Pimping the Kloon Tower 386 - Sound / Network / Flash Storage

[@parrottm76262]

That video was SO satisfying. I'll admit I always enjoyed installing and configuring a machine/server more than actually using them.

[@jimmyplenderleith9471]

Yes, I agree 100% with that statement.....I too always enjoy building and setting up a s system. Once its done, I kind of back off of it.

[@gemedetvideo]

FYI, It is fairly normal to need to use fdisk /mbr to install the MBR on compact flash cards and SD cards used in SD to IDE adapters. The reason you couldn't run sys c: to copy the system files to the CF card is because some system files need to be on the first track of the disk. It is likely that the data that was already on the card occupied the first track leaving no room for the system files. If that is the case, the error message you received was indeed correct - there really was no space available for the system files in the area of the disk that the systems files have to go. The format /b command is used to reserve space for system files on a drive that is intended to be used for data but may later be used as a bootable disk. If you had formatted the drive using format /b originally then you would have been later able to run sys c: to make the drive bootable even after copying large amounts of data on to the drive. However it looks like you must not have done that, so in that case reformatting the drive was probably the best option. I believe there were some 3rd party disk utilities that could move data around to free up space for system files but I don't know how reliable they are or how well they actually work.

[@48kRAM]

Yes, this. Specifically, IO.SYS and MS-DOS.SYS have to be the first and second entries in the MS-DOS File Allocation Table (FAT). Please excuse the self-promo, but I cover this my #doscember video as well. :)

[@matthewplehn4271]

who the hell watches content and channels like this and NOT like video games?...personally its very comforting to know that the content creator enjoys playing video games..

[@RetroSpector78]

I actually spend too much time playing games on it ... productivity killer :)

[@matthewplehn4271]

@@RetroSpector78 i dont know your life situation but playing games on something you fixed/built or rebuilt isnt a productivity killer..

[@RetroSpector78]

@@matthewplehn4271 work work work and some family time :) that’s my situation :)

[@sevzas]

17:51 you can purchase an AUI to 10baseT transceiver and use that ne2000 card with your home network

[@RaExpIn]

It's always fascinating to see what old computers were really able to do. When I played games on my 386 back then, I never thought about network, internet or programs like word or powerpoint, which are able to do so much more than displaying letters and symbols other than ASCII.

[@ivanadrielmarchetto]

When a pc case makes a crt display look small, we are taking about serious things haha love your videos, and a pleasure listening to you

[@SeeJayPlayGames]

That's an LCD I think, but yeah, that case is friggin' HUGE. BTW the LCD is very anachronistic for this system. So is the CF adapter, but the LCD kind of stands out as being at least 10 years "too new". At least it's beige. But it does look kind of extra small. IDK if it's just the 5.25" floppy drive being closer to the camera than the monitor (which it is) but it makes the screen look tiny. I would have thought it might be a 15" panel but I'm not so sure about that. It looks like it's smaller than that. Back then panels weren't the greatest about response time; I was surprised a scroller like Zool was actually playable.

[@juanschroder6519]

Very good video!!! Greetings from Argentina 🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇧🇪🇧🇪🇧🇪

[@samarmstrong2680]

had a full bnc network in my closet as a teen it was cheaper for me to run 10 computers loaded with hds and win95 than buy a decent hard drive at the time lol controlled the network with a win 98se amd400 128mb ram

[@jorgecalero6325]

That card has an aui connector, so you could use a media converter to get an RJ45 connector on it

[@MechaFenris]

Man, those games bring back memories. :) Some of them were a bear to configure with my el-cheapo knockoff equipment. :)

[@fannydewaele]

Love the Tetris lamp! 🤩 Pinball Fantasies, great memories!

[@temporarilyoffline]

Great vid. I believe the "no room on disk" error from sys was that there was no room at the beginning of the disk for is.sys and msdos.sys, they have to be at the very beginning of the disk. Norton Utilities had a tool for that back in the day. Check out my #DOScember story vid for how I had to learn this the hard way.

