VOGONS


First post, by Rikintosh

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PCEm suffers on my core2quad for a simple 486 dx2. I plan to set up a virtual hd with everything I ever use, so that when I have to format my real computers, I would just clone the hd image.

VirtualPC 2007 was good, but it doesn't seem to work anymore on windows 10

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Reply 2 of 12, by Rikintosh

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canthearu wrote on 2021-09-06, 05:25:

DOSBOX (and it's derivatives) are the gold standard DOS emulators.

If you were happy with what VirtualPC was offering, DOSBOX should be just as good.

I like dosbox but I find it annoying having to restart the emulation every time I need to change cd (iso)

Take a look at my blog: http://rikintosh.blogspot.com
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Reply 3 of 12, by jesolo

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I seem to recall being able to run up to a Pentium 100 MHz within PCem quite satisfactorily on my Core2Quad Q6600 (overclocked to 3 GHz) with Windows 7 32-bit.

I presume you are using the latest version of PCem?
You can perhaps also try one of the forks - PCem-X.

However, the hardware on which your running is a bit outdated (especially if you're running Windows 10 on it). If you have a later generationCore i5, then you should see much better performance.

Last edited by jesolo on 2021-09-06, 19:05. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 4 of 12, by Gmlb256

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Rikintosh wrote on 2021-09-06, 04:32:

PCEm suffers on my core2quad for a simple 486 dx2. I plan to set up a virtual hd with everything I ever use, so that when I have to format my real computers, I would just clone the hd image.

VirtualPC 2007 was good, but it doesn't seem to work anymore on windows 10

PCem is more close for emulating an actual PC but requires a very fast CPU.

VirtualPC was replaced by Hyper-V and using virtual machines isn't the ideal experience for emulating an old computer.

canthearu wrote on 2021-09-06, 05:25:

DOSBOX (and it's derivatives) are the gold standard DOS emulators.

If you were happy with what VirtualPC was offering, DOSBOX should be just as good.

DOSBox isn't even accurate when it comes to emulating a computer, it's more useful if you just want to play DOS games without any hassle. Also it's not ideal for running a Windows 9x operating system.

DOSBox-X is the most accurate among the derivatives but requires dealing with the configuration file a bit more due to the complexity and can be slower than DOSBox.

VIA C3 Nehemiah 1.2A @ 1.46 GHz | ASUS P2-99 | 256 MB PC133 SDRAM | GeForce3 Ti 200 64 MB | Voodoo2 12 MB | SBLive! | AWE64 | SBPro2 | GUS

Reply 5 of 12, by jmarsh

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Rikintosh wrote on 2021-09-06, 16:35:

I like dosbox but I find it annoying having to restart the emulation every time I need to change cd (iso)

You're doing something wrong, there's no need to restart the emulator to change the mounted ISO or any other drive.

Reply 6 of 12, by Rikintosh

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jmarsh wrote on 2021-09-06, 19:26:
Rikintosh wrote on 2021-09-06, 16:35:

I like dosbox but I find it annoying having to restart the emulation every time I need to change cd (iso)

You're doing something wrong, there's no need to restart the emulator to change the mounted ISO or any other drive.

Sorry, I phrased it wrong and didn't tell the whole story. I usually use windows 3.1 so i have to exit it to switch isos

Take a look at my blog: http://rikintosh.blogspot.com
My Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfRUbxkBmEihBEkIK32Hilg

Reply 7 of 12, by Gmlb256

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Rikintosh wrote on 2021-09-06, 19:56:

Sorry, I phrased it wrong and didn't tell the whole story. I usually use windows 3.1 so i have to exit it to switch isos

A negative side effect when using early Windows versions with DOSBox.

VIA C3 Nehemiah 1.2A @ 1.46 GHz | ASUS P2-99 | 256 MB PC133 SDRAM | GeForce3 Ti 200 64 MB | Voodoo2 12 MB | SBLive! | AWE64 | SBPro2 | GUS

Reply 8 of 12, by Caluser2000

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Shouldn't you be able to run multiple versions of DosBox without any need to unmount/mount anything?

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 9 of 12, by Jo22

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Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-09-06, 20:16:
Rikintosh wrote on 2021-09-06, 19:56:

Sorry, I phrased it wrong and didn't tell the whole story. I usually use windows 3.1 so i have to exit it to switch isos

A negative side effect when using early Windows versions with DOSBox.

I haven't tried recently, but shouldn't ""
IMGMOUNT -U -D" and "RESCAN" command work from within Windows, too?
WinFile, ProgMan and DOS prompt should be able to execute these.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 10 of 12, by Gmlb256

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Jo22 wrote on 2021-09-06, 22:18:
I haven't tried recently, but shouldn't "" IMGMOUNT -U -D" and "RESCAN" command work from within Windows, too? WinFile, ProgMan […]
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Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-09-06, 20:16:
Rikintosh wrote on 2021-09-06, 19:56:

Sorry, I phrased it wrong and didn't tell the whole story. I usually use windows 3.1 so i have to exit it to switch isos

A negative side effect when using early Windows versions with DOSBox.

I haven't tried recently, but shouldn't ""
IMGMOUNT -U -D" and "RESCAN" command work from within Windows, too?
WinFile, ProgMan and DOS prompt should be able to execute these.

Admittedly, I haven't tried using DOSBox commands from Windows either. 🤣

However they are COM files located at Z: in DOSBox and probably may affect the amount of drive letter used on Windows unless they're identified as "removable". In the case of Windows 9x a generic ATAPI CD driver could be used if the image was mounted prior.

VIA C3 Nehemiah 1.2A @ 1.46 GHz | ASUS P2-99 | 256 MB PC133 SDRAM | GeForce3 Ti 200 64 MB | Voodoo2 12 MB | SBLive! | AWE64 | SBPro2 | GUS

Reply 12 of 12, by Jo22

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jmarsh wrote on 2021-09-06, 23:57:

You can mount all the ISOs (different discs) with one imgmount command and then use ctrl-F4 to switch between them, no need to exit windows or use the command prompt to issue a new imgmount command.

Or just go the old school way and mount a virtual CD-ROM driver, like MagicISO! 😉

It may sound stupid at first, but it works and is sometimes more convenient
than using the internal method.

I've been using this unconventional method approx. since the mid-late 2000s.
Back then, I had many CDs backuped up in NRG format, incl. mixed-session ones with audio-tracks and mac file system tracks.
Using the virtual driver was simpler and cleaner than converting to bin/cue/ogg.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//