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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: Xanxi on September 19, 2010, 08:45:27 PM
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Hello my fellow amigans.
As you may know, PC-Task 4.4, latest version of the 486 PC emulator for amiga has become freeware lately.
This is the opportunity for everyone to play with this fine and impressive software.
I would like to create this thread so everyone can share here experience and tips with PC-Task.
I am having great fun these days after setting up MSDOS 5, WORD 5.5 and some games on my desktop A1200. Everything runs not so bad with Bliz1230@50MHz/FPU/AGA and 64 MB of FASTRAM.
Some years ago, I remember having been able to use Wolfenstein 3D perfect and even launch Alone in the Dark with an Apollo060@66MHz.
Here is some links to get started:
- PC-Task guide on aminet:
http://aminet.net/docs/help/PC-Task_Guide.lha
- PC-Task 4.4:
http://www.toofiles.com/fr/oip/documents//pctask44lzx.html
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I remember playing with the demo version back when all I had was an 040/AGA. It was fast enough for basic DOS stuff, but little else.
Am I right in thinking only the full version featured a JIT mode?
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Am I right in thinking only the full version featured a JIT mode?
Yeah, the demo version lacks a lot of things.
About speed, it would say i get a fine 286 with my 1230, referinf to how games work on my setup and memories i have of old PCs (Prince of Persia very good, Conquest of Camelot not bad, Wolfenstein 3D slow).
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For max performance in Dynamic mode you needed at least 4x PC memory - some 96 MB was enough for 16 MB PC emulation. On 060@50 MHz it was about equivalent to 486@20 MHz. Tomb Raider demo ran 1-5 fps...but Wolfenstein was OK.
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For max performance in Dynamic mode you needed at least 4x PC memory - some 96 MB was enough for 16 MB PC emulation. On 060@50 MHz it was about equivalent to 486@20 MHz. Tomb Raider demo ran 1-5 fps...but Wolfenstein was OK.
I'm intrigued now. I have 256MB on my classic (alas still an 040) and a chunky capable display. Might be fun to see what it is capable of.
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I'm intrigued now. I have 256MB on my classic (alas still an 040) and a chunky capable display. Might be fun to see what it is capable of.
Go ahead :)
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At school I had a course about MS-DOS 6.22 almost every command's works except Memmaker this one doesn't work. I also played Prince of Persia, Star Goose an Blues brothers on it. WP 5.1 and Lotus 1-2-3 does work on it. I also managed to mount a CD-ROM. This was running on an A1200 with a Blizzard 1230 IV with 48 MB of Fast Mem.
A friend of mine had Windows 95 running on his Cyberstorm PPC 060/233 MHz board. It was very slow.
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I remember using it on my old 1230/50 with lots of RAM and being impressed.
But seeing DSx86 on NDS is so fast (and includes full sound: midi + sound effects) I'm not so impressed... And the NDS only has 4Mb memory...
PCTask is more complete, emulating a full 486 + co processor, but it's really slow...
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IMHO, it's one of those things that should ultimately have had a PPC version. Emulating an x86 on PPC would certainly have been a lot more effective than doing it on 68K, especially with a JIT implementation.
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Sure but there won't be another version now. This software is now a gift to the community as is, and it's still useful for a lot of things, Word for instance :)
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Sure but there won't be another version now. This software is now a gift to the community as is, and it's still useful for a lot of things, Word for instance :)
I took the shapeshifter/macos 7.5.3 route for that when I was back at uni. It was actually quite usable, particularly on RTG.
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A friend of mine had Windows 95 running on his Cyberstorm PPC 060/233 MHz board. It was very slow.
I'd say very very very slow. Booting took 2.5 - 4 mins and then you could study in which order the screen was written to. I couldn't do anything useful and then it usually crashed corrupting the HD - a new install took some hours again.
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I coded TurboPascal on PCTask at univ (with blizz-1230III), it was a nice alternative when the 286 based computer lab was full :)
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I wonder how it runs under WinUAE on a very robust PC (shut up, it does too make sense! And even if it doesn't it's fun!)
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IMHO, it's one of those things that should ultimately have had a PPC version. Emulating an x86 on PPC would certainly have been a lot more effective than doing it on 68K, especially with a JIT implementation.
That was pretty much the reason why I got a real PC and not a PPC card. If only someone had done a PPC x86 emu.
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For now, i could use some help for the mouse.
I have ticked mouse emulation in the setting, and serial as well (it is said that the mouse emulated is seen as COM2 on the PC side) but it does'nt work with the MSDOS 5 driver.
