About the complexity of DOSBox:
- DOSBox doesn't just replicate the functionality DOS within Windows, it actually emulates an entire PC. That's how it's able to run on non-x86 platforms such as MacOS. That's also why it's so big and complex.
- Fixes need to be made for issues with specific games because DOSBox doesn't emulate 100% of the features of a PC, and there are a lot of quirks in the PC and in DOS that can't be discovered until people find them by running various games in DOSBox.

About save states:
- This has been discussed many times in the forum. Try searching for info. The short answer is that it's much more complicated to do this for a PC than a console. It may happen someday, but currently nobody has tackled it yet.

About window size:
- Read the README.txt and dosbox.conf included with DOSBox for info on settings that control the output size. Pay close attention to anything with "resolution" or "scale" in the name.

OK, let's see...

¿MS-DOS 100Kb? I don't think so. MS-DOS 5 came in two 1.44Mb floppies, and MS-DOS 6.22 in three 1.44Mb floppies. I'm agree that you don't need all the files, but...

As you're told, you can't install DOS in a Mac... and even if you're trying to install DOS in a PC, DOS can't read any data from FAT32 nor NTFS partitions (not without specific drivers like NTFSDOS).

DOS doesn't help you playing any game with a sound card. You will need a sound card compatible with your game (that means a ISA sound card or a PCI sound card WITH drivers for DOS). Also, at least the creative drivers for Sound Blaster Live! or Audigy doesn't work all the time.

Some games need fixes because of bugs in Dosbox. Most games will need the same memory management always needed... if you can recall when you had a 486. EMS & XMS issues were common, as they're now.

A MS-DOS session in XP is faster, but won't run all the software. Also, it has some sound issues. Maybe you want to try VDMSound... it will help you a lot if you want to run games through MS-DOS sessions and it's faster... but not as compatible as Dosbox (it doesn't emulate a entire PC).

For faster "emulation" of an enitre PC, you may try Microsoft VirtualPC 2004, but it's not free.

Save-states had been discussed earlier... use the search function.

Read the README, performance and resolution issues are discussed there (hint: read about cycles and resolutions... more hints: ALT+Enter=Fullscreen).

Just a nitpick: You can actually install the DOS 7.0 that Win9x/ME runs on top of, without installing Win9x/ME. It can access FAT32 partitions, although long filenames aren't supported.

FreeDOS can help too, but I don't know what kind of filesystems are supporte. 😉

BTW: I believe the last "true" DOS was 6.22... I think DOS 7.0 lacks some functionality.

I have never had any problems with DOS 7.0 (from W9x). IMHO it is the best DOS from Microsoft.

Mirek

DOS 7 lacks many dos programs, but you can get them from the net (microsoft used to distribute them as official win9x addon, but I guess support time is over 😉

FreeDos has experimental FAT32 support AFAIK.