Oh, cool! Telev78 just shared a working 5.25 inch disk image of the original TETRIS by MirrorSoft. Back in 1987, EGA was the fanciest available graphics mode on the IBM-PC! Hell yeah! Interestingly, this European release was slightly different from the Spectrum Holobyte version. Comparing them side by side using 86Box.

Link: https://archive.org/details/tetris-mirrorsoft-360k-kfx

Thank you @Telev

#RetroGaming #Retro #Gaming #80s #80er #TETRIS #InternetArchive #IBMPC #FloppyDisk #Diskette #Emulation #86Box

OS/2 Warp 4.52 on 86Box with Super Socket 7 [1998]

OS/2 was a proprietary operating system that was initially developed by IBM in partnership with Microsoft as a replacement of DOS before it became entirely developed by IBM. OS/2 Warp 4 was officially released in 1996, and development slowed down to a halt because it failed to compete Microsoft Windows. OS/2 Warp 4.52 was officially released in December 2001, and this year, it will celebrate its 25th year anniversary.

Our focus in this article is testing OS/2 Warp 4.52 on an 86Box emulated machine with a Super Socket 7 [1998] motherboard. You can download it from here.

We’ve configured the virtual machine as follows:

We’ve configured a virtual machine to run with:

  • Machine type: [1998] Super Socket 7
  • Machine: [SiS 5591] Gigabyte GA-5SG100
  • CPU: Intel Pentium @ 166 MHz
  • Memory: 128 MB
  • Video: [ISA16] Cirrus Logic GD5434
  • Keyboard: AT Keyboard
  • Mouse: PS/2 Mouse
  • Sound card: [ISA16] Sound Blaster 16 PnP
  • Floppy disk controller: Internal device
  • Hard disk controller 1: Internal device
  • New hard disk: os2warp452.vhd
    • C/H/S: 1054/16/63
    • Size: 518 MB
    • Bus: IDE
    • Channel: 0:0
  • CD-ROM drive 1: ATAPI (0:1) KENWOOD CD-ROM UCR-421 208E (72x)

Once everything is configured as above, we can now start the virtual machine. Insert the boot disc called mcp2-refresh-boot-en.iso to the CD-ROM reader, then configure BIOS as necessary.

To be more specific, we need to go to the BIOS setup using DEL and change the boot order so that CD-ROM goes first with PGUP/PGDN.

After that, we save the changes and restart the virtual machine.

The installer starts by telling you to insert the installation CD-ROM to the drive.

In this case, right-click on the CD-ROM icon, select “Insert…”, select mcp2-refresh-install-en.iso, and double-click it. Then, press ENTER.

After that, you should be able to see this welcome screen:

Press ENTER, and you’ll be taken to another screen that welcomes you to the operating system installer.

Press ENTER. At this point, since it’s a fresh installation, and the hard drive is already empty, you’ll get the “Volumes Too Small” message. This means that you’ll need to create a single partition that will be used to install OS/2 Warp 4.52 to.

Press ENTER, and you’ll get a warning message telling you that all data on modified volumes will be deleted, and that backups should be made. Since there is no data on the hard drive, you can safely ignore this warning. Just press ENTER.

After that, you’ll be taken to the partitioning screen where you’ll be presented with the logical volume manager, with the logical view being the default. Press F5, and you’ll be taken to a screen where you can see your hard disk, such as the below screenshot:

Here, you can create a physical partition. Press TAB, then ENTER, and you’ll be presented with those options.

Press ENTER to create a new partition. You’ll be asked whether this partition is going to be logical or primary. Select “Primary partition”.

After you select it, you’ll be presented with various dialog boxes telling you to specify the size and the name of the partition, as well as the position of the partition. Select “Create at the start of the free space”, then enter the partition name, then the size.

After that, this partition should be created.

We are not done yet when it comes to partitioning, so we need to go back to the logical view. Press ENTER, then press ENTER on “Create a new volume”. Then, select “Create a volume that can be made bootable”, then C:.

You’ll be brought back to the physical view that will tell you to choose a physical disk. Below the physical disk, the logical partition should be shown at the bottom of the screen. Press ENTER when this dialog box appears.

Press ENTER again, then select “Use existing partition”.

Now, a new logical volume will appear with the partition name that you’ve chosen. However, it’s still not ready yet for installation, since there are extra steps that are needed. We need to make it installable.

Press ENTER, and you should see the menu box below:

Select “Set the volume installable”. The status of your logical volume should change from “Startable” to “Installable”. Afterwards, press F3, and press ENTER when “Save the changes and exit” is highlighted.

Afterwards, you should be able to see the below dialog box telling you to insert the boot CD-ROM to the drive and restart the virtual machine using CTRL + ALT + DEL.

At this point, we need to change the BIOS boot order to avoid the black screen issue. Press DEL, go to BIOS Features Setup, and change the boot order so that CD-ROM goes first.

