nkali

PC-9801 could do 640×400 in 8 colors, and is supported by early Windows.

Oh no, you're right How do I unsee this

For the record, a text-mode SuperWriter is the default word processor for the Apricot - but its format is not well understood by modern tools, unfortunately.

The keyboard on the Apricot uses round capacitive foam pads under the keys. This means the keys had to be square, or they needed a mechanical thing like the space button on the photo here: https://www.baffo71.com/details.php?id_img=7

So, I think it is a mechanical/electrical limitation.

That's what I've heard, too! But apparently there even was an effort to port Windows 2.11 to XEN, though I have no idea whether it was ever completed.

There are two now; one from GEM 1.2 and one from FreeGEM.

The model I have is exactly like this, with a handle and a clip. You can still get one! :)

Hi, the article's author here~

I just checked the Tandy 2000 Windows pre-installation - it has the drivers unpacked, which means you can just get the Slow Boot Windows 2.0, and put the drivers from this floppy to it. And the fonts, of course. Definitely do not check this bad pirate website that has it: https://winworldpc.com/product/tandy-2000-ms-windows-pre-Ins...

Thank you for sharing. Note it's a duplicate of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45558371

Thank you! MGR (and other projects you shared on your home page) are very fun!

Indeed, the signalling is implemented in a really, really clever way.

I had no idea that the author was left-handed; it would be interesting to try MGR with remapped mouse controls, I suppose!

Not just "some", but whopping 23% of this test participants.

I tried to do something like that in my free time. ARMs are everywhere, PICs are very common as well: https://github.com/ninakali/chip_scavenger/tree/main/src

Even if not, the collieries in Wales, built on top of coal shafts, were quite industrial-looking/landscape-runining. https://museum.wales/articles/1260/Nantgarw-Colliery---once-...

There was a HN thread about this, of course. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40647278

And it seems to be David C Norris, a software engineer from Microsoft: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidcnorris/details/experience/

Here are more details about Bogus Software: https://minesweepergame.com/history/bogus-software.php

I have checked both, and while there are similarities, I think they both share a common ancestor - some physical Mahjongg tiles. This Windows Taipei 1 is written by " Bogus Software Inc", and Windows 3.0 Taipei, which uses a very similar interface and tiles, is made by "David Norris" from Redmond WA.

I suspect that Windows used monochrome mode to squeeze 78 characters per line, not because the colours were "useless".

CGA graphics is tricky, but it can look at least as pretty as contemporary ZX Spectrum: https://media.tech.lgbt/media_attachments/files/112/481/028/...

Not very many people cared for CGA, though.

I was talking about the looks of the version 1. Technical side of things seems quite solid, and things have clearly improved by 2.x.

I think this is a bug with smooth scrolling of pixel perfect scaled images. I'm not quite sure though.

And not just Freecell. Here is a list of compatible programs; it includes Photoshop 4, Nero Burning ROM 4.0, Space Cadet Pinball, ICQ: http://stephan.win31.de/w32slist.htm#list

There are only few things that stop compilers producing Win32s-compatible code. Linking with CRTDLL.LIB will make even Visual Studio 2010 (and perhaps newer versions) produce a valid Win32s program.

Imagine the backlash: "new Windows version requires a $300 video card and a $400 monitor to run". When Windows 95 finally dropped the support for EGA, many people were upset (including me).

Thank you! I'll take a note :)

Amiga Workbench had a comically bad interface, though?

Windows 2 was an ugly duckling, yes. The interface was ham-fisted by coders, and it was supposed to support non-square monochrome pixels of CGA monitors, to make it worse.

That being said, I am really curious about your perception of other old systems, as I am trying to design an interface that can run on the 80s hardware. What is the earliest OS that you can tolerate? Macintosh from 1984, Windows 3, Windows 95, something even later?

If you have a moment, I would also appreciate your feedback on my UI, too. It is called "Orihime", and you can find the links to images in the "Pixel?art" section of ninakalinina.com/links.htm

The answer to that is in the "sources" section. Raymond Chen first claims that Windows 2.x supported protected mode (which is half-true; it could run DOS applications in protected mode, but neither kernel nor applications supported it), and then finishes with saying "standard mode (Windows/286 style)" which is just wrong, as explained in the section about protected mode Windows kernel.

There is a reason why they're the most ugly colours. Windows 2 only can display 8 colours: CMY+RGB+Black+White. Cheap colour monitors had only four input pins - RGBI - and could at best display those eight colours, plus a darker version of them.

I think it's much more fun to compress stuff in lossy ways and see how glitchy it becomes! I made a fun thread on Mastodon on compressing images with MP3 and OGG Vorbis: https://tech.lgbt/@nina_kali_nina/111755539584965220

Things are more complicated than that, I'm afraid. Lots of CPU time (and browser complexity) is spent on DOM/CSSOM bindings and the way browser engine handles updates/redraws.

Thank you for your passionate work, I've had lots of fun with RootMyTV.