Caporegime
I used to have great fun with all that. MEMMAKER here, LOAD HI there, BUFFERS somewhere else. 
7 Terrible Things About PC-DOS Gaming
- Thread starter Neil79
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Ahh the days of DOS.
Running Memmaker.
******* about with VESA drivers for some SVGA games.
Networks using BNC cable. Then finding out you only had 1 terminator.
IRQ 5, Low DMA 1 Hi DMA 5, Port 220, MIDI 330 for a Sound Blaster Vibra 16
Matrox Millenium with 2meg, yes 2megs of ram. Woo!
And If you had PCI slots, well thats just showing off.
Mechwarrior 2, Duke3d, Command and Conquer, Transport Tycoon Delux. Ahhh, those were fun days.
Running Memmaker.
******* about with VESA drivers for some SVGA games.
Networks using BNC cable. Then finding out you only had 1 terminator.
IRQ 5, Low DMA 1 Hi DMA 5, Port 220, MIDI 330 for a Sound Blaster Vibra 16
Matrox Millenium with 2meg, yes 2megs of ram. Woo!
And If you had PCI slots, well thats just showing off.
Mechwarrior 2, Duke3d, Command and Conquer, Transport Tycoon Delux. Ahhh, those were fun days.
Soldato
Ah, the good old days. Wing Commander II on 16 (IIRC) floppy disks.
I never really had a problem with IRQs and the like, the odd game needed a tweak to the config files though. The problem stemmed from crap soundcards with crap TSR programs that ate all the high RAM. Stick with a SoundBlaster and you were fine.
EMS/XMS was a headache at times. Shame the article was wrong about how they worked.
I'm off to install DOS in Parallels and try Wing Commander II again!
Memmaker was for wimps. Took all the fun out of trying to get the lines in config.sys into the right order to get you more base memory.
I never really had a problem with IRQs and the like, the odd game needed a tweak to the config files though. The problem stemmed from crap soundcards with crap TSR programs that ate all the high RAM. Stick with a SoundBlaster and you were fine.
EMS/XMS was a headache at times. Shame the article was wrong about how they worked.
I'm off to install DOS in Parallels and try Wing Commander II again!
Memmaker was for wimps. Took all the fun out of trying to get the lines in config.sys into the right order to get you more base memory.
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You can relive the hair-pulling frustration of those days by moving to Linux
Haha i was thinking that the other day when trying to do a few things in Ubuntu
.
Soldato
The best thing I remember about those days was the defrag program that showed you all the file clusters, and you could watch it rearranging them slowly XD
You can relive the hair-pulling frustration of those days by moving to Linux
Or trying to run old games (MOO2, DK2 etc.) on Win7. I miss XP in this regard
Soldato
Same, I had a full startup menu I wrote. Took yonks, but even had insert disc 2 and the like. Everything was ran through the disc itself, menus for games, applications and setups. All I ever had to do was select a couple of menus and away it went. I kept it for years, even through 95, 98 and 98SE. (ME could takea running jump!).
Used to play Quake multiplayer.
Remember Descent, loved that game too.
As for Transport Tycoon Deluxe, I am still playing that now!!!!
Used to play Quake multiplayer.
Remember Descent, loved that game too.
As for Transport Tycoon Deluxe, I am still playing that now!!!!
Commissario
My PC had a turbo button back in those days
I remember those, i'd almost forgotten about the problems with games that were set to run the game clock in direct relation to the system clock...
Wingcommander on a low end 386 worked fine, Wing Commander on a 486dx4 100 was insane without moslo.exe (I think it was).
Mind you Ultima 9 (I think it was) still had system speed related bugs and that was in the Winxp days (certain items at the shrines had their height governed by something that was related to the system clock - play it on a faster system and you either had to stack stuff to reach the items, or use a cheat to fly up to them
).
Soldato
Try OpenTTD.
I had almost forgotten the day of IRQ Ports msconfig etc etc, I did use to enjoy the old copy protection (don't shoot me), I can remeber all manner of weird things, I remeber one which was like 2 big circles clipped together like an astronomical chart, the top level had holes in it, you had to rotate it to a certain position and the wholes would spell out the pass phrase!
