZE" GUI Organizer program?
In the early-to-mid '90s there was a GUI-based DOS organizer-like program, called GAZE, from which you could launch software and games which had an eyeball in the corner that followed the cursor as ...
7
votes
1answer
249 views
Are there any other historical traces of the earlier versions of the Alternate Multiplex Interrupt Specification by Ralf Brown?
I'm a fervent user of the Alternate Multiplex Interrupt Specification for 86-DOS systems, a method using a common set of multiplexer interfaces over interrupt 2Dh. It was originally developed in the ...
10
votes
1answer
502 views
Spin HDD up/down in DOS App?
Is there a register I can write to using a DOS based C app to spin the IDE HDD down after the app boots then back up upon the app close? Specifically I want to just put spin down/up commands in the C ...
24
votes
1answer
2k views
What is 'Adaptive Tile Refresh' in the context of Commander Keen?
The question Did John Carmack really invent "Adaptive Tile Refresh"? asks about the origins of the scrolling and drawing techniques used to allow an MS-DOS PC to provide a NES console-like ...
5
votes
1answer
284 views
Identify QuickBASIC Game involving launch, navigation, and landing of rocket on the moon
I recall playing a game that I had from source in QuickBASIC (probably 4.5, but maybe it was earlier QBASIC) during the mid-to-late 90s that I keep wanting to revisit. Unfortunately, due to the ...
30
votes
6answers
6k views
Why did the monsters have "infinite invisible pillars" of hitboxes vertically in all versions of the DOOM engine?
Even in the last version of the DOOM engine, v1.9, used for Final DOOM, there is this strange limitation in which all the monsters have an invisible, infinitely tall "pillar" above and ...
11
votes
3answers
2k views
Name of MS-DOS program that shows realtime update of light/dark map of whole planet
Years ago (circa 1996-1997 maybe?) I ran a MS-DOS program that showed a map of the whole earth, updated once a minute with the time, timezones, and light/dark areas of the planet, taking up the whole ...
15
votes
2answers
1k views
How to use "AND," "OR," and "XOR" modes for VGA Drawing
I've been trying to implement a blitter in MS-DOS, but before I do that I wanted to test the various graphics modes of the VGA graphics card. (I'm emulating using DOSBox.) According to this paper on ...
15
votes
5answers
2k views
Commodore Mouse not recognized by a Commodore PC30-III 286 machine
I have Commodore PC 30-III 286 machine with a serial port at the back labelled "mouse". If I plug my Commodore mouse 1900 serial mouse then execute mouse.com at the DOS prompt then I get the ...
1
vote
0answers
200 views
Looking for MS-DOS clip art (possibly Lotus 123?) [closed]
As a kid, I was given a 286 with 640k of RAM and a 20MB HDD, that had Lotus 123 and WordPerfect (v5?) installed. MS-DOS (v3 or v5) only - No Windows. As the machine was very limited, I tinkered and ...
25
votes
7answers
4k views
How did DOS games manage to have multiple background layers?
Seems like VGA only has one background layer, it appears to be a typical bitmap screen like most home computers of the 80s (Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 etc.) where each pixel's color is stored in a ...
51
votes
6answers
9k views
Why did some old MS-DOS games lack the ability to exit them?
While playing around in DOSBox-X, I'm reminded of some DOS games which appear to entirely lack the ability to exit/quit/close them.
One prime example of that is "Paratrooper" from 1982. I've ...
31
votes
2answers
6k views
Why does Windows 1.01 crash at the splash screen?
When Windows 1.01 is started under DOSBox, FreeDOS or one of the later versions of MS-DOS, garbage characters are printed on the screen right after displaying the Microsoft logo. Here’s an example in ...
16
votes
3answers
2k views
Why can't I invoke the next interrupt service by incrementing the AX register after calling the same interrupt?
I have two snippets of 8086 assembly code, both of which are supposed to do the same thing: make the mouse appear on the screen.
Show_Mouse:
push ax
mov ax,0 ;Reset Mouse
int 33h
...
15
votes
7answers
5k views
Are there any good, non-abandoned PC emulators?
