Chris,(posted 9304 days ago)You should have no problems getting Mame "DOS" version running in a "DOS Box" under Windows 98. I know of at least one person running in this way without any problems. You probably want to persevere with the different switch settings for soundcard and video etc to find a combination that works for you. Likewise I always run the Mame "DOS" version in a "DOS Box" under Windows95 and have no problems either.
To recap then, it's not that Mame "DOS" version won't run under a Win98 "DOS Box" it's just that you haven't found the right settings to run it with yet.
Best of luck - and remember it will run faster for most games than Mame32 once you get the DOS version running - especially if you use an Assembler core version of Mame. :-)
BeeJay.