The great PC-Task thread

[Xanxi]

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

[Xanxi]

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).

[Xanxi]

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

[Xanxi]

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

[Xanxi]

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?

[Xanxi]

Some more impressive results with PC-Task:

An A1200 runs Dune in color VGA:


and Conquest of the Longbow in color VGA:




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.

[Xanxi]

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.

[Xanxi]

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?

[Xanxi]

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).

[Xanxi]

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.

[Xanxi]

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

[Xanxi]

I have uploaded it again here http://dl.free.fr/lhZha2JIx
Should be available 30 days.

[Xanxi]

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.

[Xanxi]

- 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?

[Xanxi]

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. :-)