How much memory is only half of the puzzle. The other half is where the memory is located such as conventional, upper, reserved, and extended.
What does your autoexec.bat and config.sys look like?
What results do you get with mem /c ?

Here's a reference
Dos 6 conventional memory tricks

The quickest and easiest solution would probably be just to run memmaker if you haven't already. Its included with dos 6.22. Its pretty easy to follow and usually frees up enough mem for most common uses. Some people dislike it and prefer to use 3rd party programs or configure it themselves but if you just want mem to play games its probably going to solve that for you.

shows the content of C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT & C:\CONFIG.SYS
the culprit of low available conventional memory can be seen there.

The memory you are talking about is probably base memory. It is usually far easier to get games running it DOSBox where you have nearly all of the base memory available for the game. Memory managers can help load a bunch of stuff into high and or extended memory, hence the suggestion to try memmaker.

Typing mem /c /p at the prompt should also give a list of all running tsr's and mem usage.

collector wrote:

The memory you are talking about is probably base memory. It is usually far easier to get games running it DOSBox where you have nearly all of the base memory available for the game. Memory managers can help load a bunch of stuff into high and or extended memory, hence the suggestion to try memmaker.

In my experience I usually have a far harder time running a game in dosbox as opposed to true dos. A clean install and running memmaker should get the vast majority of games running fine, at least where mem is concerned. All but some weird mem requirement games like U7 or maybe something like arena that wants a crap load of conventional mem

Then you do not understand how to set a game up in DOSBox.

collector wrote:

Then you do not understand how to set a game up in DOSBox.

I'll admit first off I'm a bit of a purist but a properly set up dos machine should give little to no trouble just playing games. I'll admit its been a little while since I fiddled with dos box but I do recall CPU speed issues on certain games. Imperfect sound emulation, ECT. Most of these I'm sure can be solved with fiddling with settings but that's still. Besides I get the feeling the op is more Intrested in running acual hardware.

I don't dismiss that that is the intent of "computergeek92", just that I was noting that often it really is easier in DOSBox.

Some games hated certain hardware configurations as well as when you consider the entire range of the DOS era, there are a lot of games that from the 8086 to 386 that will be far too fast in a Pentium or PII if not simply crash. The opposite can be a joke. Try running the more demanding late era DOS games on 386. DOSBox gives you the luxury of having several different PCs. If you have not used DOSBox in a long time, it may be that your memories are fairly dated. The fact that you think that DOSBox's sound is poor suggests that you have probably not touched DOSBox since before 0.58. Early versions of DOSBox are why I tended to use VDMS in the NTVDM back then, but DOSBox has come a long way since then.

I don't say this to belittle you, but DOSBox is very easy to use and runs most games just fine. You are a hardware fan, so wanting a real machine is understandable, but that does not make it the best solution overall. I offered that idea of DOSBox in case he was only looking to get his game running, especially since it looked like he did not under stand about base memory.

No offence taken. I just remember having a heck of a time getting arena running in dosbox and when I did after all kind of adjustments the speed was still off. Shortly after that experience I threw together a real dos machine, installed arena and it ran flawlessly. Same with stonekeep. I'm sure its come a long way since then but as you said I am a hardware fan.

results of mem /c /p
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Modules using memory below 1 MB:

name total = conventional + upper memory
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
msdos 15,485 (15K) 15,485 (15K) 0 (0K)
setver 480 (0K) 480 (0K) 0 (0K)
himem 1,168 (1K) 1,168 (1K) 0 (0K)
oakcdrom 72,128 (70K) 72,128 (70K) 0 (0K)
ifshlp 3,872 (4K) 3,872 (4K) 0 (0K)
command 2,928 (3K) 2,928 (3K) 0 (0K)
smartdrv 29,024 (28K) 29,024 (28K) 0 (0K)
mscdex 27,952 (27K) 27,952 (27K) 0 (0K)
free 501,264 (490K) 501,264 (490K) 0 (0K)

memory summary:

type of memory total = used + free
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
conventional 654,336 153,072 501,264
upper 0 0 0
reserved 0 0 0
extended (XMS) 66,060,288 2,162,688 63,897,600
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total memory 66,714,624 2,315,760 64,398,864

Total under 1 MB 654,336 153,072 501,264

Largest executable program size 501,072 (489K)
Largest free upper memory block 0 (0K)
MS-DOS is resident in the high memory area
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AUTOEXEC.BAT
---------------------------------------------------------
C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE /X
@ECHO OFF
LOADHIGH=C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001
PROMPT $p$g
PATH C:\WINDOWS;C:\DOS
SET TEMP=C:\DOS
LOADHIGH=C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001
----------------------------------------------------------

CONFIG.SYS
----------------------------------------------------------
DEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\OAKCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001
DOS=HIGH
FILES=30
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS
STACKS=9,256
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\OAKCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001
------------------------------------------------------------

Here you go, heres all my homework done! 😀 I was surprised to see 70K used for the Oak CDROM driver on the mem /c /p. Perhaps a lighter DOS CDROM driver like QCDROM would be less on the memory? I also gave a try using memmaker earlier and I used express settings with enabling EMS memory. I went back to mem /c /p and found I had a little bit more memory for each executed program (somewhere around 540K) But then after rebooting again I tried typing d:\ to install my game, and DOS did not recognise my D:\ drive. So I used the undo command for memmaker, but it could not find the backup files! Then I ended up reinstalling everything including the Oak CDROM driver. Well it wasn't that bad: 30 Minutes to install DOS 6.22 and Win 3.11, versus a little over an hour Installing Windows XP on a few Pentium 4s! 😉

Oh yes, I've also tried using DOSBOX for a few games but I've run into graphical glitches and some other odd problems during the install. I got farther trying to install games on real DOS machines. I can install the games ok, but I can't run them.

There are a lot of stuff you don't need.
I'd throw out smartdrv as one of the first things.

Yep just use a smaller cd-rom driver - I use the mitsumi driver but most are smaller than the oak one - then run memmaker, and you'll be golden.

Your games aren't going to sound any good with that though, do you have a sound card? If yes then it might need a TSR too depending on what it is.

The cdrom driver and mscdex are being loaded twice, unless it's just an error in posting. Not sure what the result of that would be... probably the second load is rejected, but it's not useful in any case.

i see theres no DOS=HIGH,UMB
so none of LOADHIGH or devicehigh= would actually loaded on upper memory block.
but to use the UMB, dos need the UMB provider such as EMM386 or similar program.

You really need to load EMM386 so that it will provide UMBs for you to load more drivers/TSRs into.

SMARTDRV is useful if you can get it working without sucking up too much RAM.

It may also be worth checking out FreeDOS. I don't know how good it is at compatibility, but a lot of the stuff is leaner than the original MS-DOS equivalents.

Edit: Also, I think using the /d parameter with mem may provide even more useful info.

Does anyone else think its odd memmaker messed up his drive recognition? I've used that program tons of times on more setups then I can remember and never had an issue.

computergeek92 wrote:

Oh yes, I've also tried using DOSBOX for a few games but I've run into graphical glitches and some other odd problems during the install.

I'm kind of curious about the specific games and glitches. (Especially since most DOS games didn't even use fancy graphics during installation.)

soviet conscript wrote:

Does anyone else think its odd memmaker messed up his drive recognition? I've used that program tons of times on more setups then I can remember and never had an issue.

I'm assuming D: is his CD-ROM drive. It's entirely possible that memmaker came up with a configuration that prevented one of the CD-ROM drivers (.sys or mscdex) from loading properly.