Re: FastDoom. A new Doom port for DOS, optimized to be as fast as possible for 386/486 personal computers!

Posted on 2024-01-15, 17:09

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by GigAHerZ

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Wondering if one could find a card with fast 800x600 VBE 2.0 and then stick it in a low end 386, turn it to low detail at 800x600 and have faster fast doom... guess it don't work like that. I have 386DX-40 @ 45MHz with Diamond Speedstar 64 ISA (Cirrus Logic CL-GD5434, 2MB), supposedly fastest ISA …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2024-01-13, 11:58

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by GigAHerZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

On my P2/P3 testbench, I ordered a ATX extension cable and spliced in molex/sata/fdd power connector right to the ATX extension. Now i have a single-cable solution on my default testbench. I still have separate cables coming from PSU that is under the table. This extension with all the power for …

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Re: What modern activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2024-01-07, 20:03

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by GigAHerZ

in Milliways

in Milliways

Switched out a switch 😁 Simple dummy one got replaced with a managed HP switch. Let the games begin! 😁

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Re: What modern activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2024-01-06, 17:02

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by GigAHerZ

in Milliways

in Milliways

Bought a 64GB flash memory stick from aliexpress. It was damn cheap (about 4€) so i half-expected it to be fake. It arrived and disconnected from computer every time i tried to write more than 64MB on it. I have another 64GB stick from aliexpress, that is good. But its case was very soft metal that …

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Re: What modern activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2024-01-05, 11:42

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by GigAHerZ

in Milliways

in Milliways

Bought a 64GB flash memory stick from aliexpress. It was damn cheap (about 4€) so i half-expected it to be fake. It arrived and disconnected from computer every time i tried to write more than 64MB on it. I have another 64GB stick from aliexpress, that is good. But its case was very soft metal that …

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Re: Cant get more Base memory free Dos 6.22

Posted on 2023-12-29, 14:51

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by GigAHerZ

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

5kB sounds like EzDrive overlay... If that is it, then XT-IDE would only steal 1kB. ;) And if you find an updated BIOS, you may not need any drive overlay at all. Depending on what machine you have, you might be able to use UMBPCI. With that you can get rid of himem being in conv. memory and don't …

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Re: Need help to improve the support of 486/586/686 class CPUs in CPU-Z

Posted on 2023-12-25, 09:19

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by GigAHerZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Takedasun wrote on 2023-12-24, 22:38: Real hardware i386SX16 ECS HM386SX https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/ecs-hm386sx […] Show full quote Real hardware i386SX16 ECS HM386SX https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/ecs-hm386sx i386SX16_01.png i386SX16_02.png i386SX16_03.png i386SX16_04.png Damn! …

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Re: Post your 386 Speedsys results here

Posted on 2023-12-23, 23:30

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by GigAHerZ

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

The CPU score on speedsys is very unreliable. I get a rougly 7,5 with FPU installed and IIRC around 9 with FPU removed with my 386DX. It's good only for testing the same machine's speed difference when hardware has not changed. I did expect to see higher cache speed in the beginning of memory speed …

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Re: Post your 386 Speedsys results here

Posted on 2023-12-23, 10:30

by

by GigAHerZ

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

@iyatemu, the CPU's internal cache is also disabled. 486DLC should have 1kB of it and it will make a big difference, when enabled. (I would say in practice, the internal cache is the biggest differentiator between 386 and 486) NB! on 386 and 486 boards, you can freely mix and match BIOSes between …

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Re: mTCP NetDrive: network attached storage for DOS 2.0 or better

Posted on 2023-12-12, 19:55

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by GigAHerZ

in Milliways

in Milliways

I know nothing about DOS device drivers or really anything about developing software for DOS at all. But is it possible to allocate a device (which gets a drive letter) and then later release/uninstall that device (and the letter with it)? If so, one could just allocate bunch of stub-devices with …

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Re: mTCP NetDrive: network attached storage for DOS 2.0 or better

Posted on 2023-12-11, 10:36

by

by GigAHerZ

in Milliways

in Milliways

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh... This is really cool! Thanks!

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Re: VLB Clock & Wait State - Safe to experiment?

Posted on 2023-12-08, 12:41

by

by GigAHerZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yep, go ahead! By increasing FSB, you increase the speed of not just VLB, but also speed to your RAM and cache on board. The whole system benefits. If you have a choice of high-speed+waitstates vs low-speed+no-waitstates, all else being equal, choose the high speed. But beware - even when the system …

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Re: PCChips M321 v2.5 Bios update utility

Posted on 2023-12-06, 18:21

by

by GigAHerZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just 2 cents. I have the same board, i have MR-BIOS on it (THE BEST BIOS!!!) and i run it with 8x4MB SIMMs. The SIMM modules are 3-chip variants, so with higher density chips. Works perfectly. I didn't have any memory issues with original bios either. So just make sure that you don't have any damage …

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Re: OPL3 vs. ESFM vs. CQM vs. SBLive

Posted on 2023-12-06, 11:12

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by GigAHerZ

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

ESFM is a beautiful superset of OPL3. You may want to include Warcraft 2 into the list. It supports both OPL3 "standard" setup and also specialized ESFM setup. You may even compare ESS card with both setups to identify differences. 😉

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Re: Creating Windows for Workgroups 3.11 installer with embedded updates

Posted on 2023-12-05, 14:59

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by GigAHerZ

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Currently working on the idea of "Service Pack". I have 19 update packages, which each will have capability to install and uninstall. Mostly it is replacing files, but some updates patch existing files or change lines in *.ini files. If i would find some easy text mode UI with checkboxes, i could …

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Re: Creating Windows for Workgroups 3.11 installer with embedded updates

Posted on 2023-12-04, 20:55

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by GigAHerZ

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

I know that's not what you asked, but honestly I would go the "service pack" way with this. Instead of changing the original installer I'd build a new one that does the updates. Unless there is some easy and nice tool for dos to modify .ini file contents, it might be somewhat difficult. Though, …

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Creating Windows for Workgroups 3.11 installer with embedded updates

Posted on 2023-12-04, 11:18

by

by GigAHerZ

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

There are quite a bit of updates for Windows for Workgroups 3.11 in the internet. Most of them are about replacing some files in windows or windows/system folder, but some add additional files. I've already found compatible compress.exe that can be expanded by the expand.exe by windows installer. …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-11-20, 16:23

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by GigAHerZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Finding a local store that sold old 1-4X CD-RW discs was impossible so I put up a marketplace ad looking for NOS discs.. and had a few locals hit me up within the hour. Should've tried that sooner, one of them had 10 Maxells that work flawlessly with older drives. Took me long enough. Nice. I've …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-11-19, 18:31

by

by GigAHerZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I upgraded my NAS op system from ubuntu 18.04 to 20.04 LTS. Result: My Win98SE box could not connect to my read only transfer share for v1SMB retro boxes. It looks like distros are killing v1 protocol from default configurations. So adding this section did the trick for me: client min protocol = …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-11-19, 10:27

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by GigAHerZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

OT PC@LIVE wrote on 2023-11-18, 21:11: ...... You have a proper image open on your phone's screen, yet you choose to make a screenshot of your phone screen instead of using the real picture? Oh, God, WHY!?

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