I just searched for "tandy 1000" "BIOS ROM" in google and the 4th link already got me to a download. Is that really just my personal magic google skills?

Anyways, imho there are few good games that were "tandy exclusive", so while back in the days it did matter that you don't wanna invest into an expensive EGA card, but today and with emulation the "tandy advantage" seems highly theoretical unless you have that "killer title" on your list of favorites. I think there were some games that supported like "tandy sound or PC speaker" and of course the tandy sounds much nicer, but graphics wise you will only be impressed if you compare against pure CGA.

Thanks very much.

Acquiring any quantity of Tandy PSSJ chips, which provide both enhancements to the SN76496, and add DAC/4th-channel PSG capabilities, doesn't seem likely. At best, you'd be looking at using just a straight-up SN76496 or variant.

Particular graphics or BIOS requirements would likely be the easiest to overcome, based on the success others have had doing so. (Tandy even apparently produced a handful of their own "XT PSSJ" ISA development boards, which relied on a BIOS extension executable to "fake-out" the BIOS calls.)

Port redirection seems like it would be the most interesting venture, and might involve disabling the second DMA controller, thereby restricting its use.

DOSBox' emulation of the 3-voice hardware is respectable, but not yet 100%, especially concerning PWM playback. I don't have DOSBox recordings for comparison (the output is inaccurate, trust me), but the following are examples recorded from an actual Tandy system:

Rob Hubbard - "Skate or Die!" PC Intro [Tandy]
Rob Hubbard - "Jordan vs. Bird: One-on-One" PC Intro [Tandy]
Rob Hubbard - "Kings of the Beach" PC Intro [Tandy]
Rob Hubbard - "688 Attack Sub" PC Intro [Tandy]

Thanks a lot for providing those YouTube music videos, they were really good. In the explanation text for them, you say "Audio recorded directly from a Tandy 1000 RL system, with additional stereo-chorus and EQ effects applied." What do you mean by "with additional stereo-chorus and EQ effects applied?" Was this part of the recording done using a non-Tandy machine?

No, the Tandy output was simply fed into an effects unit (Boss VF-1), which provided the stereo-chorus and EQ.

I was just pondering in regards to this, the Creative Music System [CMS] / Creative Game Blaster has very simular sound to the Tandy soundchip [though not compatible with it], not a whole lot of games supported the CMS though, [maybe 100 or so, if even that]. It was Creative Labs very first soundcard utilizing two Philips SAA 1099 chips [sticker labled by creative as CT-301]... no FM synth, just pure 12 voices of square-wave stereo sound and some noise channels.

Just an FYI, Sound Blaster 1.5 has two empty sockets so you can install the Philips SAA 1099 [CT-301] chips and have a CMS for games that supported it without hindering the FM synth of SB compatible games. Best of both worlds. 😀

Oh yes. 😀 Please see this Vogons thread for more details!

Great Hierophant wrote:

retro games 100 wrote:

Ah, I see. Excellent advice - much appreciated. So it looks highly unlikely that a "3rd party" Tandy sound clone component card could be made to work successfully with the games that look for Tandy specific hardware. Oh well.

If I find an old Tandy 1000 machine, I wonder if I can buy one of those EGA to VGA converter gadgets found on ebay, and make it send the output to my VGA LCD?

You would be better off buying a VGA card that can work in an 8-bit slot, just don't buy a 1000/A/HD/EX/HX. Those EGA to VGA converters convert analog signals and CGA/TGA/EGA are digital signals.

Can I just double-check something please: Say I have a Tandy 1000 machine. Is there any way to connect it up to an LCD? Is there any kind of "converter gadget" that can sit between a Tandy and an LCD? Or can machines such as a Tandy (or other EGA-like machines) only work with CRT-style monitors?

for a Tandy 1000 you'd actually need a CGA-to-VGA (not EGA-to-VGA) converter.

I know they exist but I've never used one. They seem to be pretty limited when it comes to target monitor resolution / aspect ratio / etc... and there also seems to be a widespread misconception these days that arcade monitors (and anything 15KHz really) can be referred to as "CGA", even though the sync polarity is not the same (and so on), so better double-check what the intended usage really is.

These might work:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/15Khz-RGB-CGA-Comp … =item518c34cc39

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Arcade-game-RGB-CG … =item3cbb460b06

Actually I don't think they will. PC's CGA and EGA are digital TTL signals. CGA and EGA in this sense is usually talking about arcade machines which are an analog signal.

I know for certain that the second unit linked, the Gonbes GBS-8220, doesn't work with PC's CGA and EGA output, but will work with an Amiga's 15KHz analog output.

Shame...

DonutKing wrote:

...CGA and EGA in this sense is usually talking about arcade machines which are an analog signal.

so I've noticed - you can't search the web for an old PC monitor these days without running into this sort of obfuscating crap. All due respect to arcade hobbyists, but what's the burning need to confuse others just for the heck of it?

...

[this coronary was brought to you by dumb people on teh internets, and apparently a lack of medication]