Mission: I'm trying to simulate a classic ~286/386/486/Pentium inside my modern PC (running Windows 10) in the most authentic way possible.
Just a quick note to say that I (Sarah Walker) have decided ...
5
votes
1answer
356 views
Why does the ‘Get Next Selector Increment Value’ DPMI call exist?
In DPMI, interrupt 0x31 services 0x0000 and 0x0100 are capable of simultaneously allocating multiple protected-mode selectors in a single call. When that happens, both services return only the first ...
20
votes
2answers
2k views
How can I access the VGA card's ROM fonts with interrupt 10h operation 1130h in protected mode C?
I'm using Open Watcom 1.9 to write some 286 real mode, and 386 protected mode software for DOS in C.
In real mode, I can retrieve a pointer to the system ROM character bitmaps in real mode using int ...
25
votes
1answer
4k views
Did the original MS-DOS Quake not have a menu item for freelook, and if so, why?
I know that Quake (the 1996 MS-DOS game) is a "full" 3D engine, and always had some kind of mouse support.
However, even the original Wolfenstein 3D from 1992 also had mouse support from the ...
7
votes
2answers
410 views
Monitor can't display boot/DOS video mode making dual boot impossible
I have an HP ZR24w monitor connected via HDMI input to a newer custom machine running Win7, and via VGA input to an older Micron machine running Win98SE. I use the monitor's "source" setting ...
5
votes
1answer
299 views
How can I output a blank line from a batch file on the Atari Portfolio?
I'm am trying to make a batch script on the Atari Portfolio which uses DIP DOS 2.11 (pretty similar to MS-DOS 2.11). I need to put a blank line in my file and it won't work. I have tried echo., echo/, ...
16
votes
1answer
886 views
Why can MS-DOS not read partitions starting at logical sector 0?
When creating a FAT file system, mtools and newer versions of mkfs.fat write a stub MBR partition table to the boot sector. This makes the file system accessible when written directly to media that ...
8
votes
1answer
745 views
Which MS-DOS program implemented the "Methinks it is like a weasel" evolutionary algorithm?
In the late 1980s I had a set of 3.5″ floppy disks which contained some games like Sleuth, Centipede, Space War, and Sopwith. Also present was a program that I think was called "weasel", ...
10
votes
1answer
530 views
Is there any public documentation of the LapLink protocol?
Is the protocol used by the DOS Laplink software publicly documented?
I seem to remember there were Linux tools that could use it.
I cannot find anything useful on their website.
9
votes
5answers
1k views
DOS serial printer formats
Assume a DOS machine with a serial cable, and a selection of one of Epson FX-80, HP LaserJet, IBM Proprinter. At the other end of the serial cable is a modern machine, e.g. running Linux. On the DOS ...
3
votes
2answers
252 views
PS/2 Keyboard not working on Windows 95 and MS-DOS
I received a Packard Bell Multimedia 550 and it came with Windows 95. The problem is that keyboard input was not coming through. Before it attempts to boot into Windows 95, it shows the safemode ...
9
votes
1answer
710 views
What's the easiest way to change from MS-DOS 6.22 to DR-DOS?
I am trying to find a way to do task-switching/swapping (not necessarily multi-tasking) in a DOS environment. I have tried DesqView under DOS 6.22 but I don't have any real success.
I hear that DR-DOS ...
7
votes
0answers
296 views
What are the differences between MS-DOS and DR DOS FASTOPEN?
OS/2 Museum's history of DOS mentions the FASTOPEN.EXE TSR was introduced in DOS 3.3. Its entry on DOS 4.0 adds some implementation details.
It reminded me of the DR DOS FASTOPEN=nnnnn directive in ...
14
votes
2answers
831 views
How much of the Program Segment Prefix area can be reused by programs with impunity?
I am writing a tiny TSR program, and I want it to take as little memory while installed as possible. The memory footprint of every loaded DOS process, including a TSR, includes a data structure known ...
14
votes
3answers
3k views
Why did SMARTDRV have to be started with /x when DOS started?
