Re: Retro machine with 4GB, Windows 7 x86 or x64?

Posted on 2023-01-27, 21:06

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

On the other hand, a 64-bit OS is the one that can utilize the full potential of your CPU, not crippling it with 32-bit only mode ;) Normally, yes, though there are exceptions. A virtualization software can run a 64-Bit guest on a 32-Bit host by using hardware-assisted virtualization, for example. …

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Re: Retro machine with 4GB, Windows 7 x86 or x64?

Posted on 2023-01-27, 19:51

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The x86 version will give me some 16-bit compatibility but limit processes to 2GB RAM, while x64 will cut off 16-bit compatibility but allow processes to use more than 2GB RAM. I'm more inclined to use Windows 7 x64 since I'll have XP Pro x86 to fallback on, but I'm open to opinions/suggestions. Hi …

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Re: What happens on a Hayes modem when ATDT; is dialed?

Posted on 2023-01-27, 13:19

by

by Jo22

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

You can also use ATDP to DIAL PULSE. If you are old enough to remember dial phones, you know what pulse dialing is. I agree. 🙂 Here in old Germany, pulse dial was used for a long time as a default. Even though our telephone system supported tone dial early on. This may seem silly, but we somehow …

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Re: What happens on a Hayes modem when ATDT; is dialed?

Posted on 2023-01-27, 12:44

by

by Jo22

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

Hi there. This is a bit off-topic perhaps, but I just got an old Creatix modem in the mail from eBay. I learned, that it supports an older standard, V.25bis. It's an old ITU standard less known in the states, for examples. https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/v25bis Anyway, I thought this …

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Re: Generic 80386 bios for Evergreen Superchip 286 -> 486

Posted on 2023-01-27, 10:59

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Glad to hear it works. 🙂 I suppose a 80386 BIOS is recommended due to LOADALL emulation, among other things. That instruction is available on 80286 only, so 386 BIOSes do usually emulate it for backwards compatibility. http://www.rcollins.org/articles/loadall/tspec_a3_doc.html

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Re: Attention: Potiential buyers beware to certain SSDs that is set to 520 byte sector please read.

Posted on 2023-01-26, 20:15

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Only thing that is a problem is SSD that I mentioned above. "SSDs have been 4K since day one... its spindle disks that are now transitioning from 512 B to 4KB sectors (which matches SSDs actually)." Src: https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/4k-sector-block-format-and-ssd.2059083/ Cheers, Nastrovje! …

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Re: Attention: Potiential buyers beware to certain SSDs that is set to 520 byte sector please read.

Posted on 2023-01-26, 18:41

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks a lot of the information! 🙂👍 Though aren't we using 4Kn since ~2010, anyway? 512 Bytes/per Sector on the interface level is obsolete/deprecated for 15 years. Windows 8 fully supported 4k native, Windows 7 recognized it, at least. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Format

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Re: Old GOG games are slowly getting killed

Posted on 2023-01-26, 12:22

by

by Jo22

in Windows

in Windows

Okay, time for facts. Kids, please sit down and listen. :) " Historical origins of Direct3D Direct3D can be described as a graphics operating system, although it would be less pretentious, and perhaps more accurate, to refer to it as a 3D graphics back end. Its core function is to provide an …

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Re: Old GOG games are slowly getting killed

Posted on 2023-01-25, 07:36

by

by Jo22

in Windows

in Windows

Update. Found something. These are the days of the Win 98/early DirectX era that I remember, more or less: "1998 was the year in which work on the International Space Station began, France won their own World Cup, the US President Clinton denies all, and Europe agrees on having a single currency. In …

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Re: Old GOG games are slowly getting killed

Posted on 2023-01-25, 04:45

by

by Jo22

in Windows

in Windows

Nearly all Direct3D games ran in software mode, originally. No they didn't. Only a few offer Direct3D's software mode and they're usually retained mode clunkers fro m 1997 (Lego Island, MSVRML, etc). Early Direct3D games that also had a software renderer were their own independently written …

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Re: Old GOG games are slowly getting killed

