Re: Windows NT games that do not require 3D accelerator

Posted on 2022-04-05, 14:26

by

by LightStruk

in Windows

in Windows

Because Windows 2000 supports up to DirectX 9, there are a LOT of games that work with it. Of course, those games also usually work with Windows 98 SE, since that also tops out at DirectX 9. I personally think Windows 2000 is a lot of fun, and once you have it fully patched and service pack'd with …

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Re: What is a 3D accelerator?

Posted on 2022-04-05, 14:07

by

by LightStruk

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

You've gotten lots of great responses so far. In the interest of keeping this simple, if you just want a 3D accelerator that plays some great vintage games, here's all you need to know. Kao the Kangaroo is a Windows game, using Direct 3D. Your best, most compatible, and least hassle option is an …

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Re: Any interest in a SDL-less "abstract" port?

Posted on 2022-02-28, 16:00

by

by LightStruk

in DOSBox Development

in DOSBox Development

Wouldn't it make more sense to spend those efforts on backporting SDL2 to those older platforms instead of keeping SDL 1.x alive? Are there any technical reasons why that would be infeasible? Keeping SDL 1.x alive has value for the same reasons I was advocating not ripping libSDL 1.x out of DosBox. …

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Re: Any interest in a SDL-less "abstract" port?

Posted on 2022-02-25, 14:12

by

by LightStruk

in DOSBox Development

in DOSBox Development

A new SDL target with its new drivers is a well-contained and modularized project. Removing SDL from a program is a messy diff that has to replace a lot of SDL constants, functions, and assumptions. That sounds nice in theory, but there's another problem in recent years - SDL2 stans that'll lecture …

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Re: How do PCI IDE cards supply IRQ14 and IRQ15?

Posted on 2022-02-22, 14:03

by

by LightStruk

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

As I understand it, PCI has four interrupt lanes, IRQA through IRQD. These four lines are shared by all PCI devices, and typically each PCI slot only has one IRQ line assigned to it to reduce contention for any individual PCI IRQ line. Integrated PCI peripherals on the motherboard or in the chipset …

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Re: PCI NIC for PowerMac 6500 running OS9.2.2?

Posted on 2022-02-18, 19:32

by

by LightStruk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The Power Mac 6500 is such a good looking beige tower. Way better looking than the beige G3. Just to make sure that the NIC actually works - have you tried that NIC in a PC to see if it is recognized there? Or, alternatively, have you tried using BootX and a PPC Linux live CD ? Allegedly there are a …

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Re: Any interest in a SDL-less "abstract" port?

Posted on 2022-02-15, 15:48

by

by LightStruk

in DOSBox Development

in DOSBox Development

I've been wanting to run DOSBOX in weird places, sometimes those that don't have a working SDL port. I've found a few people randomly asking online if DOSBOX can be used without SDL. I've also thought it would be cool to have DOSBOX more like a library anyone can build their own UI around, and …

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Re: Adding PCI required functionality to non-PCI ISA buses?

Posted on 2022-02-09, 22:03

by

by LightStruk

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

Is it possible to provide PCI functionality on a non-PCI ISA bus (e.g. Compaq Deskpro 386), as long as it has a 386 CPU or higher using an ISA card? I have the PCI ports implemented on those, but currently there's no way to map PCI interrupts onto the interrupt controller, since such registers …

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Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Posted on 2022-02-07, 18:34

by

by LightStruk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-01-26, 15:40: Modems, inspect any real old ones carefully, (Probably slower than 28k) might have an x86 embedded CPU I had no idea - were they using an NEC V30 or something? Do you know of an example off the top of your head?

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Re: Happy Birthday, 80286!

Posted on 2022-02-01, 15:10

by

by LightStruk

in Milliways

in Milliways

It was about 1998. I was 7 years old and our family's financial situation was not the best, to be honest. (So no computery things at home! Too expensive!) ... A year or two later, we got 386sx-20 with ~100MB hdd and the 286 was then history. I'm glad that your family was able to put a 386sx-20 to …

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Re: The comprehensive list of all modern reproductions of vintage sound cards

Posted on 2022-01-24, 13:42

by

by LightStruk

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The WP32 McCake is now available for purchase, so I have removed the "unreleased" note from its entry in the list.

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Re: Has anyone gotten the GeForce FX Dawn tech demo to work on Windows 98/ME?

Posted on 2021-09-23, 22:39

by

by LightStruk

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

This is going to sound silly, but have you tried setting the computer clock back to the early 2000s? Maybe there’s some bizarre date-related calculation in there that never imagined running in 2021…

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Re: How did early PC engineers debug low-level BIOS and OS code?

Posted on 2021-09-16, 14:46

by

by LightStruk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

retardware wrote on 2021-09-15, 16:31: ICEs were already common in the 1970s. I think it is safe to assume IBM used stuff like this. This PDF is gold. The manual to an ICE from 1979 for the 8088! Definitely, if I were a BIOS developer for that original IBM PC team, I would have wanted this product. …

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How did early PC engineers debug low-level BIOS and OS code?

Posted on 2021-09-14, 14:53

by

by LightStruk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Modern OS and firmware developers have many advantages that 1980s and early 1990s developers did not, such as JTAG debug interfaces built into the hardware, not to mention full system emulators in software. Being able to place breakpoints, inspect registers, and review memory locations at will makes …

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Re: The comprehensive list of all modern reproductions of vintage sound cards

Posted on 2021-08-25, 16:57

by

by LightStruk

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Added rasteri's PC/104 Soundcard.

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Re: The comprehensive list of all modern reproductions of vintage sound cards

Posted on 2021-08-25, 16:45

by

by LightStruk

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Added TexElec's Resound New Wave MCA.

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Re: 86Duino - SBC for portable 32 bit DOS/Windows system?

Posted on 2021-08-23, 19:18

by

by LightStruk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have some experience in trying to find the ideal small x86 system useful as a retro gaming PC. What you need to remember is that unless the system has an ISA slot, you will truly struggle to get sound in DOS. The "High Definition Audio" of the 86Duino does not work in DOS. I haven't looked, but …

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Re: Yamaha YMF-752 (AC-XG) pure DOS driver?

Posted on 2021-08-23, 13:57

by

by LightStruk

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I suppose the only thing it does offer, is allowing the use of the XG software emulation synthesizer? I don't know if Yamaha restricted the use of its synthesizers with hardware checks or merely by only licensing it to OEMs that incorporated their chips. At least it's usually better than the …

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Re: Yamaha YMF-752 (AC-XG) pure DOS driver?

Posted on 2021-08-21, 01:16

by

by LightStruk

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The YMF-752 is an AC'97 codec, not a full PCI Sound chip. Like any AC'97 codec, it relies on the AC'97 digital controller on the motherboard, usually in the southbridge, and any compliant codec from any manufacturer is supposed to work with any compliant controller, versions of the standard …

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Re: PCI Sound Cards with OPL3 and MIDI Port?

Posted on 2021-07-28, 02:55

by

by LightStruk

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The YMF7x4 cards have wavetable MIDI support in their Windows drivers. Not any help in pure DOS, but it works fine in DOS games in Windows 98 SE.

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