Falcon 3.0 under OS/2 2.0

By Eric Pinnell.

Dear Falconers,

Many of you have been trying to run Falcon 3.0 under IBM's new OS/2 2.0 operating system, but have been confused and bewildered by the huge array of DOS settings available to you. So, after consulting technical manuals (The IBM Red Books), here are a list of settings you need, and why they must be set that way:

(If Falcon is running in background, it will suspend processing. Otherwise, it will eat too much CPU cycles)
 * DOS_BACKGROUND_EXECUTION to OFF

(This will give us extra memory for the DOS session)
 * DOS_HIGH to ON

(This will give us some more memory)
 * DOS_LASTDRIVE to D (or whatever your highest drive letter is)

(More memory by usiing Upper Memory Blocks)
 * DOS_UMB to ON

(Falcon Doesn't use DPMI memory, so we gain speed by not emulating DPIM)
 * DPMI_DOS_API to DISABLED

(We don't use DPMI)
 * DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT to 0

(This speeds up BIOS functions)
 * HW_ROM_TO_RAM to ON

(Makes Idle detection a long time)
 * IDLE_SECONDS to 60

(this disables idle detection, so Falcon will always be checked to see if it needs CPU
 * IDLE_SENSITIVITY to 100

(We only plan to use the program with the 1 mouse pointer)
 * MOUSE_EXCLUSIVE_ACCESS to ON

(Saves memory by not allocating video buffer)
 * VIDEO_ONDEMAND_MEMORY to OFF

(Speeds processing by putting ROM in RAM)
 * VIDEO_ROM_EMULATION to ON

(Lets app know when switching to full screen mode)
 * VIDEO_SWITCH_NOTIFICATION to ON

Eliminates 8514 video buffer overhead)
 * VIDEO_8514_XGA_IOTRAP to OFF (Only for 8514 Cards)

(For mapping HMA)
 * XMS_HANDLES to 32

(Not using XMS memory)
 * XMS MEMORY_LIMIT to 0

(Any HMA request will be filled)
 * XMS_MINIMUM_HMA to 0

With these settings, you can expect to get a frame rate of roughly 70% of that of DOS (your mileage may vary). You will find that if you had memory manager problems before, OS/2 is much more stable and less likely to crash and burn.

If you have any comments, please feel free to address my CIS UID at 70031,435.

Eric Pinnell