Search found 36 matches

by BigAlUK
Mon 06 Jan, 2020 7:04 pm
Forum: General
Topic: v15 released!
Replies: 49
Views: 63425

Re: v15 released!

shermanp wrote: Mon 06 Jan, 2020 6:56 pm And then there's the config files, which is where the path is saved. What do you save that as? I guess one could use the short path too, but yuck.
The Windows Registry accepts user-level entries in unicode.

Go on! Have a play in the mud. You know you want to. :)
by BigAlUK
Mon 06 Jan, 2020 1:47 pm
Forum: General
Topic: v15 released!
Replies: 49
Views: 63425

Re: v15 released!

And unfortunately, it's not a simple fix (otherwise it probably would have been done already!). Actually, it can be! All you need to do is allow unicode in the dialog (which I guess is what standard Windows Dialogs will give you anyway) and then apply the Windows API to turn that into a DOS-compati...
by BigAlUK
Mon 06 Jan, 2020 1:40 pm
Forum: General
Topic: v15 released!
Replies: 49
Views: 63425

Re: v15 released!

Any chance of getting the cassette to also use files in the formats that PCE (and MAME) use? That would be CAS-binary, mainly (tho' PCE also has PWM). It would make it a lot easier for transporting code on tape between the emulators for comparative testing. Pretty please? I Believe even OBattler is ...
by BigAlUK
Mon 06 Jan, 2020 5:07 am
Forum: General
Topic: v15 released!
Replies: 49
Views: 63425

Re: v15 released!

Finally gotten around to upgrading. (I've not been active for a while on account of dealing with heart failure and the fitting of a pacemaker). I've noticed a "bug" that's probably been around for a while, and this prompted me to update to v15. However the bug is still there. PCem does not...
by BigAlUK
Fri 31 May, 2019 2:15 pm
Forum: Development
Topic: Can we have a PCem BIOS datfile?
Replies: 10
Views: 14931

Re: Can we have a PCem BIOS datfile?

SarahWalker wrote: Sun 26 May, 2019 8:00 pm You want a reaction from me? I honestly don't care about this in the slightest.
:lol:
by BigAlUK
Thu 07 Feb, 2019 10:25 pm
Forum: General
Topic: FredPJ's feature suggestions
Replies: 40
Views: 40209

Re: FredPJ's feature suggestions

Ok, ta - I shall look forward to when I've got to that stage (still progressing through the models and OS's) I had suspected it might be something like that. It's just hard to find corroborative documentation about these things. But that makes a lot of sense. So basically neither a 5150 nor a 5160 w...
by BigAlUK
Thu 07 Feb, 2019 7:53 pm
Forum: General
Topic: FredPJ's feature suggestions
Replies: 40
Views: 40209

Re: FredPJ's feature suggestions

Sorry to use this old thread, but at least I'll kick off with the right tone: Thus, first of all, thank you Tom for making this amazing emulator, you've been doing a great job. :) Now to the question, which whilst this thread kinda entertained, it did not answer... I'm trying to format a 1.2M IMG fl...
by BigAlUK
Wed 03 Oct, 2018 4:16 pm
Forum: General
Topic: IBM 5150 Board Switches
Replies: 11
Views: 10779

Re: IBM 5150 Board Switches

Discovered today: IBM Notice that demonstrates (largely by its date of 1984), that 5150-X66 and 5159-X76 models that can communicate with IBM mainframes as 3270 terminals were built using revision B motherboards. But more interesting perhaps is that the older Xxx ones were also withdrawn, so these s...
by BigAlUK
Wed 03 Oct, 2018 3:06 am
Forum: General
Topic: IBM 5150 Board Switches
Replies: 11
Views: 10779

Re: IBM 5150 Board Switches

So, all my latest found knowledge makes me realize that my little tester program (I will continue to call it that, because it has to fit in 12K, so it can run from cassette on a 5150-001) needs to be a little less prescriptive about the slots it counts. So what I have done is couple the slot countin...
by BigAlUK
Tue 02 Oct, 2018 4:49 am
Forum: General
Topic: IBM 5150 Board Switches
Replies: 11
Views: 10779

Re: IBM 5150 Board Switches

I just found something today that should "ease any contentions" about emulating early IBM PC memory and slots. If all you were using were only IBM parts, it would be true to say that an original 5150-014 (say) could only have expanded memory up to 256KB (using three ISA slots with one top-...
by BigAlUK
Sun 30 Sep, 2018 2:24 pm
Forum: General
Topic: THE MYSTERIOUS 5150 08/16/82 BIOS
Replies: 1
Views: 3368

