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The 1991 "X-Box"
Jim Hall writes "Back in college (1991), I wondered why no one had bothered to make a DOS-based game console.
One day, in the back of a notebook, I made some notes about how you might go about creating a DOS-based game console. (I even called it an "X-Box", but really the "X" was there because I didn't know what else to call it. Microsoft's current "XBox" console is completely different, and I don't claim any rights to the "X-Box" name.)
I've posted some scans of my notes, and a discussion about how you would create a DOS-based game console."
1.Write down XBox years before M$ release a console of the same name. 2.??? 3.Profit!
I call shenanigans on this one. YARR
OMG! Someone is actually RTFA!
No sig for you!!
Full text below.
... my then-girlfriend's (now, wife's) brother had two of them. And of course, I had an Atari 2600 when I was growing up.
.BIN ... can we hack to use different extension?) which is the game. If audio CD, runs music player program.
...) We could create an SDK that turns those into "P1_UP", and so on.
... a 386SX-40. Yeah, no mathco, but still a nice box. I think I had a whopping 4MB of memory, too. I played a lot of DOS games on this 386, and was the first box that ran Commander Keen.
... at the time, I was a big Microsoft junkie. (I'm much better now, thank you.) And a ton of games were being written for MS-DOS, so what better platform to build a game console?
... in fact, you find a lot of games at the time specified a minimum of MS-DOS 3.3. So we're okay there.
... those are the cheesy "bleep bloop" sounds you probably remember so well.
... something about how a similar PC-based game console might be built. Basically, it's given me a huge insight to why Microsoft built their XBox the way they did. I understand why they implemented digitally signed media. It's the only way to make $$ on these consoles. You need to be able to guarantee that what runs on the XBox was compiled against your SDK, and then you license the SDK.
The 1991 X-Box
I went to college in the fall of 1990, and by Spring semester 1991, I was enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. I lived in the dorms, and in hanging out with my other friends I began to notice the popularity of game consoles. It seemed like every third dorm room in my building had a Nintendo in it. I'd seen consoles before
But my game interests were with DOS-based games of the time, such as Commander Keen. Even Commander Keen 1 was better than most of the games available for the Nintendo, at least as far as I could see. So I wondered why no one had bothered to make a DOS-based game console.
One day, in the back of a notebook, I made some notes about how you might go about creating a DOS-based game console. (I even called it an "X-Box", but really the "X" was there because I didn't know what else to call it. Microsoft's current "XBox" console is completely different, and I don't claim any rights to the "X-Box" name.)
Page 1 (1299x1712, 136k)
Shows a diagram of a controller, with 4 directional buttons + 4 game buttons (A, B, L, R) + 2 system buttons ("Opt" and "Start").
Sends events to console using keyboard events. (What about using 2 Gravis game pads on the game port?)
Game saves: 1.44MB floppy
System boot: flash memory system (C:) - 2MB?
Games: CD-ROM (also plays music)
2 controllers enter system through keyboard combinator. (Looks like keyboard.)
Always boots from C: (never from A: or D:). After boot, DOS displays some game system logo, then waits for CD-ROM event. At CD-ROM load, checks for certain directory structure to determine if game disk. Then exec's XBOX.EXE (or
SDK defines P1 and P2 input [the controllers], and game exit chains exec back to main system program. SDK's init should determine if this is a game system.
Need program to format floppy.
Page 2 (1299x1712, 268k)
Diagrams of how to assemble and organize the console hardware, including an inventive way to install the peripheral cards at an angle to save vertical space.
Page 3 (1299x1712, 244k)
SDK:
Save game files should always be in the format game ID.001 (iterate).
What can we do to enforce this? API to list, save, and delete save games? Maybe only list/save, and only allow delete from the main program?
init() will check that this is a game system, and chain back via exit() if not.
SDK has #define's for keys: P1_UP, P1_DOWN, P1_LEFT, P1_RIGHT, P1_A, P1_B, P1_L, P1_R, P1_OPT, P1_SEL, and again for P2.
How to keep people from running just any DOS program from the game console?
