The great PC-Task thread

[spirantho]

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.

[rvo_nl]

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

[Iggy]

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.

[zipper]

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...)

[rvo_nl]

haha, been there, done that. somehow its all part of the fun. at least for me.

[kvasir]

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...

[XDelusion]

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?

[rvo_nl]

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.

[XDelusion]

That's what I used with DosBOX was 98lite.

BTW Win7 32-bit lite is pretty nice too as is MicroXP 0.82

[rvo_nl]

well, I suppose.. but there is no way that is going to run under pc-task

[XDelusion]

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.

[AmigaClassicRule]

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.

[XDelusion]

Where is the latest link to 4.4 anyhow?

EDIT: EAB  app/archive

[kvasir]

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.)

[fishy_fiz]

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.

[XDelusion]

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?