I use an usb mouse on an adapter to standard amiga mouse port.
What am i doing wrong?
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IMHO, it's one of those things that should ultimately have had a PPC version. Emulating an x86 on PPC would certainly have been a lot more effective than doing it on 68K, especially with a JIT implementation.
I was surprised by the speed of dosbox running under OS4.. It was fast enough to play the DOS version of settlers. So thats an option for classic users that want to play old DOS games.
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I was surprised by the speed of dosbox running under OS4.. It was fast enough to play the DOS version of settlers. So thats an option for classic users that want to play old DOS games.
Wouldn't a native DOSBox be more efficient?
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Wouldn't a native DOSBox be more efficient?
DOSBox runs natively on AmigaOS 4. It's faster than the PC-Task, but PC-Task is 68K.
Windows 95 shall be useful judging by this picture:
(http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/5372/win95onsam460.th.png) (http://img830.imageshack.us/i/win95onsam460.png/)
It's on SAM 460, but my microAmigaOne performs very good too. I run some DOS scene demos and they are okay.
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Some more impressive results with PC-Task:
An A1200 runs Dune in color VGA:
(http://free0.hiboox.com/images/3810/diapo7721137354fae6556de2f2635a90fb3d.jpg?30)
and Conquest of the Longbow in color VGA:
(http://free0.hiboox.com/images/3810/diapo4890e5b12e1d565981d3f7793d114250.jpg?26)
Unfortunately, PC-Task sometimes freeze, though it does not crash the amiga system at all: clean programming :)
I still can't figure out how to use my amiga mouse inside PC-Task.
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Try using Cutemouse or another 3rd party driver...?
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Can't help - just used ordinary Amiga mouse without any problems.
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Could that be i am using an USB adapter to the amiga mouse port?
During the boot sequence of MSDOS 5, a Microsoft mouse driver is mentioned but does not find any mouse.
I'm going to try another driver.
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I used PC Task in, like, 1992 or 1993 to do a programming assignment for college in Turbo Pascal. It was really slow on my stock A1200 with a Power Computing 2MB Fast RAM and FPU board, (way slower than the 286's they had in college) but I got the work done and got a distinction.
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Could that be i am using an USB adapter to the amiga mouse port?
During the boot sequence of MSDOS 5, a Microsoft mouse driver is mentioned but does not find any mouse.
I'm going to try another driver.
Have you tried the mouse driver that comes with PC-Task?
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If it has recently become freeware, perhaps the author who has given it to the community would be so kind as to release the source with it. I think that would be a great benefit to this particular group.
It seems many of the remaining Amiga fans are software engineers. Perhaps a PPC version could still be done.
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I used PC-Task a bit under Amithlon/os3.9 on an old athlon64 some years back when I was "amiga" only (ie. I had no Windows machines) and it was actually pretty usable. I used to play dos wing commander and it ran quite well. 68k dosbox was usable too, but pc-task was definately faster. The jit style emulation in pc task was erratic though on amithlon, would run normal speed with random bursts of extra speed to a point of it being a distraction in games. Mightve been possible to fix it, but I was happy enough without jit. Man, good times though :)
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PC Task was ace back in the day, I got Windows 3.1(1?) on floppy installed on it (IIRC it's on original double densities in my loft still). On a fast 030 it's comparable to a 286 at ~8mhz (I know as my parents had a "turbo" 12/16mhz 286).
Even if the source was released it'll probably take a monstrous amount of work to get it to modern standards on a PowerPC.
These days you can pick up tiny powerful PCs and network them if you need to do anything like that... does the Amiga have free VNC client/native AmigaOS X11 servers?
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Hey dudes, Windows 3.1 runs great on PC Task with 060 (except for the refresh rate on AGA but an RTG board could help).
I have learned yesterday that this is the only Windows OS to be 100% safe and immune to modern virii and malwares.
Would there be any way to emulate a network card on PC-Task in order to do internet?
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I used PC Task in, like, 1992 or 1993 to do a programming assignment for college in Turbo Pascal. It was really slow on my stock A1200 with a Power Computing 2MB Fast RAM and FPU board, (way slower than the 286's they had in college) but I got the work done and got a distinction.
Ditto. I even coded a Windows 3 look-alike GUI in Pascal with inline assembly that used a serial mouse to operate it.
Distinction was guaranteed. :)
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Windows 3.1 ... is the only Windows OS to be 100% safe and immune to modern virii and malwares.
Modern problems, maybe.