My friend Larry and I had planned this out. Larry had a huge interest in electronics and had the idea of the keyboard "combinator" device. It solved a lot of problems. In addition to sending one "keystroke" to the output at a time (emulating a keyboard) you were free to use non-keyboard input, and the combinator would be able to translate that into keyboard output. As long as the output was a key from a keyboard, it didn't matter ("A", "$", "9", "Keypad_3",
Shortly after that, I dropped the idea. I was pretty busy in classes at the time, and didn't have a lot of time to devote to thinking about such side projects. But could such a design have actually worked? More to the point, could you build it at a reasonable price? And if you did build it, would people buy it?
CPU
First, you have to start with the microprocessor. In 1982, Intel released the 286 Microprocessor. The 286, also known as the 80286, was the first Intel processor that could run all the software written for its predecessor. This software compatibility remains a hallmark of Intel's family of microprocessors. Within 6 years of it release, there were an estimated 15 million 286-based personal computers installed around the world. What hamstrung the 286, though, was that they messed up multi-tasking. Really, they implemented a nice task-swapping feature, but hardly the same as true multi-tasking.
In 1985, Intel sold the 386 Microprocessor. The Intel386 microprocessor featured 275,000 transistors--more than 100times as many as the original 4004. It was a 32-bit chip and was "multi tasking," meaning it could run multiple programs at the same time. That's what I had in my PC
In 1989, Intel released the 486DX CPU Microprocessor The 486 processor generation really meant you go from a command-level computer into point-and-click computing. The Intel486 processor was the first to offer a built-in math coprocessor, which speeds up computing because it offloads complex math functions from the central processor. That was the fastest-available CPU that you could get in 1991.
If you were going to build a DOS-based game console in 1991, you might try to build a 486 system at a cheap price. Although at the time, a 386 system might have been less expensive, and as a startup game company the 386 is probably more realistic. Let's assume a 386.
DOS
I hadn't created FreeDOS yet, although you can guess that I was pretty "into" DOS. MS-DOS was the flavor to run
By 1990, MS-DOS would have been ROMable, so you could have had MS-DOS boot from a ROM on a console system, the same as MS-DOS booted from ROM on certain laptops. The recent timeline for MS-DOS at the time looked something like this: Version Date Description
3.30 PC-DOS April 1987 For PS/2 series, 1.44 meg support, multiple DOS partition support, code page switching, improved foreign language support, some new function calls, support for the AT's CMOS clock.
3.31 MS-DOS November 1987 Over-32 meg DOS partitions. Different versions from different OEMs (not Micro$oft). Compaq and Wyse are most common.
3.40 PC-DOS - 1988 Internal IBM - not released (4.0 development).
2.11R MS-DOS - 1988 Bootable ROM DOS for Tandy machines.
4.00 PC-DOS August 1988 32mb disk limit officially broken, minor EMS support, more new function calls, enhanced network support for external commands. PCjr support dropped.
4.01 MS-DOS December 1988 Micro$oft version with some bugfixes.
3.21R MS-DOS September 1989 DOS in ROM, Flash File System for laptops.
3.3R MS-DOS - 1990 DOS in ROM, introduced for TI laptops.
5.00 MS-DOS June 1991 High memory support, uses up to 8 hard disks, command line editor and aliasing, 2.88 floppies, ROMable OEM kit available.
So while MS-DOS 5 was on desktops everywhere by Summer 1991, the easiest way to put MS-DOS in a game console was to burn it to ROM. So for this DOS-based game console, we'll have to use MS-DOS 3.3R. But DOS games still run great on MS-DOS 3.3
Video
Any game console is worthless unless you can pipe the output to your television set. Most normal GUI environments of the time (think MS-Windows) would do 640x480, or even 800x600 if you had a good system. Unfortunately, you can't expect your television to show the same quality as a VGA monitor. Your television can do only about 320x240.
Also, you have the problem that your television doesn't do VGA. It uses NTSC. By its nature, NTSC is a single wire transmision system. It minimaly has luminance (brightness) information for black and white. It has a fixed horizontal frequency of about 15.7khz with a vertical of 60hz. VGA cards just cannot do this. VGA controllers seem to have a low limit of arround 30khz for hsync. For color NTSC things get tricky. The RGB is encoded as 2 subcarriers in quadrature to eachother each 3.58mhz above baseband. There is additional 3.58mhz signal that must occur during sync. This is called the "burst". To prevent beat frequency artifacts on the screen you should adjust the vertical to the color standard of 59.94hz.
