Stumbled across this a year late, but, interesting, nonetheless. I am a blind user, and I have fond memories of using DOS. Now, I use a sort-of cobbled together system giving me access to my DOS screen reader, whether I run it from VMWare, or DOSBox-X. DOS is still the best way for me to experience my old Infocom game collection. Anyway, your explanations were clear and I was still able to follow most of what you were doing. In particular, your explanation of getting networking going were quite helpful. FreeDOS works for this, but, I wanted it in MS-DOS, but, didn't know which tools I needed. For some reason, when I set up the ftp server, my uploads to the guest are extremely slow. However, it is a great way to transfer back and forth with the system running. Thanks also for the links.
I suggest installing DOSIDLE, it's a small TSR program that sends a HLT command to the CPU when it is not used. Otherwise the VM will run at 100% CPU load even at the command prompt.
RE: Fast CPU - try the game "Bouncing Babies" On a fast 486 or slower Pentium, game was playable. O n FAST Pentiums, the game was OVER in seconds, as you could NOT catch the babies with the trampoline to bounce them into the Ambulance!
Very good guide. Everything worked. But I have terrible performance in DOOM. Don't really know why. The VM also takes alot longer at startup when HIMEN is testing expanded memory. Anyone have ideas?
You can use DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIGHMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF to skip the memory test. I too have a very sluggish performance in DOOM. Did you ever manage to get it running any better like in the video?
Great video, very educational thanks, I learned a lot, one I'll be saving and referring back to many times. . On the speed sensitive issue, I'm assuming there is not an option ala VirtualBox where you can adjust the 'Execution Cap' % (in VB's System/Processor settings) which is demo'd here: ua-cam.com/video/i-ChxiuIbP8/v-deo.html
Thanks for watching! I’m not aware of any speed settings in Workstation or player but it may be possible through VMX file edits. Interestingly vsphere can do this through resource settings 👍
@@vswitchzero will do! I may be doing so on a server (hp proliant) running an as yet undecided hypervisor, so I may have to tweak it a bit. Will keep u informed!
You had me right up until 43:19 when the autoexec.bat file had lines for sound blaster. I'm rightfully assuming I needed to add those? And you said you copied Doom to a folder path, although did you transfer it? Feel like I missed a couple steps not present in the video. 😆 So since SB16 was in the dosvm.iso I downloaded, I'm including these commands in case anyone needs it: d:\> xcopy /E d:\sb16 c:\drivers\sb16 c:\> cd c:\drivers\sb16 c:\drivers\sb16> install ENTER ENTER ENTER # The following is added to autoexec.bat: SET SOUND=C:\SB16 SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6 SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E C:\SB16\DIAGNOSE /S C:\SB16\MIXERSET /P /Q # The following is added to config.sys: FILES=40 ENTER F10 (to reboot) Voila! Sound Blaster is installed.
Thanks for sharing! Yeah, my apologies I should have been more specific toward the end of the video. The shareware version of Doom is included in Phil's benchmark pack under the "MARKS\DOOMS" directory. It can be copied to root (C:\DOOM) for easier access if desired. The full SB16 installation process isn't really necessary but won't cause any problems either. The system sees a genuine SB16 with the appropriate resources, so it does work, but really only the "SET BLASTER" environment variable is required. Some games expect that variable to be set to know how to access the SB16. Games that have a setup tool to configure sound resources (like Doom for example) don't need it. Hope this helps. Thanks again for watching! 👍
Cool. I did use VMware back in the day for emulating Win98se/Win95. Sadly they stopped supporting them and no more VMware tools for them, leaving no viable option for emulating those systems... Your iso image was quite handy! videcdd is a bt hard to find, and for some reason the download at Phill's computer lab for benchmarking doesn't work, but your version does. And good tips to free up memory! 27 years using DOS and I always learn new stuff from more knowledgeable people
I emulate Win98se to this day with VirtualBox. Works absolutely fine for me. I use it to play strategy games, Starcraft, Red Alert 2 etc on my Linux PC (I know there is Wine but I could never get anything to work on it so I prefer real Windows environment).
