Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today
Posted on 2011-04-02, 11:02
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 …
Re: question about MIDIOX+MIDI Yoke
Posted on 2011-03-27, 19:36
USB is only rated to provide 5v at 500ma, so I'm surprised it works at all actually. Do you have any other MIDI devices that you could use to chain their output to the 8820 input? Perhaps try to get hold of a cheap USB to MIDI port to see if the MIDI DIN ports are really toast or not.
Re: No CRT Emulation? Why!?
Posted on 2011-03-27, 12:10
At a later stage I purchased a Sony Trinitron TV. Sole reason was a hidden service menu which you could activate through remote control by pressing certain buttons. This allowed me to control the image just like on a monitor with size and position. Later models had 100Hz. If you have the space, I …
Re: No CRT Emulation? Why!?
Posted on 2011-03-27, 11:41
Yes RGB was as good as it gets. I remember telling people to buy a Scart lead for the Mega Drives and Super Nintendo's LOL Still, I wouldn't call it pin-sharp. Don't forget the 50 Hz / interlacing flicker. Emulation on a LCD, now that's what I call pin sharp. Amiga CRTs where as good as it got back …
Re: No CRT Emulation? Why!?
Posted on 2011-03-27, 09:12
I think some of this must come from folks who didn't live in RGB/Scart enabled countries - apart from systems from and before the NES/SMS generation, everything we had here in the UK had pin-sharp RGB display options built in. Yes, playing on a 14" portable TV instead of modern, high LCD (hell, or …
Re: Need an instrument sampled from the Roland Sound Canvas
Posted on 2011-03-27, 09:05
I'm not too fond of the MT-32 WHAT? That's blasphemy LOL It does sound like crap if you try and use it as a general purpose midi module. On the other hand, stuff developed specifically for the Roland LA-synthesis modules and tracks that use Sysex messages to update the device in real time can sound …
Re: Worthwhile putting a 286 together?
Posted on 2011-03-27, 08:39
A lot of Sierra games run really well on a 286. Especially the very old ones. Lemmings or prince of persia are other great games. The DOS version of Elite was another game I played on a 286. Argh! Prince of bleedin' Persia! That game nearly drove me insane back then with all those pixel-perfect …
Re: Worthwhile putting a 286 together?
Posted on 2011-03-27, 08:13
On the 286? I played stuff like Arctic Fox, Stellar 7, Lightspeed, Silent Service 2, Space Quest 3, Marble Madness, Grand Prix Circuit. I remember an uncle gave me a bunch of games like HardBall and Striker too. That's all I can remember right now. You could run Falcon 3 but I'd expect like 10 fps. …
Re: Are any of the really old Sound Blasters any good?
Posted on 2011-03-26, 21:39
Can't speak for anything else, but my first sound card was a SB2.0 - mono, of course, but a useful feature was the analogue volume control wheel on the actual card bracket.
Re: Worthwhile putting a 286 together?
Posted on 2011-03-26, 09:41
Get a Commodore Amiga 500, 600 or 1200 instead (or the 1000/2000/3000/4000 if you want one that looks like an old desktop PC)... I personally think they are better than a 286 for pretty much anything, especially when it comes to gaming and audio :wink: Already got a 500+ and a heavily upgraded 1200 …
Worthwhile putting a 286 together?
Posted on 2011-03-25, 14:50
I've still got the original 16MHz 286 motherboard from the first PC I ever had (from around 1990). It's sat in an antistatic bag, minus any simms, vga or multi-io card. Thinking about the amount of games that were playable on a machine of this era (what were your favourites?) , do you think it is …
Re: VLB 486 recommendation required please
Posted on 2011-03-25, 12:52
* I wonder if the Willem programmer is capable of programming UV EPROMs? My guess is yes it can, because it lists the 27C512 EPROM chip in the ebay advert, and this 27C512 chip has a little window in it. Thanks a lot. It's likely to be able to, even if the pin count isn't right you can usually get …
Re: Need an instrument sampled from the Roland Sound Canvas
Posted on 2011-03-24, 15:51
DonutKing wrote: 🤣 Yeah I just want him to confirm that the MIDI file is playing the correct instruments before I make the recording 😀 Ah, my bad.
Re: Need an instrument sampled from the Roland Sound Canvas
Posted on 2011-03-23, 22:10
I think Ace wants you to record the actual audio output from the Sound Canvas while doing that 😀
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