MS DOS Emulation

[spirantho]

PC-Task is the program you need.... version 4.4 being the latest and greatest, which is still 10 years old or so! More RAM will help you a lot if you can get it, as will an accelerator, but a 68020 should be enough to get close to XT speeds. You can run MS-DOS up to 6.22, but you're probably best with 5.0 as this came on DD disks rather than HD ones which your 1200 can't read.

Alternatively, get an A500! You can get KCS PowerPC boards for them fairly easily which have an NEC V30 on them (10MHz), 1.5MB RAM for the PC and Amiga side, and will access all the ports of the Amiga, as well as providing up to VGA resolutions (VGA is only mono of course!). A big box Amiga is still the best method though, of course - the GoldenGate being the best bridgeboard out there as it goes up to 486SLC2@50MHz and uses SIMMs instead of ZIP RAM. You may of course have to sell an arm/leg/granny to get one...

[spirantho]

OK, anyone who wants some speed comparisons of emulators let me know.

I have, in order of PC speed (roughly):

1x A500 with KCS PowerPC board (NEC V30@10.7MHz)
1x A1500 with A2286 bridgeboard (10MHz I think)
1x A1500 with A2386 bridgeboard (25MHz)
1x A1500 with GoldenGate 486SLC25
1x A4000 (060@50, CSPPC@200, Voodoo III) with full PC-Task 4.4. Also full PCx.
1x AmigaOne (G4@800) which I think can run Bochs and PC-Task possibly

and also the obligatory A500s, A600, A1000, A1200 spare.

So if anyone wants me to test anything on any of the above let me know, but preferably
no large programs on my KCS board please (see the post I'm about to make re that!)

[spirantho]

OK, first thing...

I can't remember about 'turbo mode' but I know that dynamic mode on PC Task 4.0 or greater uses up 4x normal RAM, so that'd be fine as long as you only use 1MB for your PC. Try it and see...

Secondly, MS-DOS 6.00 and above come on HD floppies as standard. MS-DOS 5.00 comes on DD disks. You can put >=6.00 onto 720KB disks but it's hassle. What you should do is create a hardfile or partition and mount it from AmigaDOS. Then copy each file from the DOS disks into an installation directory, and run Setup from there. Of course that won't help you boot up in the first place - you'll need a method of booting up to get that far. You could try looking at FreeDOS and suchlike - that works on 8088 machines so should be ok on 3.5" disks to boot off, from where you can install 6.22 if you really need it.

Now... on to Alone in the Dark.

After spending all morning getting my 386 working (the dual port RAM was misbehaving - I've been using it as a guinea pig while trying to get my 486SLC-based A2386 working), I can say:

PC-Task interpretive runs Alone in the Dark quite impressively, but not really what I'd call fast. It may do at a pinch but you really ought to be looking at a hardware solution. A 66MHz '060 would help of course, mine is 'only' 50. It's playable when just moving around but when things start happening it's less good.
PC-Task dynamic is a lot slower than interpretive.
A2386SX (25MHz, 5MB RAM, Trident SVGA card) works acceptably but it's a bit stodgy. I wouldn't recommend it really.
GoldenGate 486SLC@25 (16MB 80nS RAM, Thunderbolt ISA CL-based 1MB SVGA, 8-bit Soundblaster II) works perfectly. Much more playable even with the soundblaster.

Overall, I was quite impressed by PC-Task, and the 2386 wasn't much faster that it... but the GG wins hands down. It's surprising how much of a difference the different chip makes!

So, my recommendation: nothing less than a GG486 or a 486-based 2386 (probably - can't get mine to work!). Of course if you stick an IBM Blue Lightning SLC75 onto that 2386....

And no, they're not for sale.


[spirantho]

The fastest is an upgraded A2386SX- the fastest base model is the GoldenGate 486SLC2 which runs at 50MHz, but of course it's dead rare.

@bloodline
er.. well, yeah, on a K6 machine, but I'm not at all sure why you refer to it. Do you want me to try running AROS on the Goldengate? It's an interesting (and rather daft!) idea...!