How do i get to dos mode?

[hardcore_gamer]

Do i need some programs to run things in dos mode?

If so do you know about any?

[printz]

Restarting Windows in DOS mode could help. But it's much easier to just use a DOS emulator, such as DOSBox, so you don't have to quit Windows, restart Windows, quit Windows, restart Windows. Here's a thread already discussing this: http://www.doomworld.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=39599

DOSBox runs DOom at nice frame rate (should you have a decent computer), similar for Wolf. Try it on these games in case you miss the SoundBlaster 16 days.

[LogicDeLuxe]

What's the point in playing Doom in an Emulator? It's easier to play a Windows port, isn't it?

If you want DOS Doom, you want the entire real thing, I guess.

In order to get to dos mode, you just can press F8 just when the computer starts booting. A menu appears where you can go to the dos prompt rather than booting windows.
You need Windows 95, 98 or ME for this. Windows 2000 and XP are based on the NT kernel, which has no compatible DOS.
Also note, that you need to install drivers for pretty much anything like CD-ROM, Mouse etc. Some soundcards need to be set to Soundblaster mode. Also, you need an ISA soundcard, since there are no DOS games supporting PCI soundcards, afaIk.
That said, you probably don't want do go though all this on a recent PC (as there is no ISA slot). If you really want pure DOS, you best get yourself an old PC. For instance, Pentium 1 with 233 Mhz, 32MB SDRAM, 4MB SVGA PCI preferable with VESA 2.0 BIOS (Doom is only standard VGA, though), Soundblaster AWE32 or 16 with a Soundcanvas compatible Waveblasterboard. For many Sierra or LucasArts games, the MT-32 or the LAPC-1 is a nice device, too. For 3D accelleration (which Doom doesn't support), you need a 3dfx Voodoo 1 card (which prevents Windows from detecting plug'n'play monitors).

[Da Spadger]

If you just want a port that is as close to the original .exe's as possible, try chocolate doom.

[printz]

Maybe he asked how to access editing utilities and whatnot, that only run under DOS mode. In that case, I'd recommend DOSBox.

[Maes]

From my experience, most DOS programs that use only text output/non-VESA graphics modes and no sound should work smoothly under a standard Windows command prompt.

A non exhaustive list of DOOM-related utilities that have worked for me under a standard command prompt (not DOSBOX) includes:

DEHACKED
DMAUD (not if you playback sounds though)
MIDI2MUS
RMB
DEU (only in lump editing mode, not level creation)
Several DOS (not windows command-line) nodebuilders
...plus a lot of others, as long as they only use non-VESA graphics modes, no Soundblaster autodetection and they don't try doing funky stuff with the hardware.

If you need any of the latter features to make a program work properly, only you need DOSBox or a soundcard/VESA emulator such as VDMSound.

[LogicDeLuxe]

printz said:

Maybe he asked how to access editing utilities and whatnot, that only run under DOS mode. In that case, I'd recommend DOSBox.

Then he would have posted it in the editing forum, I guess.

If a certain software does not run under Windows, an explicit mentioning would probably help us to help you.
Vogons also might be a good place for that matter.

[myk]

LogicDeLuxe said:
Then he would have posted it in the editing forum, I guess.

You're forgetting the "whatnot".

[hardcore_gamer]

Da Spadger said:

If you just want a port that is as close to the original .exe's as possible, try chocolate doom.

I have a copy of the Doom alpha and it won't work in windows. That is way i asked. Got fixed it now thanks!

[Maes]

Well, getting vanilla Doom (or other DOS games, for that matter) to run under Windows XP has always been a challenge.

I know the easy answer that works for most people is "to use DOSBOX", but I have the real thing side by side (a P166-MMX with 48 MB RAM running Windows 98) and even the latest DOSBOX (0.70) on a an A64 3200+, with its dynamic emulation core and everything, just doesn't look as smooth as the real thing.

That being said, some people found out they could run vanilla Doom "directly" in Windows XP command prompt box, perhaps with choppy sound or no sound at all. For me, it just doesn't start at all especially after having installed both service packs.

OK...to keep the SNR of this thread low...if it doesn't run on its own, use DOSBOX, period. :-)

[printz]

MAES: You've got Windows 98 and Doom.exe doesn't work? On my Win98 computer, the old DOS games only fail at sounds, depending on my sound card, but otherwise they go at top FPS.