So, would a DOS-based game console been impossible? Not really. These days, it's pretty easy to find a video card that supports TV-out. But in 1991, such video cards weren't so common. Or were they?
I didn't investigate it at the time, but with the USENET archives on Google I was able to do some research. In 1995, video cards that supported TV-out were high-end cards like: S3 ViRGE, Rage All in Wonder, Rage Fury, Canopus, 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000, and G400 Max.
So one solution is to supply the game console with one of these cards. That might be expensive, though. The cheapest ISA card I was able to find was a "Multi-Mode EGA/CGA/MDA(TTL) / NTSC (RCA/composite)" for $50. And EGA is right about where we want to be, to match the resolution of a television set.
Is there another way to get NTSC video at higher resolutions? Yes, but it would have cost more.
At the time, there was a gadget called "Game Blaster", which you could pick up at places like Egghead for about $150 (???). It seems to convert VGA to NTSC video. That's just what our system needs.
Also available was a device called "PC2TV". It was $189 and well worth the money. It will also output to S-VHS (the Game Blaster will too) which makes a huge difference in picture quality and contrast. It also needs no driver under 640x480 at 60hz. PC2TV is also true color, and the Game Blaster is not. It will also do 800x600 with some ET400 cards.
So I guess the answer is: yes, you could have had a VGA to NTSC converter at low res (acceptable for DOS games) for less than $150. But the DOS games available in 1991 were typically EGA, so a first-generation game console would be better off to stick with EGA, and let the next-generation console extend into VGA.
Sound
Sound is important. Even the Atari 2600 had very basic sound
From Google newsgroups, the earliest mention of the Soundblaster card was Sep 25 1990, and in 1992 the SB was sold for $75. So in 1991, you should have been able to get a sound card for a reasonable price.
Games
No game console can succeed unless it has games to support it. At the time, I don't think I realized the importance to a console maker of having game exclusives. But ah well. Let's at least look at what DOS games we had around 1991.
The first-person shooter titled Wolfenstein 3D was originally released for DOS in 1992 by ID Software. So this would have been a good title to run on a DOS game console, but that's too late for our system.
Let's just look at it for a moment, though. Would Wolfenstein 3D have been a good console title? Oh yeah - There was also a Super Nintendo version of Wolfenstein 3D released; it was a cross between the PC and Mac versions. For example, the flamethrower and rocket launcher from the Mac version are present as is the ability to sneak up on enemies from the PC version. Unfortunately, it was extremely censored through the changing of the guard dogs into rats and removal of the Nazi symbols. But if you had the uncensored game available for a game console, it would have been kick-ass!
So what would have been the killer game to release on a DOS-based game console? I've already mentioned it: Commander Keen. On December 14, 1990, Episode 1 of Commander Keen forever changed PC computing. Commander Keen was id Software's first big game, and along with the original Duke Nukem (released in 1991), Apogee Software was recognized as the place to go to for hot, shareware games.
Even better, all of the 7 Keen games out there are EGA titles, and Keens 4-6 also had a separate additional CGA version produced. Although CGA looked like purple shit.
Price
So, let's take a moment to add up the components that we've assembled so far: Item Price
Intel 386 CPU + motherboard $399
IDE/floppy/serial controller $70
1MB memory $5
1.44MB floppy drive $30
CD-ROM drive ??
Flash ROM C: drive $20
MS-DOS 3.3R runtime license ??
Multi-Mode EGA/CGA/MDA(TTL) / NTSC (RCA/composite) video card $50
Soundblaster card $75
Of course, these are estimates, but they seem to be pretty good ones.
The Competition
Could such a DOS-based system have been competitive with other game consoles of the era. It's kind of late now to think of "might have beens" but this is an interesting one. Let's compare this "X-Box" to the other consoles of the time:
In 1985, Nintendo started to sell the U.S. version of Family Computer Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in America. The system included R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy) and the games Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros. Mario and Luigi became as big a hit as the NES. However, in 1989, Sega stepped in to take their piece of the pie. They released Sega Genesis, a system with a 16bit computer that could produce better graphics than the NES.
