i am typing this on my 286!! :DD
i swear i am not a spam bot!
my 286 was at 25mHz with 16 mb of ram
but that mobo gone bad. the solder on the chipset chip
is not good and it breaks. i sent it to my friend to get
it fixed! because my hands shake and i have no space for a workspace >.<
i am proud of this system! <3
Great to hear of a 286 system running and actually being used too! I have a 486DX4-100 here as a BBS-era machine, but to be honest I rarely use it and just call in with Syncterm on my laptop like a lamer. ;)
What's funny, a user used to be a lamer if they had a
computer older than the current generation or a modem
slower than the fastest speeds the BBS could accept,
but nowadays it's reversed: Nobody is impressed by your
terabytes of disk space, hundreds of gigs of RAM, and
dozens of processor cores at gigahertz speeds. You have
to run some old piece of crap from the 1980's to really
impress us! ;-)
processor cores at gigahertz speeds. You have to run some old piece of crap from the 1980's to really impress us! ;-)
Re: hello! :DD
By: mary4 to All on Mon Apr 15 2024 09:33 am
I remember running a 286 system ages ago. It was an Orchid upgrade board.
You have to run some old piece of crap from the
1980's to really impress us! ;-)
Which OS are you running?FreeDOS 1.3
Which software is capable of utilizing that 16 mb of memory?nothing uses the entire 16mb! xD
I would be proud of that system too if i were maintaining it.yes!!
Do you have an online presence? (gopher hole, web site, mastodon, etc)yes https://4ch.mooo.com transfem.social/mary4
Online on a 286, sounds like you fit in here. :):DDDDD <3
Nice 286! That sounds pretty beefy on a 286. What kind of software are you running?FreeDOS 1.3 i play mod master XT on it and play some games and test software i develop on it xD
It definitely helps to have someone with some practice to do that kindi am a through hole master i cant do surface mount which is what that chip is :S
of work - the learning process can be frustrating when soldering,
usually we all break some things before we are able to actually fix things. Even with soldering experience, I still have a friend with more expertise who I can pass the really tough jobs off to.
Great to hear of a 286 system running and actually being used too! Ilol use the vintage pc! xD
use it and just call in with Syncterm on my laptop like a lamer. ;)
have a 486DX4-100 here as a BBS-era machine, but to be honest I rarely
Haha! You're right, a dozen cores running at gigahertz speeds sounds downright boring these days. On the other hand, I have a Pocket 386 ordered and en route to me and that is pretty exciting! Pocket 386 is a small notebook-form factor 386 machine sold on AliExpress, from the same place as the Book 8088 that you may have seen 'around' the past year or so. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005542582463.html
Perhaps I should take a pic of my 8-bit closet. It is fairly full of Commodores, including 64s, 64Cs, 2 SX-64s, and various 8-bit gaming consoles or handhelds. I also have an Amiga 2000HD that I haven't booted in a couple of years.
I still have a passion for 8-bit tech, but it comes and goes. Oddly, I feel it coming on again. :D
Great to hear of a 286 system running and actually being used too! I
have a 486DX4-100 here as a BBS-era machine, but to be honest I rarely
use it and just call in with Syncterm on my laptop like a lamer. ;)
Ben Collver wrote to mary4 <=-
I remember running a 286 system ages ago. It was an Orchid upgrade
board.
AKAcastor wrote to Mary4 <=-
It definitely helps to have someone with some practice to do that kind
of work - the learning process can be frustrating when soldering,
usually we all break some things before we are able to actually fix things. Even with soldering experience, I still have a friend with
more expertise who I can pass the really tough jobs off to.
I started with an 8088 XT (well, actually a TI 99/4A, but the XT was my first PC clone), skipped over the 286 era to a 386-40, then skipped over the 486 era to a used Pentium-120.
The 386 is still my favorite computer. ;) It was the first one I ran a BBS on. The BBSes now all run on single board Pis and PCs.
I put MINIX on it, installed an SMTP server, POP3 server and a web
server and create a mini-presence on our company LAN. I forwarded mail
to it, used it as a DNS forwarder, and created some web pages to share information inside the company.
not a version of minix for the 286
there is a good os in deep development called ELKS
it works on XTs and 286s
Very interting... I'll check it out.
