Comment by Stephen Kitt on Can anyone tell me more about flippy games?
@Fattie I’ll give you one better — 8-bit Ataris used stereo cassettes, storing data on the right track and leaving the left for audio (which could be played back using the TV speaker). Some games used...
View ArticleComment by Stephen Kitt on How can I reverse-engineer the game Wizardry...
@typedeaf DOS doesn’t provide any protection (the 8086 didn’t have protected mode anyway). DOS itself probably doesn’t matter for what you’re trying to do, it’s about finding what p-code to patch.
View ArticleComment by Stephen Kitt on How did 16-bit MS-DOS programs use a large (>...
@trlkly answers can be deleted too. The right way to ensure information is preserved is to provide it as an edit to an appropriate answer, or to add it as a separate Q&A if it’s not quite relevant...
View ArticleComment by Stephen Kitt on Digitally stored data world total history?
In a similar vein, revenue generated by hard drive sales recently crossed the trillion-dollar mark.
View ArticleComment by Stephen Kitt on Anybody remember 386Max?
The source code for 386Max was published a couple of years ago.
View ArticleComment by Stephen Kitt on 80286 real mode emulator for 8086
Apologies, it did end up being useful!
View ArticleComment by Stephen Kitt on What did corporations use for long-distance...
@MarkRansom I’ve always heard leased fibres referred to as dark — they can be leased because they’re dark. (Obviously they’re no longer dark once they start being used.)
View ArticleComment by Stephen Kitt on Does DOS run Crysis?
Yes, Wine does that too, and then you could use Mesa to provide OpenGL, which you mentioned in your question. But I suspect you’d need to put in a fair amount of work — is that in scope?
View ArticleComment by Stephen Kitt on Why didn't PC games eschew MS-DOS and deal with...
Don’t forget ZZT ;-).
View ArticleComment by Stephen Kitt on Does DOS run Crysis?
@kouta-kun it’s described on the HX page— look for “Running QEMU with HX” and “Running DOSBox with HX”.
View ArticleComment by Stephen Kitt on How can the number of cylinders supported by a...
@RonJohn they have the same limitation.
View ArticleAnswer by Stephen Kitt for Old steam files for Counter-Strike 1 Anthology DVD
I’ll address the historical question:I suppose that old Steam games were able to run offline. Can anybody comment on this?Steam was initially used to improve distribution of game patches. Obviously...
View ArticleAnswer by Stephen Kitt for How was the @ sign added to keyboards and...
The @ symbol was present on typewriters a long time before computers were invented, see for example this 1889 Hammond typewriter. In English-writing countries, the symbol was already used in commercial...
View ArticleAnswer by Stephen Kitt for Beep command with letters for notes (IBM AT + DOS...
This sounds like the PLAY command in BASIC. It takes a string indicating what to play, with the following notation for the features you mention:A to G, followed by optional #, +, or -, plays the...
View ArticleAnswer by Stephen Kitt for In what ways was the Windows NT POSIX...
In what specific ways was the POSIX implementation unsuited to real use?It wasn’t unsuited, but it’s important to understand what was certified. In order to meet requirements for certain US government...
View ArticleAnswer by Stephen Kitt for Converting CGA (from Commodore PC40) to RetroTink 5X?
You need a CGA-to-SCART convertor, such as this one you can build yourself or this one you can buy (in Europe). You’ll also need a nine-pin cable with appropriate connectors, such as this one.
View ArticleAnswer by Stephen Kitt for How to use ISA card in modern PC
The Rasteri has come up with a way to connect an ISA card (at least, an ISA sound card) to systems with a TPM connector, up to Broadwell-era or AM4 systems; see his dISAppointment video for details....
View ArticleAnswer by Stephen Kitt for Was it possible to give an Atari 800 (not XL) 64KB...
It seems worth addressing the question in your title,Was it possible to give an Atari 800 (not XL) 64KB of RAM?Technically, it is possible to give a plain Atari 800 64KiB of RAM, and in fact quite a...
View ArticleAnswer by Stephen Kitt for Why does the Manchester Baby have two jump...
If my understanding of The Manchester Computer: A Revised History Part 2: The Baby Computer is correct, the relative jump instruction “fell out” of the design.The Baby doesn’t really have an...
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Answer by Stephen Kitt for What is the arcade game played in the "The Boys...
It’s Bally Midway’s 1984 game, Midnight Marauders:As you say it isn’t a video game, it’s an electromechanical game. It’s similar to Space Invaders: the player is supposed to shoot alien tanks and...
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