BridgeBoard .. Questions to any users.

[melott]

I picked up an A2500 on EBay awhile back to tinker with,
it has/had a 2286 BridgeBoard in it (I assume it works).
My wife is a gamer, she has some old MS DOS games she
likes but her PC (500 mhz) is too fast for them.
She would like me to setup this machine so she can play
her MS DOS games and also Amiga Games.

From what I've read, this BridgeBoard is probably going
to be a real 'Pain'.
Is anyone using a 2286 board, and is it worth the trouble??
What about GFX cards, sound cards, etc. ??
Is there any drivers to allow the Amiga gfx to use an ISA
GFX card with the BB installed??
Any info here, (good or bad) will help.
I want to know what you think.

[L8Knight]

Hi Melott,

I haven't had a chance to use the 2286 bridge board.  I do have quite a bit of experience with my 2088 one though.  The 2088 one works quite well and has CGA emulation (maybe even EGA IIRC) built-in to the Janus software.  I never really tried any other video/sound cards with it.  I don't know of any software to let the Amiga use ISA based video cards through the bridge board.  There was a card called the 'golden gate bridge card' that let the Amiga use PC-compatible cards but I suspect those will be difficult to find anymore...  If you need a hand getting it going, feel free to email/message me.

  --Barry Steenbergh

[Ilwrath]

From what I've read, this BridgeBoard is probably going to be a real 'Pain'.

Shouldn't be too much worse than installing/configuring a real 286.  Which, of course, is rather a pain in the arse, but FreeDOS would probably be the way to go...  (If for no other reason than it strives for compatability, and it's the only MS-DOS style free OS that has any amount of support.)
http://www.freedos.org/

Is anyone using a 2286 board, and is it worth the trouble??

I have one in an old A3000, but I haven't sat down and properly installed everything and configured it.  

Is there any drivers to allow the Amiga gfx to use an ISA GFX card with the BB installed??

Not that I know of.  I've heard that it was attempted, but the end result was too slow to be of practical use for anything more than displaying still-images.  It would be a neat trick, even for just that, though.  :-)  But I don't know if that driver was ever released.  I searched Aminet and couldn't find it.  So, as far as I know, the ISA graphics cards can only be used by the PC.

There is a driver for an ISA ethernet card across the 286 card, though.

[FastRobPlus]

To answer your question you can absolutely use ISA PC cards togetrher with that 286 bridgeboard.  I had Doom running on it once that way (slowly, since Doom is a 386 game!)

Just plug an old cirrus logic or similar ISA card in, and a soundblaster or thunderboard sound card, and I think you will be good to go.

I seem to remember the only reason I did not keep this setup myself is that I had a desktop A3000, and it did not have enough ISA slots for everything.

PM me if you need an ISA video card.

[melott]

@L8Knight
-----------------
 If you need a hand getting it going, feel free to email/message me.
------------------
I'll probably do that. Basicly I have nothing in the way
of installation software or manuals. I'll probably some
advice etc.


It seems a shame that there isn't any drivers to take
advantage of the BridgeBoard being installed since that
is basicly what a 'Mediator' does.
 

[JimS]

I used to have a 386 bridgeboard in my old 2000. After putting in a IDE controller, VGA card and something else that I forget, I had Windoze 3.1 running on it. Slow, but it worked. I found this little slot riser card that plugged into a ISA slot that had 3 ISA slots on one side and 2 on the other. I seem to recall running a soundblaster in it.
As far as I know, there's no direct way to access a VGA card from the Amiga side. I have seen software to share an ISA network card with the Amiga side. There is only a small shared ram buffer between the two computers. One thing that might work is the old Siamese system... if it's still available. It was supposed to be able to run Amiga graphics on a PC over an ethernet connection..

[artman]

Hi Mel,  I think I may have an Install disk around somewhere for a bride card that I once had.  Can't remember if it was a 286 or not but if you want it I could see if it's still around.  We're close enough that getting it to you wouldn't be any trouble.  Best regards...Art

[melott]

@Artman

Sure ... can you DMS it and EMail it to me??

This BridgeBoard might be a little interesting to
tinker with setting up.

I'm not going to try running Windows on it just DOS.
I think I might still have DOS 5 or something like that
around yet.

[jeffimix]

This makes 4 people from michigan posting in a row.

[spirantho]

The A2286 is a nice card - though mine's not being used at the moment (unlike the GoldenGate 486 I have in my A1500!) - it's not hard to set up really. I configured my 286 with as much RAM as I could find - I think I got it up to 16MB. It took an age to do the memory test! It also had a Tseng ET3000 SVGA card for graphics, running Win3.1.

They're actually quite fun to tinker with, and if you need more speed you can switch the crystal and CPU quite easily, there's a guide on the Aminet I think.

It is very recommended you get an ISA SVGA card though, and a monitor switcher... CGA is really poor, but a VGA 286 can run Ultima VI!

[melott]

@Jeffimix

Looks like Michigan is a real 'Hot Bed' of Amiga activity  :-D

@Spirantho

I read some of the stuff on Aminet but didn't see anything
on accelerating the 286 board, are you sure??
If so, it sounds interesting and I might give it a try.

I have to check my old PC junk but I think I might have
a Hard/Floppy controller and even a VGA gfx card.

From what I've read it sounds like the mouse is kind of
sluggish. If so then I'll use a mouse card too.

[spirantho]

Pretty sure.. hang on...  hmm... can't see anything off hand. However, I clearly remember there being something somewhere for it.  I suspect it may be as simple as just switching the crystal and CPU, but I'm not sure.. that should stick it up to 14MHz though I think.

The best thing you can get for a bridgeboard like you have is a multi-purpose card - they do exist, with serial (you need this if you want the best mouse handling - don't need a mouse card), parallel, VGA, sound (I think), floppy, hard disk.. you name it.  They're pretty scarce though from what I recall, but dead useful for saving on ISA/Zorro slots! I suspect if you're short of anything, eBay is your friend!

Be warned, though, the 286 has no concept whatsoever of 'plug-n-play' so be prepared for some fun IRQ/base address handling!

[Ilwrath]

This makes 4 people from michigan posting in a row.

Yeah, and a 5th one that has already posted in this thread, as well.  (Hmm... Maybe with the upcoming NHL strike and as little as Hockeytown gets recognized as Detroit, I should change my location field...)

We used to have a lot of BBS and user group support around here, so that was probably part of why we're still around, and ended up at A.o.

Be warned, though, the 286 has no concept whatsoever of 'plug-n-play' so be prepared for some fun IRQ/base address handling!

Yeah, and those multi-purpose cards are always the worst, because they need like 5 memory addresses and 4 IRQs.  Though if you get it running, it would be quite useful to the 286...

[L8Knight]

Hi all,

>Quote:
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>This makes 4 people from michigan posting in a row.

>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


>  Yeah, and a 5th one that has already posted in this thread, as well. (Hmm... Maybe with the upcoming NHL strike and as little as Hockeytown gets recognized as Detroit, I should change my location field...)

Yep.  I think all 5 of us from MI have checked in now. :-P

  --Barry Steenbergh

[AdMartin]

It'd be quite cool to play the MS-DOS games on the Amiga, but honestly, if I were you I'd use Mo'Slo on your wife's PC instead, to slow down her computer when playing old games.

/Martin