n0p
Experienced Member
Running it from Norton Commander produces this result on my Book
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Book 8088 discovery and modification thread
- Thread starter Retroplayer
- Start date
igor_peruchi
New Member
Hi you all!
I've been trying to run the new Inufuto games in my Book8088 without any luck.
Said games are here: http://inufuto.web.fc2.com/8bit/
I've discovered that the developer provided only boot floppy images on his site, which won't work on the Book8088, since it does not have floppy drive, for obvious reasons, nor it have any means to boot such an image.
I've read in this thread that there are a new BIOS rom that could possibly enable booting from a floppy image that is saved on a USB stick. Am I correct?
I want to enjoy those simple games in my simple Book8088.
Anyone could help, please?
Thanks in advance!
I've been trying to run the new Inufuto games in my Book8088 without any luck.
Said games are here: http://inufuto.web.fc2.com/8bit/
I've discovered that the developer provided only boot floppy images on his site, which won't work on the Book8088, since it does not have floppy drive, for obvious reasons, nor it have any means to boot such an image.
I've read in this thread that there are a new BIOS rom that could possibly enable booting from a floppy image that is saved on a USB stick. Am I correct?
I want to enjoy those simple games in my simple Book8088.
Anyone could help, please?
Thanks in advance!
n0p
Experienced Member
Hi!
You can use https://github.com/jinshin/8088_bios/releases to add bootable floppy emulation to your Book.
Floppy image should be written to USB drive with Rufus (Windows) or DD (Linux).
Press "A" in XT-IDE menu to boot from it.
n0p
Experienced Member
I've decided to check if that solution is universal or not, as i presumed new RTD firmware is actually some generic VGA one without CGA support.
I was right - i flashed new fw to my V1 and LCD said "Not Support" after switching from dark brown to blue.
Dumped original beforehand - and it's identical to your board one.
Interesting, my board has 4 holes but only 3 screws, i though they forgot one, but that seems like on purpose
Attachments
Yrouel
Member
n0p
Experienced Member
My V2 Book with both cards yet to arrive, so i cannot directly confirm. There's a chance CLPD code for CGA was changed, but i doubt. Either way, switching board with card for CGA is not the worst solution
Yrouel
Member
My V2 Book with both cards yet to arrive, so i cannot directly confirm. There's a chance CLPD code for CGA was changed, but i doubt. Either way, switching board with card for CGA is not the worst solution
In principle not, but you may have noticed it as well that the plastic is not the best and those clips on the screen aren't exactly robust so opening and closing the screen so often is not desirable imo.
It would be nice to have something akin to bank switching and both firmwares on board if it's even possible with SPI EEPROMs that is...
Realistically you won't need to really switch that often if ever anyway
I have swapped in the CGA AND VGA cards and both work 'out of the box' as it were. (No changes to the video controller fw have been made by me and I bought both cards when I bought my 2nd V2 for this exact purpose)... (so i have 2 vga and 2 cga cards)
@n0p Mine has 4 holes and 3 screws as well fyi.
@n0p Mine has 4 holes and 3 screws as well fyi.
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n0p
Experienced Member
I cannot run any tests on that, but main problem reported for CGA firmware (dunno what correct name would be for that) is that it doesn't fully support standard VGA modes, resulting in black screen, for example mode 12h (640x480x16).
Can you check if that mode works on your Book with VGA?
Attached a quick program for that, sets mode 12h, prints strings, wait for keypress and sets original mode back.
Yrouel
Member
I was able to run Windows 3.0a at 640x480 256 colors or even 800x600 256 colors using these drivers https://winworldpc.com/product/avga3-gd542x-display/1 and following the instructions in this readme https://web.archive.org/web/20150809205726/http://ftp.net.pulawy.pl/drivers/legacy/vga/cirrus/cirrus1/#1/win30/readme
Initially it seemed to not support 640x480 256 but it run at 800x600 256 however after using clmode (also included in the driver package) and enabling High VGA Refresh Rate it seemed to have fixed itself even after powering it off and on again
Initially it seemed to not support 640x480 256 but it run at 800x600 256 however after using clmode (also included in the driver package) and enabling High VGA Refresh Rate it seemed to have fixed itself even after powering it off and on again
I've decided to check if that solution is universal or not, as i presumed new RTD firmware is actually some generic VGA one without CGA support.
I was right - i flashed new fw to my V1 and LCD said "Not Support" after switching from dark brown to blue.
Dumped original beforehand - and it's identical to your board one.
Interesting, my board has 4 holes but only 3 screws, i though they forgot one, but that seems like on purpose
my V2 with VGA, with the new LCD controller does this thing in text mode, does yours do it too?
Ran book_bug on the CGA V2 and it changed to look like the screenshot below... (very yellow tint there) (also did like the below and took away booting drive "A" except this time, not even fixed after powercycle.. eventualy it recovered... (I ran this after the VGA book btw)It should work, no irreversible problems expected, as i simply manipulate CRTC registers - they'll be back to default after reboot anyway.
Screen reset on key combo should work only in 80x25 text mode, and press Ctrl once again when/if screen is centered after that.
BTW, previous main purpose of that TSR was to switch CGA palettes in games (i personally prefer red-cyan-white almost everywhere)
I would love to hear any feedback!
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I'm also really interested - will running attached book_bug.com break colors in V2 with CGA? That not permanent
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Also, new version of PALTSR3 with hopefully fixed Ctrl key bug attached.
I ran paltsr3.. then did your Ctrl - ~ ... very strange.. the VGA shifts modes, says VGA for a second then no signal on its OSD then back to text and fixed the centering
Tried this on V2 VGA: Black Screen. After the black screen.. I Ctrl-Alt-Del'd... and my A: drive (that I booted from previously) vanished in XTIDE and gave a General Failure in DOS.. lol.... YOU BROKE MY BOOK!! j/k not really, but you did nuke my USB stick until I power cycled... then it was back to fine. So that's a bit strange.
