DOS ain't dead

VGA text mode 30/34 line TSR's (Announce)

posted by mceric, Germany, 05.02.2022, 12:16

> A little bit archeology (i am just translate to english and nasm).
> Works in dosbox-x (vc, dwed etc).
>
> https://github.com/DosWorld/VGA3x

You can also use FreeDOS MODE for that in some cases

C:\>mode con lines=99
Lines must be 25, 28, 43 or 50, or font size 8, 14 or 16.
If you have VESA, 30, 34 or 60 lines can be available, too.

However, DOSEMU2 does not seem to offer 30 or 34 line modes right now?

It does support 80x60 with a 9x16 font, which is very landscape, as VESA mode 0x108, and 132x60, also with a 9x16 font, as VESA mode 0x10c, though. The latter is really large

So you can use MODE CON LINES=60 COLS=80 and MODE CON LINES=60 COLS=132 with DOSEMU2 and FreeDOS MODE.

You can also use 80x25, 80x50, 40x25 and 40x50, which are all displayed using the same familiar DOSEMU2 window size, similar to a terminal window.

If you start with 80x25 mode and use MODE CON LINES=14, you will get a 28 line mode.

If you start with 80x60 mode and do the same, MODE will claim that you have entered a 34 line mode, but you will get a 68 line window where DOS only uses the upper half, which is a bit unlucky. Likewise, with lines=8 in 80x60 mode, MODE will think you still have 60 lines, but DOSEMU2 will show you an 80x120 window where DOS can only use the upper half. So the window size and number of characters are the same as with the previous 80x60 mode, but your font size is smaller, leaving the lower half of your window empty.

Maybe somebody can test that with their real or virtual hardware to see whether they get better or interestingly different results than in DOSEMU2, because I would like to know whether this is a bug and if yes on which side. Thanks!

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FreeDOS / DOSEMU2 / ...

Complete thread:

• VGA text mode 30/34 line TSR's - DosWorld, 05.02.2022, 05:42 (Announce)
  • VGA text mode 30/34 line TSR's - mceric, 05.02.2022, 12:16