[geeks] WTB: cheap 386 or 486 Laptop to run SCO

[Phil Stracchino]

On 11/16/13 15:30, William Barnett-Lewis wrote:
> Well, we live and learn. The old Toshiba that I got from Joshua is
> apparently too fast for the SCO floppy drivers. Must be some weird
> timing loops but it is what it is & even a brand new floppy with the
> boot disk from ftp.sco.com crc's out when I try to boot it with a
> different "bad block" each time. The only suggestion I found online is
> to turn off caching (CPU?) so I turned off the CPU cache but no difference.
> 
> SO I am still searching for a cheap 386 or 486 laptop now that we know
> that 586 is too new for this project.


I'm reminded of when I had my first 100MHz 486 machine, and, borred one
day, I decided to fire up an old Gauntlet game and see if it still
worked on a 486.

It did ...  sort of.  The game started up gratifyingly fast.  The
options to select my character were fast and responsive.  I chose my
options, and selected Start.  The map loaded, there was a blur of
motion, and I was dead.

I tried again.  The map loaded, there was a blur of motion, and I was dead.

I tried again.  There was a blur of motion, and I was dead.

The game was written for a 4.77MHz 8086, and used hardware timing loops.
 Sure, it *RAN* on a 100MHz 80486...    Matter of fact, it ran like
hell.   :)


-- 
  Phil Stracchino
  Babylon Communications
  phils at caerllewys.net
  phil at co.ordinate.org
  Landline: 603.293.8485