IBMulator: An IBM PS/1 emulator! \ VOGONS

IBMulator: An IBM PS/1 emulator!

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First post, by ppgrainbow

Posted on 2015-07-24, 23:18

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I read somewhere at ps1stuff.wordpress.com that there is a emulator called IBMulator which emulates the IBM PS/1 Model 2011 which has a 10 MHz 80286 processor.

The problem is that the emulator is still in its early stages, but it is usable. It comes with a 31 MB hard disk image by default and can go up to 117 MB by selecting type 9.

I tried to install Windows 3.0 and Windows 3.1 inside IBMulator, but it ends up booting to a black screen with a blinking cursor when the emulator tries to read the file C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\KERNEL.EXE.

So far, IBMulator has been tested on 64-bit Windows Vista SP2 and later.

You're welcome to contribute and make improvements to the IBMulator and make the emulator more user friendly. 😀

Update 2015-08-18: IBMulator 0.5 is released. The update includes custom hard disk types up to 496 MB (or 1,024 cylinders, 16 heads and 62 sectors per track). The official limit is 504 MB with 63 sectors per track, but the BIOS has a uncorrectable bug that prevents hard disks with 63 sectors per track from formatting correctly.

Joystick support has been added. MS-DOS 6.x and Windows 3.1 works.

Update 2015-09-11: IBMulator 0.6 is released. Support for realistic GUI mode added. New key bindings. Windows 3.0 works now.

Update 2016-03-20: After more than six months, IBMulator 0.7 is out! In this release, IBMulator has much better emulation of hard drive and floppy diskette drive with realistic timing improvements. SpinRite II and Microsoft Diagnostics work now! 😀

Sound effects for floppy disk, hard drive and the system unit itself.

Lots of bugs have been fixed in this release as well

Update 2016-06-13: IBMulator 0.8 has been released! AdLib sound card emulation has been added. The CPU emulation is 50% faster and various bug fixes have been made in the audio subsystem.

Web page: http://ps1stuff.wordpress.com/
Here's the Git repository: https://github.com/barotto/IBMulator

Last edited by ppgrainbow on 2016-06-13, 21:24. Edited 11 times in total.

Reply 1 of 12, by Harekiet

Posted on 2015-07-25, 07:33

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Oh that's looks pretty neat.
Like the debug overlay with all the things changing all the time 😀

Reply 2 of 12, by sliderider

Posted on 2015-07-25, 14:05

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I'm trying to understand why someone would write an emulator that only emulates one specific make and model of PC rather than a generic PC emulator?

Reply 3 of 12, by Great Hierophant

Posted on 2015-07-25, 14:28

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For the GUI mainly.

http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/ - Nerdly Pleasures - My Retro Gaming, Computing & Tech Blog

Reply 4 of 12, by hottobar

Posted on 2015-07-25, 15:27

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Great Hierophant wrote:
For the GUI mainly.

Yes, and because I'm having fun developing it 😀
The PS/1 was my first PC so nostalgia is also a big factor.
Also it has some interesting, peculiar hardware features like the audio card.

Reply 5 of 12, by ppgrainbow

Posted on 2015-07-25, 18:21

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hottobar wrote:
Yes, and because I'm having fun developing it :-) The PS/1 was my first PC so nostalgia is also a big factor. Also it has some i […]
Show full quote
Great Hierophant wrote:
For the GUI mainly.

Yes, and because I'm having fun developing it 😀
The PS/1 was my first PC so nostalgia is also a big factor.
Also it has some interesting, peculiar hardware features like the audio card.

That sounds like fun! Nostalgia PC emulation is a big factor for me too. The Commodore 64 was my first PC and didn't get to use a 100% IBM compatible PC until at least early 1990 when I used a 10 MHz 286 based PC. That year, I installed Windows 3.0.

The only problem right now is that under IBMulator 0.4, Windows 3.0/3.1 hangs when trying to switch to graphics mode after the second disk install and when attempting to run Windows in Standard or Real Mode (Windows 3.0 only), the computer hangs or reboots. I'm wondering if it can be fixed in the next release.

Reply 6 of 12, by hottobar

Posted on 2015-07-26, 11:18

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ppgrainbow wrote:
The only problem right now is that under IBMulator 0.4, Windows 3.0/3.1 hangs when trying to switch to graphics mode after the second disk install and when attempting to run Windows in Standard or Real Mode (Windows 3.0 only), the computer hangs or reboots. I'm wondering if it can be fixed in the next release.

