Re: EGA/VGA + CGA in same PC?

Posted on 2019-08-21, 18:57

by

by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For the more technically informed on such shenanigans, will I always need to remove the BIOS chip for this or can I install a switch to connect/disconnect a handful of power/VCC pins? These are BIOS extension ROMs, and the motherboard BIOS will scan for these ROMs at startup, and execute their …

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Re: EGA/VGA + CGA in same PC?

Posted on 2019-08-21, 18:30

by

by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I actually encountered a similar conundrum last week while trying to achieve better CGA support with an S3 Virge/GX. The palette wouldn't switch so Wizardry looked pretty bad. Obviously, running a CGA card alongside the VGA card doesn't work, but I did have an ATI CGA Wonder available. That card has …

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Re: Gravis Ultrasound MAX alongside Sound Blaster

Posted on 2019-08-01, 04:03

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by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I actually just got an Ultrasound MAX and I did manage to hit some major roadblocks. For starters, DMA 5 only worked in DOS, not Windows, but DMA 3 did the trick. Once I had the GUS at IRQ 5 DMA 3 and my Sound Blaster Pro 2 at IRQ 7 DMA 1 I wasn't having too much trouble, in DOS or Windows, until I …

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Re: BLASTERBOARD : A new SB 2.0-compatible ISA sound card

Posted on 2019-07-24, 02:23

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by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Nevertheless, I just disassembled and decoded to a human-readable form the original firmware of Sound Blaster 2.0 (DSP 2.01). Many unknown things revealed and there is a room for perfection for BB's future firmware releases. That sounds a little intense. How long did that take? Anything immediately …

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Re: Best hardware for Matrox m3D (PowerVR 2)?

Posted on 2019-07-22, 12:30

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by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Mine's never been happier with a northwood. I still find it odd that Gona's DOS video compatibility tests show that Tomb Raider has better results with some very specific PCI cards regardless of CPU speed. My target for the M3D is Tomb Raider, Mechwarrior 2, Resident Evil, and Virtual-On, with …

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Re: TANDY Dos-Gaming-Thread (1000RL/HD)

Posted on 2019-07-14, 14:51

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by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

It looks like I'm not the only who has had issue with an XT-IDE on a Tandy machine. I've got one that I've flashed both in basic XT mode as well AT + fast mode, at ports 300/308 and 320/328, boot device port 80/81, with everything always jumpered accordingly. Boot device is a 512 megabyte flash DOM …

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Re: TANDY Dos-Gaming-Thread (1000RL/HD)

Posted on 2019-06-27, 12:39

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by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Is there any real reason to use a VGA card with a Tandy 1000 TL? I know it's possible to switch between the built-in video and the VGA card pretty easily. I'm just wondering if there are any games that would really run well in VGA mode. I have a multi-system setup, so I've got plenty of options. …

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Re: BLASTERBOARD : A new SB 2.0-compatible ISA sound card

Posted on 2019-06-14, 18:45

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by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Another day, another eBay auction with another classic computer I want to push to the limit, and another search for the perfect parts. The DMA and IRQ selection options on this card look like they'd be perfect for adding Sound Blaster support to a Tandy TL, so put me down for one. Would prefer a …

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Re: NuXT - MicroATX Turbo XT Motherboard - 9.55MHz, UMBs, XT-CF, SVGA, HD Floppy, Serial

Posted on 2019-06-12, 01:52

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by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There is this PS/2 to XT Keyboard Converter that I build. https://monotech.fwscart.com/PS2_to_XT_Keyboard_Converter/p6083514_19714002.aspx Out of stock until I get around to drilling the enclosures for the next batch. I do plan on a PS/2 to Serial Mouse converter box at some stage, that can …

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Re: NuXT - MicroATX Turbo XT Motherboard - 9.55MHz, UMBs, XT-CF, SVGA, HD Floppy, Serial

Posted on 2019-06-09, 21:54

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by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Throw another vote into the ballot box in favor of 3D-printed I/O shields and options for slim or full-featured cases. If this had a printer port by default adding ethernet would be pretty easy too, right? I've purchased some stuff from NZTDM's eBay store and it's all been top notch stuff. I'd love …

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Re: So I replaced the v4.13 DSP on my SB16 CT2910 with a v4.05...

