Dennis - Thank you for all the info! I installed Linux Mint via USB on that machine, I just want to be sure FD will "see" the ports, so to speak, but the FD page sez it's so, so it must be! I found the code for EP on Archive.org, mimeo of typewritten doc (!) it's abt 4 pages long and I have every intention of punching in every character manually LoL It's one of my Holy Grails, just to use that program :)
On Sun, May 3, 2020 at 6:22 PM dmccunney <dennis.mccun...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Sun, May 3, 2020 at 4:28 PM Vincent Asaro <carrotfi...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > > Eric, > > > > Thank you for the detailed response! I never played video games, > actually, I'm just nostalgic for the text interface experience and I really > want to use WordPerfect again but without installing a VM. As long as I can > enter code and also load DOS programs via USB, I'll get tons of mileage out > of FD - there are several legacy word processors I also want to try, like > Electric Pencil. A weird obsession, I know, but I'm a writer ;) Thanks > again! > > It depends on what you consider a VM. There is an open source > cross-platform package called DOSbox, intended to let folks play old > DOS games on things that *aren't* DOS PCs. A fork called vDOS is > specifically intended for supporting DOS character mode productivity > applications, but it is X86 specific. > > I use the vDOSPlus fork of vDOS to run an assortment of old DOS > programs here under Win10. In my case, I run the VDE editor, which > is a WordStar clone that originated under CP/M and was subsequently > moved to DOS (though I have successfully run WS7 as well.), and a few > old DOS character mode games, like DOS versions of Unix Larn and VMS > Empire. Word Perfect runs as well, and there's a fan site with > details on running it under vDOS here: > http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/vdoswp.html > > (I have also gotten them running on an Android tablet using an Android > port of DOSBox. The problem there was finding an Android port of > DOSBox that passed ctrl-key combos through to the application, which > as an absolute necessity for running a WordStar style editor.) > > DOSBox and VDOSPlus implement enough of DOS to run DOS applications > but you'll want to add things. In particular, the provided shell you > talk to at a command line is a subset of COMMAND.COM providing just > enough to let you type in the name of a program to run. For > anythi8nhg beyond that, you'll want to install FreeDOS command or 4DOS > which is also available for FreeDOS. > > Running DOS apps here with vDOSPlus is a matter of a shortcut that > runs the vDOSPlus program, and runs it *in* the directory where the > DOS app lives. vDOS looks for autoexec.txt and config.txt files which > are the equivalent of autoexec.bat and config.sys and perform the same > functions and you run the program from auatexec.. > > You can find vDOSPlus here: https://www.vDosPlus.org > > If you want to run FreeDOS "on the bare metal", so to speak, your > hardware looks more than adequate, assuming you can install from USB. > > Where did you find a runnable version of Electric Pencil? > > > ~ Vincent > ______ > Dennis > > > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user >
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