root42 wrote on 2022-09-12, 06:12:

The HDD Clicker

Remember the clicking sounds of spinning hard disks? One “problem” with retro computing is that we replace those disks with Compact Flash, SD Cards or even SSDs. Those do not make any noises that you can hear under usual circumstances. Which is partly nice, because the computer becomes quieter, but also irritating because sometimes you can’t tell if the computer has crashed or is still working. This little device fixes that issue! It’s called the HDD clicker and it’s a very unique and funny little gadget!

https://youtu.be/zxTtG9wmAFM

Ooh I like this!

Started a video series of my new Windows 98 project and here´s the first part:
https://youtu.be/z_QwOb_2JA0

Let’s Code x86 Assembly: 0x07 Text Mode Plasma

In this episode of our tour through the 8086 assembly language, we learn a few new opcodes and concepts CBW makes an appearance, as does the powerful XLAT for looking up values in … look-up tables! We use this to make a text mode plasma like effect. It is a bit simpler compared to what we did in another episode on the VGA card, but this time the executable is tiny, coming in at less than 170 bytes. We talk a bit about how to access screen memory in text mode and how to query the real time clock in the PC.

https://youtu.be/R9BpxJ0b7u8

Windows 3.11 running on real hardware: a Ryzen 9 3900X, along a PCI Voodoo 3 3000 and Ensoniq PCI Audio. (featuring video & audio drivers + networking)

https://youtu.be/LEbnzPDdF0E

PC Speed: Atari ST Running MS DOS

The Atari ST was one of multiple home computers of the 1980s that came out with the Motorola 68000 CPU. While very capable indeed it lacked compatibility with the ubiquitous IBM PCs and PC clones of the era. The Atari ST already supported the FAT file system, so you could read and write regular PC floppy disks, but running MS DOS or MS DOS programs was a costly and slow process on the 68k CPU. So a German company by the name of Sack Electronic GmbH invented the PC Speed Emulator. A hardware assisted piece of kit that would solder directly onto the top of the Motorola CPU!

https://youtu.be/oyR-2HlAkv4

Windows 95A on a Ryzen 9 3900X. Boot time: about 7 seconds. Some benchmarks against reference Pentium II 450 which was the best in Sisoft Sandra 99.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtZdWLRFbz4

P.S. Please subscribe, maybe I'll reach the 100 subscribers milestone... 😀

Part II of my new Windows 98 build series:
https://youtu.be/TMmAt1kuyCE

Trying out an external 20MB SCSI Drive on an Apple Mac LC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFptx17V5Vc

A short video about installing Windows 98SE on a Intel Coffee Lake Refresh (9th gen) computer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAHbJ_S2a6E

Let's Code x86 Assembly: 0x08 Sizecoding Game Of Life WITH "MUSIC"

https://youtu.be/noNhtyEKeb0

Our First PC: Highscreen Colani 486SX

The first PC that our family bought back in 1993 was a Vobis Highscreen Colani 486SX-25 Desktop. It was a rather run-of-the-mill low end 486, but it had one special feature: the faceplate of the case was designed by famous industrial designer Luigi Colani. With its rounded, organic forms it definitely was a looker! I now got my hands on a pretty well preserved Colani desktop. So let’s restore it to its former glory, upgrade some bits and pieces and take it for a spin!

https://youtu.be/BCfVG1IB5lo

Game Boy Color: Funny Playing IPS Screen Mod

The Game Boy Color was a step up in the evolution of the most popular game handheld. But its screen was still without backlight and rather dim. Nowadays you can have a nice high resolution IPS screen with backlight. Here I show you how to mod the Game Boy Color to use the FunnyPlaying V2 Q5 IPS screen. It’s a procedure that requires a bit of patience, but is by no means very hard. Optionally a bit of soldering is required to be able to use the on screen menu for setting up the screen.

https://youtu.be/OSTKQ2XwME4

Let's Code MS DOS 0x21: 3D Fixed Point Maths

The 3D Wireframe cube is part of every demoscene coder’s learning curve. Today I want to talk you through the principles of 3D programming in general and especially the idea of fixed point maths, where you use integers instead of floating point numbers to represent fractions. Older CPUs before the 80486 had no built in floating point support, and even the FPUs were quite often rather slow and hard to program for, if available at all. So people had to opt to use integer arithmetics in stead. But 3D graphics requires fractional numbers, so how do we get both things together and manage to display a rotating wireframe cube on our MS DOS machine?

https://youtu.be/iB6EzRj063g

The ReSeed SID Sound Card for the Plus/4 & C16

The Commodore 264 machines, which include the Plus/4 and the C16 used the TED chip for video and sound. The audio capabilities were not great: two square wave channels. The Commodore 64’s SID chip on the other hand was a proper three voice synthesizer. So back in the day people built expansion cartridges for the Plus/4 utilizing the SID and eventually games and demos using this were published. These cards are pretty rare, but now there is a homebrew clone of the card!

https://youtu.be/OQfjMYeEfFY

Part III of my new Windows 98 build series:
https://youtu.be/DB606N3tvQE

Let's Code MS DOS 0x22: 2nd Reality Tunnel Effect

In 1993 the Future Crew released the seminal demo “Second Reality”. One of the more simple effects they showed in this demo was the “Dot Tunnel”. It is a simple, yet mesmerizing oldskool demo effect. We can build on our knowledge of fixed point maths to implement this effect and maybe even improve on the original!

https://youtu.be/ybdkp3lIFIs

Let's Code MS DOS 0x23: 2nd Reality Lens Effect

In 1993 the Future Crew released the seminal demo “Second Reality”. Last episode we re-implemented the tunnel effect, this time we try to understand and replicate the lens effect. A bouncing, tinted glass ball that distorts the background image. Thirty years back it was pretty jaw dropping, and even today we can learn something!

https://youtu.be/7Lf4Z5YYbtU

C64 Breadbin Black Screen Repair

A friend brought over his childhood Breadbin C64. Of course it was dead — black screen. This can be caused by a multitude of issues. My money initially was on the PLA — as is so often the case! But is the PLA really the culprit this time…?

https://youtu.be/Z2awp2p7dP0

Let's Code MS DOS 0x24: Low Level Keyboard Programming

Getting input from the keyboard can be as easy as calling the getch() function. But for games we need a better solution. For games on MS DOS machines you need quick, unbuffered input. To simply get the state of keypresses we need to talk to the keyboard controller directly. Let’s have a look at how that’s done!

https://youtu.be/njeViEGaP-8

I Broke A Vintage Floppy Drive Motor

My Commodore 8050 drive died two months ago, while being attached to a IEEE-USB interface. It seems the read-head of drive 0 was driven too far. After fixing that issue, I noticed that drive 1 wasn’t formatting disks — again. Suspecting that the DC motor for the drive might have an issue, I wanted to open it up to do maintenance. A bad decision…

https://youtu.be/cC9CUfoK_Go