Monthly Archives: July 2023

Manx TT Superbike

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An arcade style racing game released in 1995, aimed to replicate the Isle of Man TT – a motorcycle racing event. Very similar in spirit to Daytona USA which was based on the real Daytona speedway, and Indy 500.

Two courses are offered, Laxely Coast and T.T Course, the latter being the actual track used in the Isle of Mann races. Both tracks share sections with each other and will split and re-join into their own different paths.
The home versions feature two additional tracks that are part of the PC/Saturn mode, these are reverse-mirror versions of the two arcade tracks and can only be selected in that mode. These tracks are also set in the early evening in the Saturn version, and early morning / dusk in the PC version.

Time Trial: Similar to time trial featured in other racing games, choose a track and a bike and try to get the lowest time. On the arcade version you have to hold the brake button when selecting a track to active time trial.

Console / PC Exclusives modes

Practice Mode: Similar to arcade mode, choose a track and your bike which will have a unique stats for speed, acceleration and handling.

Challenge Mode: a tournament mode where you have to race on all four tracks, coming in a 3rd or higher in each one. The superbike challenge is unlocked after completing this mode.

Versions

Like other Sega games of the era, this title was relased to the arcades first, then to their Saturn console and eventually to Microsoft Windows.

Arcade

The original arcade release runs on the model 2 hardware, specifically the 2A version. This version was considered to be graphically superior of the three versions but is the most basic in terms of content, featuring only two courses and just the arcade and time trial mode. The Model 2 emulator is the most popular way to play this version of the game, with the MAME driver making steady progress but still unplayable in some regards.

Really for a home port, the game could have done with further tracks being added to increase the replay value of the game.

Sega Saturn

Sega ported the game to their home console of the era, the Sega Saturn in 1997. This version introduced new features including an FMV opening sequence and additional race modes. There are also options to change the bike model, which have unique stats across the different models. The game’s graphics were considered to be impressive for the Sega Saturn’s capabilities, with colorful and detailed environments that recreated the feel of the arcade version.

Windows

This version supported both DirectX 5 and 3DFX Glide, the latter gives a visual difference that makes it similar to the arcade version sans the frame rate. It seems the game will only render up to 30fps. Still the game can run at 640×480 which is higher than the Saturn or even the Arcade version.

Multi player is supported in this version and can be done over a variety of channels. IPX, TCP/IP, Modem and Serial connections are supported. This can be done via virtual box of you use the PCap option between two 86box VMs, linking it to the VMware virtual network adaptor (8 is typically the local adaptor) then create an IPX session. It may also be possible to map to the serial port in the near future.

I believe up to 8 players can playing a single session, to this would require three machines or more. Unallocated players will be replaced with an AI enemy, similar to single player mode.

DirectX Version

The regular version that uses DirectX 5 for 3D acceleration which works fine in 86Box using the S3 ViRGE video card. This graphics card lacks support for texture filtering.

Only issue is after the race, the crowd can disappear and reappear intermittently.

3DFX Glide Version

The bundled 3DFX drivers will only function on the original Voodoo, or the Quantium3D version of the Voodoo card. Later 3DFX cards require updated libraries in order to be detected, otherwise you will receive the ‘Failed to find any glide hardware’ error, or ‘Failed to initialize viewport system’ error.

Works well in 86box until I tried it in a Pentium II PC with a Voodoo 2 (S3 Trio video card), where there were a couple of warping polygons and the game would throw up a ‘hmmmmmm’ error message. Whilst it looks like the game crashed, clicking Ok on the message box would restore and return you back to the game. None of this seemed to occur in other VMs I have that used the original Voodoo and AMD K6 combo.

Rugrats Studio Tour

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Sequel to the Rugrats :Search for Reptar, released only for the PlayStation in 1999

The game is very similar to Search for Reptar, and even re-uses a lot of the textures, models and sound effects of the first game. Golf makes a return with two themed minigames. A multiplayer mode has now been added that supports up to 4 players (2 at one time)

Characters

  • Main characters include Tommy, Chuckie, Angelica, Phil, Lil and Susie who all appeard in the first game and mostly have their models / textures reused.

The adults Didi, Stu and Grandpa, along with DiIl also appear in the cut scenes but are not directly playable.

Minigames

Each Rugrats character has their own stage, although some stages are split into different levels which feature a different character.

Diapies of Thunder

Play as Phil in a racecar themed levels. These are similar to Mario Kart where you can collect powerups that can either give you a speed boost, grant invulnerability or leave traps for other racers.

  • Speedway: Race 8 laps round a speedway style track, kind of like Daytona USA.
  • Bayou Race Scene: You race as Lil in a jungle/swamp themes race track. Probably the best racing track in the game since its quite varied and challenging.
  • Desert race scene: The final race set in a desert/wild west scene. This one tends to drag on as you play as Angelica who has to race 4 laps on the longest track in the game. You will often manage to overtake the babies within the first lap which means you spend the remaining 3 laps in the lead.
  • Bonus 1: Only available one you complete the game. There’s noting really special about it, its just set in a large apartment with each lap only taking 9 seconds to complete.