[@big0bad0brad]

Yep can confirm - I've written a bootloader for my own BIOS for an old Sanyo series without BIOS in ROM and both it and FreeDOS's bootloader that I have it set up to operate are capable of navigating FAT12 but the MS-DOS loader can't; it depends on the files being exactly where it expects them to be. I will say it's interesting writing a bootloader that has to fit in 400 and some bytes but can't use any BIOS services, yet still be able to display error messages on a bitmapped display (luckily the ROM has a font table and it already initialized the CRTC!)

[@bongodoug]

I just love your videos. As one who came late to the computer hardware enthusiast party (my first was a Windows XP machine in 2001) I love to see this retro stuff in action. Plus you present it in such a nice manner. I now build computers and have even run a computer repair shop in my past where I saw many of these older components make their way to the recycling bin. I really wish I had known then what I am learning now from your channel, I would have held on to some of these components.

[@BocaRetroGames]

I wish I could grab a 386 33 MHz again. It was my first computer when I was 9 years old . Good times

[@catriona_drummond]

Awesome stuff. A friend (who is a mathematician) actually suggested to me just recently that I should put a period correct version of Excel on every of my old machines from the IBM XT on and then execute a really tough formula in it and see how long it takes each machine up until a modern one. I told her I'd do it but she has to provide the sheet with the formula.

[@osgeld]

always could get some AUI to RJ45 adapters

[@samuelgarcia7776]

I love these videos about vintage computers!!!! There is so much new parts and adapters we can use on these old computers, it's soooooo much fun!!!! I just love it!!!!

[@osgrov]

What a beauty, good job. :) That tower case is awesome. Wish we could have something similar today! I like how you get into networking. That's a topic most people never bother with these days, and it's so easy to forget how it was done. I've always sucked at networking stuff, so it's great with a refresher. :)

[@PaulinesPastimes]

Another excellent video. Nice clear explanations of processes too. I love Office 4.2 and also Office 97. For the average user they offer all the functionality you could require and I often find them easier to use than current versions. ✨🎄🎅😊

[@Grus0]

Great video. I've been putting off the homework required to get my 386 networked, so the little walkthrough here was very handy.

Very nice machine! I'm impressed with the performance and style!

[@GuybrushThriftweed]

I installed the same card in a 286 this week. It sounds really nice coming from SB cards. Warned you about the installer changing your autoexec and config though :)

[@Topy44]

Haha, I have the exact same model speakers sitting on my desk in my workshop, they are in almost daily use for listening to podcasts and the like. Same branding and everything! Found them on the side of the road about a decade ago (here in Germany). The definition of generic 90s PC speakers, but not actually too terrible for their age.

[@wfp9378]

Wow...so many memories. I use my old systems for retro gaming but should try the networking and old office apps again...just because I can.

[@anomaly95]

+1 for MediaVision. I owned a SCSI PAS16 as a first sound card. @9:26 That particular installer looks like it came from a different CDROM/sound card bundle as it's trying to load the driver for the proprietary Sony interface. At least the sound card itself works though.

[@appwraith]

It's nice to see a 386 come alive like this, well done on the video. I'm more partial to SD cards in these builds, mostly because they are a lot easier to buy around where I am.

[@TheUltimateAlieN]

Thanks for the great videos! I’ve watched the military laptop series recently and found it fascinating. Happy holiday wishes to you and yours, and looking forward to more videos in the future.

[@Shand1982]

Spectrum Holobyte 😍 quality 👌

[@RockRedGenesis]

ST:TNG A Final Unity, Spectrum Holobyte at its finest!

[@mrvellu]

man, those speakers. I used them with a 486 back in the day. I still remember the sound they made when powering up

[@Madixe]

You should try to find some AUI converter (like an AT210TS) and you'll be able to use your oldest network cards without RJ45 I have a AT&T StarLAN 10 Network AUI Adapter and I've tried it on a CentreCom 3024TR and it's works fine ;) (I 'll try it on a Intercom NI6510 card)

[@dykodesigns]

Those Delock CF to IDE are pretty handy, and fairly easy to come by. I’ve got 3 of them, the Allekabels.nl webshop sometimes has them. The only nitpick is that the small floppy molex connector doesn’t always make proper contact.