-No Windblows is safe and immune
-Windblows 3.1 is not an OS, even MS never claimed that, it is a graphical shell for MS-DOS, which had plenty of malwares
That said, I have had the commercial/paid for version of PCTask for years, and it is fun, which is the best compliment. However, BridgeBoards are even more fun, and you can hardware hack as well as software hack, and use network cards :)
And as far as just wrong, I bought a US$12 luggable clone with a Plasma Display at the thrift shop for an art project, for the Plasma Display, and it turns out to be an Intel x386. Plugged it in, turned it on, and 15 minutes later it finished booting up into Windblows 95!?! The hardware is pre-PS/2 ports, so it was looking for a serial mouse; remember those? If it can run on this ancient scrap, I may try on an A500 with one of those clone emulator belly boards.
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Modern problems, maybe.
-No Windblows is safe and immune
-Windblows 3.1 is not an OS, even MS never claimed that, it is a graphical shell for MS-DOS, which had plenty of malwares
I have understood that modern virii and malwares won't even run in a 16 bits environment (including DOS + Win 3.1).
That said, I have had the commercial/paid for version of PCTask for years, and it is fun, which is the best compliment. However, BridgeBoards are even more fun, and you can hardware hack as well as software hack, and use network cards :)
And as far as just wrong, I bought a US$12 luggable clone with a Plasma Display at the thrift shop for an art project, for the Plasma Display, and it turns out to be an Intel x386. Plugged it in, turned it on, and 15 minutes later it finished booting up into Windblows 95!?! The hardware is pre-PS/2 ports, so it was looking for a serial mouse; remember those? If it can run on this ancient scrap, I may try on an A500 with one of those clone emulator belly boards.
Sure, in a few weeks, i shall be able to fire my A2000 with an upgraded/hacked A2386 to 46SLC2-50MHz + VGA + SB16 +flash drive :)
There is nothing faster than a 286 for the A500 though (GVP 286 or Vortex ATonce Plus).
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I have understood that modern virii and malwares won't even run in a 16 bits environment (including DOS + Win 3.1).
Most modern software won't run in that configuration, period.
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I didn't get that run in my Sam with OS4.1, and I like run it to again handle DrDos the best Dos system in PC.
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Hello my fellow amigans.
As you may know, PC-Task 4.4, latest version of the 486 PC emulator for amiga has become freeware lately..........Here is some links to get started:
- PC-Task guide on aminet:
http://aminet.net/docs/help/PC-Task_Guide.lha
- PC-Task 4.4:
http://www.toofiles.com/fr/oip/documents//pctask44lzx.html
I have tried to register at toofiles.com, but never received the registration confirmation email (checked my junk mail for it too). Also, searching for the PC-Task 4.4 file on the toofiles.com site yeilds NO RESULTS. Can anyone confirm that it is still hosted there, or tell me of another location it can be downloaded from? I would like to run it on my A1200/1260 w/256mb RAM and also on my A4000 CS/PPC 68060/50MHz & 604e/233MHz.
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I have tried to register at toofiles.com, but never received the registration confirmation email (checked my junk mail for it too). Also, searching for the PC-Task 4.4 file on the toofiles.com site yeilds NO RESULTS. Can anyone confirm that it is still hosted there, or tell me of another location it can be downloaded from? I would like to run it on my A1200/1260 w/256mb RAM and also on my A4000 CS/PPC 68060/50MHz & 604e/233MHz.
Yeah this links seems dead but you can find it in the English Amiga Board server if you have access to this board.
Otherwise, just tell me and i will upload it somewhere else.
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Yeah this links seems dead but you can find it in the English Amiga Board server if you have access to this board.
Otherwise, just tell me and i will upload it somewhere else.
Why have we never had a download section here at Amiga.org? Cost of the additional bandwidth?
Thanks for the tip, I will check the EAB site to see if I can get it from there.
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Why have we never had a download section here at Amiga.org? Cost of the additional bandwidth?
Yes, it would be a great addition to the board, just as the Gallery is :)
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it is a graphical shell for MS-DOS
The fact it runs on top of MS/DOS doesn't mean it isn't an OS.
Windows provides a base for applications, and manages the hardware (and bypasses the DOS for a lot of hardware). It is enough for it to be an OS. But this has nothing to do with the subject...
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I have uploaded it again here http://dl.free.fr/lhZha2JIx
Should be available 30 days.
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So, today I've decided to have a go at PC-Task. One of the last things I want to get running on my machine. Unfortunately, I havent gotten very far. Here's what's happened so far..
