I absolutely accept that TRM is not looking for warez for his DOS machines, but this thread seemed like a good spot to post about this:

https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@cynings ... 1641669127

Ha! Thanks but I think I am good... haven't gotten so sick that I want to get into old hardware... although... my PC-XT and -AT are in my parents' attic (and the heat probably isn't doing them any good, come to think of it). I do have a PS/2.... model 40, I think, but I could not get it to POST and haven't had the time to delve into hardware evaluation/repair. Oldest I managed was that Toshiba we talked about last time... which come to think of it would be great for this project but for the battery issue.

There is a guy out here making a modern day ISA card that will emulate the Gravis Ultrasound . He lives up in Longmont, Colorado, where I used to live. If you end up with a machine that has an available ISA port I will send one of them to you as a anniversary(?) gift. Of something. I can't find a board with an ISA port so I haven't been able to use the ahhh two that I bought (they are the same card but work on different machines I swear).

Mostly I just want to word process... although I did get Sound Blaster working on the ThinkPad under FreeDos.

I do think I am already over my urge to make the Thinkpad into a DOS machine. Even without a battery, it gets pretty warm. The Netbook stays cool. And it's lighter. And everything (and when I say everything, I mean DOS text) looks better on the smaller screen. Also, the Thinkpad's mousepad is ass. The pointy-stick is better but mine needs a new grip.

That said, I am seriously contemplating whether I should go to Freedos. I found a slightly newer version of Professional Write (2.21) that does run on FD (and, really, if I'm going to seriously do this word-process-on-dos thing, I need to learn WordPerfect, because really PW is little more than a glorified text editor. Amazing people paid for it when EDIT.COM was $FREE.)

But... is FreeDOS cheating? Is it really retroputing? I asked this on r/retrocomputing and am eager to see what the folks there say, though I must realize I am talking to people too young to understand the difference between Beatle Paul and Wings Paul.

FD seems like it would make networking easy and let me do email and maybe a little LYNX-ing under DOS.... but I look at all the crap it loads at bootup and think... bloatware.

I also downloaded Netware 4.11 and a 5-user ilcense disk from archive.org. DANGER WILL ROBINSON DANGER. IPX/SPX works on DOS, I'm just sayin'.

Fair.

I think it's also important that we find games for you to try on this system when you are happy with it. I would like to say that there are tons of new DOS games that you might enjoy.

I can't say that. I can say that there exist some new DOS games.

Da King wrote: Wed Mar 13, 2024 6:36 pm Whenever I call you a Jew, you get mad at me. Make up your mind.

That's because you are a JEW HATING ANTISEMETIC BALDING BACKPADDLING BESPECTACLED BASTARD.

But I love you.

The REAL Real Man wrote: Tue Mar 12, 2024 8:07 pm Which is proof if you ask me that they are JEW HATING ANTISEMITIC BASTARDS even though there is no God.

Whenever I call you a Jew, you get mad at me. Make up your mind.

Scene setting! I think I just get bored. But... the sickness has spread. I brought my old Stinkpad X131e out of storage and set up FreeDOS on it, thinking the ol' Stinky has a better keyboard for sustained typing than the Asus.

But... the battery (an older Lenovo replacement which I suspect could be counterfeit) got VERY warm when I was charging it. So it'd need a new battery. And probably a new keyboard; I typed so much I wore letters and a layer of plastic off some of the keys. Anyway, lots of refurbishment and not sure if it's worth it. For one thing, the potentially explosive counterfeit battery notwithstanding, I remember one of my Lenovos generating a lot of heat... the Asus OTOH stays room temperature. I don't think the Intel Atom has enough computing power to warm itself up. Thinkpad is an AMD.

But... ooooh, that keyboard.

Although... DOS text looks less shitty on a 10.6" screen than 11.6".

THE
SOMEONE HELP ME
REAL MAN

He enjoys firing up the occasional game of Spacewar. We've all been there.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Tue Mar 12, 2024 10:45 pm Because of the nature of the retro-anything enthusiast, it is best for us just to keep everything.

THIS IS WHAT I KEEP SAYING AND NO ONE WILL LISTEN.

Except you. Marry me, Jonsey.

Actually, I can't be that sick. Recently I asked a friend what kind of computer he had before his first Mac (1980s). He said... a PDP-11. (He used to work for DEC.)

And he still has it.

I am in AWE

I enjoy setting the scene.

