I have won an auction for the exact Tandy 1000 model I had 30 years ago.

And I'm seriously contemplating moving alllllll my Fido and BBS stuff back onto that white beast. The idea of processing power of an XT running everything in 2022 is actually exciting.

And running that to purposely upset certain people...

Nick

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)

Hello Nick!

Tuesday March 08 2022 18:10, you wrote to All:

I have won an auction for the exact Tandy 1000 model I had 30 years
ago.

And I'm seriously contemplating moving alllllll my Fido and BBS stuff
back onto that white beast. The idea of processing power of an XT
running everything in 2022 is actually exciting.

And running that to purposely upset certain people...

Question arises is: What O/S are you going to run on it ?


Vincent

--- Mageia Linux v8 X64/Mbse v1.0.7.24/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)

On 08 Mar 22 23:19:59, Vincent Coen said the following to Nick Andre:

And I'm seriously contemplating moving alllllll my Fido and BBS stuff
back onto that white beast. The idea of processing power of an XT
running everything in 2022 is actually exciting.

And running that to purposely upset certain people...

Question arises is: What O/S are you going to run on it ?

This Tandy is designed to run MS-DOS 3.3.

Nick

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)

Hello Nick!

Tuesday March 08 2022 18:24, you wrote to me:

On 08 Mar 22 23:19:59, Vincent Coen said the following to Nick Andre:

And I'm seriously contemplating moving alllllll my Fido and BBS
stuff back onto that white beast. The idea of processing power of
an XT running everything in 2022 is actually exciting.

And running that to purposely upset certain people...

Question arises is: What O/S are you going to run on it ?

This Tandy is designed to run MS-DOS 3.3.

Some where on these systems I think I have a copy of PCDOS with sources so let me know if you need it and I will go looking - it might take a while seatching 20T of stuff though :(



Vincent

--- Mageia Linux v8 X64/Mbse v1.0.7.24/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)

On 08 Mar 22 23:34:35, Vincent Coen said the following to Nick Andre:

This Tandy is designed to run MS-DOS 3.3.

Some where on these systems I think I have a copy of PCDOS with sources so me know if you need it and I will go looking - it might take a while seatch 20T of stuff though :(

Sean Dennis is suggesting FreeDos... that might actually be the way to go.

Nick

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)

Hello Nick,

08 Mar 22 19:32, you wrote to Vincent Coen:

Sean Dennis is suggesting FreeDos... that might actually be the way to
go.

DOOOOO IIIITTTTT!

-- Sean

... I fear explanations explanatory of things explained.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Johnson City, TN (1:18/200)

On 08 Mar 22 21:20:41, Sean Dennis said the following to Nick Andre:

Sean Dennis is suggesting FreeDos... that might actually be the way to go.

DOOOOO IIIITTTTT!

Get to the chopper?!?!?!?!?

Nick

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)

Hello Nick!

Tuesday March 08 2022 19:32, you wrote to me:

On 08 Mar 22 23:34:35, Vincent Coen said the following to Nick Andre:

This Tandy is designed to run MS-DOS 3.3.

Some where on these systems I think I have a copy of PCDOS with
sources so me know if you need it and I will go looking - it might
take a while seatch 20T of stuff though :(

Sean Dennis is suggesting FreeDos... that might actually be the way to
go.

Could be the one I was thinking of but still think pcdos is available as source.


Vincent

--- Mageia Linux v8 X64/Mbse v1.0.7.24/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)

Nick Andre wrote to All <=-

I have won an auction for the exact Tandy 1000 model I had 30 years
ago.

And I'm seriously contemplating moving alllllll my Fido and BBS stuff
back onto that white beast. The idea of processing power of an XT
running everything in 2022 is actually exciting.

As a node or a mail mover? :)

I had an AT with MFM drives when I first started out, and I recall my
Telegard board tossing 0.9 messages/second.

Back then, I had to toss packets to .msg format, then import the .msgs into Telegard's message base - horribly inefficient.

I do miss that old batch file that ran the whole thing, driving the BBS
events off of errorlevels was ingenious.


... Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
--- MultiMail/DOS v0.52
* Origin: http://realitycheckbbs.org | tomorrow's retro tech (1:218/700)

Nick Andre wrote to Vincent Coen <=-

Sean Dennis is suggesting FreeDos... that might actually be the way to
go.

FreeDOS is looking pretty good these days, but with an XT, most of the stuff that relies on EMS/XMS is useless - unless you got an add-on EMS card with that system. :)

I scrounged an 8-bit memory expansion card back in the day, and it helped,
but memory access was significantly slower than on-board memory. I ended up making half of it EMS and half disk cache and it helped quite a bit.


... Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
--- MultiMail/DOS v0.52
* Origin: http://realitycheckbbs.org | tomorrow's retro tech (1:218/700)

On 09 Mar 22 08:22:00, Kurt Weiske said the following to Nick Andre:

And I'm seriously contemplating moving alllllll my Fido and BBS stuff back onto that white beast. The idea of processing power of an XT running everything in 2022 is actually exciting.

As a node or a mail mover? :)

Both! :)

Nick

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)

On 09 Mar 22 08:25:00, Kurt Weiske said the following to Nick Andre:

Sean Dennis is suggesting FreeDos... that might actually be the way to go.

FreeDOS is looking pretty good these days, but with an XT, most of the stuf that relies on EMS/XMS is useless - unless you got an add-on EMS card with that system. :)

There is a new-ish company making something called a "Low-tech 2mb EMS card" that is specifically designed for XT/AT systems.

I'm planning on getting one... BUT... unfortunately the more I look into some of the way my current system runs, it may not be realistic after all to have it run on pure-DOS. Its all the BinkD and Telnet stuff that will be problems.

Nick

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)

Hello Nick,

09 Mar 22 08:09, you wrote to me:

Get to the chopper?!?!?!?!?

It's naht a tuhmah.

-- Sean

... The best way to appreciate leisure is to work hard for it.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Johnson City, TN (1:18/200)

Hello Vincent,

09 Mar 22 15:12, you wrote to Nick Andre:

Could be the one I was thinking of but still think pcdos is available
as source.

It is and they just put out a new release a week or two ago of FreeDOS.

-- Sean

... Don't hit me, Mr. Moderator...I'll go back on topic...I swear!
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Johnson City, TN (1:18/200)

Hello Nick,

09 Mar 22 12:02, you wrote to Kurt Weiske:

I'm planning on getting one... BUT... unfortunately the more I look
into some of the way my current system runs, it may not be realistic
after all to have it run on pure-DOS. Its all the BinkD and Telnet
stuff that will be problems.

That's the only issue(s?) I had concerns with as that is a lot of overhead for a pure DOS system.

Maybe set up a separate BBS or something for fun?

-- Sean

... I ain't broke but I'm badly bent.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Johnson City, TN (1:18/200)

On 09 Mar 22 15:27:25, Sean Dennis said the following to Nick Andre:

I'm planning on getting one... BUT... unfortunately the more I look into some of the way my current system runs, it may not be realistic after all to have it run on pure-DOS. Its all the BinkD and Telnet stuff that will be problems.

That's the only issue(s?) I had concerns with as that is a lot of overhead a pure DOS system.

Those two processes get a lot of traffic here and not something an 8Mhz PC with a 10 megabit card could keep up with. So... its back to the idea of leaving the current setup handle that and just run the dialup-instance and mail-tossing portion. But even the mail-tossing will be watching grass grow...

Nick

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)

Hello Sean!

Wednesday March 09 2022 15:25, you wrote to me:

Hello Vincent,

09 Mar 22 15:12, you wrote to Nick Andre:

Could be the one I was thinking of but still think pcdos is
available as source.

It is and they just put out a new release a week or two ago of
FreeDOS.

According to the site it does have XML (extended memory support - yes it might have got the abbreviation wrong) BUT it still restricts lower ram usage to 600k
and I have to assume any bbs tools cannot swap between.

Now I did have a tool - advanced command processor that worked on multi platforms where one was for OS/2 so they may well all be sitting on my bbs
file areas. Biggest problem is what to search for :)

There is a far bit of dos based file areas here though going back to before
the 90's I think.

I have even found a CB80 v2 compiler but would like to find a v3 or later that runs under msdos as I have some accounts applications that are written in CBasic although when I run then it was under Cromix using a DOS emulator of one
type or another - so long ago like early to mid 80's as I got rid of the Cromemco in the 00's. Do miss it though as it kept the study/office warm in the
winter due to a 80 fixed, 16 removable platters, rack type case 20" wide and over 3 foot long and 3 feet high - bigger than the Cromemco but not by a lot.

That's in Megs by the way - it was a late 70's early 80's system but did run the entire companies business ie accounts Order Entry, invoicing, Sales, Purchase amd General Ledgers to name but a few as well as a lot of development on it in Basic, Pascal, Cobol Argol68R to name but a few, for up to 5 programmers.


Vincent

--- Mageia Linux v8 X64/Mbse v1.0.7.24/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)

Nick Andre said to All:

I have won an auction for the exact Tandy 1000 model I had 30 years
ago.

If you want a backup, I'm yer huckleberry.

I have a T1000 in storage that needs a home. 24Mb hard card, two floppies, 640k Zuckerboard memory expansion with serial port, EGA monitor. Lord knows what's on that hard drive, but there's a ton of BBS related stuff. I never ran a system on it, but was developing a QWK mailer for Phoenix (how old does THAT make you feel) on it and some other nonsense.