I took a look at your github site and files. How cool that you are running your own BIOS! I didn't realize that the Impulse Tracker
source code had become available. I'll be looking at that for sure.
I was unable to view your Mastodon profile.
Chromium-ungoogled says:
No page corresponding to this URL could be found.
Palemoon says:
Failed to load
ERROR CODE: APP_IMPORT
I've been spending more time in FreeDOS 1.3 lately myself.
I've been asking myself philosophical questions like: Which is simpler, ASCII or UTF-8? There is no right answer. :>
What part of the world do you hail from? I am on the USA west coast.
I thought i saw Japanese characters on your Mastodon page. Are you
in Asia?
Once upon a time i was interested in game development. A friend askedYO THATS SICK!!! :DDDDDD
for help making a PlayStation game, back before the PlayStation 2 came out. I read online that Sony's development kit used a DJGPP cross- compiler on MS-DOS, so that motivated me to check out DJGPP. I only
had slow dial-up Internet at home, so i downloaded the bits at the
office and at the University computer lab and brought them home on floppies. I was proficient at splitting and re-joining files. I used screen captures of SNES emulators to rip sprites and then i coded a
fully functional local multi-player party game with VGA graphics and
MOD music. I was pleased with how it turned out, but by that time the PlayStation game project fizzled out. It did give me a lot of practice reading GNU TexInfo documentation and using GDB.
What part of the world do you hail from? I am on the USA west coast.
I thought i saw Japanese characters on your Mastodon page. Are you
in Asia?
I used list.com hex dumps to reverse engineer the database format, &
the shareware Desmet-C PCC compiler to write a program to export the
data to plain text, which i imported into Paradox. I remember using Borland grep.exe and i also remember using list.com multi-file views
to flip back and forth between old/new code listings page by page to
spot differences. I didn't have a diff command at that time.
yooooo i have a 4:3 ratio vga book 8088!! :DDDD
i should get the 386 version... but i feel that the 386
is modern to me :P i am only 33 so i am as old as a 286!! :D
I started with an 8088 XT (well, actually a TI 99/4A, but the XT was my first PC clone), skipped over the 286 era to a 386-40, then skipped over the 486 era to a used Pentium-120.
The 386 is still my favorite computer. ;) It was the first one I ran a BBS on. The BBSes now all run on single board Pis and PCs.
When I was a dumb kid, running a homebuilt 286 for my CS classes, I
noticed a clock crystal on the motherboard. Figured that if I bought a
faster chip, my system would run faster. I had a 16 mhz 286 for a
while, but it kept crashing. Went to 12 mhz and it ran fine.
Those solder jobs were embarassing at best. I'm surprised it still ran.
There's a special kind of fortune that shines on people who don't know
what they're doing shouldn't work.
version... but i feel that the 386 is modern to me :P i am only 33 so i am as old as a 286!! :D
When I was a dumb kid, running a homebuilt 286 for my CS classes, I noticed a clock crystal on the motherboard. Figured that if I bought a faster chip, my system would run faster. I had a 16 mhz 286 for a while, but it kept crashing. Went to 12 mhz and it ran fine.
Those solder jobs were embarassing at best. I'm surprised it still ran. There's a special kind of fortune that shines on people who don't know what they're doing shouldn't work.
Honestly I feel like the Pocket 386 might be a bit awkward of a system. It's a 386 SX so entry-level as far as 32-bit systems, but 40 MHz so
maybe not TOO sluggish? Just sort of an odd duck.
I think a 486DX2-66 or similar would open more options up for DOS gaming and probably more 32-bit DOS software in general. So I'm still holding out hope for something like that. But meanwhile, it's super cool that someone is producing this type of retro-but-new machine at all! (though
I gotta admit, I'm not sure what to do with the Book8088 after setting
it up and playing for an evening)
The 286 was introduced in 1982, which would make it 42 years old.. ?
