Help me figure this one out... (MS-DOS)

[PantheraTigris2]

OK, I'm so excited - because I found some disks from 1993 that are still good. Thing is, though, that when I made these backups (of one of my favorite games), I used the "backup" MS-DOS command. Yes, I know the proper directory to "restore" them to, but it doesn't seem like Windows 98's 'DOS' recognizes the old DOS's "Backup" & "Restore" commmands.

What can I do?

 

[Turner]

Go to a pawn shop or a Salvation army type store and pick up an old computer for a few bucks. Then you can use that to use MSDos on it, and play your older games.

 

[funxus]

If you still run win98 on the computer, it still runs DOS, which means you probably should be able to restart the computer in DOS (Start->Exit->Exit to DOS, or something similar), or use a start-up disk to start the computer in DOS. From here you should be able to run the game unless your computer is too good. If you're missing the restore and backup files, you should be able to find them on the net, or maybe if you have DOS on old disks.

 

[CrackedCrystal]

If push comes to shove, go here...
www.tekhwy.com
They sell old copies of DOS. Install it. Then uncompress the files. Then just copy them straight to disk without using backup.

A little convoluted and not the cheepest way. It depends on how valuable those games are to you I guess.

 

[nihilistic]

Or just download them! Don't worry, downloading abandonware is perfectly legal.

 

[Turner]

But the title of abondonware is so sticky. . . I mean, is it? Or isn't it? Sigh. . . I tried to do this, but it got to confusing. Easier to stick to Civ!

 

[CrackedCrystal]

Here, I did not post this before because I couldn't find it.

This site has boot disks along with the recovery utility for several versions of DOS.
http://www.oldstuff.myagora.net/powerload/bootdisk.htm

 

[funxus]

Originally posted by nihilistic
Or just download them! Don't worry, downloading abandonware is perfectly legal.

I think there was a discussion about this a long time ago in one of the civ2 forums, and IIRC their conclusion of it was that just because it is abandonware it isn't legal to provide for free unless the person who has the legal right to it approves of it (so a game isn't actually free to be used by anyone until 80 (?) years after the owner is dead). Which means that providing abandonware isn't 100% legal, and you linking to it could be enough for a ban(?). The guy linking to such a page in the civ2 forum was lucky that he gave the wrong address. This is what I remember from the discussion, and I don't know if this was the conclusion. If not, I'm sorry...

 

[Padma]

Legally, there is no such thing as "Abandonware". Either the copyright-holder (Publisher) has stated (either explicitly or implicitly) that a particular work is in the "Public Domain", i.e., free, or they still hold the copyright and any treatment as "abandonware" is technically piracy.

 

[CrackedCrystal]

Originally posted by funxus
so a game isn't actually free to be used by anyone until 80 (?) years after the owner is dead

Actually, I think it is 50 years from the point of creation. I know Disney was in court trying to extend that. Did they win? They have a problem because Mickey (the first version) is 50 years old. That means anyone could use the early copy of Mickey Mouse for their own profit.

 

[Padma]

I believe it is the lifetime of the creator + 75 years. Or something ridiculous like that.

Edit: Just did some checking: earlier works (copyrighted before 1950) a copyrighted for 95 years from the date of original copyright (28yrs + 67 yrs extension). Works copyrighted 1978 & later are copyrighted for life + 70 years of the creator.

 

[CrackedCrystal]

Well, whatever the time frame, computers are not even that old, that means there are no software programs that fall into the timeframe.

 

[Padma]

Which is why "abandonware" only exists in the mids of wishful-thinkers.

Although, as I said earlier, a publisher can either explicitely declare a work to be in the public domain, or can imply the same by failing to pursue copyright infringement. (Which is why some publishers will *go after* petty pirates/abandonware sites - they don't want to default on their copyright protection.)

 

[PantheraTigris2]

Originally posted by CrackedCrystal
Here, I did not post this before because I couldn't find it.

This site has boot disks along with the recovery utility for several versions of DOS.
http://www.oldstuff.myagora.net/powerload/bootdisk.htm

OK, so if I run that MS-DOS 6.22 bootdisk on my Win98SE machine... am I guaranteed it's not going to self-destruct? Would that actually bring about the restore.com(/restore.exe?) file that is needed to do this? Thanks for the link, nihilistic, but unfortunately they didn't *quite* have the one. They did have the Sierra Hero's Quest I (EGA), but this one the *VGA* version (woohoo!) - no big deal if I can't play it, but it just seems like such a tease, that I have the disks right here, and they appear to still be good... but, I can't "restore" them with the wonderful Windows, that I love so...

 

[ainwood]

You could always just try dosbox. There's a thread about it in the fora somewhere....

 

[Turner]

Dosbox can be found Here.

 

[CrackedCrystal]

Originally posted by PantheraTigris2
OK, so if I run that MS-DOS 6.22 bootdisk on my Win98SE machine... am I guaranteed it's not going to self-destruct? Would that actually bring about the restore.com(/restore.exe?) file that is needed to do this?

Jsut booting with the disk should not harm your computer. However, things you do after it boots could harm it. You just need to understand what you are doing. For instance, if the restore file is a complete system restore, you don't want to unpack it because it would copy over your windows and make it like youor old DOS machine. But if its just compressed files, you should be able to unpack them and be done. I don't have enough info to help you on that part.

As for the restore program, you have to copy it to the disk. They have a link to it on the webpage. Its not automatic.