Re: Best CGA & Hercules games

Posted on 2020-03-28, 11:28

by

by digger

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

By doing proper programming, the HGC was able to run in 640x400 pels also. Same as the hi-res CGA did in the Olivetti M24 and similar computers. That screenshot is 640x400 - so it must be using the undocumented 640x400 interlaced mode. Fascinating, I didn't know there was some software actually …

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Re: DOSBOX eating up CPU

Posted on 2020-03-23, 02:12

by

by digger

in DOSBox General

in DOSBox General

KVM/VTx would not be awesome for DOSBox. Can you or someone else please elaborate on that? How could emulating a CPU in software ever be faster or more efficient than running the code natively, having to emulate only the I/O stuff (graphics, sound) instead? Yes, I am aware that eventually in a post …

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Re: DreamBlaster S2P : Small form factor General MIDI on parallel port

Posted on 2020-03-22, 23:02

by

by digger

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Also, the serial port competes with many other peripherals that could be useful for gaming whereas the LPT is basically redundant and always available. Also, I previously described a way to connect up to 256 ports to a single LPT. If you put two 8-bit latches on there, you can use one for address …

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Re: TNDLPT : Tandy Sound on parallel port

Posted on 2020-03-22, 22:51

by

by digger

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

So many wonderful retro sound devices, so few parallel ports. 😅 Great work, man.

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Re: QEMU 3Dfx Glide Pass-Through (WHPX/KVM works!!!)

Posted on 2020-03-22, 22:42

by

by digger

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

I just realised that HAXM (unlike WHPX) is open source. So there is nothing that could stop its developement. Yeah, but given how it's developed and maintained by Intel, it likely won't be an option for the growing percentage of AMD users any time soon. It would be nice if somebody finally forked …

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Re: The year is 1990 and you still have a PC/XT and can't upgrade. Which games are you playing?

Posted on 2020-03-21, 13:46

by

by digger

in Milliways

in Milliways

Every Sierra EGA SCI and AGI based adventure. Around that time, I was playing games on an XT-class machine that only supported CGA graphics in games. Necessity being the mother of invention, the limitations of that machine forced me to get creative. For instance, I eventually figured out how I …

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Re: RTVGA 8 bits on PC/104 socket and converter to ISA with MonochromeVGA

Posted on 2020-03-21, 13:17

by

by digger

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Interesting. So why will NUXT v2.0 have a PC/104 slot/socket for graphics cards as opposed to an extra standard 8-bit ISA slot? Is it perhaps because 8-bit compatible VGA cards with PC/104 interfaces are still being manufactured and sold due to demand for industrial/embedded systems?

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Re: A new covid lockdown project - help if you can

Posted on 2020-03-21, 13:04

by

by digger

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm glad you live close to your mother. Great respect for taking good care of her. I wish you both well in these uncertain times. And everyone else in this forum and their loved ones too!

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Re: dosbox-staging (DOSBox Git repo)

Posted on 2020-03-13, 08:38

by

by digger

in DOSBox Patches

in DOSBox Patches

Wildly inaccurate. The only time GUS is picked for PCM playback is for demos that use it exclusively. Otherwise nobody would choose it over Sound Blaster when the latter has much better support and far more stable emulation. There is of course the special case of games that have MOD tracker music …

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Re: QEMU 3Dfx Glide Pass-Through (WHPX/KVM works!!!)

Posted on 2020-03-13, 08:17

by

by digger

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

kjliew said something that i386 may be faster as it doesn't have to emulate 64bit instructions. Instructions aren't emulated when QEMU is paired with a hypervisor such as KVM or HAXM. This would only potentially be an issue when running an x86 guest on a non-x86 host, such as ARM or POWER9. That …

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Re: KVM(QEMU) Win98 videocard passthrough.I finally got it working- with full 3D API support Quake III 1600x1200 90+ FPS

Posted on 2020-03-07, 01:21

by

by digger

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

Good job. Although I like the nostalgia of genuine retro hardware, I agree with your philosophy that ultimately the best way to preserve and enjoy retro games for ourselves and for future generations is through modern technologies, such as emulation, virtualization and FPGAs. As cool as passing …

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Re: Video Emulation on VGA?

Posted on 2020-03-03, 07:50

by

by digger

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If a game uses the default EGA palette then it's exactly the same 16 colors (as CGA text modes) so a nice conversion is possible. The extended EGA palettes were only available in 640x350 mode. This was to maintain downward compatibility with CGA monitors in the lower graphics modes. Since the AGI …

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Re: PCI sound cards and Chipsets from various manufacturers...

Posted on 2020-03-02, 23:10

by

by digger

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I only made a vanilla SB16 work which only needs 220/330/388 to function but if it was an AWE32 you can forget the EMU8000 part since it would be inaccessible. That alone is an amazing accomplishment! 😃 Getting a SB16 to work fully on modern motherboards would make AWE32 support less relevant, …

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Re: PCI sound cards and Chipsets from various manufacturers...

Posted on 2020-03-02, 20:18

by

by digger

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

That, or just plug in an old VGA card with good legacy VBE/VGA/EGA support in a PCI slot (with a PCIe to PCI adapter if necessary) and pass that card through to the DOS VM. 🙂 You could even keep your shiny modern TFT monitor connected to your primary modern graphics card and hook an old CRT monitor …

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Re: PCI sound cards and Chipsets from various manufacturers...

Posted on 2020-03-02, 19:31

by

by digger

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Also we can expect removing CSM from UEFI and other legacy purification, maybe soon removing of real and V86 mode. So it's question how long will be possible to run DOS on real HW and if it will take effort for all sort of hacks instead of just improving virtualizers to better emulate SB and SVGA. …

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Re: Question about Sierra's EGA640.DRV dithering

Posted on 2020-03-02, 17:32

by

by digger

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Apparently the ATI Graphics Solution supports a 640x200x16 graphics mode as well. Re: Video Emulation on VGA?

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Re: Video Emulation on VGA?

Posted on 2020-03-02, 17:28

by

by digger

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Cool. 🙂 That means someone could theoretically write an "AGS640.DLL" driver to make the ATI Graphics Solution work through dithering with 256-color Sierra SCI adventure games. See Question about Sierra's EGA640.DRV dithering

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Re: Faux86 - an 8086 emulator for Raspberry Pi that runs bare metal

Posted on 2020-03-02, 07:07

by

by digger

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

An interesting solution, albeit a bit pricey.

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Re: Video Emulation on VGA?

Posted on 2020-03-01, 23:15

by

by digger

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Actually, one notable difference between Tandy graphics (and PCjr graphics, on which it is based) on the one hand and CGA and Plantronics Colorplus on the other hand, is that the former used part of the system's conventional RAM as shared video memory, whereas the latter had separate discrete video …

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Re: PCI sound cards and Chipsets from various manufacturers...

Posted on 2020-03-01, 18:01

by

by digger

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Cool. So since the LPC spec doesn't define a standard connector, would it make sense to establish such a standard "LPC connector" for the tinkering community at this point? One that mandates that optional LPC features required for full ISA compatibility (LDRQ#, SERIRQ) to be implemented? With such a …

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