• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Progarms that can make use of expanded memory if it's available.

Caluser2000

Caluser2000

Banned
Joined
Jan 3, 2010
Messages
5,533
Location
New Zealand
The question of what programs can make use of expanded memory (EMS) seems to come up quite often. Some members have mentioned it would be nice to have a list of software that does.

I'll start with a few:

PC Geos- GeoWorks 1.x and its derivatives, Geoworks Ensemble 2.x and derivatives, New Deal Office (PC Geos 3.x).
EMS.jpg
Neopaint- Loads it's overlay file with the /E switch into expanded memory.
Quikmenu III- makes use of it when selecting a background image using the Modify menu.
 
Last edited:
Found a list possible candidates on the EMS Magic site http://www.emsmagic.com/

Borland C/C++
Borland Turbo Pascal
Borland Turbo Assembler & Debugger
Borland Quattro Pro
Locomotive Software LocoScript
Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus Works
Lotus Symphony
Microsoft QuickBASIC PDS
Microsoft QuickC
Microsoft Word for DOS
Microsoft Works for DOS
WordPerfect for DOS
Super Calc
The Grandest Fleet
Impulse Tracker 2.14
MathCAD 2.5
 
Caluser2000 said:
The question of what programs can make use of expanded memory (EMS) seems to come up quite often. Some members have mentioned it would be nice to have a list of software that does.
Click to expand...

There were hundreds if not thousands of programs that could use EMS 3.2 or 4.0 to some degree, so I'm not sure how practical such a list would be. Is the point of the list to determine if you need to install EMS or not? Installing or emulating EMS has hardly any downside, so it's usually a default configuration for me on any system I use. The only programs I know of that specifically don't work with EMS well are demos (demoscene demos, not game or application demos), and in those cases, an alternate config.sys can be swapped in to boot and run them.

Is the point of the list to note programs that require EMS? If so, it would be mostly games on the list, like Falcon 3.0.
 
Please see post one noting the can make use of EMS. It would appear at least some members have done extensive web searches looking for programs the make use of EMS only to come up short. Especially in relation to the addition of memory cards. Thanks for adding that.

Micro Pros Formula One Grand Prix is another that does.
 
Last edited:
There were a lot of programs that quietly used EMS as part of a storage hierarchy (I know; I wrote a couple myself). Usually, it went something like this:
  • Use all of available conventional memory.
  • Use EMS, if available
  • Use XMS, if available
  • Use hard disk
Many programs didn't advertise the fact; it was usually buried in documentation somewhere.
 
Both DesqView (on a 808x or 80286) and Windows/286 made heavy use of EMS for multitasking. A few Windows applications (notably Excel) used EMS 3.2 page frame to store extra data. DesqView used EEMS to backfill lower memory and quickly switch between applications. Windows/286 used the EMS 4.0 version of backfilling to store mutliple large applications plus would use EMS 4.0's extra page frames to shoein additional small bits of code at the same time. Loading TSRs and drivers high (in EMS) conflicted with Windows/286 desire to use that memory space.

I really don't miss EMS and the need to have multiple bootups with different configurations to get decent performance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top