So in 1991, Nintendo introduced the 16-bit Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) along with Super Mario World and released it in the U.S. The SNES was one of the most powerful 16-bit consoles. The SNES used an extremely powerful graphics coprocessor able of generating real-time effects like scaling and transparency. The SNES immediately it raised the bar for video game designers around the globe. Featuring true stereo sound, multiple scrolling backgrounds and almost twice the internal memory as its competition, the SNES was home to the biggest, baddest games of its day. The original SNES set, with two controllers and Super Mario World, sold for $200 when it was first released. In a few months, the price dropped, as all console systems' prices do after initial release, to $150.
To be a player, this "X-Box" game console would have had to retail for $200 or less. The price list above has a total retail price of $650. But that's retail. How much would you have been able to buy all that at wholesale price? I don't really know, but in cases like this the "rule of 2" seems to get me pretty far. So we'll assume wholesale would be roughly half the cost: about $325. And that doesn't even cover the cost of the game controllers and the R&D work to create the combinator circuit and custom "A/V out" cabling.
And you have the MS-DOS license fees. I don't have a price for MS-DOS in 1991, but Digital Research Inc. released DR-DOS 6.0 in 1991 for $100. So you might assume MS-DOS was around the same price, since DR-DOS needed to stay competitive. If you use the "rule of 2" you may have been able to license MS-DOS for an embedded system for $50 or less since this would be sold in high volume, not a few at a time.
But the game console business is pretty cutthroat. Even today, game consoles almost never pay for themselves. You sell the system at a loss, and make up for it from SDK license fees. I even saw that back in 1991. So to sell this X-Box at $200 would mean a loss of at least $125 per box. That's pretty steep. You'd have to become an overnight success to justify that kind of loss. With launch titles such as an "X-Box" exclusive full version of Commander Keen, and some other hot DOS titles, you would have had a fair chance. With id's release of Wolfenstein 3D a year later, a DOS-based game console would have been the killer system. But it's still a huge gamble.
On top of that, PC hardware is very expensive if you need the specs to remain completely static over a long run. Game consoles like the Nintendo and today's PlayStation are able to absorb their R&D costs over a long product lifecycle. Basically, because they control the technology behind the system, the consoles actually become less expensive to produce after a few years. Now let's jump back to this "X-Box". When the Pentium is released, try asking Intel to still produce 386 hardware in quantity. If you don't have the same speed CPU in there, games that work well on the original "X-Box" might become unplayable when the CPU speed doubles. You might offset that, though, by running a TSR that slowed the system down to compare to the 386 CPU. Just don't interfere with the games. In any case, that adds up to extra cost, whether you get Intel to continue producing 386 CPUs or if you use software. This "X-Box" becomes more expensive to produce after a few years.
So it's probably a good thing I never went any further with this "X-Box" idea.
Building it today
(note done yet)
I went to Pricewatch this morning, and vaguely looked at some current prices to build a decent game console today. Comparitive prices have come down quite a lot since 1991. But I didn't really do a full pricing on the thing. Maybe I'll look into it later.
One thing I didn't mention in my page (but maybe I should add it?) was that if you're going to build a game console, the case really can't be any bigger than a VCR. I think Tivo is about the size of a VCR. If it's any bigger than that, people will think it's too much like a PC stuck on top of your TV, and they won't buy it. The Morex Cubid 2699 looks about the right size, but of course it wouldn't have been available in 1991. See also the ATC-600 case.
Microsoft's XBox
(not done yet)
Since putting up this web page, I've been thinking about writing a related article
Microsoft did make a mistake on the XBox controllers, though. They made huge controllers, probably designed by someone with huge hands. Their controllers are about as big as a grizzly bear.
Does it have the ability to play Nethack in fullscreen colors?
Note to self: get smarter troll to guard door.
I see my ideas brought to market by other people all the time. I also get lots of email from people who see my work, which start with "I've been thinking about doing exactly this for several years...."
Boo hoo. There are only so many hours in a day. An idea isn't valuable per se. The only thing that's impressive is an idea, plus the willpower and dedication to bring it to reality.