Posted on 2023-01-24, 18:08

by

by Jo22

in Windows

in Windows

Know any games that use Direct3D in software mode? AFAIK non-accelerated D3D rendering isn't used in software mode. With some games, DirectDraw might be used in conjunction to accelerate the 2D aspects of the game. Beware, long answer ahead! :D Nearly all Direct3D games ran in software mode, …

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Re: Old GOG games are slowly getting killed

Posted on 2023-01-24, 02:09

by

by Jo22

in Windows

in Windows

Virtual machines are good solutions, too. Sadly they don’t work for 3D right? I never tried much in that area, I always kept previous PCs as much as possible and have quite a collection today 🤣 Hi there! 3D acceleration isn't absolutely required for DirectX up to 6.1 or 7. Up to this level, the …

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Re: DirectDraw or DirectX porting to Windows 3.1+Win32s possible ?

Posted on 2023-01-23, 18:02

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Don't bother with MinGW or MinGW-W64 they won't work for less than NT 3.50/95. Both can compile working programs for NT 3.50 and 95. Thanks! NT 3.5 would be a start for me, at least, if it's possible. :) You shouldn't need to run an environment on an old Windows OS (XP) unless you want to or the …

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Re: Slow networking on Win 3.11...

Posted on 2023-01-23, 17:21

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Interesting - I was actually beginning to think it might be a disk access issue. I do have Smartdrv loaded at booting time - I remembered back in the day it made quite a bit of difference in terms of performance and Win3.1x usually adds it to the startup files anyway (back in the 90s, I remember a …

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Re: DirectDraw or DirectX porting to Windows 3.1+Win32s possible ?

Posted on 2023-01-23, 16:43

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

On the other hand.. Win32s seems to be quite forgiving, which gives hope for further experiments. Copying the pseudo DirectX 3 runtime files from NT 4 SP6 over to \SYSTEM\WIN32S partially worked (in quotation marks). The Win32s test application nolonger complains about DirectDraw being missing. It's …

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Re: DirectDraw or DirectX porting to Windows 3.1+Win32s possible ?

Posted on 2023-01-23, 15:41

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Thanks for all your replies so far, guys! I really appreciate your feedback! :smile: :thumbsup: One of the sumbling stones might be the compilers needed, also. Visual C++5.0 can be convinced to use CRTDLL.DLL (via CRTDLL.LIB) and its linker can be forced to use relocation tables (/FIXED:NO). (Note: …

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Re: Windows 95A on a 386SX/Ryzen 9

Posted on 2023-01-23, 14:05

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I was able to copy the same Windows instalation on a 840MB drive and using an ISA - IDE card to boot it up on 386 SX 33 Mhz/ 4MB . (only in safe mode) I knew people in the 90s who tortured their 386/486 PCs with Windows 95 on 4MB of RAM and ~40MB HDDs. I'm still angry about them for being so …

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Re: Can all the tantalum capacitors on a motherboard be shorted?

Posted on 2023-01-23, 13:32

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Old farts use analog meters because they got used to them, and it looks cooler on YT videos. This is respectles, I think. And a bit snobby. I know some of these personally. Some of those socalled "old farts", especially radio amateurs, were pioneers in the 1970s when the socalled "computer …

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Re: Any news about PCEM development? It's been quiet for several months.

Posted on 2023-01-23, 09:05

by

by Jo22

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

I don't know what to say, to be honest. Usually once a year a new version is released and well it's been a while even for just minor changes. Usually.. Um, *maybe* its because the original developer gave up development because of, uhm, negative 'feedback' and because PCem has a new maintainer? I * …

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Re: Windows 95A on a 386SX/Ryzen 9

Posted on 2023-01-23, 08:31

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I was able to copy the same Windows instalation on a 840MB drive and using an ISA - IDE card to boot it up on 386 SX 33 Mhz/ 4MB . (only in safe mode) I knew people in the 90s who tortured their 386/486 PCs with Windows 95 on 4MB of RAM and ~40MB HDDs. I'm still angry about them for being so …

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