-dw


--- timEd/2 1.10.y2k+
* Origin: Infinite Rider on the Big Dogma - Nashville, TN (1:116/116)

On 03-09-22 23:33, Vincent Coen <=-
spoke to Sean Dennis about "Declaring war"... <=-

According to the site it does have XML (extended memory support - yes
it might have got the abbreviation wrong) BUT it still restricts lower
ram usage to 600k

Quite a few years ago (maybe > 30) we got a Kaypro for my son's school
work. I ran it using OS/2 with windows 3.1 (better than native win3.1)
and it used 768 of ram.

Dale Shipp
fido_261_1466 (at) verizon (dot) net
(1:261/1466)


... Shipwrecked in Silver Spring, Maryland. 02:01:50, 11 Mar 2022
___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30

--- Maximus/NT 3.01
* Origin: Owl's Anchor (1:261/1466)

Nick Andre wrote to Kurt Weiske <=-

There is a new-ish company making something called a "Low-tech 2mb EMS card" that is specifically designed for XT/AT systems.

Oh, that does look interesting. Better than trying to source an old Intel Aboveboard or AST RAMPage and hoping the memory was still healthy.



... UNPRISON YOUR THINK RHINO
--- MultiMail/DOS v0.52
* Origin: http://realitycheckbbs.org | tomorrow's retro tech (1:218/700)

Hello Dale!

Friday March 11 2022 02:00, you wrote to me:

On 03-09-22 23:33, Vincent Coen <=-
spoke to Sean Dennis about "Declaring war"... <=-

According to the site it does have XML (extended memory support -
yes it might have got the abbreviation wrong) BUT it still
restricts lower ram usage to 600k

Quite a few years ago (maybe > 30) we got a Kaypro for my son's school
work. I ran it using OS/2 with windows 3.1 (better than native
win3.1) and it used 768 of ram.

OS/2 is a totally different kettle of fish as it has internal support to use all available Ram but there again it was written a lot of years later.

Yes, running these apps under it would be better than using Dos (of any type or
version) but I am not so sure it will work on a Tandy - Totally a case of trying it but I would recommend to try the latest at 4.52 and going backwards if the later does not operate on restricted Ram.

I used it up to around 20 years ago after IBM dropped it and switched to Linux so have forgotten the Ram requirements other than the Win 3.1 implementation was a dog and best avoided.

I was one of the os/2 users who offered to take on the product if provided with
the full sources and remove all the Windows code but they said no and gave something to a business in Europe who have made a right mess of it all !

Just updating drivers just does not cut it some how :(

Vincent

--- Mageia Linux v8 X64/Mbse v1.0.7.24/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)

On 10 Mar 22 13:52:00, Kurt Weiske said the following to Nick Andre:

There is a new-ish company making something called a "Low-tech 2mb EMS card" that is specifically designed for XT/AT systems.

Oh, that does look interesting. Better than trying to source an old Intel Aboveboard or AST RAMPage and hoping the memory was still healthy.

I was originally going to use those but couldn't find any software, drivers or instructions for those boards.

Nick

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)

On 11 Mar 22 15:09:44, Vincent Coen said the following to Dale Shipp:

I was one of the os/2 users who offered to take on the product if provided

I was a huge OS/2 fan for over a decade... it ran my multi-line BBS rock
solid without trouble. Ran that OS until the summer of 2001.

At that point the OS/2 machine started to show its age with numerous little problems creeping up. One night I was at a friends apartment and was shown Windows 2000 Server edition.

Took less than a moment to plan the migration away... was sortof sad to see it go but there was just no way networking and some other things were going to work the way I wanted in the way that Windows could do it.

I was also starting to manage a small office of Windows computers on a Lan so there was that to consider as well.

Nick

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)

Hello Nick,

11 Mar 22 10:40, you wrote to Vincent Coen:

I was a huge OS/2 fan for over a decade... it ran my multi-line BBS
rock solid without trouble. Ran that OS until the summer of 2001.

The only reason I left ArcaOS is because Arca Noae said that it would not fix certain nagging issues in the OS/2 kernel and they were not going to upgrade the kernel to 64-bit. Plus the fact that they're charging close to $150 for an initial license then $70 a year for continued support...I just couldn't justify that.

-- Sean

... It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Johnson City, TN (1:18/200)

On 11 Mar 22 17:51:44, Sean Dennis said the following to Nick Andre:

The only reason I left ArcaOS is because Arca Noae said that it would not f certain nagging issues in the OS/2 kernel and they were not going to upgrad the kernel to 64-bit. Plus the fact that they're charging close to $150 fo an initial license then $70 a year for continued support...I just couldn't justify that.

