DOS ain't dead

DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS (Announce)

posted by Japheth , Germany (South), 21.01.2026, 21:54

> Yes, NMI can be masked, sounds a good idea to mask it in critical parts of
> code. It should not fire too often to miss another one...

Finally I decided to just protect the mode switching code parts. If NMIs occure in PL0 they are just routed to real-/v86-mode, making sure that all global vars used in that path are saved & restored.

This approach did limit the necessary modifications to a minimum - the downside is that the host must not be reentered from real-/v86-mode while the NMI is handled there. No problem with AWEUTIL, since it does its works with interrupts disabled.

I did some tests. Configuration: jemmex, aweutil /EM, (modified) hdpmi32.

- the DOOM family (DOOM, DOOM2, MBF, HACX): works fine
- Duke3D and Blood: no problems
- Descent: exception 06 in v86-mode ...

The preliminary JemmEx v5.86 needed a fix, but the old v5.85 works ok.

My AWE32 has 2 MB RAM only, so the sound was worse than what vsbhda is able to render...

---
MS-DOS forever!

Complete thread:

• DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - RayeR, 13.01.2026, 16:43
  • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - Japheth, 13.01.2026, 19:33
    • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - RayeR, 13.01.2026, 22:53
      • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - Japheth, 14.01.2026, 08:49
        • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - RayeR, 14.01.2026, 16:26
          • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - Japheth, 14.01.2026, 20:12
            • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - RayeR, 15.01.2026, 08:17
              • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - Japheth, 16.01.2026, 04:19
                • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - RayeR, 17.01.2026, 02:09
                  • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - Khusraw, 17.01.2026, 07:52
                    • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - RayeR, 17.01.2026, 15:54
                  • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - Japheth, 19.01.2026, 12:04
                    • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - RayeR, 20.01.2026, 01:19
                      • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - Japheth, 20.01.2026, 08:03
                        • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - RayeR, 20.01.2026, 13:14
                          • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - Japheth, 21.01.2026, 21:54
                            • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - RayeR, 23.01.2026, 18:59
                              • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - Japheth, 24.01.2026, 09:17
                                • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - RayeR, 25.01.2026, 07:51
                                  • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - Japheth, 25.01.2026, 08:47
                                    • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - RayeR, 26.01.2026, 00:17
                                      • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - Japheth, 26.01.2026, 03:29
                                        • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - RayeR, 27.01.2026, 08:47
                                          • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - Japheth, 27.01.2026, 18:25
                                            • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - Japheth, 29.01.2026, 19:23
                                              • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - Japheth, 05.02.2026, 11:30
                                                • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - RayeR, 12.02.2026, 04:32
                                                  • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - Japheth, 12.02.2026, 09:59
                                                    • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - RayeR, 14.02.2026, 05:05
                                                      • DOS32AWE - RAM wavetable MIDI possible for PM games under DOS - Japheth, 17.02.2026, 16:08