Re: How to get old Windows XP games to run on Windows 11?

Posted on 2022-06-11, 07:16

by

by Jo22

in Windows

in Windows

It worked for me on Windows 7 x64 with both Virtual PC 2007 x64 and DOSBox 32-Bit. Both were creating a DDraw Surface, if memory serves. Edit: All that's needed is a functioning DDraw, no Direct3D. Direct Draw never required hardware acceleration, it always worked with software rendering, too. That …

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Re: Windows 11 - MS wants to get rid of HDDs for drive C:

Posted on 2022-06-10, 18:52

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by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

Native Command Queuing (NCQ) was introduced years ago to solve some of the issues with head movement. It reduced both head movement (wear) and increased performance at same time. Akin to a lift that halts on each floor to take all the passengers, instead of erratically moving up and down each time a …

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Re: How to get old Windows XP games to run on Windows 11?

Posted on 2022-06-10, 18:36

by

by Jo22

in Windows

in Windows

Regarding FettKeks problem, what Narzoul suggested for not installing in Program Files might be true. I suggest a path such as D:\Games to make sure we aren't bottlenecked by a file system issue Yes, that's true, I think. Windows is restrictive when it comes to "Program Files" and "Program Files ( …

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Re: How to get old Windows XP games to run on Windows 11?

Posted on 2022-06-10, 18:21

by

by Jo22

in Windows

in Windows

Get a copy of XP's ddraw.dll and copy it into the game folder (NOT the Windows or System folder!). This is highly unlikely to work. XP's ddraw is for sure not compatible with WDDM GPU drivers (which were introduced with Vista), and you can't even install the older XPDM drivers since Windows 8. It …

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Re: Windows 11 - MS wants to get rid of HDDs for drive C:

Posted on 2022-06-10, 13:47

by

by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

It seems that Microsoft plans to discourage the use of HDDs for the Windows installation. Everyone has been discouraging the use of HDDs for boot drives, for years now. Microsoft seems to be the last to jump on that bandwagon. :) But making SSDs a requirement isn't cool, IMHO. That's so single …

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Re: Serial mouse worked only for a day on DOS machine

Posted on 2022-06-10, 13:27

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Found out that the PC (and screen) works as soon as I unplug the CF Card reader Got my hands on a new CF Card Reader, new IDE cables and also tried a new CF card, but again, I get the beeps and no screen at all. I'm at a loss Hm. Are you sure the orientation of the CF card is correct? - Some CF to …

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Re: How to get old Windows XP games to run on Windows 11?

Posted on 2022-06-10, 05:05

by

by Jo22

in Windows

in Windows

How about DXGL? https://dxgl.org/ It's a DirectDraw wrapper to OpenGL. Personally, I tried it many years ago and it indeed worked for some games. Good luck! 🙂👍 Edit: Alternatively, if that's too much of a hassle or if it doesn't work.. Get a copy of XP's ddraw.dll and copy it into the game folder ( …

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Re: Changing Background Color in Infocom Text Adventures?

Posted on 2022-06-09, 19:45

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

There used to be an utility for DOS that got rid of colour. Was on old diskettes.. Mono.com or something like that. Might have been an DOS 3.x era equivalent to MODE MONO, not sure. That utility disabled colour in my copy of Norton Commander on a 286 w/ VGA..

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Re: Babylon 5 remake?

Posted on 2022-06-09, 19:19

by

by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

By the way, will remake revisit original idea of ambassador Delenn being minbari male (as seen in the pilot episode) which morph into human/minbari female? That idea was scrapped for practical reasons, but it's now (in many meanings). What? Is this real XD I thought Delenn just had bad alien makeup …

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Windows 11 - MS wants to get rid of HDDs for drive C:

Posted on 2022-06-09, 19:02

by

by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

Hello everyone, Just saw an interesting news. https://www.techspot.com/news/94882-microsoft-calls-oems-kill-off-hdd-boot-drives.html It seems that Microsoft plans to discourage the use of HDDs for the Windows installation. The idea is that SSDs shall become the norm for the boot medium. Using SSDs …

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Re: Babylon 5 remake?

