Re: Windows 3.11 Ultimate Build

Posted on 2022-05-09, 08:55

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

I didn't even realise they were still bundling Compton in the PII era. I don't think I've used any CD-ROM encyclopedias made after 1995. But I seem to remember some of the later editions required juggling dozens of CDs. I don't think I ever looked up 'China' on my grolier discs. I'll have to check …

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Re: Advice on a best early Sierra (Space Quest, Kings Quest, Police Quest) era build?

Posted on 2022-05-09, 01:08

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you're talking early Sierra, then you mean games using AGI. Those are technically CGA (or whatever you call the PCjr mode), though I think there were patches or re-releases to make them work on EGA/VGA with the 16 colours. For those you want an 808x or slow 286. For me the best way to enjoy them …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2022-05-08, 01:34

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

No. I have one at AVICC. I normally go visit my parents every 2 years (and pick up my packages), but it's already been almost 4.5 years since my last visit due to the pandemic. I gave up on international shipping to China, because it's a pain in the arse to receive packages. I have to spend an …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2022-05-07, 14:57

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

NEC D9008D FPU arrived today. https://www.petershipkov.com/temp/retro_pc_images/components/fpu_8087_nec_d9008d.jpg Unfortunately it does not get recognized by the beast XT machine. Can be a BIOS problem. Can be something on signal level. Regardless - that's the end of the Intel vs NEC 8087 story …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2022-05-06, 07:49

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Damn, that's unfortunate.

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Re: best graphics card to add to 486

Posted on 2022-05-06, 07:39

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't understand how the 864 is supposed to be worse than a Trio64. Trio64 is supposed to be an 864 + RAMDAC + Clockgen, all integrated into one chip. Assuming the 864 is equipped with a 130MHz RAMDAC, shouldn't the performance be totally identical?

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Re: best graphics card to add to 486

Posted on 2022-05-06, 00:23

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

ATI Mach 64... 750€. Out of control.. totally. It depends on which Mach64. If it's a CT or VT based Mach64 for PCI, those are common. But the ISA and VLB GX based ones with expansion modules are not easy to get. Though, sometimes you can still get them at reasonable prices if there is a mistake in …

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Re: Ambra Sprinta II

Posted on 2022-05-05, 13:32

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

There will always be a special place in my heart for a proper winchester type hard drive, but sadly they are just not viable long term. For solid state drives, I've been using compact flash, since they're basically already IDE and only require passive adapters. Is SD on an old PC a relatively bug …

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Re: best graphics card to add to 486

Posted on 2022-05-05, 08:51

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

AlessandroB wrote on 2022-05-04, 19:06: ATI Mach 64... 750€. Out of control.. totally. But it’s still cheaper than msrp when adjusted for inflation!

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Re: Upgrading a 386SX - some advice!

Posted on 2022-05-04, 07:33

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I remember when I was younger I had always heard about how there existed 386SX systems with removeable CPUs. I would often rummage through junk bins in used computers stores looking for such a motherboard. This was before eBay listings had many pictures, and search engines didn't have an image …

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Re: What the best Pentium 4 (533mhz fsb)?

Posted on 2022-05-04, 06:20

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The title of this thread is a trick question.

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Re: Ambra Sprinta II

Posted on 2022-05-04, 05:00

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

The best place to check for information would be in old issues of PC Magazine. I actually preferred PC-World, but I don't think those are available for free online. I remember looking into Ambras a while back, and I found something that implied either Ambra was sold off to another company, or there …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2022-05-04, 04:48

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Those NEC x87 FPUs are CMOS. So they *might* overclock okay. But, according to CPUShack they are only rated at 8MHz. I'm not sure how that was determined though, since I wasn't able to decipher the production code. Even if you can only get it up to 10MHz, it still provides one advantage over …

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Re: best graphics card to add to 486

Posted on 2022-05-04, 00:18

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Other than just raw speed, I'd say there are definitely things that matter, like output quality, compatibility, drivers and ability to run high resolutions and colour depths. If you're just playing 320x200 games, then no it won't matter.

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Re: Upgrading a 386SX - some advice!

Posted on 2022-05-03, 23:46

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Can you give other examples of boards that can use your upgrade module?

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Re: Upgrading a 386SX - some advice!

Posted on 2022-05-03, 08:23

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

24MHz is odd. Was it a silk screen typo, or was this board in development before the 80386-25 was released?

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Re: Upgrading a 386SX - some advice!

Posted on 2022-05-02, 23:48

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ok here is my 386SX upgrade attempt... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgXdiCPwGUA Somebody actually went out of their way to use the CPU solder pads on the M396? I thought about doing that years ago, but figured it would be easier to just cut off the CPU. I guess this upgrade module is only useful …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2022-05-02, 16:14

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

That's pretty interesting about the 8087-1 chips. They're all NMOS, I would have assumed they'd all fare poorly. Maybe I'll look into the (c)1980 chips to see if I can duplicate your results. Unlike 286+ systems, if you have an unstable FPU it will bring down the whole machine, so if you want to …

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Re: The best old graphics card

Posted on 2022-05-01, 15:35

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

VBE 2.x added 32-Bit Protected-Mode support and support for a linear frame buffer. For ISA VGA, that's usually at the end of ISA space 15-16MB; for VLB/PCI it's somewhere between 3-4GB. I can't really comment on PCI, but in my experience with VLB cards the LFB is never in the 3-4GB range. More like …

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Re: The best old graphics card

Posted on 2022-05-01, 02:13

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-04-29, 19:21: The point about a 386sx is to run on a 16 bit only board. Just sayin' 😉 The point of VLB is to be a "local bus", hence the 'LB' in VLB. The fact is that VLB can support either 16-bit or 32-bit hardware interface, and there are 386SX type systems with VLB slots, …

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