First off, I had lots of trouble creating a bootable disk. Windows 7 has lost all support for creating 720kb boot disks, it seems. Then I found out I can mount a disk IMAGE instead. Crossdos is able to create a dosdriver for that. I was able to find some bootdisk images on bootdisk.com. So I can now boot into MS-DOS 6.22. So much fun! :)
Then I tried installing Windows 3.11 from disk, but when loading SETUP it complains about a missing file. Fortunately, 'on some other site' I found a hardfile that contains all the Windows 3.11 installation files. Mounting the hardfile is no problem, but installing Win3.11 gave me quite some trouble again.
First, I needed a dedicated Windows partition. When I installed my drive, I made sure to leave a 1.4Gb partition free (well below the 4GB barrier) for PC emulation. So I booted from the MS-Dos 6.22 Disk Image and selected FDisk to set the partition as active and after that ran format to format the drive. Unfortunately it only recognises 344.5MB.. After doing this I could no longer acces the drive on the Amiga side so I tried creating a dosdriver for it using Crossdos. This worked but still I can not access the drive. (had no problem with this for my Mac partitions, mind).
Anyway, the emulation recognises the partition so I decided to continue with Windows 3.11 installation. So the install itself goes fine, but after that it says I have to wait for Windows to load. I did wait for 30 minutes but nothing happens although CPU is 100% occupied. When I give up and check the files installed there is a Windows folder but no autoexec.bat's or anything like that, so I guess its impossible to boot from this partition. So I'm stuck here.
What's more, Ive done all this using the Dynamic version of PC Task 4.4, since the Interpretive version crashes when I set it to boot from the Disk Image. I've also tried PCx but that doesnt load at all.
So basically, Im a bit stuck here and could use some help!
What is the better emulator, PC-Task or PCx? Do both programs allow me to install Windows 95 (my ultimate goal - yes I know I need to get out more) ?
Do I need the Interpretive version of PC-Task to install Windows 3.11?
What can I do to succesfully install Windows 3.11?
What MS-DOS version should I use?
Should I worry about MS-DOS / PC-Task not recognising the entire partition? Is there an explanation for this?
Is it possible at all to have access to the pc files under AmigaOS or is this really risky?
Does someone have, uhm.. a hardfile containing a working Win3.11 or Win95 installation? That I could study?
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What is the better emulator, PC-Task or PCx? Do both programs allow me to install Windows 95 (my ultimate goal - yes I know I need to get out more) ?
PCx won't run Windows 95.
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Windows 95 may be installed succesfully but won't be usable anyway. With my 68060@50MHz, the emulated PC is close to the level of a 286 CPU@ 16 MHz and the AGA video is of course slower than a native planar board (or is it chunky?).
If you want windows95 use a bridgeboard instead. With my A2386 upgraded with a 486SLC2@50MHz cpu, i have a setup equivalent to a 486DX33 according to Norton Sysinfo.
Either way, the best DOS version IMHO is MSDOS 5 that comes on 3 DD floppy disks. Windows 3.1 installs itself flawelessly on it. I prefer Windows 3.1 instead of 3.10 or 3.11 for workgroups, as you won't be using network with PC-Task anyway.
As for the partition problem, there is a specific mask to enter (explained in the PC-Task FAQ available from aminet). I remember i tried this once or twice and that sometimes the entire partition can not be recognized by FDisk. In this cas, destroy the partition and try again until the full capacity is recognized.
However, hardfiles are better IMHO for PC-Task, and you won't risk ruining your harddrive. Make sure to use a fast file system like SFS and a good amount of buffers.
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Whoops, I had not configured valid screenmodes for the video modes listed under advanced options in Pc-Task. Windows 3.11 now installs properly!
However, I tried changing the Identifier of my dedicated partition so it reads MSH\00 instead of custom filesystem, but still only around 340MB is recognised under DOS, so I reverted this change.
BTW, I gave up trying out PCx, although I found out it was MCP that was causing the crash. When I remove MCP from startup-sequence however, PCx wont start at all.
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Regarding the partition, check out which translation scheme your pc-task "BIOS" is using. Ie CHS, Large, or LBA. Use the last one if you can. Second, some BIOS have support for INT 13 extended disk drive. Which makes it possible to use LBA all over the place.
This just reminds me why I deplore x86-ms junk hardware and software.
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I remember a demo and when I ran it on my A1200 it was slower than an early 80s PC-XT so lost interest.
Also AGA is so slow compared to EGA or even VGA byte per pixel that the CPU was the least of my problems anyway. And nobody did a decent replacement plug-in for A500/A1200 for chunky graphics and given the A4000 was so overpriced it was a real dead end for me personally. I gave up and bought a cheap PC for my Dbase 3 stuff etc for my Uni course.
