Tag Archives: retroprogramming

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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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That’s not Possible on this Platform!

Posted on April 10, 2016 by Scali

The past year-and-a-half have been quite interesting. First there was the plan to form a team and build a demo for the original IBM PC with CGA. We weren’t quite sure where it would lead at first, but as the … Continue reading →

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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 →

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Latch onto this, it’s all relative

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Scali

Right, a somewhat cryptic title perhaps, but don’t worry. It’s just the usual 8088-retroprogramming talk again. I want to talk about how some values in PC hardware are latched, and how you can use that to your advantage. Latched values … Continue reading →

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Just keeping it real at Revision 2015

Posted on April 6, 2015 by Scali

The demo I have made together with Trixter, reenigne, VileR, coda, virt and Phoenix has won the oldskool compo at Revision 2015: I will discuss some of it in more detail at a later time. Trixter has already done a … Continue reading →

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