/vr/ - Retro Games

>>9755778
Yeah the floppy emulators were great value at $25USD but inflation has them at $34USD on Amazon now. The functionality is worth it, but I wish I could have afforded more than one back then, but at least one is enough to get started. I did relatively recently got most of the parts to a USB4VC (USB Keyboard/Mouse/Gamepads on Vintage Computers) but I am lacking the critical component of a Raspberry Pi to get it going. I hear the Pi has been overinflated too due to the chip shortage and hoping the US plants get up and running soon for chip independence that would drive the cost back down. That is my concern with SSD as well, and no one here has been able to answer my questions yet and were vague with things like just partitioning half for junk collecting. It does not explain the intricacies involving Windows 98's 128GB limit: can it have two 128GB drives on the same IDE master/slave chain? So I should have gotten a 256GB SSDs and only partitioned/formatted 120GB leaving the rest for TRIM/junk collecting? How does one align the old OS to such drives? etc.

My time machine has stalled for years on these issues on top of other financial funding issues, I hope you get further along than I did.

>>9755841
That sucks, I managed to restore my old computer at basically no cost but moving data over is definitely a pain, I updated the shitty 8GB hard disk to a slightly more modern maxtor but had to reinstall windows 98 to unfuck the MBR, but now it seems to be back up working, except that my only entry point has been burning CDs so far.
Also the CD drive is annoying to get working on DOS, I still haven't figured out the magic string to add to autoexec.bat and config.sys to get it to work.

>>9755847
oh right forgot the specs

>>9755778
>floppy emulators that fit [your retro computer] are out of stock, but you can build your own with a 3d printer and parts from the ten chinese links below!

>>9755847
if it's win 98 you can get a PCI usb 2.0 card and use a pendrive, just needs a driver to work

>>9755847
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/ms-dos-mode-super-easy.html
for DOS i recommend this

>>9755950
amazing, google is utterly useless for finding this stuff

>>9755778
They also have this new thing called "the wheel". Amazing device.
DOMs like the Transcend device in pic related are probably more useful than the goteks. I generally use the HDD much more than FDD. They're designed for embedded systems so do all the necessary shit themselves. Also, fast a fuck and rated for >100 years. They come in many sizes. 256M is perfect for old 4x32mb setups.
Goteks are good for more than PCs. The MGD2 is an old copier lets you load ROMs from floppy and play them on your GB/GG/PCE/SFC/MD/NeoGeo. I was still using it up until a few years ago when PCE flash cart prices became less insane.
The little white USB dongles on top of the MGD2 are FDS emulators.

Gotek were interesting because you can flash it with an HxC firmware (an another better floppy emulator) and the be able to use it on you're 8/16bits computers.

Chinese are pulling out new ones with new micro controller so check for compatibility before buying one.

>>9756284
MCUs are interesting because you can program them with whatever you want. Goteks are interesting because they include a whole lot of other bits that make an easy to use product.

>>9755841
You have issues man.

My retro PCs have real floppy drives.

>>9758301
>dvd
soulless

>>9758301
Do those take D floppy?

>>9758305
It's still IDE. I need it for playing games that use CD audio.

>>9758301
>My am trying way too hard to fit in

>>9758354
Who the fuck are you? Who the fuck are you? Who the fuck are you?

>>9758301
Is this UCD compatible?

I'm trying to archive disks but it's really a battle.
I've been using WinImage to some success but many have massive errors, roadkil's unstoppable copier has more success but it doesn't produce .img files, I'm going to try with dd (or ddrescue?) on linux to see if I can have a smoother experience.
Left pile is read, right pile is unreadable.
Center is literally what it says on the tin

>>9758359
Uhhh...

>>9758559
What kind of response is that?

>>9758569
Me not knowing what a "UCD" is.

>>9758576
U C Deez nuts

I just download a disk image and copy it to an actual floppy disk.

>>9755778
Even the famicom has a disk emulator for its shitty floppies

>>9758357
I'm Dave. Used to drink with your gramps.

Is there a fucking USB 5.25" floppy drive yet?
Seems like the only solution is original hardware, or jury rigging a USB adapter to an original drive.

>>9755847
>>9755854
Transfer speeds where not that great for the computers, but we didn't know better since they are nowhere near what we are used to now with dedicated PCI-E lanes. The PCI to USB2.0 hubs are probably as good as it gets for these machines. I will also vouch for the Phil's Computer Lab archived drivers/boot files as that is what I use now instead of typing out the batch files manually as I did for old boot discs.

>>9758289
That's just because knowledge for such old devices are slowly disappearing off the internet. It is not common knowledge nor easily accessible information. I would try to provide some testing and information if I could ever earn enough to get the machine going to report findings, but without enough funding/expertise I am still in a holding pattern on the time machine.

