Re: The Bus Mouse and Bus Card - Why were they overshadowed and replaced by PS/2?

Posted on 2011-04-22, 09:53

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well a big reason must have been the integration into the ATX form factor and PC97 specification. Why bother with another interface card when the specification had PS/2 mouse and keyboard? I'd imagine it's also the reason why serial mice died out too.

---

Re: DVD hardware decoder cards

Posted on 2011-04-21, 13:08

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

@sliderider How did you use a dxr2 without a pci slotted motherboard? The DXR2 is a PCI dvd decoder card. Also, I don't think the DXR2 works in Win3.1X. I am confussed, can you clarify how you got DVD playback working on a 486? It had to be ISA because like I said I never had a PCI 486 board until …

---

Re: Yamaha S-YXG50 and DB50XG

Posted on 2011-04-17, 07:30

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Quake 2 did indeed use Redbook CD audio. I wasn't even aware you could get music from it in any other way!

---

Re: Question about oldish lcd monitor and DOS

Posted on 2011-04-17, 07:27

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah, at the worst you tend to get "Signal out of range - please use X Khz - Y Hz", as the screen is not directly driven by the input signal.

---

Re: DVD hardware decoder cards

Posted on 2011-04-17, 07:24

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've still got a Creative DXR3 kicking around somewhere in my spares box. I remember that the output using overlay on my monitor scaled to the native res of the screen (I could have used the TV out - but I only had a 14" portable tv at the time!) was really very nice compared to software decoding on …

---

Re: DOS game programming

Posted on 2011-04-16, 17:52

by

by megatron-uk

in Milliways

in Milliways

Also, since I'm going to be compiling DOS programs, I downloaded VirtualBox, but which DOS version should I run in it? 6.2 or 6.22 are your best bets since you're making modern, protected-mode software. You could always use DOSBox as well. The only reason you would want to run an earlier version is …

---

Re: DOS game programming

Posted on 2011-04-16, 17:37

by

by megatron-uk

in Milliways

in Milliways

is there an IRC channel for discussing DJGPP? I didn't find it on Freenode anyway. I don't know, but one thing I forgot to mention is that DJGPP is just the compiler and such for the most part. If you want an IDE as well, a common one to use with it is called RHIDE. Remember that the actual …

---

Re: Spacers wavetable daughterboard

Posted on 2011-04-15, 15:49

by

by megatron-uk

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

They're just PCB standoffs. You should be able to get something vaguely similar from any decent electronic component supplier. Some are fastened by screws from the other side of the board, others are the push-to-lock type. Depends what you want. (of course you should probably get nylon ones so you …

---

Re: IBM 486SLC2 - 286 compatible?

Posted on 2011-04-12, 17:12

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ah, mine is a surface mount: download.php?id=8872 I'll have to keep an eye out for a 286 specific version - Kingston, Evergreen and Asus all apparently had 286 specific 486slc upgrade kits.

---

Re: IBM 486SLC2 - 286 compatible?

Posted on 2011-04-12, 11:34

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Actually, scratch the second one - it appears to mount in a socket, not clip over the original processor.

---

IBM 486SLC2 - 286 compatible?

Posted on 2011-04-12, 11:29

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Does anyone know if any of the readily available IBM 486SLC2 upgrade kits (the ones that clips over the original processor and have a socket on top for a 80387SX fpu) are compatible with a 286? I've seen a couple of designs: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IBM-PROCESSOR-UPGRADE-486-SLC2-50-8550-Z-70G7092-/ …

---

Re: Cyrix 5x86-133 Testing

Posted on 2011-04-08, 10:24

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Now that's significantly faster than the equivalent AMD chip. Impressive!

---

Re: Phoenix ATX-G P4-with-ISA-board

Posted on 2011-04-06, 19:38

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I remember Vogons user Aleksej has an industrial P4 mobo, and he has an AWE64 and a Live in it! The post about it is here . I think these iBase mobos are quite expensive. It's just possible that the Phoenix ATX-G mobo is cheap because it doesn't implement NMI, and therefore doesn't have much worth …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2011-04-02, 11:02

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just bought: Roland MPU-IPC card and breakout box. 4 x 30pin 1x9 70ns 1MB simms Cirrus Logic 5422 1MB

---

Re: How good are trackball mice?

Posted on 2011-04-01, 08:03

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I use them exclusively at both work and home - although I don't do a lot of fps gaming. I find that my wrist doesn't get aches and pains from the constant shuffling around that you do when using a mouse in a gui environment. Gaming wise, I couldn't say if they're better or worse. Possibly more …

---

Re: Worthwhile putting a 286 together?

Posted on 2011-03-29, 11:26

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The board looks cute! Btw, I got a 386 which had bad acid spots on the pcb. I cleaned it up best I could and, even though it's greenish spots looks ugly, it still worked! Your board seems to look remarkedly clean of those acid spots though, did any of it reach the pcb before you cought it? It looks …

---

Re: Worthwhile putting a 286 together?

Posted on 2011-03-29, 08:17

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think you're right actually - on closer inspection all of the headers and jumpers (except one, JP1, near the back of the board) are actually labelled. I guess I just need to get a new CMOS battery and some 30pin simms!

---

Re: Worthwhile putting a 286 together?

Posted on 2011-03-28, 21:18

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, I went over to my mum and dad's place this evening and took a look around the attic to find the 286 board... there's sucky news, bad news and good news: Sucky news: CMOS battery was all furred up and a couple of copper components at the base of the battery had turned green - luckily I think I …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2011-03-27, 21:18

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Looks like a V6 or V8 based XIO card there ... what's it for? It doesn't appear to have the locking mechanism attached for an Octane.

---

Re: Worthwhile putting a 286 together?

Posted on 2011-03-27, 20:11

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for all the replies - I think I'm going to try and put something together around my original PC motherboard and processor :-) The needed components seem to be fairly readily available - the only part that seems relatively expensive are ISA VGA cards (I'm going VGA as the system originally had …

---