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Yeah a couple years back i bought a MiST fpga (the original fpga project before MiSTer) and it came with a really nice amiga HD file on the sd card with a heavily customized workbench and hundreds of games. If you find something similar you can just copy it to a FC card and hook it up to the IDE interface of your accelerator and it should boot on real hardware. It was nice and snappy on my 030-upgraded A1200 Unless you want to use the installation and configuration from scratch as a learning process I think it's better to reuse the image that some Amiga fanatic put thousands of hours into perfecting for WinUAE or MiSTer.
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Apr 28, 2023 08:50
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lobsterminator posted:I use Amigas a lot, so I'll try to help. Thanks! That video seemed pretty straightforward. Apparently the ACA500plus WB 3.1 install comes with some files that make setting up WHDLoad easier, but they are kind of vague about what exactly is included so I guess we shall see. I'll give it a go this weekend and appreciate the offer of help. My Amiga was sold as having a dead floppy drive and the keyboard was kinda flaky when I first got it but I did some research and replaced the CIA A chip - both work perfectly now! I didn't have any floppies to test so I just bought the cheapest one I found on eBay. The drive sounds are very pleasing, I'll say. I'll have to track down some more for fun. r u ready to WALK posted:Yeah a couple years back i bought a MiST fpga (the original fpga project before MiSTer) and it came with a really nice amiga HD file on the sd card with a heavily customized workbench and hundreds of games. If you find something similar you can just copy it to a FC card and hook it up to the IDE interface of your accelerator and it should boot on real hardware. It was nice and snappy on my 030-upgraded A1200 Good idea on the MiST stuff - I didn't realize it wasn't Atari ST only (also have a 1040STf I've been playing around with). I do have a MiSTer but am an original hardware sicko at heart. I'll have to hunt around for disk images like that. I kind of want to learn how it all works first just so I understand things better. I guess I kind of like the challenge all this old hardware brings. Thanks!
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Apr 29, 2023 04:18
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pack.
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For Real Amiga tinkering I’d definitely recommend getting a file browser like dOpus asap. I had trouble with the stuff on AmiNet at first… I forget the version that worked for me but it was actually on an .adf file that I was able to install. Much easier to move files around with that and has a built-in .lha unpacker too!
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May 6, 2023 04:41
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Yeah Dopus is the best. Reminds me of using Norton Commander back in the day, and Total Commander sometimes in Windows
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May 6, 2023 11:02
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FileMaster is another good one. When I use my Amiga I pretty randomly start either DOpus or FM.
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May 6, 2023 11:33
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I love my A2000 but gently caress if I don’t just use UAE when I want to dink around in ProTracker or mess with demos.
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May 6, 2023 16:46
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Thanks for the file manager advice! I decided to hold off on messing around with everything until my ACA500plus case/shell thing arrives in a few days, as installing that thing with just the bare board was nerve wracking. Doubly so on a smallish desk with young children about.
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May 6, 2023 17:03
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Someone in the Steamdeck thread posted this weird 386sx (maybe?) single board computer put into a portable case90s Cringe Rock posted:well the deck was nice, but this new handheld is just blowing it out of the water And that got me poking around until I saw this 8088/IBM-compatible notebook made with salvaged chips. These are almost certainly terrible but it's the first AliExpress junk I've been tempted to flip a coin over. 
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May 15, 2023 04:59
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Nancy posted:And that got me poking around until I saw this 8088/IBM-compatible notebook made with salvaged chips. Holy poo poo?
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May 15, 2023 05:03
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Nancy posted:These are almost certainly terrible but it's the first AliExpress junk I've been tempted to flip a coin over. This is actually the kind of thing that might be at least decent. I buy a lot of Chinese hardware (I live in China.) I have been absolutely burned and learned my lesson by Chinese sensitive electronics. I had a Chinese receiver that sprayed a cloud of electric death around it and started bringing down other electronics (I got a refund and just got a Denon receiver that's been working) But little things like this, when they're not incredibly cheap, I've bought a lot of them that have been fine. I'll try to find out if they're cheaper within China and maybe get one, I had some other hardware that was 1/10th the cost in China as it was anywhere else for the same exact thing directly from the company.
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May 15, 2023 06:02
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I found it pretty easily on Taobao within China for ~$100 (+~$10 for the sound card) which is real real tempting to be honest. I could only find one seller so it's probably the same one from Aliexpress. Note that although the Aliexpress listing makes it look like it's included or at least an optional add-on, the original listing makes it clear that there's just an empty socket, and you have to source and drop in your own 8087 coprocessor should you desire the RAW COMPUTING POWER it gives. e: Also don't sleep on the HAND386 available from the same outfit.