I think we talked about that before... thats really unfortunate that they do this for such a niche-OS, its something one expects out of Microsoft.

Nick

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)

On 10 Mar 22 14:03:37, Danny Walters said the following to Nick Andre:

I have won an auction for the exact Tandy 1000 model I had 30 years ago.

If you want a backup, I'm yer huckleberry.

Thanks for the feedback!

I have a T1000 in storage that needs a home. 24Mb hard card, two floppies, 640k Zuckerboard memory expansion with serial port, EGA monitor. Lord know what's on that hard drive, but there's a ton of BBS related stuff. I never a system on it, but was developing a QWK mailer for Phoenix (how old does T make you feel) on it and some other nonsense.

Working Tandy's fetch BIG money on Ebay. Its the enhanced graphics and sound capabilities that seem to attract the "retro gaming" millenial crowd.

Nick

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)

Working Tandy's fetch BIG money on Ebay. Its the enhanced graphics and sound capabilities that seem to attract the "retro gaming" millenial crowd.

This was my biggest revelation when I started to venture into the vintage computing crowd. When I was a kid, I never understood why Radio Shack would advertise someting as "Tandy Compatable."

But when I went down to Vintage Computing Festival Midwest (www.vcfmw.org) last summer, it made sense. The Tandy's were way better out of the box with graphics and sound. So I can see why the gaming crowd wants them.

Are you recapping the Tandy?


- Andre
--- SBBSecho 3.15-Linux
* Origin: Radio Mentor BBS - bbs.radiomentor.org (1:154/70)

On 12 Mar 22 09:30:22, Andre Robitaille said the following to Nick Andre:

But when I went down to Vintage Computing Festival Midwest (www.vcfmw.org) last summer, it made sense. The Tandy's were way better out of the box with graphics and sound. So I can see why the gaming crowd wants them.

Definately, compared to the-then CGA/EGA and beeper-noise of others.

Are you recapping the Tandy?

Most likely but it depends on available time.

Nick

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)

Nick Andre wrote to Sean Dennis <=-

I think we talked about that before... thats really unfortunate that
they do this for such a niche-OS, its something one expects out of Microsoft.

I wonder if they're selling to a "behind the scenes" market. ATMs and IBM
POS systems used to run on OS/2. Octel and other telecom manufacturers used
to use OS/2 in their smaller voicemail systems. OS/2 could handle a ton of voice traffic between auto-attendants, recording and playing voice mail
boxes.


... Where is the edge?
--- MultiMail/DOS v0.52
* Origin: http://realitycheckbbs.org | tomorrow's retro tech (1:218/700)

On 13 Mar 22 10:37:00, Kurt Weiske said the following to Nick Andre:

I think we talked about that before... thats really unfortunate that they do this for such a niche-OS, its something one expects out of Microsoft.

I wonder if they're selling to a "behind the scenes" market. ATMs and IBM POS systems used to run on OS/2. Octel and other telecom manufacturers used to use OS/2 in their smaller voicemail systems. OS/2 could handle a ton of voice traffic between auto-attendants, recording and playing voice mail boxes.

I remember all of this... fondly. I'd be curious what Arca's paying customer-base actually is. Wouldn't surprise me if there are factories or companies running specialized equipment or processes that are still OS/2 only.

Nick

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)

Hello Nick,

14 Mar 22 11:13, you wrote to Kurt Weiske:

I remember all of this... fondly. I'd be curious what Arca's paying customer-base actually is. Wouldn't surprise me if there are factories
or companies running specialized equipment or processes that are still OS/2 only.

The US federal government and several federal agencies are paying customers to Arca Noae.

-- Sean

... No one can feel as helpless as the owner of a sick goldfish.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Johnson City, TN (1:18/200)

On 14 Mar 22 18:26:14, Sean Dennis said the following to Nick Andre:

I remember all of this... fondly. I'd be curious what Arca's paying customer-base actually is. Wouldn't surprise me if there are factories or companies running specialized equipment or processes that are still OS/2 only.

The US federal government and several federal agencies are paying customers Arca Noae.

I heard some Commodore gear was still powering some stuff at the US Naval Observatory?

Commodores had that IEEE interface that if I remember, was real easy to program. I wrote a program in school in BASIC for the Vic20 that manipulated the old Armatron robotic toy "arm" with a standard DB9 Atari joystick. This was a course credit - make the arm draw something.

If I also remember, I had to peek-n-poke my way to several I/O registers because the Vic20 joystick port status register was shared with some other weird settings that you had to bitmask with weird XOR and OR operands.

Was doing this at 14 years old... I had an AMAZING teacher back then. When I finished that school, he let me walk away with some textbooks on the Apple 2 and 6502 assembler.

Nick

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (1:229/426)