First post, by Atrus
- Rank
- Newbie
I have my hands on Microsoft's new Virtual Pc 2004 for some days now and i admit it is a very good program especially for running old Windows 3.11 and 95 games. My anticipation of course was to try DOS with it and i share with you my experience:
(i make a comparison just for fun, although that's not appropriate because DOSbox is focused mainly on running games- but,hey, that's what we want, to run DOS games!!!)
Combatibility : Virtual Pc can't run every Dos game (one should say : Why?! I have installed the original dos 6.22!).In fact,with the pace DOSbox is being developed,it will beat VPC with ease. For example Ripper crashes at install (i know, it doesnt work with DOSbox either) and the same happens with Crusader: No remorse which with DOSbox now runs!
Emulation of hardware : Virtual pc emulates a Soundblaster 16 ISA and a S3 with 8 mb ram. Dosbox's support for general midi is absent,not to mention gravis etc.With the graphics card, the only important difference is the support of linear framebuffer for the Virtual PC.
Speed : This is the only part that Virtual PC is for now better than Dosbox.Ok, the speed is awesome (how did they do this the b*****s at Microsoft?)
Easy of use That's my favorite. To run a dos game with VPC you need to : 1) buy the VPC (ahem), 2) own original DOS (ahem 2 times) 3) install DOS 4) adjust manually your config.sys and autoexec.bat 5) find and install a cdrom driver 6) find and install a mouse driver 7) optimize your conventional memory(f***) and perhaps it'll run! While with DOSBOX...you know!
CONCLUSION : Dosbox does what it does better than anyone else.Ok, VPC is not to blame, it does many other jobs too, but it's good to know that Microsoft would be jealous to know that there is a dos emulator that does stuff better than the real thing!
PS. VPC has by the way smth cool: Save States!