Posted by EmuMannen on 6, 2000 at 6:12 PM:
In Reply to: How much convential memory can you get? posted by Dr D on 6, 2000 at 12:49 PM:
I prefere plain vanilla DOS. The BootGUI=0 in MSDOS.SYS is a simple solution especially if you want to run Win9x from time to time.
I really don't know what is loaded at bootup if you do have Windows installed so I made my own installation of DOS 7.1 ripped from my Windows 98 SE installation. The DOS installation is about 1 mb and additional drivers and old Norton commander for file management takes another meg. I find this compact bare bone installation of DOS really easy to maintain and debug. It boots really fast too :)
This really should be about DOS and memory managment but first some about a useful DOS version for DOS-based arcade cabinets ;)
DOS is slowly fading away so I thought that I really should make a backup of it (I do have my original DOS 5.0 and 6.22 backed up on CD) but DOS 7.x is enbedded in Win9x. I don't want to install Win9x to make a quick DOS installation on a cabinet or other enbedded like PC based system I own so I made a system disk with the most essential DOS 7.x files on it. I then thought of putting it on the net but that is probably as legal as putting arcade rom images on the net ;)
So I developed my batch file a bit so that everyone that has access to a Win9x installation can make their own DOS 7.x rip :) This is really simple! Take an empty 1.44 diskett. Copy the DOS versions of pkzip.exe and pkunzip.exe (http://www.pkware.com) to the diskett. Save my bath file below to the same diskett. Put the diskett in the A: drive under Win9x and run the batch file. The result is a bootable system disk and a DOS 7.x zip archive. Enough to make a simple DOS 7.x installation on any PC :)
Here are the batch file:
---8<---[BEGIN RIPDOS7X.BAT]---
@echo off
rem Script file to rip most of DOS 7.x to a system diskett by EmuMannen
cls
echo.
echo Copy this script, pkzip.exe and pkunzip.exe to an _empty_
echo 1.44 mb diskett. Put the diskett in a: and run the script
echo under Windows 9x to rip most of DOS 7.x to the diskett...
echo.
pause
if %windir%! == ! goto nowin
if not exist pkzip.exe goto nozip
if not exist pkunzip.exe goto nounzip
set source=%windir%\
set target=a:
set filelist=%temp%\ripdos7x.tmp
echo %source%EMM386.EXE > %filelist%
echo %source%HIMEM.SYS >> %filelist%
echo %source%SMARTDRV.EXE >> %filelist%
set source=%source%COMMAND\
echo %source%ANSI.SYS >> %filelist%
echo %source%ATTRIB.EXE >> %filelist%
echo %source%CHKDSK.EXE >> %filelist%
echo %source%CHOICE.COM >> %filelist%
echo %source%COUNTRY.SYS >> %filelist%
echo %source%DEBUG.EXE >> %filelist%
echo %source%DELTREE.EXE >> %filelist%
echo %source%DISKCOPY.COM >> %filelist%
echo %source%DISPLAY.SYS >> %filelist%
echo %source%DOSKEY.COM >> %filelist%
echo %source%EDIT.COM >> %filelist%
echo %source%EDIT.HLP >> %filelist%
echo %source%EGA.CPI >> %filelist%
echo %source%EGA2.CPI >> %filelist%
echo %source%EGA3.CPI >> %filelist%
echo %source%FC.EXE >> %filelist%
echo %source%FDISK.EXE >> %filelist%
echo %source%FIND.EXE >> %filelist%
echo %source%FORMAT.COM >> %filelist%
echo %source%ISO.CPI >> %filelist%
echo %source%KEYB.COM >> %filelist%
echo %source%KEYBOARD.SYS >> %filelist%
echo %source%KEYBRD2.SYS >> %filelist%
echo %source%KEYBRD3.SYS >> %filelist%
echo %source%KEYBRD4.SYS >> %filelist%
echo %source%LABEL.EXE >> %filelist%
echo %source%MEM.EXE >> %filelist%
echo %source%MODE.COM >> %filelist%
echo %source%MORE.COM >> %filelist%
echo %source%MOVE.EXE >> %filelist%
echo %source%MSCDEX.EXE >> %filelist%
echo %source%NLSFUNC.EXE >> %filelist%
echo %source%SCANDISK.EXE >> %filelist%
echo %source%SCANDISK.INI >> %filelist%
echo %source%SORT.EXE >> %filelist%
echo %source%SUBST.EXE >> %filelist%
echo %source%SYS.COM >> %filelist%
echo %source%XCOPY.EXE >> %filelist%
echo %source%XCOPY32.EXE >> %filelist%
echo %source%XCOPY32.MOD >> %filelist%
echo Transfering system files...