Captain Cookies

You mainly play as Angelica in a pirate themed minigames

  • Treasure hunt: Win keys by exploring the map and opening the blue treasure chests, once you have 4 blue keys you can open the final treasure chest
  • Treasure Collecting Area: 4 rounds to collect all the coins in the area before time runs out
  • Pirate Golf Scene: Win a key by scoring under par for the whole game, there are 9 levels in total
  • Footrace Scene: Same as the racing games but your racing on foot. This one can be a challenge as some of the babies (Susie) are quite fast, whilst Lil and Chuckie are slow and prone to walking straight into hazards. There are also track hazards like Lobsters, oil spills and bananas falling from the trees.
  • Tag Scene: tag the babies in order to win, similar to Chuckie’s glasses but you don’t have to race them back to an area.

Lazy Saddles

You play as Susie in a wild west themed studio, with the name being a pun on blazing saddles.

  • Gold Mine Scene: Collect all the gold in the mine and make It back to the entrance before time runs out. First levels are straightforward but the final on become more difficult since there are multiple floors and you have to navigate back down to the start. The controls are unpredictable since the Minecart will often fail to take turns and jumping is delayed. Also enemy ghosts will appear and will take your gold upon being hit, use your torch to zap them
  • Milk Squirting Scene: Shoot at the targets within the time limit, there are multiple rounds
  • Round Up Scene: Round up all the animals to win keys by picking them up and placing them in the correct pen, there are four stages in total
  • Western Golf Scene: Like the Pirate Golf there are 9 stages, to win you have to be under par for all stages. There are pink keys that, when picked up allow access to hidden areas.

Interestingly these golf levels seems to tell a story.

  • Hole 1: A western rail station where you enter the town
  • Hole 2: A town bank where you have access to a vault with money
  • Hole 3: A blacksmith where you take refuge from whilst on the run, and eventually caught
  • Hole 4: A western sheriff/jail that you break out from
  • Hole 5: A graveyard where you hide
  • Hole 6: A tunnel or a hill? I think
  • Hole 7: Native American/Indian refuge
  • Hole 8: Entrance to a mine cave
  • Hole 9: Tunnel to a mine cave

Then again I’m probably reading too much into it, its a kids’ game afterall.

Outside Space

You play as Chuckie in a sci-fi space studio setting

  • Loonie Lander: Collect all the aliens in each of the four stages, each stage gets bigger with more aliens to collect. This level could have been used as a race stage.
  • Zero Gees Scene: Play three levels and navigate the level to the end of the level. Plays like a platform game but can be frustrating to play due to the poor controls. Sometimes there is a delay in the jumping which can cause you to miss a platform.
  • Lazy Beam Scenes: Shoot lasers at the objects to win, similar to the western milk squirting scene

Final Levels

  • Shirley Lock Holmes: Play as Angelica and find four of the ghost keys to open the large door at the bottom of the path which will take you to the next area. From here you use the switch to move the platforms to allow for you to progress.
  • Okey Dokey Jones: Playing as Tommy, this is similar to the Zero Gees Scene activity. Tommy has to navigate to the end in order to locate Dil through a series of platforms and challenges. A homage to the Rugrats Movie which came out around this time.

One thing that stands out about Rugrats Studio Tour is its sense of humor. The game doesn’t take itself too seriously and has a lot of tongue-in-cheek references to Hollywood and the film industry. The character animations are also quite amusing, with the Rugrats getting into all sorts of wacky situations.

That being said, the game does have its flaws. The controls can be a bit clunky at times, and the camera can be frustrating to work with as it was in the original game.

Overall, I’d say Rugrats Studio Tour is a decent game that’s worth checking out if you’re a fan of the show or looking for a fun, lighthearted platformer. It’s not a masterpiece by any means, but it’s a solid effort that’s sure to bring back some fond memories for those who grew up with the Rugrats.

A Packard Bell Windows 3.1 install

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First hurdle we get to the hard disk recovery key, this is a six digit number that identifies the SKU model of the computer, and dictates which software will be restored along with the needed drivers. 555251 was the one I had used, but you can find a list of them on the CD-ROM drive itself. Simply navigate to the BU\A\ directory where you will find a list of SCR files with the number titled in the file name. These can also be opened in notepad or any text editor and will list the files that will be restored.

For 86Box I used the Packard Bell PB410A as the motherboard which comes with an onboard video card (Headland) and uses an Intel 486 class processor.

Running the recovery application, you may have to specific a NEC drive in order for the recovery to work. As this motherboard only has one IDE channel, the CD-ROM drive was placed as a slave drive. Its likely Packard Bell had used one of the propriety CD-ROM interface that were commonly used from around this era. Panasonic, Sony, Philips and Mitsumi all used their own CD-ROM interface as opposed to IDE.

