January 23, 201313 yr I still have my last 486 computer running DOS 3.1 in the basement. It did six years of 24/7 duty as my PCBoard powered "Candlenet Abbey BBS" platform... ...the other six 386 machines that ran the BBS via Lantastic having been scrapped after 12 years of yeoman duty. What is amazing is that the thing still works! Before I abandoned landline services entirely, I kept it up and running. A few months ago, one of my old friends emailed me and inquired whether I still had a popular freeware utility program around, or knew where he could find it... I dragged the old monster upstairs, got it running and found the program he wanted quickly enough, but then had to scratch my head trying to figure out how to get the .zip file from the 486 onto one of my networked computers... ...since not a single one had a 3.5" drive any longer! Another trip to the basement located another obsolete machine that still ran, had a 3.5" drive, and was (just barely) capable of being networked. Mission accomplished! BTW, my very first "personal computer" was then then newfangled CBM DX64 with its massive 5" CGA color monitor. I only had two programs for it; my accounting package for my business, and flight simulator... :lol: DOS 3.1? I think I was using at least 5.0 by the time I got to a 486. I had a great collection of computers before I moved and had to part with all my old friend. Even had an IBM server with a 8" drive running CP/M. Quite intrestingly, all my pre 1995 computers still worked, but every computer I've bought since has broken down. BBS... Those were the days... Simmerhead - Making the virtual skies unsafe since 1987!
January 23, 201313 yr Womyn don't like old computer collections......... :ph34r: We are all connected..... To each other, biologically...... To the Earth, chemically...... To the rest of the Universe atomically. Devons rig Intel Core i5 13600K @ 5.1GHz / G.SKILL Trident Z5 RGB Series Ram 64GB / GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti GAMING OC 12G Graphics Card / Sound Blaster Z / Meta Quest 2 VR Headset / Klipsch® Promedia 2.1 Computer Speakers / ASUS ROG SWIFT PG279Q ‑ 27" IPS LED Monitor ‑ QHD / 1x Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB / 2x Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB / 1x Samsung - 970 EVO Plus 2TB NVMe / 1x Samsung 980 NVMe 1TB / 2 other regular hd's with up to 10 terabyte capacity / Windows 11 Pro 64-bit / Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX Motherboard LGA 1700 DDR5
January 23, 201313 yr Womyn don't like old computer collections......... :ph34r: Those aren't my kind of womyn... Simmerhead - Making the virtual skies unsafe since 1987!
January 23, 201313 yr DOS 3.1? I think I was using at least 5.0 by the time I got to a 486. He may be thinking of Windows 3.1. I used 2.11, and don't remember anything between that and 5.0. I switched to IBM PC-DOS 7 at the end. With the new config.sys command DOSDATA=HIGH you could free up 640,000 bytes of low memory, using only about 4000. Falcon 3.0 had no problems with that. Hook Larry Hookins Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of EarthAnd danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
January 23, 201313 yr He may be thinking of Windows 3.1. I used 2.11, and don't remember anything between that and 5.0. I switched to IBM PC-DOS 7 at the end. With the new config.sys command DOSDATA=HIGH you could free up 640,000 bytes of low memory, using only about 4000. Falcon 3.0 had no problems with that. Hook I guess he did . Can't remeber what DOS version I had on my Amstrad - my first PC. I just remeber flying the X-15 in Chuck Yeagers Advanced Flight Trainer on it. I used every version of MS-DOS up until version 6.22 before going to Windows 95. Funny thing is that I remeber games in MS-DOS started to eat up base memory (640K) as games became more complex and graphics improved. I tweaked the heck out of that config.sys and autoexec.bat to get EF2000 running. Reminds me of all the present complaining about FSX not being 64 bit! Simmerhead - Making the virtual skies unsafe since 1987!
January 23, 201313 yr Author Womyn don't like old computer collections......... :ph34r: Since we are talking about les dames. There was a later flight sim series called Jane's or something. No? And.. for old times sake. Keep a backup, right?