~79KB of upper memory seems quite low. I would run MSD.EXE and look at the memory chart to see what isn't being included for UMBs. You can probably add I=B000-B7FF to your EMM386.EXE statement if you aren't using monochrome modes for video. There's a chance that you can include I=E000-EFFF as well, but again I would check MSD.EXE to see if it is available. That should give you more space to load drivers high to give you more conventional memory.
Thanks for the tips! It does indeed seem a bit low. I've heard of stealing the monochrome address range before but I never tried it before. I will give that a shot 👍
Very informative video, Thanks. Can the virtual DOS be connect to a host printer. In my circumstances I wish to install an old CAD program and print to a plotter. (On the host I would be using a USB to serial or USB to parallel adapter). Any info will be gratefully received.
Yes, you should be able to. I can't speak for other virtualization platforms, but in VMware Workstation you can connect host parallel and serial ports to the VM. As long as your USB to serial or parallel adapter provides a normal looking COM or LPT port to the host OS, you should be able to connect them. I've never tried this in DOS before, but I have in other operating systems in the past.
Thank you Good for playing ms dos games but what if i want to run a program in DOS and this program need a bios extension to be loaded before starting ms DOS? And how many RS-232 ports you can add, and the VM can allocate IRQ and port address for each ports? And the VM use vertual IRQ or workstation IRQ? I know that i asked a lot of questions, but you are the right one because you got used to it. I wish you all the success
Thanks for your comment. Yeah, as far as I know, there is no way to load BIOS extensions, or loading boot roms etc in virtual machines like this. I believe you can add a maximum of 4 serial ports to a virtual machine, but you'll need to map these to actual serial ports on the host machine. I haven't tried adding a serial port in a long time, but I'm pretty certain the VM will use its own "virtualized" IRQs and does not share the host's IRQ numbers. Hope this helps. Cheers!
I haven't had a chance to try either, but have heard some good things about them. I'm a long time DOSBox user, but have used dosemu a bit for some projects as well. Will have to check them out.
What is the best setup for VMWare Workstation Pro version 17? 1 -WMWare Installed on Windows Server 2019 Datacenter and Windows 10/11 as VM. 2 - WMWare Installed on Windows 10/11 and Windows Server 2019 Datacenter as VM
It really depends on the hardware being used and the primary purpose of the computer. If it is a desktop/consumer grade system, it would be best to use Windows 10/11 as the bare-metal operating system and use Server 2019 as a VM. If it’s a true server platform, something like VMware ESXi would be better suited. Hope this helps.
Thanks for your comment! You can definitely do Microsoft Networking if you prefer. I just use mTCP because I'm used to it and I find it easier to use and configure 👍
@@NguyenHoang-pv2xd I don't have much experience with Microsoft Networking for DOS so I can't really compare the two. mTCP will provide some basic tools for DOS like FTP, ping, telnet, IRC and even HTTP and is much more lightweight as far as I know. For basic network uses like that, it is a great choice and is quite easy to setup.
Hey the only pain in the butt for me is using dosbox is mounting the drives other than it not that bad and by the way why only use Dos 6.22 because this a Dos 6.3!!!!!!
You do know that Microsoft ONLY made DOS versions up to 6.22? UNLESS you count DOS 7 in Windows 95. So "DOS 6.3" isn't an official MS-DOS version It possibly is DR-DOS or PC-DOS.
I actually had NO idea you were so connected to VMware! Great tutorial! It shows the love you have for your work.
Thanks Mike! Appreciate it!
Stumbled across this a year late, but, interesting, nonetheless.
I am a blind user, and I have fond memories of using DOS. Now, I use a sort-of cobbled together system giving me access to my DOS screen reader, whether I run it from VMWare, or DOSBox-X.
DOS is still the best way for me to experience my old Infocom game collection.
Anyway, your explanations were clear and I was still able to follow most of what you were doing.
In particular, your explanation of getting networking going were quite helpful. FreeDOS works for this, but, I wanted it in MS-DOS, but, didn't know which tools I needed.
For some reason, when I set up the ftp server, my uploads to the guest are extremely slow. However, it is a great way to transfer back and forth with the system running.
Thanks also for the links.
