Greetings All I have a few old computers lying around and decided it may be a good idea to network them up and make a little lan to play doom on, My questions are 1)What free version of DOS is capable of this, I have the free version of DR Dos somewhere 2) Is doom freeware yet, I have seen versions for download but none tell me if they are the shareware/freeware or warez(which i don't want), I read somewhere that i would need IPX as TCP/IP isnt supported, is this still true Just a further question, which Free dos is the best for old games, as I had problems a few years ago with the some old games and various flavours of DOS Thanks

The only versions of DooM available for download are Warez or else the legitimate shareware offering from iD. Suffice it to say that the full version is a larger download. You can still buy it from the manufacturer, or occasionally find it in bargain bins for a few dollars. The sourcecode is available, and has been used to develop improved versions of the game, but the main (WAD) file is still copyrighted. There is a project to create a freeware version of that file - ongoing I believe Never ever played it on alternative DOS, but you can try out the shareware version - if it runs without issue, so should the Full Version. You can get "The Official DooM FAQ" here Braccae tuae aperiuntur

FYI OPEN/DR DOS versions 7.01/7.02/7.03 are only FREE for non-commercial use and they still come with a full licence agreement. The only open source DOS is FreeDOS from www.freedos.org. As DOOM uses IPX/SX networking protocol DR DOS should suffice. DO NOT SHOOT THE MESSENGER

There are probably free versions of DOOM under Linux that play with TCPIP networking.

I would say not really - there are various 'source ports' for the executable, but like most of those kinds of games, there's a large data file comprising all of the level information, sprites, textures, music etc which is copyright protected. Linux may be free, but not everything that runs on it is. To be sure, it doesn't take much searching to find the (so-called) abandonware - but even Wolfenstein is still owned and sold by its creators.. as is DooM Braccae tuae aperiuntur