>>9759432
I tried that easy DOS boot file and it does indeed do the job of letting mouse + CD work, however there's some other weird stuff going on, the sound card crashes the system when trying to play sounds from DOS and some games like sim city and sim earth output jibberish instead of text.
My latest struggle has been trying to update windows 98 to SE, since the language version I have is not english I had a hard time finding an upgrade CD online, while the install CD is easily available.
In the end I found out that the upgrade can be tricked by copying the WIN98 folder to the hard drive, renaming win.com to something else and then running the setup from the win98 folder with some parameters, I think it's going through now, hopefully I can start tracking down some working drivers, install the USB driver (it does come with an USB port), kernelex, some outdated-but-not-too-much browser and then I can start actually using the thing to play games

>>9758301
> "retro PC"
> edgy modern gayming case

>>9759360
>am i a fucking fitting in yet?
no

>>9759490
>door in front of the drive bays
That case looks like it's at least 15 years old.

>>9755841
Shut the fuck up faggot

>>9756087
Any idea how to get the hotel working? I plugged it in and bios says floppy is configured incorrectly, I tried removing all the jumpers and setting it to S1 and it's still not working

>>9755778
>I've been interested in trying an SSD but it sounds like it wouldn't be a great idea even with an adapter due to how old OS don't have TRIM and such
Doesn't matter, modern SSDs and even memory cards do wear leveling automatically.

>>9760829
I know for a fact SD cards don't unless it's ones specifically made for it (WD purple).
SSDs do have firmwares but SD cards don't

>>9760831
Most modern brand SD cards do these days. We've had this argument several times, look up spec sheets of popular SD cards.

>SSDs do have firmwares but SD cards don't
Lol, of course they have internal controllers with firmware.

>>9755778
>old OS don't have TRIM and such
Don't believe the hype. TRIM had more to do with maintaining fresh out of the box performance numbers than it did longevity. When the drive block map is full every write means a block has to be erased which slows down the writes, but you're talking about using them with ancient PCs so you're already faster than the bus anyway.
People will tell you it's dangerous and will wear out the drive faster but that's actually just wrong. TRIM erases blocks ahead of time, that's all. The same number of writes and erase cycles occur, they just happen at different times. And so long as you aren't buying the cheapest of cheapshit SSDs or those early "we bought rando flash and put a WD logo on it" crap they last forever. I've been daily driving SSDs without TRIM for years and years because as it turns out MANY drive's TRIM support is buggy and it's safer to disable it. No problems.
SD cards on the other hand, they tend to develop issues rather rapidly. Even Sandisk.

>>9760850
>People will tell you it's dangerous and will wear out the drive faster but that's actually just wrong.
This. It's ridiculous that this meme even exists.

wear leveling has been a thing in SD cards for a long time already and of course they have firmware

https://datasheet.ciiva.com/26837/getdatasheetpartid-335894-26837658.pdf

>>9760831
>unless it's ones specifically made for it (WD purple).
How do you fall for such dumb marketing? Most manufacturers don't advertise such things since it's pretty obvious.

>>9760823
>Any idea how to get the hotel working?
I fuck and kill all my hookers at a motel. I just hand the guy an extra 20, wink and say no questions. I guess at a hotel it'll cost you $100 and you'll need to grind some Himalayan salt on the bill.
What BIOS and version?

>>9759490
There's a reason for this. It's due to the internal configuration of the system. I needed a case that had 10 expansion slots. The computer itself is an SBC, not a standard motherboard.

>>9759490
There's a reason for this. It's due to the internal configuration of the system. I needed a case that had 10 expansion slots. The computer itself is an SBC, not a standard motherboard.

The only thing that would work in such a situation was a full-tower case and I bought the case from an electronics surplus store. I had to pay a lot of money to have the internals modified to allow the SBC to fit.

>>9755860
could you really create a floppy disk drive with a 3d printer? don't they use magnetised materials?

>>9759490
There's a reason for this. It's due to the internal configuration of the system. I needed a case that had 10 expansion slots. The computer itself is an SBC, not a standard motherboard.

The only thing that would work in such a situation was a full-tower case and I bought the case from an electronics surplus store. I had to pay a lot of money to have the internals modified to allow the SBC to fit.

>>9761224
>The only thing that would work in such a situation was a full-tower case
Yeah, full-towers with 10 slots existed before Windows 98 was even a thing.

>>9761251
Well I wasn't going to look for something period-accurate when there was a chance of me getting one for cheap at a local place.

Besides, this is my second retro PC. The first one looks more normal and period-accurate.

none of this matters until the day I can play Thief using the original Aureal A3D hardware sound algorithms

>>9761375
I play Theif on my retro shitbox with a Vortex card all the time. I don't see the problem.

>>9759637
I have several 5.25 floppies from my grandpa that I want to get data from, I just thought the floppy autism thread might have someone who knows of a USB drive.

>>9755778
Once I get more money rolling in I plan to buy one for my Atari ST. I also have to modify it to output to modern displays.

>>9761416
>floppy emulator AND modern display
disgusting

I give up, windows 98 and DOS mode are too much of a clusterfuck of annoying config and inhuman hardware, I'm sick of grappling with the sound card not working in dos for some reason, but when it does then the cd drive doesn't.
I'm done with this shitty hardware, I'd rather run 486 on a mister and run off disk images if I really want to run DOS crap, or just dosbox which works fine already.
I'll stick to running 3dfx on windows on this machine, I'm done with dos, fuck dos.

