Ze_ro wrote:

not corrupt the video display in the process

I very much doubt there is something that will work with all games and all video modes. DOS just doesn't work like that.

You can always resort to something like Windows 3.x or even DESQView.

NoteTaker comes close.

Game Wizard Pro? it's like a software action replay but ofcourse doesn't work always...

Well, "dos" "tsr" "text editor" finds some stuff.
For example Borland Sidekick, or SemWare QEdit (-> http://files.mpoli.fi/unpacked/software/dos/e … ors/qedit4.zip/).
I don't know if those will play along with different graphics modes. Sound could also hang or loop. And I don't know if they would work with protected mode games, games which do their own keyboard handling etc.

Therefore I second Jorpho's suggestion to use a task switcher (except if you are on an XT which can't run any).

So I tried out QEdit and NoteTaker... unfortunately, while QEdit allows you to exit to a shell, I couldn't find any option to get back into the text editor without completely exiting the shell. NoteTaker seemed a lot more appropriate, but it's hotkey doesn't seem to work from within games... seems like it would work nicely within text applications perhaps.

As much as I hate to admit it, Windows 3.1 actually worked fairly well, and seems like the best option. I seem to recall having a lot of trouble running games under Windows back when I was younger, but the two main games I wanted this ability for (One Must Fall 2097 and Ultima VI) both worked fine, except for stuck notes on my MT-32, but I kinda expected that.

I'll have to try out DesqView some day...

--Zero

most TSR intercept the bios/dos interrupts for the 'hook',
but for games that use its own keyboard handler in most case the hook wont work.

Perhaps use DOSSHELL from MS-DOS 5.0 or MS-DOS 6.22 Supplemental Disk to load the game in question and use the task switcher to switch back to use the text editor within the DOSSHELL?

Compatibility wise, it's much better than running with Windows 3.x, but DOSSHELL itself eats a considerable chunk of the conventional memory.

There's also TASKMAX from DR-DOS 6, for that matter.