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DOS CARD

68kMacx86

Well-known member
Can only dos be run on these cards.  Can Windows 95? can Linux?  Is it an x86 card or strictly a DOS Card?  What hardware can be shared?  Would one of these be a good investment for someone with limited space to do both retro DOS Games and retro Mac Games?

 
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BadGoldEagle

Well-known member
The Houdini I card can't do any audio at all, the Houdini II can't do MIDI (limited to SB16 and Adlib sounds, plus since there is no parallel port, you can't upgrade the sound card at all) and upgrading the CPU is damn near impossible given the rarity of 5V DX4s and Cyrixes, so no Duke Nukem 3D... The Orangemicro cards have better performance but they cost upwards of 400USD. The Apple cards can only do DOS and Windows (no Linux or NeXt). The Orangemicro ones might be able to run 2000 and Linux...

The DOS card can share the mouse, keyboard and some folders with the Mac.

Unless you find one for cheap, buying a small footprint Pentium PC might be better. But, if you are allergic to non Apple hardware, then the card is the only option.

 
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68kMacx86

Well-known member
I just wanted to try it out for the novelty.  I remember BEGGING my dad to buy a dos compatible mac but he wouldnt spend the money.  when i was a kid i had visions of never having to care about what platform a game was for, just insert the cd and start playing

 

Cory5412

Daring Pioneer of the Future
Staff member
Most of these only really have drivers and integration for DOS+Windows 3 and Windows 95. Some of the later Orange Micro ones were made a little more generic, but as far as I know, that probably only officially extends to Windows NT. If it works at all, few people run Linux on these things because from a practical perspective, you wouldn't get much out of it relative to linux in Virtual PC on a faster Mac or using macssh or a telnet program to connect to a box on your network.

I'm sure you could play some DOS/Windows games on them, but largely because they needed to be even a little bit affordable and because you are putting most of an entire physical computer inside another one, they aren't particularly high performance. Even without being very high performance, in some systems (the 6100 in particular, I don't know how the 630/610 are for this) these cards introduce a lot of heat.

The intent when they were new was absolutely to make midrange Macs being used in business and high end home office scenarios compatible with business and office applications - basically, the same use cases as VMware when the Intel Macs first launched, and Virtual PC, once Macs were fast (and stable) enough that you could just leave an entire Windows system running in the background.

Be aware that many of Apple's own DOS compatibility cards are specific to certain machines. For example, there's the one for the 630, and there's the one for the 610, and there's the one for the 6100, and after that they get a little bit more generic, but not a lot. (In particular, I believe Apple's PCI compatibility cards require a port that is present on the 4400, 5400, 6400, 5500, 6500, 7200, 8500, 7500, and maybe the 7600 and 7300, but not the 9500 and 9600, and I forget if the 8600 has it.

I have a 6100/DOS and I'm interested in getting my card up and running, I believe @LaPorta put the files up on VTools, so my only excuse is really that I haven't had the time or energy to pull the 6100 back out, put it up somewhere, network it to vtools and configure the stuff. I should see if I can do that soon, because I like that system and I have wanted to play Windows 3.

One of the PCI  DOS cards in a machine like a 6400 or 7200 might be a better compromise if you wanted to build a "fast" Windows 3 or 95 configuration, because those have newer and faster CPUs and better hard disks and i/o in general than 68k and first-gen PPC Macs. You could do, say, a 7200 build with a PC card and a SCSI/IDE/SATA card and the attendant hard disk, (you could even do two disks - one for Mac data and a separate one for PC card data), and some other nicety such as a USB card.

For example: https://modelrail.otenko.com/apple/power-mac-7200-pc-compatibility 

 

Cory5412

Daring Pioneer of the Future
Staff member
Wikipedia has a listing of the different DOS card models: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatibility_card

Also, looking at the manuals on the Otenko page, it appears that the 9500 was compatible with the PC Compatibility Cards. It also appears I was incorrect about the internal video cabling - the manuals suggest that is only compatible with the 7200 on the 12-inch card, and I am going to presume the 7200 as well as the 4400, 5400, 6400, 5500 and 6500 for the 7-inch card. (Unless I'm mis-remembering and these cards don't work in those machines at all, which is a very real possibility.)

EDIT: I appear to have mis-remembered that these cards work in the 5000/6000-series machines. There is a specific model of card that is "for" the 4400/7220.

