Message-ID: <32B76D26.3790@gbrmpa.gov.au>
Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 12:03:51 +0800
From: Leath Muller <leathm AT gbrmpa DOT gov DOT au>
Reply-To: leathm AT gbrmpa DOT gov DOT au
Organization: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Shawn Hargreaves <Shawn AT talula DOT demon DOT co DOT uk>
CC: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: djgpp + allegro + win NT?
References: <Pine DOT LNX DOT 3 DOT 91 DOT 961216132748 DOT 5927A-100000 AT tabor DOT ta DOT jcu DOT cz> <ZxGVLKAYHvtyEwI2 AT talula DOT demon DOT co DOT uk>
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> I don't have access to NT, so I may be completely mistaken here, but I'd
> be very surprised if it did work. NT doesn't like DOS apps messing
> directly with the hardware - it is a protected environment, and quite
> rightly figures that letting programs do their own hardware access is a
> large security hole. Of course Allegro is entirely based around direct
> hardware access, so the two don't mix very well :-) I'd imagine that NT
> will give DOS apps access to hardware that can be virtualised, ie. that
> NT knows about in sufficient detail to emulate it for the DOS program,
> while keeping tight control of what is going on. I have no idea how good
> NT is at virtualising hardware, but I suspect not good enough. I very
> much doubt that any DOS games will run properly under it...

Actually, you would be suprised...a lot of games (including Warcraft II)
run Ok under NT 4.0 graphically. The only thing that doesn't work too
well is sound...I figured that NT 4 allowed access to the dos memory
area for the graphics card, but that's about all. I never really played
with it, but if enough people want it, I could do up something in the
next few weeks and provide a report for the FAQ. I think I was going to
do this once before, but it got lost in a mess of work... :(

Leathal.