Re: Monitor Questions! Trying to use a Tandy VM-1 With a TRS-80 Model 1 - Questions on sync and other Fun stuff!

Posted on 2020-11-01, 17:47

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

As far as I know it won't work with those machines. The Tandy 2000 outputs either 640x400 or 800x400 (depending on the adapter), so this monitor is designed for a 26.4KHz horizontal frequency, which is much higher than you can get from either the Model 1 or the Apple IIc. See specs: https://github. …

---

Re: Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Pack v2.0: Now w/200+ fonts, more variants, new site

Posted on 2020-10-31, 22:15

by

by VileR

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Pushed another update yesterday: ►► Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Pack v2.1 ◄◄ Full changelog is here , but the main news is: 72 new fonts - that's why there's only a minor increment in the version number. ;) Again, shoutouts to the fine people who helped source some of the new ones this time: Bill …

---

Re: IBM Cassette BASIC

Posted on 2020-10-28, 00:13

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

An educational program 'Typing Tutor' was available from IBM on cassette, but good luck finding that one: http://books.google.com/books?id=VDAEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA23&ots=CtsTbCN8tG&dq=%22typing%20tutor%22%20%22cassette%22&hl=iw&pg=PA23#v=onepage&q=%22typing%20tutor%22%20%22cassette%22&f=false There was …

---

Re: Questions about Bios in low and high files

Posted on 2020-10-27, 02:36

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I get the impression that the interleaving ("merging") was done correctly, but the result is larger than one segment so IDA has to be told how the memory is mapped. What's the size of the ROM after merging? 128K? Normally a 64K system BIOS is loaded at F000. With larger ones I don't know if you can …

---

Re: An AdLib-Compatible Card (1986) Older than AdLib (1987)

Posted on 2020-10-22, 09:51

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

So where did you find your information? And could "JBI" on the back be the initials of the designer? 😁

---

Re: Floppy Disk Recovery

Posted on 2020-10-21, 10:40

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

search engines are so busted nowadays that it queues up a bunch of garbage relatively unrelated to "actually" recovering data Yep... it gets progressively worse, too. I'm pretty sure a lot of it has to do with google's recent steps to demote HTTP-only content and promote HTTPS. That effectively …

---

Re: Floppy Disk Recovery

Posted on 2020-10-20, 14:53

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

A "recovery" program that cannot even be told the drive letter isn't something I'd trust with any disk. It would be wise to try and create an image of the disk first, *before* you try any recovery tools on the disk itself - especially if it's already started going kaput. Hardware solutions like a …

---

Re: Best CGA & Hercules monochrome games

Posted on 2020-10-19, 12:11

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

The mode 5 palette was actually not that rare. It seemed particularly common in French games, for some reason (maybe because it's as close as CGA gets to the tricoleur ? 🇫🇷) ;) It was also seen in a lot of earlier games, say pre-1986 or so, which actually used mode 5 for its documented purpose - …

---

Re: MCGA monitor at 15 KHz?

Posted on 2020-10-18, 15:42

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

^ Excellent work! All the information you've presented in this thread could really use being compiled into a document somewhere. Again, I marvel that they went through all the work of implementing extra firmware and hardware support for the lower scan rate, only to keep it completely undocumented. …

---

Re: „Below the root” hangs on IBM Portable 5155

Posted on 2020-10-16, 19:21

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Hm. My first thought before my previous post was the Model ID byte, but I looked it up and found that it's identical to the 5160 (as expected). And indeed the only branch is on the value of FDh (PCjr), so that can't be it. OTOH, I just remembered that Trixter had long ago mentioned a certain …

---

Re: „Below the root” hangs on IBM Portable 5155

Posted on 2020-10-16, 00:32

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

My first thought was that the game might be compiled to use 80286 instructions, but then I looked up the game and saw it was from 1984. :) A game from 1984 can come from the internet in a form that was 'deprotected' much later. I've seen enough cases where a game was written for the 8088, but comes …

---

Re: Funny commercials

Posted on 2020-10-15, 08:46

by

by VileR

in Milliways

in Milliways

John Cleese's Compaq commercials are classic: https://youtu.be/RlmzwZXa-Ww ("Portable 2 vs. Dead Fish") https://youtu.be/dPmiC_Zt88I ("32 Bits of a Bus") etc. etc.

---

Re: Anyone know about this keyboard?

Posted on 2020-10-14, 10:12

by

by VileR

in Milliways

in Milliways

I just think it's neat and was hoping for stories or info not on wiki When you started the thread, you wrote that you haven't had any luck finding *any* information on it, so that would lead others the wrong way wouldn't it? ;) But yes, it does look neat and the switches probably make it much nicer …

---

Re: Anyone know about this keyboard?

Posted on 2020-10-13, 15:06

by

by VileR

in Milliways

in Milliways

What is there to know that isn't already on the web, when you search for the company name + model number?

---

Re: Crystal Caves HD!?

Posted on 2020-10-12, 15:17

by

by VileR

in Milliways

in Milliways

If you were to see the game, without knowing what engine/toolkit it's built on, would you be able to tell that it's Unity just based on the look and feel? Or do you need to read that bit of information to decide whether you're "saddened and disappointed" or not? This isn't even a rhetorical question …

---

Re: Crystal Caves HD!?

Posted on 2020-10-10, 01:49

by

by VileR

in Milliways

in Milliways

I actually do like the look of the remake... simply adding colors does actually make the game look quite attractive, and I definitely prefer this approach over upscaling or even redrawing it in a higher resolution. Agreed. But seeing as they kept the low-res look, I suspect that they're sorta …

---

Re: TSENG EVA/480 ET-2000 EGA / NEC GB-1 COLOR GRAPHICS BOARD

Posted on 2020-10-08, 00:50

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

The other one...dont know yet, its not a memory expansion. There is a Z80 and a HM6116 CMOS RAM on it. https://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/view/77359/HITACHI/HM6116.html The card seems to work without it. Oi. Came across this by accident, but that Z80 add-on is probably for register …

---

Re: What music are you listening to?

Posted on 2020-10-05, 23:20

by

by VileR

in Milliways

in Milliways

70's rock right here! I was born in mid 1970s, so my exposure to 70s music was fairly limited. But 70s disco was my most favorite genre during early childhood. And in my country, disco continued to be popular until early 80s. It was also the time when we had our first Sony Betamax player, and this …

---

Re: MCGA monitor at 15 KHz?

Posted on 2020-10-05, 21:30

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

So if I understand this correctly, you could hook up an IBM PS/2 model with MCGA graphics to a TV through RGB SCART, with a simple passive adapter cable, provided that the TV supported 60Hz vertical NTSC frequency video? Such as for instance most European Sony TVs? And most 256-color 320x200 DOS …

---

Re: MCGA monitor at 15 KHz?

Posted on 2020-10-05, 18:44

by

by VileR

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Thank ye. For now I've been looking a little deeper into that Model 30-286 (VGA, not MCGA) video BIOS. Mainly to satisfy my own curiosity about whether those character bitmaps at E000:8F00 onwards are ever used at all. I can't find any code with an obvious reference to that data, at least nothing as …

---