 
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dr.zeissler

Well-known member
Hi there. I own some Doscards and I got all to work except one. This one is making me nuts.

Quadra700 = 68K/PPC-Card and Nubus DosCard 386dx working 7.1.3

PM6100/66 = 486DX2/66 Doscard

PM7300/500 = 166Mhz PCI Doscard

But the OrangePC 620 in my G3-Desktop is driving me nuts.

My K6 400 is always recognized as 256Mhz, CD-Rom is found but the win9x boot-cd always says no cd in drive.

I read that these orangeCards are mostly 100% configurated from the driver-software, not the bios.

I saw pictures from my card when the AMD K6 is 100% recognized...they seem to have software version 3.1.2 working,

but I all have and ever found was 3.4.x and these software does not work for the cpu-detection and not for the cd-ram drives.

Even changing the IDE to a Apple branded SCSI-CDrom did not work either.

I think it's better to go with the orangepc for win9x then the pentium166 card on my PM7300.

 
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jeremywork

Well-known member
My K6 400 is always recognized as 256Mhz
Have you checked the dip switches on the card? I believe they're located under the memory DIMM on your model. The legend for the switches may be silkscreened or stickied onto the card itself, but if not I found this:

http://archive.retro.co.za/mirrors/68000/www.vintagemacworld.com/omweb/orangepcfaqs.html

Q: What are the 620 dip switch settings for the AMD K6-3 400 MHz?

The OrangePC 620 card will accommodate up to the AMD K6-III 400 MHz CPU.  The dip switch settings for the CPU are:
S1=OFF S2=ON S3=OFF S4=OFF S5=ON S6=OFF S7=ON S8=OFF S-10=OFF S11=OFF S12=ON.

Q: What are the 620 dip switch settings for the AMD K6-2 400Mhz?

The dip switch settings for the AMD K6-2 400 CPU on a OrangePC 620 are as follows:
S1=OFF S2=OFF S3=ON S4=OFF S5=ON S6=OFF S7=ON S8=OFF S10=OFF S11=OFF S12=ON


Not sure on the CD-ROM issue... You've already tried an Apple SCSI which would be my first suggestion. Which versions of Mac OS have you tried running under? 

 

dr.zeissler

Well-known member
PM6100/66 = 486DX2/66 Doscard

Anyone got Windows 3.0 working on the houdini card. Windows 3.1 is working fine. Win95a seems to be to slow and therefore worthless in my opinion.
 

dr.zeissler

Well-known member
The Houdini I card can't do any audio at all, the Houdini II can't do MIDI (limited to SB16 and Adlib sounds, plus since there is no parallel port, you can't upgrade the sound card at all) and upgrading the CPU is damn near impossible given the rarity of 5V DX4s and Cyrixes, so no Duke Nukem 3D... The Orangemicro cards have better performance but they cost upwards of 400USD. The Apple cards can only do DOS and Windows (no Linux or NeXt). The Orangemicro ones might be able to run 2000 and Linux...

The DOS card can share the mouse, keyboard and some folders with the Mac.

Unless you find one for cheap, buying a small footprint Pentium PC might be better. But, if you are allergic to non Apple hardware, then the card is the only option.
- Houdini1 can route PC-SPK through mac-sound (there are lot's of great games and demos and even soundplayers that can make use of this!)
- Houdini2 card should do midi via softmpu and joystick-midi cable. Afair I had done this before but I have to re-check this.
- The 630 Dos card can't do midi that is right, the 630/DOS does not route the midi-signal to the joystick-port.
- Later Apple PC-DOS-Cards (133/166) tend to slow down the fm-music while loadling from harddisk. Check it out in Wolf3D.
- Also the later PC-DOS-Cards have an ATI mach64 that is not so compatible especiall with the demo-scene. Lot's of demos fail! so CT450 (Houdini1/2 is much better!)

Doc
 
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stepleton

Well-known member
The only way to access a disk with a Houdini II card is through BIOS calls. If your OS doesn't use the PC BIOS to talk to the disk (and Linux doesn't), then you can't really run the OS.

But if you must have a Unix-like experience, some very old versions of Minix can be configured to access the disk through the BIOS. After experimenting with it right around the turn of the century, I chose Minix-vmd, which (unlike other Minix 2.x variants) allows you to run a decades-old version of XFree86.