It's always nice to play "woulda-coulda-shoulda" in the computer industry, but we may as well be postulating how the civil war would have gone if the Confederacy had nuclear weapons if you ignore history.
I won't even validate this by saying its an elaborate hoax, which it is clearly not even close. Just because he decided to write into his notes ``(c. 1991)'' that is the entire proving point that he came up with the idea of an xbox before MS? Please, I'm even lead to question whether shoulder buttons on the controlers were even in use at the time only because the SNES was the first significant system to use that configuration and it did not come out in the US until I believe late 1991? My memory tends to fail me at the moment, someone help me out here. The only interest I have in this is making my futilre attempt to disprove it's validity. Pathetic really, the article should have never been posted. and no, i didn't read the entire peice, i stoped at the end of the first scanned page.
I hate all sigs, even this one.
nope, the "DX" in the 386 was different than in the 486 line. the 386SX used a 32 bit core but communicated to the system and memory through a 16 bit bus. the DX had a true 32 bit bus to system and ram. for a math coprocessor for either you needed to install a 387.
as you know, the SX and DX designations on the 486 line signified the presense of an onboard coprocessor.
In the notes, he says "Always boots from C: (never from A: or D:)". An if you look at the history of the El Torito spec, it mentions that they began thinking about the possibilities of a bootable CD-ROM in 1993.
Does anyone know if DOS supported booting from CD-ROM in 1991?
http://robotiq.com/content/1.html
Maybe no one bothered with a DOS-based console at the time, because of the cooling and power requirements (big fans and power suppies) as well as the form factor? If something were to be competitive with Nintendo, it would not only have to be as cheap, but also as small and quiet...
Didn't anyone notice the striking similarity to an SNES controller? Most of the games I remember playing back in pre-VGA standard days didn't require 2 buttons, none-the-less six. Methinks this is a poor hoax.
Correct me if I'm wrong (like there is any doubt about that HERE), but wasn't EGA the cream of the crop (except for a few high-end boards like TARGA and whatnot) in 1991? With most of us still suffering through on Hercules mono, or god-forbid the brave souls who had CGA. (I swear it has more than just brown, blue and white colors. It has 16 man, you're just blind).
And... Were ball-point pens invented yet in 1991? I remember having to write everything down with pencils, only after chewing the end to a point... Case closed :)
Ligaguinggligagiggagoogoogwillgo
386DX = 386 with full 32 bit front-side bus
386SX = 386 with 16-bit FSB
486DX = 486 with math coprocessor
486SX = 486 with math coprocessor disabled
487SX = 486 with math coprocessor and slightly different pinout so it wouldn't work in the 486SX/DX socket, and which disabled the 486SX at startup
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
In 1991 no Intel box could even come close the the Amiga.
IIRC the CD32 came out that year, which was like a PS2. It had the AGA chipset, and had quite a few games releaced for it. I had a A3000, and later the A4000. I remember the huge difference in lemmings on it vs. my 486/dos computer.
Worst episode -er- article ever!
Ligaguinggligagiggagoogoogwillgo
Sure, it looks like an SNES, but that's because in that same year the SNES came out. He probably heard about it and wanted to make his own.
So in 1991, the inclusion of a CD-ROM on this device was intended as either: 1) A very expensive cup holder. 2) A device a waaay ahead of its time. Or 3) A hoax.
While in 1991(ish) there were the failed initiatives of Commodore (CDTV) and Philips (CDI) to make CD-ROM based "Edutainment" consoles, the huge advantage of using a PC as the innards of the device would be lost because of the relative obscurity of CD-ROM media on the PC platform.
-JE
Computer, destruct sequence one, code one, one A.
To give an opinion from the other side of the gaming spectrum, I don't think Commander Keen I could be better than Super Mario Bros, Excitebike, Double Dragon, Ninja Gaiden, Rivercity Ransom, Dragon Quest[Warrior], Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, et cetera...could anybody who did both PC and console gaming during this time give an opinion on the matter?
Ligaguinggligagiggagoogoogwillgo
Seriously. 1991 XBox with PC technology would be absurd. Commodore, however, did this with the Amiga--it actually shares many similarities to the XBox/PC relationship.
