I found a 286

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keenmaster486
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Re: I found a 286

Post by keenmaster486 »

Thanks everyone!
@Spleen: That's awesome! I love the Amstrad and the Thinkpad... I may be getting a Thinkpad myself sometime :) I also have a 486 motherboard and two CPUs, but no RAM for it (I forgot I was all out of RAM :( )


I have now upgraded my 286 innards with a Sound Blaster 16 card. After scrounging about for a no-memory-usage initialization utility (it's Plug and Play :crazy ), it works perfectly!! I'm lucky Keen 6 fits on a 720K floppy with just a few kilobytes to spare... I couldn't get Keen 4 or 5 to fit at all!

Also, I discovered the Turbo switch was off, so I was running the whole thing at low speed :lol . That affected the speed of Keen Galaxy quite a lot, but when I switched turbo on it sped up to normal.
I flermmed the plootash just like you asked.
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Commander Spleen
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Re: I found a 286

Post by Commander Spleen »

Hrm, looks like the EGA versions are just that fraction too big for a 720KB floppy. CGA only takes up under 600KB. Recompressing the EXE with UPX saves about 13KB, but Keen 4 is still 745KB and Keen 5 is well over 800KB.

Thinkpads are pretty neat. Though not as good for DOS gaming. Even 640x480 isn't ideal for Keen, and then at 800x600 or higher there's no chance of even scaling. Though you seem to cope with inconsistent scaling. I used to have a slightly more modern laptop (around 500MHz) that would scale to the nearest integer with a black border but it's long dead.

I have piles of EDO RAM and no foreseeable use for it. Can see about mailing some if you want.
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Re: I found a 286

Post by MoffD »

mmmmh, I'm just basking in the unadulterated nerdism and warm feelings from seeing that fella running. I need to find a new HD for my thinkpad though, it's failing so I have to fix the OS constantly...
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Keening_Product
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Re: I found a 286

Post by Keening_Product »

Have you considered an SD card adaptor? Or would that not be the same?
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Re: I found a 286

Post by Commander Spleen »

Is that even a thing? I know you can get flash media adaptors for classic microcomputers and consoles, but I haven't seen anything like that for a 90s/early 2000s laptop PC. Could maybe add USB/SD support via a PCMCIA card, but I expect it's unlikely that the BIOS would support booting from it.

Edit: I just did a quick google search for laptop HDD SD adaptor and such a thing does exist. This is something I'll look further into in the near future.
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Re: I found a 286

Post by Zilem »

That is an interesting Test bench setup you got there =O
much older then my old Intel Lga775 with Win XP
MoffD wrote: Thu Apr 13, 2017 14:49 mmmmh, I'm just basking in the unadulterated nerdism and warm feelings from seeing that fella running. I need to find a new HD for my thinkpad though, it's failing so I have to fix the OS constantly...
Keening_Product wrote: Fri Apr 14, 2017 11:08 Have you considered an SD card adaptor? Or would that not be the same?
Your thinking about something like 8-Bit Guy mentions in this video?
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Re: I found a 286

Post by Keening_Product »

Commander Spleen wrote: Fri Apr 14, 2017 11:38 Edit: I just did a quick google search for laptop HDD SD adaptor and such a thing does exist. This is something I'll look further into in the near future.
Yep, I'm using one in a desktop system at the moment. I don't know if you can get non-laptop connector ones actually. I ripped the non-motor electronics out of a dead standard CD drive and glued the adaptor into the drive so I can effectively eject the SD card to change OSes haha.

Zilem, I can't click the link but I have seen David use them. Druaga1 has used similar things in classic Macs and iPods, albeit for CF. Edit: they did use an SD card at least once.
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Re: I found a 286

Post by MoffD »

Keening_Product wrote: Fri Apr 14, 2017 11:08 Have you considered an SD card adaptor? Or would that not be the same?
I might have to, although I'm trying to avoid it. I hadn't thought of using compact flash, that's a very interesting solution.
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Re: I found a 286

Post by Commander Spleen »

Was there a practical reason for using the adapter instead of directly booting from standard SD card reader? Any desktop that runs a system suitable for regular use is almost certain to have that option.
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Re: I found a 286

Post by Commander Spleen »

Went to a Commodore computer exhibit which has become a monthly event in Adelaide. I live 1000km away but I happened to fit a visit into a previously planned adventure. There was a very nice Commodore 386sx running at 25MHz. Tried to get Keen 1 running on it but it kept complaining about insufficient memory, despite having 620KB free after some reconfiguration. Somehow KeenDroid Underground ran fine, though.

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Then someone booted up the Keen Dreams port on their Amiga 1200.

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Will have to try to make it back for another event, but the next mission is Brisbane late next week where there's a whole new retro computing group forming, and a new demoparty coming up in June. Working on some kind of portable Keen mod exhibit to bring with me to these kinds of events. Haven't decided whether to just use a Raspberry Pi or also make some room in the caravan for the 486sx.
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Commander Spleen
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Re: I found a 286

Post by Commander Spleen »

Went to a Commodore computer exhibit which has become a monthly event in Adelaide. I live 1000km away but I happened to fit a visit into a previously planned adventure. There was a very nice Commodore 386sx running at 25MHz. Tried to get Keen 1 running on it but it kept complaining about insufficient memory, despite having 620KB free after some reconfiguration. Somehow KeenDroid Underground ran fine, though.

Image


Then someone booted up the Keen Dreams port on their Amiga 1200.

(And that is indeed another Amstrad PPC640 to the right of the A1200.)

Image

Image


Will have to try to make it back for another event, but the next mission is Brisbane late next week where there's a whole new retro computing group forming, and a new demoparty coming up in June. Working on some kind of portable Keen mod exhibit to bring with me to these kinds of events. Haven't decided whether to just use a Raspberry Pi or also make some room in the caravan for the 486sx.
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Re: I found a 286

Post by Rorie »

Several Years I scored a free 286/486 when my school at the time, was doing a clean out of old systems, ironically the 286 outlasted the 486
they both died over 10 years ago, anyways if they survived, long and truly obsolete!
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