Re: Why is Gravis Ultrasound very expensive?

Posted on 2022-05-12, 06:18

by

by Grzyb

in Windows

in Windows

I wasn't around then (too young) but my understanding is a combination of historical reasons and hardware acceleration. If your demo is using tracker-type music you can load all the samples into the sound cards RAM and leave the GUS to do all the mixing letting you spend more CPU time doing fancy …

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Re: Why is Gravis Ultrasound very expensive?

Posted on 2022-05-11, 23:07

by

by Grzyb

in Windows

in Windows

Also, must have for those interested in 90s PC demoscene.

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Re: What exactly is this network card, and what Windows versions does it have drivers for?

Posted on 2022-05-06, 13:03

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

First, find the PCI ID of the card...

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Re: Home Computer - was it a toy or a Personal Computer for the masses?

Posted on 2022-05-06, 12:39

by

by Grzyb

in Milliways

in Milliways

In the early 80s, when prices of 16-bit machines were still prohibitive, 8-bit ones were definitely more than toys. Around 1985, however, there was the massive surge of IBM PC clones, prices dropped, and the PC became the universal standard of business computers - and that was the point when 8-bit …

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Re: 775 and ISA

Posted on 2022-05-05, 19:47

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

AFAIK - no, floppy can be used in PIO mode. Any details on using FDC without DMA? I suppose boards with FDC but no DMA come with a BIOS that operates the FDC in PIO mode, right? But what about FDC drivers built into various OSes? And what about a four-floppy ISA card, with its own BIOS, which …

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Re: 775 and ISA

Posted on 2022-05-05, 08:27

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

FDC needs DMA...

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Re: CheckIT observations on a Mitsubishi 386

Posted on 2022-04-26, 15:12

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There's no HIMEM/EMM386 in DOS 3.30, so Checkit has to control the protected mode on its own. I guess you're using DOS 6.20 with HIMEM (and maybe EMM386 as well), so Checkit makes use of them to access the protected mode. Try running 6.20 with empty CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT... I think it's some …

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Re: How do you enjoy games like Wolf3D/Blake Stone without WASD?

Posted on 2022-04-23, 21:35

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I understand that WASD (or thereabouts) is necessary when two players are using a single keyboard, but it's not a thing in modern era, is it? was it ever a thing without standardized n-key rollover? I remember some elaborate setups centered around modifier keys to avoid ghosting problems. Sure, …

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Re: How do you enjoy games like Wolf3D/Blake Stone without WASD?

Posted on 2022-04-23, 10:19

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

BTW, I'm wondering what's the logic behind WASD? The obvious way is arrow keys - they are designed especially for moving around, separated from other keys, therefore easy to operate blindly, with no risk of a mistake. But WASD... the W isn't even precisely above the S, and there's plenty of other …

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Re: How do you enjoy games like Wolf3D/Blake Stone without WASD?

Posted on 2022-04-23, 06:14

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Numpad? It's only good for J-Bird, where the moves are diagonal 😜

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Re: Microsoft enters “final phase” of disabling SMB1 file-sharing in Windows 11

Posted on 2022-04-22, 19:06

by

by Grzyb

in Windows

in Windows

FTP is insecure as well...

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Re: Tseng ET4000-W32 compatiblity

Posted on 2022-04-21, 16:33

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I've tried some W32i and W32p cards - register-level CGA and Hercules modes didn't work. RIXAI, however, did work, providing AI-level 8514/A compatibility.

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Re: Mod Master XT 1.0 Released : Play .MOD, .XM and .VGM on a 8088 4MHz

Posted on 2022-04-18, 17:35

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

VGM files can contain music for various sound chips. Universal VGM player would need to emulate all the chips. I guess Mod Master doesn't emulate anything, and can only play a file if matching hardware is present. BTW, there was an idea to emulate CMS using OPL2 or OPL3, but it seems it wouldn't …

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Re: CT1350B SB2.0 on 286 w/Windows 3.1?

Posted on 2022-04-10, 07:23

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I've read that Windows 3.1 does not load the multimedia drivers in "standard" mode. Windows 3.1 does load multimedia drivers in Standard mode. Yes, some drivers refuse to work in that mode, but it's a limitation of the driver, not Windows. Drivers for early Sound Blasters are shipped with Windows, …

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Re: 3 Com 3C509 vs RTL 8019AS ISA Ethernet

Posted on 2022-04-06, 12:11

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Deunan wrote on 2022-04-06, 08:45: Also, full duplex on TP will not work in auto mode on 3Com, that is HW limitation it seems. Full Duplex doesn't work automatically on any 10 Mbps card. FD autonegotiation needs NWay, ie. 100 Mbps card. With a 10 Mbps card, FD needs to be set manually on both the …

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Re: Mod Master XT 1.0 Released : Play .MOD, .XM and .VGM on a 8088 4MHz

Posted on 2022-04-05, 07:41

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Is Mod Master XT the recommended version for all PCs? If not, which version is the best for machines faster than XT?

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Re: Terminal multiplexer for DOS

Posted on 2022-04-02, 02:13

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

There's plenty of multitaskers and task-swappers for DOS, some of them even shipped with certain DOS versions, see eg. Dosshell. But I'm not aware of any with support for scrollback or copy&paste.

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Re: IBM OS/2 2.0 turns 30 this month

Posted on 2022-04-02, 01:01

by

by Grzyb

in Milliways

in Milliways

I remember it when OS/2 2.0 was released - I've read an article in some magazine, definitely positive, maybe even enthusiastic. But I wasn't able to try it out myself, due to its system requirements. 386 (preferably 486), 8 MB RAM, plenty of HDD... it was all frightening, considering that vast …

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Re: Recording PC Speaker?

Posted on 2022-03-30, 13:56

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

http://www.oldskool.org/guides/speakerrecording Also, common ALS100 cards can play PC Speaker sound without the need for any special cable - they listen to the appropriate I/O on the bus.

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Re: 386 motherboard detects only 768KB of 1 MB ram, is it normal?

Posted on 2022-03-29, 17:53

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Seems normal. The 640K..1M range is reserved for ROM BIOS, video memory, LAN adapter memory, etc. The SIMM memory from that range may be lost, or remapped above 1M, or used as ROM shadow. Enter the CMOS Setup, and search for options like "Shadow" and "Remap" - it's likely you can make the entire 384 …

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