VOGONS


Reply 20 of 29, by Maraakate

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Shameful plug here, but if you are getting the box online with a network card (I suggest any NE2000 clone for ISA or a Linksys LNE100TX (revision # doesn't matter) as these cards are very easy and cheap to find on ebay and drivers are just as easy to find) and would like to play Quake 1 or QuakeWorld in pure DOS use my QDOS port at http://dk.toastednet.org/QDOS. The limits have been extended so you can load most of the ridiculously large maps that some custom coop servers have. No fancy effects to be found. It looks completely stock, but can be customized.

Reply 21 of 29, by Maxaxle

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Matth79 wrote:
If the motherboard is socket 7, then you can use socket 5 or socket 7 CPUs. […]
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If the motherboard is socket 7, then you can use socket 5 or socket 7 CPUs.

The main difference is that Socket 7 supports split voltage (which came in with the Pentium MMX).

Socket 5 CPUs - Pentium (P75 or higher), AMD K5, Cyrix 6X86 (NOT L)
Socket 7 CPUs - Pentium MMX, AMD K6, Cyrix 6X86L & 6X86MX

The "Super 7" class of Cyrix M-II, AMDK6-2 use socket 7, but at a higher FSB than Intel's 66MHz - with an Intel chipset, it is unlikely to be Super 7 capable

Can you make any specific recommendations and/or show me an online listing?

Maraakate wrote:

Shameful plug here, but if you are getting the box online with a network card (I suggest any NE2000 clone for ISA or a Linksys LNE100TX (revision # doesn't matter) as these cards are very easy and cheap to find on ebay and drivers are just as easy to find) and would like to play Quake 1 or QuakeWorld in pure DOS use my QDOS port at http://dk.toastednet.org/QDOS. The limits have been extended so you can load most of the ridiculously large maps that some custom coop servers have. No fancy effects to be found. It looks completely stock, but can be customized.

I don't see myself putting this DOS machine online (partially due to viruses, etc., partially because I don't think it's feasible), but thanks!

Reply 22 of 29, by Maxaxle

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Just now tried to install the drivers for my nice new Soundblaster 16, but the install disks I found in the Vintage Driver Library kept coming up with a "not enough conventional memory" error.
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=43

For reference, the target hard drive still has ~500 MB left.

Reply 23 of 29, by idspispopd

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Conventional memory refers to the first 640kB of RAM, accessible in real mode. The "mem" command will tell you how much free RAM you have.

Reply 24 of 29, by Maxaxle

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idspispopd wrote:

Conventional memory refers to the first 640kB of RAM, accessible in real mode. The "mem" command will tell you how much free RAM you have.

I have upwards of 65 megs of RAM, IIRC, so I don't suspect it would be an issue.

Reply 25 of 29, by mr_bigmouth_502

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Ah, but most of those 64MB (remember, 1024kB in a megabyte, so 65565kB/1024kB = just over 64MB) are what's known as expanded memory. The original IBM PC was limited to 640k of RAM because the 8088 CPU could only work with 1MB total, and some room had to be left over for address space. DOS was originally written with this in mind, and in order to maintain backwards compatibility, later versions of DOS kept this limitation, even when CPUs like the 286 and 386 came along which supported more memory. Anyway, programs written for these CPUs (more commonly the 386 since the 286's protected mode was flawed) could use the extra memory through what is known as "protected mode", but in order for a protected mode program to start, you have to execute it from the 8088-compatible DOS "real mode" environment, and as such you still have to have at least some free conventional memory, or "real mode" memory.

That's kind of a flawed, simplified explanation of it. The point is that no matter how much ram you have installed beyond 640k, in DOS you're still going to have to have some free memory below 640k in order for things to run. There is no "magical" way to have more than 640k of conventional memory, though there are all sorts of tricks that allow you to minimize usage of it, such as by loading certain device drivers "HIGH" in CONFIG.SYS.

It's been a long time since I've actually CONFIG.SYS on an actual DOS machine (thanks DosBox! 😁), but if you're running DOS 6.22 and you want to squeeze out a few extra crucial KB of conventional memory, try running MEMMAKER.

Reply 28 of 29, by Thandor

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Maxaxle wrote:

The Soundblaster 16 (PCI) card I ordered doesn't seem to be detected by the BIOS, and the driver installer doesn't seem to notice it either. Any ideas?

Can you test the card without drivers? In some cases I found that these sound cards can be detected without using drivers or any configuration at all. The SETUP from DOS-game IndyCar2 is able to detect a lot of cards without drivers.

Also a lot of games will work with just the environment-variables set. I have played many games on Sound Blaster Pro and 16 (ISA) without drivers.

The variables you have to set are probably the following:
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1

This will use address 220, IRQ 5 and DMA-channel 1. If your card is configured for something else (i.e. IRQ7) you have to change I5 to I7.

Last edited by Thandor on 2014-09-16, 20:38. Edited 1 time in total.

thandor.net - hardware
And the rest of us would be carousing the aisles, stuffing baloney.

Reply 29 of 29, by AlphaWing

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@Maxaxle
PCI SB16 is an Ensoniq AudioPCI rebrand or later its a SB128.
It needs drivers for Dos playback, its a PCI card.
The one Maxaxle has doesn't do real OPL-3 playback I think either.
It maps its wavetable sounds to OPL-3 producing this jibberish.
The later SB-128 trys to emulate opl-3 to better success.

http://support.creative.com/Products/product_ … e=Sound+Blaster#
Others- Archived - 16PCI-Very top.