klem kedidelhopper wrote:
This incompatibility issue between one era and another
really ****es me off.

Get over it.
It's a fact of life if you choose to live in M$'s realm.

Some of us just live a simple life
and really only just need the basics for certain things.

Take a look at Linux e.g.
where M$ has gone thru multiple scripting memes over the years
(batch files, VisualBasic, PowerScript),
bash (Bourne Again SHell) has remained consistent since 1979.

But they've managed to engineer it
so that nothing old will work with anything new anymore.

You use the word "engineer" awfully loosely.
MSFT is run by salesmen.

This is no accident I'm convinced.

Duh. It's called "The MSFT business model".
How will Redmond make **more** money
if you don't buy their latest craptastic wares?

What puzzles me though is that
It seems like I've done this before.

Only if the disk was FAT16.

I know that I've used 98 with 6.2 on the same computer,

Lose95 has been mentioned.
I'll bet that was what was on that setup (FAT16).

[...]I went to a Dos prompt from 98?

*Don't* just shell out to an invocation of COMMAND.COM.
If you're going to run a DOS app, run it under *real* DOS:
**Start** in DOS (Don't allow WIN.COM to run).