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Isnt it better when using ms-dos 6.22 better going for an 4 GB HDD because you can make 2 partitions on the drive.. So it isnt actually worth to installing windows 95 over dos when maybe the most games would be dos only..
About that storage thing through network, it could be possible.. But i havent any experience to set it up. And i think it would be better to only put storage in the system only..

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Yes you can create up to four 2GB partitions with FAT16.

In terms of games a 486 will always be limited. It is good for DOS 3D games like Doom or Descent, however a Pentium will always be that little bit faster.

Once again I recommend a Super Socket time-machine because it covers a very wide range of games.

I remember having an AMD 486DX-4 100MHz and not many Windows games on that machine. Windows for me took off when I moved to a Pentium 133. Tomb Raider 2, Wing Commander Prophecy.

But then again my memory gets blurry thinking about what I played on which system.

The 486 was definitely awesome for Doom, Descent 3D, Duke Nukem and System Shock.

Ok, so the best way is still go with dos 6.22? And maybe an Windows 3.11 WFW installation besides dos.. So there arent much win95 compatible games that still uses the 486 systems..
I also have pentium stuff here, so i can still build an pentium 133 non mmx with an first grade socket 7 motherboard if i want to.. But just really like to have an 486 system instead..
There also will be an pentium 233 MMX system to so the rest of the games i could just move to the pentium 233 mmx one.

I used DOS 6.22 and WFW 3.11 on my DX2-80 system years ago. I think Windows 95 is only going to add bloat to a 486 system and Windows 95 games will run a lot better on a Pentium anyway. An overclocked POD would make Win95 more viable but probably not for gaming with the more restrictive 486 memory bus choking off some of the POD's performance. You probably won't be able to use very many of the better video or sound cards supported by Windows 95 in a 486 motherboard, either.

If it's going to be a DOS-only machine, why not use a Windows 98SE boot disk to fdisk, format and then sys the drive - then you get the benefit of using FAT32 with partitions as large as you want (the full size of that drive you've got [and bigger]) ... to games, it's still just DOS.

There are no gameplay differences (buildings, etc...) between the DOS and Win9x versions of red alert.
I played red alert pretty well on my SX33 @40MHz back in the days under DOS 6.22, but the DX2 @ 80 was much better.
The Win9X starts to be acceptable on a pentium (or a really fast DX4, but I didn't try). (played it mostly on an overkill 200MHz pentium P54C)
Recommended Rigs are pretty accurate for those games.

megatron-uk wrote:

If it's going to be a DOS-only machine, why not use a Windows 98SE boot disk to fdisk, format and then sys the drive - then you get the benefit of using FAT32 with partitions as large as you want (the full size of that drive you've got [and bigger]) ... to games, it's still just DOS.

Then you dont have the tools that comes with dos 6.22. You only have the command.com an other `start up` software installed.

what exactly do you need from dos 6.22 that is not contained in 7.10? help.com? 😁

So you advise me to go for dos 7.10?

I have played around with MS-DOS 6.22 and 7.1 for an extensive period and in terms of compatibility I didn't encounter a game that or benchmark or utility that gave issues. However MS-DOS 7.1 has a slightly larger memory footprint. It's not a big deal, but worth pointing out.

The easiest way to get going is to head to bootdisc.com and create a MS-DOS 6.22 or 7.1 floppy. It comes with most drivers like HIMEM.SYS, EMM386.EXE, MSCDEX...

I might make a video about each method because this question comes up all the time.

Personally it all depends on how much storage you need. I also don't recommend going above 30GB for a single FAT32 partition. Some command line utilities "check out" with more. There are detailed documents on the Microsoft server if anyone is interested. I found that a single 30GB partition works on very large HDDs (250 GB, 320GB) if you use a PCI Sata controller. But then you will have an issue with a handful of games and Roland MPU401 because of ACPI. On some boards you can disable ACPI, but on most you can't.

Quite a few games fit on 2GB. But as soon as you start with CD-ROM games, games that have speech, you want to go FAT32.

It also depends on the machine. On my 386 I just use a single 500MB FAT16 partition on a CF card.

My solution to the same 486 DX/66 issue was simply to install a drive caddy and run W95a off a Quantum FB 3gb drive, and 6.22 off a second 540mb drive. The physical swap is fast and easy, but I soon found I almost *never* loaded the 6.22 drive since booting to pure dos right out of W95 [dos 7.1 I think] achieved essentially the same thing. And that's if I needed pure dos at all - most of the time a simple Win dosbox would do the trick in the first place. So I agree with Mau1wurf1977 that 6.22 is not strictly critical if 7.1 [via W95] is available.

if you plan to use win 3.x on fat32 capable dos,
you'll need to find the patch for win 3.x or you'll risk directories corruption.

Regarding Red Alert 95 on a 486 platform its going to be a huge struggle, Back in the day I had a cyrix 5x86-100/32mb of ram and Red Alert with windows 95 would play okay for the first level and started slowing down by the second, even under dos in the later missions would crawl in dos, I would'nt even think about it unless you had an overclocked AM5x86-160 it might have just enough grunt under windows 95 for svga but I wouldn't count on it.

Rule of thumb is, that for good Windows 9x experience, you need a Pentium class computer.

So 486 is a good DOS 5+, Windows 3.1x machine 😀

If you want nice 32bit modern experience, go with OS/2 Warp or somekind of minimalist LINUX distro.

Cyberdyne wrote:

Rule of thumb is, that for good Windows 9x experience, you need a Pentium class computer.

So 486 is a good DOS 5+, Windows 3.1x machine 😀

Agreed, though personally I have no issue running W95a with the particular menagerie of games I have installed - anything more demanding gets assigned to one of the more powerful retro rigs. But from the previous comments Red Alert may not be a good fit for a 486 system to begin with, regardless of OS.

2 of my favourite things 486's and the original C&C/RA 😀

Originally I only ever played on a 486 in DOS and still prefer this. Plus the installer is awesome. Bigger RA maps struggled a bit but playable
BUT...
For the most complete C&C experience you really need to patch the game and these are written for the 95 versions of the game (or even better C&C the last decade)
http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cncstuff/ … es.html#add_oth

The patches are meant to allow you to play in WinXP but I just install/patch in XP and copy the games across to my Win98 machine. Run the game and it will complain about a dll or something, just copy an unmodified file from a 2nd C&C install and you get all the missing cutscenes, music, units, etc.

I got the 1st decade cheap from a game trade in shop. but I think the site has patches for the original 95 games as well. the main ones you want are
Nyerguds' Red Alert main.mix cleanup
C&C95 patch 1.06

It took this for me to "upgrade" to the hi res interface. which will lag on a 486. No reason you cant have it on both though!
If you are going the 486 option I would also go for MS Dos 7 OK its not the full OS, but if its a Games PC you don't need all the disk tools, memmaker, etc.
Anything that may be useful (edit.com is high on my list) you can just copy from the c:\windows\command folder anyway

Thats already what iam afraid off..That MS-DOS 7.10 wasnt a full OS. Other option that i have could be PC-DOS 7.10.. Is it true this is an full os? I guess it was.. and having Fat 32 support as well.
Iam thinking it would be better go for the 95 versions off C&C and RA1.. I like those better because of the high-resolution.

Iam only doubt if iam going for PC-Dos 7.10 and FAT 32.. OR leave it just on Dos 6.22 on fat 32 and better use two harddisk with 2 partitions on each disk.. My head is more in that way..