[@crusader2.0_loading89]

I love the case...had many similar back in the day

[@DaveJustDave]

what a beast.. i've never seen this brand before. i gotta admit, the intro music i totally thought you were going to run Falcon 3

[@turbinegraphics16]

Really good graphics with the smooth scrolling, better than the consoles and amiga even.

[@RockRedGenesis]

Raptor! Damn, that brings back memories! Played that shareware to absolute death a a kid!

[@spidermcgavenport8767]

Thank yo Sir, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays too you as well. These machines are awesome and I am happy to see them still functional and being used today! Getting that expanded memory page frame address set is a bit tricky!

[@angieandretti]

I'm amazed how much faster this rig is at gaming vs. my 386 PC! I've tested some of the same games, EX: Lotus Challenge. I'd say I get about 2fps whereas you've gotta be getting at least 15. Your system is clocked higher but I'm surprised how big the performance difference is. I'm running an IBM 5170 (286 PC) but I swapped out the 286 CPU for a "SnapIn 386" daughterboard with a 20MHz 386SX and 16KB L1 cache. It does run a lot faster than the stock 8MHz 286 but obviously not at the level of a thoroughbred 386 system. The other difference is video card, but mine is a Cirrus Logic CL-GD5428 w/ 1MB RAM. I figured just about any newer VGA card like that would outperform the rest of the system but does anyone think it could actually be bottlenecking performance during gaming?

[@DxDeksor]

You're using a 386SX whereas his computer uses a 386DX. Moreover, how does your adapter have access to the ram ? Does it use the motherboard's ram ? Then it must be really slow by comparison

[@angieandretti]

@@DxDeksor By adapter you mean the 386 daughterboard, yes? It plugs into the original 286 CPU socket and that's all, so it accesses RAM through the same pathways as the original CPU it replaced. It's not an ISA card like the InBoard 386, just a replacement CPU plus 16KB L1 cache. Memspeed utility shows 3.4MB/sec write, 2.4-8.9MB/sec read (cache vs main memory I assume), and 1.7MB/sec move. I read somewhere that 386SX vs DX doesn't matter a whole lot clock-for-clock in gaming. Is that false?

[@DxDeksor]

@@angieandretti well in my experience what matters the most for 386s is the memory bandwidth. A 386DX with motherboard cache will outperform a 386SX massively. A 386sx with internal cache will be faster. Your 386 has external cache probably to overcome the memory's slowness from the motherboard, but it's still quite slow. iirc my 386sx has 10mb/s of memory speed, if not more

[@Eyetrauma]

26:37 I dunno dude, whenever I run old versions of Office I’m usually struck by how little advancement there’s been.

[@mikesilva3868]

😊never heard of zool reminds me of jazz jackrabbit

[@mattscomp]

Fantastic. I really have to get my Unisys 386SX networked. It's also without CD ROM but has a sound card. I might just use this method. :-)

[@160rpm]

Someone should make some CF adaptors that makes the same sounds as an old IDE drive lol

[@matthewday7565]

If you set the card to IRQ 2, that should be equivalent to the default of 9, as IRQ2 is rerouted through IRQ9

[@JamesPotts]

I love that case so much. It really looks like something IBM would have made.

[@DavidWonn]

I’m in full agreement in using the old versions of Microsoft Office, though I use version 4.3 (not that it does much more than 4.2 already.) In fact I store most of my spreadsheets on an offline 486, as Excel 95 does nearly everything I need it to do (plus the newer versions will still read my old formats anyway.) For the extremely rare cases where I need later features, Office 97 + the Office 2007 compatibility pack does everything else.