I have one other note. Pinback and I have talked about how we enjoy "scene setting" our games. I think you may enjoy the process of setting it up. If you feel hollow inside once you get it perfect and can focus on enjoying it - that's ok! You may just be a "scene setter" like the two of us!

The REAL Real Man wrote: Tue Mar 12, 2024 9:56 pm Annnnnd I had to pay four dollars for a small SD card because I threw all the other ones I had. It's not the money, it's the principle. I told my wife I should never throw anything away!!! Did she believe me? No.

I experience that often. Because of the nature of the retro-anything enthusiast, it is best for us just to keep everything. I have 1GB SD cards hanging around and I should get rid of them..... but then I will get a flash cart for something and the instructions will say that it won't work with a large SD card. So I am glad I kept it around. That is happening a lot lately.

I got rid of all my extra cords once. ONCE. When we moved here. And I have had to re-purchase at least two of them.

Annnnnd I had to pay four dollars for a small SD card because I threw all the other ones I had. It's not the money, it's the principle. I told my wife I should never throw anything away!!! Did she believe me? No.

The REAL Real Man wrote: Tue Mar 12, 2024 5:31 pm And then I thought, well, if I'm going to set it up for triple-boot... why not QUADRUPLE-boot... with a partition reserved for Windows 98. Don't know if it'll work, but it's easier to set up the partitions now.

So this idea was FAILFAILFUCKINGFAIL. Grub did see two of the three OSs (and to be fair, Win98 partition didn't really have an OS on it) but I can't boot FreeDOS off an extended partition, afuckingpparently.

Which is proof if you ask me that they are JEW HATING ANTISEMITIC BASTARDS even though there is no God.

So, back to DOS/Linux, and I think what I'll do is put Freedos on a CF card, leave that inserted and boot off of it as needed.

And if THAT doesn't work, well, fuck FreeDOS. It's worth what you pay for it. At least I still have the satisfaction of pirating Micro$oft DO$!!!

TRM

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Tue Mar 12, 2024 7:22 pm Since when have you had a blog? Please post a link to it!

Well, it's sort of not ready for prime time yet. But will be before too long. Only a few posts, and the last ones were in 2017. Also its's supposed to be funny and I'm not sure it is.

Give me a couple of weeks to get some more funny on there and then I'll share.

TRM

Since when have you had a blog? Please post a link to it!

I think, because mine is making a snapping/cracking sound, that the housing of this component may be damaged.

Or your house is about to burn down. Y'know, one of the two.

You are far braver when it comes to vintage hardware than I am!

Update, got the asus running nicely and actually wrote a little blog entry about it (stand by for blog news). But of course I am not satisfied. I thought it might be handy to make it triple-boot, so I could have MS-DOS and FreeDOS and play around with the latter.

And then I thought, well, if I'm going to set it up for triple-boot... why not QUADRUPLE-boot... with a partition reserved for Windows 98. Don't know if it'll work, but it's easier to set up the partitions now.

SO... that's what I am doing. Since MS-DOS wants FAT16 and FD and everything else wants FAT32, it's a usb-disk-shuffle of booting and rebooting and installing and formatting and copying, and I'm not sure I can describe it because that'll take longer than doing it, whcih is taking pretty fucking long.

Anyway, if I get as far as Win98, plan is to basically do a disk-dump from a partial setup on VirtualBox and copy it over and see what happens.

Eets soo crazzzzy, eeet just might vurk!

TRM

AArdvark wrote: Sat Mar 09, 2024 8:08 pm Re: flyback leak

Wheres that Indian video with Punjab poking around in a monitor with a screwdriver?

Yessir. I may be able to try something that gets me around having to replace it!

The REAL Real Man wrote: Sat Mar 09, 2024 8:05 pm What is a flyback leak?

Great question. And I have an update!!

The CRT monitor for the PCjr (and all monitors like this) has something called a flyback, which controls how the electrons are fired at the phosphor-coated tube that we look at. I think, because mine is making a snapping/cracking sound, that the housing of this component may be damaged. Thus sending out electrical energy until it strikes another portion of the monitor, which is bad.

However, I got a reply from a guy on a PCjr forum and he thinks that it's probably that there is nothing wrong with the flyback, but rather another part of the monitor that may have dried out. Since it has been 40 years, I am willing to accept this theory. I just have to discharge the monitor and then get it wet HEH. Not a problem.

LCD and LED screens are so much better, but I just want my PCjr to use original hardware that looks nice. :/