I have a complete GRiD software development environment that runs under InteGRiD, which is an 8086 VM that runs GRiD Compass Computer Operating System (CCOS) and its software. This environment works very well on real hardware (anything pre-VGA), but DosBox refuses to run it, would like to know why? …

The first version of #FujiNet for #MSDOS (#IBMPC) based on #RS232 is now in master, based on the #Atari8bit SIO implementation, with pins mapped to RS232 equivalents. Waiting on hardware to hammer out the host side. Pulled in here: https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-platformio/pull/508 # …

Yes, actually. The 400 line mode is the same as the 6300/M24 and the Toshiba T3x00/5x00 laptops, and InteGRiD supports it, directly. -Thom

Well, I had to test the development environment, somehow! (apologies for the audio, new filter chain, and I only had time to record this ONCE) As part of @Ian Fi and myself rebuilding the GRiD Development Environment from batches of GRiD server hard drives, I needed something to test that the …

(this is being posted to several places, so some context is given) Am currently debugging a replacement for a hard drive setup in a GRiDCASE 1530. (an 80386 laptop, running MS-DOS). It uses a Phoenix BIOS dated 10/25/89, and does not have a ROM setup program, but rather automatically configures …

Hi. I am restoring a fleet of GRiDCASE computers, and am trying to get some documentation on directly querying drive geometry, so that a patched BIOS (which bypasses GRiD's strict drive check) can be made to fit a DOM or other solid state media. Is there a good reference? Just need registers and …

The #MINDSET's BLITTER can also be used for fast text output of a custom font at any pixel position. It took me a significant amount of time to figure out how the SET FONT POINTER and BLT STRING routines worked, because the documentation left out very critical details, and my initial assumptions …

I figured out in a nutshell what's going on: The fonts aren't monochrome, they have to be in the target graphics mode format, which in my case is 320x200x16 and the pixels are arranged thusly: 7---4 3---0 XXXX YYYY where X and Y are palette indices (0-F), so two pixels of color F are 0xFF And the …

Ok, the one remaining buggerboo in the graphics library is trying to call BLT STRING to output custom font data. It's described here: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/mindset/Mindset_Software_Developers_Guide.pdf page 4-70 for SET FONT POINTER page 4-73 for BLT STRING and the code I am doing to exercise …

Here is a completed "Scene" doing blitter animation, based on the PAC-MAN intermissions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE8ieFNSpJM Code is here: https://github.com/tschak909/mindset-examples/blob/master/pacman-cutscene/main.c Note that it has no problem moving big blits nice and smoothly. :) -Thom

MAME rom sets for latest release can be found with a bit of sleuthing. the machine driver is 'mindset' Right now, the best way to get any of this working is to check out a copy of MAME from git, and build it yourself. -Thom

As I said, the Mindset emulation is complete enough that I am actually able to do real development work with it. The only currently majorly missing feature is sound (and support for the interlaced modes) -Thom

The #MINDSET can attach a handler to the display interrupt, on one of any scanline on screen. This allows a nice 60Hz timing for handling sound or animation. Shown here is a simple demo that changes the color palette for one color palette entry every 1/60th of a second. vbi.gif The code is here: …

All sorts of useful info here: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/mindset/Mindset_Software_Developers_Guide.pdf The entire graphics subsystem is explained in chapter 4. Some modes are double buffered (the 2 and 4 color modes for 320x200 and 640x200.. the interlaced 640x400 mode does not have such an …

Believe me, I know. I've been knee deep in virtually everything about this system, for a bit now.. ;) I'm trying to both document this machine to a wider audience (Demos are BEGGING to be written for this system), and try to show how little this machine was actually explored. The vast majority of …

oh wow *smack-head* thanks 😀 I've been writing a whole host of test programs trying to document the hardware, and I guess I've just been at the keyboard too long 😀 Here it is running on actual hardware: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6G7HrCC3cI Keep in mind, the CPU is a 6MHz 80186. 😉 -Thom

Hello everyone, I've recently borrowed a Mindset computer, for the purpose of writing new software for it, and am writing it in Watcom C 1.9. Currently set to generate 80186 instructions, with texan optimizations. Thus far, I have brought up a copy of PLATOTERM on the system: https://www.youtube.com …