There are some PC booters out there, paratrooper or most of the atarisoft games. If you have a second floppy you can boot DOS off of one, the software you like off another.

DraxDomax wrote on 2021-06-26, 18:40:

I am not even quite done building my first retro rig but already eager to see it do SOMETHING!
Dare I say a game?

Take some time to learn some patience..?

It's a socket 7 machine

That doesn't mean very much. There are lots of older games that will run from a floppy but which will run impossibly fast even at 100 MHz.

mothergoose729 wrote on 2021-06-26, 18:42:

If you have a second floppy you can boot DOS off of one, the software you like off another.

I don't know what makes you think you need two floppies for that? You can make a floppy bootable just by using "sys a:", and afterwards there is plenty of space left over.

In short, almost any old game that will fit within about 1.4 MB will be fine. You can even use a RAM drive and expand a compressed game into the RAM drive – though you'll need to copy your save data back to the floppy afterwards.

Can even load the Dos cdrom reader diver and run any Dos games burnt to a cdrom using just a boot floppy.

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-06-26, 19:06:

Can even load the Dos cdrom reader diver and run any Dos games burnt to a cdrom using just a boot floppy.

That's probably the best way. You would effectively get a 700mb read-only hard drive.

I have a feeling the CDROM isn't going to work without drivers installed

It's a K6-2-450... So yeah, has to be a portable little game that also has clocked-code.
Any specific ideas appreciated!

As for patience - come on! 😀 I've been waiting 25 years for this machine... Also, so many variables in flight that I am anxious to know exactly where I stand...
AT keyboard socket on the motherboard came broken. Spent 3 hours unsoldering, repairing and soldering it back on... And I don't do SMD soldering as my day job, to say the least!

DraxDomax wrote on 2021-06-26, 19:15:

I have a feeling the CDROM isn't going to work without drivers installed

I think that is what I posted..😉

DraxDomax wrote on 2021-06-26, 19:15:

I have a feeling the CDROM isn't going to work without drivers installed […]
Show full quote

I have a feeling the CDROM isn't going to work without drivers installed

It's a K6-2-450... So yeah, has to be a portable little game that also has clocked-code.
Any specific ideas appreciated!

As for patience - come on! 😀 I've been waiting 25 years for this machine... Also, so many variables in flight that I am anxious to know exactly where I stand...
AT keyboard socket on the motherboard came broken. Spent 3 hours unsoldering, repairing and soldering it back on... And I don't do SMD soldering as my day job, to say the least!

You would install the cd rom driver on your floppy and just load them in config.sys and autoexec.bat. Same as you always would.

I thought that was a driver and therefore needs an OS, etc... Thanks!
Now, to find a game that is both CD rom and doesn't require installation!

How much ram do you have?
A ramdisk could be of use if your games need a minimal install just for config files and saves.

64mb edo

There should be shareware CDs without installation requirements on archive.org.

LGR played this one some time ago.

https://archive.org/details/cdrom-adventuresinheaven2

DraxDomax wrote on 2021-06-26, 19:15:

As for patience - come on! 😀 I've been waiting 25 years for this machine...

There's really not that much you can do on this machine that you can't do just as easily (or even much more easily) in DOSBox on whatever computer you're posting on. Just sayin'.

Also, so many variables in flight that I am anxious to know exactly where I stand...

You will find that the hard drive will likely introduce more variables.

If you just want something for test purposes, you should be able to download a bootable CD image for Puppy Linux that you can burn to a CD. It will include all the drivers you need as well.

DraxDomax wrote on 2021-06-26, 19:24:

I thought that was a driver and therefore needs an OS, etc...

I am very confused by how exactly you think these things work.

Well, in my defence, I don't recall loading the CD drivers into RAM for every boot up...
Like, they were designed to install into a hard disk and be brought into life by *something* (which I thought was my OS)

Sorry to "confuse" you and make you feel that you need to emphasise how stupid I am... Yeah, you know more and can be "very confused" towards newbies, good for you!

Hey OP it is ok not to know things. I get made a fool of all the time on these forums. For whatever reason people feel the need to both inform you and talk down to you while they do it. Don't let that deter you from the point of all this - to mess around with old hardware and old video games. It's not that serious.

If you want something premade, a Win98 boot disk to install the OS includes DOS 7.1 and is already configured to load CD-ROM drivers.

Its purpose is to start the PC and let you FDISK the HDD, and then launch the installer off a CD.

DraxDomax wrote on 2021-06-26, 21:12:

Well, in my defence, I don't recall loading the CD drivers into RAM for every boot up...

But that is how DOS has always worked. If you are not familiar with DOS, and you are very impatient, then you are in for a bad time.

Jorpho wrote on 2021-06-26, 23:59:

DraxDomax wrote on 2021-06-26, 21:12:

Well, in my defence, I don't recall loading the CD drivers into RAM for every boot up...

But that is how DOS has always worked. If you are not familiar with DOS, and you are very impatient, then you are in for a bad time.

Gee give him a break. Dude's just excited about trying out his new machine. We've all been there.

To answer your question OP, plenty of DOS games can run straight from a FDD. Heck, I wouldn't even bother with the CD.

SScorpio wrote on 2021-06-26, 21:58:

If you want something premade, a Win98 boot disk to install the OS includes DOS 7.1 and is already configured to load CD-ROM drivers.

Its purpose is to start the PC and let you FDISK the HDD, and then launch the installer off a CD.

Yeah, but it's missing FORMAT.COM and SYS.COM! 🙁
Luckily, they can be copied over from either %WINDIR%\COMMAND (HDD) or the WIN98 directory (WIN98SE CD).
- There's enough space left on that 1,44MB floppy disk. 😁