MSDOS (probably most DOS flavors) is limited to accessing 1MB of system memory. The base memory is even less at 640K with another 384K reserved for system functions. With a clever hack, MSDOS can access and additional 32MB! The main driver behind EMS was Lotus who was keen to get as much extra memory as possible to run large spreadsheet applications.

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▬▬▬▬ Timestamps ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
00:00 Setup with 1MB memory
02:37 8086 preview
04:33 Default memory configuration
07:40 The Elder Scrolls: Arena requires EMS
09:30 How EMS works
11:00 Turbo EMS installation
18:24 Happy days: EMS memory
21:38 Trying TES: Arena with Turbo EMS
27:50 Upgrade to 4MB
31:15 Moving the Page Frame
39:00 Replace Turbo EMS with HIMEM and EMM386
42:10 TES: Arena finally works