Wee, I've just put Red Hat Linux 5.2 back onto my PC (I had to create enough space again). I decided to install a lovely little package called DOSEMU which comes with the RedHat distribution. I had my doubts but kept an open mind.

What the package does in reality isn't emulate DOS (Be it PC-DOS, DR-DOS or FreeDOS or MS-DOS) but actually emulate the PC's BIOS and video BIOS. It doesn't need to emulate the processor but all calls by the software to the BIOS (HD access, graphic output, sound) and redirect it to an X window (I believe you can run it fullscreen but I haven't tried it as I like X). I was incredibly surprised by the compatability with a real PC setup. I got KGEN and Genecyst to run with very little effort, and in a window too!

As with much Linux software, Dosemu is highly configurable. I set up an old 170Mb HD I had lying around with a basic COMMAND.COM. Drivers such as sound, vesa and mouse are handled by the emulator. When configured DOS booted up straight away to a C: prompt. You can even, if you don't mind all your configuration files changing, boot your standard MSDOS partition but I would recommend using a new one for Dosemu just to be safe.

This high amount of configurability makes it very hard to review Linux software. Saying that though after half an hour I had Genecyst megadrive emulator running in an X window at full speed. One of the nice options is that you can set the the type of processor from 286 to 586 (Pentium) and speed in Mhz. I own Wing Commander which is unplayably fast on my P200. Lowering the processor speed and type to a 33 Mhz 286/386 may well help. Any Mhz rating up to your full processor speed is allowed so maybe your old PC collection of outdated software may get a high-end windowed lease of life again. Also a good hardware knowledge of your real hardware can make this emulator more accurate and even fix bugs which you obviously can't fix easily in the hardware!

The soundblaster emulation was broken in the version I tried and certain Vesa screenmodes gave incorrect colours. However I got DOOM and Tomb Raider to run correctly first time so it is pretty compatible. UAE and Fellow both failed but as I have UAE for Linux I wasn't too worried! I've heard that some people run Windows 95 (in an X window!) so I guess it has the potential to be extremely useful. The version I tried was an old one but even that was incredibly useful.

A very useful package which every dual-booting PC owner should enjoy.

8/10 - Will be 9/10 if the latest version has working sound!

Coagulus / Rob

(The mark is not reliable as it is co configurable. It is a try and see mark. sorry. Bit pointless really then wasn't it! Again!)