Re: [Freedos-user] Offering software to the FreeDOS official distribution: Terminal Matrix 8086, DeciMatrix 8086 and QDot 8086
I think what Tom is saying (and to what I totally agree), is that without an internet connection, and a modern browser, a DOS user has no chance to even run the program (because of the password). Further 'game' is compromised as well, since there is no way to know what one is supposed to type in the shell. I understand there might be some bigger concept somewhere in the background, but a game must be - well - playable. Terminal Matrix, as well coded as it might be, is simply not targeted to a general audience. Have anyone other than you actually played this game? I'm switching to the user list to stop polluting the devel group. Mateusz On 25/08/2015 18:52, Bruno Félix Rezende Ribeiro wrote: Hi Tom! Em Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:35:39 +0200 Tom Ehlert t...@drivesnapshot.de escreveu: it looks like this game is playable only when connected to the world wide web. That's just not true, and I've stated so in the package's homepage: No network card or any other type of communication peripheral is required besides a screen and a keyboard. ... Those almost insanely modest requirements blow the minds of skeptical people, because no one can explain how this program's great feats are technologically achievable. On 25/08/2015 16:53, Mateusz Viste wrote: Okay, I tried it. And I'm lost. First, I started the game, and I got stuck on a login/password screen. I tried several combinations, none worked. No way out. Had to switch off the computer. This alone can be seen as a real nuisance. Second attempt - I read on your website the login and password (how would someone figure it out when getting the program from anywhere else than directly from your website?) The login/password works. I got in a shell where I can run a matrix-like screensaver, clear the screen, or exit back to DOS. Any other command I tried to type ended with a blinking NO REPLY message. I really don't get it. I might be missing something, since I am not much into intelectual games, but I find the Terminal Matrix experience highly frustrating. If I understand it right, this is some kind of shell prototype, right? But then, maybe could you actually turn it into something useful, like maybe an interactive fiction engine or so? As such, a prototype is likely to be of any interest only to you. BTW, you might want to announce such stuff rather on the FreeDOS user list. FreeDOS-devel is rather about development. cheers, Mateusz -- ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] Offering software to the FreeDOS official distribution: Terminal Matrix 8086, DeciMatrix 8086 and QDot 8086
Em Tue, 25 Aug 2015 19:58:10 +0200 Mateusz Viste mate...@viste.fr escreveu: I think what Tom is saying (and to what I totally agree), is that without an internet connection, and a modern browser, a DOS user has no chance to even run the program (because of the password). This is easy to overcome. We could just include a 'README' file mirroring the homepage contents within the distributed software package. Further 'game' is compromised as well, since there is no way to know what one is supposed to type in the shell. Believe you or not, that's a major feature of the game. ;-) Moreover, there is a way to know: it's free software --- the source code is available. I understand there might be some bigger concept somewhere in the background, but a game must be - well - playable. Terminal Matrix, as well coded as it might be, is simply not targeted to a general audience. I see. Have anyone other than you actually played this game? In the net abroad, not that I'm aware about. However, I've just published it, and it didn't get much promotion yet. I expect that as the program get distributed and more people get to know it, the number of effective players will increase. == Context Below = Em Tue, 25 Aug 2015 16:53:00 +0200 Mateusz Viste mate...@viste.fr escreveu: Okay, I tried it. And I'm lost. That's expected. The loose wording in TM's homepage is part of the game. It plays a dual role: keep the wrong-minded people out and invite the right-minded people in. The truth is hidden within the lines of those paragraphs and deep inside the program's source code. First, I started the game, and I got stuck on a login/password screen. I tried several combinations, none worked. No way out. Had to switch off the computer. This alone can be seen as a real nuisance. That's true. I'll consider this as a feature request for the next release. ;-) Second attempt - I read on your website the login and password (how would someone figure it out when getting the program from anywhere else than directly from your website?) They should not, unless someone who already has access provides one to them. The login/password works. I got in a shell where I can run a matrix-like screensaver, clear the screen, or exit back to DOS. Any other command I tried to type ended with a blinking NO REPLY message. It seems RIS is not willing to talk to you. I really don't get it. I might be missing something, since I am not much into intelectual games, but I find the Terminal Matrix experience highly frustrating. Have you watched the demo session? http://oitofelix.github.io/terminal-matrix-8086/tm.mp4 If I understand it right, this is some kind of shell prototype, right? But then, maybe could you actually turn it into something useful, like maybe an interactive fiction engine or so? As such, a prototype is likely to be of any interest only to you. It's not a prototype, it's a fully working program as demonstrated in that video. Besides being a terminal of communication to an hyper-dimensional being, Terminal Matrix is an experiment in psychology, free software development model and remote ideological corroboration. BTW, you might want to announce such stuff rather on the FreeDOS user list. FreeDOS-devel is rather about development. I've already announced it there as well. Thank you for playing TM! -- ,= ,-_-. =. Bruno Félix Rezende Ribeiro (oitofelix) [0x28D618AF] ((_/)o o(\_)) http://oitofelix.freeshell.org/ `-'(. .)`-' irc://chat.freenode.org/oitofelix \_/ xmpp:oitofe...@riseup.net GNU maintainer: ccd2cue DMOZ free software editor (Portuguese) UFU FAMAT PET member [GNU DISCLAIMER] I'm a GNU hacker, but my views don't necessarily match those of the GNU project. Hereby I express my own opinion, style and perception, in good faith, aiming the betterment of GNU. pgpAnz87eIh4O.pgp Description: Assinatura digital OpenPGP -- ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] [SOLVED] XMS on a 386SX
