I'm not sure what BIOS exactly they are using, but I highly recommend replacing it with the official version of Sergey's 8088 BIOS that's been customised for the Book 8088 ... there's an 8088 version and a V20 version. Certainly Pac-Girl did NOT work with the default BIOS (as shown in the video). You'll need a 64KB EPROM (i.e. 27512) github.com/skiselev/8088_bios
Oh, of course, you are correct - I've got one myself now so shouldn't have made that mistake. Growing up, we had an Amstrad PC1640 (with 8086) so I simply equated the two in my mind without thinking!
... and, duh, that's why I bought a bunch of NEC V20s ... so I could upgrade my IBM Model 5155 (Portable PC, based on an XT) and Model 5160 (PC/XT) ... need to add another sign to my wall ... "PC/XT is still 8088 based dummy" ;)
instead of Бook 8088, it could be Книга 8088. Or like Ноутбук or Тетрадь or Блокнот. And that's my extent of vocabulary used up. :p
8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1
I don't know too much on this Book8088, but I guess it can be slightly faster than an original 4.77MHz PC or XT (even with the very same CPU and CPU clock) since it probably uses SRAM not DRAM, thus no need for DRAM refresh which steals CPU cycles from time-to-time on a "real" PC. But I'm just guessing here.
Oh, interesting point. It comes with a V20 instead of an 8088 (so there's a small speed bump there), and I know that Sergey's 8088 BIOS has an optimised V20 version for this machine. It's also got a turbo mode so you can switch between 4.77MHz or 8MHz. I think the К1810ВМ88 was rated up to 5MHz (from memory?) so I've not tried it at 8MHz. I might do a short test to see how it behaves ...
Because you have that Soviet 8088 clone CPU, I went over to Ebay and found Soviet clones of the Z80 and 8086. I'm sorely tempted to get some of them for my computers. lol Note: No Soviet 8088s available on my end, unfortunately.
@4:43 Universal charger for those universes that run off of 170 volts. We're around 110 - 120 volts here in the States. The Pac-Girl "String Formula Too Complex" error is a MS BASIC error: "The program below, which recursively invokes a string function, causes a "String Formula Too Complex" run-time error. This program shows a design limitation in Microsoft BASIC Compiler Version 6.00 and 6.00b, Microsoft BASIC Professional Development System (PDS) Version 7.00, and in QuickBASIC that is not usually encountered." I found this at the "KnowledgeBase Archive / An Archive of Early Microsoft KnowledgeBase Articles" and can be found over on github, by looking for: jeffpar, kbarchive (YT has been deleting links, because they are run by dickheads). This lead to a merry chase to find the source code, no luck there. Then a search for a disassembler that speaks basic, "The New Basic Decompiler" exists but will cost you £500. No thanks. The goal was to find a disassembler that disassembles back to BASIC, and then turn around and recompile the recovered source code using the later versions of Microsoft BASIC that doesn't have this bug. Seemed like a plan anyway. There is "NewBasic -- An x86 Assembler/Disassembler for DOS" which is free and in active development. Not entirely sure what the BASIC connection is, but it looked cool. And do you remember TSRs? Terminate and Stay Resident programs. And finally, why a new DOS machine rather than an old one? I've got a few, more if you include Amigas with the DOS card in them. :) I'm sure that you could find *something*. :)
Replaced the el-dodgy BIOS that came with it, with Sergey's "official" version of his 8088 BIOS designed for the Book 8088 ... and Pac-Girl now works! github.com/skiselev/8088_bios/tree/master/binaries
@@Brfff Ah! that actually makes sense. Kinda... Yeah, what it means is that MS BASIC is making system calls (a *big* reason their version of BASIC was so slow). And the dodgy ROM has a buggy adaptation of that particular call. I should probably go on safari and hunt down my copy of "DOS Internals" and check which interrupt it would be. I know where I left it, 25 years ago. In any case, it's around here somewhere... Nice to see YT allowing me to post. :)
I'm not sure what BIOS exactly they are using, but I highly recommend replacing it with the official version of Sergey's 8088 BIOS that's been customised for the Book 8088 ... there's an 8088 version and a V20 version. Certainly Pac-Girl did NOT work with the default BIOS (as shown in the video). You'll need a 64KB EPROM (i.e. 27512)
github.com/skiselev/8088_bios
I love that you like this machine for what it is: a cheap and cheerful wee DOS machine.
