The Hobbit Hole XXXVII - ...Down a thirsty throat and be glad indeed!

[Overtaxed]

Yep...half an inch in Perfect Village too.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Interestingly, the biggest trouble I had was finding a way to make the install files accessible to the virtual machine. VMware Workstation supports virtualizing floppy drives and CD-ROM drives, but I didn't have a physical floppy drive in my system, and MS-DOS doesn't support CD-ROMs without a driver installed in CONFIG.SYS.

The MS-DOS disks from MSDN were disk image files, so that was no problem; I just pointed the VM's virtual floppy device at the image file. But MSDN only offers the Upgrade version of MS-DOS 6.22, and it wouldn't install to a blank hard drive. So, I searched the web and found a copy of a MS-DOS boot disk image. I pointed the VM floppy at that image and booted to it, then used it to partition, format, and install the system files on the VM hard drive. Once that was done the MS-DOS 6.22 Upgrade ran with no problem.

The Windows 3.11 install files from MSDN come in a single big folder, so I found a freeware tool on the web that creates CD-ROM ISO files from ordinary folders. But then I had to search the web again for the proper DOS CD-ROM driver. I found it, but had no way to copy it into the VM until I found another freeware tool that creates disk image files and lets your system see them as virtual floppy drives. I copied the driver from my system to the virtual floppy, then attached the virtual floppy to my VM and copied the driver to the VM's hard drive. Once I had that driver installed and working, I could point the VM's CD-ROM drive at the ISO file containing Win 3.11 and do the install.

The actual install of DOS and Windows took less than a minute or two to run. Finding the tools necessary to support the install, and getting them to work, took a few hours. But, now that I have one working virtual machine, I can clone as many identical ones as I want! Mwahahahaha!

[JenB]

You must have some awesome 3.1 games to go to those lengths. What have you got? Civ 1?

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

The original Sim City for one, which I always preferred over the later Sim City 2000. Also, many of the Gold Box AD&D games, some of which we bought collected in CD-ROM editions and never really played, because by the time we bought them our DOS system didn't have any room on the hard drive to install them, and the Win95/98 system wouldn't run them.

Also, a large part of doing it was the coolness factor, like a ham radio fan building his own set, or a back-yard astronomer building his own telescope. Just did it to say, "I did it!" basically.

[HairOfTheDog]

There was a nifty Air Traffic Control game, and SimAnt... that I used to play on my dad's old Mac SE that I loved... Others I've seen since aren't as good!

By way of 'hello and here's what's up' - Hubby and I worked all weekend on cleaning house, getting ready for his parents to arrive this Friday. (Our 5th anniversary!) We got the house deep-cleaned, even behind and under everything, and shampooed the carpets. We'd be ready if they were coming today, now the challenge is keeping it this way all week!

Also to update, pony pony is still hanging in there with her bad kidneys, and is having a good week. I'm feeding her as much as she'll eat when she's feeling good, and she's better with the added energy.

Took this pic this morning:

[Overtaxed]

CONFIG.SYS....

Aaaaagggghhhh!!!!

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Glad to hear that pony is doing ok, I hope that continues!

[SuziQ]

Gosh, has it been 5 years already!?

[TalonDJ]

I had an old laptop which I tossed (too lazy to ebay it). I had thought about getting it up and running again but don’t have a working SCSI cd drive. The electronics were good and the HD probably was too. It is always getting the dang OS on that is the weak link :P Now if I can just guilt my wife into reinstalling XP on my gaming machine...

[JenB]

Blahblahblah.

I’ll get to it.

[HairOfTheDog]

Apparently, but I’m not the one who is good at keeping track of dates... I just repeat what I’m told. :~)

[SuziQ]

Ha! See, time flies when you’re having fun!

[osagebowman]

Evening Bear - I have to admit to understanding about fourth or fifth word and comprehending few if any of those. That is a very cool computer you built inside a computer etc. etc. Kudos.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Well, thanks! :-) Now I just have to get one of these old DOS games to run in it, and I'll be all set. ;-)

[RosieCotton]

Definite flashbacks! And I remember when we were first rolling out ‘95 (I was in the AF at the time) and had a lot of folks who still wanted Program Manager—File Explorer and the Start Button were big scary new things.

Now...that screen looks kinda funny without the toolbar and all.

[RosieCotton]

Dat’s a very cute Pony. Glad she’s doing good this week!

Ugh...I will get my lawn mowed so I’m not the crazy messy neighbor...at least not *as* much. Worked seven until nearly six today, then little brother called and talked for over an hour, so I’ve accomplished nothing much tonight.

And I have to go in early tomorrow.

[osagebowman]

Hair & Ecurbh - Congrats, five years you say. Times flies doesn’t it. It doesn’t seem possible till you figure that a New Zealander Built a Hobbit Hole was seven years ago.

Also glad to hear that pony is perking up a mite.

OB & LSA

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Yeah, I keep looking at it and thinking, "Couldn't we put icons on the desktop?"

Got the DOS games working:

[RosieCotton]

I still spend too much time playing an updated version of NetHack (originally Hack), which I first played on our first IBM XT. On that computer, it ran on two floppy disks...and you could tell if a level was particularly monster-heavy (remember, we're talking text--no real graphics!) even if you couldn't see the monsters--because it would take a second or so for any keyboard input to register. The whole computer would slow down.

The sad thing is...in about twenty years of playing it off and on, I've never won.

[Corin Stormhands]

Wow, five years already??? Pretty amazing.

I would've come to your wedding. But I didn't have anything to wear. :-D