I gotta admit, I'm not sure what to do with the Book8088 after setting
it up and playing for an evening)
lets get theat bad boi online! (book8088) >:3
How cool that your first dev work was in 1991!
What were you developing?
Telix was the first priority when I got the Book8088, downloading at 115.2kbps didn't go so well but with a more reasonable baud rate it's.. not bad!
https://imgur.com/a/JKq6XAy
Using one of the little wifi RS232 modems, it really is slick to be able to call into BBSes from an XT on wifi while I recline in the living
room. :)
I'm not up to speed with minix, but is that a currently active OS?
Meaning, is it getting constant patches?
yeah techincally!
i ment manufactured 286 mobos
Ah, 1984 then.
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/intel/iSBC/147532-001_iSBC_286_10A_Hardware_R ce_Manual_Oct84.pdf
Telix was the first priority when I got the Book8088, downloading at 115.2kbps didn't go so well but with a more reasonable baud rate it's.. not bad!
https://imgur.com/a/JKq6XAy
Using one of the little wifi RS232 modems, it really is slick to be able to call into BBSes from an XT on wifi while I recline in the living
room. :)
https://transfem.social/@mary4
I started with an 8088 XT (well, actually a TI 99/4A, but the XTwas my
first PC clone), skipped over the 286 era to a 386-40, thenskipped over
the 486 era to a used Pentium-120.yooo the 286 is an awesome, vintage, forgotten, and cool system! you
should get one! :D
Honestly I feel like the Pocket 386 might be a bit awkward of a
system. It's a 386 SX so entry-level as far as 32-bit systems, but 40
MHz so maybe not TOO sluggish? Just sort of an odd duck.
I think a 486DX2-66 or similar would open more options up for DOS
gaming and probably more 32-bit DOS software in general. So I'm still
LIST.com written by (IIRC) Vernon Berg.
How did you become interested in retrocomputing? What got you started
on 286's?
I still have the XT and the TI, as well as the 386 and P-120. I think I am covered in the vintage department. ;)
sorry for the heavy subject. i am light hearted and friendly like Mary from Ib
Honestly I feel like the Pocket 386 might be a bit awkward of a system.
It's a 386 SX so entry-level as far as 32-bit systems, but 40 MHz so maybe not TOO sluggish? Just sort of an odd duck.
I started programming in BASIC in 1982. My first paid work was in 1990,
LIST.com written by (IIRC) Vernon Berg.
Fell in love with it and have a BAT file on XP box called L.bat since I use it regularly.
Alt-h is the On/Off toggle that You found.
mary4 wrote to niter3 <=-
not a version of minix for the 286
there is a good os in deep development called ELKS
it works on XTs and 286s
Ben Collver wrote to Skylar <=-
I used list.com hex dumps to reverse engineer the database format, &
the shareware Desmet-C PCC compiler to write a program to export the
data to plain text, which i imported into Paradox. I remember using Borland grep.exe and i also remember using list.com multi-file views
to flip back and forth between old/new code listings page by page to
spot differences. I didn't have a diff command at that time.
AKAcastor wrote to Blue White <=-
Got stuck on with the Tandy a long time, then finally got a 486DLC-40
with 4 megs of RAM - what a machine! :)
AKAcastor wrote to Mary4 <=-
Telix was the first priority when I got the Book8088, downloading at 115.2kbps didn't go so well but with a more reasonable baud rate it's.. not bad!
https://imgur.com/a/JKq6XAy
Using one of the little wifi RS232 modems, it really is slick to be
able to call into BBSes from an XT on wifi while I recline in the
living room. :)
niter3 wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
I put MINIX on it, installed an SMTP server, POP3 server and a web
server and create a mini-presence on our company LAN. I forwarded mail
to it, used it as a DNS forwarder, and created some web pages to share information inside the company.
I'm not up to speed with minix, but is that a currently active OS? Meaning, is it getting constant patches?
niter3 wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
I put MINIX on it, installed an SMTP server, POP3 server and a web server and create a mini-presence on our company LAN. I forwarded mai to it, used it as a DNS forwarder, and created some web pages to shar information inside the company.