>>9761780
Don't know, never really had problems with it but then again I grew up with the hardware and software.

>>9761780
what soundcard are you using?

>>9761871
sound blaster awe64, it says.
Now I understand why back when windows 98 became established I wasn't able to play DOS games anymore

>>9761982
If you have both Windows and DOS AWE drivers installed, DOS games will work fine under Win98, with sound.

>>9762013
yeah except figuring out the perfect combination of config.sys and autoexec.bat is annoying and time consuming, I have no time for it.
Also the easy shortcut I was using to boot into dos with proper drivers stopped working when I upgrade to SE

>>9761412
>I have several 5.25 floppies of ascii porn i want
Whatever floats your boat kiddo

>>9763530

>>9763552

>>9763554
booba

>>9755778
>>9755841
Even without that hardware, there is software that does the same thing without needing the hardware.

https://ufile.io/7o11qcf4

I have an SSD in my DOS machine. I don't worry about fragmentation or trim. DOS doesn't do that many file writes to begin with, and the drive is orders of magnitude larger than DOS even needs.

>>9758402
FIRM is easy DOS software that can turn physical floppies into images. You just need your floppy drive to be installed in a normal DOS system. There is software out there with more options, but FIRM is easy for DOS stuff. See link: >>9763594

>>9758301
Looks a lot like my setup.

>>9763594
Actually there IS a TRIM driver for windows 98 and DOS, it's in this pack: https://retrosystemsrevival.blogspot.com/2020/06/rloew-9598me-patches-bundle.html

>>9763631
you don't need TRIM on such a slow system, you're not going to see any performance difference

>>9763642
I suppose, I don't have a spare SSD around and the SD to IDE adapter is not recognized by anything for some reason, I'm kind of stumped on that right now

>>9763631
I've got a TRIM TSR for DOS, but I don't use it, because it interferes with the SLOWDOWN TSR that I use to make the machine slow down when I want it to. At any rate, it's also easy to just occasionally write a batch of zeros to the disk, to get the same effect.

https://ufile.io/dlfrlarv

>>9763668
>file sharing website is like: BRO I SWEAR YOU >NEED< TO PAY FOR THE 50MB/S PLAN TO DOWLOAD THIS 14KB FILE, THE 1MB/S FREE DOWNLOAD IS SLOOOOW

I did it, I sat down and spent the night fixing up config.sys and autoexec.bat.
Now I can finally boot DOS with mouse, CD and audio drivers.
I ended up playing 10 minutes and then shut everything down.

>>9763552
delicious bush

>>9763648
I've tried a few adapters to connect my SATA SSD through my motherboard's existing ISA ports. The first one I bought, was junk.

The second type I bought, worked really well, but it physically got in the way of other ports on the motherboard. Otherwise i liked how small it was.
https://amazon.com/gp/product/B001PYSAJI/

The third I got was bulkier, but it works well.
https://amazon.com/gp/product/B002OEBO6E/

>>9763648
I've tried a few adapters to connect my SATA SSD through my motherboard's existing IDE ports. The first one I bought, was junk.

The second type I bought, worked really well, but it physically got in the way of other ports on the motherboard. Otherwise i liked how small it was.
https://amazon.com/gp/product/B001PYSAJI/

The third I got was bulkier, but it works well.
https://amazon.com/gp/product/B002OEBO6E/

>>9763594
That's pretty cool, but the Gotek does offer a USB interface which does come in handy for on the fly file transfer when I forget something. Still nice to have a software solution, but will it eat up valuable compute resources when the systems don't have that much to begin with?

>>9759462
Since I intend on ISA sound card for DOS while having a PCI sound card for Windows, my research suggest I install VXD drivers for windows and disable the ISA device beforehand while installing a different DOS driver for the ISA card. Drivers were a source of issues in those days for old PCs. Nothing is straightforward, especially since I too intend on a Japanese Windows 98SE install, there will be troubles that others may not have documented.

>>9766504
I still haven't got the gotek to work, turns out my mainboard doesn't support more than one floppy drive on a single cable and swapping is annoying, I have too much use of the original floppy to recover disks I have around right now

>>9766504
Turbo Image can load high with other TSRs, so I don't lose any conventional memory. With all my TSRs loaded, I usually end up with 635k of free conventional memory.

>>9767542
Without seeing your system, I am guessing it's Pentium4 or newer. Around the Pentium4 era, they started removing the ISA bus from motherboards, such that the floppy header is internally a secret USB device. Those typically were limited to a single drive.

>>9767682
Pentium 3, BIOS only has option for a single floppy drive, what a bummer.
I need this to recover about 5 boxes of disks before I dump the original drive (also I found retro 90s porn disks, how cool is that)

>>9768989
I'm surprised a p3 was limited.
Maybe you can use DRIVER.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS to get the second drive going. Depends on how the controller was implemented.

>>9761224
I like the holographic nvidia sticker desu