4 ms·

I basically had this setup back in the day. I don't really know how I ended up with it, I was 7 at the time and none of it was intentional - but my bootloader h

by Xirdus 6mo ago

I basically had this setup back in the day. I don't really know how I ended up with it, I was 7 at the time and none of it was intentional - but my bootloader had two entries: I could boot into Windows 98, or I could boot into Worms.

Dwedit 6mo ago
It's a similar idea, but that's a DOS menu. At the point when the menu appears, MS-DOS 7.1 has already been loaded.
- tetrisgm 6mo ago
  Stupid question but... would bundling the binary with an ASM port of something that could run this technically make it possible to run without the OS? I realize this is basically doing docker for DOS games and incredibly stupid, I'm just curious about the thought experiment
  - Xirdus 6mo ago
    Well, the "ASM port of something that could run this" would be the OS...
    - tetrisgm 6mo ago
      Right. I guess I mean like an app specific OS haha
    - ahartmetz 6mo ago
      Possibly stripped down to only support that game, but basically yeah
dale_glass 6mo ago
Probably your parents setting it up? As far as I know, Worms is a normal DOS game, so the only way for that to happen should be a DOS install configured to just auto-start Worms on boot. Which makes sense as a way to keep a kid away from anything that could cause trouble. I very vaguely recall that there used to be a very few PC games that worked as boot floppies and possibly didn't use DOS at all, but it was a rarity and Worms definitely wasn't one.
- Induane 6mo ago
  I bet it wasn't actually the bootloader but something with autoexec.bat - you could setup choices in it and windows was just one launch option.
  - Xirdus 6mo ago
    Well, if you treat DOS as a bootloader for Windows 98 - which it was actually - then modifying autoexec.bat would count as setting up the bootloader.
- Xirdus 6mo ago
  No, I set it up. My parents were non-technical. I had a CD-ROM re-release of Worms for DOS from one gaming magazine or another. I guess the installer set it up somewhere somehow but I remember it wasn't easy to get it installed and there were further problems trying to launch it. It's possible the installer itself was a DOS program, not a Windows program.
bigfatkitten 6mo ago
MS-DOS Shell was one popular option to do this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS_Shell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS_Shell Brown Bag PowerMenu was another. https://forum.winworldpc.com/discussion/15739/software-spotlight-brown-bag-software-powermenu https://forum.winworldpc.com/discussion/15739/software-spotl...

by Xirdus 6mo ago

Dwedit 6mo ago

It's a similar idea, but that's a DOS menu. At the point when the menu appears, MS-DOS 7.1 has already been loaded.

tetrisgm 6mo ago
Stupid question but... would bundling the binary with an ASM port of something that could run this technically make it possible to run without the OS? I realize this is basically doing docker for DOS games and incredibly stupid, I'm just curious about the thought experiment
- Xirdus 6mo ago
  Well, the "ASM port of something that could run this" would be the OS...
  - tetrisgm 6mo ago
    Right. I guess I mean like an app specific OS haha
  - ahartmetz 6mo ago
    Possibly stripped down to only support that game, but basically yeah

dale_glass 6mo ago

Probably your parents setting it up? As far as I know, Worms is a normal DOS game, so the only way for that to happen should be a DOS install configured to just auto-start Worms on boot. Which makes sense as a way to keep a kid away from anything that could cause trouble. I very vaguely recall that there used to be a very few PC games that worked as boot floppies and possibly didn't use DOS at all, but it was a rarity and Worms definitely wasn't one.

Induane 6mo ago
I bet it wasn't actually the bootloader but something with autoexec.bat - you could setup choices in it and windows was just one launch option.
- Xirdus 6mo ago
  Well, if you treat DOS as a bootloader for Windows 98 - which it was actually - then modifying autoexec.bat would count as setting up the bootloader.
Xirdus 6mo ago
No, I set it up. My parents were non-technical. I had a CD-ROM re-release of Worms for DOS from one gaming magazine or another. I guess the installer set it up somewhere somehow but I remember it wasn't easy to get it installed and there were further problems trying to launch it. It's possible the installer itself was a DOS program, not a Windows program.

bigfatkitten 6mo ago

MS-DOS Shell was one popular option to do this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS_Shell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS_Shell Brown Bag PowerMenu was another. https://forum.winworldpc.com/discussion/15739/software-spotlight-brown-bag-software-powermenu https://forum.winworldpc.com/discussion/15739/software-spotl...