I'm not up to speed with minix, but is that a currently active OS? Meaning, is it getting constant patches?
MINIX is a "teaching" OS, not really meant for production. Andy
Tanenbaum designed it for an OS class years ago. I wouldn't want to run
it on the internet, though.
It runs on an old emulator called bochs, but also runs natively and
with modern hypervisors. It ran (sort of) on 8088s, but was intended for
a 286 with a little more memory to play with, and later versions
supported 386's memory model and included an X server.
What's great about it is that the source code is available and it's designed to be walked through and understood as part of the class.
Hello mary4!
A belated welcome to you, Victoria, and I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself here in fsxNet -- there are lots of very friendly people here!
Speaking of 286s, I used to have an IBM AT with an original EGA monitor
(I remember this took up quite some space on the desk!). The power
switch had to be replaced in due time as it wore down... =)
That chassis was later on used to fit a 386SX/40 (boy, was that MB tiny compared to the chassis!) and later on a 486DX4/100, before I switched to Pentium and AMD K6-2 in a mini tower.
Best regards
Zip (Bjrn)
As I recall, 40MHz was a (the most?) popular/common clock speed for the AMD variant of the 386 SX CPUs/boards. With it's 16-bit data bus, it wasi want 16 bit power!!!!!!!!!!
a bit of a crippled processor, but not an odd duck for the time.
I wouldn't want to use one today! :-)i am using a 286 right now!
MINIX2 runs on XT and 286 - https://minix1.woodhull.com
I remember collecting all sorts of *nix utilities for DOS, trying to
make my DOS machine look unix-ey, I don't recall how compatible they
were, but do recall using *nix find, cut, and grep.
That was a wild time - 1993 to 1995 or so. 486es came out, then EISA
versus VLB versus SCSI wars, then wars over clock-doubling - was a
486DX50 a better choice than a 486DX2/66?
Then came the clones - AMD, Cyrix, IBM, andothers I've forgotten about
all came up with their down 486-esque designs. We had problems with
Windows 3.1 and the Cyrix chips, so the users would trade them for
Intel 486 boxes and we'd run BSD/OS in the server room on them just
fine.
Then, the first Pentium/66s showed up and blew them all away.the 486
era was gone, just like >that<.
DOSBOX-X allows you to redirect a TCP/IP port to a serial port. Redirect port 23 to COM1, fire up telix, enter the hostname as the phone number, and it "dials" out.
I use less so much that my muscle memory types 'b' to go back a page.
In list.com it goes back to the beginning.
So i remapped 'b' to go back a page.
I still have the XT and the TI, as well as the 386 and P-120. I think II started with an 8088 XT (well, actually a TI 99/4A
am covered in the vintage department. ;)
I think a 486DX2-66 or similar would open more options up for DOS
gaming and probably more 32-bit DOS software in general. So I'm still
IIRC, if it is an SX it is not completely 32-bit. I think that meant 32 bit processor on a 16 bit bus. I suspect you are correct re: a 486 or even a proper 386DX.
As I recall, 40MHz was a (the most?) popular/common
clock speed for the AMD variant of the 386 SX
CPUs/boards. With it's 16-bit data bus, it was a bit of
a crippled processor, but not an odd duck for the time.
I wouldn't want to use one today! :-)
Ditto. Same years, same tools too (started with Commodore BASIC, then Turbo C -> Borland C++, etc.).
IIRC, if it is an SX it is not completely 32-bit. I think that meant 32
bit processor on a 16 bit bus. I suspect you are correct re: a 486 or
even a proper 386DX.
That's my understanding as well.
Interesting! I remember 386SX-16 and 386SX-33 but somehow I blocked 386SX-40 out of my memory. I do remember 386DX-40, not sure why I thought the 40 MHz 386 was the DX version only. I guess I was just lucky enough
But I'd swear at that machine at least once a day. I would have been thrilled to get the 286 back!
Then came the clones - AMD, Cyrix, IBM, and others I've forgotten about
all came up with their down 486-esque designs. We had problems with
Windows 3.1 and the Cyrix chips, so the users would trade them for
Intel 486 boxes and we'd run BSD/OS in the server room on them just
fine.