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Made quite some progress today. Was able to solve most of my problems but am still left with a couple of questions. Do not hesitate to reply with your suggestions -I've only started using a PC with Windows 2000!
- I haven't been able to get PC_Task-Interpretive to work. But since it doesnt support Windows95 its no big loss. And I have plenty of RAM to use PC_Task-Dynamic instead.
- I gave up trying PCx. I am a bit worried though, can someone tell me which of the 2 is the faster emulator? And am I right in thinking PCx can emulate a Pentium processor while PC-Task is stuck with 486 max? Does this have any consequences?
- I fixed the issue with the partition size. Apparently I was using a DOS bootdisk instead of the DOS installation disks. Ive mounted disk 1/3 of those and it was then able to recognise the full 1.4Gb of my drive. I didnt finish installation though, no idea how to swap disk images on-the-fly.
- I was able to install Windows3.11 aswell. Previous attempts failed because I did not have the right screenmodes set. Still, can someone explain the difference between VGA and Video 7? Cant find much about it online, which of the 2 is faster?
- I was able to mount my CD-Rom drive and am currently installing Windows 95 (this is quite slow I can tell you). Is it possible to install Win98Lite on top of this?
- Is it possible to enable network support in PCx or PC-Task?
- Can Crossdos mount the PC partition in a way that I can access the files on it on the Amiga side?
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- Is it possible to enable network support in PCx or PC-Task?
- Can Crossdos mount the PC partition in a way that I can access the files on it on the Amiga side?
Network with PC-Task = no way, or you will have to make it over serial connection, if you have two serial ports on your amiga.
Crossdos= not required. Just use PCTCrossMount which is included with the PC-Task. This will mount your drive C as TCC: and your drive D as TDC: Actually, PCTCrossMount even works with hardfiles from Commodore Bredgeboards.
What do you mean about mounting the DOS installation disks?
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Thanks Xanxi, will try this out asap. Mounting the DOS installation disks was faster than writing them on pc and using pc0:. First off, Windows 7 wasnt able to deal with 720kb disks, second, the DOS 6.x images are 1,44MB each. So I created a DOSDriver for the installation disks using Crossdos7, then entered the name of the DOSDriver as drive A: in PC-Task. Damn useful.
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Thanks Xanxi, will try this out asap. Mounting the DOS installation disks was faster than writing them on pc and using pc0:. First off, Windows 7 wasnt able to deal with 720kb disks, second, the DOS 6.x images are 1,44MB each. So I created a DOSDriver for the installation disks using Crossdos7, then entered the name of the DOSDriver as drive A: in PC-Task. Damn useful.
720KB disks work fine in Windows 7.
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well, you might be able to read them. but try formatting one or creating a bootdisk or extracting a diskimage onto one.
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well, you might be able to read them. but try formatting one or creating a bootdisk or extracting a diskimage onto one.
FORMAT A: /T:80 /N:9 will format a 720KB disk.
Of course you can't create a boot disk. Windows 7 isn't going to fit on one floppy.
RawWrite for Windows will write a disk image to a 720KB floppy just fine.
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thanks, but:
1) I did try using /S:720 (or a similar flag) which appeared to work fine (readable) but it wasnt possible to write anything to it
2) the disk images Im talking about are 1,44MB
3) there is not one windows OS that fits on a 720kb disk yet creating a 720kb bootdisk was possible up to Win XP If im not mistaken -which is exactly my point
4) its no longer needed since mounting a virtual disk is a lot faster and convenient
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Thanks Xanxi, will try this out asap. Mounting the DOS installation disks was faster than writing them on pc and using pc0:. First off, Windows 7 wasnt able to deal with 720kb disks, second, the DOS 6.x images are 1,44MB each. So I created a DOSDriver for the installation disks using Crossdos7, then entered the name of the DOSDriver as drive A: in PC-Task. Damn useful.
I see. This gave me the idea to use DiskImageGUI (available on aminet) to see if i could read PC floppy disk images from PCTask, and it works with IDF0. This method allows to swap disks on the fly. Just go back to the WB with LAmiga-M, switch the floppy in DiskImageGui, and go back to PC-Task. :-)
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ofcourse! thats even better! thanks, will try this out myself :)
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To write from a PC 1.44 drive, it is often necessary to FIRST format the disk in a DD drive, for instance in an Amiga. (Format to PC mode, FAT.)
And don't fast format, the goal is to blank the disk.
