Re: Revisiting an x86-based alternative to the Raspberry Pi, optimized for retro gaming

Posted on 2022-05-23, 14:05

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I agree. OEM P4sand even Athlon 64 systems are literally like VD. Shit is everywhere. It used to be the same with P2/3, Pentiums, 486s, etc. Give it 5-10 years and supply will begin to dry up. The next jump in hardware is then to XP which has a very wide range of hardware you could use, and it's …

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Re: SoftMPU on a Compaq Contura

Posted on 2022-05-23, 13:34

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by Jo22

in SoftMPU

in SoftMPU

For games that don't work in the DOS window, I could always fall back on serial MIDI with SoftMPU. Yes, that's a possibility. If you're into MT-32, the MT-32Pi project supports SoftMPU, too. https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi/releases The standard baut rate was set to PC compatible speeds because …

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Re: my compact flash experience is a dud

Posted on 2022-05-23, 12:48

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Also possible would be DoubleSpace/DriveSpace. Sound like nonsense these days, I know. But it would take care of small files in a better way. Remember, each file on FAT takes up between 512B - 4KB, even if the content is merely a few Bytes. DriveSpace could improve performance at some point, also ( …

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Re: Voyager probes 40th anniversary

Posted on 2022-05-23, 12:28

by

by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

Update. May 18, 2022. As you may have had read in the gutter press the past few days, Voyager 1 currently sends strange telemetry back to earth. More information: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/engineers-inves … -telemetry-data

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Re: soundblaster awe 32

Posted on 2022-05-22, 00:48

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

maxtherabbit wrote on 2022-05-22, 00:01: Did anyone ever determine if AWEUTIL will function on the 286? Or did OP just switch to unisound? Hi. I wonder the same. I'm afraid to break my current 286 system (it finally works fine), but can try running the AWEUTIL executable alone. - I'll write back …

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Re: AdLib GOLD clone is now a reality

Posted on 2022-05-21, 22:18

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

😎👍

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Re: Missing I/O address 220

Posted on 2022-05-21, 06:25

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Btw, port 220h is also used by Sound Blaster cards by default..

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Re: Why is Gravis Ultrasound very expensive?

Posted on 2022-05-21, 05:42

by

by Jo22

in Windows

in Windows

^Hi, the AWE seems to be fully emulated in PCem/86Box.. That's why I decided to keep an AWE card, for the sake of owning an original device with the 8K ROM font. I even made my own dump, which was accepted by the emu. However, it's been years since I ran PCem on powerful hardware.. I'm stuck with a …

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Re: To upgrade or not to upgrade? That is the question. (i486 DOSBox)

Posted on 2022-05-21, 01:52

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

It really depends on the games you want to play. For an allrounder, a 486DX2-66 is fine. In fact, that's what was seen as a "sweet spot" for a long time . Since the chassis seems to have a turbo button, it might be easily possible to slow down the PC if needed. Just make sure the DX2 processor …

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Re: What was the most surprising/odd thing you've found on an old computer?

Posted on 2022-05-20, 19:23

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by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

It's too bad the actual harddrive isn't in the footage though. I always find it fun to see if I can figure out exact model numbers and such :P Hi, I think the same! 😁 The script was from circa '87, when ST506 era fixed-disk drives were still around. Btw, Data talks about the HDD in the scene when …

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Re: List of video card tech demos

Posted on 2022-05-20, 17:46

by

by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

I will add that as well for the facr it's still a official video card OEM demo. Thank you! ^_^ If you ever need a copy of these that you can't find online, please let me know. I may not qualify as a real gamer, but software preservation is a side hobby of mine. Maybe I do have copies of an old demo …

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Re: What was the most surprising/odd thing you've found on an old computer?

Posted on 2022-05-20, 17:39

by

by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

I've found porn that scarred me for life on some hard drives. Other than that, there was never anything that made me lose my shit. One of these days I hope to buy a cheap AT box and find a GUS or LAPC-I or something like that inside, but never happened. Here in Germany, I've never found p0rn on old …

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Re: What was the most surprising/odd thing you've found on an old computer?

Posted on 2022-05-20, 17:02

by

by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

the older a computer gets the more interesting the mundane business stuff seems to become, a peek into history. a few letters and a spreadsheet from 2010 seems a bit dull, but from 1995 and it suddenly feels like digital archaeology! I have actually thought about this and I wouldn't be surprised if …

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Re: List of video card tech demos

Posted on 2022-05-20, 15:24

by

by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

Not an official Nvidia demo, but historically relevant maybe.: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce256-t,135-4.html i should add, but there are some demos I added that are unofficial as well. For example Unigine benchmark is on Nvidia site but it's not theirs. I understand, makes sense. …

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Re: List of video card tech demos

Posted on 2022-05-20, 15:15

by

by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

Not an official Nvidia demo, but historically relevant maybe.: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce256-t,135-4.html Edit: "I have to say that I never saw a game-demo as impressive and as beautiful at the same time, but some of you might be very disappointed about the complete lack of blood …

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Re: Home Computer - was it a toy or a Personal Computer for the masses?

Posted on 2022-05-20, 01:05

by

by Jo22

in Milliways

in Milliways

Hi again! - There's another thing that I forgot to mention. :) Speaking of revisionism, maybe we forget that history was perhaps different among the countries around the world ? I mean, the home computer market in old Europe (UK, France, Germany, Belgium; sowewhere around here) of the 1980s was very …

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Re: Small 286 motherboard not posting

Posted on 2022-05-19, 08:34

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

"I did read that some old motherboards wont turn on without a working battery?" Yes, happens with old 68k Mac all the time. They need a push on the reset buttons, too. NVRAM, Parameter RAM etc. On old ATs, the clock chip contains the BIOS parameters. They're stored in the unused parts of the RTC's ( …

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Re: List of popular DOS games and their optimal sound system

Posted on 2022-05-19, 08:16

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The Crusader series are an interesting example: GUS output is mono even though the game uses tracker music and takes advantage of the hardware mixer. The "optimal" sound cards are the Ensoniq Soundscape and SB16 because it does support 16-bit mixing and has stereo separation for the music. Any …

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Re: Trident 8900D ISA Dead

Posted on 2022-05-19, 00:21

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Is one of yours has 2 eeproms in two sockets that works in your 286? Cheers, Hi, it's this one. It has two EPROMs. I could dump them if that's helpful. Not sure if they compatible with the 8900D, though. Tiido likely knows more aboutthe matter than me. All I really know is that the 88xx, 89xx, 90xx …

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Re: Trident 8900D ISA Dead

Posted on 2022-05-19, 00:02

by

by Jo22

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

[..] it's kind of pointless since it doesn't run on XT-class machines (internal BIOS probably has 286+ code):[..] XT class machines can handle 80286 instructions just fine if an 80188/80186 or NEC V20/30 is installed. With the exception of Protected-Mode or NMI related instructions. Likewise, an …

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