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Trixter's latest magic... Holy how-in-the-hell!!!???

Remember, in the 8-bit CP/M era, there were a lot of computers using the same software and similar hardware, but which were not directly compatible with each other. Nobody expected to be able to take a CP/M disk out of an Osborne, stick it in a Kaypro, and have it run perfectly, or even at all.

The early thinking was that 16-bit 808x machines would be the same way: software-compatible, but not necessarily hardware-compatible. This led to a number of systems which ran MS-DOS but which were not fully (or at all) IBM PC hardware compatible, such as the Tandy 2000, DEC Rainbow, and Heath/Zenith Z100 series.

But combine IBM's huge influence in the marketplace with programmers who wanted to make their code easier and faster by talking directly to the hardware instead of going through the OS, and games which needed direct hardware access to have any kind of playable speed... then being hardware-compatible with the IBM PC suddenly became a lot more important than it did with CP/M systems.

And once Compaq proved that almost-full PC software and hardware compatibility could be done without violating any of IBM's patents and copyrights, the floodgates were open and the aforementioned non-fully-IBM-PC-compatible MS-DOS machines quickly fell out of favor.
 
vwestlife said:
The early thinking was that 16-bit 808x machines would be the same way: software-compatible, but not necessarily hardware-compatible. This led to a number of systems which ran MS-DOS but which were not fully (or at all) IBM PC hardware compatible, such as the Tandy 2000, DEC Rainbow, and Heath/Zenith Z100 series.
Click to expand...

Yes, and in fact, MS-DOS was structured like CP/M, where each OEM would make their own OS release, with custom device drivers and such, to abstract away the hardware differences.
Check out all the obscure early DOS releases at this archive: https://winworldpc.com/product/ms-dos/1x
(And don't forget, IBM's version is not included there, because they called it PC-DOS, so that is yet another version).

Eventually PC clones became so compatible that this was no longer required, and by the time of MS-DOS 5, one version of DOS would pretty much fit all PCs.
 
It was great seeing the demo in person at the VCFMW 10.0 :) enjoyed checking out the demo and all the other cool things happening there. :)
 
Got new results with final version of 8088mph

1. ATARI PC3

setup:

ATARI PC3 settings: rear side DIP 4 3 2 1 on off off on for color setting of the graphics card
Nec Multisync 1 settings: rear side DIP 2 3 4 5 6 off off off off on, manual switch to off, mode switch to TTL, top side switches text on, h.width on

run on dos prompt
c:\>cga
c:\>turbo off

Then start 8088mph final version and set CGA card to NEW. hsync phase and border don't care as the PC only has TTL-RGB output, no FBAS

Result: The up&down scrolling text screens between the scenes are flickering a bit. The more than 16 color effects are missing, but that was expected as thi is using some FBAS tricks. The sprite screen with the De Lorean car is black&white, also the 3D IBM logo. Digi sound is hearable at the final scroller.

2. Olivetti M24

M24 is much worse, similar result than Olivetti M19 and ETV 260, the bitmap graphics are displayed well (3D objects, stars, up/down scrolling texts between the scenes), but most text mode tricks are wrong, even the screen at the beginning to choose CGA card type is unrecognizeable. The longtime first/best IBM compatible XT is not capable to run 8088mph well. I think the design office in Ivrea has to rework this.
 

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Last M24 pictures...

PICT0327.jpg PICT0328.jpg

The 3D objects are fine, but the picture of the guys not. The final scroller with digisound is just a black screen with blinking cursor at the bottom, no photo made... The sounds, also the digisound is playing, but as expected, too fast...
 
The Atari seems to do a pretty good job.
The only effect that looks wrong is the Kefrens bars. I've seen pretty much the same happen on both my CGA clones, an ATi Small Wonder and a Paradise PVC4.
For some reason they only draw the background at the top of the screen, and the bitmap graphics don't appear until about 33% below.
Chances are, if you put a real IBM CGA card in the machine, it will run the demo 100% correctly.
 
Maybe also that NEC Multisync makes the difference. As soon I like to do, I make an RGB VGA-9 or VGA-15 adapter for the M24 special video port and try again. The M24 color monitor is only capable to the official M24 resolutions. If the demo does tricky things with the sync signals, that Olivetti Monitor will confuse.
 
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8088 MPH was nominated for two Meteorik awards, in the categories "Best low-end demo" and "That's not possible on this platform!".
Last Friday, we won the Meteorik award for "That's not possible on this platform!": https://2016.meteoriks.org/winners#nominees-3
8088mph-meteorik.jpg
 
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