Review: Virtual PC--PC DOS

 

Company: Connectix Corporation

Price: $69.95 List

Rating: Excellent for G3 PowerMacs, Good for Low-end PowerMacs.

The evaluation copy of Virtual PC--PC DOS (VPC-DOS) arrived from Connectix last Thursday. VPC-DOS is one of three Virtual PC products produced by Connectix. The first was VPC-Windows 95 and the second was VPC-Windows 3.11. Earlier, I did a brief review of VPC-Windows 95.

VPC-DOS includes just IBM's Personal Computer Disk Operating System, which it runs on a PC environment emulated on a PowerMac, and three games. It emulates an Intel Pentium with MMX and all the usual PC hardware including a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Pro sound card and a DEC 21041 Ethernet card. For printing, VPC produces Postscript and Epson LQ2500 (virtually all Mac printers) output data. This version of VPC does not include Windows 3.11 or 95 but either may be installed subsequently.

The minimal Mac configuration recommended by Connectix to run VPC-DOS is:

• Power Macintosh computer
• 100 MHz PowerPC CPU or faster
• Mac OS 7.5.5 or later
• 20 MB physical RAM
• 130 MB hard disk space
• CD ROM drive

Of course, more hard disk space and RAM are needed if either Windows 3.11 or 95 is installed over VPC-DOS.

Installation

No problem, nothing could be easier. I made a 500 MB partition for VPC-DOS on my hard drive but you don't have to. Just pop the CD in the CD-ROM drive, double-click on the installer, agree to the license, select the drive where you want it, select Easy Install, click Install and it quickly installs Virtual PC and PC DOS without further attention in its own folder. Click Quit. Then open the Virtual PC folder, make an alias of the VPC icon and place where you launch applications from. Finally, create an empty folder called "Shared Folder" in the VPC folder.

If you get an error message that there isn't enough disk space, you can use the Custom Install to select the minimal installation (~145 MB instead of ~275 MB). If you encounter this situation, you'll be pretty limited in what you can use with VPC-DOS especially if you plan to install Windows later. The recommendation would be to free up disk space or get a bigger hard disk while they're cheap.

Configuring VPC-DOS is simple. If already launched, use the Command key and mouse to select Preferences from the Edit menu to get the Settings window. The Settings window can be accessed during launch by pressing the Option key.

Usually there are only three things that need setting:

Select the "D Drive" and make one if you plan to load a lot of software or install a version of Windows later--it should be large enough to accommodate most of your software if you plan to install Windows.

Select Shared Folders and navigate to the one you created in the VPC folder and select it as the "F Drive". Be sure to check "Share Every Time" so that this connection doesn't have to be made each time VPC is launched. This creates the window to pass things from the Mac side to the PC side and back again.

Select COM 1 Port and set it up to use the modem port by selecting the serial port with modem in the popup window.

For the most part, that's it.

Use

VPC-DOS comes with three games. That's its strength. Games can be run on VPC-DOS without the cost and overhead of an operating system beyond PC DOS. The VPC versions with either Windows OS costs roughly double that of VPC-DOS.

The three games that come with VPC-DOS are:

The Need for Speed SE

Madden Football, Limited Edition

PGA Tour 96

None is the latest version and two are not full versions. Nevertheless, the games are not demos or severely limited.

I tried out the three games on "four different" computers: a 7100/80, a PowerBase 180, a PowerBase PLPF G3 ~233 (PowerLogix PowerForce G3 250 card set at 266 MHz CPU/48.36 MHz bus/512K backside cache operating at 2:1 CPU-to-cache ratio) and a PowerBase PLPF G3 250 (same card set at 292 MHz CPU/45 MHz bus/1 MB backside cache/ 1:1 CPU-to-cache ratio). Table 1. shows the results:

Table 1. Times in seconds for Games (average of 3 tries)

Action	"Computer"
	7100/80	PowerBase 180	PB PLPF G3 ~233	PB PLPF G3 250
Launch VPC	25	9	8	7
Load Madden	162	80	62	62
Initiate Madden	Failed	23	15	14
Load NFS	n/a	155	124	124
Load PGA96	n/a	35	30	30

• Launch VPC measured from double-clicking the VPC icon to the appearance of the C prompt.
• Load Madden measured from return to completed selection screen (can be sped up by clicking mouse).
• Initiate Madden measured from clicking play until game sound begins.
• Load NFS (Need for Speed) from return to selection screen (can be sped up by clicking mouse).
• Load PGA96 measured from return to selection screen.