Over 200,000 CD32 units were sold worldwide (100,000 in UK alone) - as compared to 3DO, which only sold a bit over 100,000 worldwide. It took some balls for Amiga to move on that, but unfortunately Commodore went under not too long afterwards. It sold for $399 in the US when it was released.
http://www.cd32.com/
Commodore Amiga CD32 Press Release Follows:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Commodore Business Machines, Inc.
Marketing and PR Department
(610) 431-9478
--== Amiga CD32® Launched in U.S. at Intermedia ==--
(San Jose, CA - March 1, 1994) Commodore Business Machines, Inc. today
announced at Intermedia the availability of the Amiga CD32 game machine
in the United States
"The CD32 will be available this spring at mall-based software stores,
regional electronics stores, and Amiga dealers throughout the US," says
John DiLullo, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Commordore
Business Machines, Inc. "We are bundling three excellant games with
the CD32: Pinball Fantasies by 21st Century, Wing Commander by Electronic
Arts, and Oscar from Microvalue Flair," DiLullo added," and offering a
special price on Psygnosis' Microcosm."
First launched in Europe this past fall, Commodore reports to have sold
over 100,000 units in Europe in just three months prior to Christmas. By
outselling Sega four to one and claiming 38 market share of all CD ROM
drives sold in the UK (according to the Gallup Weekly Report), the Amiga
CD32 has established itself as the undisputed leader of the 32 bit
machines.
Electronic Gaming Monthly agrees by rating the CD32 higher than Sega CD,
3DO or Jaguar. At a suggested retail price of just $399, the Amiga CD32
features an unbeatable combination of power and affordability.
"We challenge anyone to show us a better multimedia player at a better
price," says Lew Eggebrecht, Vice President of Engineering for Commodore
International.
"With 50 titles available today and 100 expected by first ship in the
U.S., the Amiga CD32 has wide support among the software development
community," says John Campbell, Director of Applications and Technical
Support for Commodore International. "The success we have had in Europe
has convinced publishers to invest in creating revolutionary new titles
for the Amiga CD32," Campbell added.
The Amiga CD32 features a 32 bit Motorola 68EC020 Microprocessor with
2MB of memory, 16.7 million colors, and a double speed CD ROM drive built
in. The CD32 will play audio CDs, most CDTV discs, and CD32 discs. With
the addition of an optional MPEG-1 full motion video module, the CD32 can
play MPEG VideoCDs, MovieCDs and Karaoke CDs with up to 74 minytes of
better-than-VHS quality video and CD quality audio on a single disc.
The suggested retail price of the MPEG module is $249.
"The CD ROM drive in the CD32 is a fully multisession compatible Mode 1,
Mode 2 Form 1, and Mode 2 Form 2 drive," says Jeffrey Porter, Director,
Advanced Technology for Commodore International. "With optional
software, the CD32 can read Kodak® PhotoCD discs," Porter added.
Commodore Business Machines, Inc. based in West Chester, PA is the U.S.
subsidary of Commodore Internatrinal Limited. The company manufactures
and markets a complete line of Amiga computers and peripherals for the
business, consumer, educational, and vertical markets. The company's
worldwide installed user base of Amiga computers is approximately 5
million units.
There was NO 3D in 1995 unless you wanted an insanely expensive Silicon Graphics box. Back then a 2MB S3 board - a Diamond Stealth 64, for instance - was damn nice. I think the first Voodoo was in '97, and the Voodoo 2 in '98. UltraHLE came out in late '98 or early '99, and managed high-speed N64 emulation using SLI'd Voodoo 2s. Voodoo Banshee and Voodoo 3 started making 3D popular because you could have it all on one card; about this time people like nVidia and ATi started getting serious marketshare as well, since 3dfx didn't go in for 32-bit colour, preferring speed over quality.
Voodoo 4 and 5 were too late to save 3dfx, but wonderfully cheap after the wreck :-)
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
It's a pity so many /.ers think posting old schematics is not relevant. /. forum finds out anyhow.
