Re: Very old Linux native games on modern Linux

Posted on Today, 00:56

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by the3dfxdude

in Milliways

in Milliways

Can't say I've had many kernal panics or lib dependency issues. When I have it's been doing silly stuff like try to install applications from one distro to the other a few years apart. Xandros 2/3 pulls in the Debian Sarge archives and programs run just fine. Kernel panics usually indicate there is …

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Re: Why DOS died...

Posted on Today, 00:47

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by the3dfxdude

in Milliways

in Milliways

Hi again! While I can't exactly say why DOS (MS-DOS) "died", I perhaps can at least narrow it down to when MS decided to give up on it. It must have been between '93-'94 roughly. Because, in November of 1992, MS still released a major product for MS-DOS: VBDOS. Visual Basic for DOS 1.0 was not a …

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Re: Registering devices with microsoft

Posted on 2021-07-14, 22:43

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by the3dfxdude

in Milliways

in Milliways

I don't think I've ever registered or activated anything with microsoft. With 2001+ versions of their stuff, I either have used pre-installed, corporate/oem keys, or generally avoided their anti-consumer movements. It's actually pretty easy to do, and I'm not talking about pirating. I doubt that …

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Re: I wish I had discovered Windows ME sooner!

Posted on 2021-06-25, 20:45

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by the3dfxdude

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

ME's problem (standard intergenerational teething issues aside) is that it was an incremental, gap-filling release whose improvements were easily dismissed by contrast to the NT-based next gen that everybody knew was coming*. A quick wax, polish and tuning [ME] before swapping out the entire engine …

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Re: Would you be interested in an x86-based alternative to the Raspberry Pi, optimized for retro gaming?

Posted on 2021-06-19, 14:21

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by the3dfxdude

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Taking old designs and remaking them on a 7 nm process is cheap. What you're proposing requires re-designing old hardware, adding a CPU and GPU on the same die, and fitting it to a new process. It is EXPENSIVE. You can't just take a clawhammer core and a R350 GPU , die shrink them and then super …

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Re: Floppy Drive Head Knock

Posted on 2021-05-26, 20:17

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by the3dfxdude

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

On a good quality disk, formatted correctly on a good drive, you can use IMD and a scope. The formatted correctly is key. The disk must not have been formatted on a misaligned drive previously without being demagnitized completely and then formatted on a good drive. I've done alignment successfully …

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Re: Floppy Drive Head Knock

Posted on 2021-05-25, 19:56

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by the3dfxdude

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Oh, I think I have also done that. I think your drive is going to be fine, cause my drives are still working 😀

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Re: Floppy Drive Head Knock

Posted on 2021-05-25, 17:58

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by the3dfxdude

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just reading through, just trying to respond on the situation on knocking and alignment. I've only had it happen once I can remember. So there is a routine in the BIOS that calibrates the drive by moving the head all the way out (towards back of drive) looking for the track zero switch. There is a …

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Re: When publishers break software on purpose (Adobe in this case)

Posted on 2021-05-25, 17:28

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by the3dfxdude

in Milliways

in Milliways

That's also a good thing if you think about it. Consumerism means more job opportunities for people that decreases unemployment and increases economic growth. The more people have disposable income the more they spend. The more they spend the more the economy grows. It's a very basic presentation …

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Re: When publishers break software on purpose (Adobe in this case)

Posted on 2021-05-25, 17:16

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by the3dfxdude

in Milliways

in Milliways

Similar to my situation. My 8 years old fridge needed new gaskets. Nobody made them anymore, not even the manufacturer. Without it the fridge was useless and had to be replaced. So I bought an universal set of gaskets instead and made it fit my fridge. It works now. That's what you need to do with …

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Re: Oldest versions of Windows with SSE2/SSE3 support?

Posted on 2021-05-22, 15:08

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by the3dfxdude

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

The actual question is what software you plan on using that uses these extensions? If the software lists its requirement as Win2000 or WinXP, that is a pretty good clue what you should do :) If you are really meaning just 'what's the oldest OS', I mean yeah, the only benefit is whether it is aware …

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Re: What happens on a Hayes modem when ATDT; is dialed?

Posted on 2021-05-20, 14:49

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by the3dfxdude

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

You're thinking of just "ATD" which makes the modem attempt connecting without dialling (matched with ATA on the answering modem). ATD = dial without waiting for dialtone (number is optional) and connect ATDT = as above but wait for dial tone before dialling ATD(T); = begins dialling/connection but …

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Re: What happens on a Hayes modem when ATDT; is dialed?

Posted on 2021-05-19, 17:38

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by the3dfxdude

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

So my immediate interest in this question was thinking about what happened with ATDT;. I have this memory that I did something where I'd have the modem or myself pickup the line, wait for the dialtone to go away, and then have another modem in another part of the house pick up and answer. It was a …

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Re: What happens on a Hayes modem when ATDT; is dialed?

Posted on 2021-05-19, 04:43

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by the3dfxdude

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

I think ATD is supposed to initiate dialing and wait for something to respond for a handshake. So I am thinking it is supposed to say CONNECT or NO CARRIER. With the ; added, I guess it is supposed to return to a command state so it sort of makes sense that OK is returned.

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Re: Windows 3.1 max requirements

Posted on 2021-05-15, 00:05

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by the3dfxdude

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I remember somebody analyzing windows drivers for timing loop issues when run on faster machines. He found that even in Win3.1x it has a very similar issue to the k6 bug in Win95. It might be in a specific version, like Win3.1 or Win3.11 or WFW. But I can't remember the name of who did this, but it …

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Re: IBM EGA Adapter Repair Advice Needed

Posted on 2021-05-13, 16:26

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by the3dfxdude

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Interesting! I've done a little bit of searching but never came across any concrete examples of a production product that used the feature connector. What was it and what did it do? The IBM Infowindow touchscreen display (the original one, not the terminal computer). The feature connector was used …

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Re: IBM EGA Adapter Repair Advice Needed

Posted on 2021-05-13, 15:09

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by the3dfxdude

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So I'm wondering what is the use case for HPOL being anything other than positive, since (as far as I know) all compatible monitors at the time worked that way? "Future proofing", just like their extremely successful feature connector and dual RCA jacks? :) Actually... even though a feature is …

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Re: Videocard no signal

Posted on 2021-05-07, 15:05

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by the3dfxdude

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Going off your system, what we are saying is if the S3 805 is integrated properly, there is no ISA card I'd expect that could exceed that. So that's would be the best you can do. If you had other requirements than simply DOS games, then maybe the late model ISA windows accelerators, or boards with …

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Re: Videocard no signal

Posted on 2021-05-06, 20:35

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by the3dfxdude

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

So the onboard video, I suspected is VLB. I looked at the manual just shared, and it says it has the S3 86C805, which is VLB compatible. So without looking at the machine with it in front of me to see how it was integrated on the board, it may actually be better to stick with the onboard in this …

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Re: Why DOS died...

Posted on 2021-04-17, 14:53

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by the3dfxdude

in Milliways

in Milliways

DOS died because MS achieved dominance in the market due to the widespread PC adoption. And then they decided to kill it. MS-DOS 5 repaired the damage MS-DOS 4 was, and MS-DOS 6 was released because Windows & Windows NT as an OS was not ready by then so that became the last version. You can see in …

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