ao486

[Newsdee]

What do you use to copy files over to VHD to use with ao486?

I tried creating an image with the Simple VHS manager from Sordum.org, but it is not recognized by DOS.
I then reformatted the drive from within the core using DOS instlall floppies, but now I can't open the VHD under Windows (it asks to format).

Do I need to use FAT formatting instead of FAT32? Or am I missing something? (perhaps the VHS manager isn't the right program)

[Hewhoisred]

See Sorgelig post.

http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.ph ... nt#p324171

[uigiflip]

I think disc manager in win 10 can make vhd or hypervisor

[uigiflip]

formatting of vhd depends on the os you plan to install, ie dos, win 3.1, win 95, os 2 etc

[Newsdee]

Mostly DOS.

Will give that link a try. Good info for the wiki or readme actually, I can update it after I try it...

[widge]

I have used Disk Management of Windows 10 to create the VHD then installed DOS 6.22 on it from floppy images.

[Newsdee]

I have used Disk Management of Windows 10 to create the VHD then installed DOS 6.22 on it from floppy images.

Which format did you use? FAT16 or FAT32?

[Sbeehive]

Do we have any sort of guide from the 486 wizards on what the "best" settings to use for DOS on MISTer are (besides that awesome link Brunosilva posted)?

I've been messing around with QEMM but can't seem to run much more than Wolfenstein at this point.

Has anyone been able to get Wing Commander 2/Ultima Underworld to run with any kind of quality?

[BBond007]

I see that qemm was used somewhere but we me, qeem does crazy stuff when dos starts (like having all the outpout in a single line).. tried with 8.00

This is a little late but with QEMM 8.0 skip the "stealth" optimization.

[Newsdee]

Would be a good idea to keep one or two config.sys in the repository as reference. Its easy to forget some of the obscure settings

[Sbeehive]

Would be a good idea to keep one or two config.sys in the repository as reference. Its easy to forget some of the obscure settings

It'd be great to have a couple of those with a working list of what games work well with what config.sys settings. Right now it is a bit unclear (at least to people that aren't advanced DOS users) as to how well you can get certain games to run under ideal conditions.

[Sorgelig]

Would be a good idea to keep one or two config.sys in the repository as reference. Its easy to forget some of the obscure settings

It'd be great to have a couple of those with a working list of what games work well with what config.sys settings. Right now it is a bit unclear (at least to people that aren't advanced DOS users) as to how well you can get certain games to run under ideal conditions.

So, who will sit and test all games and create configs for each one?
May be you?

[Sbeehive]

Would be a good idea to keep one or two config.sys in the repository as reference. Its easy to forget some of the obscure settings

It'd be great to have a couple of those with a working list of what games work well with what config.sys settings. Right now it is a bit unclear (at least to people that aren't advanced DOS users) as to how well you can get certain games to run under ideal conditions.

So, who will sit and test all games and create configs for each one?
May be you?

I'd be happy to help with any community effort! I wish my DOS skills were a bit better.... but I'm slowly picking up knowledge.

So far the extent of my ability is to set up DOS/Soundblaster 2.0/and run QEMM 8.0. I've seen some quotes of people using Himemsys/EMM386 in conjunction with QEMM with a special config.sys setup and doing some incredible things (probably the same guys that are posting videos to YouTube). So far I haven't had much luck yet in advanced set-up.

It seems like I actually lost a bit of compatibility using QEMM somehow. I went from being able to run WC2 (without sound in some parts) to not/Mystic Towers went from a similar situation to not...

I'm also trying to work on getting serial (if that's what you call it) connection of the DE-10 nano up and running so I don't have to deal with manually creating floppy images for every game I have (a lot of which are CD based so that creates an extra hurdle).

It'd be nice to get an idea of what the peak of the Ao486 core is capable of in terms of power and maybe start a rough list from there of some landmark games?

[widge]

I have used Disk Management of Windows 10 to create the VHD then installed DOS 6.22 on it from floppy images.

Which format did you use? FAT16 or FAT32?

I don't remember. If you have the choice, go for FAT16 if you are interested by DOS since FAT32 came later with Windows 95.

[mattsoft]

If you're on a Mac, just change ".vhd" to ".img" and double-click the image. It will mount and you can copy stuff to it. When done, unmount the image (drag mounted icon to trash) and rename the ".img" to ".vhd". You're good to go!

[nico24]

I installed Windows 95 from the 22 virtual floppies a couple of days ago!! Graphics performance is pretty bad. A good curiosity at this stage but not much more. Wolfenstein 3D seems to work pretty well though.