I suggest installing DOSIDLE, it's a small TSR program that sends a HLT command to the CPU when it is not used. Otherwise the VM will run at 100% CPU load even at the command prompt.
Thanks for the tip! Will have to look into this 👍
RE: Fast CPU - try the game "Bouncing Babies"
On a fast 486 or slower Pentium, game was playable. O
n FAST Pentiums, the game was OVER in seconds, as you could NOT catch the babies with the trampoline to bounce them into the Ambulance!
Very good guide. Everything worked. But I have terrible performance in DOOM. Don't really know why. The VM also takes alot longer at startup when HIMEN is testing expanded memory.
Anyone have ideas?
You can use DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIGHMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF to skip the memory test.
I too have a very sluggish performance in DOOM. Did you ever manage to get it running any better like in the video?
Great video, very educational thanks, I learned a lot, one I'll be saving and referring back to many times. . On the speed sensitive issue, I'm assuming there is not an option ala VirtualBox where you can adjust the 'Execution Cap' % (in VB's System/Processor settings) which is demo'd here: ua-cam.com/video/i-ChxiuIbP8/v-deo.html
Thanks for watching! I’m not aware of any speed settings in Workstation or player but it may be possible through VMX file edits. Interestingly vsphere can do this through resource settings 👍
Came here from twitter, a) watching now, b) saving to watch later so I can do this myself and c).... subbed!
Awesome! Thanks so much. Please let me know how it goes if you follow the process. If you run into any problems, let me know.
@@vswitchzero will do! I may be doing so on a server (hp proliant) running an as yet undecided hypervisor, so I may have to tweak it a bit. Will keep u informed!
How cool is that!! I'm a big fan of virtualization. Good stuff.
You had me right up until 43:19 when the autoexec.bat file had lines for sound blaster. I'm rightfully assuming I needed to add those? And you said you copied Doom to a folder path, although did you transfer it? Feel like I missed a couple steps not present in the video. 😆
So since SB16 was in the dosvm.iso I downloaded, I'm including these commands in case anyone needs it:
d:\> xcopy /E d:\sb16 c:\drivers\sb16
c:\> cd c:\drivers\sb16
c:\drivers\sb16> install
ENTER
ENTER
ENTER
# The following is added to autoexec.bat:
SET SOUND=C:\SB16
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E
C:\SB16\DIAGNOSE /S
C:\SB16\MIXERSET /P /Q
# The following is added to config.sys:
FILES=40
ENTER
F10 (to reboot)
Voila! Sound Blaster is installed.
Thanks for sharing! Yeah, my apologies I should have been more specific toward the end of the video. The shareware version of Doom is included in Phil's benchmark pack under the "MARKS\DOOMS" directory. It can be copied to root (C:\DOOM) for easier access if desired. The full SB16 installation process isn't really necessary but won't cause any problems either. The system sees a genuine SB16 with the appropriate resources, so it does work, but really only the "SET BLASTER" environment variable is required. Some games expect that variable to be set to know how to access the SB16. Games that have a setup tool to configure sound resources (like Doom for example) don't need it. Hope this helps. Thanks again for watching! 👍
Cool. I did use VMware back in the day for emulating Win98se/Win95. Sadly they stopped supporting them and no more VMware tools for them, leaving no viable option for emulating those systems... Your iso image was quite handy! videcdd is a bt hard to find, and for some reason the download at Phill's computer lab for benchmarking doesn't work, but your version does.
And good tips to free up memory! 27 years using DOS and I always learn new stuff from more knowledgeable people
Thanks very much! Glad to hear it was helpful 🙂👍
I emulate Win98se to this day with VirtualBox. Works absolutely fine for me. I use it to play strategy games, Starcraft, Red Alert 2 etc on my Linux PC (I know there is Wine but I could never get anything to work on it so I prefer real Windows environment).
Loved it. Brought back some fond memories.
~79KB of upper memory seems quite low. I would run MSD.EXE and look at the memory chart to see what isn't being included for UMBs. You can probably add I=B000-B7FF to your EMM386.EXE statement if you aren't using monochrome modes for video. There's a chance that you can include I=E000-EFFF as well, but again I would check MSD.EXE to see if it is available. That should give you more space to load drivers high to give you more conventional memory.
