Holy cow, I laughed so hard at that intro, like, all of it. So funny! I don't have a Tandy or PC Jr, I think I've been priced out of that game but the more I see on these fine machines, the more I'd like one. Someday, when one presents itself to me, I hope to get one. :)
I can totally relate - I had to get parts for my tape card to run on my 6502 homebrew laptop, but the op-amp that I needed was only at eBay. It was 13 dollars a piece...
Your Tandy video mode mod board is lower priced than what PC Enterprises sold in the 90's. Their kit was $14 but easier to install. It was a piece of wire and some 7400 series chip that was only partly used for the mod. The hack was cutting one trace on top of the board, bending out all but the power pins on the chip and soldering it atop another chip on the board to provide power. Cut the wire in two pieces and solder between two pins on the added chip and two places on the mainboard. After seeing what little I got for my $14 I modded a few more PCjrs by scavenging the required chip off things like dead floppy controllers and a dead 5150 PC motherboard. IBM Canada used to have the mod instructions on their website. I just tried to find the instructions online and came up empty. How odd... :P I never ran into any software that required undoing the mod. If there is any, it should be simple to add a switch to disconnect the added wires and reconnect the severed trace. PC Enterprises also sold a Tandy Sound mod for $14 but I figured it too would be a simple hack and I figured *someone* would post online somewhere how they did it. Now there's the Tsound program that makes it do Tandy sound on demand, but I still want to know what the PC Enterprises hardware mod was. I only ever ran into one game that required both Tandy video and Tandy sound and refused to use Tandy video mode because it couldn't detect Tandy sound. While digging around for info just now, I found someone had made a prototype board to plug into the 8088 socket and add an 8087. But while he'd made and populated it, he still hasn't (as of some time in 2022) actually tested it. One feature of it is it runs the CPU in maximum mode where the PCjr runs it in minimum mode. Speed boost possibility? Sounds like a project for Texelec to acquire and finish development if the person working on it isn't going to finish it.
The real question is can we get all of these on one low-ish profile ISA board that can be inserted into the Tandy to ISA adapter or a regular PC? That level of integration would make it beyond essential for a lot of vintage machines and increases your market. The "Rammy" bit caught me off guard, was not expecting that reference
I have thought about an all in one, but one of the main issues is adding memory. The 8-bit memory board will only work on an XT, so it would greatly limit the market. I do have an idea floating in my head to address this, but I'll have to table it for a while. Too many other fish to fry at the moment. 🙂
@@TexElec Could always do EMS and use a jumper to pick between them, which is what a lot of EMS cards back in the day did. Allow you to map some amount into the lower 1M and the rest as EMS. One rare-ish card I have, made by Cheetah, allows you to do the lower 1M, EMS, and/or XMS, all on the same board!
@@AiOinc1 back in the day I had a 12mhz 80286 with 12 megabytes RAM. 512k in DIP chips on the motherboard, the rest was in three Micron 16 bit ISA cards. One card was different from the other two. It was set up to backfill the low RAM to 640K. The rest across the three boards I split between XMS and EMS. The boards used an EEPROM for configuring and a DOS program to change the settings. In the other slots were a Soundblaster 2 clone, a Pro Audio Spectrum clone (a Reel Magic minus all the video and SCSI components), a multi-I/O card, video card, and I don't recall what the 8th card was. May have been a dual gameport. I had it all configured so that every DOS game and Windows automatically used whichever sound card was the best it supported. It would be nice to have it back but it's been gone for close to 30 years now. But with an NEC V20 CPU the PCjr I had at the same time would run rings around the 286 with CP/M. 22NICE works with V20 and V30 CPUs to put them into Z80 mode and boot CP/M. On other CPUs 22NICE emulates a Z80. My PCjr ran CP/M faster than the Xerox 820-II I also had.
this was exactly what I was looking for. I'll be ording a resound kit for my PCjr the next time I get paid. Only think missing is MPU-401 support for external midi, but I'm not even sure that's even possible for the PCjr
For a chip as cheap and available as the 74LS157, just buzz it off the legs, then desolder the pins individually - I like to identify whether I can just solder a component on to clipped leads rather than desolder from through-holes of a PCB. It may look a little different, but lessening the trauma to a PCB may have better results.
Every PCjr I worked on had a socketed CPU and ROMs. May be some that aren't. PC Enterprises sold a few mods that plugged in between the ROM chips and their sockets. An NEC V20 CPU was a popular upgrade, especially for people wanting to run CP/M.
Maybe you answered this and I didn't pick up on it... but what was the purpose of the bodge wire? You only condition was "if you are careful" so I am a bit confused. Thanks for a great video!
I have a ton of turned sockets, just by happenstance. However, I can't seem to locate any turned pins from anyone other than Mill-Max. I can only assume they make aerospace connectors, because their gold turned 2-pin connecter is $1.58. It would cost about $10 each for all of the pins, which is just crazy. I spent hours trying to locate another source, but no one seems to list the diameter of the pins, only the length and spacing. I don't mind paying more for them, but I need something a little cheaper than what I've found.
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Loved that opening, subtle and not-so-subtle references aplenty!
Holy cow, I laughed so hard at that intro, like, all of it. So funny! I don't have a Tandy or PC Jr, I think I've been priced out of that game but the more I see on these fine machines, the more I'd like one. Someday, when one presents itself to me, I hope to get one. :)
best intro ever!
Managed to get mine out without lifting any pads. Desoldering gun, and then a hot-air station to loosen the chip.