Re: THE MYSTERIOUS 5150 08/16/82 BIOS

Ok - I found the dump on the MinusZeroDegrees site, and the particular ROM he refers to is definitely an XT image - that matching of the date and the identity byte to a listing of a 5150 BIOS was just pure "coincidence". Also, the larger ROM size should've given the game away. I've slightl...
by BigAlUK
Sat 29 Sep, 2018 8:22 am
Forum: General
Topic: Can I remap keys under PCem?
Replies: 3
Views: 4885

Re: Can I remap keys under PCem?

I remap all kinds of keys with GlovePIE Thanks - but that kind of remapping looks at first glance to be a sledgehammer approach - I don't want to remap keys for the whole host. If I were to do that, I'd chuck together my own dedicated remapping wrapper to PCE and PCem using Delphi (an interim solut...
by BigAlUK
Sat 29 Sep, 2018 2:23 am
Forum: General
Topic: THE MYSTERIOUS 5150 08/16/82 BIOS
Replies: 1
Views: 3368

THE MYSTERIOUS 5150 08/16/82 BIOS

I was quite stunned that I appear to be the only one to notice this, (or at least mention it on the web), but... First read the comment on MinusZeroDegrees about this BIOS. [Update: Turns out this particular part was another red herring - see next posted reply below. But read on, all the same.] Noti...
by BigAlUK
Wed 26 Sep, 2018 8:39 pm
Forum: General
Topic: Can I remap keys under PCem?
Replies: 3
Views: 4885

Re: Can I remap keys under PCem?

Ah - it turns out someone had doctored the PDF of the MS-DOS manual I was reading to show function keys assigned to the Edlin key roles. My function keys are working - its just that they aren't related to what whomever doctored the manual was using. Hence complete confusion. I switched from using th...
by BigAlUK
Wed 26 Sep, 2018 7:50 pm
Forum: General
Topic: Can I remap keys under PCem?
Replies: 3
Views: 4885

Can I remap keys under PCem?

This is a sidetrack for me on something else I was doing, so I was hoping for just a very quick pointer in the right direction. I was using EDLIN under DOS 1.1 (yeh, I know!) and reading the manual as I went along (because it's been such a long time, man! You wouldn't know if you weren't there, man!...
by BigAlUK
Tue 25 Sep, 2018 10:21 pm
Forum: General
Topic: IBM 5150 Board Switches
Replies: 11
Views: 10779

Re: IBM 5150 Board Switches

Have spent part of today pouring over the historical evidence again (IBM announcements and IBM internal news letters, mainly). Here's the time-line regarding the period of interest: Before all this period, the 5150-013 already existed: 10/19/81 BIOS had already replaced the 04/24/81 BIOS. The 160K d...
by BigAlUK
Tue 25 Sep, 2018 5:29 pm
Forum: General
Topic: Help with Hercules InColor emulation.
Replies: 9
Views: 9643

Re: Help with Hercules InColor emulation.

By the way - loving your website, John. I see you had that algorithm written out a lot clearer than my source (I was using the source code from Marcus Johnson as reference, and had not fully appreciated what he was doing there in my haste to simply get basic detection).
by BigAlUK
Tue 25 Sep, 2018 5:02 am
Forum: General
Topic: IBM 5150 Board Switches
Replies: 11
Views: 10779

Re: IBM 5150 Board Switches

Just as an update as to where this is going: It seems that there may have been some confusion, possibly sowed in the MinusZeroDegrees notes about bugs in the 1982 5150 BIOS. It may be me, or it may be the "others" (hows that for paranoia?). Personally, I'm not sure they are bugs - the beha...
by BigAlUK
Tue 25 Sep, 2018 12:43 am
Forum: General
Topic: Help with Hercules InColor emulation.
Replies: 9
Views: 9643

Re: Help with Hercules InColor emulation.

Yep - that worked (ta)
by BigAlUK
Mon 24 Sep, 2018 7:14 pm
Forum: General
Topic: Help with Hercules InColor emulation.
Replies: 9
Views: 9643

Re: Help with Hercules InColor emulation.

