#PCTask
12 messages in this thread
Today I received an upgrade for the PC emulator "PCTask" written by Chris
Hames. This is version 2.01. Chris has incorporated some bug fixes, but more
significantly has added EGA and VGA graphic adapter emulation. It works great,
and significantly increases the num,ber of MSDOS programs that can be run on an
Amiga. With a 68030 at 25 Hz, the speed is quite acceptable.
The program costs US $20 and this includes one future upgrade. Great value!
Chris' address is 6 Pamela Court, Blackburn South, Vis., 3130. Australia
Are the EGA and VGA emulations monochrome?
-Jonathan
Jonathan: The PCTask emulation docs say "with ECS and the old Amiga chipset,
the VBG emulation is limited to 4K colors." Apparently, if you have the new
AGA set, you can select from 256K like real VGA. Mind you, I have not had a
chance to verify this. I have very little PC software, and the program cannot
run anything that needs a 286 computer or better. PC programs with VGA
graphics are hard to come by. Also, quoting the docs again "many games use
non-standard modes of EGA/VGA, so don't expect many to run correctly." What I
notice with VGA is the much better screen definition….you no longer can see
the "grainy" pixels that characterize CGA graphics.
Rick
Great! I wish that someone would do a software based '286 emulation like
that made by Insignia Solutions on one of those 'other' platforms.
-Jonathan
Jonathan: Be patient. As the 486s take over the world, there are lots of good
deals on second hand 286s around. I got one with a 40 meg hard disk, keyboard,
mouse and monochrome monitor for $200 not long ago. A VGA card cost me $30 and
I use my Commodore 1950 multisync monitor with it. Works fine; probably
better than any emulator could be. Rick
The information with the 2.0 Demo version appears to say that it costs US
$35.
Ooops! You may be right. The actual price of 2.01 is not mentioned on the
sheet that accompanied my upgrade. The cost of "multiple updates at $10 each
is quoted, but not the actual price of the software. My reference to $20 was
based on what I originally paid for PCTask several months ago. This may have
changed. Nevertheless, even at $35, it is still good value. Thanks for
pointing out my error. Regards, Rick
I wonder if you could run PC-Task at the same time as a Bridgeboard.
Probably some kind of contention problem there, I'd guess. Sound loony?
Well, I could think of reasons for wanting to do it. (Obviously, I run a
Bridgeboard).
Ron,
I dunno about running PC-Task simultaneously with a BB, but you definitely
*can* run multiple PC-Task emulations. I've done it (but don't run them
on the same drive!)
So, what you're asking just may be possible.
//
\X/ Amiga -Steve ——> On AutoPilot from Silicon Valley
Steve,
have you tried running WordPerfect in PC-Task ?
Regards, J0RGEN ….from DENMARK
J0RGEN,
No, I don't have WordPerfect, or I'd definitely try it! Perhaps someone
with PC WordPerfect can download the PC-Task demo and give it a go.
By the way, there's a new 2.2 version of the demo; it fixes some bugs in
the 2.0 version and restricts EGA/VGA to 640K, which the 2.1 version
didn't do (it should have).
I've run PC CIM and term programs without any problems; now at least I can
definitely see what CIM does that AP doesn't (and vice versa). I use both
for different purposes.
//
\X/ Amiga -Steve ——> On AutoPilot from Silicon Valley
Ron,
YES you can run PC-task at the same time as the bridge board. I have
done this very thing many times. The purpose (and a hint for the people
upgrading to the new cheap 386 BB's) was when I upgraded from my XT BB to
the 386 BB, I decided I would need a larger virtual `c:' drive. I moved
my old fakec to another partition, allowed the BB setup util to create the
DriveC file, fired up PC-Task and copied all the old files in FakeC to
DriveC with the bridegboard running. Worked like a charm! I did have to
reboot the BB before it would acknowledge the new files as being there. I
wouldn't try to do any serious work that way, may confuse the system as to
what is actually on disk, but for simply copying files it is great, true
MSDOS multitasking!
…Steve
====>>> Motorola 68030 Inside <<<====