I would like to add some more pictures of the hardware, hope it is ok to do it as attachments in another post...

Standard, cheap hercules/MDA adapter:

MEDIAVISION SB/Adblib clone:

NE2000 compatible ethernet adapter (works in 8-bit slot with a special packet driver)

Multi I/O:

And a 28.800 ZOOM Modem (because ... why not ? 😀 )

And some screenshots / benchmarks:

The POST screen:

DOS BOOT:

Checkit System Specs.

Checkit Benchmark:

TOPBENCH Benchmark:

Thanks for watching, hope you enjoyed it!

Spectacular build! 😀

Enjoyed it but really want more showoff software and games!

PS: Funny enough, I'm currently into the "Things like XT-style HDDs, keyboards, MDA/CGA displays, strange power connectors were all too exotic for me at the time." phase, and try to suppress it. 😊

You had worries about the standard XT stuff and at the end, you come up with your own home built IDE controller? 🤣

By the way, your card is Hercules, not plain MDA. MDA cards cannot show any graphics, just text mode, as far as I remember. And I really want to know where did you get this as cheap? I was looking for one from time to time but couldn't find any cheap ones.

My first computer game was Prince of Persia which I was playing on an XT with monochrome Hercules adapter/monitor. 🤣

Hi Tayyare, thanks for your reply. Yes you are right about that Hercules / MDA differences. It`s my mistake - I usually confuse those two 😉 About that prices: Yes, in Poland I`ve seen quite a few offers ,low priced, but usually described as "not tested / unknown condition" 😀 From my experience, it is much greater problem to get a working Hercules / MDA monitor ! They are rare, and get rather expensive... (I`m not really happy with mine as it is black&white CRT, I would really want to have amber one, those look gorgeous !)

@GeorgeMan: I definitely have to do more research on interesting , good looking games for this system - I actually hadn`t enough time for this yet. I`ve only tried some 3 or 4 titles I remebered from the past (Prince Of Persia, Xenon 2 , Block Out). Maybe you or someone else could suggest something worth checking out ??

ciernioo wrote:

From my experience, it is much greater problem to get a working Hercules / MDA monitor ! They are rare, and get rather expensive...

Heh, funny, I have 3 of them, because I keep getting them with XTs, even though I don't use them.
I have one green IBM monitor, and two Commodore paperwhite ones (one came wiht a PC10-III, the other with a PC20-III, same thing really).
I believe the paperwhite ones were actually the most 'high-end'/expensive models. Green and amber were the cheap ones 😀

Great project and congratulations for the finished build... it looks great.

for ideas of games to play on an XT you can check the following topic:

The year is 1990 and you still have a PC/XT and can't upgrade. Which games are you playing?

Looks great. Once upon a time I picked up a 5150 and a MDA CRT (I believe). Both did not work. My first and only 8088 so far. I have also owned IBM PS/2 Model 30 8086s and upgraded one with a V30. The 8530s have MCGA: no EGA/VGA compatability.

Niiice! I have that same monitor but in amber.

Care to share a link for the XTIDE clone? I think I'd like one for my XT build.

SquallStrife wrote:

Niiice! I have that same monitor but in amber.

Care to share a link for the XTIDE clone? I think I'd like one for my XT build.

Hi! I`ve used the simplest possible circuit based on the product described here (works only with CF cards, fine with me):

https://www.lo-tech.co.uk/product/lo-tech-isa … mpactflash-pcb/

One can go even simplier - if you have a network card in your system, then you probably have an empty socket for EPROM/FLASH chip used for BOOTROM. You may use it for storing the XTIDE Universal Bios. You only have to build the 8-bit IDE interface consisting of a buffer, address decoder and IDE header.

Wayyyy to old for me. Like you this pre dates me and put off by cga, HDD's etc not being compatible with newer stuff.
Great to see another one lives though 😀 and even a touch of recent hardware with the SD card. I like

Excellent build! I am also getting a XT setup, here is some info I got for it: Re: Practical uses for a 10MHz 8088 IBM Clone from 1988?

I was looking at lo-tech's site too, I will build that IDE-CF card as I don't see a better way to add a HDD to the machine... wish I had one of these ISA protoboards too, would cheap my way with it 🤣 🤣 🤣

Looking forward to play with such an old setup TBH 😊

ciernioo wrote:

@GeorgeMan: I definitely have to do more research on interesting , good looking games for this system - I actually hadn`t enough time for this yet. I`ve only tried some 3 or 4 titles I remebered from the past (Prince Of Persia, Xenon 2 , Block Out). Maybe you or someone else could suggest something worth checking out ??

The games that I played in an Hercules display (some with software CGA emulation) during the times: Grand Prix, Space Quest, Prince of Persia, Police Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, some sort of NBA basketball game, Tetris, Blockout, Deathtrack, some sort of strip poker.

My two home mates at that time (1991, before I had my own PC) were both computer science students, and one had an XT (Commodore PC-20?) and the other had an 386SX-16, both with Hercules displays, and those above were the games we played. Though, I don't remember which ones we were playing on XT and which ones on 386SX.