Posted on 2019-06-02, 14:43

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by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Well, this is a rad mod that quickly went quiet. I'm totally interested to learn if this fixed all the issues common to SB16's. I finally got around to testing my CT3900 (listing said CT3900-S, so a second revision?) and it's a nice card, though I'd like to stress test it a bit. According to James-F …

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Re: 3 retro battle stations

Posted on 2019-05-31, 13:40

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by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

pshipkov wrote: Chips 65554 4Mb How have your experiences been with this card? I saw on the video card compatibility list that this may be the only GPU that's VESA 2.0 natively and can handle the PowerVR version of Tomb Raider well. Is that a 4 MB card? Also, is that an integrated printer port?

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Re: PowerVR Fun Thread

Posted on 2019-05-28, 14:47

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by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

All right, I made a post and it didn't dead-end a conversation for once :P The fastest I was able to use a PCX2 was on a P4 system and even there 800x600/1024x768 is visibly bottlenecked by PCI transfer. Forget about the "60fps target" as that wasn't even commonplace in 1997. Lower your expectations …

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Re: PowerVR Fun Thread

Posted on 2019-05-27, 21:07

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by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Well, this is pretty awesome. Per my usual pattern of -> purchase oddball hardware -> fight with it and unrelated issues for hours -> attain results, I managed to acquire a brand new M3D a month back. Got around to testing it with my Voodoo 5500 and an A7V333 with an Athlon 3000+ being clocked at …

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Re: Your (feasible) dream retro PC(s).. do you have them?

Posted on 2019-05-23, 21:19

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by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've got a couple of systems in progress and planned. IBM 5160, largely complete: Orchid Tiny Turbo Xtra Upgrade 2 MB EMS Card (Eh, it's a thing I guess) Floppy/Serial/Parallel Controller ( Currently have these separately with an experimental combined board on the way) XT-IDE with ~500 MB DOM Sound …

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Re: FMonster, the monster of sound synth

Posted on 2019-05-21, 12:48

by

by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

What I plan to put onto main board of FMonter at the moment: = clock generator = DuoSID (2xSSI = 2xMOS6581) + address selector = CMS (Creative Music System = 2xSAA1099) = OPL3 (1xYMF262) = Tandy PSG (1xSN76489) = Stereo OPL2 (2xAdLib/SB = 2xYM3812) = CSM (Covox Sound Master = 1xAY8930) = mixer/ …

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Re: Orchid Tiny Turbo 286 card

Posted on 2019-05-19, 14:36

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by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

All right, since I'm having some technical difficulties with the card at the moment, I figured I'd take it out, snap some pics, and drop as much info as I can. First up is a primary shot of the board: MainBoard.jpg First row of IC's on the left are as follows: SN74LS373N - FFAY9006 (octal …

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Re: Orchid Tiny Turbo 286 card

Posted on 2019-05-17, 12:41

by

by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've actually got a Tiny Turbo Xtra. I think it uses some PAL and GAL chips, so some of the cloning might be hard to do. The real trick is cloning those fancy 286-to-386 or 286-to-486 upgrade cards. I just got outbid on one of those last night, and it even had the LCC adapter that the Tiny Turbo …

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Re: Duel Pentium Pro build

Posted on 2019-05-02, 17:42

by

by MrSmiley381

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

What's the best use case for a PC like this? I've got a similar box that I'd like to use for some sort of unique gaming experience. Or are these machines destined to be office devices that can also play Starcraft?

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Re: ISA RAM card, my easter project

Posted on 2019-04-03, 23:39

by

by MrSmiley381

in Milliways

in Milliways

I actually was able to do a PM from the user control panel. That being said, that "message" icon very clearly screams "profile". It's a silhouette of a person's head. A PM icon should be something like a text bubble!

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