Re: WP32 McCake : MT32 compatible waveblaster board

Posted on 2021-07-01, 11:54

by

by Ariakos

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Oooh! I just found this thread after browsing Serdashop and thinking: "all these GM daughterboards seem nice, but MT-32 they are not." Time to burn some money soon, I guess. My SB16 and Yamaha Audician 32 kind of need this.

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Re: How enter Olivetti PCS BIOS setup?

Posted on 2021-03-27, 07:22

by

by Ariakos

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Quick update. I tried different CF adapters and a Fujitsu 1Gb HDD. Compact Flash cards did not work: EZ drive software recognized and was able to format them but PCS 33 refused to boot from any of the CF cards. I've tested them on other systems so those CF cards definitely are bootable. Fujitsu HDD …

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Re: How enter Olivetti PCS BIOS setup?

Posted on 2021-03-25, 21:33

by

by Ariakos

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, I finally got to tinker with my PCS33 and tried that PCS46 user disk image... It was to no surprise a dead end. GSETUP.exe I also mentioned did work, but I could only choose from few very small preset HDDs ranging from 40Mb to 120Mb. Must be computer BIOS related somehow because some have …

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Re: Good brands/models of early 90's PCs to collect?

Posted on 2021-03-25, 20:40

by

by Ariakos

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Fairly old topic but I'd like to add that personally I'd be wary of at least some Compaq and Olivetti models ranging from 286 to early 486 if one wishes to actually use them. I'm talking about the ones that had their BIOS/CMOS setup info on hidden hard disk partition (or even in ROM) and you had to …

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Re: List of known Thin Clients with SoundBlaster support for cheap MS-DOS gaming & more !

Posted on 2021-03-13, 20:47

by

by Ariakos

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I just spotted (and bought) an HP Compaq T5525 Thin Client from German eBay. Specs seems to be almost same as T5515: 800MHz CPU, 128Mb RAM, 256Mb Flash storage. No idea yet about specific video or audio chip. I'll test it out once it arrives. https://www.cnet.com/products/hp-compaq-thin-client- …

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Re: List of known Thin Clients with SoundBlaster support for cheap MS-DOS gaming & more !

Posted on 2021-03-12, 21:50

by

by Ariakos

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I just spotted (and bought) an HP Compaq T5525 Thin Client from German eBay. Specs seems to be almost same as T5515: 800MHz CPU, 128Mb RAM, 256Mb Flash storage. No idea yet about specific video or audio chip. I'll test it out once it arrives. https://www.cnet.com/products/hp-compaq-thin-client-t5525 …

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Re: How enter Olivetti PCS BIOS setup?

Posted on 2020-08-13, 21:01

by

by Ariakos

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I had Olivetti 386SX back then, it had a special Disk for BIOS. Try Shift/Ctrl/Alt + NumPad Del I just recently got an Olivetti PCS 33 (386 SX/25) and I'm struggling with same problem. Yes, that key combination works for "Extended Setup" which lets you modify the very basic BIOS parameters like …

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Re: Newly made PCMCIA sound card

Posted on 2020-03-02, 08:09

by

by Ariakos

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Man, this would be sweet project. Serdashop's OPL3LPT is a nice way to add FM to your laptop as long as that laptop has an LPT port... but with a proper PCMCIA card we might be able to get bonus features that OPL3LPT lacks (Wavetable, MPU-401, Game port). I'd say functional game port for joysticks …

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Re: Best laptop for DOS/Win9x gaming?

Posted on 2020-02-20, 22:12

by

by Ariakos

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Gentlemen, I have a dilemma, looking for a good laptop for games from 1997-2001. I have two types: Compaq EVO N600c (ATI Radeon Mobility 7000 16mb) or Toschiba satellite pro 4300 (S3 Savage IX 8mb) which laptop can do better with 3d acceleration? Thank you for your reply https://www.vogons.org/ …

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Re: Any others given up on the hobby?

Posted on 2019-09-30, 21:18

by

by Ariakos

in Milliways

in Milliways

I admit: I'm a hoarder. I buy and gather too much hardware and big box software in my home. So much in fact that I know I'll never be able to utilise most of them. Family, work and modern era computing takes most of my free time. And tragically I'm way too lazy to sell away retro stuff that I know I …

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Re: Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 Build ?

Posted on 2018-10-12, 16:48

by

by Ariakos

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

So I am going to use this just as a DOS game box. What CPU should I use It really depends on what period of DOS games you want to play on your system. If you will be satisfied with anything pre '95, then a 486DX/50 is more than sufficient. If however you plan to play any last true DOS era games at …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-10-08, 14:29

by

by Ariakos

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Three new laptops arrived: Toshiba 440CDT (Pentium 133 MMX) Compaq Armada V300 (Celeron 466) IBM Thinkpad 365XD (Pentium 133)

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Re: PCMCIA Audigy 2 ZS on DOS

Posted on 2018-08-22, 07:36

by

by Ariakos

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Well, ended up getting a severely used and abused (but in working order) 600x. Nice machine. Still need to get a CD-ROM or floppy for it, but I was able to get USB working under dos. So, now I can transfer files without removing the hard disk every time I need to test a new file. Congrats on the …

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Re: PCMCIA Audigy 2 ZS on DOS

Posted on 2018-08-08, 20:58

by

by Ariakos

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

This is just kind of a out-of-the-box suggestion but how about utilizing the LPT port of T23 instead of PCMCIA? https://www.serdashop.com/OPL2LPT https://www.serdashop.com/OPL3LPT

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Re: I'm a daddy...

Posted on 2017-11-05, 21:40

by

by Ariakos

in Milliways

in Milliways

Congrats! Oct 27th is also the birthday for my own kid (although he is already 6 years old). It's a good date! 😁

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Re: HardMPU, anyone?

Posted on 2017-10-15, 19:45

by

by Ariakos

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I just received my kit today. And since I had some free time I soldered it immediately. Not the best craftmanship I must admit but the result seems okay to me. I'll do a proper testing for the card and cable tomorrow when I have more time. http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee443/Ariakos/Retro-PC% …

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Re: Gateway 2000 with LAPC-I - weird sound

Posted on 2017-10-06, 06:36

by

by Ariakos

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Doesn't the LAPC-I require the -5v wire from the PSU? My guess is that the computer throwing garbage through the LAPC-I lacks the -5v. It could very well be this. I had trouble getting one particular 486 project machine and my LAPC-I to work together until I noticed the PSU in the project machine …

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Re: HardMPU, anyone?

Posted on 2017-08-31, 08:01

by

by Ariakos

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I'd estimate a bare PCB would cost around $15, $60 for a kit, and $100 for an assembled and tested board. Would there be any interest from the group? Yes, I'd buy a kit in a blink. I'd love to get some soldering activity and at the moment my MT-32 sits all alone while LAPC-I gets all the games …

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Re: If you are forced to stick with just one sound card

Posted on 2017-06-01, 15:31

by

by Ariakos

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Since my expertise in ISA audio cards is seriously lacking I'll just take the easy route and choose Yamaha Audician 32 as the all-arounder. Maybe ESS, Terratec or Turtle Beach might have better choices but Yamaha Audician covers most important specs fluently enough: SB compatible FM-support (OPL3), …

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Re: Bought these games today

Posted on 2017-03-04, 15:32

by

by Ariakos

in Milliways

in Milliways

Couple of big box games obtained:

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