I'd try to add network card Ethernet options for old DOS-machine (8086, 8-bit isa, serial and parallell ports) and use it with etherdfs.
Works great with my 286 !

Note that some 16 bit ISA cards may work in an 8 bit ISA slot.
But they may need a special configuration (jumper, driver settings or modified driver) to operate.

mkarcher even tried a VLB card. But he just used the paralell port which could be configured to work in ECP mode. He got 400 kB/s with an external CDROM.

Future_Slaps wrote on 2022-06-01, 07:29:

Please let me know if I'm getting anything wrong, my only experience with the hardware this old is on Macs, which is quite different.

Hi there! 😃
No no, I think that's fine. I'm a beginner, too!
I rather grew up with an Sharp MZ-700 and ~286-586 era PCs.
I've learnt quite a bit here at Vogons and vcfed about XTs.. 🙂

If you like, you can also install CGA, Hercules or both. They co-exist just fine
(Hercules can disable one of its memory banks. Use MSHERC /HALF).
With MODE MONO and MODE CO80 you can set either one as your primary output.

That way, you can have low-res CGA for games and hi-res Hercules for professional applications (say, Windows 3.0).

With a CGA card you can have 736KB base memory, with Hercules or both 704KB base memory .
Cards like the Lo-Tech 1MB card can add extra memory.

Here's my setup:

Both monitors side by side, green monitor is AV. Amber is TTL.
In this example, however, my 586 laptop is temporarily connected to the green monitor.
I used it for decoding signals from space station.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXGWvsKmJ0k

Green monitor (AV/Composite) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nMB8XvwUJo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O70w_g1hOlo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBXfbMZBUJE

Hercules (amber) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3tIuQ27Gb4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgyDMtpYu4w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DjR4E913LA

Hercules (paper white):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw_Exsdkw4g

XT-Related stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM_rzw6WcXib … search?query=XT
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM_rzw6WcXib … earch?query=CGA
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM_rzw6WcXib … ?query=Hercules

Pure CGA cards also have an RCA connector (aka PHONO aka Cinch).
That one carries a Composite (CVBS) video signal (yellow plug).
You can use an ordinary TV or video monitor with that.
Or an old green/amber/bw monitor, if you like.
Or some vintage TV, if you have an external RF modulator attached.
Edit: TV set must be NTSC or 60Hz compatible.
An old PAL/50Hz set may not work via RF, because CGA uses NTSC/60Hz for timing.
Via Composite, it's no problem. H/V-Hold knobs on the monitor can solve problems.

Anyway, VGA is also nice to have.
Please note that most of the classic ISA VGAs have a mode utility.
Such an utility can switch you VGA to CGA, EGA or Hercules.
That's handy if you play games, because the VGA standard is not register-compatible to CGA.
All the low-level stuff gets ignored. While the utility doesn't bring bsck Composite CGA or NTSC artifact colours,
it does at least make all the palettes working.
Games that switch CGA palettes could look correctly if you put your VGA into emulation mode.
Otherwise, CGA will be pink/cyan/white/black (bg-color selectable) often.
I say often because, the VGA BIOS supports palettes.
But that's only meaningful, if the games used the PC BIOS originally to set CGA's palette (CGA used to be supported by the BIOS out-of-box - CGA routines are part of BIOS;
CGA cards have no EPROM like EGA/VGA cards have).

Good luck! 😃👍