DOS and gaming

Discussions about using non Windows and Linux guests such as FreeBSD, DOS, OS/2, OpenBSD, etc.
Post Reply
Thomas.Mueller6
Posts: 2
Joined: 3. Jul 2007, 17:47

DOS and gaming

Post by Thomas.Mueller6 »

I've installed a MS-DOS 6.0 as guest OS and every
old dos game I try to run seems to fail, because after
starting the game in the DOS console the screen gets
completely black
and nothing more happens.

The only action I can do is - not surprising - reset the vm.
I've also tried FreeDOS as guest OS. Same behavior.

The game that runs normally under every circumstances, is
Wolfenstein 3D or Dynablaster and I think therefore it's a good test case. And they both don't run.
(I've tried also other games).

I tried VirtualBox as an alternative to MS VirtualPC.
In VirtualPC games often run but under VirtualPC
You never get as much free DOS RAM in the vm as in VirtualBox
and some games need every byte of it.
VirtualBox gives really good amount to an DOS OS, though I
don't really understand, why VirtualPC doesn't.

Do I make something wrong ?
As comparison in VirtualPC's vm the two games run perfectly with
everything installed exactly as in VirtualBox.
Technologov
Volunteer
Posts: 3342
Joined: 10. May 2007, 16:59
Location: Israel

Post by Technologov »

This this is interesting, but try DOSbox - the DOS emulator for DOS games.
Thomas.Mueller6
Posts: 2
Joined: 3. Jul 2007, 17:47

Post by Thomas.Mueller6 »

To use DOSBox is the only answer, I get everywhere.

I've tried DOSBox and find it very impressive, because many
games are running fine under DOSBox.

But there are two major reasons,
I try to get games running in a MSDOS-VM:

1. DOSBox needs a lot of CPU power to emulate the old dos games.
Though the games were made for old computers, they occupy a lot
of cpu ressources on hosting computers. I figured out, that VirtualBox has in generall a very low cpu usage on host computers and if the games would run under VirtualBox, the performance increase would be more appropriate.

2. DOSBox is not a true vm - in my opinion. The only consequent way
to emulate an old (for example 80286 i had) pc is to emulate the computer completely. This is the only safe method to ensure, almost every old program (may it a game or an application) can be executed
in this emulation, just as if it were a real pc.
But regarding to the fact, that for example games won't work, the vm
seems for me not to emulate the pc/os completely and I have no trust
in it to get a real emulation.

But one thing must always be said:
I think of VirtualBox as an interesting alternative to VirtualPC (VirtualPC
even cannot emulate the RAM in MS-DOS realistic!) and I have great
respect to the people who work on this project.
Technologov
Volunteer
Posts: 3342
Joined: 10. May 2007, 16:59
Location: Israel

Post by Technologov »

Yes, making VBox supporting DOS games would be nice indeed.
Post Reply