Re: Happy Birthday, 80286!

Posted on 2022-02-01, 16:42

by

by creepingnet

in Milliways

in Milliways

The first PC I ever played games on was the IBM PS/2 Model 30 286 we got in 2nd grade because our school read the most books from the "Book It" Program in our area (pizza and computers - win-win). A year later we got a grant from RJR Nabisco to build our new school. Probably the majority of my …

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Re: PC Recommendation for a DOS n00b?

Posted on 2022-02-01, 16:15

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hey, there is more than one file manager for DOS. The Microsoft one is DOSSHELL and works fine if you are used to it. There are more fancier ones but I never had any of them back in the day. Another great one is Access/XX Menu for DOS. I use that on ALL of my vintage machines so that my wife could …

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Re: PC Recommendation for a DOS n00b?

Posted on 2022-02-01, 00:45

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This is kind of tricky because there's a lot of variables... First off, gaining DOS experience, I don't know how experienced you are with DOS, I just know that you are interested in running actual hardware that runs DOS. Overall, working deductively, that would put - based on your software choices - …

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Re: PCMCIA Graphics and Video decoding cards

Posted on 2022-01-31, 20:13

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Man, crazy there's a thread on this now, especially since I picked up a "VersaVideo" a few months ago (NEC's rebranded version of a NogaTech Nogavision 16-bit PCMCICA card). I'm still working on getting that thing working on my various NEC Versas (40EC, V/50, M/75, and P/75). It's basically a …

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

Posted on 2022-01-31, 05:21

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by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Released a new YouTube video of the Compaq showing off the multi-clock 386/486 setup I have the Blue Lightning doing (3 PC's in one >D) and describing my work on it while showing off games running on the computer at various speed setups (386 SX/20, 486 BLX2, 486 BLX4).

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Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2022-01-29, 17:37

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by creepingnet

in Milliways

in Milliways

Playing Wolfenstein 3D on the Compaq Deskpro 386s/20, with the PcProPad 4 and the 486 BLX3 in clock triple mode. Nice and smooth. Probably the worst level time on board 3 though (kinda stuck looking for the key)...hehe.

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Re: The quest for best potentiometer for PC speaker volume knob turned out not 100% perfect :(

Posted on 2022-01-29, 00:20

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by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If the volume is not going down fully you would need to ground it off - this is coming from my Guitar Logic. Typically, looking at the bottom of the pot, from left to right, the hot lead (From PIT in this case) would go to this lug, middle lug would be output, and the right one would be grounded off …

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Re: How far back do you have to go for a graphics card not selling for an inflated price?

Posted on 2022-01-29, 00:12

by

by creepingnet

in Milliways

in Milliways

Its not that they are in vogue ... Thinking about it though, in true "Perfect Storm" fashion, just as crypto demand peaked, plague disruption hit, guess who was getting big into PC gaming after it was almost looking like dying out... Gen Z... all that Fortnite, LoL, Rocket League type stuff. Now …

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

Posted on 2022-01-28, 16:22

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by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Figured out why the Compaq Deskpro 386s/20 runs like a 386SX - because it has been running as one, even when thinking that Upgrade CPU was doing something....did some digging and found out I have the Evergreen 486 BLX3 upgrade in it.....got the drivers now for it and holy crap this thing flies now. …

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

Posted on 2022-01-27, 07:04

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Put the NEC Ready on the rack, believe it or not I had plenty of room for it, then broke out the Compaq Deskpro 386s/20 486 BLX4 75/25 monster and had a pleasant surprise my old copy of Wing Commander II still had good disks (all eight of em, I'm kind of surprised they had talkie games this early, …

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Re: new old computers

Posted on 2022-01-27, 00:13

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by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sadly I'm lost by the quote and the reply. No matter I'll just buy whatever suits me, knowing full well that breaking the bank for cutting edge hardware never makes any sense (unless you're loaded or your livelihood requires it). I don't shoot for bottom of the barrel, sometimes wind up there …

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

Posted on 2022-01-26, 17:51

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by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not too much as of late, still on the fence with the NEC Ready 9522....only using half the 250GB HDD. Installed The Sims Complete Collection - runs like crap but it runs. Toying with adding Windows 2000 Dual-Boot (so I can have some modern NT abilities). Have been getting more into playing …

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Re: new old computers

Posted on 2022-01-26, 16:36

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by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ah yes....my secret army of ever growing old Xeons, Core 2 Duos, and <5th geni3s, i5s, and occasionally i7s that people keep throwing away for the next generation. This is what I use for main machines, and I keep a lot of them as backups for whatever I'm using daily because I tend to find it easier …

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Re: What do you drive?

Posted on 2022-01-25, 16:44

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by creepingnet

in Milliways

in Milliways

I guess since this is turning into the "what I did to my car today thread". Both my cars are needing work at this point. It's just hard to get anything done when you're building a hospital's I.T. infrastructure, darn-near sick every weekend with some stomach/anxiety based malady, and dealing with …

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

Posted on 2022-01-23, 08:57

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Solid bit of NECromancing there. Hehehe, yeah....either NECromancing or NEC-romancing depending on how you look at it. Turns out that card is pretty buff for a Pentium 100MHz machine, it's a 16MB 3dfx VooDoo Banshee, and it's fast. 98 SE boots in about 45 seconds. Got all the drivers installed now. …

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

Posted on 2022-01-23, 02:52

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Cleaned the room, broke out the NEC Ready 9522 to prep it for E-bay, now I'm not so sure I'm getting rid of it. I got a wild hair and decided to fix the CMOS battery (sustainable CR2302 mod to the DS18827 compatible clock) as it had died, and and throw in a random PCI Graphics card I Got with the PC …

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Re: New to DOS builds, need a sound card but not sure where to start

Posted on 2022-01-20, 20:48

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by creepingnet

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

AWE64 gets another vote from me. I have one in my 486 DX4-100 and love it, almost want to buy another one for my other DX4. I've noticed they are way cheaper than the AWE32, and far less as fiddly than my SB16 Value and SB Vibra 16 cards are. I would suggest anything SoundBlaster or compatible …

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Re: Software you can't find, and your hunts for them

Posted on 2022-01-20, 20:39

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by creepingnet

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

I've had so many hunts for crap for these old machines.....it seems I perpetually have them.... I think my longest chase yet has been that isometric house-builder program for DOS or Windows 3.1 I remember a friend having on his gateway 2000 as a kid circa 1993. It was very cartooney and not meant as …

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Re: Intrest in new ISA cards?

Posted on 2022-01-20, 20:21

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by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I like this idea too and while I myself have not looked at the cost of FPGAs, given what I've read, they're pretty expensive. No one here wants to pay $130 for an FPGA emulated ET4000 when you can buy one off e-bay B.I.N. for the same price. Now some ideas seem pretty good. Like the USB emulation …

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Re: Whats the most rare piece of hardware you own?

Posted on 2022-01-19, 20:34

by

by creepingnet

in Milliways

in Milliways

At this point - NEC Versa M/75 with touch screen, now upgraded to 800x600p LCD - Words+ System 2000 AAC (came attached to M/75) - AT&T DS Docking Station (VersaDock II) - My Compaq Deskpro 386s/20 has a slimline 5.25" floppy drive in it and it actually works! - Same Deskpro has the press-fit IBM " …

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