Re: What hasn’t been done?

Posted on 2024-03-21, 23:05

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Edit: Or, how about writing of a minimal OS that acts as bootloader for DOS on UEFI PCs? Maybe a modified version of Minix 1.x/2.x can be used? Which installs a TSR version of a BIOS-UEFI translator, then loads DOS? Because, back in the day Minix could be loaded from a DOS system/from an image file …

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Re: What hasn’t been done?

Posted on 2024-03-21, 21:55

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Another idea. Creation of a "Link Blaster" cable. To connect two vintage PCs via DB-15 gameport, by using the MIDI RXD/TXD lines. Support for both SB-MIDI and MPU-401 would be neat. Allows multi-player games and file transfer similar to a null-modem cable. The Atari ST users did something similar …

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Re: ISA ET4000ax with artifacts in games

Posted on 2024-03-21, 20:47

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

The issue still remains, and im out of ideas. Anyone saw a similar issue? Hi, don't despair. If there was a serious damage with the ET4k, it would likely involve the RAM or the RAMDAC. The RAM seems fine, also because it's being used to the fullest by applications in standard VGA. And the RAMDAC is …

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Re: Why is Amiga so popular with retro community ?

Posted on 2024-03-21, 16:07

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've noticed the Amiga fascination is most common in Western Europeans. I suppose it was related to Commodore Germany somehow? Nintendo was also being popular here, with its then-new Europe headquarters in Großostheim. The Commodore 64 became something like the computer equivalent to the VW Beetle, …

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Re: PCem

Posted on 2024-03-21, 11:47

by

by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

^Thanks for moving. Hello, I would like to ask you about your experience with a PC. I am about to buy a new laptop that will have a suitable CPU that is capable of emulating (100% speed) Windows98 Pentium II 350MHZ + SoundBlaster + 3DFX Voodoo3 without problems using PCem software. Hi Dave, at this …

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Re: Why is Amiga so popular with retro community ?

Posted on 2024-03-21, 06:58

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

But that's exactly my point of critique. MDA and CGA were sub standard. Not useful. Blame IBM, it's their standard. Hercules was the defacto standard in real life, not plain MDA. Period. Not really. [..] Okay, perhaps I shouldn't reply to this old thread anymore, but there's one thing that just …

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Re: Turbo button, slowdown programs, disabling cache - only for games?

Posted on 2024-03-20, 07:46

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Update. There's another use for the Turbo Button (or Turbo Brake ) that comes to my mind: Experiments with the gameport. On a slow PC, the range of measurement is greater - because the capacitors have more time to charge. That's important if we're tinkering with sensors, like NTCs or photodiodes. So …

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Re: 486DX4 at 5v… instantly fry?

Posted on 2024-03-19, 01:28

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's also possible to use DOSIDLE (DOS) and WQHLT (WfW *.VXD driver) and have the CPU sleep while doing nothing. It's meant to save power, but it also prevents the CPU from heating up (DOS era software uses quite some amount of IDLE loops). Back in the day™, people would have used POWER.EXE or …

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Re: Video playback on a 286? - here's how to do it

Posted on 2024-03-18, 14:21

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Hi again! Found something interesting.. Video for Windows for Mac . A source on the interwebs describes it as.. A utility set for moving AVI files to the QuickTime environment and for converting QuickTime files to AVI format. Includes a Windows Compressors system extension, which contains compressor …

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Re: 486DX4 at 5v… instantly fry?

Posted on 2024-03-18, 14:08

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's also possible to use DOSIDLE (DOS) and WQHLT (WfW *.VXD driver) and have the CPU sleep while doing nothing. It's meant to save power, but it also prevents the CPU from heating up (DOS era software uses quite some amount of IDLE loops). Back in the day™, people would have used POWER.EXE or …

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Re: Win 3.11 Share Access

Posted on 2024-03-18, 05:12

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Speaking of vintage technologies like FTP, there's also serial connection via null-modem cable . Norton Commander 5.x and FileMaven v3 (DOS) do support it, I think. Windows 9x and onwards do have Direct Cable Connection utility that's more comfortable than FTP. It seems to be derived from LapLink …

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Re: Wavetable and MT-32 on one PC

Posted on 2024-03-18, 01:55

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Hi, it's also possible to use two different soundcards (or MPU-401 cards) for MIDI. Let's say, one is "intelligent" and has an MT-32 synth connected to it, while to other one might be a "dumb" UART type. MIDI Port 330h.. MT-32 MIDI Port 300h.. GM Generally speaking, modern DOS games that rely on GM …

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Re: Win 3.11 Share Access

Posted on 2024-03-18, 01:43

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Hi, it reminds me a bit of this old thread here: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=47920 Long story short, Windows 9x and WfW used permissions per folder; Windows NT uses permissions per user. That's why the password thing happens, I think. Also, old Windows used NETBIOS and Lan Manager …

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Re: Patched together a 286-20MHz. What should be the expected performance?

Posted on 2024-03-18, 01:10

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

+1 Macintosh/Jobs vs Apple II/Woz were a bit like Yin and Yang. Alas, many contemporary Apple 'haters' don't seem to distinguish here anymore. They don't seem to be aware that historically the Apple II was made by a "good guy" and was an open platform with a dozen clones around the globe (about 200 …

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Re: Recommendation for non-PNP ISA sound card with IDE and OPL3?

Posted on 2024-03-16, 16:53

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Apart from that ESS1688 might be an option, but it has ESFM, not a real OPL3. ESS688 does use a real external OPL3, but I've never been able to get MIDI running on one of those cards and TSRs are less than ideal, particularly not if you need to run SoftMPU as well. Alternatives: OPTi 929-based …

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Re: Recommendation for non-PNP ISA sound card with IDE and OPL3?

Posted on 2024-03-16, 10:18

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Apart from that ESS1688 might be an option, but it has ESFM, not a real OPL3. ESS688 does use a real external OPL3, but I've never been able to get MIDI running on one of those cards and TSRs are less than ideal, particularly not if you need to run SoftMPU as well. Alternatives: OPTi 929-based …

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Re: Unable to run Qix and similar games on an IBM 5150

Posted on 2024-03-14, 23:52

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Could it be related to the BIOS, maybe ? How about using GlaBIOS or Super PC/Turbo XT BIOS ? Qix existed as a PC booter, too. http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-ibm-pc-model-5150-as-gaming-machine.html So maybe your copy was being "ported" to MS-DOS by a person who had a PC clone with a …

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Re: Willow - Windows 3.0 Real Mode applications on OS/2 1.x and up (and stuff)

Posted on 2024-03-13, 17:59

by

by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

I guess if the MIPS emulator is on-topic, then DEC Alpha: https://virtuallyfun.com/2024/02/17/announcing-emuwow-beta-1-axp-preview1/ Retro Bytes came out with a long video about OS/2 5 days ago :-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3DZJ_LD7F4 Thank you guys! ^^ Sorry about the ongoing delay, also. …

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Re: the definitive "I want to retro game but I only have space for 1 PC" build

Posted on 2024-03-13, 01:52

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

If you wanted you could drop dosbox and still have dos gaming on actual hardware. Use Win98 to boot into dos mode and either use the official Vortex dos driver or the modified Audigy 2 ZS ones. No real benefit over dosbox but as your trying to push things to the limit already! [..] Sure but neither …

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Re: What hasn’t been done?

Posted on 2024-03-10, 20:46

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Open source GM module emulators that work like Munt. It's not exactly same, but mt32pi has a GM sound font feature, in addition to LA synthesizer emulation. https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi FPGA based chipsets for new 286/386/486 boards I still hope for lithography for the hobbyist. I hope an …

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