[Sbeehive]

So I did some work trying to get my favorite games to run in Ao486. Oddly enough, I was having trouble mounting my .vhd which was seriously hampering the speed of getting games on the MISTer to try. For whatever reason, I went into my MISTer backup files (basically just a copy of the microsd) and right clicked the .vhd from within Ao486 and it mounted. I think eventually I should really make a google doc or something we can all contribute to, but for now here is a quick list of what I did and was able to get running:

Install: MS-Dos 6.22/QEMM 8.0 (skip stealth)/took CTMOUSE from a dos boot-disk.
I did not alter config.sys as I am not familiar with what would work best just yet.

Basically, here is what I found:

Blake Stone Aliens of Gold: Works!! Choppy if you don't lower the detail/features
DOOM: What others have said. It works but is very choppy. Lowering graphic detail helps.
Duke Nukem 2: A little slow on the frame-rate but it almost feels that is how it should be.
Ultima 6: Works well.
Savage Empire: Will not load beyond Journey Onward (perhaps from copying it over rather than installing?) Mouse doesn't work
Martian Dreams: Will not load beyond Journey Onward (perhaps from copying it over rather than installing?) Mouse doesn't work!
Lemmings 1- worked great with no issues.
Lemmings 2- would not boot. Complains of too little memory
Lemmings 3- works but plays in slow motion.
LIZARDOS- a new homebrew game. Does not work, unfortunately. There may be commands to help it to.
Mystic Towers- would not boot. Complains of too little memory (but does boot under a bootdisk.com dos boot disk? with limited sound).
Populous 2- my original CD version works without sound. This may work with
Ultima Underworld 1 and 2 - these are interesting. According to MEM and CHKDSK I don't have nearly enough EMS to run these two games. That being said, I copied them over to my VHD (original CD installs) and they both work!! They are choppy unless you disable most of the detail. However, it is impressive that they even work. I will definitely be messing with these some more.
Wing Commander 2- would not boot. Complains of too little memory (but does boot under a bootdisk.com dos boot disk? with limited sound).
Wing Commander Academy- Unlikely the speech samples will work but it runs well with music and sound.
Wolf 3D- what more can be said. Runs well. Some graphic glitch sometimes when opening doors. I'm unsure if this is normal for the game or not.

[nightshadowpt]

So I did some work trying to get my favorite games to run in Ao486.

I believe you're having too high expectations from this core... A486, despite his name, is more suitable as a 286 or 386SX computer, not a 486.

Games until 1991 should be more or less ok, but after that it may be challenging for this core.

Would love this core to one day run like a proper 486, but until then, enjoy the older titles...

[nightshadowpt]

So I did some work trying to get my favorite games to run in Ao486.

I believe you're having too high expectations from this core... Ao486, despite his name, is more suitable as a 286 or 386SX computer, not a 486.

Games until 1991 should be more or less ok, but after that it may be challenging for this core.

Would love this core to one day run like a proper 486, but until then, enjoy the older titles...

[eightbitminiboss]

Hi,

I'm trying to understand what is happening when I attempt to start the ao486 core. I have an SDRAM board, 5.5 I/O Board with fan and heatsink attached. When I start the core, I see it starting to POST but right when it tries to find a boot device, it appears to lock up the MiSTer to the point I can't bring up the OSD. I'm using the most recent core and I made sure I have the boot0 and boot1 roms. Other cores I've used seem to work fine.

Does anyone have an idea what maybe happening?

[Sorgelig]

do you press WIN+F12 for OSD?

[eightbitminiboss]

do you press WIN+F12 for OSD?

Yes, but I figured out. I think vsync adjust in the MiSTer.ini file may have caused it. It was set for low latency (2). I changed it to 0 and the ao486 core loads normally now.

[ijor]

I believe you're having too high expectations from this core... A486, despite his name, is more suitable as a 286 or 386SX computer, not a 486.
Games until 1991 should be more or less ok, but after that it may be challenging for this core.
Would love this core to one day run like a proper 486, but until then, enjoy the older titles...

Are most of this titles 16-bit DOS games than run on real mode? Or they actually require a 386, or Win95? Because otherwise I assume it should be a faster 8086 core perhaps.

[Sbeehive]

So I did some work trying to get my favorite games to run in Ao486.

I believe you're having too high expectations from this core... A486, despite his name, is more suitable as a 286 or 386SX computer, not a 486.

Games until 1991 should be more or less ok, but after that it may be challenging for this core.

Would love this core to one day run like a proper 486, but until then, enjoy the older titles...

You're definitely right. Despite the power limitations, I do think the core has a lot to offer.

Being able to play Wolfenstein, Wing Commander, Ultima Underworld (with some compromises), Lemmings, etc. is a great experience.

I still think it would be fun/help people to get a list of what exactly can be squeezed out of it.

I noticed last night that optical mice don't play well with Ultima Underworld (dosbox does some sort of mouse acceleration). I wonder if I can find some sort of native dos driver?

[Eero Tamminen]

Attached are few less demanding 4KB DOS demos from the 90's that one could try:

90s4kb.zip

Couple of them have sound (Helium & World), others are visuals only.