Its a SB pro isnt it? Yes you could use that card, but you cant use the CMS option.. Then you only have soundblaster / sbpro and adlib.

bristlehog wrote:

Er, I kinda don't know if the games utilizing CT1330's dual OPL2 will run on a 286.

I had for a long time a 286 20Mhz and I was able to play all games with sound except those which specifically required a 386.
With this 16bit sound card.

$24. Mobo battery is dead though. Any suggestions on how to prevent BIOS settings from wiping every power-off?

You could solder in a battery holder and put in a couple of AAs or AAAs, assuming the onboard battery uses a voltage of 3v.

As for mouse, I'd like to use an optical one which is easier to use than ones with a ball inside. But is there ever a way to get one working with a serial port?

bristlehog wrote:

As for mouse, I'd like to use an optical one which is easier to use than ones with a ball inside. But is there ever a way to get one working with a serial port?

Probably not. If you're thinking you can plug a USB-to-PS/2 adapter into a PS/2-to-serial adapter, they definitely don't work that way; even PS/2 mice won't work with a PS/2-to-serial adapter unless they are specifically designed to do so.

There might be some solution out there somewhere, but it is likely to be an expensive piece of custom equipment.

Didn't someone bring up the idea of programming an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi to act as a PS/2-to-serial mouse adapter a while ago?

I've found the old dead battery on the mobo, it's the Dallas RTC one:

There are some Dallas 1287 new chips on ebay, but I see none with those '8851' numbers on them. Anyone succeeded installing a new Dallas RTC here?

You can cut into it with a Dremel tool and wire a coin cell holder to the terminals inside. There's just a couple of watch batteries inside there anyway. You can Google for instructions of how to do it.

8851 is the manufacturing date ('88 cw 51). You should rather see that you get a newer module...