Posted on 2022-06-09, 07:17

by

by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

Quick update. A bit late, sorry. News is from late May, sorry. https://movieweb.com/cw-head-confirms-babylon-5-reboot/ Edit: The site says "Who better than the original creator of Babylon 5 to write the script for the reboot pilot?" I'm not sure if that statement is true. People change, we all …

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Re: Using the 320x240 256 color video mode

Posted on 2022-06-09, 06:49

by

by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

VBDOS and PDS 7.1 (QBX) are somewhat backwards compatible to Quick Basic 4.5x.. But they do support larger code and PDS can do 286 code generation, I think. Power Basic also is interesting. It's a relative of Turbo Basic, I think. It seems to support many things, but I had issues with it when I …

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Re: What video card for an authentic 2009/2010 system?

Posted on 2022-06-09, 06:36

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

is the PC gonna be running Vista or 7 (or XP?) cool system btw. GTX460 seems like a really hot card or is 160w tdp not bad? I was planning on using an old GTX570 i had from my old Win7 build in my own XP build but decided against as it could pull in too much power. My PSU is 550w but apparently the …

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Re: A question for those with years of experience with UPS systems.

Posted on 2022-06-08, 22:16

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Audiophiles and HAMs will have a different opinion on this, naturally :-) Yup. 😁 I suppose because of the hobby, they (we) are among the ones to notice first if something goes wrong. While I do still have an aversion against switching PSUs (I'm rather using 13.8v lab PSUs with transformers), I do …

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Re: 3C5X9PD Packet Driver locking up Windows on exit - 486 - new 6.22/WFW311 build

Posted on 2022-06-08, 20:18

by

by Jo22

in DOS

in DOS

Does 3.1 have a way to run a batch file when it exits? I could load it there. Or need to find out how to maybe create a boot menu. I wasn’t aware they couldn’t coexist - I remember my university in the 90s mapping drives and such in batch files before Windows loaded, so I assumed that DOS and …

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Re: What is the difference between SoundBlaster and Adlib ?

Posted on 2022-06-08, 19:51

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The first three Sound Blasters (1.0, 1.5, 2.0) could play stereo music, too. They could be equipped with 2x Philips SAA1099 sound chips (+ a logic chip). With them installed, the Sound Blasters were compatible to The Creative Music System (aka Gameblaster). That was the predecessor of the Sound …

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Re: Video BIOS loader for DOS

Posted on 2022-06-08, 15:26

by

by Jo22

in DOS

in DOS

Hi there! Yes, there two kinds, I think. a) VESA VBE TSRs (they install VESA BIOS extension in RAM) b) Utilities that copied VGA BIOS into RAM Then, there were shadow ram utilities that moved ROM code into the 640-1MB region. I forgot the name of b), though. My OAK VGA has it on diskette, though.

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Re: Daemon tools virtual drive with Redbook audio and VxD drivers

Posted on 2022-06-08, 05:21

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Um, unlike an AWE64 etc, the Audigy 2 wasn't a typical Win9x era card, I assume. It was from ~2002, roughly 4 years before 9x line was retired altogether. At this time, the drivers were likely mature enough to support most features. The WDM things perhaps has to do with the kernal-mode stuff (kmixer …

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Re: A question for those with years of experience with UPS systems.

Posted on 2022-06-07, 21:43

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Pure sine wave is naturally the best but not strictly required. Problem is, that everything "not sine wave" is causing harmonics. Harmonics are the culprit for RF interference. And harmonics in turn can cause all sorts of trouble. Not necessarily in the PC itself, but it can affect auxiliary …

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Re: Playing ON vs WITH retro hardware (and hardware preservation)

Posted on 2022-06-07, 21:26

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For CRT longevity it is best to plug in an LCD when restarting and bios setting and whatnot. The power cycles are likely not good for them. When everything has been set up then its fine. I myself do not follow my own advice on this however. I am too lazy and do not have much room. I think the same. …

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