Thanks for the tips! It does indeed seem a bit low. I've heard of stealing the monochrome address range before but I never tried it before. I will give that a shot 👍
@@vswitchzero it's a Packard Bell configuration 😉
You may also want to try using QEMM386. It was the GOTO back when a friend and I were running DOS.
Thank you very much for this tutorial. Very detailed and clear explanations! One of the rare cases when I learn something from a tutorial 😆
i was stumped at 25:05 cuz when i typed the command, it seemed to say along the lines of "bad command or file name". can you help me at this problem?
Super, super cool! Now I can try to set it up my system first on VMware and then on my old 486/Pentium! Thanks!
DOScember!!!!! Run FreeDos this year!
Very informative video, Thanks. Can the virtual DOS be connect to a host printer. In my circumstances I wish to install an old CAD program and print to a plotter. (On the host I would be using a USB to serial or USB to parallel adapter). Any info will be gratefully received.
Yes, you should be able to. I can't speak for other virtualization platforms, but in VMware Workstation you can connect host parallel and serial ports to the VM. As long as your USB to serial or parallel adapter provides a normal looking COM or LPT port to the host OS, you should be able to connect them. I've never tried this in DOS before, but I have in other operating systems in the past.
Can you play Quake 1 on VMware?
There may be some speed sensitivity issues, but I believe it should be possible 👍
@@vswitchzero But one problem, VMware dosen’t support bin/cue files.
thank you very much for the config for DOS in VM
Thank you
Good for playing ms dos games but what if i want to run a program in DOS and this program need a bios extension to be loaded before starting ms DOS?
And how many RS-232 ports you can add, and the VM can allocate IRQ and port address for each ports? And the VM use vertual IRQ or workstation IRQ?
I know that i asked a lot of questions, but you are the right one because you got used to it.
I wish you all the success
Thanks for your comment. Yeah, as far as I know, there is no way to load BIOS extensions, or loading boot roms etc in virtual machines like this. I believe you can add a maximum of 4 serial ports to a virtual machine, but you'll need to map these to actual serial ports on the host machine. I haven't tried adding a serial port in a long time, but I'm pretty certain the VM will use its own "virtualized" IRQs and does not share the host's IRQ numbers. Hope this helps. Cheers!
@@vswitchzero thank you so much
Thank you Mike for the video. Watched from beginning to end.
what do you think about 86box or pcem?
I haven't had a chance to try either, but have heard some good things about them. I'm a long time DOSBox user, but have used dosemu a bit for some projects as well. Will have to check them out.
What is the best setup for VMWare Workstation Pro version 17? 1 -WMWare Installed on Windows Server 2019 Datacenter and Windows 10/11 as VM. 2 - WMWare Installed on Windows 10/11 and Windows Server 2019 Datacenter as VM
It really depends on the hardware being used and the primary purpose of the computer. If it is a desktop/consumer grade system, it would be best to use Windows 10/11 as the bare-metal operating system and use Server 2019 as a VM. If it’s a true server platform, something like VMware ESXi would be better suited. Hope this helps.
So why using mtcp networking but not microsoft networking ms dos in vmware ?
Thanks for your comment! You can definitely do Microsoft Networking if you prefer. I just use mTCP because I'm used to it and I find it easier to use and configure 👍
Is mTCP alternative Microsoft Networking for DOS ?
@@NguyenHoang-pv2xd I don't have much experience with Microsoft Networking for DOS so I can't really compare the two. mTCP will provide some basic tools for DOS like FTP, ping, telnet, IRC and even HTTP and is much more lightweight as far as I know. For basic network uses like that, it is a great choice and is quite easy to setup.
Hey the only pain in the butt for me is using dosbox is mounting the drives other than it not that bad and by the way why only use Dos 6.22 because this a Dos 6.3!!!!!!
You do know that Microsoft ONLY made DOS versions up to 6.22?
UNLESS you count DOS 7 in Windows 95.
So "DOS 6.3" isn't an official MS-DOS version
It possibly is DR-DOS or PC-DOS.
Hey I seen on seen a someone sell a Packer Bell software pack this had DOS 6.3 with IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!