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by yjftsjthsd-h 28 days ago
That is an interesting semantic question, though - I would say something that needs an extender still counts as a "DOS" program, and I can't quite see the line between that and early Windows. I believe the line exists, mind, but I can't figure out how to define it.
3 comments
bananaboy 28 days ago
Some of these games are absolutely not DOS games though and no amount of semantics can change that. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City requires Windows 98 and DX9 or newer, for example, and it is available here.

edit: I see Vice City has been removed following a DMCA request!

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kimixa 28 days ago
Yeah, many of the things we consider part of what an "Operating System" provides to programs today were provided by DOS Extenders (or forwarded to something like windows if running under that).

DPMI was pretty much an "Operating System API/ABI".

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alberto-m 28 days ago
What about: if the extender is provided with the game (like DOS/4GW) then it's a DOS game; if it needs to be provided by the user (like Win 3.11) it's not.
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