sys c: %target%
echo Setting the RIPDOS7X diskett label...
label a:RIPDOS7X
echo Archiving DOS 7.x core files...
pkzip -b%temp% %target%DOS.ZIP @%filelist% > nul
echo Copying disk managment applications...
copy %source%ATTRIB.EXE %target% /Y
copy %source%EDIT.COM %target% /Y
copy %source%EDIT.HLP %target% /Y
copy %source%FDISK.EXE %target% /Y
copy %source%FORMAT.COM %target% /Y
copy %source%LABEL.EXE %target% /Y
copy %source%SYS.COM %target% /Y
del %filelist%
set source=
set target=
set filelist=
cls
echo.
echo Diskett in a: is now a DOS 7.x bootable system disk.
echo It also contains some disk managment applications...
echo To install DOS 7.x as the primary operating system:
echo.
echo 1. Boot from the RIPDOS7X system diskett
echo 2. Use FDISK.EXE if you need to partition the hard drive
echo 3. Use FORMAT.COM if you need to format the hard drive
echo 4. Use SYS.COM if you need to make the hard drive bootable
echo 5. Use LABEL.EXE if you need to label the hard drive
echo 6. Use PKUNZIP.EXE to unzip DOS.ZIP to \DOS on the hard drive
echo 7. Use EDIT.COM to create and edit config.sys and autoexec.bat
echo 8. Use ATTRIB.EXE and EDIT.COM if you need to edit MSDOS.SYS
echo.
goto end
:nowin
echo This script has to be executed under Windows 9x...
goto end
:nozip
echo Can't find PKZIP.EXE...
goto end
:nounzip
echo Can't find PKUNZIP.EXE...
goto end
:end
---8<---[END RIPDOS7X.BAT]---
Back to memory management and DOS...
1) Install DOS 7.x or Win9x with BootGUI=0 in MSDOS.SYS...
2) Browse Axcel216's site (http://members.aol.com/axcel216/) especially the "DOS 7 MEM" section (but there are several other sections of interest as well...).
3) If that is not enough, try another frontend, I can personally recommend AdvanceMENU (http://advancemame.arcadeheaven.com/)
I only run MAME and AdvanceMENU on my DOS based cabinet so conventional memory is not an issue for me ;)
Good luck / EmuMannen
: I'm trying to run some old DOS games in my arcade cabinet. I'm using ArcadeOS as my frontend. I'm also using Mon-Arc (or now Mon-Arc Plus).
: If I go to a DOS shell from ArcadeOS, I get about 473k. Which isn't quite enough to run a couple of older games.
: I've been to Axcel216's site but part of my problem is that Mon-Arc is now 59k, and ArcadeOS leaves about 57k and I get 3 copies of COMMAND.COM loaded. If I run MEM /C /P, it shows me that ArcadeOS takes away about 130k (before, and shelled). This is Win98 booting directly to DOS.
: I load HIMEM, EMM386 (I have a SB card that requires it), and my CDROM driver. I can probably get rid of SMARTDRV but that's about it. I've tried loading as much high as I can.
: I need 550k to run a couple DOS games. Has anyone done better in a DOS shell from ArcadeOS?