Homebrew Why no MSDOS emulator for th DS

[Javacat]

The best way of getting a DOS running on the DS would be to port DOSBox, but the chances of this actually running anything are extremely slim. If you want DOS on the move you should check out the GP2X. The processors in it are almost 4 times more powerful than the ones available in the DS and it also has 16 times the amount of ram. It can run quite a few DOS games within DOSBox, but the speed still isn't brilliant.

it whould by cool if the whole comander keen colection is playable on ds

You should have a look at porting CloneKeen to the DS for getting Commander Keen running.

 

[JSR2K]

GPF is porting DOSBox internally. Wait some weeks and it will come

 

[adamrgolf]

GPF is porting DOSBox internally. Wait some weeks and it will come

update?

 

[ZeWarrior]

Actually, yeah it would be... but I'm afraid it'll probably run into the same problem that other systems have though I'm not 100% sure. NDS only has 4MB of RAM which is actually fine for most of the DOS games before 1994. However, you'd have to emulate a 33MHz x86 processor which cannot be done with the NDS specifications. The reason I hesitate to say that is because I wonder how much of that 33MHz was overhead used by DOS. Either way, I doubt it'll happen. For instance, one of my favorite DOS games Jazz Jackrabbit requires 4MB of memory and a 33MHz CPU. That's a tall order for the DS I'm afraid.


Why would it necessarily need to emulate a 33MHz CPU? The 8088 was 4.77MHz and was more than capable of running MS-DOS, as well as lots of commercial games like Commander Keen and so on.

There is already a DOS emulator for some Nokia phones, which use an ARM7 CPU. I don't know what it's capable of running, but either way, it exists.

The DS can emulate Macintosh System 7.5 which would be far more demanding than DOS.

It actually isn't. Mac OS 7.5 only needs about 4 megs of ram to run. Recommended is 16-32 though.

 

[fristi]

its i bit late but thanks javacat


i love you...
just kidding

 

[madlobster]

Actually, yeah it would be... but I'm afraid it'll probably run into the same problem that other systems have though I'm not 100% sure. NDS only has 4MB of RAM which is actually fine for most of the DOS games before 1994. However, you'd have to emulate a 33MHz x86 processor which cannot be done with the NDS specifications. The reason I hesitate to say that is because I wonder how much of that 33MHz was overhead used by DOS. Either way, I doubt it'll happen. For instance, one of my favorite DOS games Jazz Jackrabbit requires 4MB of memory and a 33MHz CPU. That's a tall order for the DS I'm afraid.


Why would it necessarily need to emulate a 33MHz CPU? The 8088 was 4.77MHz and was more than capable of running MS-DOS, as well as lots of commercial games like Commander Keen and so on.

There is already a DOS emulator for some Nokia phones, which use an ARM7 CPU. I don't know what it's capable of running, but either way, it exists.

The DS can emulate Macintosh System 7.5 which would be far more demanding than DOS.

It actually isn't. Mac OS 7.5 only needs about 4 megs of ram to run. Recommended is 16-32 though.

DOS doesn't need much RAM to run at all. 640K is plenty for a lot of really old real-mode games. Lots will work with much less than that.

 

[adamrgolf]

It would be cool if someone wanted to take this on

 

[TrolleyDave]

Actually, yeah it would be... but I'm afraid it'll probably run into the same problem that other systems have though I'm not 100% sure.  NDS only has 4MB of RAM which is actually fine for most of the DOS games before 1994.  However, you'd have to emulate a 33MHz x86 processor which cannot be done with the NDS specifications.  The reason I hesitate to say that is because I wonder how much of that 33MHz was overhead used by DOS.  Either way, I doubt it'll happen.  For instance, one of my favorite DOS games Jazz Jackrabbit requires 4MB of memory and a 33MHz CPU.  That's a tall order for the DS I'm afraid.


Why would it necessarily need to emulate a 33MHz CPU? The 8088 was 4.77MHz and was more than capable of running MS-DOS, as well as lots of commercial games like Commander Keen and so on.

There is already a DOS emulator for some Nokia phones, which use an ARM7 CPU. I don't know what it's capable of running, but either way, it exists.

The DS can emulate Macintosh System 7.5 which would be far more demanding than DOS.



It actually isn't. Mac OS 7.5 only needs about 4 megs of ram to run. Recommended is 16-32 though.

DOS doesn't need much RAM to run at all. 640K is plenty for a lot of really old real-mode games. Lots will work with much less than that.

Before DOS 6 it would run in 64k of RAM! It wasn't until games actually started becoming quite popular that anything other than development PC's started needing more than 64k of RAM.

One of Bill Gates all time great statements, along with his "the internet will never become popular", was "Why would a PC ever need more than 64k of RAM?".

 

[.::5pYd3r::.]

One of Bill Gates all time great statements, along with his "the internet will never become popular", was "Why would a PC ever need more than 64k of RAM?".

LOL!!!!

 

[Hadrian]

It would be great if it could play some Apogee and Epic games, they did some nice EGA games like the Keen series, Jill of the Jungle, Monster Bash and various other. I'd be happy with that, VGA however would be an excellent plus.

I use to have a PC emulator on my Amiga 500, we had a CGA Mega Man running on it! No sound but it was pretty stable and ran well. Apart from DosBox, thats my only experience of emulating a PC though

 

[fristi]

One of Bill Gates all time great statements, along with his "the internet will never become popular", was "Why would a PC ever need more than 64k of RAM?".

bill gates is crazy
only 64k tssss

 

[TrolleyDave]

One of Bill Gates all time great statements, along with his "the internet will never become popular", was "Why would a PC ever need more than 64k of RAM?".


bill gates is crazy
only 64k tssss

At the time 64k was plenty of memory, everything was text based and really simple. Plus you have to remember the storage medium was only 360k/720k (well apart from the 20 meg hard drive machines). The games that were out at the time that had graphics used either CGA or Hercules modes so they were kinda C64 quality games and didn't need alot of memory. Alot of games back then were small but large if you know what I mean. Look at Elite on the BBC, that was massive (well, kinda) but filled up only 32k. Game coders these days probably couldn't achieve the same thing, even if they were to use just plain old non-hidden line vector graphics like the old Elite, because they have never really had to worry about optimization and space. These days if your game won't work on the average machine, well then you just tell people they should upgrade!

Also remember that at the time it was strictly a business machine. It was during the death of the Amiga that it ended up with 640k of RAM and VGA (and SuperVGA woot!) graphics. Do a search for groups like The Humble Guys and it'll give you a good indication of when the PC started becoming a games machine.