One of my best moments from the earlier days was getting a Kempston interface and microdiscs for my spectrum. Load the game up once (which as we knew took an age) press the red button on the Kempston interface and save everything (including game state) to the microdisc. You could then save anytime you wanted and load from scratch in about 10 seconds. I was the envy of my mates (except the one with the Atari ST and the Viz game who was well ahead in the early epeen wars)
One of my best moments from the earlier days was getting a Kempston interface and microdiscs for my spectrum. Load the game up once (which as we knew took an age) press the red button on the Kempston interface and save everything (including game state) to the microdisc. You could then save anytime you wanted and load from scratch in about 10 seconds. I was the envy of my mates (except the one with the Atari ST and the Viz game who was well ahead in the early epeen wars)
Soldato
I remember all of these, it could be a right pain in the ass, especially memory and sound.
I also remember running DriveSpace that almost doubled the capacity of my 40MB hard drive!
I also remember running DriveSpace that almost doubled the capacity of my 40MB hard drive!
Soldato
Well, thats what I meant
Ive been using it since the first, and then openttd, even the other one I forget which it is
Soldato
The sound & IRQ annoyance, yeah that was a bitch.
However, I disagree with:
5) Playing with a Keyboard
I love playing on the keyboard and prefer it over a gamepad, even for fighting games.
Playing a footy game called ''striker'' with my dad on keyboard, he used wasd and space, I used numpad and ctrl, ahh memories
.
However, I disagree with:
5) Playing with a Keyboard
I love playing on the keyboard and prefer it over a gamepad, even for fighting games.
Playing a footy game called ''striker'' with my dad on keyboard, he used wasd and space, I used numpad and ctrl, ahh memories
.
Soldato
If anyone decides to use DOS again, create a batch file that specifies different settings for different games, ie frreing up ext memory or base memory or exp memory(not so much of a problem), you can also get the game to run automatically after you select it from the menu!
Ah so MUCH power back then, and everything just worked until Windows 3.1 came along and started to release buggy games(which still often occur now), good old Windows spoilt everything!
No need for patches in the DOS days!
Ah so MUCH power back then, and everything just worked until Windows 3.1 came along and started to release buggy games(which still often occur now), good old Windows spoilt everything!
No need for patches in the DOS days!
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Soldato
Soldato
You had to be a "real man" to play PC games back then. Windows 95 was where the rot began and gaming started getting soft.
I would say that endlessly hammering in changes to autoexec/config.sys and tapping in endless c:\dos\whatever\ sped up and improved my typing skills. The real grief for me was usually soundcards and getting the right mix of IRQ's.
Far all the quirks of MS Dos the games back then were epic and I hold a great many in far higher regard than almost all modern releases.
I would say that endlessly hammering in changes to autoexec/config.sys and tapping in endless c:\dos\whatever\ sped up and improved my typing skills. The real grief for me was usually soundcards and getting the right mix of IRQ's.
Far all the quirks of MS Dos the games back then were epic and I hold a great many in far higher regard than almost all modern releases.
Lets face it, some of the best games EVER were also some of the most difficult to get working. It was almost like a rite of passage - you had to prove your techy worth before you were allowed access to the best games.
Ultima 7 for example - used its own memory manager that required ludicrous amounts of base memory.
Tie Fighter, ditto - had to use QEMM to get that one working with a custom CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT
PC Gamers were REAL PC gamers back then
You knew you were a master when you managed to get a Gravis Ultrasound working nice with a Soundblaster 16, so you had amazing music with the best digital sound effects.
Ultima 7 for example - used its own memory manager that required ludicrous amounts of base memory.
Tie Fighter, ditto - had to use QEMM to get that one working with a custom CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT
PC Gamers were REAL PC gamers back then
You knew you were a master when you managed to get a Gravis Ultrasound working nice with a Soundblaster 16, so you had amazing music with the best digital sound effects.