I did notice on the CGA that it's properly aligned during the actual bios POST, but the screen mode changes or something when the XTIDE banner comes up and then it's shifted..
n0p
Experienced Member
@GizMo79 - Alas, i have no V2 book.
@sorphin - Book is not that easy to break :D Though it's strange drive A disappears - does it behave same way every time you do a Ctrl-Alt-Del reboot? That might be related memory not cleared of warm reboot.
That "VGA" message is from LCD controller, so does PALTSR3 work for you for text mode alignment? It's a bit unclear for me.
PALTSR3 switches off signal to LCD controller and returns it back after delay.
Black screen in mode 12h means just exact the thing - old/CGA LCD firmware doesn't support all VGA modes. But if that not needed - no need to do anything (i still think VGA is overkill for 8088, but i would love Tandy emulation there)
It would be interesing to run diff of Book LCD firmwares on https://github.com/riftlab/RTD2660_PCB800099/tree/master/Firmware
@sorphin - Book is not that easy to break :D Though it's strange drive A disappears - does it behave same way every time you do a Ctrl-Alt-Del reboot? That might be related memory not cleared of warm reboot.
That "VGA" message is from LCD controller, so does PALTSR3 work for you for text mode alignment? It's a bit unclear for me.
PALTSR3 switches off signal to LCD controller and returns it back after delay.
Black screen in mode 12h means just exact the thing - old/CGA LCD firmware doesn't support all VGA modes. But if that not needed - no need to do anything (i still think VGA is overkill for 8088, but i would love Tandy emulation there)
It would be interesing to run diff of Book LCD firmwares on https://github.com/riftlab/RTD2660_PCB800099/tree/master/Firmware
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But for what reason do you say that VGA is excessive for an 8088? Considering that the purpose of this little computer is to run old games. The graphics in CGA are truly unwatchable. In the few moments I've had time to play a bit, I've played Lemmings (finished it), I'm playing Dyna Blaster in VGA 640x480, Commander Keen 4, Ice and Fire—these games all work well with VGA colors. So, I really don't understand who buys the CGA version. I tried only one CGA game, 4x4 Race Team or something like that, and it was so bad that I deleted it...
n0p
Experienced Member
That's only my opinion and i'm certainly not "period correct build" fanatic
But considering 8088 CPU 1979 year vs CGA 1981 vs VGA 1987: most VGA-supporting games would be too slow on 8088. Might be ok, considering V20 cpu in turbo mode, but for a few. Even drawing a CGA sprite would take 4 times less memory accesses than on VGA (2 bit per pixel vs 8 bits per pixel).I still have some saved games from my XT - there's actually many i remember and certainly don't consider ugly. I'd recommend Goody, The Last Mission, Tower Toppler (Nebulous), Frogger, Digger, Rollo, Tapper - just to name a few.
Those a for CGA and 8088.
VGA is for 286/386 systems IMO.
It would have been nice if the Chinese guy had placed the Hand386 hardware inside the notebook-shaped case of the Book8088... If it existed, I would have gotten it. The Hand386 has a really unbearable keyboard. So, I got the Book8088 to play a bit. Of course, you can't play Doom, but many other less demanding games work well on the Book8088 with VGA in turbo mode. If you run a CGA game on VGA, it seems to work to me, so at the same cost, better to have something more than something less.That's only my opinion and i'm certainly not "period correct build" fanatic
I still have some saved games from my XT - there's actually many i remember and certainly don't consider ugly. I'd recommend Goody, The Last Mission, Tower Toppler (Nebulous), Frogger, Digger, Rollo, Tapper - just to name a few.
Those a for CGA and 8088.
VGA is for 286/386 systems IMO.
n0p
Experienced Member
I agree and i heard that was planned at some point. "Clam386" iirc. But Hand386 has PS/2 and VGA connectors, no problem connecting external keyboard there. My addition to it would be any kind of Soundblaster or at least Covox/Disney. But i somehow think that getting a small netbook and running DOSBox with dynamic core might be even better solution for retro gaming purpose. I remember running some 386+ games on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Mini was not a big problem.
But DOSBox struggles with XT emulation, really (some software require cycle-correct execution), so there's Book8088 for that.
Sorry for offtopic.
--
Gamepad - PicoGUS has working joystick emulation via Pi Pico microUSB port, but i coudn't make PicoGUS work on Book8088.
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Mmm, I wanted real hardware to tinker with Turbo C and ISA bus... I should buy one of those 1000-hole cards with an ISA comb for experiments... even though, in reality, with my job, I have little time to tinker around. Maybe someday, when I retire in 2047 (if I'm lucky) LOL... Anyway, has no one thought about designing a 3D-printable BOX for the external ISA adapter with a 3D printer?
I have plenty of real HW.. I got these more as a portable novelty tbh. (I have too many 8088s in my possession thanks to CR.. lol)
yeah, it fixes the alignment, though i can 'toggle' through and get normal, normal, unaligned, normal, normal, repeat.. as for the floppy bit.. I think it's memory not clearing. As for my other mention about the BIOS POST being properly aligned, then a mode switch then the XTIDE banner... that's actually where it unaligns for me..
TBH, I care less about VGA (I got them because I hoped I'd get "Tandy 16 color" out of it at least.. my first "pc" (which is also upstairs but not very portable) was a Tandy 1000SX w/ that nice 16 color.. So i was fortunate to never have to deal with CGA "color".. Though, if anything, area8088 proves they didn't need to deal with it either, they just didn't do the right 'tricks'.