Re: A "broad spectrum" 90s build?

Posted on 2021-07-13, 16:27

by

by jheronimus

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

would it be possible to build a PC that would cover things from say ~1992 (think circa Doom 1) to ~1999 (think circa Unreal Tournament/Diablo 2)? I'd say there aren't a lot of speed sensitive games in the time range you've specified. And honestly, I think speed sensitivity is grossly overrated. …

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Re: Image writing tool for DOS

Posted on 2021-07-13, 16:09

by

by jheronimus

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've used rawrite to write 5.25 360KB floppies for my Tandy 1000SX using a 386 machine.

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Re: Biostar MB-1500PCT — looking for BIOS

Posted on 2021-07-01, 14:16

by

by jheronimus

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Link above seems dead (redirects to the same page), could any of you upload it again ? It just asks for captcha twice for some reason. Attached the file to this message Удачи в запуске! --- Google Translate --- Good luck with your startup! Cпасибо огромное, буду в выходные тестить. Полгода искал …

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Re: Biostar MB-1500PCT — looking for BIOS

Posted on 2021-07-01, 13:35

by

by jheronimus

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ща попробую. Программатор есть. Но я не знаю, как тут сообщения прикреплять. --- Google Translate --- I'll try. There is a programmer. But I do not know how to attach messages here. Можно через дропбокс/яндекс/гугл драйв расшарить и вставить ссылку. Либо просто аттачментом к сообщению — это есть, …

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Re: Biostar MB-1500PCT — looking for BIOS

Posted on 2021-07-01, 13:08

by

by jheronimus

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

https://i.postimg.cc/GpRtD8Vx/IMG-20210701-005546-1.jpg У меня есть такая мать. Рабочая. --- Google Translate --- I have such a mother. Working. Привет! А можно тебя попросить снять образ биоса и прикрепить к сообщению? Я свою полностью восстановил, только биос и остался. --- Google Translate --- …

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Re: Would you be interested in an x86-based alternative to the Raspberry Pi, optimized for retro gaming?

Posted on 2021-06-23, 23:33

by

by jheronimus

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If I can't load Command & Conquer and Earthsiege II on it, then what's the point? I figured at this point we're not really discussing the idea of a custom AMD SoC anymore and I wanted to go back to the idea of a "PC Classic Mini" in general — because this is something that keeps coming up in the …

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Re: Would you be interested in an x86-based alternative to the Raspberry Pi, optimized for retro gaming?

Posted on 2021-06-23, 17:47

by

by jheronimus

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you think about NES Classic Mini-like devices, I don't see the point in even bothering with real hardware. Nor do I see the point in using real Win9x/DOS on this. You can't even preload those legally on the end product, so the device will require quite a lot of setup, it will never be plug'n'play …

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Re: Moderator violating Community Standards

Posted on 2021-06-15, 10:09

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by jheronimus

in Milliways

in Milliways

Gosh this is like a courtroom drama, may I approach the bench? I know this is just hearsay and will be stricken from the record but I've never had a problem with the mods here. Me too. But it does feel like the emulation sections of the forum can get pretty heated at times while it's generally very …

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Figuring out cache on a Pentium/VLB motherboard

Posted on 2021-06-14, 12:01

by

by jheronimus

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi, all! So, it took me literally six months to restore my Biostar MB-1500PCT motherboard. There were a lot of missing components : both VRMs, four resistors (two for each VRM), an oscillator quartz, a clock generator chip, the BIOS chip, cache chips and the battery. The actual repairs were done by …

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Re: The worst motherboards you have had to work with

Posted on 2021-06-01, 22:13

by

by jheronimus

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So weird! I have that exact revision and it's my favourite Socket 3 board please please please dump the BIOS ROM and post it in the linked thread, i've been searching for that one forever and it hasn't been dumped yet! maybe that bios will make a difference. will see once i get my hands on it. I'm …

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Re: The worst motherboards you have had to work with

Posted on 2021-06-01, 15:51

by

by jheronimus

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

V4P895P3/SMT V1.0 is one sucker. Got it somewhat workable after trying for a long time, process detailed in a wall of edits. Even a semi-broken 286 board was easier to get working compared to that thing. Plus it simply doesn't POST when EDO memory is inserted, as it requires FPM. That alone took …

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Re: Im making a frontend/manager for win9x games

Posted on 2021-05-27, 15:52

by

by jheronimus

in Milliways

in Milliways

Rikintosh wrote on 2021-05-26, 16:34: My proposal is that your retro computer should be a console. "What would the xbox look like if it had been released in the mid-90s?" Interesting! It probably needs support for Gravis gamepads and other joysticks for navigation then

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Re: Alternatives to a real Roland SC-55

Posted on 2021-05-27, 15:46

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by jheronimus

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

There are also some Dream-based Waveblaster boards that were similar enough for Roland to sue them. Not a 100% copy though Can't tell you the exact chips from the top of my head, but Serdaco's Yucatan FX is based on one of those chips.

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Re: Thinking of buying a Tandy 1000 but need some input

Posted on 2021-05-27, 15:37

by

by jheronimus

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I want to buy one and there a few on eBay right now but I'm not sure if I should buy one of those or wait for another. I want Tandy sound and graphics so that rules out the RLX and RSX. I'm reading that the Tandy PSSJ sound chip is not very good either so that rules out some more models so I think …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-05-26, 11:34

by

by jheronimus

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You probably mean RAMDRIVE as SMARTDRV is just HDD caching done in software. Every OS uses it today. With RAMDRIVE you should be careful when turning off the computer and not copying the data to real HDD. Right, thanks! I think I've seen quite a few mentions of different tools that existed for RAM …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-05-26, 10:49

by

by jheronimus

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you have extra RAM, you can always use it for something like SMARTDRV. Ahh, SMARTDRV. The solid state drive of the 80's and 90's :) I'd like to know what were the actual usage scenarios for that, to be honest :) Sure it's fast, but don't you have to keep in mind whether or not you have your …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-05-25, 07:28

by

by jheronimus

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Living wrote on 2021-05-25, 02:03: there is almost no programs that run OK with more memory on that processors I'm not sure what you mean by that. I've run 386 with 8MB and 486 with 32MB, no issues. I do remember DOS memory managers not liking more than 64MB of RAM, but then again they just ignore …

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Re: BIOS image collection - requests, discussion etc

Posted on 2021-05-15, 12:35

by

by jheronimus

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm looking for a BIOS to this board, Biostar MB-1500/1575/1590PCT, also known as MBD-P90VP2 in Quantex computers. The BIOS ID string is 2A5UMB01-00

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Re: Windows 3.1 max requirements

Posted on 2021-05-14, 14:36

by

by jheronimus

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If I'm reading your question correctly, you're looking for an affordable build for Win 3.1, not the "ultimate"/fastest one. Pentium I is definitely an option. Consider that before Microsoft released Win95, you could already buy Pentiums with speeds up to 133 MHz, so if you had an early Socket 5/7 …

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Re: Why do some old games has no in-game music in it?

Posted on 2021-05-10, 23:49

by

by jheronimus

in Windows

in Windows

Never actually thought of this before, but I just had an idea: maybe it was ultimately demo scene people who started adding music in their games? Or is this too far fetched? Yeah, it’s not really related. I mean, you have to keep in mind that music wasn’t that rare on other platforms in the 80s ( …

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