larrylaffer Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 Hi experts! Can someone tell ne what this card is? I guess since it has an Intel 286 processor it is a 286 emulator for the falcon? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marakatti Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 It is a PC board called Falcon Speed similar to this one https://www.ebay.de/itm/Atari-Falcon-Speed-by-Sack-electronic-/113865766411 You can run DR-DOS, MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 with it if you have the software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrylaffer Posted September 25, 2019 Author Share Posted September 25, 2019 Yes! Thank you. I did manage to identify this card and in fact the software needed (other than DOS or Win) has been discussed previously here: http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=29235 The version of the files I have seems to have an issue with VGA, it starts windows 3.1 but the screen is distorted. I can barely see the windows and the icons... I will replace with the files in the link above and try again... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tillek Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 3 hours ago, larrylaffer said: The version of the files I have seems to have an issue with VGA, it starts windows 3.1 but the screen is distorted. I can barely see the windows and the icons... No... that seems about right based on my years of experience with Windows 3.1 back in the day. Sounds like it's working just fine to me. A very accurate emulator indeed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 5 hours ago, larrylaffer said: Yes! Thank you. I did manage to identify this card and in fact the software needed (other than DOS or Win) has been discussed previously here: http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=29235 The version of the files I have seems to have an issue with VGA, it starts windows 3.1 but the screen is distorted. I can barely see the windows and the icons... I will replace with the files in the link above and try again... Sounds almost like Windows can't sync to the display. Out of curiosity, what type of display are you using, and does DOS running on that card show up properly? Be interesting to see what happens with the drivers installed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrylaffer Posted September 25, 2019 Author Share Posted September 25, 2019 I cracked it... ? Windows was using falcxvga.drv driver (set in system.ini) and as soon as I changed it to falc_vga.drv and added that driver from the zip in c:\windows\system it all starts up nice and crisp! Maybe the falcxvga.drv was corrupted. It got too late last night after I figured things out and I just declared victory and stopped... As for the monitor, I have a modern LCD but I get the vga signal from the Atari falcon->vga adapter, feed it to a scan doubler/scaler and then into the monitor. Works great with all my retro computers. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wally1 Posted September 25, 2019 Share Posted September 25, 2019 Congratulations for your victory. There's always a workaround, or a hack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluemonday Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 Would be interested in seeing a few screenshots of this in action if you have time! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrylaffer Posted September 26, 2019 Author Share Posted September 26, 2019 1 hour ago, bluemonday said: Would be interested in seeing a few screenshots of this in action if you have time! You are right! Moments like this need to be captured! So here it is: - Falcon Speed running - Booting into DOS 6.20 - Slash screen of win 3.1 (not sure why black and white...) - Win 3.1 running - Win 3.1 screen saver kicking in! My wife is so proud of me right now! ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrylaffer Posted September 26, 2019 Author Share Posted September 26, 2019 Oh, and also for completion, I had captured a picture of the messed up screen that I thought I had uploaded but apparently not. So here it is. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarian1 Posted September 27, 2019 Share Posted September 27, 2019 Wow. This brings back memories of college around the mid-90s before Windows 95. I had been using my MegaST4 since 1987 using LDW Power for spreadsheet work. However, it was starting to show its age being only Lotus 123 compatible. I needed Excel since everyone else was using it so I needed to exchange data with my lab partners. Texel was promising but it was German only. All this finally gave me an excuse to buy a Falcon and Falcon Speed. It was not the fastest, but for the Excel spreadsheets and graphs I was making, it worked. Floppy disks being MS-DOS compatible also was a plus. Also got to stick with Atari a bit longer before going PC at the end of the 90s. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clint Thompson Posted September 27, 2019 Share Posted September 27, 2019 Very cool! Would have been awesome to have had this in my Falcon when I owned one. Don't recall ever seeing one of these running in a Falcon let alone in person and has always been a curiosity. Thanks for sharing ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrylaffer Posted September 28, 2019 Author Share Posted September 28, 2019 Thank you all for the input and for sharing thoughts and/or memories. This is all part of enjoying collecting and using our beloved Atari (and maybe other computers and gaming consoles from the previous century), and also the fun being in such a lovely forum as the AtariAge! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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