I think it actually is. For example, the ATARI 2600 console has chip schematics here. And I would love to find designs for the early Space Invaders, or Galaga systems. Why ? Because the average multimedia PC today is maybe a 1000X more powerful than those older systems, yet playability of all those new games has not increased by the same amount. Video Game Archeology can teach me.
By the way - even if those scans are fake, the
Come now, surely a true DOS gamer from back in the day would know that the SoundBlaster was not the first PC sound card!
No, the original SoundBlaster boards were cheap knock-offs of the AdLib, one of which a friend of mine had in his 286 box back around 1988. Back then, all consumer-level cards were "AdLib compatible", and the SB was one of these.
IIRC, there were also higher-end cards already on the market as well, like those from Turtle Beach and (I believe) the GUS, which was a favorite of the tracker/demo crowd.
So by 1991, you should have been able to get an older AdLib card for cheap (and, again, AdLib was the gold standard at the time and SB was cheap crap.)
Posted with Mozilla
CD driver were incredibly expensive, going for $500 to $1500 dollars. Here's an example.
VGA card (what they were called back then) to composite video: $600-$1500 Example.
-dameron
One of the guys that worked on the X-Box had a presentation here at Texas A&M and mentioned something to the effect of the X-Box originally being an idea that someone found on the internet and would have a lot more functionality, i.e. tivo-like capabilities, etc in addition to gameplay. I wonder if this was published earlier on..
At work, I always date my notes with month, day, year, and also include which project the notes are for.
Not for IP, lawsuit, or policy reasons, just to remove the "WTF" that will come up when I look at the notes after four or five years. Or in case I get hit by a minivan again; I may not be so lucky next time!
I'm not saying that this guy did or didn't do that... I'm just saying that it's not that unusual.
I do NOT generally write any kind of copyright info on any of my notes, though. Whether this is good, bad, or indifferent is an exercise for the reader.
This guy says that according to USENET archives, the Voodoo 3 was available in 1995? umm no
I was wondering about that myself. I just recently retired my two Voodoo3 3000s, and when I got them in 1998 they were top-of-the-line.
And, the Voodoo with TV-Out was the 3500, not the 3000 that he mentions.
Hell, in 1995 I believe 3D cards were of the "pass-thru cable" variety -- I don't think any 2D/3D combo cards were even out yet. The original Voodoo might have been out, but certainly not the Voodoo3...
And I don't believe TV-Out was easily available except through an expensive "scan converter"...
Anyway, much of what he says is conflicting even with the other things he says, and then there are a few technical and chronological problems.
I won't say it's bullshit, but I am pretty skeptical (not to mention X-Box -- I don't think people called a PC a "box" back then, and he has no real reasoning for having come up with the name...)
NGWave - Fast Sound Editor for Windows
The internet almost crumbles ... and this is the only news we can come up with today? Some kid's 10-minute idea that happens to have the same name as another product?
... ... Stuff that matters ...
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I guess 1 out of 2 isn't bad...
The gamepad he drew did exist back then. You'll note that the first page of his notes mentions Gravis. See the following Usenet post from 12-30-1991 by Mark Rein, president of Id Software at that time, regarding a 4-button digital Gravis gamepad and support for said gamepad in Commander Keen:
Usenet post
To add to the info someone else replied with, the 387 mathco was indeed a separate chip, and entirely optional. Most 386DX machines didn't have one.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
MS-DOS is an operating system. Since no Atari system has ever run it, nor did the Colecovision (correct spelling), those systems aren't DOS systems.
Pedantic perhaps, but in the interests of accuracy I should point out that Atari did have a line of IBM PC-compatibles that ran DOS. Here's an example of one.
Commodore, another name know primarily for its proprietary systems also made its share of PC clones.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Yeah, I remember the whole 487 thing. What a scam.
Basically, the 486SX was the 486 with the math co-processor disabled. Motherboards at the time often had an extra socket for a math co-processor in case you wanted to get one but didn't want to pay for a whole new CPU that had one on-chip.
Intel's math co-processors for the 386 (all of them on a separate chip) were called 387s. Since Intel made two versions of the 386 (the DX and the cheaper but slower SX), they decided to make the 486 have two versions too, and again used the DX/SX suffixes.
