Weasel @wildweasel@computerfairi.es

⚠️ Call to action: Use your retro IBM-compatible PCs to help the MegaZeux DOS port! ⚠️

In the late 90s/early 00s, MegaZeux introduced a mode called "Super MegaZeux": using an undefined behaviour of enabling 256-color VGA mode in text mode, it allowed the use of 256 colors on some graphics chipsets.

We'd like to know which graphics chipsets these are. Legacy compatibility lists are very limited and of poor quality, so we're building a new one. Here's how you can help:

1. Get your retro PCs out. The only requirement is a VGA-compatible graphics chipset; any 8086+ laptops and desktops are supported otherwise.
2. Download and run SMZXTEST.EXE from https://asie.pl/files/smzxtest.zip
3. Take a photo of the screen! (If you want, take another photo after pressing A to see if an alternate undefined mode works better on your machine.)
4. Reply with the photos and a description of the machine (which graphics chipset/card it uses; for laptops, a model of the laptop is also welcome).
5. Once verified, I'll add it to the list at https://www.digitalmzx.com/wiki/Super_MegaZeux#Compatibility

Thank you in advance and good luck!

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#TodayInHistory 1995 - Be introduces the BeBox running BeOS. It features two 66 MHz PowerPC 603 processors, three PCI and four ISA slots, two MIDI ports, four serial ports, one parallel port, two joystick ports, and stereo input/output ports. Prices start at US$1600.

Production was halted in January 1997, Be sold around 1,800 66 BeBoxes.

#retrocomputing #retrocomputer

I’ve started a GoFundMe to help with my cancer battle https://gofund.me/6850175a3

I like my Linux laptop that crashes once or twice a day. I like my Mastodon account where you can't really talk to anyone about anything but webdev or Rust. I like my Lenovo tablet that sometimes switches into Japanese for no reason. I like my Steam Deck that needs unique settings fiddling per game. I'm willing to put up with some friction & frustration from my computers & software. But what I can't ~abide~, and will twist my life into pretzels to avoid from my computers & software, is *malice*.

Do I feel like this computer is mine, or The Company's? Do I feel like The Company is trying to manipulate me? Do I feel like The Company feels that they own me? Does the computer feel like a sort of interloper, in my life, something that's wormed its way into my home, something I can't get rid of, something that will use this foothold someday to hurt me?

A little story based on a dream last night.

--

We took the coastal road into town after dark, headlights cutting through the mist and clarifying nothing in the haze but movement. The sea, close and unseen, whispered secrets.

Mia drove. I was still sweating out nicotine when we passed the first hand-painted sign: “NO DRONES. NO CLOUD. NO EXPLAINING.”
We were looking for machines, but not those machines.

was looking up that one black metal band where the one guy got murdered and another guy was like "well I was gonna murder him myself" (mayhem) and found on the page of the nazi murderer bassist one of the funniest Wikipedia sentences I've ever seen