Owen's FreeGEM Distribution

Owen's FreeGEM Distribution 1.2 has been released! Thanks for your interest in my FreeGEM distribution. It contains:

• FreeGEM Desktop 20000826 (26/8/2000)
  AUTHOR: Ben. A. L. Jemmett
  The latest release of the Desktop. (NOTE: A few minor modifications were made to the version included in my distribution, which is why the version number is 20001113/OCR in the About dialog)
• FreeGEM VDI
  AUTHOR: Eathan Clark
  The latest release of the VDI/GDOS, the part of FreeGEM that handles the screen drivers and lets you boot GEM. Similar to a combined Windows GDI.EXE and WIN.COM.
• FreeGEM AES
  AUTHOR: John Elliott
  The latest release of the AES. The AES is like the Windows kernel and USER library rolled into one. It handles all the main jobs and draws the buttons, windows and so on.
• FreeGEM Output
  AUTHOR: Owen Rudge
  The latest version of Output (build 20010102). See my Output page for more information.
• GDScript 2.0
  AUTHOR: Heinz Rath
  A full scripting language for GEM. Nearly all the samples that were provided with the full GDScript package are included in this version.
• GEM Sound Drivers 0.4
  AUTHOR: Heinz Rath
  The latest versions of the sound drivers for the Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Blaster 16 and CS4235 cards.
• Most of the GEM Video Drivers
  This release contains most GEM/3 video drivers, including CGA, EGA, VGA, SVGA and Hercules.
• Owen's FreeGEM Setup 1.2
  AUTHOR: Owen Rudge
  A greatly improved version of my first Setup program. Written from the ground up in QuickBasic, and much less buggy than the first, graphical, version. The latest version includes a nice progress bar and modular installation options.

Some other applications are included in this release. These are:

• FreeGEM Doodle
  A simple doodling program for GEM. Supports saving and loading pictures.
• GEM Draw Plus 2.0
  An advanced drawing package for GEM. Artline 2 is available for download, which is much better than Draw Plus.
• GEM Tetris
  AUTHORS: R. Grothmann and Thothy Huth
  A GEM version of the classic game.
• GEM MIDI Player
  A MIDI player for GEM.
• GEMP3 1.3
  An MP3 player for GEM. Requires a 486 or better processor.
  NOTE: If you download my FreeGEM Distribution and want to use GEMP3, it is recommended you download GEMP3 2.2.

I have compressed some of the executables with PKLite to make them smaller. (They still take the same amount of memory up). This has reduced the size of some programs by a half and more.

Minimum System Requirements

• DOS 2.0 (or compatible) or higher
• XT PC with an 8086 or better processor
• 256kb free memory (not total, DOS uses some)
• EGA, VGA, SVGA, MVGA, Hercules or ATT video card
• About 1.3mb of hard disk space (full install). GEM will run off floppy disks, but my distribution is not designed for this.

For GEMP3:

• 80486 processor or better
• At least 2mb of extended memory

Recommended System Requirements

• DOS 3.2 or higher
• A 386 or better processor
• 640kb total memory
• VGA or better video card
• Over 2mb of free hard disk space
• A mouse

For GEMP3:

• Pentium processor or better
• At least 4mb of extended memory

Download

You can download my FreeGEM distribution here (1.34MB). Please send any comments you have on FreeGEM to me here.

Other available video drivers

I have discovered a load more video drivers on a web site. A list of some of them are here:

• Everex Ultragraphics EV235
  Resolutions:
  1664x1200 at 20 point
  1664x1200 at 10 point
  1280x1200 at 10 point
• ATI EGA/VGA Wondor, EGA 800 and VIP adapters
  Resolutions:
  800x480 for EGA Wondor and EGA 800
  752x410 for EGA Wondor and EGA 800
  800x560 for EGA Wondor, EGA 800 and VIP
  800x600 for VGA Wondor
• S3 Carrera 86C911
  Binar Graphics IBM 8514/A
  16 colour driver
• Cirrus Logic VGA 16 colour drivers
  Resolutions:
  800x600 and 1024x768
• ATI EGA Wonder adapter with an NEC MultiSync monitor
  Resolutions:
  640x480, 752x410 and 800x560
• Everex EV-657, EV-659 and EV-673
  Everex Extended EGA Driver in 16 colours
  Resolutions:
  800x600, 752x410 and 640x480

The video drivers mentioned above were originally gathered from http://www.technician.connectfree.co.uk/pub/gem/. This site has been shut down, and unfortunately FreeGEM.org.uk, which then housed the GEM-related files, has also disappeared. If I can manage to get my hands on the files again, I'll mirror them somewhere.

You may also be interested in John Elliott's GEM Drivers page.

Bug Alert! (only affects version 1.1 of my distribution)

I have discovered a bug in the VDI which means that video drivers in GEMSYS.CFG with a number of 10 or higher don't work. If you receive a 'Driver not found' message when trying to run FreeGEM, open GEMAPPS\GEMSYS\GEMSYS.CFG with a text editor. There will be a line that says CurrentDrv=n. Find the driver called Drivern=. A description the same as the one in Setup will appear, then a name such as SDPSC8.VGA. Replace the number with a letter, such as A. Then change the CurrentDrv line to CurrentDrv=A. I have seen that GEM works fine like this, but it may cause problems with configuration tools. If you have trouble using one of these tools, delete or comment out (start the line with ;) a driver with a lower number that you know you won't use (for example, CGA) and change the driver you use to this old driver's number, and change the CurrentDrv value accordingly. This is a bug in the GEM VDI. To fix the bug, either do the above or download my FreeGEM Distribution 1.2 (recommended).

Please note that the authors mentioned above do not include the original Digital Research authors.

FREEGEM COPYRIGHTS
Desktop/AES/VDI: Copyright © 1985-1988 Digital Research, Inc. Copyright © 1999 Caldera Thin Clients, Inc. Copyright © 1999-2000 FreeGEM Programmers. Output: Same as above, plus Copyright © 2000 Owen Rudge. GDScript/Sound Drivers: Copyright © 2000 Heinz Rath. Doodle: Copyright © 1985/1987 Digital Research, Inc. Draw: Copyright © 1985 Digital Research, Inc. Tetris: Written by R. Grothmann and Thothy Huth. GEMP3: Copyright © Owen Rudge 2000. Uses DJGPP, Allegro and LibAmp.