Then, the first Pentium/66s showed up and blew them all away. The 486
era was gone, just like >that<.
I only had two 386 setups in the 90s: One was an Intel
386SX-16 and the other was an AMD 386DX-40. My next PC
was an AMD am5x86-133 (which was really a 486), and
after a little while, I learned it could be safely
overclocked to 160mhz by increasing the bus speed from
33mhz to 40mhz.
I only had two 386 setups in the 90s: One was an Intel 386SX-16 and the other was an AMD 386DX-40. My next PC was an AMD am5x86-133 (which was really a 486), and after a little while, I learned it could be safely overclocked to 160mhz by increasing the bus speed from 33mhz to 40mhz.
Yep, time to upgrade! If you can't afford anything else, then at least a Pentium Overdrive chip. :)
I never had a 5x86, but a little after that I had a Celeron 300 and that was an insanely overclockable chip. I don't remember the numbers for sure, but I think I had it at 450 MHz. Was it stable? Well, I was running Windows 98 - nothing was REALLY stable. :)
BW, I never had a TI 99/4A. One of my friends did. Between my friends
and
myself, we were able to try most 8-bit home computers. But none of us
had a "PC".
Interesting! I remember 386SX-16 and 386SX-33 but somehow I blocked 386SX-40 out of my memory. I do remember 386DX-40, not sure why I
thought the 40 MHz 386 was the DX version only. I guess I was just
lucky enough to not have dealt with many of the 386SX-40 machines
(which makes sense, I was pretty young and didn't have access to a
huge variety of hardware).
Blue White wrote to AKAcastor <=-
IIRC, if it is an SX it is not completely 32-bit. I think that meant
32 bit processor on a 16 bit bus. I suspect you are correct re: a 486
or even a proper 386DX.
Blue White wrote to Ed Vance <=-
LIST.com written by (IIRC) Vernon Berg.
Yep, that is the one. I still use it often in my DOSemu sessions.
I only had two 386 setups in the 90s: One was an Intel 386SX-16 and the
other was an AMD 386DX-40. My next PC was an AMD am5x86-133 (which was
really a 486), and after a little while, I learned it could be safely
overclocked to 160mhz by increasing the bus speed from 33mhz to 40mhz.
i over clocked my 486DX5@133mHz to 166mHz too :D
Ben, you keep showing me obvious things that I didn't realize I should
be doing, like configuring list and less to have the same behaviour.
I don't know if this is the case with the new DOS handheld, but Intel
made a super low power 386sx for mobile back then - of course power consumption of any chip pales in comparison to modern systems.
Interesting note I read while wiki-ing this - Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.51 supported the 386 line of processors. 98 and NT 4 required a 486.
Yeah, I had the TI. Other friends had the C64 so I got to try both. I never got to try any of the more obscure ones, though.
Wow, developing multi-media educational apps back in the DOS days.
That was cutting edge...
I right click a file in Windows Explorer, select send to, then select EV> List to get a looksee at a file I am interested in knowing whats what EV> about it.
Another thingy I learned is to use the mouse wheel while holding a CTRL EV> key down to change the size of the font on a page.
CTRL +. and CTRL - does that too, but not in as fine
increments as the mouse wheel method.
The summer that I turned 10, I bought my first computer with money I earned that summer. I waited for it to go on sale and got my VIC-20 at K-Mart for $79.i always lkike your stories! :D
But I remember walking past a Coleco Adam and thinking it looked a lot "cooler" than the VIC-20. I didn't have enough money for an Adam though. And I'm thankful that I didn't. ;)
That Christmas, my father bought a Commodore 64 for the "family". Yeah!
Yeah, I had the TI. Other friends had the C64 so I got to tryboth. I
never got to try any of the more obscure ones, though.
The summer that I turned 10, I bought my first computer with money I
earned that summer. I waited for it to go on sale and got my VIC-20 at K-Mart for $79.
That Christmas, my father bought a Commodore 64 for the "family".
Yeah!
