Re: Tandy 1000 TL Build / Restoration

Posted on 2023-01-25, 03:47

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

frankmonk wrote on 2023-01-24, 11:14: I love it! Probably the best setup for old adventure games imo Thank you! It definitely serves nicely for classic adventure games, especially the early Sierra games with that 3-channel Tandy sound. Best way to play those games, imho. 😁

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-01-25, 03:37

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

pan069 wrote on 2023-01-25, 03:22: Another sound card, an Aztech Sound Galaxy NX Pro it seems. It think it is a SB PRO 2.0 compatible card. edited: I stand corrected, it looks like it does have SB Pro compatibility.

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Re: How much of your retro hardware do you actually use?

Posted on 2023-01-25, 03:31

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by Shponglefan

in Milliways

in Milliways

I definitely do building and tinkering more than actually using them. Part of it is I'm still searching for my preferred builds. Plus I love experimenting with different hardware, especially when it comes to pushing older systems to the limit. That said, I do have a number of setups designed for …

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Re: SD vs CF Stability in 2023

Posted on 2023-01-24, 20:08

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've been using CF cards exclusively in my AT and XT-based systems, and have no reliability or stability issues with the cards themselves. I've been primarily using standard SanDisk cards, plus a couple Verbatim and Cisco Industrial branded cards. This includes cards ranging from 32MB and to 4GB. …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-01-23, 22:47

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Acquired another Media Vision Thunder Board. IMHO these are very unrated sound cards for their era.

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

Posted on 2023-01-23, 22:27

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Finished working on my Tandy 1000 TL and set it up in the living room for some gaming.

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Re: Tandy 1000 TL Build / Restoration

Posted on 2023-01-23, 22:25

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Set up the Tandy TL in its new home and started putting it through the paces with some games. I notice that while most games run on the VGA card/monitor, Leisure Suit Larry and Mixed Up Mother Goose had graphical issues. Not sure what the incompatibility is there since other Sierra games of that …

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Re: Dual soundcard + ultimate MIDI setup ideas

Posted on 2023-01-23, 20:08

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

AppleSauce wrote on 2023-01-20, 08:19: My experience would be once you start using more than 2 sound cards it quickly turns into a bit of a conflict nightmare situation , ask me how I know. Challenge accepted. 😁

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Re: Tandy 1000 TL Build / Restoration

Posted on 2023-01-23, 17:53

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Today worked on getting audio & MIDI hardware installed. This included installing: Media Vision Thunderboard for Adlib, Sound Blaster and joystick support Lo-tech MIF-IPC-B card for Roland MPU-401 support Audio and MIDI support worked as expected. I do love the fact that these things work with no …

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

Posted on 2023-01-23, 04:20

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

More testing of the IO Data PK-X486S50-3 board. Tested it in a Packard Bell Legend I. Without the REVTO486.SYS driver it reports as running @ 24 MHz, but benchmarks lower than the stock 12 MHz 80286. With the REVTO486.SYS driver loaded, it reports a speed of 48 MHz and much improved performance in …

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Re: Tandy 1000 TL Build / Restoration

Posted on 2023-01-23, 04:13

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Did more testing with the PK-X486S50-3 processor upgrade. I tried removing all the ISA cards and running just a boot disk to test the REVTO486 driver in the Tandy TL. However, that produced the same results as previous. I then tried the PK-X486S50-3 in another system (286 Packard Bell Legend I). …

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

Posted on 2023-01-22, 18:33

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Did some testing and benchmarking of the IO Data PK-X486S50-3 (286-to-486 upgrade) in my Tandy TL today. Weird results, using this 'upgrade' causes the Tandy TL to run slower than the stock 80286 @ 8 MHz. :/ Without using the REVTO486.SYS driver, it runs @ 16 MHz. If I use the REVTO486.SYS driver, …

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

Posted on 2023-01-22, 18:29

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I finally took the time to get my MIDI stack hooked up. 20230120_200533 (Custom).jpg I was going to buy a bunch of fancy cables to keep the wiring all pretty and tidy, but in the end just got a bunch of the cheapest 1.5' RCA cables and RCA to 1/4" adapters I could buy and I used all the original ( …

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Re: Tandy 1000 TL Build / Restoration

Posted on 2023-01-22, 18:20

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Today decided to do some testing and benchmarking with the IO Data PK-X486S50-3 processor upgrade. I received some very strange results, as follows: 808286 @ 8 MHz Sysinfo CPU Score: 3.3 Topbench Score: 15 (system equivalent Tandy TL) 3D Bench: 3.3 PK-X486S50-3 no driver (486SX @ 16 MHz) Sysinfo CPU …

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Re: Tandy 1000 TL Build / Restoration

Posted on 2023-01-22, 18:09

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

frankmonk wrote on 2023-01-22, 11:09: Great thread since I am about to set up a similar TL. Just waiting for the power supply to get recapped. Recapping the PSU sounds like a good idea. Haven't done it yet on this build, but I suppose it's something I should consider doing.

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Re: need help setting up a gravis ultrasound

Posted on 2023-01-22, 17:35

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The GUS Classic refers to the original Gravis Ultrasound. If looks like the attached pic, then that is what you have. Sound Blaster emulation on the GUS is iffy. It's best paired with another sound card for Sound Blaster compatibility. For example, in my 486 DX2/66, I have the GUS classic paired …

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Re: My new Windows 98 build

Posted on 2023-01-22, 16:29

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

That's a nice looking case, simple and clean. Great build overall!

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Re: need help setting up a gravis ultrasound

Posted on 2023-01-22, 16:10

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The non-max version sortof works, the irq test passes but the dma tests fail, no matter what I try (I think this card works a bit better because of the lack of cdrom interfaces). This is actually normal. I have a GUS Extreme (uses same chip as GUS classic) installed in a Pentium 133 system. It also …

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Re: Tandy 1000 TL Build / Restoration

Posted on 2023-01-21, 21:44

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Now that the physical cleaning and repair work is done, I reassembled things and started installing hardware and DOS 6.22. This included upgrading the RAM to the full 768k, plugging in the PK-X486S50 CPU, and installing the following ISA cards: Blue Lava Systems XT-IDE / CF adapter Lo-tech 2 MB EMS …

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Re: Tandy 1000 TL Build / Restoration

Posted on 2023-01-21, 15:52

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Unfortunately my initial attempt at repairing the knob did not hold. While the wire did what it was supposed to do and prevent bending, it did not prevent twisting. The plastic clearly didn't have enough bond strength and after repeating twisting, the bond broke. For the second repair attempt I …

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