Re: Best CGA & Hercules monochrome games

Posted on Yesterday, 12:11

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

The mode 5 palette was actually not that rare. It seemed particularly common in French games, for some reason (maybe because it's as close as CGA gets to the tricoleur ? 🇫🇷) ;) It was also seen in a lot of earlier games, say pre-1986 or so, which actually used mode 5 for its documented purpose - …

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Re: MCGA monitor at 15 KHz?

Posted on 2020-10-18, 15:42

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

^ Excellent work! All the information you've presented in this thread could really use being compiled into a document somewhere. Again, I marvel that they went through all the work of implementing extra firmware and hardware support for the lower scan rate, only to keep it completely undocumented. …

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Re: „Below the root” hangs on IBM Portable 5155

Posted on 2020-10-16, 19:21

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Hm. My first thought before my previous post was the Model ID byte, but I looked it up and found that it's identical to the 5160 (as expected). And indeed the only branch is on the value of FDh (PCjr), so that can't be it. OTOH, I just remembered that Trixter had long ago mentioned a certain …

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Re: „Below the root” hangs on IBM Portable 5155

Posted on 2020-10-16, 00:32

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

My first thought was that the game might be compiled to use 80286 instructions, but then I looked up the game and saw it was from 1984. :) A game from 1984 can come from the internet in a form that was 'deprotected' much later. I've seen enough cases where a game was written for the 8088, but comes …

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Re: Funny commercials

Posted on 2020-10-15, 08:46

by

by VileR

in Milliways

in Milliways

John Cleese's Compaq commercials are classic: https://youtu.be/RlmzwZXa-Ww ("Portable 2 vs. Dead Fish") https://youtu.be/dPmiC_Zt88I ("32 Bits of a Bus") etc. etc.

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Re: Anyone know about this keyboard?

Posted on 2020-10-14, 10:12

by

by VileR

in Milliways

in Milliways

I just think it's neat and was hoping for stories or info not on wiki When you started the thread, you wrote that you haven't had any luck finding *any* information on it, so that would lead others the wrong way wouldn't it? ;) But yes, it does look neat and the switches probably make it much nicer …

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Re: Anyone know about this keyboard?

Posted on 2020-10-13, 15:06

by

by VileR

in Milliways

in Milliways

What is there to know that isn't already on the web, when you search for the company name + model number?

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Re: Crystal Caves HD!?

Posted on 2020-10-12, 15:17

by

by VileR

in Milliways

in Milliways

If you were to see the game, without knowing what engine/toolkit it's built on, would you be able to tell that it's Unity just based on the look and feel? Or do you need to read that bit of information to decide whether you're "saddened and disappointed" or not? This isn't even a rhetorical question …

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Re: Crystal Caves HD!?

Posted on 2020-10-10, 01:49

by

by VileR

in Milliways

in Milliways

I actually do like the look of the remake... simply adding colors does actually make the game look quite attractive, and I definitely prefer this approach over upscaling or even redrawing it in a higher resolution. Agreed. But seeing as they kept the low-res look, I suspect that they're sorta …

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Re: TSENG EVA/480 ET-2000 EGA / NEC GB-1 COLOR GRAPHICS BOARD

Posted on 2020-10-08, 00:50

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

The other one...dont know yet, its not a memory expansion. There is a Z80 and a HM6116 CMOS RAM on it. https://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/view/77359/HITACHI/HM6116.html The card seems to work without it. Oi. Came across this by accident, but that Z80 add-on is probably for register …

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Re: What music are you listening to?

Posted on 2020-10-05, 23:20

by

by VileR

in Milliways

in Milliways

70's rock right here! I was born in mid 1970s, so my exposure to 70s music was fairly limited. But 70s disco was my most favorite genre during early childhood. And in my country, disco continued to be popular until early 80s. It was also the time when we had our first Sony Betamax player, and this …

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Re: MCGA monitor at 15 KHz?

Posted on 2020-10-05, 21:30

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

So if I understand this correctly, you could hook up an IBM PS/2 model with MCGA graphics to a TV through RGB SCART, with a simple passive adapter cable, provided that the TV supported 60Hz vertical NTSC frequency video? Such as for instance most European Sony TVs? And most 256-color 320x200 DOS …

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Re: MCGA monitor at 15 KHz?

Posted on 2020-10-05, 18:44

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Thank ye. For now I've been looking a little deeper into that Model 30-286 (VGA, not MCGA) video BIOS. Mainly to satisfy my own curiosity about whether those character bitmaps at E000:8F00 onwards are ever used at all. I can't find any code with an obvious reference to that data, at least nothing as …

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Re: CGA monitor (Samtron SC-452) in need of revival

Posted on 2020-10-05, 16:55

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Appreciate the tips. As mentioned, for now I'm not planning to work on it myself, that's why I mentioned the Arduino gadget in order to provide the TV repair dude with some way to test the colors. ;) BTW, forgot to mention -- this monitor has a seemingly-pointless feature: if you push that little …

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Re: What music are you listening to?

Posted on 2020-10-04, 21:01

by

by VileR

in Milliways

in Milliways

70's rock right here!

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Re: CGA monitor (Samtron SC-452) in need of revival

Posted on 2020-10-04, 20:47

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

A little news - very little, since I haven't had much time to mess with this. I'm not thrilled about performing invasive procedures, due to the local unobtainium status of these monitors... and in any case, we're in the middle of another lockdown, so no there's no getting parts/tools for another …

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Re: I made a miniature IBM PC

Posted on 2020-10-03, 23:31

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As someone else who's hugely hung up on attention to detail - two thumbs up from me. 😁

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Re: 8-bit guy gets ultra-rare NOS IBM (prototype?) from Computer Reset then proceeds to obliterate it

Posted on 2020-10-02, 12:03

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

And you are correct that 160x100 graphics with 16 colors would be a valid use case of mode 3 on a composite monitor. You can't get correct timing, it seems, though. In standard mode, the CRTC outputs a 10 character wide sync pulse. In 80-column text mode, the CRTC would need to output a 20- …

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Re: 8-bit guy gets ultra-rare NOS IBM (prototype?) from Computer Reset then proceeds to obliterate it

Posted on 2020-10-01, 16:19

by

by VileR

in Milliways

in Milliways

Sounds reasonable. ¯\(°_o)/¯ Possibly except for his statement that he didn't think anyone would consider that machine valuable - I guess he should've known better. But it's clearly not the same as that fumbling drooler of ill repute, who smashed up that CRT precisely because some consider it …

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Re: 8-bit guy gets ultra-rare NOS IBM (prototype?) from Computer Reset then proceeds to obliterate it

Posted on 2020-10-01, 15:03

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Do you think the internet values a well-illustrated Model 30 teardown, or would I waste time making a nice illustrated teardown/reassembly guide for the PS/2 models? I didn't research into it, but hardware service manuals containing service instructions and part numbers might be available, just as …

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