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May 15, 2023 06:48
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I am willing to support this company if it means a Hand486 and a Handium in the future I am sure they could find an old industrial SoC that runs windows 98 and early 3d games great and has sound blaster emulation
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May 15, 2023 06:54
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Yeah, a HAND486 sounds like it'd be a whole lot more useful. Or maybe I just have a soft spot for the 486, in my mind it's still "the fast one"
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May 15, 2023 08:11
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486 is what was dominant when I was a teenager so it’s for sure the one that I have the most fond memories of. A 486 with an AdLib or SB just donking out 2D DOS VGA games left and right.. I think ‘91 to ‘94 or so were basically peak DOS years in my memory, so whatever PC is most proficient at playing games and running apps from that era gets my vote. You could argue that a pentium gets you some more headroom, but I think the 486 is more iconic to me.
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May 15, 2023 09:21
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80486: Doom rocks  80386: Doom sucks  So obviously '486 is the good one. e: Wait, does Doom even run on a '386? It was 40 000 years ago so I don't remember.
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May 15, 2023 10:08
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I think minspec is 386 DX or something like that, so it’ll “run” if you adjust your expectations of what running means 
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May 15, 2023 10:29
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Yeah, it depends entirely on whether you enjoy squinting at a tiny postage stamp or not
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May 15, 2023 10:31
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some kinda jackal posted:I think minspec is 386 DX or something like that, so it’ll “run” if you adjust your expectations of what running means Am I remembering wrong or did Wolfenstein 3D run on 80286s? (Depending on memory etc. but still.) Never tried it myself because there was no way it'd have fit on the HDD. e: Oh I was apparently way off. How silly of me. 
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May 15, 2023 10:33
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Doom is capable of running on a 386, but it does not run well. Even on a 386 DX 40 MHz you'll have to shrink the viewport down a lot to get reasonably smooth framerates. I saw a video of someone testing it a while back, you can probably find it on YouTube by searching "doom on a 386". Edit: And yes Wolfenstein 3D is a 16 bit game, it should run on a 286.
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May 15, 2023 10:34
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r u ready to WALK posted:Yeah, it depends entirely on whether you enjoy squinting at a tiny postage stamp or not 
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May 15, 2023 10:43
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Think I managed ^^ on a 386sx25 with (tedious story about config.sys mgt here) and Wolf3d definitely ran on a 286, maybe a pcAT? Wait that's the same thing, still thinking in xt terms
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May 15, 2023 11:08
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Chubby Henparty posted:Think I managed ^^ on a 386sx25 with (tedious story about config.sys mgt here) and Wolf3d definitely ran on a 286, maybe a pcAT? There was also the XT Model 286.
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May 15, 2023 11:17
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I played Doom in it's time on my family's AMD 386DX40. Size the screen down two notches and run at half resolution and framerates get reasonable. Looks crunchy but similarly to the 32X version, without all it's cuts. That's the best 386 you're going to get without overclocking, so anything less is probably a waste of time. e: courtesy of chocolate doom: 
SCheeseman fucked around with this message at 11:38 on May 15, 2023 |
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May 15, 2023 11:30
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SCheeseman posted:I played Doom in it's time on my family's AMD 386DX40. Size the screen down two notches and run at half resolution and framerates get reasonable. Looks crunchy but similarly to the 32X version, without all it's cuts. That looks fine to me. (It's not like I didn't grown up used to games that wasted a lot of screen real-estate on frames and other chrome.)
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May 15, 2023 11:52
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Easy to forget that Ultima Underworld and Everquest, early on, had teeeeensy windows
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May 15, 2023 12:45
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Chubby Henparty posted:Easy to forget that Ultima Underworld and Everquest, early on, had teeeeensy windows Yeah. RPGs had a good excuse because they actually needed UI. Ultima Underworld was pretty mind-blowing for me. I had played Wolf and Doom, but I really got immersed in Underworld.
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May 15, 2023 13:50
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Who had all these 386es lying around with 4 MB of RAM?
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May 15, 2023 15:44
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ExcessBLarg! posted:Who had all these 386es lying around with 4 MB of RAM? China is chock full of industrial 386s, I have seen folks in the last few weeks buy entire carriers full of new unused stock.
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May 15, 2023 17:18
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ExcessBLarg! posted:Who had all these 386es lying around with 4 MB of RAM? My neighbour had a 386 SX/16 with 16mb of RAM and an LAPC-I. It was the most baffling setup I've ever seen.
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May 15, 2023 18:57
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Fil5000 posted:My neighbour had a 386 SX/16 with 16mb of RAM and an LAPC-I. It was the most baffling setup I've ever seen.
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May 15, 2023 20:06
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I mean for contemporary machines of the early 90s:
ExcessBLarg! fucked around with this message at 21:24 on May 15, 2023 |
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May 15, 2023 21:21
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Dr. Quarex posted:This guy could get that GOOD immersion in precisely eight games that came out in 1990 Dude could fit doom in a ramdrive, still had enough ram to run it so it loaded super fast but ran like absolute poo poo. ExcessBLarg! posted:I mean for contemporary machines of the early 90s: In my case my PC was one my dad brought home from work, so ostensibly it was used for word documents and the odd spreadsheet but in practice it was 90% me playing videogames. So we weren't Richy McRiches, businesses just seemed to overspec their machines back then. Fil5000 fucked around with this message at 21:33 on May 15, 2023 |
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May 15, 2023 21:31
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My first PC was a 386 SX 16Mhz with 1MB of RAM. You could upgrade it to 4MB (after disabling the 1MB on board).
