How did you set that character mode back then? it might be possible in dosbox as well. This, as far as I know, should be done using INT10 interfaces, and I'm not sure if that would actually would work in "vanilla" Dosbox. But in that case you might get better compatibility with Univbe.

In real DOS, you could type "MODE CON COLS=132 LINES=50" and it would enter 132 column by 50 lines mode, if supported by the graphics card. This still works in NTVDM, (but usually only for windowed mode).

OK guys, you caught me feeling like a newbie here. I'm not hip to univbe or ntvdm. Please tell me about both/either. If I could get this thing to work with 132x50 (or better even!) that would really make my day!

NTVDM is the NT Virtual DOS Machine (in the simplest terms, think of it as the Command Prompt inside Windows XP).

UNIVBE is a near-universal driver to add full VBE (VESA BIOS Extension) support to many graphics cards. Not all graphics cards have a VESA driver that implements all the graphics modes and functionality used by games etc. UNIVBE attempts to rectify this. In the DOS era, UNIVBE was an excellent way to unleash the untapped potential of your graphics card.

Neither of this will actually help you. Just explaining the terms.

At this point, I'd be willing to run Win XP and ntvdm if that's what it will take. I gave it a try and lo and behold, the window does resize, etc. But one of the problems with my application is that it doesn't like a machine that runs too fast. There's some sort of timing issue. dosbox is cool because it appears to run slow, but I have to do it in 80 cols and 24 rows - ugh. It's like working through a porthole. I haven't had to do that since the Mac SE.

Is there some way to get ntvdm to effectively as a slower machine, something like a 386-25?

can't you use mode.com from freedos or so in DOSBox ?
(wild guess)

Nothing that works all that well, IMHO.

I tried installing real MS-DOS 6.22 inside DOSBox and Microsoft Virtual PC. Both emulators support this just fine, but both crash on "MODE CON COLS=132". In VPC the display freezes and the cursor flickers around like mad. In DOSBox, it exits with the message "Exit to error: CPU:GRP5:Illegal Call 7".

hmm interresting. Wondering which vesa mode they are using then.
the cpu things sounds like a nullpointer

Qbix, when using DOS "MODE", it is not actually a VESA mode. It is text mode.

For some info (from a rather unlikely source), check: http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/textmode.html#extended

Some of the modes are available actually in dosbox (Added them for IDA)

Videomode 54 and 55 work Not sure which one is used by dos mode.com

You can get 0x54 and 0x55 to work? They do nothing when I try them (using the VMODE utility on that page).

I type "VMODE 54" and the screen clears and doesn't respond until I type "CLS".
Same with VMODE 55. (Using unmodified DOSBox 0.70)

well the vmode works. (you can start an application)

I'm not sure if the int10 character functions work properly on though. (that explains the empty screen) (or the mode isn;t setup correctly in the bios part and that is why the character function mess up. Should be fixable though)).

cls sets the videomode back to mode 3.

I'm using TM.EXE to set video modes. It can set a 90-column-mode, perhaps that is of some help.

It works a bit in 0.63 It seems that there isn't a renderer for the mode. (at least the screen doesn't resize)

I suppose making INT10 work properly here in conjunction with VMODE 55 or VMODE 54 would work for rustybutt.

I'm not sure resetting the video mode on CLS is a good idea as DOS doesn't do that, although in the absence of MODE to do "MODE CO80", it may be a necessity.

well int10 character functions seem to behave (the characters appear on the right place in the video memory)

I'll try to fix it. Would be nice if it worked.

SCALER_MAXWIDTH 1024
but the screen mode is 1056 or 1054. So the renderer rejects the mode.
and the screen doesn't get updated.

increasing that value gives screenoutput like 0.63 although the letters aren't really readable.

I think those modes actually used 800x600 with an 6x10 font. That gives 796x600 pixels for 132x60 characters.

well 8x8 or 8x16 is fine.

The weird thing is that when I get screenoutput it looks allright if I use surface and broken when I use overlay

Can somebody else check the output with overlay and surface ?