Then, exit the BIOS setup while saving changes, and follow the instructions all the way until the following screen shows up:

Verify that “Volume C” shows up. If not, you’ll have to configure the partitions again until the volume shows up in this screen. Since we’ve already configured everything, and that Volume C corresponds to our hard disk, press ENTER when “Accept the volume” is highlighted.

Then, the installer asked us whether we’d like to format it slowly or quickly. This is a clean installation, so we’ve chosen a quick format. Then, the installer asked us whether we’d like to use FAT or HPFS. We’ve chosen the HPFS file system.

After that, the installation of the base system begins.

After that, the virtual machine will automatically restart. Go back to the BIOS setup and make sure that the C drive comes first before the CD-ROM.

After that, OS/2 Warp should boot up to the GUI portion of the installer. The first thing you’ll be presented with is the configuration of the system, including the country, the graphics adapter, and the sound adapter.

First of all, we went to “Multimedia Device Support”, and added the SoundBlaster 16 PnP device to the list of installed devices.

Afterwards, we’re presented with another set of configuration, once we’ve selected “Next”. SInce there’s no need to configure anything on that screen, we’ve just clicked Next. Then, it presented us with options to choose the country/region, with the default selected country being “United States.”

Then, the printer configuraion window has shown up. SInce there’s no printer installed, we’ll leave it as it is.

We’re then presented with the graphics adapter configuration. It automatically selected the Cirrus Logic graphics adapter as we’ve chosen earlier for the virtual machine configuration.

Once we’ve selected OK, we’re then presented with a set of packages to install.

As soon as we clicked “Next”, we’re presented with another wizard that lets us configure some more services.

Once we clicked Next, we’re presented with a prompt to identify ourselves.

After that, we’re given another set of software packages to install. They represent the client services for OS/2.

Once we clicked Next, we’re presented with another configuration screen where we needed to configure the user ID and password for the file and print sharing services, and the network adapter and protocol services.

We went to create a new ID and a password for the sharing service

Then, we went to “Network Adapters and Protocol Services”, and a dialog box that told us to add a network adapter appeared. Since we don’t intend to have internet connectivity in this installation of OS/2 Warp 4.52, we’ve selected “No network adapter.”

Once we pressed OK, we’ve seen this result:

Now, we’ve pressed Install, and a confirmation dialog box appeared.

Now, the installation of the remaining system files started here.

Once it was done copying files, we’re asked whether to use the defaults for the monitor type or to use the display adapter utility program.

We’ve chosen the defaults, and an informational box appeared stating that the screen might flicker while the testing was underway.

After that, the remaining portions of the installation started. This is part one of the long waiting journey!

After the restart, depending on the region selected, OS/2 Warp 4.52 might tell you that there’s something wrong in the CONFIG.SYS file related to the codepage, just like below.

After that, the long waiting journey continues…

The system then restarted, and the desktop finally appeared, but with another dialog box asking us whether we needed to install sets of extra tools or not.

We’ve chosen the biggest option, which was “OS/2 Toolkit (English only)”. Then, we’ve clicked on Install once we’ve inserted the boot disk back to the CD-ROM drive.

Then, a configuration window where it tells us to configure the installation of the OS/2 Toolkit, just like below.

We’ve chosen to install everything, so we just chose Install. Yet another long wait journey starts…

After the installation of the toolkit reached 100%, a dialog box that told us that the installation was successful showed up. Once done, we’ve clicked on Quit in the toolkit installer.

Since the dialog box told us that the CONFIG.SYS file was modified and that we needed to restart the virtual machine. Therefore, we’ve clicked on Exit, then right-clicked on an empty area around the desktop and chose “Shut down”.

Once the shut down was done, we had to press CTRL + ALT + DEL in the virtual machine side. After that, the system booted up to the desktop, and the sound works!

Nostalgic, isn’t it?

#86Box #Linux #news #OS2 #OS2Warp #OS2Warp4 #OS2Warp452 #Retrocomputing #Tech #Technology #update

Playing DigDug from Microsoft's "Return of Arcade" on Windows 95 using 86Box. That's what #RetroGaming looked like 30 years ago! Still awesome! 😉

#90s #Windows #Win95 #Microsoft #Arcade #Retro #90er #Gaming #PCGaming #Emulation #86Box

After looking through several CD-ROMs, I guess I finallly found the best version of the Soundblaster 16 driver for DOS, Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. Here it is installing on my 25MHz COMPAQ Deskpro 386. 😉

https://archive.org/details/sb-16

#DOS #Retro #Tech #90s #90er #DOSGaming #PCGaming #Soundblaster #86Box #Emulation #Driver #Windows

#86Box Stream is live - and it's going to have hard disk sounds! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EYc5tPoCyg #retrocomputing #retrotech
SEASON 6 PREVIEW | 8 6 B O X — L I V E (April 5, 2026)

YouTube

Is anyone still familiar with this photo editing classic from 1997? "Kai's Photo Soap"... for Windows 95. I've had this as a young student back in the day... And I remember wasting a lot of expensive ink with my poor LPT1 ink-jet printer.

