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Curbside 5150 pickup, help please...

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USSEnterprise

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2006
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252
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Jackson, New Jersey
I picked up a 5150 from someone's bulk pickup pile. The motherboard is marked as 16-64KB. It has two 5.25" full height drives. It has markings that indicate that it was used by Bendix. It has a color graphics board, and two boards made by Quadram. I have no CGA monitor. What does the RCA connector on the graphics board put out? Is it composite, RF, or something else? If not, can a VGA be adapted?

Thanks
 
USSEnterprise said:
I picked up a 5150 from someone's bulk pickup pile. The motherboard is marked as 16-64KB. It has two 5.25" full height drives. It has markings that indicate that it was used by Bendix. It has a color graphics board, and two boards made by Quadram. I have no CGA monitor. What does the RCA connector on the graphics board put out? Is it composite, RF, or something else? If not, can a VGA be adapted?
Click to expand...

Yep, an early 5150 from 1981-1983. Note that the BIOS in these only recognizes 544k of memory and doesn't scan for adapter ROMs, so it can't be used with a hard disk or VGA.

I use the composite output on my 5150 because I don't have a RGB monitor either. It usually makes games look better (not Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade though :mrgreen: ), but for applications you'll want a RGB monitor because 80-column text and composite displays don't mix too well.
 
Fallo said:
Note that the BIOS in these only recognizes 544k of memory and doesn't scan for adapter ROMs, so it can't be used with a hard disk or VGA.
Click to expand...
Those limitations are removed if the 16-64K motherboard has had its BIOS upgraded to the third revision (quite a few were).
The revision can be determined by noting the part number on chip U33:

First: U33 = 5700051
Second: U33 = 5700671
Third: U33 = 1501476
 
Fallo said:
It usually makes games look better (not Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade though :mrgreen: ), but for applications you'll want a RGB monitor because 80-column text and composite displays don't mix too well.
Click to expand...

You play Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on a 5150? Hope you got some speed boost there!
 
lol I remember that game and yeah my friend and their 286 could play it but my 8088 couldn't. First time I had ever been envious of the new 286 systems and their amazing power.

I don't think it's sacrilege to add an accelerator card. That's still ok and it could happen, modding the box or doing some permanent replacement would be disappointing though. Cards are removable so I like those options.
 
barythrin said:
lol I remember that game and yeah my friend and their 286 could play it but my 8088 couldn't. First time I had ever been envious of the new 286 systems and their amazing power.
Click to expand...

You mean Indy & the Last Crusade? No, of course it runs on 8088s, just at a snail's pace. I mainly wanted to try it out of curiosity, since I can always play it on my 386 or Pentium. It does run in a low detail mode on 8088s, but it's still very slow and on a composite display the graphics are full of red and blue stripes. Turning the color on the TV all the way down solves this problem.

Maniac Mansion (low-res) doesn't look too bad on a composite display. I also discovered that the version included with Day of the Tentacle doesn't run on 8088s. I'm guessing they stuck some 286 code in there when adapting it for DOTT.

I also tried King's Quest 4 and would definitely not recommend it on a 5150 with CGA. It doesn't display in color on composite monitors, and it's slow enough that it's almost impossible to escape baddies like the shark and the ogre. That and swapping eight disks will drive you nuts.

I wouldn't put a 286 accelerator (or an NEC V20) in my 5150, as I'd lose the ability to play booter games that are too fast for anything above an 8088. As I said, my other machines take care of 286+ games.
 
Fallo said:
I wouldn't put a 286 accelerator (or an NEC V20) in my 5150, as I'd lose the ability to play booter games that are too fast for anything above an 8088. As I said, my other machines take care of 286+ games.
Click to expand...

The majority of 286 accelerator cards are switchable between 8088 and 286 modes with a little switch on the back :)
 
kb2syd said:
That's a rather bold statement. I've only worked with 2, and neither were switched that way.
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The one I got is software-switchable, but it starts off in "disabled" mode.

There is also two kinds of 286 cards. The first is the "accelerator" kind of cards that needs you to move the CPU onto the card and connect a cable to the CPU socket. Those cards doesn't got any RAM on them, and uses the 640Kb in the host, it's simply a CPU-replacement, and it gives the host computer almost the powers of an IBM 5162. Most of therse got a switch the user flipped for "turbo" mode. Example: Orchid TinyTurbo 286.

The other kind of 286 card is the "AT-on-a-card" ones. that simply is a seperate computer-on-a-card that shares 64Kb of RAM with the host system. Those cards usually got more RAM, 1Mb or 2Mb, and some of them even got optional video expansions or disk drive connectors. The host computer takes commands from the 286 card, and that's why a proper driver is need in order to operate it correctly. It gives the host nearly the powers of an AT. Example: Orchid PCTurbo 286e.
 
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