[@48kRAM]

Great video! I'm gonna steal your list of games and see if they can run smoothly on my 20MHz 386. I've got a later NE-2000 clone in that machine, too (Compaq Deskpro) and I use the boot ROM socket on it to host my XT-IDE boot PROM.

[@matthewjbauer1990]

Kloon is Dutch for Clone. Yet this is not a true IBM Kloon. Still, it looks cool for its day.

[@BEAT.SWEATS]

the tetris light almost synced with the melody intro

[@georgemaragos2378]

Hi - you are doing well with that 386 @ 4.00 the comment with the spare command.com on c-drive i found that some times when booting of a floppy and you remove it "some times" the system will halt or freeze and it asks for command.com this was common on single or dual floppy systems, eg boot of floppy A, remove and inset say ms works for dos in A and the data disk in 2 , then at some stage it will ask for command .com or just halt and crash saying command,com not found, i know i had a program where i went to print or save and it would do this A work around was in the autoexec batch file add a path to say a:\;c:\c:\dos etc and also on the next line add the command comspec=c:\command.com so if it needed it , it would not just go straight to the original boot device Those compact flash are amazing, my second oldest machine is a Pentium 2 and runs a 4G CF card, with Win 98 - luckily i have 3 different types of readers male / female / and the slot like yours, i have a separate external USB 4 in one reader that i can use on the win7/win10 machines to drop files :: Re the lancard - i used DR dos 5 or 6 for a few years when the kids were in school, it came with novell lite i believe or similar, and on school days they lost the mapping at 8pm at night to my machine which shared the games folder - they also got a pop up at 7:45 7:50 7:55 7:59 which advised there z-drive will go down - there was the odd tantrum but i just replied - you got 3 warning messages - pay attention and save and quit I still have co-axial under the house my spare room > daughters > sons Regards George

[@nyccollin]

9:35 Chimes is the familiar Windows Startup sound for you? For me it was TADA.wav. No idea why Chimes is playing as the startup sound. Completely unfamiliar to me.

[@mlmmt]

*hears raptor music* *likes video* ahhh, the memories.

[@DeBovenkamer]

Very nice tower, I love it!

[@doramilitiakatiemelody1875]

Nice i see your playing my Favorite Lotus Game Lotus III

[@lexpee]

Hmm no USB card? possible one option to install. handy for mouse, keyboard, ans other USB stuff.

[@gabrielebiffi9018]

Great video! I found one of those JAZZ-16 sound card, only difference it's one of those with multiple cd interfaces. Seems to be a Pro Audio Spectrum in disguise. It was difficult to find a working driver for it and it's got a lot of issues (also, not having the documentation for the jumpers doesn't help). Where did you find the driver you're using?

[@DosGamerMan]

Been through all that with a CF card on older computers. Fun times

[@Astinsan]

Best option is to use an M.two connector adapter with a PATA interface... It’s probably the best combination and you’re going to get the best performance your actually gonna be able to have multiple reads and writes at the same time

[@abx42]

I'm in love with this case what's its name so I can see if I can buy one

[@Johnny-es9xg]

Merry Chrismas to you too.

[@compugamesarg]

this is great stuff!

[@SeeJayPlayGames]

I'm confused by the BIOS declarations of RAM here. It looks like it has 8MB in one spot and in the other it seems like it has 2MB... which is it? I'm guessing 8MB, which would have been quite a lot back in 1991.

[@woldemunster9244]

I'ts a shame that you can't get a "period"-CRT for decent price nowadays, that LCD has so much lag, you can feel it by watching the video... :D Back in the day i got used to having 2-monitor setup, when you had to have REAL office-grade computer desk that could handle 50kg/100pound load.

[@woldemunster9244]

That W 3.11 configuring is as painful as i remember. :DDDDD

[@woldemunster9244]

Of course that video card "works" on a LCD with 640x480@30hz, none of the games use that card to nothing more than compatibility. Windows is the "only" reason to have more than 2Mb of vram. :DDDD

[@JenniferinIllinois]

MS Office? That system is just begging for WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3. Hehehe...

