Joe
Turbo button?
Fri Jan 07, 2022 11:33pm
208.175.138.171

Do I need the Turbo Button on my 486 to run this :)

I have DOSBox on my Linux Box, but currently that box is laying in pieces on my workbench. I'm upgrading from the Ryzen 5 2600 to the Ryzen 5 5600G

Going to see how far integrated graphics has come since my current graphics card is a 2012 Nvidia and Linux 5.15 removed support for the proprietary drivers of it.

Late next week, I should have time to finish that build and get it back up and running. I hope my APU can handle the taxing graphics of QBasic

    • Linux user here too. Currently my only Win comp is my 486 - Erik_, Fri Jan 07 2022 8:45am
      with Windows 3.11. I've been using Linux as my main computer since college as well. I basically have stuck with Ubuntu for the past decade or so, just because it's always been pretty solid. At work we've use other distros, but they're all pretty similar these days. Work computer itself is a Mac.. wh... more
      • 386 - Joe, Fri Jan 07 2022 11:27pm
        Wondering if there is a way to retro fit my old 386 to a new monitor, newer keyboards, usb mouse etc. My old guy still took the serial mouse, larger keyboard (before PS/2) and I never had the guts to install USB even when I had Win95 on it.
        • I personally still just use the old school mouse and kb. - Erik_, Sun Jan 09 2022 12:10am
          They're still cheap enough to find (if you don't go IBM Model M for the keyboard) and work well enough. I actually have a PS/2 to AT keyboard converter like Puck was talking about. Works really nicely. Unfortunately my nice PS/2 keyboard with switches has some dead keys on it so it's not being used ... more
        • Do you have one with a PCI slot? - Puckdropper, Sat Jan 08 2022 7:46am
          Iirc, they started appearing on 486's. You'd need an ISA USB card otherwise. Funny, though, I've got tons of PS/2 keyboards and only a few USB keyboards. Most computer manufacturers included PS/2 keyboards in the box for a long time after USB became standard. You can get adapters, though. You w... more
    • You need to download DosBox and QB - Puckdropper, Fri Jan 07 2022 2:23am
      Erik wrote a game for Christmas and we need someone to try it who hasn't learned the tricks. It's only 3 levels so it doesn't take too long to get through. (I haven't had a chance to get to demo 4 myself.) So I guess you're working with boxes and balky printers? Are they all running Windows 10?
      • Turbo button?- Joe, Fri Jan 07 2022 11:33pm
        • Erik's been programming and testing on his 486, you probably - Puckdropper, Sat Jan 08 2022 8:55am
          Do need it on. The code is less sensitive to CPU cycles than it is the clock, so as long as your computer has enough power to render it should run fine. I doubt we'll get away from Integrated graphics... They're much more powerful now and sharing solutions tend to suck.
          • Just tried turning it off.. it still ran.. just a bit choppy - Erik_, Sun Jan 09 2022 12:19am
            Honestly, I was expecting it to become a slide show seeing that it "should" go down to 4.77MHz if it's off IIRC. Maybe it dropped from 50MHz to 25MHz instead? (Just cut the CPU speed in half?)
            • I think they just turned the speed down, - Puckdropper, Tue Jan 11 2022 3:18am
              It wasn't until 286 and 386s that that kind of side-scroller game started to be common, I think. 4.77 just isn't a lot of horsepower, especially if you want color.
              • You might be right... - Erik_, Wed Jan 12 2022 12:11am
                I was just thinking 4.77MHz because a lot of the games on the IBM PC/XT time weren't controlled by anything besides CPU speed so they ran at light speed once MHz started to increase. I thought turning turbo off tried to re-emulate that speed to make those programs work correctly again. I might just ... more
                • There was also a utility called mo_so or slow down or someth - Puckdropper, Wed Jan 12 2022 3:28pm
                  Thing similar. I had to use it for a game that was running to fast, but I can't remember what it was. So some systems just slowed the CPU down by disabling caches or skipping cycles. Others really did try to hit 4.77 mHz. I wonder if Delivery Rush can be played on an XT if the graphics were simp... more
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