Rugxulo, Ralph, Thank you both for your inputs! Here's the endgame :) I already tried to test the RAM on this machine using both AleGr MEMTEST 2.00 and MEMTEST86+ 4.20 (from a boot floppy), but both fail miserably - AleGr MEMTEST imemdiately freezes, while MEMTEST86+ immediately reboots the PC. The BIOS test passes though, so even if RAM chips are bad, they are at least seemingly behaving correctly. Now, I tested two things: MS HIMEM v2.06 (from the XMS developer disk, with sources and all) - works fine, mem detects all XMS memory, Wolf3D is happy, no wild reboots, no freezes, everything works (yaay!). This is not a 'free' solution, so it can't be considered viable, but still - WORKS (meaning my 386 is not totally wasted). Also, MS HIMEM consumes 30K of conventional memory, which is not cool. HIMEMX v3.34 (as per Rugxulo's suggestion) - miracle, this one works perfectly - mem sees all the RAM, Wolf3D is happy (as well as all other applications I tested), no crash, no reboots, no freezes, no nothing. Solution found! I didn't test XMGR, since I don't really see the point, XMGR being a dead end anyway. About HIMEMX: 1. The 'TESTMEM:ON' switch is not working - with my limited ASM understanding, I think it checks for TESTMEM:OFF only, while the default is OFF anyway. 2. What makes the v3.34 unofficial? Maybe might it be a good time to advertise it as official, so other people would avoid going through hoops like I had to? cheers, Mateusz On 25/08/2015 07:28, Rugxulo wrote: Hi again, On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 11:19 PM, Mateusz Viste mate...@viste.fr wrote: Yes, I have considered the possibility that it might be a hardware problem. Wouldn't be that surprising given that's a 25 years old machine. I also resoldered lots of stuff fixing PCB traces and replacing a few passive components because the mainboard was in a very poor state when I got it, due to an evil battery leak. But the problem I have is happening only with XMS, and it does work almost perfectly with FDXMS (with the exception of Wolf3D not detecting XMS), so I'd rather think there is something non-standard about this 386SX, and that it does something differently than expected by most XMS managers. That's one of the first 32bit machines after all - plenty of space for non-standard solutions. Plus, the BIOS memory test passes all right, and other XMS-relying programs work fine, too. It could actually be a cpu bug. Didn't early 386s have bugs with some instructions? Early in production, Intel discovered a marginal circuit that could cause a system to return incorrect results from 32-bit multiply operations. (Wikipedia) Also see here (80386 Bugs): http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=130978seqNum=27 I will follow your suggestion and test newer versions of HIMEMX IIRC, HIMEMX had a quirk/bug where a 386 [sic] needed to do jmp $+2 after enabling pmode. I don't think this was officially ever fixed (only in unofficial later releases), so if you're still using 3.32, it's probably still there. http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/dos/himem/himemx/old/himemx-3.33-unofficial-old-386-patch.zip Ah, here's the old discussion we had on BTTR (circa 2009): http://www.bttr-software.de/forum/board_entry.php?id=6445#p6445 (Rod P.'s unofficial 3.34 is mostly for workaround modern memory holes, probably irrelevant for your 386, but IIRC it does include the above fix too.) and XMSGR, even if unofficial/closedsource, No, I meant the one still on iBiblio, circa this year (2015), not old from 2012 (not sure why you're using that one). Though honestly I don't know if anything significant changed since then anyways. http://freedos.sourceforge.net/software/?prog=xmgr http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/dos/xms/xmgr/drivers-2015-03-05.zip just for the sake of knowing whether it changes anything. Then indeed, my next plan was to install MSDOS and see if it works fine, but I thought it might be a good idea to ask around here first for some first-hand experience. I'm surprised I even remembered any of this. Maybe I'm not completely useless after all (just close enough!). :-P -- ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] Autodesk Animator Pro works on FreeDOS?
Hi all, I couldn't find specific references about this software in the archives, but I love this DOS graphics program...and am looking forward to the arrival of a recently purchased copy (with 5 3.5 floppies and the extensive user manuals). DosBox on my various distros (Raspbian and RISC on a pi2 and in Precise Puppy on a Thinkpad G40) handles the available online versions okay. Programmer Jim Kent open-sourced the software (see: animatorpro.org) and the maintainer Breton Slivka has the non-Pro version available at github (minus the useful but potentially non-free fonts!) and a link to a Pro version via his blog. I have some suspicions that Animator Pro's use of Phar Lap to stretch the available memory may not be compatible with FreeDOS. If any FreeDOS users are happily running Animator Pro with no problems, please let me know. The puppy linux OS on the Thinkpad G40 needs to be updated, so I could devote that machine to a FreeDOS system, or even dual-boot with a Linux or OpenBSD, which I used to have installed on that machine too. Thanks! Chris -- ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