First, the minimum specifications are at least that with regard to games. The 7100/80 was not up to the task. It proceeded through loading Madden Football on virtually a frame-by-frame basis and failed three times to begin a football game after the specifications were entered. No other games were attempted due to the time and disk space (I had to do a minimal install to fit it on my hard drive) needed but PGA96 might be marginally acceptable due to its minimal video motion requirements. Nevertheless, there are DOS-based programs, including some games, that are not highly video-motion oriented that may run just fine.

Motion on the PowerBase 180 in Madden Football and Need for Speed was a bit more jerky that I care for. However, except for my poor ability to steer computerized race cars in any such game, I think either game would be minimally acceptable if I really wanted to play them. PGA 96 was relatively smooth in club and ball action and therefore perfectly acceptable. It seems that the PowerBase 180 (and I have 512K L2 cache and MathLib from Motorola installed) is really the minimal machine for any game with high video motion.

I reinstalled the PowerLogix PowerForce G3 250 CPU card in my PowerBase 180 (here's my review of this marvelous CPU card) and set it to mimic the announced specifications of the soon-to-be-shipping PowerForce G3 233 CPU card from PowerLogix (and possibly NewerTECH's MAXpowr G3 PowerBase) for under $1,000, i.e. 512K of backside cache running at a 2:1 CPU:cache ratio with the CPU accelerated to 266 MHz and the system bus at 48.36 MHz. Application and game launch and load times dropped dramatically, probably very near the absolute limit. Play in Madden Football and The Need for Speed was very smooth with a minor improvement over the PowerBase 180 for an already acceptable PGA96.

Then, I set the PowerForce 250 to its maximum stable settings, i.e. CPU at 292 MHz, system bus at 45 MHz, 1 MB backside cache running at a 1:1 ratio. Launch and load times were slightly faster than the G3 ~233 but rarely measurable beyond a second advantage. Play and other motion were absolutely seamless--not much else to say.

I also installed Windows 95 and Microsoft Works from my PC over VPC-DOS with the PowerForce card set for maximum performance. Both installed without a hitch just like on any PC and without any speed penalty that I could determine, having done this many times on PC's. I then compared this configuration with my VPC-Windows 95 installation. Table 2. shows the results:

Table 2. -- Launch Times in Seconds (average of 3 tries)

Benchmark	VPC-DOS w/Win 95	VPC-Windows 95
Until Windows 95 tones	29	47
Until hourglass disappears	34	56

Windows 95 installed over VPC-DOS launches much faster that the companion Connectix product VPC-Windows 95. This is at least in part because I chose a typical installation for Windows 95 and the pre-packaged version has a more complete installation. The Windows directory for VPC-DOS shows 107 files using 3.6 MB while that for VPC-Windows 95 has 216 files using 13.1 MB. It is an apples and oranges comparison but there is no deficiency in approaching a Windows 95 installation on your Mac via VPC-DOS. Who would want to do this? People who already have a licensed version of Windows 95 or 3.11, of course, since VPC-DOS costs around $70 and VPC-Windows 95 or 3.11 around $125-150.

Conclusions

Virtual PC with PC DOS is an excellent product. It is very easy to install, configure and use. Installing and running games (or any applications for that matter) that run on DOS without the need for Windows take much less time to launch and use. Low-end PowerMacs (nubus systems through 6400's and stock PowerBases) can use DOS applications but those that have fast motion video can not be used at the lower end and will be a bit jerky at the higher end. I give VPC-DOS for these systems a generally good rating overall.

Virtual PC really shines on a PowerMac with a G3 central processor. The PowerLogix PowerForce G3 250 CPU daughtercard and Virtual PC were made for one another for running PC applications on a Mac, high or low end. The games I tried seem to work at their speed limits and the action was very smooth, seemingly seamless. Unfortunately, I do not have a PC game library to try some of the more recent high motion hits like Duke Nukem. The sound was not always perfect and this kept me from giving the product the highest possible rating--I rate VPC-DOS to be excellent overall for computers with G3 CPU's. The really good news for PowerBase owners and possibly UMAX C-series owners is that I expect that the upcoming G3 CPU cards from PowerLogix and NewerTECH for these low-end PCI PowerPC computers will run PC programs extremely well.

The material Connectix enclosed with the evaluation copy mentions that since Virtual PC emulates standard PC chips and BIOS, that one should be able to install and use IBM's OS/2, Windows NT and even NeXT''s ... er, Apple's OpenStep operating systems just like Windows 95. While not specifically tuned for these other operating systems, this feature will permit one to keep up with PC operating system evolution without having to buy another Virtual PC upgrade.

At $69.95 list, I consider Virtual PC with PC DOS to be a bargain and an must-have tool for anyone who must run PC programs.

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Copyright © 1997 by Bill Fox.
All rights reserved--no commercial use permitted without attribution.

Of course . . . . . . and I am proud to be an Evangelista! . . .