Tag Archives: 8088

The DOS SDK

Posted on February 1, 2023 by Scali

A thing I have been working on, on and off, for many years now, is a set of headers and helper routines for programming DOS machines directly on the hardware in assembly and C. As you may recall, my earliest … Continue reading →

Posted in Oldskool/retro programming, Software development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Just keeping it real at Revision 2019

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Scali

I visited Revision again this year. And I took my IBM PC/XT 5160 with me. And I made a quick release. That release was a plan that I’ve had for a while, and which I mentioned in my previous blogpost: … Continue reading →

Posted in Oldskool/retro programming, Software development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The IBM Music Feature Card and Yamaha FB-01

Posted on March 26, 2019 by Scali

This has got to be one of the most obscure pieces of hardware I have covered so far. A sound card for the IBM PC, released in 1987. And by none other than Big Blue themselves! I am talking about … Continue reading →

Posted in Oldskool/retro programming, Software development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The DreamBlaster S2P: General MIDI from a parallel port

Posted on March 9, 2019 by Scali

In the interest of catching up, here is the second blog that is long overdue. I want to talk about the DreamBlaster S2P from Serdaco. I received mine over a year ago, and it actually was an early prototype. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Hardware news, Oldskool/retro programming, Software development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Keeping it real for Outline 2018

Posted on March 7, 2019 by Scali

It’s been a while, but I’m back. Or at least, I hope to have some more time to blog again from now on. And not just to blog, because many of my blogs are the result of experimentations with software … Continue reading →

Posted in Oldskool/retro programming, Software development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Putting the things together, part 2: MIDI and other problems

Posted on February 9, 2018 by Scali

Remember a few months ago, when I explained my approach to playing VGM files? Well, VGM files are remarkably similar to Standard MIDI files. In a way, MIDI files are also just time-stamped captures of data sent to a sound … Continue reading →

Posted in Oldskool/retro programming | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

DMA activation

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Scali

No, not the pseudoscience stuff, I am talking about Direct Memory Access. More specifically in the context of IBM PC and compatibles, which use the Intel 8237A DMA controller. For some reason, I had never used the 8237A before. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Oldskool/retro programming | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Putting the things together

Posted on February 24, 2017 by Scali

So, over time I have discussed various isolated things related to 8088-based PCs. Specifically: Using the latched property of the 8253 programmable interval timer to be able to adjust the interval without any jitter/skew, so you can use it as … Continue reading →

Posted in Oldskool/retro programming | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Any real-keeping lately?

Posted on December 11, 2016 by Scali

The 5-year anniversary of my inaugural ‘Just keeping it real’-article came and went. Has it been that long already? It’s also been quite some time since I’ve last written about some oldskool coding, or even anything at all. Things have … Continue reading →

Posted in Oldskool/retro programming, Software development | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

PC-compatibility, it’s all relative

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Scali

Update 21-12-2015: I have updated some of the information after testing on an AT with old Intel 8259A chips, and added some extra information on EISA and newer systems. I would like to pick up where I left off last … Continue reading →

Posted in Oldskool/retro programming, Software development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments