28 Sep
2005
28 Sep
'05
4:11 p.m.
On Wed, 28 Sep 2005 17:34:46 -0500
Jim Leonard <trixter at oldskool.org> wrote:
PC games,
Cameron Kaiser wrote:
>>other than video so they are helpful in diagnosing RAM problems.
And the
>>sound, joystick, video, and floppy drive tests
are helpful in
determining if
>>the machine is functional on a basic level --
I always run them on
any new
>>PCjr I come across to determine if it's
worth hauling away or not
:-)
>
> I have to admit, even though I'm not a PC fan by any means, I found
the
PCjr
> fascinating. It didn't deserve the fate it
got (though it *did*
deserve a
better price
point than it was saddled with).
I have several, as I've always found them fascinating:
- They had diagnostics, BASIC, a "game" and other stuff in ROM
- They introduced 16-color graphics and 3-voice sound to the world of however it was Tandy's CLONE of those graphics and
sound that became
popular
and advanced the industry
- To reduce costs, the case of the PCjr is not metal but plastic
coated in
metal -- IBM patented a new process to do this
(I'm not sure if they
sprayed it
on or if it was dipped)
The PCjr also lacked a DMA controller. So all diskette data has to pass
through the CPU's accumulator, which makes it significantly slower than
a PC-XT. I remember running a Norton SI on my Junior. It had a SI of
.7 which was actually 'inflated' since that rating didn't benchmark the
abcence of DMA.
I used to enjoy playing '3-Demon' on the Junior. 3-Demon was a
'wireframe' 3-D version of Pacman. If you turned down a row that was
the full legnth of the maze, the machine markedly slowed down as it
struggled to render the deeper wireframe graphics. 3-Demon was a truly
advanced graphic application to run on a first-generation PC.