Re: Sony CD + 8Bit Interface Card - will it work on XT ?

Posted on 2019-09-05, 07:20

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Anonymous Coward wrote: What I want to know is why it's easier to install a CD-ROM drive in an XT than a high density floppy drive. Easier? FDC cards with BIOS weren't that rare, and safe bet an FDD+FDC combo was still cheaper than a CD-ROM drive+controller.

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Re: mTCP updates coming soon: Send me your bug reports

Posted on 2019-09-03, 07:18

by

by Grzyb

in Milliways

in Milliways

I've only found one annoyance: FTP client doesn't accept empty password.

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Re: 8-bit card Young Digital TYPE CA12 (Made in Poland?)

Posted on 2019-09-03, 03:58

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Yes, Young Digital Poland was a maker of educational software, including some multimedia stuff for learning foreign languages. In the early 90s, when sound cards were still rare and expensive, they came out with their own sound card - safe bet it was only compatible with YDP software, and maybe even …

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Re: Are there 8-bit isa scsi cards?

Posted on 2019-09-01, 18:34

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There's a nice list of such cards in that post: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?530 … 8001#post458001

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Re: Floppy Station.

Posted on 2019-08-30, 15:45

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So you have both KryoFlux and Supercard Pro - which turns out to be more useful?

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Re: what is so special in this machine

Posted on 2019-08-27, 21:17

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

And some Matrox graphics card, complete with memory expansion daughterboard. And a SCSI CD recorder. Overall, that price isn't high.

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Re: Which of these would you keep?

Posted on 2019-08-27, 17:59

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I would keep the XT. 8088@4.77 was the original PC platform, and dominant for many years, there was plenty of software designed for this exact configuration. Your turbo clone may be 8 MHz, but in de-turbo it's exactly 4.77 MHz 286 - too fast for stuff made for the original PC, and a lot of the later …

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Re: ISA 8 bit OPL3 ready

Posted on 2019-08-26, 21:34

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Now that's a big surprise, I used to use various ESS Audiodrive cards, and I'm pretty sure they weren't WSS compatible... http://cd.textfil.es/mmcd/ENG/TXT/TEXT/TEMP/M5_1.HTM "It will let you run (...) Windows business applications that are compatible with the Windows Sound System" Perhaps it's …

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Re: ISA 8 bit OPL3 ready

Posted on 2019-08-26, 18:20

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The advantage here is that you get SB Pro 2 compatibility (and Windows Sound System as well) No WSS. ESS Audiodrive chipsets have their own 16-bit DAC/ADC, which isn't compatible with SB16 nor WSS. Now I'm wondering... is that ESS 16-bit sampling available on 8-bit ISA? If yes, then that card may …

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Re: Tseng ET3000 has no color in text mode

Posted on 2019-08-23, 10:20

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Edit: Since this is a colour issue, maybe the RAMDAC chip is to blame. I recall older Linux distros having problems with certain RAMDACs, so you were forced to select the right one during installation. Anyway, that's just an idea. Depending on the pinout, RAMDACs were interchangeable. Unlikely. …

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Re: Low-level format utility for MFM HDD's ?

Posted on 2019-08-23, 01:26

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What's a reasonable "default" interleave for a 42mb 3.5" MFM? I don't want to obsess over this, just get it working well. 3, perhaps? 3 is a good point to start. Then you can run eg. Calibrate from Norton Utilites - it can detect the optimal interleave. Or simply run any HDD benchmark, if the …

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Re: Anyone here using an MFM drive in an XT-class system?

Posted on 2019-08-22, 22:24

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think majority of XT users use MFM HDDs, myself included. As for file transfer, I usually use LAN, but I also keep some later machine with a 360KB FDD - after all, the networking software has to be somehow installed on the XT's HDD first...

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Re: Low-level format utility for MFM HDD's ?

Posted on 2019-08-22, 21:30

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Many BIOSes from the 286/386 era have LLF option. If your doesn't, then there's HDINIT.EXE from Checkit 3.0 package, Speed Stor, and many others.

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Re: Legit Harris 25MHz?

Posted on 2019-08-22, 17:27

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

kixs wrote: I suppose the number after the N is the date of manufacture. Usually 91 to 95. Oh dear, then that "N1901" chip would be from the 1st week of 1919 😁

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Re: Pentium Pro build

Posted on 2019-08-22, 14:49

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

n0m4d wrote: i'm just looking for rare pentium build, with SB pro and Voodoo, i want to use best parts available this time Then keep away from SB Pro - it's 8-bit, good for 286, 386, maybe even early 486. Pentium, however, deserves 16-bit sound, preferably with wavetable.

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Re: SB32 PNP (CT3600) original install media (cd or floppies?)

Posted on 2019-08-22, 14:02

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Back in the era I've downloaded all the stuff Creative provided for SB32 for DOS, see the attachments...

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Re: comprehensive list of EGA mode 10h games?

Posted on 2019-08-22, 00:45

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

There's plenty of 640x350x16 games, just search for them in genres like strategy/puzzle, not arcade. Blockout, Color Lines, Netwars, Sierra's 3-D Helicopter Simulator, Sim City... And there are special cases like Lemmings, where the gameplay is in 320x200, but the title screen in 640x350.

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Re: EGA/VGA + CGA in same PC?

Posted on 2019-08-21, 18:15

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In theory, yes. But only if software is actually written to use EGA monochrome, which hardly any software is. For the graphics mode F - indeed, there's little software. For the text mode 7 - there's plenty. Also, some cards officially support coexistence with CGA, see eg. EGA Wonder 800+ - in such …

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Re: EGA/VGA + CGA in same PC?

Posted on 2019-08-21, 17:05

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

CGA uses memory at B8000 and I/O at 3Dx EGA set for monochrome monitor uses memory at B0000 or A0000 and I/O at 3Bx Should work. With VGA... hard to tell, there are many (S)VGA cards with DIP switches to set them for mono - then they should work alongside CGA, but others - probably not.

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Re: ColorGraphicsAdapter (CGA) Thread (Games/Demos/Intros/GFX-Art/ASCII etc.)

Posted on 2019-08-20, 15:16

by

by Grzyb

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

No, DL-VIEW.EXE apparently needs VGA. Out of the mentioned animation formats, only GRASP supports CGA, and not all .GL files are playable on CGA. ftp://ftp.oldskool.org/pub/tvdog/tandy1000/gr … hics/tmovie.zip - this one does work on CGA, but needs Tandy to be fully functional

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