The 486DX had an on-chip math co-processor, whereas the 486SX did not (or so Intel told everyone). They decided to make a separate math co-processor for the 486SX, and called it the 487SX.
What Intel didn't tell anybody was that, IIRC, the 486SX actually did have an on-chip math co-processor, but it was merely disabled. Additionally, they didn't bother to tell anybody that the 487SX was actually a 486DX (the one with the math co-processor enabled) that just had a different pin layout than either the 486DX or 486SX.
What's more, when installed as a math co-processor (which was the only option, the different pin layout meant it wouldn't fit in either a 486SX or 486DX slot), it merely disabled the 486SX, taking over its job, and acted like the 486DX that it actually was (CPU + math co-processor).
Later we would see the 486DX2, 486DX4, etc.
Fujitsu did it. It was called the FM-Towns Marty and was only in Japan. Powered by a 386, and later a 486. Had a healthy collection of Hentai Games. You can even run Linux on it!
There are tons of games that are fantastic (just for starters: Master of Orion 1, Starcon 1) that don't run so well on Win2k, and usually without sound, and its hard to get a joystick working without the game port.
Drop a 500MHz Pentium 3 with 32 MB Ram, a small disc, CD-ROM, game port, highly SB-compatible vanilla sound, and you could probably sell the good ole games, and I might buy the sucker.
Companies could sell their games cheap but profitably, PC manus could make hardware bucks. The ironic thing about DOS abandonware is that most old consoles run their software thru emulators better than abandoware does on "backward-compatible" modern hardware.
Hey, I'm just your average shit and piss factory.
IIRC, there was a company making some network gear (?) who actually had the "Xbox" trademark. I remember there was a brief but passionate period of discussion on this, soon after MS unveiled the Xbox... people predicting MS would even have to change or modify the console's name. Never heard of the dispute again. I expect somebody somewhere smiled all the way to the bank ;-)
Anybody remember this? Couldn't Google it up. (Surprise. Probably could find it in the forum archives of some HW/3D/gaming site.)
For the people tearing this apart and nitpicking, this isn't just some random slashdot reader. I think guy does know his stuff. Besides, what would he have to gain for making a hoax like this? He already said he definately does not claim any rights to the name.
Sheeeesh...
SX2/DX2 = 486 SX/DX with internal clock doubling. The DX4 was not an Intel product, AMD only. If memory serves me correctly, it could run as a clock-quadrupled 25MHz product or clock-tripled 33MHz product.
So, the DX-50 was 50MHz internal and 50MHz external; the DX2-66 was 33MHz external and 66 MHz internal. In certain applications, the DX2-50 would outperform DX2-66 based systems, because of the difference in I/O throughput. The DX-50 was problematic with VESA Local Bus systems, however -- VLB was never meant to run faster than 33 MHz, so you would wind up overclocking the I/O and video cards.
A good compromise was the AMD DX2-80 chip; with a 40 MHz external bus I/O boards tended to be more reliable (esp QD6580 chipset based boards). In almost all circumstances, DX2-80 systems would outperform DX-50 systems.
Oh, it was fun building and upgrading systems back in those days. You really had to know your parts, since the VLB and CPU clock speeds were tied together. For that matter, upgrading the CPUs often meant having to get faster cache chips (many 486SX-25s shipped with 25ns cache -- too slow for 40+ MHz FSB!). Hell, Packard Smell systems from those days shipped without *any* L2 cache, and some of them had a really hard to dig up dirty tag chip; you'd need 8x 61256 chips, a 6164, and something else that was tough to source in small quantities..
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
... source code that would be exchanged with anyone who want it back in 1989. I used to be on an Atari 16/32 bit forum on the old Cleveland Freenet and had some interesting conversations with other people about making an alternate OS for the Atari that would be freely distributable and completely open since that seeme dot be a good idea at the time. I even chatted with some guys from Helsinki. :) Nothing ever came of it though.
Same as this guy, a lot of people come up with ideas and jot them down every day. Although they may never follow through, it's not impossible. This guy isn't claiming that he invented the XBox, he just had an idea for a PC based game system. Not too far out for 1990. I think this guy is legit and the whiners here are jealous.
I have a ton of concepts that I've written up over the years but have never gotten back to. Maybe one day...
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