The 15" 'er was priced at $535 USD back then in Computer Shopper's Magazine. MAG's 17" 'er was priced at +$700 bucks then.
I had seen 17" Monitors at the Service Merchandise store and drooled at the size of the screen.
The 6 point something inch screen on this phone
(Motorola g play 2023) looks to
me better than the screens on the smaller Cellphones.
I turned Auto Rotate on so the image of the Keyboard looks larger.
The longer span of Keys helps Me not have to tap the <x| Button as often.
It's tolerable, at least I can Communicate with others on this BBS.
That is neat that you had both in the house at the same time.
processor cores at gigahertz speeds. You have to run some old piece of crap from the 1980's to really impress us! ;-)
Haha! You're right, a dozen cores running at gigahertz speeds sounds downright boring these days.
It's interesting to think that everything from the last century is now "classic" in antiques terms.
And, yeah, generally the cheapest stuff is stuff that's somewhat
outdated. Thus why computers from 2017 are barely functional and questionable if anyone wants them, but computers from the 1980s and
1990s are something collectible.
Though not by me, I think. Even my hand held gaming collection ended up
at my brother's place, and I went down that route because, sheesh, you
can get a _lot_ of systems and games into small spaces that way.
On the other hand, I know that most people use these systems for either high-end gaming or cryptocurrency mining, and _that_ sounds boring.
Where I worked, my section first got a 'hand me down' 8088 XT Clone when our boss got a 286.
When the boss got a 386, the 286 came our way.
My section used those PCs to send Morning and Evening reports to another office.
Myself, I thought the 286 seemed slower saving downloads than the 8088 clone had.
The 286 had a faster CPU and bigger Harddrive, but to me I wasn't as comfortable using it as I was with the first computer we used.
Later again, the 386 was put on our desk.
I was using the Commodore 64 system at home while learning to use DOS at work on those 3 computers.
My first DOS PC at home had DOS 5.0 , I couldn't get interested in wanting the early release's of DOS 6 .
But that's Me.
Sorry, tapped wrong area on this phone.
Last message to You was same as My I.Q. ZERO.
Ed
My first DOS PC at home had DOS 5.0 , I couldn't get interested in
wanting the
early release's of DOS 6 .
But that's Me.
Blue White wrote to Ed Vance <=-
IIRC, the early versions of DOS 6 were not a big improvement over DOS
5.0 and were actually buggy.
IIRC, the early versions of DOS 6 were not a big improvement over DOS 5.0
and were actually buggy.
Buggy in a serious way -- early disk compression software had some serious issues and ate filesystems occasionally.
Also, I remember hearing about a lawsuit against Microsoft because they apparently used code from another product (I believe it was Stacker) for their DoubleSpace disk compression software. Microsoft removed DoubleSpace in MS-DOS 6.21, and then added DriveSpace in MS-DOS 6.22, from what I recall.
Where I worked, my section first got a 'hand me down' 8088 XT Clone when our boss got a 286.
When the boss got a 386, the 286 came our way.
I remember the AddStor/Stacker/Doublespace/Drivespace days well. Tried running the BBS with Superstor for a while, worked OK - especially since
We had people here trying to flog systems with "160Mb"
HDs in them, which for
the most part turned out to be 80Mb MFM's that had compression added. Back when 160Mb was still a large drive..
The 'big' disks, due to compression, didn't work out so well for making more space for BBS file downloads! (amongst other issues, of course)
Disk compression was rather ... underwhelming ... when storing a bunch of .ZIP files. :)
Honestly though, the times I used DriveSpace and it didn't destroy all my data, it did seem like magic - more disk space for FREE!
Drive compression has its issues.. It generally slows down the
computer, and there was one time for me when DOS booted up and the
drive compression driver didn't load for some reason, so I couldn't
access my files. I don't remember what I had to do to fix that..
Spectre wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
We had people here trying to flog systems with "160Mb" HDs in them,
which for the most part turned out to be 80Mb MFM's that had
compression added. Back when 160Mb was still a large drive..
Were those RLL drives? They used a special controller to write more sectors per track on MFM drives.
Sysop: | Tetrazocine |
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