Windows XP?

spapakons · Nov 7, 2024

Catnip said:
If you were replying to me, I am afraid that a USB to parallel solution doesn't work. The program that I use employs some bit twiddling at the hardware level. I have tried a USB to parallel port cable with no success. I wish it had worked though. I could have dumped the old PC and used a new one.

They might not work for the host OS, but what about forwarding this parallel port to a virtual machine running Windows XP? I don't know about other programs, but VMWare Workstation supports connecting the parallel port and the serial ports to the guest. You can try it. Just make sure to forward it as if it was a standard parallel port, don't pass control to the USB to parallel cable, it won't work.

spapakons · Nov 7, 2024

Farquard said:
I have mine as well, and being sorta a pack rat, I also have DOS versions back to 1.0 all the way until they stopped offering DOS, and then all the versions of Windows from 1.0 (I have nothing left to run that) but I do have an old Dell 5000e that still runs Windows 3.11 just for some of those great games that drive my great great nieces and nephews nuts. As good as they are on the more modern games those they have trouble with.

I had my first computer, Hyundai Super 16V, an Intel 8088 (aka IBM XT clone) system running at 10MHz, 640KB RAM, 256KB Paradise VGA, 5.25" and 2.5" floppy disk drives, 40MB hard disk drive connected to a 8-bit card hard disk controller. It was bought with MS-DOS 3.3 later upgraded to MS-DOS 5.0 A few years ago the PSU died and it wouldn't power on. I kept it in hope I would fix it sometime, but a year ago I wanted to rent my old apartment and my wife insisted of getting rid of that "old junk", shame... It was nice playing old MS-DOS games there. Of course it is far better playing them in DosBox in Windows 11 with AdLib or SoundBlaster sound, but there is some magic playing them on the original hardware... Thankfully I made a backup of all my DOS programs and games before the XT died and I can play them in DosBox. Today it is virtually impossible to read old 5.25" floppy disks, unless you buy a rather expensive USB to floppy controller (over 70€) to connect an old 5.25" floppy drive via USB.

KryoFlux Products & Services Ltd.

MisterEd · Nov 7, 2024

Some program setups come on more than one floppy disk. I haven't found a way in DosBox to changed disks during a program setup. Is that even possible in DosBox? That is why I started using VMware Workstation for my DOS virtual machines. It is easy to change disks during program setup.

I have floppy drive that connects with a USB cable. It even works with my laptop with Windows 11. The only strange thing is that if I ever unplug it and then plug it back in the computer won't see it. I have to reboot for it to work again.

Catnip · Nov 7, 2024

MisterEd said:
I have a couple computers that I built between 2009 and 2013. They don't have a parallel port but do have serial ports. Would a serial to parallel port converter cable work in your application?

Sadly no. This stupid program looks directly at the hardware and actually manipulates the pins on the parallel port. It bypasses the Windows HAL layer completely, meaning that it also bypasses Device Manager and everything else meant to interface devices into Windows. It's a direct hardware API and I assume that it is coded in machine language. I think it's a port of an old DOS program and they left a lot of the old DOS routines in there when they ported it over to Windows. You could get away with that using XP. These days the hardware is much more integrated with device drivers and the like and using machine language is frowned upon by MS. It's also a time consuming and laborious process.

This program has no drivers whatsoever. It's bare-metal code baby!

@spapakons

I have tried a couple of VMs and as I said, they do not work. Probably for the reasons that I have listed above. The program can see the parallel port, but it can't write or read to it. Nothing happens at all, which leads me to believe that the commands are not getting through. This is probably due to the low level routines employed.

Berton · Nov 7, 2024

MisterEd said:
Some program setups come on more than one floppy disk. I haven't found a way in DosBox to changed disks during a program setup. Is that even possible in DosBox? That is why I started using VMware Workstation for my DOS virtual machines. It is easy to change disks during program setup.

I have floppy drive that connects with a USB cable. It even works with my laptop with Windows 11. The only strange thing is that if I ever unplug it and then plug it back in the computer won't see it. I have to reboot for it to work again.

View attachment 115585

The 2 I have work the same way, might be the BIOS has to re-read resources available.

Farquard · Nov 7, 2024

My youngest great-great niece just started on a old DOS (only) Machine playing ZORK and is having the time of her life, I am so glad I kept all of those old games and machines to run them on, (YES I have them also via GOG but that would mean giving them access to one of my good systems). BTW... in addition to having 3.5 & 5.25" drives, I have some games on 8" discs and have drives for them as well.

MisterEd · Nov 7, 2024

Farquard said:
My youngest great-great niece just started on a old DOS (only) Machine playing ZORK and is having the time of her life, I am so glad I kept all of those old games and machines to run them on, (YES I have them also via GOG but that would mean giving them access to one of my good systems). BTW... in addition to having 3.5 & 5.25" drives, I have some games on 8" discs and have drives for them as well.

My early computers normally used 5.25" drives. However, I also had 8" drives for them. The dual 8" drives back in the mid 1980s was very expensive being about $1200.

Farquard · Nov 7, 2024

MisterEd said:
My early computers normally used 5.25" drives. However, I also had 8" drives for them. The dual 8" drives back in the mid 1980s was very expensive being about $1200.

I really do not remember what the 8" drives I have cost me. I know I picked them up at a Radio Shack warehouse sale, when they were closing up their computer only stores. But (I hope it does make you cry) I am sure I did not pay more than a few bucks for them.

MisterEd · Nov 7, 2024

Here is what my dual 8" drives looked like. I originally used them with a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I. That picture was probably taken around 1984.

Berton · Nov 7, 2024

My first computer ['92] was a Hewitt Rand AMD 80386/40MHz 4MB RAM 120MB HDD MS-DOS 5 Windows 3.1. It had both 3.5" and 5.25" floppy drives, year later I added a parallel port CD drive attached to the Colorado Memory tape drive for backups.

Farquard · Nov 7, 2024

MisterEd said:
Here is what my dual 8" drives looked like. I originally used them with a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I. That picture was probably taken around 1984.

View attachment 115599

I like that setup. And it reminded me that I should get my kid brother to crawl up into the attic and bring down my Model 1 system.... I would do that myself, but an injury "in country" makes it hard enough just to stop up onto a curb from the street.

MisterEd · Nov 8, 2024

Farquard said:
I like that setup. And it reminded me that I should get my kid brother to crawl up into the attic and bring down my Model 1 system.... I would do that myself, but an injury "in country" makes it hard enough just to stop up onto a curb from the street.

I later replaced the TRS-80 Model I with a Lobo Max-80. The Max-80 could boot into either LDOS or CP/M 2.2. With LDOS it could run many of the programs for the TRS-80 Model IV. Note when I sold the TRS-80 Model I computer I kept the dual 8" drives for use with the Lobo Max-80.

My Lobo Max-80 looked very similar to the system below except I also had dual 5.25" floppy drives. These drives sat on top of the 8" drives.

2024-11-07 22_47_06-LOBO Max-80 — Mozilla Firefox.jpg

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