Ok ta - will try that later :) :) :)
by BigAlUK
Mon 24 Sep, 2018 7:01 pm
Forum: General
Topic: IBM 5150 Board Switches
Replies: 11
Views: 10779

Re: IBM 5150 Board Switches

Ok - I appear to have stumbled onto a problem that I cannot get my head around yet (it was a bit unexpected when things appeared to be going so well). It happened just after I made an attempt to check out the emulation used in MAME, on top of the PCE and PCem ones. What at first I thought was a diff...
by BigAlUK
Mon 24 Sep, 2018 1:44 pm
Forum: General
Topic: Help with Hercules InColor emulation.
Replies: 9
Views: 9643

Re: Help with Hercules InColor emulation.

I was right! PCem needs me to keep sampling the port for a bit longer. This also shows a problem with this method of detection: namely if it is not a Hercules, you could be in that loop for a very long time! Just how long is long enough? But now I was also able try PCem's Hercules InColor emulation ...
by BigAlUK
Mon 24 Sep, 2018 1:34 pm
Forum: General
Topic: Help with Hercules InColor emulation.
Replies: 9
Views: 9643

Re: Help with Hercules InColor emulation.

I came across an intriguing result whilst experimenting with my 5150 emulation accuracy tester (that's not what it started out as - honest). If I use it on PCE with a Hercules HGC emulation, it correctly identifies that. But if I run it on PCem, it does not. The BIOS doesn't actually know that it is...
by BigAlUK
Mon 24 Sep, 2018 12:41 pm
Forum: General
Topic: IBM 5150 Board Switches
Replies: 11
Views: 10779

Re: IBM 5150 Board Switches

Hmmm - that's interesting. There doesn't appear to be any way to tell PCem not to include emulations of at least 2 game adapters, 2 serial ports and 2 LPT ports no matter what you do to the configuration file! Consequently, any 5150 emulation is "forcing" the use of ISA slots that a real 5...
by BigAlUK
Mon 24 Sep, 2018 7:29 am
Forum: General
Topic: Is drive sound emulation possible?
Replies: 24
Views: 24791

Re: Is drive sound emulation possible?

Yes - hurts, doesn't it.
I've been hit by a deep fried chip too :)
And it's the surprise that hurts the most
Followed by a sudden feeling of deep depression.
by BigAlUK
Sun 23 Sep, 2018 12:28 pm
Forum: General
Topic: 8086 Disk Manager
Replies: 1
Views: 3637

Re: 8086 Disk Manager

From the info you have in your post, it sounds like you've created a HDD with a 286 under an appropriate DOS, and are now trying to use that in emulating what amounts to a much older machine. However, 2 GigaByte HDDs were unheard of when PCs still used 8088/8086 chips. If you are emulating a 5150-cl...
by BigAlUK
Sun 23 Sep, 2018 10:43 am
Forum: General
Topic: IBM 5150 Board Switches
Replies: 11
Views: 10779

Re: IBM 5150 Board Switches

Here's an early example of the program's output. (Let me know if the link doesn't work - never tried this mechanism before now) https://www.onlinestorage.1and1.com/share/04taiekey8 This particular example (Sample.JPG) demos some of the features (which are not yet complete). It was actually taken wit...
by BigAlUK
Sun 23 Sep, 2018 10:14 am
Forum: General
Topic: Is drive sound emulation possible?
Replies: 24
Views: 24791

Re: Is drive sound emulation possible?

I'm tempted to suggest that you add the sound that a real drive makes when its bearings finally wear out.

Or the sound that old capacitors make when they finally burst and explode.

These sounds may be soon lost to humanity as the real machines we emulate finally bite the dust.

:)
by BigAlUK
Sun 23 Sep, 2018 9:27 am
Forum: General
Topic: IBM 5150 Board Switches
Replies: 11
Views: 10779

Re: IBM 5150 Board Switches

By the way, my little (well, not so, now) BASIC program is nearing completion. I will see if I can post output images, and perhaps even the code if anyone may be interested, once it is finished. It's turning out to be a bit of a CPU-Z for 5150 machines - it deduces the most likely part number, takin...
by BigAlUK
Thu 20 Sep, 2018 1:24 pm
Forum: General
Topic: IBM 5150 Board Switches
Replies: 11
Views: 10779

Re: IBM 5150 Board Switches

Incidentally, what has hampered the research quite a bit is the absolute dearth of information on the web about those very early 5150 PC models. It took me a long time to realize what the three appended part number digits actually represented (it was kind of methodical, almost, but then eventually n...