In the default autoexec.bat for DOS 6.22, you see these lines:
C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE /X
@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $P$G
PATH C:\DOS
SET TEMP = C:\DOS
According to this source, /X disables write-behind caching. ...
14
votes
1answer
435 views
Is there a way to cut idle CPU usage under Multitasking MS-DOS 4.0?
The operating system variously known as ‘Multitasking MS-DOS 4.0’ or ‘European MS-DOS’, to avoid confusion with the better-known single-tasking MS-DOS 4.0, has the mildly irritating flaw that it doesn’...
40
votes
3answers
8k views
How do DOS games like DOOM benefit from a PCI graphics card?
The original DOOM and its derivatives (DOOM II, Heretic, Hexen) were early 90s 3D games released at a time when DOS PCs usually had ISA bus Super VGA graphics cards. In the following few years, PCs ...
2
votes
1answer
294 views
Microsoft C 6, far pointer, cast to int, warning C4047
Trying to access one byte in memory using segment/offset, like this
union REGS in, out;
struct SEGS segs;
int v;
char _far* p;
...
int86x(...,&in,&out,&segs);
p = (segs.es << 16) + ...
10
votes
0answers
339 views
Assembler where output file was executable WHILE including the source code
I seem to remember using an assembler with the following interesting workflow: You'd write an assembly language file and assemble it. The output overwrote your source code by placing the executable ...
31
votes
3answers
3k views
How can I play QBasic Nibbles on a modern machine?
MS-DOS versions 5 and 6 come bundled with the QBasic interpreter and a handful of example programs written in that BASIC dialect. One of the programs is Nibbles, a variant of the well-known Snake game....
6
votes
2answers
733 views
How 3Dfx Voodoo 1 Emulator works
reading of this question brings up 3Dfx Voodoo 1 Emulator in my memories. I always wandered how did it work so good time as any to ask...
My memory is hazy on the details so I might miss remember ...
12
votes
6answers
5k views
How can I tell whether a DOS-looking exe. requires a 32-bit CPU to run?
Is there some simple method for determining if a DOS (or OS/2, or Windows etc.) binary (.exe or .dll) is 16-bit or 32-bit? The Linux file command just says "executable".
I want to ...
4
votes
1answer
462 views
Use a USB mouse for DOS games
I have a Thinkpad T41 on which I installed Windows 98 SE.
I installed an old DOS game, and was wondering if I could get a USB mouse to work with it ? (the PC doesn't have a PS/2 port)
At the moment, ...
5
votes
2answers
218 views
How to get Terminate running in DOSEMU on recent machines? [duplicate]
When trying to run http://www.terminate.com/ under http://www.dosemu.org/, I get Runtime Error 200.
I know that this is a well known issue with software compiled with Turbo / Borland Pascal and using ...
28
votes
5answers
4k views
What really is a sound card driver in MS-DOS?
To my knowledge, neither MS-DOS nor BIOS offers any kind of API for sound cards. Therefore the concept of a "driver" is absent, as we know it today. Apart from accessories and sample files ...
0
votes
1answer
331 views
How were console games ported to DOS?
Many popular DOS games were ported from video game consoles:
Earthworm Jim
Mega Man
The Lion King
The Lost Vikings
Turrican 2
Rayman
Oscar
Zool
Video game consoles generally have wildly different ...
13
votes
6answers
794 views
What software used Turbo Vision back in its prime time?
Turbo Vision, Borland’s text-mode widget toolkit, is fairly widely known by those old enough to remember it, and apparently quite influential: it gave rise to a number of ports and reimplementations (...
25
votes
3answers
12k views
Why was "C:" chosen for the first hard drive partition?
I was reading this answer, as the question came to my mind: why does C: indicate the first hard drive partition?
The usage dates back to CP/M (as noted in a comment), was embraced by MS-DOS, and ...
2
votes
1answer
423 views
How to remove Virus:DOS/V_Sign from a DOS 6.22 system
Fresh install of dos 6.22, unfortunately there appears to be a virus in MBR, each time I get Virus:DOS/V_Sign when re-using floppy from this machine. I can't connect HDD to modern PC, any idea how I ...
