Retro Home Computer Thread

anybody?

Both the Amiga & ST are cool machines. Both have a lot of good games (and a lot of crappy ones too). Interesting fact some ST games support music playback on Casio CZ synthesizers on top of the traditional MT-32 support.
The speccy kinda suck gaymen-wise compared to both the CPC and MSX though, most of the interesting stuff on it are demos (and jetpac). If you're not necessarily into games, like most computer, it's still interesting in it's own way. The CPC has a lot of crappy games too, but a lot of good ones too. Too bad the CPC scene is really small nowadays. The MSX (without counting the 2, 2+ and Turbo-R models) have better games than both the Speccy and CPC overall.
Both the sharp x68000 and FM Towns are great computers, NEC's PC-88 and PC-98 aren't that impressive hardware-wise but are still cool machines.

Also FM tunes are great:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JpR7q7DRJw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkqbnRNiyYo

Are there any coherent archives of magazine pages containing code that the reader was meant to enter in order to make a program? I used to dumpster dive for Compute!s but I know this phenomenon wasn't restricted to Compute!

I felt that this belonged here rather than in the magazine thread, was I wrong?

Just recently got the desire to get into MSX games and things

How many games actually utilize the MSX2+ hardware? Am I good enough getting just an MSX2?

I mainly just want to play Konami games, and I will most likely get one of the flash carts available or use some other method of playing downloaded games

>>4065717
I had a buttload of these over the years. Starting with an Apple II and ending with a few Amigas. I only ever had one Intel machine before they started becoming slightly useful around 1990. So much more fun to develop on and play on than intel boxes.

>>4067392
There's a lot on archive.org but "coherent" isn't exactly how I'd describe it.

>>4067437
Quite a few games can use the + hardware but most (all?) run on the MSX2 as well.

>>4067392
If you know spanish you have microhobby for the zx spectrum.

The programming articles are superb, but again, in spanish.

http://www.microhobby.org/

>>4067614
>(all?)
No, not all of them, there are quite a few that are for MSX 2+ & later only.

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Hey guys. I already have a working C64 setup but someone a few miles from me has listed this Vic 20 lot for $100. Looks like an amazing deal although I'm not sure what I'd use it for. It does come with a floppy drive though and if the floppy drive works that alone would be worth picking up. I have no particular nostalgia for the Vic 20 since I grew up with a C64, but do you think I should go for it anyway?

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I'm highly considering taking the rainbow pill and getting a Speccy. I can't deal with rubber chicklet keys so it's either going to be a Spectrum Plus or a Spectrum Plus 2, but I'm not sure which is the better value. From what I can see the Plus is smaller, cheaper, and has more of the "cute" factor that the original Speccy has, but the Plus 2 has a better keyboard, a built-in tape drive, and obviously the 128k of RAM. Does any significant software actually use the 128k or RAM or is it like the Commodore 128 where only a handfull of games actually take advantage of it? I'm not going to be doing my taxes on the thing so I don't care about what non-gaming software takes advantage of it.

I am leaning towards the Speccy Plus because of price and size, since I already have a C64 that takes up a fair bit of space (and I'll need some additional equipment to get it running on my American AC power and NTSC screens anyway), but I must say the Plus 2 is a pretty handsome machine and I expect the keyboard is a lot better, but there is a significant price valley between the two. Advice?

>>4069884
Well it's basically like a less-capable C64 -- doesn't even display 40 columns in text mode, really primitive sound hardware, stuff like that, so unless you're into demos or like tinkering old computer for fun, there's not much you can do on it that you can't on your other commodore.

>>4069945
That's the feeling I was getting. It's a great deal but I think I should leave it for someone else who will appreciate it more, because it will probably end up just sitting in my attic a few days after I get it working. If I get another 8-bit micro computer I think I would have a lot more fun with a Spectrum or Atari, and I am still on the lookout for an Amiga and a 486 DOS machine. I'll save my money for now.

>>4069942
Spectrum+ has a few incompatibilities, but the Plus 2 is unable to run a major part of the speccy library (adding Amstrad's copyright mentions in ROM shifted all the routine's addresses). On the other hand it has an RGB output so no need to worry about this PAL&NTSC shit cause that doesn't exist in RGB, and you can still make your own stuff on it. There's the Speccy 128 which is a + with 128kB of RAM.
>>4069949
Np m8, just be sure to know what you might want to try on them before getting them (though you can't really go wrong with a 486 machine of an Amiga -- there's so much variety that there must be something that you'll enjoy).

Right now I'm trying to get a new monitor (monochrome, for higher-res stuff) and a printer for my Amstrad CPC 6128. When I'll finally get those and a new floppy drive belt then I'll have a fully functional CP/M + setup. After that I'll try to get an MSX and some PC-88 or 98.

>>4069965
Neat. I'll keep all that in mind if and when I go scouring eBay for one. And good luck with your hunting.

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>>4067392
The german magazine "64'er" that run from 1984 to 1999 had in almost every single issue a couple of listings. Those were either pure BASIC programs that were a pain in the ass to type and error check (including some challenges with a limit of 20 lines of code), some assembler stuff and later much bigger programs, that you could typed in with some more sophisticated programs with checksums after every line that made things much easier.