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ofcourse! thats even better! thanks, will try this out myself :)
Thanks to you :)
I haven't thought of that myself so far.
It's great to see how we can benefit of other people ideas.
Feel free to tell us your next steps with PC-Task :)
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Made quite some progress today. Was able to solve most of my problems but am still left with a couple of questions. Do not hesitate to reply with your suggestions -I've only started using a PC with Windows 2000!
- I haven't been able to get PC_Task-Interpretive to work. But since it doesnt support Windows95 its no big loss. And I have plenty of RAM to use PC_Task-Dynamic instead.
- I gave up trying PCx. I am a bit worried though, can someone tell me which of the 2 is the faster emulator? And am I right in thinking PCx can emulate a Pentium processor while PC-Task is stuck with 486 max? Does this have any consequences?
- I fixed the issue with the partition size. Apparently I was using a DOS bootdisk instead of the DOS installation disks. Ive mounted disk 1/3 of those and it was then able to recognise the full 1.4Gb of my drive. I didnt finish installation though, no idea how to swap disk images on-the-fly.
- I was able to install Windows3.11 aswell. Previous attempts failed because I did not have the right screenmodes set. Still, can someone explain the difference between VGA and Video 7? Cant find much about it online, which of the 2 is faster?
- I was able to mount my CD-Rom drive and am currently installing Windows 95 (this is quite slow I can tell you). Is it possible to install Win98Lite on top of this?
- Is it possible to enable network support in PCx or PC-Task?
- Can Crossdos mount the PC partition in a way that I can access the files on it on the Amiga side?
PCx is kind of nice for what it is and it got support for a soundblaster 16 soundcard, right?
Regarding speed I'm not sure... JIT compilation is known to be faster but AFAICR when I ran it on my a4k on a 060 with windows 3.1 and some games it was about the same. It was so long ago that I can't remember for sure though.
When it comes to CPU emulation the first thing I'd like to say is that you shall never care about things like 486, Pentium and so on when it comes to speed. Real hardware got nothing to do with software emulation. The other thing is that PC-Task can run in something called enhanced mode according to the manual which makes Windows 95 run and Windows 3.11 for example which you can't run with PCx. PC-Task also supports graphicscard in all resolution while PCx only got a driver that lets you run 320x200 or 320x256 on a graphics card, else you need AGA.
I think that PC-Task are better over all, it's too bad that they didn't develope PCx further. Fusion from the same company (Mac emulator) was very, very good, especially if you only had AGA, MacOS was faster than Workbench for some reason and you could use 15-bit mode in MacOS. Don't know how that was done. Anyway, sorry for going OT.
Regarding Windows 3.x, if it supports standard mode instead of enhaced it will run faster. You run it in standard mode by typing "win/s" in DOS.
Windows 95... it is useless in PC-Task. Speed is the major thing here. Windows 3.x and DOS are usable though.
VGA is up to 648x480 while Video 7 is 1280x1024 IIRC. In Win 95 you are stuck with one resolution IIRC. I think that you're stuck with some VESA mode.
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Thanks for your reply. Now that you mentioned the screenmode restriction Im really forgetting about PCx. I'm quite satisfied with PC-Task anyway. Windows 95 works and seems stable. It is ofcourse very slow but I dont care, I just want to see if it would be possible at all. I will give Win98Lite a try and after that test I think I'm done with this whole PC emulation thing. BTW, yes, Fusion is a great emulator, that provides a fast MacOS8 experience for me. Thanks for the tip regarding Win3.11 standard mode, I was using that already.
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Network with PC-Task = no way, or you will have to make it over serial connection, if you have two serial ports on your amiga.
I think PC-Task supports the GoldenGate II doesn't it...? In which case any old ISA network card should do....
Never tried it though. :)
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Ok, so I gave up trying to get Win98 working. Im pretty sure it can be done but I lack the time (and knowledge) to do it. The installer keeps returning to DOS, throwing an error. I did some extensive testing of win98lite, which is known for its ultra 'small' installations of 15 to 50 MB for the complete OS, but this too uses the standard win98 installer that throws the same error. I hope someone with more patience is willing to continue my effort, but I doubt anyone is crazy enough to do it :)
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I hope someone with more patience is willing to continue my effort, but I doubt anyone is crazy enough to do it :)
You guys in the "I just wanted to see if it could be done" camp always amaze me.
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You guys in the "I just wanted to see if it could be done" camp always amaze me.
You mean me playing Tomb Raider demo on PC-Task (huge 1-2 fps...)
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haha, been there, done that. somehow its all part of the fun. at least for me.
