Re: What was the first computer you ever purchased?

Posted on 2020-05-29, 22:44

by

by jesolo

in Milliways

in Milliways

My first PC was also a custom build computer that I bought in late 1993: CPU: Cyrix 486DLC-40 with its math co-processor Motherboard: I initially got it with some unknown 386 motherboard, but that one died within a year and the seller swopped it out for me (luckily still under warranty) for a hybrid …

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Re: NOT enough memory to play DOS games ?

Posted on 2020-05-24, 11:05

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by jesolo

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

I'm assuming that your DOS game is not a protected mode game (using a DOS extender like DOS 4G/W), but a real mode game? Both games you mentioned are real mode games. I can already see you do not have enough conventional memory available. You need to load DOS High and also load EMM386.EXE (if your …

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Re: K6-2 550 and Voodoo 3 2000 AGP performance..

Posted on 2020-05-16, 12:57

by

by jesolo

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

To uninstall the VIA 4in1 drivers is easy - just go to Add/Remove Programs under Control Panel. Then, do a complete reboot and install the Via 4in1 4.43 drivers. To be honest, I've never tried the Amigamerlin drivers - my understanding is that these are installed via the Device Manager? If so, just …

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Re: K6-2 550 and Voodoo 3 2000 AGP performance..

Posted on 2020-05-16, 11:59

by

by jesolo

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Try installing the VIA 4in1 version 4.43 chipset drivers instead. First completely uninstall the 5.24a drivers. I recall a thread on Vogons a while back where someone tested the different versions on the different VIA chipsets and some did show better performance than others. Also, since you're …

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Re: Windows 1.0

Posted on 2020-05-03, 18:41

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by jesolo

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

WBM1992 wrote on 2020-05-03, 18:13: What Virtual Machines does Windows 1.0 work on? You could try PCem emulating perhaps a Turbo XT running at 8 MHz or a slow 286 running at either 6 Mhz or 8 MHz with 1 MB RAM for the latter.

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Re: Upgrading an old PC -- Recommendations for a Newbie

Posted on 2020-05-03, 11:30

by

by jesolo

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Without looking at any online documentation and, based on what you stated, I strongly doubt that this motherboard (being a Socket 5) will support a standard Pentium MMX (P55C) CPU. The reason being is that a P55C CPU is a dual voltage CPU and, to my knowledge, there were no Socket 5 motherboards …

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Re: Windows 1.0

Posted on 2020-05-02, 23:07

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by jesolo

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

Some tips for installing Windows 1 (from a well known source): Installation notes: The installer expects you to run it from the A: drive. Either write the images to disks or SUBST from a hard drive folder. Windows 1.x will run on DOS 5 and later as long as SETVER is loaded and there is a SETVER …

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Re: VGA BIOS exists in motherboard ROM when there's no onboard video?

Posted on 2020-05-02, 22:51

by

by jesolo

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

One possibility is that the same BIOS was also used in a similar model that actually had a Cirrus Logic CL-GD542X chipset on-board. In the case of your motherboard, that part of the BIOS setup menu is perhaps just disabled, since there isn't an on-board VGA graphics card.

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Re: What's wrong with all these sound cards???

Posted on 2020-05-01, 13:42

by

by jesolo

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Based on your system specifications, I would have to say that your system is actually too "modern" for playing DOS games. If you intend on playing DOS games, then a Pentium III or AMD K6-2 (with ISA slots) is probably a better option. Alternatively, try perhaps looking at emulators. PCem, Dosbox & …

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Re: Best CPU for high end 1995 486 build?

Posted on 2020-04-30, 23:59

by

by jesolo

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Speaking from personal experience, I actually bought my very first computer towards the end of 1993 - earlier that year, as I recall, some factory in Taiwan burned down and memory prices went through the roof. It was at Sumitomo Chemical in Japan. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-08- …

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Re: Best CPU for high end 1995 486 build?

Posted on 2020-04-30, 23:42

by

by jesolo

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Do you remember any details about the factory which burnt down? I've been trying to find a news article about it without any luck so far. Unfortunately, that's all I can recall, but I think it happened sometime in the middle of 1993. It's just one of those things that stuck in my mind, because the …

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Re: Best CPU for high end 1995 486 build?

Posted on 2020-04-30, 22:54

by

by jesolo

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

He said he already has a Pentium computer. So it all depends on his motherboard if it can support 5x86 CPU. Back in 1993 computer companies where sell this build as a multimedia computer but it was under powered. 486dx-33 4mb ram 64kb. Cache. ISA motherboard Sound blaster 16 or Media Vision PAS16 …

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Re: Best CPU for high end 1995 486 build?

Posted on 2020-04-30, 19:03

by

by jesolo

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This might make for some interesting reading material: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=28470 I do agree that, for a 486, floating point performance should not really be a deciding factor. From a gaming perspective, very few games (that could run satisfactory on a 486) made use of the FPU …

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Re: Windows XP Home Edition OEM, I have the product key but no CD.

Posted on 2020-04-28, 14:33

by

by jesolo

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Unfortunately, Microsoft never made these available for download to consumers. Your best option is to just download it from someplace else - archive.org might have some copies.

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Re: Windows NT 3/4 vs. Windows 3.1/9x or OS/2

Posted on 2020-04-27, 14:25

by

by jesolo

in Milliways

in Milliways

The first time I was exposed to Windows NT, was one day at my mother's work (a travel agency) in the mid-90's where one of the workstations were running Windows NT 3.51 and I had to sort out some connectivity issue (think it was with a mouse). However, since it looked just like Windows 3.1 (in terms …

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Re: Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Wheel gameport version on DOS

Posted on 2020-04-26, 22:56

by

by jesolo

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You can, however, try to run your DOS game from a DOS Prompt within Windows. Provided the game runs fine like this (most late era DOS games do), it should then work with the wheel. However, if the game wasn't written to support any gaming wheels, I'm not quite sure how it will react to inputs …

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Re: Seeking clarification on hardware requirements for setting up MT-32

Posted on 2020-04-26, 09:51

by

by jesolo

in MT-32 General

in MT-32 General

I have been unable to get Gabriel Knight GM working in DOS without SoftMPU in the past for whatever reason that may have been but instances where a dumb midi interface wont work do exist, possibly platform and/or sound card değendent though.. That is interesting - Gabriel Knight ran on Sierra's SCI …

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Re: Seeking clarification on hardware requirements for setting up MT-32

Posted on 2020-04-25, 23:45

by

by jesolo

in MT-32 General

in MT-32 General

I'm not going into the whole history of MIDI on computers and how the MT-32 came to be one of the choices for in game music, nor am I going to elaborate much on the differences between real (or intelligent) mode vs dumb (or UART) mode MPU-401 MIDI interfaces (you can read up about that on Wikipedia …

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Re: I'm new here, from South Africa, ask me anything

Posted on 2020-04-25, 00:37

by

by jesolo

in Milliways

in Milliways

Thanks - I saw but can't reply :) Unfortunately I don't really do the whole Facebook thing. Neither do I - I'm actually mainly on Facebook to connect with my fellow vintage computer (& game console) enthusiasts that are spread all over South Africa. There are a number of us based in Cape Town & and …

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Re: I'm new here, from South Africa, ask me anything

Posted on 2020-04-22, 11:33

by

by jesolo

in Milliways

in Milliways

Welcome! What's the retro computing / gaming scene like in South Africa? Thanks :) The scene here is relatively small. Those that have don't sell easily, so finding hardware is also incredibly difficult - anything older than 10-15 almost always needs to be imported. Popped you a private message - …

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