Looks like a fun toy, I had a 286 XT, I might buy this just to fart around with. Thanks for the video.
I got the additional external ISA adaptor that gives you three 8-bit ISA interfaces to also play around with
The PC-XT is not a 8086... It's a 8088 at 4,77MHz just like the PC
Oh, of course, you are correct - I've got one myself now so shouldn't have made that mistake. Growing up, we had an Amstrad PC1640 (with 8086) so I simply equated the two in my mind without thinking!
... and, duh, that's why I bought a bunch of NEC V20s ... so I could upgrade my IBM Model 5155 (Portable PC, based on an XT) and Model 5160 (PC/XT) ... need to add another sign to my wall ... "PC/XT is still 8088 based dummy" ;)
@@Brfff Doesn't matter :-) Always interesting videos from you!
instead of Бook 8088, it could be Книга 8088. Or like Ноутбук or Тетрадь or Блокнот. And that's my extent of vocabulary used up. :p
I don't know too much on this Book8088, but I guess it can be slightly faster than an original 4.77MHz PC or XT (even with the very same CPU and CPU clock) since it probably uses SRAM not DRAM, thus no need for DRAM refresh which steals CPU cycles from time-to-time on a "real" PC. But I'm just guessing here.
Oh, interesting point. It comes with a V20 instead of an 8088 (so there's a small speed bump there), and I know that Sergey's 8088 BIOS has an optimised V20 version for this machine. It's also got a turbo mode so you can switch between 4.77MHz or 8MHz. I think the К1810ВМ88 was rated up to 5MHz (from memory?) so I've not tried it at 8MHz. I might do a short test to see how it behaves ...
Because you have that Soviet 8088 clone CPU, I went over to Ebay and found Soviet clones of the Z80 and 8086. I'm sorely tempted to get some of them for my computers. lol
Note: No Soviet 8088s available on my end, unfortunately.
This is the seller I got my '88 from ... this is their listing for singles
www.ebay.com/itm/305314520520
@4:43 Universal charger for those universes that run off of 170 volts. We're around 110 - 120 volts here in the States.
The Pac-Girl "String Formula Too Complex" error is a MS BASIC error:
"The program below, which recursively invokes a string function, causes a "String Formula Too Complex" run-time error. This program shows a design limitation in Microsoft BASIC Compiler Version 6.00 and 6.00b, Microsoft BASIC Professional Development System (PDS) Version 7.00, and in QuickBASIC that is not usually encountered."
I found this at the "KnowledgeBase Archive / An Archive of Early Microsoft KnowledgeBase Articles" and can be found over on github, by looking for: jeffpar, kbarchive (YT has been deleting links, because they are run by dickheads).
This lead to a merry chase to find the source code, no luck there. Then a search for a disassembler that speaks basic, "The New Basic Decompiler" exists but will cost you £500. No thanks.
The goal was to find a disassembler that disassembles back to BASIC, and then turn around and recompile the recovered source code using the later versions of Microsoft BASIC that doesn't have this bug. Seemed like a plan anyway. There is "NewBasic -- An x86 Assembler/Disassembler for DOS" which is free and in active development. Not entirely sure what the BASIC connection is, but it looked cool.
And do you remember TSRs? Terminate and Stay Resident programs.
And finally, why a new DOS machine rather than an old one? I've got a few, more if you include Amigas with the DOS card in them. :) I'm sure that you could find *something*. :)
Replaced the el-dodgy BIOS that came with it, with Sergey's "official" version of his 8088 BIOS designed for the Book 8088 ... and Pac-Girl now works!
github.com/skiselev/8088_bios/tree/master/binaries
@@Brfff Ah! that actually makes sense. Kinda...
Yeah, what it means is that MS BASIC is making system calls (a *big* reason their version of BASIC was so slow). And the dodgy ROM has a buggy adaptation of that particular call.
I should probably go on safari and hunt down my copy of "DOS Internals" and check which interrupt it would be. I know where I left it, 25 years ago. In any case, it's around here somewhere...
Nice to see YT allowing me to post. :)
@@MrWaalkman Yep, that what was I was thinking as well as I've never encountered that problem before on the various machines I've tried it on.