January 24, 201313 yr Good to see a few fans of the old 80486 on here. They were more stable then the chips that have come out since and are actually still used by many musicians in the recording industry today due to its very stable and reliable clock speeds. Newer machines are not as reliable. I miss my old 80486DX And.. for old times sake. Keep a backup, right? Nice one :LMAO: Yes I do remember Jane's Flight Simulators, they had a number of very good ones. The Israel Air Force was the one I liked best with F-16's over the desert terrain. Matthew Kane I'm Dyslexic, what's an error to you is not to me
January 24, 201313 yr Keep a backup, right? Ha ha ha! I guess that wouldn't be any slower than my old tape streamer... Good to see a few fans of the old 80486 on here. They were more stable then the chips that have come out since and are actually still used my many musicians in the recording industry today due to its very stable and reliable clock speeds. Newer machines are not as reliable. I miss my old 80486DX Very envious. I only could afford an SX... And yes, I did use that 486 for music. I had a SoundBlaster AWE32 for it and composed a lot of tunes on that machine. I remember paying an insane amount of money installing a whopping 2MB extra RAM on that SoundBlaster. Actually I regret not taking out the CPUs of all those computers I trashed. Would have been a nice nostalgic collection to put in a sigar box. Simmerhead - Making the virtual skies unsafe since 1987!
January 24, 201313 yr Yeah those first couple of 486's I had were great. The DX33 and the DX2-66. I remember the "Turbo" button that got you another 9MHz or something :-) After the Pentiums came along CPU's sped up quite quickly didn't they - P90, P133 woosh... BBS how much fun were they on 2400 baud. And then 14400 was like super fast. Regards, Max (YSSY) i7-12700K | Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB 3600MHz DDR4 | Gigabyte RTX4090 24Gb | Gigabyte Z690 AORUS ELITE DDR4 | Corsair HX1200 PSU
January 24, 201313 yr Moderator BBS how much fun were they on 2400 baud. And then 14400 was like super fast. Yes, I did mean Win 3.1, although the BBS actually ran on DOS 5.0... Because at the time I began the BBS I was a member of a religious order (Vocationist Fathers), US Robotics was kind enough to donate eight Courier 56k v.everything modems for our use. Clark Development donated the PCBoard software. I still have two of the modems and the PCBoard software and manual, somewhere around here. God only knows why! Maybe too much PacMan made me a PackRat? :lol: CANDLENet Abbey hosted CandleNet and also carried RIME, and CIN message networks. Bonus points awarded to anyone who knows what the acronym CANDLE* means. * http://abbreviations.yourdictionary.com/candle It's truly amazing what information has been collected in the World Wide Wasteland!!! Fr. Bill AOPA Member: 07141481 AARP Member: 3209010556 Avsim Board of Directors | Avsim Forums Moderator
January 24, 201313 yr CANDLENet Abbey hosted CandleNet and also carried RIME, and CIN message networks. Bonus points awarded to anyone who knows what the acronym CANDLE* means. You definetly lost me... Simmerhead - Making the virtual skies unsafe since 1987!
January 24, 201313 yr Psygnosis! You may burst in tears now. B) Tears are appropriate. After all this time, Sony just shut them down this August........... Another once giant name gone. We are all connected..... To each other, biologically...... To the Earth, chemically...... To the rest of the Universe atomically. Devons rig Intel Core i5 13600K @ 5.1GHz / G.SKILL Trident Z5 RGB Series Ram 64GB / GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti GAMING OC 12G Graphics Card / Sound Blaster Z / Meta Quest 2 VR Headset / Klipsch® Promedia 2.1 Computer Speakers / ASUS ROG SWIFT PG279Q ‑ 27" IPS LED Monitor ‑ QHD / 1x Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB / 2x Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB / 1x Samsung - 970 EVO Plus 2TB NVMe / 1x Samsung 980 NVMe 1TB / 2 other regular hd's with up to 10 terabyte capacity / Windows 11 Pro 64-bit / Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX Motherboard LGA 1700 DDR5
January 24, 201313 yr Moderator You definetly lost me... Gee, I even provided a link where the first entry was the answer! :lol: Catholic Access Network Deus Lumen Est! Fr. Bill AOPA Member: 07141481 AARP Member: 3209010556 Avsim Board of Directors | Avsim Forums Moderator
January 24, 201313 yr Gee, I even provided a link where the first entry was the answer! :lol: Catholic Access Network Deus Lumen Est! Sounds like a Dan Brown novel. Simmerhead - Making the virtual skies unsafe since 1987!
January 25, 201313 yr Since we are talking about Atari's troubles - watch these special Atari's Cutting Edge games for 2013 by Conan http://teamcoco.com/video/ataris-cutting-edge-games-for-2013 How I Evaluate Third Party Sim Addon Developers Refined P3Dv5.0 HF2 Settings Part1 (has MaddogX) and older thread Part 2 (has PMDG 747)
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