A P233MMX I bought this summer was an ECG machine with 5 custom ISA cards filled with chips and so forth. I threw them all out. No point holding on to something without the software and other peripherals needed.
wrote:A P233MMX I bought this summer was an ECG machine with 5 custom ISA cards filled with chips and so forth. I threw them all out. No point holding on to something without the software and other peripherals needed.
When it comes to something rare, the rule of thumb is "When in doubt, don't throw it out"
Never know when you might catch a lucky break
The thing is that there's enough in the machine to tell me that this isn't a custom contract product and more just a commercial product that Matrox sold but didn't sell all that well, mainly because Laserdisc setups were horribly expensive and CD's were really taking hold by then. It's still entirely possible the software is out there.
For example, this, which the site owner has made impossible for me to contact the original owner regarding getting a copy of the hard drive but does mention the cards are "driverless".
"It's science. I ain't gotta explain sh*t" 
I've sourced a 27128 which should work for this instance. I'll give it a wipe and try a burn later today.
"It's science. I ain't gotta explain sh*t"
Hm, if it can be of any use, I just found this on one of the Matrox Imaging FTP servers. Goes with the MVP/AT framegrabber;
ftp://ftp.matrox.com/pub/imaging/retired_products/mvp/
That will be extremely handy for getting the MVP running. I had already quickly searched and aside from Matrox touting it as their first imaging product it seems everyone else is using them in the scientific field.
Also, I still can't figure out what "MSD" is so I can't get you any sort of a memory map to analyze. What is it an abbreviation for? MS-DOS? I wasn't aware it shipped with a memory map program.
"It's science. I ain't gotta explain sh*t"
Managed to get into the BIOS. Again, we're currently running with the VGO board removed because I'm still futzing with making the EPROM image fit on the new chip. You press and hold the DEL key during POST and it gives you an absurdly basic BIOS (set date, set time, ask if you have an internal disk, ask if you have an external disk, then tells you what floppy drives are installed and if you want to save and reboot). There goes the assumption that there was additional options in the BIOS. 😒
So now it boots off its hard disk (which I now believe is original to the machine judging from a recess over the front for the activity LED so if a recovery can be performed, we MIGHT have a chance) and confirmed that both floppy drives are the original 720k floppy drives. I'll probably swap those out eventually for black faced 1.44mb drives if I can find a matched set and then use these drives to revive my Emax keyboard. 😀
Edited: Commander Keen? Family Tree Maker? Brooklyn Bridge? Graphical Strip Poker???
Who the hell last used this machine? 
"It's science. I ain't gotta explain sh*t"
Graphical Strip Poker???
🤣
wrote:I still can't figure out what "MSD" is so I can't get you any sort of a memory map to analyze. What is it an abbreviation for? MS-DOS? I wasn't aware it shipped with a memory map program.
Microsoft Diagnostics. Shipped with Windows 3.0 and MS-DOS 6, provides some technical info about a PC's hardware and software:
This is what it shows when you select the Memory button:
I took these screenshots from DOSBox and switched the color scheme to black & white to make it easier to read.
wrote:Commander Keen? Family Tree Maker? Brooklyn Bridge? Graphical Strip Poker??? Who the hell last used this machine? http://fi.some […]
Commander Keen? Family Tree Maker? Brooklyn Bridge? Graphical Strip Poker???
Who the hell last used this machine?
Someone who was obviously trying anything they had on hand 😉
Ooohh, the pain......
Oh, that program. I completely forgot it exists.
Okay, here's the full spread. There's a number of applications resident besides DOS because I'm running right off the hard drive.
I still can't chop up that EPROM image. I need additional help with that job. Any takers?
"It's science. I ain't gotta explain sh*t"
Cool thread!
Found this from a user on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/LaserDisc/comments/3 … cibm_286_combo/
I remember these from back in the late 80's. They were used as part of a M60 tank simulator. You had a mock up of the fire control system and site connected to the ports on the back of this thing. The gun site was connected to a monitor and the laserdisc played video of various terrain with enemy tanks. You aimed and fired and the system would show you a hit or miss. Kind of like if you combined the arcade games Battlezone and Dragon's Lair. This is a cool find, I would think it would be hard to find the disc or any of the fire control components though.
HMMM. Well that's an explaination to the military contractor badge on the back.
I ended up putting the machine abck in storage due to space constraints but now that I have a proper PLCC puller I could try reseating the rest of the chips on the video board. I still wanna see if I can get it up.
"It's science. I ain't gotta explain sh*t"
