Can I buy a licensed copy of DOS? What about Win95?

[Santoro]

Subject says it all.  I have no idea where to find these, hopefully cheap.

Thanks!

[JoyMonkey]

Have you tried looking on eBay for MS-DOS and Windows 95 ? You can usually pick either up for a couple of dollars.

[SirPoonga]

www.freedos.org

[Howard_Casto]

You don't want windows 95 i repeat you do NOT want windows 95.  

95, particulary 95 rev a/b have lousy hardware and software support. It doesn't even support the latest version of directx it's so outdated. (DirectX is super backwards compatable, that's how far behind it is) Stop being cheap and get 98 if you want to run a 9X system.  You'll save yourself a lot of headaches.

[Buddabing]

You don't want windows 95 i repeat you do NOT want windows 95.  

95, particulary 95 rev a/b have lousy hardware and software support. It doesn't even support the latest version of directx it's so outdated. (DirectX is super backwards compatable, that's how far behind it is) Stop being cheap and get 98 if you want to run a 9X system.  You'll save yourself a lot of headaches.

I would say get 98SE for a 9x system. I tried running 98FE and I ran straight into DLL Hell trying to get Daphne to run.

For DOS, you can get FreeDOS, but it doesn't support long file names. I have purchased ROM-DOS for my cabinet, the jury's still out on it.

[SirPoonga]

The DOS standard is to use the 8.3 files name.  Hence why mame has used that rom name standard until recent.

[Grasshopper]

If you buy Windows 98 then you effectively get DOS 7 for free (Windows 9X sits on top of DOS). Dos 7 doesn't support long filenames however it does support FAT32 partitions.

[Santoro]

www.freedos.org

This is the route I really wanted to go but I thought I read that it is not compatible with EMM386.exe with is required for creative sound cards.  

If this is no longer true, then I am golden.  I am running a DOS cab and would rather not deal with windows baggage.

Plus, free=gooder.

[SirPoonga]

I ran freedos with a soundblaster live about 3 years ago.  I don't remember how it was setup.

[Santoro]

I ran freedos with a soundblaster live about 3 years ago.  I don't remember how it was setup.

I'll have to give it a shot and see how it works.  Thanks for the link.

[maraxle]

If you buy Windows 98 then you effectively get DOS 7 for free (Windows 9X sits on top of DOS). Dos 7 doesn't support long filenames however it does support FAT32 partitions.

FreeDOS supports FAT32 as well...

[paigeoliver]

I am not sure how LEGAL this is, but you can pretty much use any Windows 95 or 98 start up floppy to pretty much install a basic copy of dos on any system. It is enough for Mame purposes, but is not as full featured as Freedos or DOS 6.22

[1Spoon]

Would that give enough to get the Soundblaster working?

[paigeoliver]

Would that give enough to get the Soundblaster working?

I don't see what not, I had "start up disk" dos installed on a machine I recently sold and I was able to install the sound drivers for its card with no problem.