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In the spirit of the "if it could be done" thing, and a sudden case of debilitating boredom, I decided to tinker with my pc-task install a bit. Anyway, I have a dual-partition setup via pc-task, pointing to dedicated windows 3.11 wfw and windows 95 osr2 (needed a patch to get it to dual boot via a choice.exe command in autoexec.bat), running on a 1200T with mediator+gfx and 192mb ram+060.
Win 3.11 wfw runs fast, and is completely useable, but doesn't run any 32 bit stuff. Even with the 32-bit extension, it would rather crash. Though to modernize the look a bit, Calmira works great, providing a start menu and file manager with a w95 feel. Never got DOSLFN to work right, though.
The windows 95 installation is slow, but I figured I'd try a few things. Installed TweakUI, and disabled alot of stuff in there. Its still "rebooting". Also, managed to get a 256 color display under 95 a few years ago, by using an old win3.11 driver. Also seems to work faster than 95 drivers, for some reason. Only setback is the mouse pointer doesn't look right.
Also, I installed "winguide" so I can read amigaguide documents in pc-task. This has GOT to be the definition of pointless... Though reading the w95 faq is more convenient without flipping the screen back and forth.
Also, RTG makes a HUGE difference. Though using the frameskip option still speeds things up alot, making 95 almost useable.
The included copytoa, copytoi, and dira utilities for copying stuff back and forth seem to choke under 95, so I was toying with installing amiga explorer on pc-task, and setting it up to use nullser.device (aminet, I believe) for swappign files back and forth. Thinking of the same setup for a null-modem tcp/ip connection to miamiDX. Theres a few other optimization thingys I've ran accross that I want to try as well, about to check out TweakDUN and Winsettings97. Also, I do most file-management stuff using workbench and crossdos.. Alot quicker digging through the filesystem, plus no stupid "recycle bin" to deal with. Though I think there's a reg entry to disable that...
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Hmmm, when my 1200 comes back I might just have to have a crack at this (will see what I'm into at the time). I'm very curious what an 80Mhz 060 could do with this.
Speaking of Windows 98, I remember one time when I got 98 running under DosBOX in AROS. The speed was acceptable, but I lacked drivers so I could not do a whole lot with it.
I remember Fish talking about porting over one of the DosBOX forks that allow for OpenGL and the whole nine yards under Win98 in DosBOX, but I don't think he ever got back to it.
Then again, I've not completed my Alien Breed Projekt either, so who am I to complain? :)
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nice stories. I would love to run win98 on my amiga, Im convinced it can be done with one of the win98lite distributions, but I lack the knowledge to fiddle with that.
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That's what I used with DosBOX was 98lite.
BTW Win7 32-bit lite is pretty nice too as is MicroXP 0.82
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well, I suppose.. but there is no way that is going to run under pc-task :)
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well, I suppose.. but there is no way that is going to run under pc-task :)
No, you are correct, I was just mentioning them in case no one knew of their existence.
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I have couple of questions in knowing how to use PC Task. I have downloaded and installed the latest verse 4.4. But I am unable to continue further from that.
I assigned the virtual HD to Work:HDFile (80 MB) however, I have DOS games burned in the cd and not inside a virtual file hard drive or anything like that. I do not have a boot up disk and I do not know where to go from there.
How do I transfer files into the virtual HD and how do I obtain a bootup disk that works in my Amiga 4000D disk drive when I use PC Task.
Where do I go from here?
Thanks in advance.
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Where is the latest link to 4.4 anyhow?
EDIT: EAB app/archive
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I have couple of questions in knowing how to use PC Task. I have downloaded and installed the latest verse 4.4. But I am unable to continue further from that.
I assigned the virtual HD to Work:HDFile (80 MB) however, I have DOS games burned in the cd and not inside a virtual file hard drive or anything like that. I do not have a boot up disk and I do not know where to go from there.
How do I transfer files into the virtual HD and how do I obtain a bootup disk that works in my Amiga 4000D disk drive when I use PC Task.
Where do I go from here?
Thanks in advance.
You'll need ms-dos install floppies, though I believe the 4000 has a HD floppy drive, so they should be easier to come by. Also, I think somebody mentioned a boot disk archive somewhere earlier in this thread.
There's a hardfile device that will mount "hf:hardfile0" as an amiga partition (think it needs crossdos installed, too), but if thats a bit much the included copytoa.exe, copytoi.exe, and dira.exe programs will copy stuff from the amiga to the hardfile from inside the emulator (after you get dos going, of course.)
