playing old DOS games in WinXP

[Random Variable]

Would it even be possible to run an old DOS game like Links 386 Pro using WinXP's DOS emulator? Would a different DOS emulator be better? And what about VESA drivers?

 

[MrChad]

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net

 

[Schnozzinkobenstein]

Is partitioning your hard drive to dual boot with 95 or DOS a legitimate alternative, or does the problem with running older games constitute more than just your OS?

 

[Markbnj]

You would be surprised how many of those old games will work right out of the box on Windows XP. XP virtualizes the hardware layer for a 16-bit process, and as far as the program knows all the ports and whatnot that it read/wrote on a DOS system are still there.

 

[PingSpike]

I've had good luck with dosbox.

 

[Zelmo3]

Try the games with Windows' command prompt first--a lot of things will work that way, and they'll run fast.
For everything else, DosBox is an excellent emulator. It will run a lot slower than XP's command prompt because it has to emulate the hardware for DOS to run on, but almost anything works with it. It's also handy if you need to control the emulated CPU's speed.

 

[AStar617]

I actually just keep an old PPro box around for this very purpose 😀 Have fun.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

vesa support is terrible with xp.

 

[bigdaddy51]

I have both a 98 box and a 95 box ,for that very reason I found a TON of software for my Granddaughter this summer. Since I was involved in Computewrs for Soldiers, it wasn't hard to come up with both for real cheap I only paid $10 at a tag sale for a whole vanload of stuff. Most of it went to Jeff, but I snagged a couple of unusual pcs, out of the great many I stripped and sent. If you are ever interested in an old pc for that, pm me and we will talk. BD51

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: Zelmo3
Try the games with Windows' command prompt first--a lot of things will work that way, and they'll run fast.
For everything else, DosBox is an excellent emulator. It will run a lot slower than XP's command prompt because it has to emulate the hardware for DOS to run on, but almost anything works with it. It's also handy if you need to control the emulated CPU's speed.

Yeah, emulators always introduce a loss of performance. But since most anything that will need a dos emulator to run probably had system requirements no higher than a 486 you'll probably be fine even if it isn't 'efficient' running on your PC.

 

[RaiderJ]

I used DOSBox to play through "Full Throttle" without any issues. Best option if you don't have an old PC to dedicate to a Windows 98 installation.

 

[Doug117]

whats wrong with dual-booting? Heck I've got a 200MB partiton running DOS 6.22 sitting right next to a 6GB partition running XP x64

 

[TGS]

Why would you waste a partition, when dosbox can accomplish the same thing, under your primary OS?

 

[Schnozzinkobenstein]

I've tried playing Arena using DOSbox, and I can only get about 5 fps out of it. If I can achieve normal frame rates by partitioning, what, to me, is 0.5% of my disk space gone?

 

[Random Variable]

I purchased a few games yesterday off of Amazon (including a couple that require a VESA driver). I'll update this post later this week when the games arrive.

 

[Random Variable]

Originally posted by: Doug117
whats wrong with dual-booting? Heck I've got a 200MB partiton running DOS 6.22 sitting right next to a 6GB partition running XP x64

Partitioning will be my last option if all else fails.