Awesome intro!!
I can totally relate - I had to get parts for my tape card to run on my 6502 homebrew laptop, but the op-amp that I needed was only at eBay. It was 13 dollars a piece...
Your Tandy video mode mod board is lower priced than what PC Enterprises sold in the 90's. Their kit was $14 but easier to install. It was a piece of wire and some 7400 series chip that was only partly used for the mod. The hack was cutting one trace on top of the board, bending out all but the power pins on the chip and soldering it atop another chip on the board to provide power. Cut the wire in two pieces and solder between two pins on the added chip and two places on the mainboard. After seeing what little I got for my $14 I modded a few more PCjrs by scavenging the required chip off things like dead floppy controllers and a dead 5150 PC motherboard. IBM Canada used to have the mod instructions on their website. I just tried to find the instructions online and came up empty. How odd... :P
I never ran into any software that required undoing the mod. If there is any, it should be simple to add a switch to disconnect the added wires and reconnect the severed trace.
PC Enterprises also sold a Tandy Sound mod for $14 but I figured it too would be a simple hack and I figured *someone* would post online somewhere how they did it. Now there's the Tsound program that makes it do Tandy sound on demand, but I still want to know what the PC Enterprises hardware mod was. I only ever ran into one game that required both Tandy video and Tandy sound and refused to use Tandy video mode because it couldn't detect Tandy sound.
While digging around for info just now, I found someone had made a prototype board to plug into the 8088 socket and add an 8087. But while he'd made and populated it, he still hasn't (as of some time in 2022) actually tested it. One feature of it is it runs the CPU in maximum mode where the PCjr runs it in minimum mode. Speed boost possibility? Sounds like a project for Texelec to acquire and finish development if the person working on it isn't going to finish it.
will the following sound cards be cloned - Gravis Ultrasound MAX , Gravis Ultrasound Plug and play ,Turtle Beach Fiji ,Turtle Beach Montego 1 and 2?
Take my money!
The real question is can we get all of these on one low-ish profile ISA board that can be inserted into the Tandy to ISA adapter or a regular PC?
That level of integration would make it beyond essential for a lot of vintage machines and increases your market.
The "Rammy" bit caught me off guard, was not expecting that reference
I have thought about an all in one, but one of the main issues is adding memory. The 8-bit memory board will only work on an XT, so it would greatly limit the market. I do have an idea floating in my head to address this, but I'll have to table it for a while. Too many other fish to fry at the moment. 🙂
@@TexElec Could always do EMS and use a jumper to pick between them, which is what a lot of EMS cards back in the day did. Allow you to map some amount into the lower 1M and the rest as EMS. One rare-ish card I have, made by Cheetah, allows you to do the lower 1M, EMS, and/or XMS, all on the same board!
@@AiOinc1 back in the day I had a 12mhz 80286 with 12 megabytes RAM. 512k in DIP chips on the motherboard, the rest was in three Micron 16 bit ISA cards. One card was different from the other two. It was set up to backfill the low RAM to 640K. The rest across the three boards I split between XMS and EMS. The boards used an EEPROM for configuring and a DOS program to change the settings. In the other slots were a Soundblaster 2 clone, a Pro Audio Spectrum clone (a Reel Magic minus all the video and SCSI components), a multi-I/O card, video card, and I don't recall what the 8th card was. May have been a dual gameport.
I had it all configured so that every DOS game and Windows automatically used whichever sound card was the best it supported. It would be nice to have it back but it's been gone for close to 30 years now.
But with an NEC V20 CPU the PCjr I had at the same time would run rings around the 286 with CP/M. 22NICE works with V20 and V30 CPUs to put them into Z80 mode and boot CP/M. On other CPUs 22NICE emulates a Z80. My PCjr ran CP/M faster than the Xerox 820-II I also had.
this was exactly what I was looking for. I'll be ording a resound kit for my PCjr the next time I get paid.
Only think missing is MPU-401 support for external midi, but I'm not even sure that's even possible for the PCjr
For a chip as cheap and available as the 74LS157, just buzz it off the legs, then desolder the pins individually - I like to identify whether I can just solder a component on to clipped leads rather than desolder from through-holes of a PCB. It may look a little different, but lessening the trauma to a PCB may have better results.
This is probably a better approach.
There are later motherboard revisions that have the socketed bios and processor correct?
Every PCjr I worked on had a socketed CPU and ROMs. May be some that aren't. PC Enterprises sold a few mods that plugged in between the ROM chips and their sockets. An NEC V20 CPU was a popular upgrade, especially for people wanting to run CP/M.
Mine has them socketed.
Maybe you answered this and I didn't pick up on it... but what was the purpose of the bodge wire? You only condition was "if you are careful" so I am a bit confused. Thanks for a great video!
I lifted a trace from the board while soldering. Maybe I went by it too quickly, was trying my best to make the installation portion less boring.
Tilts Head at the End of Video, Did I See what I just Seen..
The pins on the Tandy Mod will destroy whatever socket they're installed in. Please use turned pins.
I have a ton of turned sockets, just by happenstance. However, I can't seem to locate any turned pins from anyone other than Mill-Max. I can only assume they make aerospace connectors, because their gold turned 2-pin connecter is $1.58. It would cost about $10 each for all of the pins, which is just crazy. I spent hours trying to locate another source, but no one seems to list the diameter of the pins, only the length and spacing. I don't mind paying more for them, but I need something a little cheaper than what I've found.
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