[@georgemaragos2378]

MS Works 2 Dos version - i used it for almost 20 years

[@zarkeh3013]

any bigger flash storage, and Ya'd need XT-IDE!!! ... then can do partitioning on a modern computer to get the aligned partition thing going.

[@dschoene57]

I hear Monkey Island theme, I like

[@TheFaeder]

Great video! Only 2 consideration: You can skip the "Matrioska" VM mapping the compact flash on virtual box, it's not a fast process, but when you have done the first time you can use with every VM (i use for install and load software on an old Amstrad pc): www.serverwatch.com/guides/using-a-physical-hard-drive-with-a-virtualbox-vm/ ; And (as other viewers already tell) you can use an aui mau to convert the aui port on the old novel card to connect over rj45! Maybe it's cheaper to find a card that already has an rj45 connector, but it's an interesting accessory to have, i have an old se/30 that came with an aui network card, and whit a mau i bring it to internet!

[@richardleaneagh4274]

have 3.11 on cd to install os

[@Astinsan]

You should do a little bit of a Retro bright or water and hydrogen peroxide mix in the sun

[@bobgrimes8618]

That looks like an IBM PS/2 Model 80.

[@Qtechbh]

Which one do you think is the best emulator for DOS + Win 3.11 (with Networking) in 2020? FYI, for future reference - you could've transferred the installation via the original VM itself, assuming you were able to mount the flash card OR just get the dos sharing working and copy the files over the network. For example, DOS and Windows 3.11 with the exception of the sys files (and the permanent swap file) can be copied across easily with xcopy: www.itsupportguides.com/knowledge-base/tech-tips-tricks/how-to-clone-drive-using-xcopydos/

[@lelandclayton5462]

Depends really. Vbox works great but some times hardware drivers are a pain. DosBox can do a lot and in the past I have had WFW 3.11 running but the Networking is a royal pain. www.dosbox.com/wiki/Network_Setup Honestly I would find a old PC and go the baremetal route. You don't have to use Retro/Vintage hardware. My current DOS Box is a old Dell I found on the trash curb. Has a Pentium 4 and it had some bad RAM but I found a old stick of 128MB then bought a cheap PCI Realtek Ethernet card for 10 bucks off of ebay that has a easy to find Packet Driver.

[@connorsteffan8958]

when someone ask you what your'e playing:uh, kloons tower defense

[@woldemunster9244]

24:11 TRUMPET WINSOCK INCOMING!

[@woldemunster9244]

WTF?!??!? W3.11 supports SAMBA?

[@djpirtu2]

@@woldemunster9244 Oh yes it does :D I have Toshiba T5200 with Win3.11 WFW and I can read my 5TB network drive from it. Long filenames of course are not displaying correctly.

[@padathir]

Good old Stunts 🤣

[@ackman3981]

There is not decent documentation anymore since people not want to take the time to actually know how a pc, etc works. They just want to turn it on and use it. Not want to be "bothered" with actually fixing it themselves. Or seeing why it not work. That is just exactly what Apple stated in their adds. "Just plug it in and it works" they used to say. And if it not they will gladly sell you the AppleCare (extended warranty) and have you take it in to a local Apple Store for their "GeniusBar" to fix.

[@Bewefau]

I need a dummy's guide on how to hook up a network for windows 98/Me and windows 7 i also have server 2012 and 2018

[@only257]

👍

[@RetroTechChris]

Great! Do you have a JetDirect/PCL5 compatible printer? If so, you can wire it up to print from those old MS Office applications! www.vcfed.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-8613.html

[@muchosa1]

No math coprocessor?

[@amaxamon]

"Stay safe, stay healthy" -- I started ignoring the scamdemic back in June and I've been very safe & healthy.

[@PROSTO4Tabal]

early networking? go and see RetroSpector78 channel

[@nickwallette6201]

You’re already here!

[@JamesPotts]

I love that case so much. It really looks like something IBM would have made.