pan069 wrote:

hasnopants wrote:

a 5.25 floppy emulator.

I wonder how you imagine this to work... I mean, since a gotek just lets you write different sized disk images...

If you flash a gotek with HxC custom firmware you can use whatever image size you want.

I first read about the NuXT on Vogons a few months ago when its creator posted about it and thought it was a really cool project. As others have said, I'm not sure it's fair to compare its price with the price of a used XT clone board - you're essentially trying to compare a product that was mass-produced 30 years ago from which the value has depreciated, vs a hand-assembled product made in the present day with the current labour costs.

I agree these are really exciting times when one can see so many recreations of vintage hardware being developed. Now I'd love to see a recreation of the original IBM PC case - which would accept mATX to ATX boards and ATX PSU - this way you could pretty much build your "new" 2019 XT! I've heard of new cases being developed by and for the Amiga community, but I'm not aware of anything like that for the retro-PC market.

Argh, "IBM" and "MS-DOS" stickers side by side!
For genuine IBMs there was PC DOS, MS-DOS was for clones 😜

Also, there's that SVM.EXE utility for TVGA9000 - helps a lot when running CGA games.

hasnopants wrote:

- For my case, I picked up another Coolermaster N200, I have 2 of my retro builds in these guys. They are cheap and they work w […]
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- For my case, I picked up another Coolermaster N200, I have 2 of my retro builds in these guys. They are cheap and they work well.
- For PSU I picked up a Thermaltake 500w (I know SUPER overkill, but it was just about the smallest PSU I could find at Microcenter).
- For floppy support, I ordered a GoTEK 3.5 floppy emulator. It's my first one and man is it a cool piece of tech!
- For extra connection possibilities, I picked up a ISA Parallel/Gameport/2xSerial multi card model AI12SG11.
- For amazing early sound compatibility I also snagged an Adlib clone from JD, coming along with the NuXT.
- For also amazing beeps and boops, I picked up a spare pc cone speaker (like Clint got in his LGR episode).

One last think I am kicking around in my head is somehow sourcing a working 5.25 drive, or if it exists, a 5.25 floppy emulator. Any suggestions are welcome!

I can't wait! And I am looking forward to seeing that build video Kiteless!

- N200 has a nice layout. And it's getting harder and harder and HARDER to find modern cases with a 3.5" bay in them. Even 5.25" bays are getting harder to find. In my Windows XP "sleeper" gaming rig I used a Fractal Focus G Mini. Has a similar layout except for the front bays.
- Yeah PSU is crazy overkill.
- The Gotek's are useful. I have one but honestly I found donking around with floppies to be more fun. They make chunky noises. But if you don't have any/much media the Gotek is the way to go. There are a couple different versions of the software. IIR Phil's Computer Lab has the best English version of the software. Watch some YouTube videos on how to use it, as it's a little odd.
- Ohh jealous on that multi-io you found. Since I need a free Serial port and also want to use a mouse, I found a parallel & serial 8-Bit ISA card at the Vintage Computer Festival West this last weekend for $10. It probably works. Haha.
- For sounds I have a TexElec "RadLib" clone.
- And for beeps I'll be using a 20 year old rescued cone speaker from an old AT case that's falling apart. Speaker seems fine but the case is about done.

I want to take it a step further and see if I could get DOS packet drivers working with an 8-BIT ISA network card.

This is and always will be one of the things I love about PC's. Build it your way, & make it your own. 😁

Oh yeah and thanks! I think I'm getting kinda OK at making YouTube videos. I'm really happy with my part 1 of my 486 build series. Part 2 coming this weekend.

I watched part 1 of your 486 series last night, it was good! Good luck with the channel and the build!

As far the GoTEK custom firmware...I stumbled on that a few days ago...the HxC custom firmware...but I was leery of flashing the thing. Has anyone done it and can attest to it working okay? Also if anyone has flashed one...can you point me to which process/files you used to do that so I can try to recreate that process and not brick my GoTEK 😁

Thanks!

Edit: I found this site...selling the HxC firmware. Is this legit?

https://hxc2001.com/store/

I would really like to see some work being done on cloning common chipsets in FPGA. To get a 386/486, we need a lot of glue logic first. Shouldn't be super difficult, since most of the individual features have been created in isolation at one time or another. Would also be nice to have a community VGA chipset.

This is kind of up there in one of my lifetime goals. First: an NES from scratch.

hasnopants wrote:

I watched part 1 of your 486 series last night, it was good! Good luck with the channel and the build! […]
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I watched part 1 of your 486 series last night, it was good! Good luck with the channel and the build!