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May 15, 2023 21:34
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ExcessBLarg! posted:Who had all these 386es lying around with 4 MB of RAM? My family's PC was the aforementioned 386DX40 with 4MB RAM, bought around 1992. That era was the last hurrah for the architecture, but the market was flooded with them at the budget end. SCheeseman fucked around with this message at 01:22 on May 16, 2023 |
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May 16, 2023 01:20
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Our first PC was a Packard Bell 486SX2-50 with 4MB and after a while dad went out and bought 16MB of RAM from Circuit City for $75 so I could play Doom and he could play Air Warrior on AOL. I’ve got a PS/2 Model 80 with a 25MHz 386 (complete with 64KB of L2!) that chokes hard playing Doom. I’ve been tinkering with hacking the rendering engine to use my XGA-2 video card for hardware acceleration but I never got too far with that. Luigi Thirty fucked around with this message at 06:53 on May 16, 2023 |
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May 16, 2023 06:50
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I didn't have an x86 computer for the longest time I had.... A Vic 20 :/ But my friend had a 386 and that's what started my whole thing. We started a "videogame company" making little qbasic games. But the first computer I actually got was a p2 233, which at the time 1as really good. Then upgraded after begging and begging to the 1ghz thunderbird. I don't actually know how it performed at the time, I just wanted it cuz 1ghz
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May 16, 2023 08:17
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My family's first PC was an Acer Acros 486SX/25, with 4MB of RAM and a 170MB hard drive. We used this for over 5 years, and in that time my dad upgraded it with a Sound Blaster 2.0, a 486 Overdrive DX2/50, 4 more MB or RAM, an 850MB hard drive, and a string of 1x/2x CD-ROM drives that always failed after 1-6 months. Eventually it was donated to a church or something. E: we also upgraded it to Windows 95 (on floppies), which ran terribly and had to be reverted back to DOS and Win 3.1 I still have the original hard drive, the original SX/25, and a few years ago I found the SB2.0 in its original box in a closet in his house. I didn't know he'd removed it before giving the computer away. FuturePastNow fucked around with this message at 15:41 on May 16, 2023 |
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May 16, 2023 14:39
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my RAM story is that the last level of Doom II was basically unplayable, then when my Dad upgraded from 4MB to 8MB it was like I could move and breathe again oh and a few years earlier when I got the "EXPANSION RAM DETECTED AND UTILIZED" screen in Lemmings after upgrading the Amiga to 1MB 
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May 16, 2023 15:26
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My first PC has a 486SX-25 and shipped with 2MB of RAM. I convinced my parents to buy another 4MB for it when SimCity Classic wouldn't run (even though it said 2MB as the minimum requirements) and then it got handed down to my grandparents who replaced the original 2MB with 16MB for a total of 20 so it could handle running AOL and IE 3.0 until it was finally retired from daily use some time in '98 or '99. I bought a CF card adapter years ago and have been meaning to fire it up and image the 129MB hard drive but still haven't gotten around to it. Last time I booted it up was around 10 years ago and it got to the Windows 3.1 desktop as normal then, but I don't have any PS/2 compatible input devices anymore so I wasn't able to do anything from there. On that note, at one point in the early 2000s I remember seeing the CDW catalog listing actual USB to PS/2 adapters that actively converted protocols so a modern keyboard/mouse could be used on an old system but I haven't been able to find anything of the sort for years, just an infinite quantity of those stupid loving connector converters for transition-era devices that speak both protocols natively and then search engines being "helpful" and assuming I really meant a PS/2 to USB converter. It feels like the sort of thing that there should be an open hardware project using one of the USB host mode capable Arduino type things but I haven't yet come across one.
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May 16, 2023 15:27
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So DOOM was funny. Moderately-spec'd PCs in 1993 were either a 486/25 or 486/33 with 4 MB of RAM. DOOM was one of the earlier games that ran in 32-bit protected mode with a DOS extender, and it was actually quite flexible about the memory configuration of the system if you had enough memory. The problem was that DOOM required 4 MB of RAM, and most computers at the time were configured with QEMM or EMM386 to provide as much conventional memory (lower 640 kB) as possible, and the additional RAM used by the memory manager itself was often enough that DOOM wouldn't start. The solution was to create a boot disk (or under MS-DOS 6, a boot menu) with a bare-bones CONFIG.SYS configuration so that DOOM could vacuum up all of RAM for its own use. Of course, you'd still want to load the mouse driver, otherwise you might spend the next 30 years thinking DOS DOOM supported keyboards only. On machines with 8 MB of RAM this wasn't an issue, and hell DOOM even ran fine under Windows 95 if you had 16 MB.
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May 16, 2023 16:14
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