What does mem say how much you have. And maybe but the config.sys and autoexec.bat also here.

Did dune say how much it's missing? And what dos version do you have?

Use the MEM command and see how much free conventional memory you have. If you are loading a lot of drivers/TSRs you WILL need UMBs.

I'm running DOS 6.22, mem gave me:
Total, used, free
Conventional: 639k 106k 533k
upper 0k 0k 0k
reserved 0k 0k 0k
extended (XMS) 15,360k 2,112k 13,248k

Total Memory 15,999k 2,218k 13,781k
Total under 1mb 639k 106k 533k
largest executable program size 533k
MS-DOS is resident in the high memory area.

Dune did not report what was missing, just that I didn't have enough. I'm still rather new to DOS, what is a UMB?

UMB is upper based memory (or something like that), That's the gap between the 640k and 1 meg.

533 conventional is to less, I always aim to get it above the 600 or as possible near at the 600k.

Make a backup from your autoexec.bat and config.sys and run memmaker, that will sort some things out. And as said post those 2 files also here.

/edit: Or get qemm, that's also a memmaker for dos, it's a little bit better, but not al games runs whit it, so if you use that you would have to make a choice menu wile booting.

If you not know how to make a backup, go to the c: and type followed by an enter or return:

copy autoexec.bat autoexec.ba1
copy config.sys config.sy1
memmaker

To edit those files (and type those over in here) type:

edit autoexec.bat (that will open the editor whit the autoexec.bat file), and the same whit config.sys or just use the menu of edit to open the file. The edit program likes a lot like notepad for windows.

Agree with Roman78.
You do not have enough conventional memory available to run Dune II, since you are probably loading all your tsr's and drivers into conventional (low) memory.
What MEMMAKER will try and do for you is to enable the Upper Memory Blocks (UMB) and load as many of these tsr's and drivers into the UMB (high memory).

You can also use mem /c/p to get it to show you exactly what is using all that memory. After you run memmaker you should see some of your memory resident stuff using upper memory instead of the conventional memory it uses by default.

Thanks for the help guys, I tried running memmaker and it works perfectly now, it even let me do extended memory mode. Now I just gotta get my hands on a functioning microsoft mouse.

Every PS2 mouse should work whit the default DOS mouse driver. Even USB mouses are working when you have the bios option Legacy USB device enabled.

(i even get USB CD-Rom working under dos)

Roman78 wrote:

Every PS2 mouse should work whit the default DOS mouse driver. Even USB mouses are working when you have the bios option Legacy USB device enabled.

(i even get USB CD-Rom working under dos)

Thanks for the help, I haven't had great luck with USB mice on my dos system, though I do use a USB keyboard and it works fine. I think I'll pop down to the local goodwill today and try that.

I'm also a touch confused as to how dos manages memory. Some games, like Daggerfall, list needing at least 32meg of ram, does it run itself in upper memory, as conventional memory doesn't seem to go much above 650k or so? Dune 2 evidently must run in conventional memory as it complains if I don't load most my drivers in upper memory.

The original 16-bit 8088 used in IBM PC could only address 1MB of RAM. The first 640KB of the address space was reserved for RAM and the remaining 384KB was reserved for ROMs. UMBs are free address blocks in the ROM space used as RAM. To access more than 1MB of memory in DOS there are two standads: EMS, or expanded memory, and XMS, aka. extended memory. EMS was originally provided by expansion boards containing more memory, but only exposing a 64KB frame page (normally in the ROM address range). The EMS driver would then send commands to the board to change where the frame page was pointing to, thus enabling even 8088/8086 processors to use more memory, albeit indirectly. XMS is available for 286+ processors, where the CPU itself can address more memory in protected mode. Many 286 boards can divide the installed memory between EMS and XMS, and a lot of real mode apps in the 286 era used EMS instead of XMS due to speed (hardware EMS doesn't need to switch the CPU to a mode that can address more than 1MB of RAM). In 386+ PCs you usually use something like EMM386 to emulate EMS from XMS.

DECtape wrote:

I'm also a touch confused as to how dos manages memory. Some games, like Daggerfall, list needing at least 32meg of ram, does it run itself in upper memory, as conventional memory doesn't seem to go much above 650k or so? Dune 2 evidently must run in conventional memory as it complains if I don't load most my drivers in upper memory.

Just to add to the previous post.
Games running in real mode are restricted to the first 640 KB of RAM. That is why it's sometimes a challenge to free up enough conventional memory in order for your game to run.
As time went on and games started to become more "resource hungry", they had to find a way to break the 640 KB barrier. Hence, protected mode games.
Many protected mode games utilised a DOS extender (the most popular one was DOS/4GW) to be able to address much more memory. Simply put, in protected mode, the game is not restricted to 640 KB of RAM but can utilise more of the memory that is available (the DOS extender manages this).

jesolo wrote:

Just to add to the previous post. Games running in real mode are restricted to the first 640 KB of RAM. That is why it's sometim […]
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DECtape wrote:

I'm also a touch confused as to how dos manages memory. Some games, like Daggerfall, list needing at least 32meg of ram, does it run itself in upper memory, as conventional memory doesn't seem to go much above 650k or so? Dune 2 evidently must run in conventional memory as it complains if I don't load most my drivers in upper memory.

Just to add to the previous post.
Games running in real mode are restricted to the first 640 KB of RAM. That is why it's sometimes a challenge to free up enough conventional memory in order for your game to run.
As time went on and games started to become more "resource hungry", they had to find a way to break the 640 KB barrier. Hence, protected mode games.
Many protected mode games utilised a DOS extender (the most popular one was DOS/4GW) to be able to address much more memory. Simply put, in protected mode, the game is not restricted to 640 KB of RAM but can utilise more of the memory that is available (the DOS extender manages this).

Ohh, that makes more sense. Thank you guys so much for all the help, for a DOS noob like me that was born in 1996 you have no idea how important that is for me.

DECtape wrote:

for a DOS noob like me that was born in 1996 you have no idea how important that is for me.

I have T-shirts older than you. 😁