[funduke]

Maes said:

I know the easy answer that works for most people is "to use DOSBOX", but I have the real thing side by side (a P166-MMX with 48 MB RAM running Windows 98) and even the latest DOSBOX (0.70) on a an A64 3200+, with its dynamic emualtion core and everything, just doesn't look as smooth as the real thing.

That being said, some people found out they could run DOS "directly" in Windows XP command prompt box, perhaps with choppy sound or no sound at all. For me, it just doesn't start at all especially after having installed both service packs.

Do i understand it correctly, that you have one computer with winxp and one with win98?

Under Win2k, it helps, to disable sounds and music in the setup of doom, to run it.

Greetings
Funduke

[LogicDeLuxe]

funduke said:

Under Win2k, it helps, to disable sounds and music in the setup of doom, to run it.

The alpha versions don't have sound.
The actual problem might be that the early versions of Doom don't run on any Windows version at all. This was fixed in v1.2 afaIk.

[Maes]

Ehm..to clear up the confusion, when I said "DOS under Windows XP" I meant ofc "Vanilla Doom under Windows XP" (correcting...)

YES, I have several WinXP computers ranging from Athlon1600+ (laptop) to Athlon3200+ and one Win98 computer (the P166).

The P166 with Win98 DOES play Doom.exe with no problem (it has a genuine Creative SB16 BTW, not those crappy "Soundblaster clones" that cannot work (when they do...) without Soundblaster emulation drivers).

I meant that running Doom.exe under XP just from a standard command prompt usually doesn't work. It sort of worked with Windows XP on the Athlon XP 1600+ laptop whose Realtek AC'97 claimed to be partially Soundblaster compatible, at least without either service pack installed, however the sound was rather choppy. Music played fine through General MIDI and the Windows MIDI mapper though (no FM emulation, what did you expect? :-p )

On all other machines I have, Doom.exe won't even start with any settings under Windows XP, at least not with SP1/SP2 installed (haven't tried what happened without them).

Some people claimed however that it does start and play without sound even with SP2 installed...go figure. Ofc this is all testing the limits, I don't expect anyone to seriously play vanilla Doom under WinXP, and even less so under Vista.


@LogicDeLuxe: Running a demanding DOS application under Windows 3.1 was always risky. In general, "clean" programmed stuff such as text mode accounting applications, or games/programs using simple BIOS and DOS calls for things such as disk and video access would probably work 99% of the time. On the other side, things that banged directly on the hardware like oldskool demos, games like Doom and pretty much any DOS game made after 1993 and using the DOS4GW extender just couldn't live with Windows 3.1/3.11.

Windows 95/98 had much better DOS compatibility in that sense, and could always boot in a pretty "clean" DOS environment, if required, but still you couldn't pretend to run something that tweaked the VGA registers directly to run in a window near MS Word!

The only stuff that was hard to run under 95/98 were those games with high conventional memory requirements, and those requiring precise EMS/XMS configurations. You could even keep an older or alternate version of DOS on the same machine and dual-boot, if you could live without FAT32.

[LogicDeLuxe]

Maes said:

You could even keep an older or alternate version of DOS on the same machine and dual-boot, if you could live without FAT32.

If you could live without FAT32, Windows 95 is the best choise in my experience. I managed to get 619 kb of conventional mem free with EMS, CD driver, mouse driver and smartdrive loaded running DOS 6.2. With Windows 95 booted right into DOS mode, I got 625 kb. Not on all PC's though, since it also depends on a DOS friendly BIOS. (In the worst case, I couldn't even install Windows 95 on a PC with 4 MB RAM, as the installer kept complaining about insufficient mem.)
Using Windows 95 instead of DOS 6.2 has only one drawback as smartdrive doesn't cache CD-ROM drives (in DOS mode that is). Though, since harddisks are usually bigger than CD's nowadays, you can just copy the CD to it and the game loads faster than ever. (Fortunately copy protections were rarely used on DOS CD's)
And since you can't partition/format the whole capacities of today's harddisks under old DOS/Windows 95 anyways, a Compact Flash card might be a nice alternative.

[CODOR]

LogicDeLuxe said:
If you could live without FAT32, Windows 95 is the best choise in my experience.

Windows 95 revision C (version 4.00.950 C) supported FAT32 partitions. People who bought computers in 1997 (like me) probably ended up with this version while waiting for Windows 97 to come out...