Comment by Dalewyn | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Dalewyn | Hacker News Reader

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Windows NT has absolutely nothing to do with MS-DOS.[1]

This was a rather sore point back in the days of Windows NT 3.1 and NT 4.0, when a lot of software was still written for DOS and simply couldn't execute on NT.

All 32-bit versions of Windows NT up through Windows 10 have NTVDM (NT Virtual DOS Machine), which as the name suggests is a virtual machine which virtualized DOS.[2]

However, this "compatibility" afforded by NTVDM still failed in most practical situations because most DOS programs were written with the assumption of direct hardware access being available. NTVDM's purpose was instead to facilitate running 16-bit software originally written for the likes of Windows 3.1 and early days of Windows 9x.

All 64-bit versions of Windows NT do not incorporate NTVDM due to hardware limitations and consequently cannot execute any 16-bit programs, including software for DOS.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_DOS_machine#Windows_NT...

If you want a boost for DOS' compatibility under Windows XP, borrow the NTVDM DLL from ReactOS to perfectly play, for instance, Monkey Island.

At that point just use any of the DOSBox variants. DOSBox Pure made for libretro is the best imo (as far as gaming is your concern) https://github.com/schellingb/dosbox-pure

Or just use ScummVM if Monkey Island (and alike) is your only goal https://www.scummvm.org/

I still like the idea of having it tightly integrated with the OS. Just double-click the EXE and it works.

Yep, I'd like soemthing like that for all emulatable systems.

Windows from such a systems could be seamless, and where possible access to the local fileystem + cut / copy /paste too.

Amusingly enough back in the day this is what it was with 16-bit, OS/2 and UNIX binaries

Monkey Island was just an example. OFC I know ScummVM (now it supports even some Macromedia Director based software). But lots of legacy software for DOS/Win 3.1 (these infamous "Multimedia CD's) could be preserved thanks to that.

Someone has recomliled NTVDM for 64 bit, based on the leaker Windows sources.

This works because NTVDM has emulatipn, based on SoftPC built into it - NTVDM was available on non PC NT versions.

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