If anyone can do better than that, I'd love to hear about it!
 

dr.zeissler

Well-known member
- Houdini1 can route PC-SPK through mac-sound (there are lot's of great games and demos and even soundplayers that can make use of this!)
- Houdini2 card should do midi via softmpu and joystick-midi cable. Afair I had done this before but I have to re-check this.
- The 630 Dos card can't do midi that is right, the 630/DOS does not route the midi-signal to the joystick-port.
- Later Apple PC-DOS-Cards (133/166) tend to slow down the fm-music while loadling from harddisk. Check it out in Wolf3D.
- Also the later PC-DOS-Cards have an ATI mach64 that is not so compatible especiall with the demo-scene. Lot's of demos fail! so CT450 (Houdini1/2 is much better!)

Doc

Sorry!
I have to correct myself on this: No MIDI-Out via joystick-midi cable on houdini2 !!!
 

Quadraman

Well-known member
I agree that a Pentium class PC is going to be much better than a DOS compatibility card. The DOS compatibility card was more for people who needed to run DOS apps for work. It doesn't have the same flexibility as an actual PC. An era appropriate PC for Windows 95, can probably be gotten more readily, and for a lower price, than most of the DOS compatibility cards that you will find for sale.

Oh, yeah, and don't forget the medusa cable. I don't know if all the DOS compatibility cards out there require something similar, but the one I have does, and you'll have a devil of a time finding one separately. I got mine 20 years ago, and they weren't all that easy to find, then, and weren't considered vintage collectibles, yet. You'll have a much harder time finding them now, and the prices will have gone up a lot since then. :eek:




cable.jpg
 
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dr.zeissler

Well-known member
Yes indeed, that medusa-cable is a problem.

I get moving viewable lines from left to right across the TFT from interference on my PM6100/66.
It's clearly visible on PM-Side, not so much on the PC-Side.

Doc
 

lunarHonour

New member
Has anyone figured out how to get the CD-ROM to read under the OrangePC 620 yet? I have one with a k6-2 400mhz cpu in a Performa 6300
I am thinking maybe it's loading the wrong cdrom driver in the included with the software boot disk it using cdrom.sys...

My 98 se install cd reads fine on the mac side, but when the OrangePC loads, it always gives me a "not ready reading" message in DOS.
 

lunarHonour

New member
same here...never figured that out.
Figured it out!
I found an app "SCSI Probe 5.2" When the CD-ROM does not work, I have to go back on the mac side and manually mount the CD through that app, then it will start to be accessible on the x86 side.

Also I found these:

http://web.archive.org/web/20180822...oftware/PC card drivers/Orange Micro/misc.zip
https://web.archive.org/web/2013041...PC card drivers/Orange Micro/OrangePC Drive D
https://web.archive.org/web/2013041...rivers/Orange Micro/OrangePC Easy Install.dmg

I think these drive images include a pre-installed Windows 98, although after I was able to get the CD working I just installed W98SE from the normal OEM CD.
 

LaPorta

Well-known member
I agree that a Pentium class PC is going to be much better than a DOS compatibility card. The DOS compatibility card was more for people who needed to run DOS apps for work. It doesn't have the same flexibility as an actual PC. An era appropriate PC for Windows 95, can probably be gotten more readily, and for a lower price, than most of the DOS compatibility cards that you will find for sale.

Oh, yeah, and don't forget the medusa cable. I don't know if all the DOS compatibility cards out there require something similar, but the one I have does, and you'll have a devil of a time finding one separately. I got mine 20 years ago, and they weren't all that easy to find, then, and weren't considered vintage collectibles, yet. You'll have a much harder time finding them now, and the prices will have gone up a lot since then. :eek:




View attachment 56891
This gets worse when hooking an AudioVision 14 up to the computer the way I do.
 

just.in.time

Well-known member
I have a 6100 with the Houdini II card. With a separate 16MB stick of RAM installed on the card, it seems to run Windows 95b decently well (using I believe the PC Setup 1.6.4 drivers and Mac OS 8.1). Windows 3.1 also works very well.

I tried Windows 98 at one point with PC Setup 2.something, but that was definitely slower than I cared to use. I found 95 to be a good compromise of speed/features.

Like @Cory5412 mentioned, the 6100 gets pretty warm after running for a while. And GPU performance won’t be winning any awards.
 
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