Question about PCjr

[The Usotsuki]

Apart from the EX and HX, I believe you can use VGA and SB with the 1000 line...but you might run into weirdness with the VGA since the BIOS is hardwired to the internal controller and wouldn't know what to do with a video card.

 

My 5160 has a VGA - a Diamond Speedstar, those are "8/16" cards, so even though they have the extra pins they'll work in XT-class machines.

[Bill Loguidice]

Yeah, honestly, if you want to run the widest variety of classic PC games, probably a good 486 clone system with VGA and a Sound Blaster card will be the most versatile, as well as equipping it with both 5.25" and 3.5" disk drives along with a hard drive (CD-ROM optional). You can then swap out various other cards or external add-ons as desired. Some software you'll have to slow down with mo'slo or something similar. Some of the crazier collectors such as myself have original PC, PCjr, Tandy 1000-series systems along with several generics up to and including Pentium systems (the latter used for early 3D cards). There's no perfect way of doing it, of course. It's something of an art. Again, it's easy enough to argue that once you pass the EGA-era, there's minimal advantage to running real hardware because there's nothing really special about the hardware. Just using DOSBOX on a modern PC with virtual images rather than original disks is generally the way to go.

[Hatta]

Yes, a T1000 will take a VGA card. And yes, for the most part VGA era games are better with a faster processor. I enjoyed playing Mean Streets on my TX, but took the VGA card out when I got my 2500SX/20. If you buy a TL, there is a utility that will switch between VGA and the internal video. That, and the standard keyboard port plus game ports you can disable make the TL series the best all around Tandy.

[Maverick]

ISTR that someone was working on ripping PCjr cartridges and making them playable from diskette. Don't remember how far along the project got, or what cartridges exactly were ripped. I think I remember who the guy was that was working on this - I'll contact him and see what's up.

 

FWIW, since Mike Brutman's page has been referenced, check out XT-IDEjr project. Running an 8gb disk-on-module with 768kb or RAM and a functional clock on the PCjr from a single sidecar? Awesome!

 

(I need to pull mine back out and play some more...)

[Tempest]

FWIW, since Mike Brutman's page has been referenced, check out XT-IDEjr project. Running an 8gb disk-on-module with 768kb or RAM and a functional clock on the PCjr from a single sidecar? Awesome!

It's an awesome card, I've got my PCjr running a 2GB hard drive with DOS 3.3 on it. The clock is nice too, but the hard drive interface is the key features. The card also allows maxes out your memory to 756K if you use the configuration program (jrConfig or something like that). It makes the PCjr almost 100% compatible with games that support Tandy graphics.

 

I also recommend getting an external 3.5" drive that plugs into the parallel port sidecard. This will give you just about everything you need (I have the 3.5" drive mapped to B: since the built in 5.25" drive is usually expected to be A:).

[Bill Loguidice]

It's an awesome card, I've got my PCjr running a 2GB hard drive with DOS 3.3 on it. The clock is nice too, but the hard drive interface is the key features. The card also allows maxes out your memory to 756K if you use the configuration program (jrConfig or something like that). It makes the PCjr almost 100% compatible with games that support Tandy graphics.

 

I also recommend getting an external 3.5" drive that plugs into the parallel port sidecard. This will give you just about everything you need (I have the 3.5" drive mapped to B: since the built in 5.25" drive is usually expected to be A:).

 

That sounds phenomenal, though honestly, from a time standpoint, I'd prefer to pay someone to send me a pre-configured setup. It seems like a bit more time and effort than I can invest at this point to get it all together based on what I've seen on the page. A bonus if it has all the PCjr software pre-installed...

[Tempest]

You can get the card pre assembled so it's ready to go, but that's it. Honestly, configuring everything isn't hard. If you get one I can send you the files I use and you should be set. Of course you'd have to install DOS and all that on your own.

[Serious]

So, I did manage to acquire a Demon Attack PCjr cartridge.

 

Any suggestions on a good place to acquire a PCjr, and a reasonable price for one?

 

While eBay seems to have lots of PCjr accessories, there don't seem to be more than a couple of actual, working PCjr computers on there.

[Mirage]

So, I did manage to acquire a Demon Attack PCjr cartridge.

 

Any suggestions on a good place to acquire a PCjr, and a reasonable price for one?

 

While eBay seems to have lots of PCjr accessories, there don't seem to be more than a couple of actual, working PCjr computers on there.

 

What do you think is a reasonable price for a working one? Say it had the monitor, full stroke keyboard, and parallel port side car, but was missing for some oddball reason, the floppy drive, but worked otherwise? Say, hypothetically?

[atarian63]

Good luck finding joysticks. Just get a more mainstream machine from that era like a800 or c64

[Bill Loguidice]

Good luck finding joysticks. Just get a more mainstream machine from that era like a800 or c64

 

I've never had issues finding joysticks on eBay, plus there are adapters regularly available that allow you to use normal PC port controllers.

[Serious]

What do you think is a reasonable price for a working one? Say it had the monitor, full stroke keyboard, and parallel port side car, but was missing for some oddball reason, the floppy drive, but worked otherwise? Say, hypothetically?

 

 

 

Well, I don't think I need the monitor or sidecar. I'd just be using this to play Demon Attack and maybe other cartridge-based games, probably on a CRT television.

 

Assuming the computer (minus floppy) and keyboard would give me a working setup for playing cartridge-based games, would $50 for the computer and keyboard be in the right ballpark?

Just get a more mainstream machine from that era like a800 or c64

 

My wife would probably tell you that I've already got those covered.

[Mirage]

Well, I don't think I need the monitor or sidecar. I'd just be using this to play Demon Attack and maybe other cartridge-based games, probably on a CRT television.

 

Assuming the computer (minus floppy) and keyboard would give me a working setup for playing cartridge-based games, would $50 for the computer and keyboard be in the right ballpark?

 

 

Not really sure, to tell the truth. I guess that sounds about right. I think I would want to sell the entire setup all at once though, the monitor and sidecar wouldn't do me any good without the jr itself. And I may have the drive somewhere, I just don't know where. It's not lost, I just don't know where it is I'm sure you can find one, they can't be all THAT hard to find, can they?

[Serious]

Not really sure, to tell the truth. I guess that sounds about right. I think I would want to sell the entire setup all at once though, the monitor and sidecar wouldn't do me any good without the jr itself. And I may have the drive somewhere, I just don't know where. It's not lost, I just don't know where it is I'm sure you can find one, they can't be all THAT hard to find, can they?

 

I don't think I'd need the drive, actually, but I understand not wanting to break it up.

[Mirage]

Oh, I'm sorry, I meant I'm sure you can find a PCjr, not a drive. I see how that sounded the way I wrote it. If you get REALLY desperate, PM me about it, but I hope you can find one that's just the bare jr you're looking for.

[Hatta]

You should email Mike Brutman. If he doesn't have one he'll sell to you, I bet he'll know where to look.