Originally posted by staf374 i've tried for a little, and have finally d/led the old vdmsound thing and it works!

Just remember that it's still an alpha. You can expect "issues" from time to time.

however, for the games i'm trying to play with ems - i'm still having no fun trying to enable ems memory. its like emm386 doesn't even exist on my machine or something....

It should be in your Windows "COMMAND" directory. Odds are you don't have this defined with the PATH command in your startup. You should confirm it's on your PC by performing a search for EMM386*.* on whatever drive has Windows.

You can just define it in your CONFIG.SYS with the pathway included:
(IE: C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EMM386.EXE ON).

For tips on switches and parameters:
http://www.lagmonster.org/docs/DOS7/v-emm386-sys.html

P.S. Be aware that certain motherboards are no longer capable of creating emulated EMS memory due to modern hardware using the upper memory needed...

To edit the DOS mode you access by selecting "Start", "Shut Down", "Restart in MS-DOS Mode" you can right-click the "Exit to DOS" shortcut you'll find in your Windows directory. Right-click it and select "Properties", then "Program" and then "Advanced". Make sure that the EMM386.EXE line in the config.sys has "RAM" in it and not "NOEMS". This should give you the EMS you require.

This change will apply to every game you try to play in DOS mode.

To edit the way a particular game responds in DOS mode you would right-click the game's executable (.exe file) and select "Create shortcut". You would then right-click the shortcut and select "Properties". Then select "Program" and then "Advanced". Put a check in the "MS-DOS mode" box and also in the "Specify a new MS-DOS configuration". Then you can fill in the autoexec.bat and config.sys as required.

To get EMS (Expanded Memory) you would make sure that the EMM386.exe line has "RAM" on it and not "NOEMS".

Now, when you double-click that shortcut, Windows will exit and the computer will reboot. It will load the appropriate DOS environment and run the game. When you exit the game the machine will reboot again and Windows will reload.

This is the most underused, undervalued and misunderstood feature of Windows 95/98. It's also the most redeeming feature of what is otherwise a cludge of an operating system. It is, without doubt, the premiere DOS program/game launcher ever created.

BTW, if the game crashes or you ever otherwise get stuck in a full DOS mode environment, just type "win /w" (without the quotes) and hit return. This renames the autoexec.wos and config.wos files to .bat and .sys and returns Windows to normal.

The FastVid and UniRefresh links in your sig are broken 😜

Thanks HunterZ. Updated now. I'm old and it all changes too fast for me 🙁 . Sorry about the FastVid link now being old Axcel's site but I can't find anywhere better. It wasn't that long ago... 😉

procerus, I've found that that doesn't always work too well, insofar that it likes leaving certain Windows things loaded in memory. Good advice as far as something to try though. 😀

procerus wrote:

This is the most underused, undervalued and misunderstood feature of Windows 95/98. It's also the most redeeming feature of what is otherwise a cludge of an operating system. It is, without doubt, the premiere DOS program/game launcher ever created.

*laughs hysterically*

BTW, here's The Wayback Machine's copy of the FastVid site as I remember it. Downloads work and everything.
http://web.archive.org/web/19970806200912/htt … et/hcc/FastVid/