Very interesting! I wonder how it would handle load? I used to host a low traffic page on a Pentium MMX 233 with 256MB and it was pretty good as long as nobody was downloading anything.

keenmaster486 wrote:

Set up a little webserver on my old 286:
http://casablanca25.mynetgear.com:286/

Amazing stuff!!

bfcastello wrote:

Amazing stuff!!

Thank you!

FAMICOMASTER wrote:

Very interesting! I wonder how it would handle load? I used to host a low traffic page on a Pentium MMX 233 with 256MB and it was pretty good as long as nobody was downloading anything.

I am not at all sure - you know it's kind of fun watching the requests come in as people click on it. I'm getting about 1 every minute here, which isn't nearly enough to hurt performance of course. I know that HTTPServ can handle up to 8 concurrent requests but I think the 286's hard drive would max out before it even got there.

keenmaster486 wrote:

Thank you! […]
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bfcastello wrote:

Amazing stuff!!

Thank you!

FAMICOMASTER wrote:

Very interesting! I wonder how it would handle load? I used to host a low traffic page on a Pentium MMX 233 with 256MB and it was pretty good as long as nobody was downloading anything.

I am not at all sure - you know it's kind of fun watching the requests come in as people click on it. I'm getting about 1 every minute here, which isn't nearly enough to hurt performance of course. I know that HTTPServ can handle up to 8 concurrent requests but I think the 286's hard drive would max out before it even got there.

This is how it looks here! Hahaha, incredible to see a server done with a 80286

I’m planning to test a PCem port for OSX, let’s see how this pans out this weekend...

xjas wrote:

It's a product of its time, but in such a good way. It'd make a great case badge IMHO. […]
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liqmat wrote:

Don't think I've ever seen that. Quite sexy if you ask me.

It's a product of its time, but in such a good way. It'd make a great case badge IMHO.

Duouk2000 wrote:

I've always wanted to test this version. Can you take some video footage of it running by any chance?

I was thinking of recording a playthrough when I get good enough to be able to beat it again. As it is, the third track is kicking my ass even though I can place 1st on the first two every time.

Vetz has a really well-done comparison up on youtube already, but he doesn't go through the whole game.

Thanks for the heads up! It looks so much better with 3D acceleration. The PC ports of Wipeout/2097 are both odd ducks really; I remember trying the demo for 2097 back in the day and even on my painfully slow machine the game ran unplayably fast due to being tied to the cpu speed.

Added a LumaFix and heat sink to my C64 rev. B from 1983, which to my surprise had a R1 VIC II as well. 😊

Thanks to Grzyb's post about HanJammer's Orchid Prodesigner IIs, I learned more about my Orchid Prodesigner IIs card that I got a few months back 😀

I don't have the NMC27C256B EEPROM for the translation ROM, but I do have some cheap 512kbit EEPROMs from China. Which can work as the 256kbit EEPROM that the Orchid Prodesigner uses for its optional translation EEPROM.
Comparing the pinout, because it's a different size, pin 1 on the 512kbit eeprom is an address pin. While on the 256kbit eeprom it's the programming power input pin. So I've bent pin 1 out of the way on the EEPROM, just to make sure nothing bad happens.

Now it can do emulation of EGA and CGA modes, for big text and less colours 😀

As an added bonus, getting the correct utilities for it and seeing its diagnostic information, now I know it has the "Hicolor DAC", which as far as I can tell gives me the ability to run Windows 3.11 at 800x600 with 32k colours, amazing!

edit: and it can play the copper demo, which does enough weird timing stuff that it makes me worry about it damaging the monitor 😜

Been investigating about a way to reduce the whining on my Olivetti CRT monitor. What I noticed is that it starts whining as soon as the Windows desktop loads. After checking out the settings in the Windows Display Manager, I noticed that all the basic resolutions and refresh rates had the sync polarity set in the wrong way. So, I have set them according to the specs in the manual, and rebooted. The monitor keeps whining though, less noticeably than before, but still annoying. It stops after some minutes, when the monitor warms up. 😵

I noticed that curiously, it does not whine during the CPU test in 3DMark 2003, besides during the POST phase, before Windows loads. I had the same issue with my previous CRT. Am I just unlucky or could just be the graphics card?

Guess only after I get another X1950 Pro and another Olivetti CDU 1458MS/HA71 I will find out.

Does it make the noise if it's at the DOS prompt?

Maybe it relates to the amount of light it's putting on the screen?

Now that is something I haven't tried. However sometimes switching the resolution back and forth can either cure the issue or trigger it again. It doesn't whine until the XP desktop appears though.

looking4awayout wrote:

Now that is something I haven't tried. However sometimes switching the resolution back and forth can either cure the issue or trigger it again. It doesn't whine until the XP desktop appears though.

That whining is probably normal for it. CRTs use high voltage driving circuits which can sometimes (depending on resolution and timings) drop into the human hearing range. For example, NTSC television runs the vertical scanning frequency at 60Hz - Producing a low hum or buzzing noise, and the horizontal scanning frequency at 15.734KHz, which is the high pitched whine.

My guess is that you're running 640x480 or 800x600 and the horizontal frequency is within your hearing range, producing a whining sound. It could also be that you're running a high refresh rate.

Thermalwrong wrote:

does enough weird timing stuff that it makes me worry about it damaging the monitor

I don't think I've ever heard of a CRT being damaged by improper timing. More than likely, if the CRT doesn't like the signal it's receiving it will just blank and tell you the signal is out of range.

Just finished restoring and testing my 1983 C64 rev. B. 😀

FAMICOMASTER wrote:

cut

Yeah, I'm running my RDD at 640x480 @72Hz, as the monitor is multiscan so it supports 72, 75Hz and 85Hz. I used to run it at 60Hz, but now I'm no longer used to it, higher refresh rates are much easier on the eyes. Perhaps some day I can put the 6800GT back and see if it does the same thing, or if I can stabilize my unreliable 7800GS, I can try that one.

FAMICOMASTER wrote:

Thermalwrong wrote:

does enough weird timing stuff that it makes me worry about it damaging the monitor

I don't think I've ever heard of a CRT being damaged by improper timing. More than likely, if the CRT doesn't like the signal it's receiving it will just blank and tell you the signal is out of range.

Probably this video put the thought in my head - good point though, any real video card wouldn't be capable of putting out signal that could damage a CRT.

This evening I've been buying parts to build a couple of Throwback Operators, hopefully the PCBs arrive soon - it's a shame that Aidan's project has kind of gone under the radar - it looks like a really cool project and quite feature complete. I'll be able to check that soon 😀

Has anyone else in the UK found that their parcels are getting caught by customs far more lately? Funny timing...

Old CRTs from the '80s that were designed to use one scan rate will not blank and they can malfunction if there is an "out-of-range" signal coming in. I'm talking about plain VGA monitors like an IBM 8512 for instance. I never saw a monitor get fried but a few times the protect circuit would engage and shut the monitor down, and I'd have to wait a while before powering it back on.

Made a Turboswitch 😀

Cool! Can you walk us through how you did it?

You shouldn't walk, you should drill through... 🤣