Archive of many of scans of said 64'er magazine:
http://www.64er-online.net/download/index.html

(They are using screenshots as captchas for the downloads)

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>>4065717
I went to New York State on a Craigslist ad for an Amiga 2000. Ended up getting that and an Atari ST something where the computer is separate from the keyboard and an external hard drive for it. A box of Amiga software and three Atari monitors. I still haven't got a keyboard for the Atari yet. They're not cheap. The Amiga 2000 had a leaky battery that took out the cpu socket. It should be savable. But now I'll also have to buy another CPU for it. I've had it on hold for a very long time now and bumbed into it and the cpu's pins got smashed pretty good. Althouh it probably need to be replaced anyway.

I've got two Amiga 1200's one of which had an upgrade card and a hard drive. Before something crashed. Not sure yet what it is. I haven't spent the time on it yet. I saw where it had a porn website listing program for the internet on the amiga. Was pretty neat and took me way back to when I was 11 or 12 and dial up internet porn.

>Also have a two Amiga 500's. I've spent the most time with these two. Played some games. One of them was a neat racing game that had decent 3d graphics. The games for the Amiga 500 reminds me of the Japanese exclusive titles for the Famicom Disk System.

>I've bought some ide to flash card adapters and some 4gb Flash cards but have yet to install them either. Someday.

>Anybody have any advice or websites they'd like to recommend when trying to upgrade or repair these items?

>>4069965
>>4070142
I checked a bit about the RGB port I claimed the Speccy 2+ had, and it looks like it's a TTL RGB one. Gotta need a CGA monitor or try to use these SCART cable schematics to turn it into analog RGB.
>>4070364
>an Atari ST something where the computer is separate from the keyboard and an external hard drive for it.
Atari Mega ST. Compared to other ST models they also have a blitter and some softwares take advantage of it. I have one which needs a little PSU revision (it works, but it's weak).
For the keyboard, it's unfortunate, good luck finding one of those.

>>4070379
Yea that's what it's called Mega ST. It has Blitter? And other ST's don't?

>>4070387
ST, STf and STfm models don't. All-in-keyboards models started to have one with the STe upgrade.

>>4069884
Only reason to get it is for hipster cred or to trade/sell it to get something good for something else.

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Is $175 a good price for a Commodore 128 with a 1902a monitor, paddles, and 1541,71,and 81 drives

>>4069942
128k versions of games have enhanced sound/ no multiload on certain titles. Also means you can play a few worthwhile exclusives like Where Time Stood Still. Go for a grey Plus 2 over the black if you can, the latter sometimes has garbled sound on 128k games. The plus is nice, but the GOAT spectrum is the original 128k

>>4070839
Yes, the 1581 often sells for $130+ by itself.

>>4070839
If it's all in good shape and has all the bits it's an excellent deal.

Bumpan

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Not sure if this is the right place to ask or not, but I am having a major problem with DOSbox. Pressing Ctrl + F1 is supposed to open up the keymapper, but I can't see it. It changes the window size as if the keymapper was open but I don't see anything but a cut off / resized still image of the game I am running. All of my DOSbox games from GoG are like this even though they used to work. My computer is running Windows 10 (and yes I know, memes). I can't get my joystick to work in Wing Commander and don't know how else I could fix it.

>>4067614
>So much more fun to develop on and play on than intel boxes.

True, assembly code is much easier on a lot of older machines. Higher level languages have remedied this. I had to do x86 assembly in a class I had the spring of 2016 and it was very complex just to make a simple text mode DOS program (Windows is more complicated).

I've never used QBASIC though, or Turbo Pascal. I don't know how much of a DOS hobbyist programmer scene existed back then.

>>4074064
>I don't know how much of a DOS hobbyist programmer scene existed back then.
It was ever growing since the late 80s, and was already really huge by the early 90s -- just look at the demo and doujin scene (the PC-98 models and FM Towns ran MS-DOS too).

Anyone with an msx have any experience with the MegaFlashROM or the SD-512?

>>4073956
Antimicro has always seemed like less of a headache.

>>4074552
The problem is that the joystick wasn't being detected at all though. If it was just a matter of mapping keystrokes to the joystick I could use Xpadder, but if the main joystick function isn't working natively there's not really anything I can do.

>>4074064
There was homebrew DOS stuff but as far as games go there wasn't nearlt as much interesting stuff as on platforms with vastly superior sound and graphics that cost a fraction of the price.

>>4074064
modern operating systems simply provide too much abstraction

if you judge x86 ASM by programming on a modern windows or linux you're doing it wrong

the greatest thing about DOS is that it's barely an operating system in the first place

>>4075018
Nah. Modern operating systems allow you to do whatever you want. Such as compile your own kernel with whatever shit you feel like putting in it. Sounds like you might be a microcuck.

>>4075181
yeah okay i guess fucking with the memory and changing a character on the screen is really easy on linux

Defenders of the crown and Sid Meiers Pirates are all you want

>>4075217
>fucking with the memory
Yeah there are things in place to stop dumb kids like you from doing shit like that.
>changing a character on the screen
It thinks linux has "the screen"

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Besides vid related, Gloom and Zeewolf, what are some good 3D games for the Amiga and ST?

