Hi everyone i've been surfing the net for the passed 2 hours and i found this forum. I'm new here so naturally i'm gonna be the "newbie" :D and ask for help.

I'm looking for suggestions and or advice on building or buying and converting a system to a dos gaming machine. Now to be straight forward and honest when it comes to new technology in computers i know a lot but i never started learning the systems and components till after 1997. I didnt miss out on the original dos age but i dont know a lot about what it takes to play most dos games.

I know dos really cant see over 2gb in hdd size
I've seen that most dos games need a true hardware sound card
I'm not too sure on the cpu speeds, i see some people with older 486 33-66mhz sx and dx chips but i dont know if those are perfect? or too slow for any dos game?

Would a pentium 3 800mhz be ok for dos? or would it need to be a older cpu?

i have a Creative Labs Ensoniq ES1371 Sound Card laying around but i think it still works 16bit, not sure if its a true hardware sound card or not, maybe someone can tell me.

To be all honest i was planning on putting together a linux (fedora) machine with a dual boot dos 6.2 on it. I currently have my eye on some older laptops on ebay maybe someone can tell me if they are or are not "the right stuff"

here's an example of what i've kinda been looking at if i bought one.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

now i've heard of dosbox and been to the website but i find myself debating between the emu'd version and the real thing. i'm pretty lost and need some guidence or advice. :wall:

Anyone got some suggestions and or advice? it would be greatly appreciated and if you could give me a example of the "ideal" dos gaming machine that would help as well. thankyou and its nice to meet everyone!

:ok:

Hi and welcome here.

You have first to know what kind of game you are expecting to run on DOS computer.

I don't see a point to install DOS 6.22 as Win98 dos is almost the same, and you can even play Win98 games in that case.

Any hardware is OK as long as you can find and download DOS drivers. You should be able to set up DOS-Mode shortcut in win98 with your configuration, so that you can optimize UMB memory usage.

In the case games are running to fast on that computer, you can use CPU killers, to slow it down.

But as I already said, it would help if you list the games that you like to play on that computer.

Hai and Welcome to this great website.
I guess you should try DOSBOX, it will solve most of your problems!
Download Link (which you need):-
http://umn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/...2-installer.exe
Now as you have said about that Pentium III 800 MHz PC, I don't think it will be a good idea to buy that one. Personally I don;t suggest you to go for it. Try DosBox, I am sure it will help you.
But if you are still not satisfies, that PC is good enough for playing DOS Games. Remember, for playing DOS games, you need a Sound Card as a must(not an inbuilt sound card). Then you must know your IRQ's and DMA's addresses. After it, you can play the game. As far as the sound cards are concerned, you sound Creative should do the job!
If you want to go for a cheaper configuration, you can try this:-
Intel Pentium Processor 266 MHz (Pentium II)
16-32 MB RAM
VGA Card
and Sound Card
Thanx

if you were to a dual boot system with MS-DOS 6.22 , yeah you're right , you would need the boot disk , AND you'd have to format your hard drive with a DOS 6.22 boot disk cause the partitions must be Fat16 or else DOS 6.22 won't take . And if that's the case , you would need to find the proper DOS souncard/joystick driver for your Creative Sound Card . And Yes a P3 800 is good for playing dos games , even more so to the fact that you'll need a slowdown utility like Mo-Slo to slow em down for some games, and if you have Windows 98 . you can restart into MS-DOS mode and try to run your games like that. You prob may need to get the dos-based creative lab soundcard/joystick driver if that's the case then install it from MS-DOS mode , but only prob is you'd need your HDD to be partitioned into Fat16. DOS Box can be choppy if you don't have at least a P4 1Gig CPU , but it also depends on how much ram you have as well.

DOS gaming is possible you just have to play around with it

My Specs: P166 w/ MMX support
S3 Mira 3d vid card (2 meg onboard)
40 MB EDO ram (toughest ram around still have original)
1 2gig & 1 6.4 Gig HDD , mastered & slaved & partitioned into FAT 16
with my DOS 6.22 boot DISK
Windows ME installed (With DOS 8 separated out , now can start into DOS when I want it , and type "win" and hit enter at prompt when I want Windows ME , so essentially my system runs like Win 3.1)
Creative Sound Blaster 16 card complete w/ proper DOS drivers so I have sound and joystick in DOS 8)
so essentially I dumped that P.O.S DOS Box since it was too slow on my system and it was very bad to begin with, and I hacked me a good system. I've been running it for a year now , and I can play just about any DOS game to my heart's content.

tazzy_s,
you don't need boot disk to dual boot DOS6.22 and Fedora.

thx for all the input guys i just need a few more answers if possible. :D

i just came across this ad on ebay i contacted the seller and he's in my area so its a decent deal and i dont mind going for it but i'd like to have advice from you guys before i go for it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

i could throw in my Creative Labs Ensoniq ES1371 Sound Card and a SiS 6326 Video Card, PCI, 8MB video card i have.

Question #1. Would that be good enough for dos?
Question #2. Would windows 98 or 98se dos be okay for this system?
Question #3. Are cpu killers win32 based or dos based?
Question #4. The memory on that particular ebay pc i showed (256mb) would that be okay to use in a windows 98/98se dos environment?

I know this would be perfect for fedora, but i'm REALLY hoping now that i've found this particular ad that it would work with dos they way i'm thinking. I really dont wanna use an emulator if at all possible, nothing like the real thing imho.

Question #5. I could get a 12-20gb hdd and make a fat16 partition for windows 98/98se but how much would i need to designate to that partition, only 2gb or could i use more?

As for which games i'm planning on playing i have a few in mind like the original warcraft: orc vs humans, the might & magic series, doom, maybe duke nukem, and a few other great rpg's. I'd really like to be able to play anything i'd want.

:D

i was just looking at this thread, and i might have some advice, if you're still interested. after all, the last post is half a year old.
my suggestion would be a pentium 133 to 266, nothing faster. the specs of a PC with that cpu would be okay for the games you listed. also, the components you listed would be good, i have an ES1886 myself and I'm totally satisfied.
i don't know if you still visit this page, so i just posted this.

A side note: FAT-16 isn't too good for partitions above 512 MB, and should never be used for ones above 800 MB. Otherwise it's a major waste of space and efficiency.

What do you need 12 gb on a dos machine for, anyway?

Simply put, if your system totally the rocks the way it is (high end CPU, lots of RAM, great video card, etc..) then use DosBox. But if you have a crappy motherboard lying around and a spare CPU then just build an actual old comp for old games.