As far the GoTEK custom firmware...I stumbled on that a few days ago...the HxC custom firmware...but I was leery of flashing the thing. Has anyone done it and can attest to it working okay? Also if anyone has flashed one...can you point me to which process/files you used to do that so I can try to recreate that process and not brick my GoTEK 😁

Thanks!

Edit: I found this site...selling the HxC firmware. Is this legit?

https://hxc2001.com/store/

HxC is a paid firmware and 100% legit I use it for my Amiga.

Flash-Floppy Gotk firmware is adequate for my PC needs though. And free.

hasnopants wrote:

I watched part 1 of your 486 series last night, it was good! Good luck with the channel and the build!

Hey thanks very much! 😎

[EDIT]

Instead of double posting I thought I would add this. Got this via email when I asked him about Windows 3.0 drivers for the NuXT's Trident TVGA 9000i.

Hello […]
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Hello

These ones work great with the 9000i in Windows 3.0, including in real
mode, for 1024x768 16-colors. (Can't remember if it needs a V20 or
not, like the stock Windows 3.0 VGA driver [a patched version on VCF
supports 8088])
I don't see a driver for 9000i, 800x600 256color or 640x480 256color
unfortunately.

http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=255

Cheers
JD

He also was keen to remind me that Windows 3.0 at 1024x768 would be quite slow even on an NEC v20.

I'll of course be looking forward to trying all kinds of goofy stuff on this machine, from Windows to DOS to games (in DOS of course), different hardware, and what ever else I can think of.

Anyway wanted to share.

Grzyb wrote:

Argh, "IBM" and "MS-DOS" stickers side by side!
For genuine IBMs there was PC DOS, MS-DOS was for clones 😜

That was the case up until PC Dos 4. PC Dos 5 up were available for clones and made available for other system x86 cards such as acorn RiscPC x86 co-processor card. IBM Dos was available right up to 2000 and was backwards compatible back to the XT class systems, both IBM and clones.

Kiteless wrote:

And it's getting harder and harder and HARDER to find modern cases with a 3.5" bay in them.

Then we're back to the 80's - back then PCs only had 5.25" bays, and installing a 3.5" drive required an adapter.

PSU is crazy overkill.

This made me wonder...
Modern PSUs often (or even always?) lack -5V, but certain old ISA cards require this voltage.
Does the NuXT board provide -5V to cards even when the PSU doesn't?

Yes NuXT will generate -5v

Caluser2000 wrote:

Grzyb wrote:

Argh, "IBM" and "MS-DOS" stickers side by side!
For genuine IBMs there was PC DOS, MS-DOS was for clones 😜

That was the case up until PC Dos 4. PC Dos 5 up were available for clones and made available for other system x86 cards such as acorn RiscPC x86 co-processor card. IBM Dos was available right up to 2000 and was backwards compatible back to the XT class systems, both IBM and clones.

I bought an AST Advantage 486SX/25 new, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. It came with DOS 5.0. I'm reaching back into foggy memories here, but IIRC, it was branded as MS-DOS, but used IBMBIO.SYS and IBMDOS.SYS instead of IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS. I'm not totally sure what to make of that.

Anyone that ordered get a shipping notice yet?

mothergoose729 wrote:

pan069 wrote:

hasnopants wrote:

a 5.25 floppy emulator.

I wonder how you imagine this to work... I mean, since a gotek just lets you write different sized disk images...

If you flash a gotek with HxC custom firmware you can use whatever image size you want.

I believe the free Flash-Floppy image can also do this. It's very much HxC compatible.

hasnopants wrote:

Anyone that ordered get a shipping notice yet?

When did you order it? Just went to Jacobs web site NuXT is now on "pre-order"; more stock should be ready in 4-8 weeks. Hit the "notify me" button on the product page and youll be added to the list of people who will be contacted first for the next batch!

I ordered about 2-3 weeks ago when there were still units in stock. I heard back from JD on shipping. He hopes to get my order out by the end of this month. So for anyone else who ordered in that last batch when there were units in stock (right after LGR video dropped) hopefully that is true for you as well!

I'd imagine orders went through the roof after the LGR review. I bet it caught Jacob by surprise by how many folk would want one.

That LGR video was some great marketing!

hasnopants wrote:

I ordered about 2-3 weeks ago when there were still units in stock. I heard back from JD on shipping. He hopes to get my order out by the end of this month. So for anyone else who ordered in that last batch when there were units in stock (right after LGR video dropped) hopefully that is true for you as well!

Soooooo getting back on topic here if possible. Thanks for the report Hasnopants! I've been hesitant to to bother JD more than I already have. He's been extremely responsive via email and I know he's getting these done as he can. I'm not in a rush but super excited. I got a case, PSU, floppy drives, add in cards and other goodies ready to go for this build.

/modaction

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