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Re: VESA mode programming from real mode

Posted on 2021-02-11, 13:56

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Well, I can say that I am now able to load over 500 games into the interface without it locking up any longer; including those 'odd' RPG and Adventure sub-folders which were crashing it previously. There are now no functions which dynamically allocate or free memory (other than on the stack) once …

Re: 286 dead, long live the 286! Sourcing and building a fast 286 replacement

Posted on 2021-02-11, 11:17

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

zyga64 wrote on 2021-02-11, 09:55: Could you please dump its BIOS and upload here ? I have another motherboard with the same chipset and want to try it. Looks like this (late) VLSI chipset isn't ver popular. No problem.

Re: Formating and partitioning disk for MSDOS 6.22

Posted on 2021-02-10, 22:31

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If the OP has a 386 or better then by far the best option is to use DOS 7.1 and use FAT32 partitions unless there is a historical reason to use something earlier. PC-DOS 7.1 also supports FAT32 partitions but it's not nearly as straight forward as a Win 98SE boot floppy to get up and running. No 386 …

Re: Formating and partitioning disk for MSDOS 6.22

Posted on 2021-02-10, 20:45

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You can use anything else you want to create the partitions over and above those <=2GB partitions you create for MS-DOS 6.22 - but you can't use them in DOS. You can have a maximum of 4 primary partitions with the standard DOS partition table. To be visible in MS-DOS <= 6.22 they all need to be 2GB …

Re: VESA mode programming from real mode

Posted on 2021-02-10, 20:32

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Haven't done a great deal more over the last few days (going through a restructuring exercise at work, so my mind is elsewhere right now), but did get a few bits of optimisation done: - Artwork loading is further improved by approx 25% - Reduced the amount of malloc()/free() calls in the main …

Re: post up pics of your "computing area"

Posted on 2021-02-10, 07:29

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I built myself quite a nice little office/den space when we moved in to our new house back in 2014: I'm digging the the cooler master stacker case. 11 bays of glory. I have one myself. Super case. I fell down some stairs after a LAN while carrying a Stacker. Snapped one of the wheels off, but the …

Re: ISA slot part numbers

Posted on 2021-02-09, 22:37

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Got them. Found a UK supplier that had a handful of the full length 98 way connector and picked up 4 of them for £5 a piece. RS actually has the TE parts available to order... but at a minimum order quantity of 72! I still need to get a couple of 8bit connectors, but if I don't find any I can always …

Re: ISA slot part numbers

Posted on 2021-02-09, 21:46

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Actually, that's really helpful; I'm getting far more useful results for 49 position than 98. Thanks!

Re: MS DOS 7.X without Windows 9X

Posted on 2021-02-09, 21:24

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

No problem!

ISA slot part numbers

Posted on 2021-02-09, 21:22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm after a couple of 16bit and 8bit ISA connectors as spares for some damaged boards I've sourced cheaply, but am having a hard time tracking down the correct parts. What is the correct pitch and card edge spacing that I should be looking for? Or, even better, does anyone have a standard part …

Re: MS DOS 7.X without Windows 9X

Posted on 2021-02-09, 11:24

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Just get a Windows 98SE boot disk and partition and format/sys the drive. Drop the contents of the Windows98/DOS directory into C:\Dos. Job Done.

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-02-09, 09:58

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

May have gotten addicted to that Russian auction site.... Just bought a PC-Chips M321 386DX-40 and a UMC UM82C480 for peanuts. Both of them have what looks like minor battery leakage... but it was worth a chance for £8 and £9 a piece!

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-02-08, 12:04

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Bought this 286 motherboard (Biostar MB-1221VE) from a Russian-language auction site: biostart_mb1220ve.jpg A very, very late VLSI 82C311L single-chip 286/386SX chipset. It's a bit scratched up - so may need some repairs here and there with some kynar wire, and there are some jumpers that are bent …

Re: Can't get sound blaster pro to work in dos on win98SE

Posted on 2021-02-08, 11:04

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Unlike most ISA Soundblasters, PCI sound cards won't work in DOS without some form of driver. Even then they're not completely reliable. You will need the DOS drivers installing for whatever model of Soundblaster you have. On the card itself with be a CT or SB number ... like CT1770 or SB0090... …

Re: adding plop bootloader to bios rom

Posted on 2021-02-08, 11:00

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Rather than using an XT-IDE for this specific purposes, there are some dedicated ISA/BIOS ROM card out there. Lo-tech do one which supports either 1x 32k or 64k image: https://www.lo-tech.co.uk/wiki/Lo-tech_ISA_ROM_Board There's also this double ROM implementation, which can support up to 2x 32k …

Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2021-02-08, 10:23

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Do you want a motherboard to go with that HSF? 😁

Re: Can't get sound blaster pro to work in dos on win98SE

Posted on 2021-02-08, 10:13

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Have you actually got a Soundblaster Pro (a 16bit ISA card), or a Soundblaster PCI? They are very different and will need configuring in totally different ways and one will have vastly better DOS support than the other (hint: it's the ISA card).

Re: Video BIOS wanted, STB Powergraph 64 Video VLB

Posted on 2021-02-08, 09:15

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

That's a really nice looking board for a homebrew design. How much of it would be directly translatable to a purely ISA design? By that I mean was this card only possible because the Trio64V+ has hardware level PCI and VLB compatability?

Re: Ports of Sonic CD, 1,2 remakes to DOS

Posted on 2021-02-08, 09:05

in DOS

in DOS

Neat! Just looking at the technical requirements: 128 megabytes of RAM, otherwise it will freeze when accessing Special Stages, they use A LOT of memory. Without audio enabled and not considering Special Stage, the game would run fine with 16 megabytes of RAM. :-o Is that the highest memory …

Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2021-02-08, 09:00

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Fairly sure I had the 'Alpha 1 Rocket Base' and the 'Beta 2 Command Centre' as well as a load of other basic sets. Of course the last time I saw it, they were all just mixed together in a big plastic bucket in the attic of my parents house. I'm sure they'll ask one day to remove the last of my ' …

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