Although I personally have mainly only used IBM PC-compatible computers, lately I've sometimes been thinking nostalgically about the 80s and 90s as the heyday of retro personal computers. Compared to today, there were a good number of home computers on the market - Aside from IBM PC & Apple, there was the Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari, and even within Apple, the Apple ][ still seemed somewhat popular in addition to the Macintosh. Also, for IBM compatible PCs, there was a variety of operating systems and environments: DOS, Windows, OS/2, GeoWorks, QEMM DESQView, etc.. Although it was cumbersome to transfer files between all the systems, I feel like the variety was interesting. I would've liked to use Amiga computers more; I think I've only ever used the ma couple times, and only briefly.
I still have my first 1980s computer, a TI-99/4A, that was working the last time I tried to use it. Also have my second, an 8088 XT clone, that was also working the last time I tried to use it. That was the first machine I tried to run a BBS on.
Come to think of it, I still have my third machine, a 386 DX 40, that unfortunately was not working the last time I tried it out. The BIOS will come up but then I get an error. I think maybe there is a motherboard issue. I didn't troubleshoot it much back then. That is the first
machine I had that was powerful enough to run DESQview/386. I would run the BBS in one window and could do other while it ran... like reading a QWK packet in another. ;)
I loved DV. At some point after Quarterdeck quit supporting it, I got hold of a copy of DV/X. It was different for sure.
use until I got into the Simcity games. Simcity 2000 would run on DOS on the 386 just fine... the first version I had was DOS only... so long as QEMM and DV were not loaded. When the next version came out, 3000, I
Later got a used Pentium-166 and loaded OS/2 Warp 4 on it, mostly for VMODEM and running a multi-node DOS BBS. ;) That version of OS/2 came free with a computing magazine, so it was mostly after IBM has given up on it.
At one point, I tried out GeoWorks (or its successor). It seemed pretty neat but I couldn't really find a use case for it by then. IIRC, that is after I had migrated to linux on my daily driver (c2000).
Come to think of it, I still have my third machine, a 386 DX 40, that unfortunately was not working the last time I tried it out. The BIOS will
come up but then I get an error. I think maybe there is a motherboard issue. I didn't troubleshoot it much back then. That is the first
That's cool that you still have those machines. I've never been one to keep older things around; When I replaced something, I always figured I probably wouldn't need the old thing anymore and ended up selling it or getting rid of it some other way. If I kept old stuff, I'd have to find a place to store it, and feel like I've never really had a whole lot of storage space to keep old computer stuff around.
I liked DESQView too. Even though I only had 1 line for my original BBS, I started running it in DESQView so that I could do other things while my BBS was running - including logging into my BBS's 2nd node (I was using the 2-node paid version of RemoteAccess). I was always curious how to set up a multi-node BBS back in the day, even though I only had one dialup line, and I always thought it was pretty cool that you could do that with DOS.
I'd never used DesqView/X; I've only become aware of that recently. I think it's interesting that QuarterDeck made that.
use until I got into the Simcity games. Simcity 2000 would run on DOS on
the 386 just fine... the first version I had was DOS only... so long as QEMM and DV were not loaded. When the next version came out, 3000, I
I always liked the SimCity games. I played the original and SimCity 2000 the most. I tried 3000 but didn't really get into it for some reason.
Later got a used Pentium-166 and loaded OS/2 Warp 4 on it, mostly for VMODEM and running a multi-node DOS BBS. ;)
I tried OS/2 a little bit in the mid-90s too. There was a serial-telnet driver for OS/2 that allowed connecting to a DOS BBS via telnet, and I thought that was pretty awesome. I didn't set up my BBS that way permanently though.
In the mid-90s, I had become aware of BeOS and the BeBox, and I thought that was interesting. Later, I learned that Be Inc. ported BeOS to x86 PCs, and I bought a copy of BeOS R4.5 in 1998 to try it out. I installed it on a secondary PC I had, and I thought that was a really nice OS and enjoyed using it. And thinking about that also always reminds me of an old web-based multiplayer game I used to like to play called Acrophobia, where it presents a random acronym, players make up what it could stand for, and players vote for their favorite. For fun, I sometimes used my BeOS setup to play that.
I don't usually keep every machine around. Most since have either been given away, parted out, or e-scrapped. Those three are more difficult to part with. ;)
I just recently "discovered" SinCity Classic (the original) and enjoy it. I know some folks didn't like 3000 but I thought it was pretty good, other than it required Windows. SimCity 4 is one I have had difficulty getting into. I feel like they tried to get it to do too much more than 2000 or 3000 did, and it hogs a lot of resources. I would have preferred a 2500
driver for OS/2 that allowed connecting to a DOS BBS via telnet, and I thought that was pretty awesome. I didn't set up my BBS that way permanently though.
Yeah, that was VMODEM. I used it for several years and liked how you could also use it with a DOS terminal program to telnet out.
was interesting. Later, I learned that Be Inc. ported BeOS to x86 PCs, and I bought a copy of BeOS R4.5 in 1998 to try it out. I installed it on a secondary PC I had, and I thought that was a really nice OS and enjoyed using it. And thinking about that also always reminds me of an old web-based multiplayer game I used to like to play called Acrophobia, where it presents a random acronym, players make up what it could stand for, and players vote for their favorite. For fun, I sometimes used my BeOS setup to play that.
I became aware of it about the same time and bought a copy also. I remember it could boot from the CD so you could play around with it some. I bought it mostly to evaluate if it was something a relative might like to use. I never had much luck with it on the web, though. Glad you were able to and found something you liked... and still play!
You are probably aware, but there is a FOSS community-based OS called Haiku that is supposed to be a BeOS clone, or at least as much of one as can be managed. It is supposed to run on more modern hardware. IIRC, apam (who wrote Talisman, which recently came up in other conversations) had some of his BBS-related programs that would compile and run on Haiku.
Sim City 3000 was awesome IMHO. Also, the soundtrack was epic - recorded by a real jazz band. I believe you may be able to find it on some
streaming services still.
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