I didn't have the time to really test Windows, and protected mode in general, until yesterday, when I read your post.
I tried a Windows install and saw the same problem. I already fixed the hanging problem but another bug prevents Windows to boot.
Anyway, I'm working on it and the next release will probably be ok.

Reply 7 of 12, by ppgrainbow

Posted on 2015-07-26, 17:21

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hottobar wrote:
I didn't have the time to really test Windows, and protected mode in general, until yesterday, when I read your post. I tried a […]
Show full quote
ppgrainbow wrote:
The only problem right now is that under IBMulator 0.4, Windows 3.0/3.1 hangs when trying to switch to graphics mode after the second disk install and when attempting to run Windows in Standard or Real Mode (Windows 3.0 only), the computer hangs or reboots. I'm wondering if it can be fixed in the next release.

I didn't have the time to really test Windows, and protected mode in general, until yesterday, when I read your post.
I tried a Windows install and saw the same problem. I already fixed the hanging problem but another bug prevents Windows to boot.
Anyway, I'm working on it and the next release will probably be ok.

Thank you so much for the heads up! 😀

Do you have any idea what bug is preventing Windows 3.0/3.1 from booting properly?

Reply 8 of 12, by hottobar

Posted on 2015-07-27, 10:41

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ppgrainbow wrote:
Do you have any idea what bug is preventing Windows 3.0/3.1 from booting properly?

Oh it was just a bug in my 80286 implementation (https://github.com/barotto/IBMulator/commit/f … 8142df77b936392)

Now the POST hangs with the 103 error code. Interrupts are masked (blocked) for some yet unknown reason.

Debugging a PC emulator can be a real PITA sometimes... 😵

Reply 9 of 12, by ppgrainbow

Posted on 2015-07-27, 16:49

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hottobar wrote:
Oh it was just a bug in my 80286 implementation (https://github.com/barotto/IBMulator/commit/f … 8142df77b936392) […]
Show full quote
ppgrainbow wrote:
Do you have any idea what bug is preventing Windows 3.0/3.1 from booting properly?

Oh it was just a bug in my 80286 implementation (https://github.com/barotto/IBMulator/commit/f … 8142df77b936392)

Now the POST hangs with the 103 error code. Interrupts are masked (blocked) for some yet unknown reason.

Debugging a PC emulator can be a real PITA sometimes... 😵

POST error code 103 indicates a timer interrupt failure...so, it definitely is a bug in your 80286 implementation. I managed to install Windows 3.0 using the emulated IBM PS/1 2011 under PCem and the OS works without any problems...so, something is wrong in the IBMulator version, I'm hoping that it can be fixed soon. 😀

Reply 10 of 12, by ppgrainbow

Posted on 2015-08-16, 19:46

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I just checked out the GitHub repository on IBMulator and I see that a lot of bugs that prevent a successful Windows 3.1 installation have been fixed and custom hard drive types have been added!

IBMulator 0.5 is out now! Windows 3.1 now works, but Windows 3.0/3.0a still doesn't. It hangs at KERNEL.EXE on Disk 2, hard reboots when running in Standard Mode and hangs in Real Mode.

I would also like to mention that Microsoft Diagnostics causes the machine to hang when blinking "Microsoft Diagnostics is examining your system..."

Overall, IBMulator is improving!

Reply 11 of 12, by Great Hierophant

Posted on 2016-04-05, 16:51

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I finally got around to trying this emulator last night and must confess that I am pretty impressed! I updated my blog post with a sample from the IBM PS/1 Audio/Joystick emulation (with a comparative DOSBox Tandy sample) :

http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2015/10/t … sound-chip.html

Proper frequencies at last!

http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/ - Nerdly Pleasures - My Retro Gaming, Computing & Tech Blog

Reply 12 of 12, by Myloch

Posted on 2016-04-05, 17:52

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@great hierophant: Ykhwong build fixed ps1 audiocard frequency long ago, Dosbox-x build is still wrong, I signaled that in the Dosbox-x main topic but maybe this got unnoticed.

"Gamer & collector for passion, I firmly believe in the preservation and the diffusion of old/rare software, against all personal egoisms"

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