>>4075546
There's Elite Frontier on the Amiga

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>>4075546
Hunter (!)
One of the first open world 3D games with many vehicles like cars, boats, helicopters etc. Yeah, the world is a bit empty and the interface is very clumsy, but still ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA3pTA2DNhc

And there are those early 3D games (Castle Master, Total Eclipse I & II, Driller, Dark Side) by Incentive Software, Ltd. that they even ported to the 8-bit homecomputers and gave the users the power to create 3d worlds with the "3D Construction Kit".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSzcoG7k2FI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmYdD3tthug

And then there are the usual suspects:
FPS: Alien Breed 3D, Nemac IV, Breathless.
Those space shooters like Wing Commander or Epic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrco0txG9XY
Adventures: Trapped I & II
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNN_0bOnp2o
The flight sims/arcade games: Gunship & Gunship 2000, Red Baron, Wings etc.
Or the very early (and slow) proto-FPS Corporation as well as Robocop 3 with it's nice playable 3D sequences.

And my favorite is "The Sentinel" (for most 8- and 16 bit computers and PC).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGadqJbqTn0

>>4075527
what a fucking hipster

>>4075908
>anyone how knows more than a toddler is a hipster
Sure thing babyo

>>4070839
depends where you are, Europe? you could probably get it for half of that if you just bother being patient

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Glad to see a proper computer thread in /vr/ and not another shitposting baitfest.
Anyways, anyone got any tips for me, would be much appreciated.

Asked ye olde /retro/ thread from /g/ >>>/g/61004293 >>>/g/61024003 a while ago, no such luck though.

Have been trying to get a 3.5" drive to work, without any success, just hooking it up to the original controller won't give me a 720KB 3.5" drive as it should, driver.sys and DRIVPARM aren't helping (DOS 4.01), tried a 16-bit ISA HD floppy controller with 2M-XBIOS, won't also work as a 1.44MB drive (probably because it's not an original XT BIOS) nor will it work with 2M-XBIOS and DRIVPARM/driver.sys as a 720KB drive, tried it both as drive A: and B: with both controllers, tried several drives also.

Both controllers work fine with the 5.25" drive and 360KB floppies, got several files across that way.
Also, I managed to boot it to DOS 6.22 from a floppy once with the 3.5" drive and 720KB (but maybe it only saw it as a 360KB disk??? Didn't check) floppy (with both controllers).

Anyone got any tips? All the XT clones I've messed around with in the past worked fine with just hooking it up.
But this being a Turbo XT board, probably slightly older than the other clones I've used. Maybe it needs a controller with it's own BIOS? Still, shouldn't all (together with DOS 4+) and 5.25"/360KB controllers work with 3.5" 720KB drives?

>>4077741
As far as I know older XT & clone BIOSes only support 360k 3"1/2 floppies, not 720k ones.

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>>4077748
That's what confuses me.
I never had a XT, only an AT in my youth, so I'm not that clever about the XT.

I owned several clones over the past years, 8088/4.77MHz machines, most of them made after the heyday of the XT, '86, etc.
Those machines all supported running a 720KB 3.5" drive without any modifications, just the proper cable instead of the edge connector, so I guess it could be true.

But in my quest to get this shit working, everywhere I stumble people say that you can easily read/write 720KB floppies with a 1.44MB 3.5" drive on an (real) XT, formatting them will require proper driveparm configuration though.
Being this is a (still old) Turbo XT and not a real XT motherboard/BIOS, might be that it's BIOS just doesn't support it and all the software BIOS TSRs that would add the support for them just don't work as they are made for a real XT/BIOS.

Just wondering if there are any more things to try, probably a floppy controller or HD controller with it's own BIOS could work, but finding one would probably be a pain. Most of the 16-bit HD controllers don't have a BIOS and rely on software that I already tried.

>>4077758
To be fair I've never owned an XT, the oldest PC-clone I own is a 8086-based laptop, the rest are non-PC compatible machines.All I know is that after the AT came out, the XT had a BIOS upgrade so that it could support stuff that started to be used with AT.

>>4077769
>All I know is that after the AT came out, the XT had a BIOS upgrade so that it could support stuff that started to be used with AT.
Might be why some insist it works.
Then again, the board is probably made after the AT, just having a shitty clone (Phoenix) BIOS on it, nothing to do with the real XT to begin with.

Maybe there exists a TSR or utility specially made for my board to add support for it, good luck to me to find it though.

>>4077776
You'll need a bios extension rom or a controller with a bios. 16 bit cards should still work in the 8 bit slots provided the extra segment of edge connector doesn't interfere with mobo components.

>>4077948
Yeah, a BIOS extension is probably easier than finding a controller with it's own BIOS, I have a few free sockets also for extension ROM chips.
Thanks.

>>4077971
If you have a rom flasher or access to one there's an extension rom image here: http://www.malinov.com/Home/sergeys-projects/isa-fdc-and-uart
Last couple of files on the page are the rom image and source.

>>4078112
Thanks a bunch, I know someone who can burn me the ROM.