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I used to use pc-task a lot on amithlon. Was quite fun/novel playing Need for speed and Wing Commander3 under aos.
As for Dosbox with Voodoo emulation, I did indeed do a build for AROS. The patches only work against 0.72 though, so you both gain and lose some features.
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I used to use pc-task a lot on amithlon. Was quite fun/novel playing Need for speed and Wing Commander3 under aos.
As for Dosbox with Voodoo emulation, I did indeed do a build for AROS. The patches only work against 0.72 though, so you both gain and lose some features.
I forget, does 0.72 support JIT?
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Where is the latest link to 4.4 anyhow?
EDIT: EAB app/archive
Also remember, it is in Aminet
http://aminet.net/misc/emu/PC-Task44.lha
:)
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Yeah, x86 codepath has had jit cpu emulation since 0.59 if I recall correctly.
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Hello my fellow amigans.
As you may know, PC-Task 4.4, latest version of the 486 PC emulator for amiga has become freeware lately.
This is the opportunity for everyone to play with this fine and impressive software.
I would like to create this thread so everyone can share here experience and tips with PC-Task.
I am having great fun these days after setting up MSDOS 5, WORD 5.5 and some games on my desktop A1200. Everything runs not so bad with Bliz1230@50MHz/FPU/AGA and 64 MB of FASTRAM.
Some years ago, I remember having been able to use Wolfenstein 3D perfect and even launch Alone in the Dark with an Apollo060@66MHz.
Here is some links to get started:
- PC-Task guide on aminet:
http://aminet.net/docs/help/PC-Task_Guide.lha
- PC-Task 4.4:
http://www.toofiles.com/fr/oip/documents//pctask44lzx.html
Can it be used under MOS and OS4?
Is it faster then DOSBox?
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I have couple of questions in knowing how to use PC Task. I have downloaded and installed the latest verse 4.4. But I am unable to continue further from that.
I assigned the virtual HD to Work:HDFile (80 MB) however, I have DOS games burned in the cd and not inside a virtual file hard drive or anything like that. I do not have a boot up disk and I do not know where to go from there.
How do I transfer files into the virtual HD and how do I obtain a bootup disk that works in my Amiga 4000D disk drive when I use PC Task.
Where do I go from here?
Thanks in advance.
I would recommend mounting a dedicated partition (beware, should be below the first 4Gb of your drive). That way you can copy files across using diropus. I dont think there is a way to do that with a hardfile. You could, however, mount a cdrom drive and install windows 3.11 or 95 that way. From there it should be easier to install games.
BTW, Im not sure what types of games you want to run, they'd better be from the early eighties. You can not run more modern games under PC Task, IMO. If you have a PPC, try dosbox under OS4 instead.
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I would recommend mounting a dedicated partition (beware, should be below the first 4Gb of your drive). That way you can copy files across using diropus. I dont think there is a way to do that with a hardfile. You could, however, mount a cdrom drive and install windows 3.11 or 95 that way. From there it should be easier to install games.
BTW, Im not sure what types of games you want to run, they'd better be from the early eighties. You can not run more modern games under PC Task, IMO. If you have a PPC, try dosbox under OS4 instead.
I do not have a PPC. I have only two partitions the first partition is SYS: and it is 3.79 GB the second partition is Work: and it is 3.50 GB or something cannot remember the exact number. I have made a hardfile0 virtual hardfile and placed it in Work: partition and it is 200 MB. I was informed I can transfer files between Amiga and PCTask inside the actual PCTask itself but I need a bootup DOS disk first in order to do it.
Second, I think the only games that are in the 90's are DarkSun, DarkSun 2, Ultima 7, Savage Empire and Martial Dreams. I hope these games work well when I upgrade my Amiga 4000D to 060 @ 66 Mhz.
Dark Sun system requirement
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Minimum CPU Type: 386DXMinimum RAM Required: 2 MBMinimum Hard Disk Space: 17 MBMinimum OS Version: 5.0Graphics Type: VGAColor Depth: 256 Colors
Savage Empire requirement
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MINIMUM PC REQUIREMENTSMinimum CPU Type: XT/CompatibleGraphics Type: VGAColor Depth: 256 Colors
Ultima 7 black gate
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MINIMUM PC REQUIREMENTSCPU Type: 486CPU Speed: 33MHzRAM: 548KXMS Memory: 2MBSound Card: PC speakers, AdLibGraphics Type: VGAColor Depth: 256 colorGraphics Resolution(s): 640x480Compatible Devices: keyboard, mouse
So can you say that they work on PC Task if I get my Amiga at 060 @ 66 Mhz then?