The CD-ROM runs great using 86Box. Pure nostalgia! 😍

P.S. Here's a link: Link: https://archive.org/details/kais_photo_soap_de

#RetroComputing #Windows95 #Win95 #PhotoEditing #90s #90er #Oldschool #CDROM #Retro #Tech #Emulation #86Box

Thanks to #WireGuard, my emulated Windows 98 machine just mounted its Samba share on my home server, which happens to be 1,500 km away right now.

#86box #retrocomputing

Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake (Alpha 6) on 86Box with Socket 370 [1998]

We’re now back with the sixth alpha of Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake, which was released on June 2006! Two months shy of the 20th anniversary of the first Ubuntu LTS release, we are very excited for this experiment on 86Box.

Our focus in this article is testing Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake on an 86Box emulated machine with a Socket 370 [1998] motherboard. You can download it from here.

We’ve configured the virtual machine as follows:

We’ve configured a virtual machine to run with:

  • Machine type: [1998] Socket 370
  • Machine: [i440BX] ASUS CUBX
  • CPU: Intel Celeron (Mendocino) @ 533 MHz
  • Memory: 256 MB
  • Video: [AGP] 3dfx Voodoo3 3000
  • Keyboard: AT Keyboard
  • Mouse: PS/2 Mouse
  • Sound card: [ISA16] Gravis UltraSound
  • Floppy disk controller: Internal device
  • Hard disk controller 1: Internal device
  • New hard disk: UbuntuDapper.vhd
    • C/H/S: 16644/16/63
    • Size: 8192 MB
    • Bus: IDE
    • Channel: 0:0
  • CD-ROM drive 1: ATAPI (0:1) TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-6702B 1007 (48x)

Once everything is configured as above, we can now start the virtual machine. Insert the Ubuntu 6.06 installation disc called ubuntu-6.06-alpha6-install-i386.iso to the CD-ROM reader, then configure BIOS as necessary.

You’ll see this main menu where we can choose to install either to the hard disk, in OEM mode, or as a server. Let’s choose the first option, which is a normal install.

Afterwards, the old-fashioned installer that looks similar to what a Debian textual installer would look like appears.

After we have chosen a language, we are asked for our location.

Finally, the installer asks us for the keyboard layout we need to select.

As soon as we press ENTER, the installer starts looking for the Ubuntu installation disc and load additional installer components after searching for CD-ROM hardware.

After that, the installer tried to find the network adapter. Since we don’t intend to have one installed, because this system is unsupported as of long ago, we have answered No when the installer asked us if we have FireWire Ethernet.

After that, we’re prompted for the host name.

Then, the installer asked us if we need to provide proxy information for Ubuntu mirrors. We left it blank.

Afterwards, the installer started finding hard disks and starting the partitioner.

The installer found an 8 GB hard disk, so we’ve agreed to install Ubuntu to it by erasing the whole disk.

Afterwards, we’re prompted for the full name, the user name, and the password of the new account that our Ubuntu installation will contain.

The installation then started from this stage.

It took a considerable amount of time, especially when it had to do with installing and configuring the desktop packages. After a lot of patience, the installer finally set everything up in the new installation, such as users, and gave us a congratulatory message below.

When we pressed ENTER, the system automatically rebooted to the new Ubuntu installation.

Then, the login screen appeared.

We signed in with our username and password, and the GNOME splash screen appeared with “Dapper Drake!” drawn over it, with “THIS IS NOT THE FINAL ARTWORK!” at the top. Those two writings don’t appear in the final version of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, suggesting that this is the pre-release version.

Once the desktop gets loaded, the desktop looks like this:

We can verify that this alpha version of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS uses Linux version 2.6.15.

Applications, such as Firefox and gedit, work, too.

#86Box #Linux #Mandrake #news #Retrocomputing #Tech #Technology #Ubuntu #Ubuntu606 #update

Oh, mein gutes, altes Windows 95 hat heute auch bemerkt, dass die Sommerzeit begonnen hat. Hat sich vermutlich auch keiner der damaligen Programmierer vorgestellt, dass das Ding noch 2026 Verwendung finden würde! 😜

#Windows95 #Win95 #RetroComputing #Retro #Tech #Microsoft #Windows #90er #90s #Emulation #86Box

Thanks to a recent upload to the Internet Archive from "LazArchive", I could finally put together a set of compatible MS-DOS 3.31 floppy disks. The COMPAQ FASTART utility disk from 1989 finally works as intended using the COMPAQ User Programs v6.01 Rev B. This never worked for me before, so it's a huge improvement! 😃

MS-DOS v3.31 is a particularly useful version of DOS, because it was the first version to support a partition size of over 32MB... up to 512MB!

Link: https://archive.org/details/compaq331
Another Link: https://archive.org/details/ms-dos.ver.-3.31d-oem-compaq.-english

#DOS #MSDOS #COMPAQ #Microsoft #Retro #80s #80er #80s #IBMPC #Emulation #86Box #Tech #DOSGaming #RetroComputing