First hurdle we get to the hard disk recovery key, this is a six digit number that identifies the SKU model of the computer, and dictates which software will be restored along with the needed drivers. 555251 was the one I had used, but you can find a list of them on the CD-ROM drive itself. Simply navigate to the BU\A\ directory where you will find a list of SCR files with the number titled in the file name. These can also be opened in notepad or any text editor and will list the files that will be restored.
One caution is to ensure the video card being used matches what you are emulating, a Cirrus Logic driver wont go very far on a VM running a Headland video card. The soundcard driver will also throw up an error as no emulator currently support the soundcard that Packard bell had used, but we can easily uninstall it and add our own, though some soundcard utilities will no longer function.

Looks like its expecting to use a Panasonic CD-ROM drive, likely a Matshuita CD interface drive.

Sound card error, not much we can do about that

The Packard Bell Navigator which was an alternative user interface to make it more appealing to use a computer for the novice user. It serves as an alternative launcher to install applications, though the Windows 3.1 interface is still included and can be accessed via a dedicated option on the main menu. Launching an application will run it in the standard Windows 3.1 interface.


There were many attempts to make computers more user friendly by incorporating a dumbed down user interface, one that comes to mind was RM Window Box which was a user interface targeted towards primary school users, and allows teachers to manage the programs installed on the computer whilst restricting access to the Windows system for the students.

The Program Manager with a customised preset design, showcasing the preinstalled applications.

The Headland utility for changing the screen resolution and the colour palette.

Included software

From Packard Bell

Tutorial: Gives an in-depth insight into how your computer operates, its expansion options, and how to use the software.

Support: A simple application that shows how to contact Packard Bell for support, how to connect to their BBS and warranty information.

Disk Image: Creates a recovery disc image

Navigator: Starts the Packard Bell Navigator environment

The Microsoft Entertainment pack

A selection of additional games which included Rodent, Go Figure, Tut’s Tomb and Tic Tac Drop.

There is also a Jurassic Park that comes with the install and is located under the Entertainment pack program group.

Microsoft Applications

MS Works: Versions 2.0 Multimedia Edition, software suite that included several applications, including a word processor, spreadsheet, database, calendar, and communications tools. It was intended to be a comprehensive solution for basic office tasks, suitable for home and small business use. The word processor included in Microsoft Works 2.0 had a range of basic formatting options, such as font selection, text alignment, and line spacing. The spreadsheet application supported basic formulas and functions and could create charts and graphs. The database application allowed users to create and manage simple databases, while the calendar application provided basic scheduling features.

MS Money: Version 2.0a, a personal finance software program developed by Microsoft Corporation and released in 1992 as a successor to the original Microsoft Money. It was designed to help users manage their personal finances by tracking income and expenses, creating budgets, and analysing financial data. The software included several features to help users manage their finances, including checkbook balancing, bill payment tracking, and investment tracking. It also included a range of tools for creating reports and charts to help users visualize their financial data.

Productivity Pack: A tutorial to using the mouse and keyboard and elements of using Windows 3.1

Multimedia Applications

Macromedia Action! 2.5: This was an early competitor to Microsoft PowerPoint and allowed for presentations that incorporated multimedia elements
PBTV: Allows for video capture form an external analog capture card or device.
Authorware Star: Authorware Star was a software program developed by Macromedia, which was a multimedia authoring tool used for creating interactive learning content. The software was widely used for creating educational and training materials, especially in the early days of e-learning. One of the key features of Authorware Star was its ability to create branching scenarios, where learners could choose different paths through the content depending on their responses to questions or interactions. This made it possible to create personalized learning experiences that were tailored to the needs and preferences of individual learners.

Other software that is included but requires a separate CD-ROM to run: Mavis Beacon,US Atlas, Music Box, Encyclopedia.

Upgrades

Lets see that the upgrade experience was like, as this motherboard came with a 486 processor we should be able to upgrade to Windows 98 and later 98.
Windows 2000 & ME will require a processor upgrade, perhaps to the Pentium Overdirve which would have fitted into the existing CPU socket, though the experance will be rough as were still using the same video card. Memory will also have to be upgraded.

Windows 95

Install appeared to go smoothly with most of the settings being carried over. This was done using the floppy disk version of Windows 95 as the VM lacked CD-ROM support.

A message indicating for us to power off our computer appears on startup, likely a remaint from

Some compatibility issues with the Packard Bell Navigator with the background elements missing, Most of the other applications appear to be fine

And the Program Manager which can still be accessed from Windows 95

Windows 98

Now that its running 95, lets try to install 98. For this we have to bump up the memory to around 16MB at a minimum, instead I maxed it out to 36MB which is the most the motherboard supports. Initially it appears we need a faster CPU to install Windows 98, With 86Box we have an option to use an AMD486 running at 75Mhz which should allow for 98 to install. How well it runs is another issue.

Also the 98 upgrade installer looks a lot better? It makes a change from the electric blue background of the OEM/Retail installer.

Packard Bell navigator appears to work better in this version.

Windows 2000 & ME

Was not able to install as our CPU isn’t fast enough as I was running a AMD 486 at 75MHz and Windows ME needs at least 150MHz. I tried a Cyrix 5×86 at 133Mhz on the off chance it might work, but no luck.

Windows 2000 was more promising and gave us a report of the potential incompatibilities, including the Headland video card. Unfortunate I was unable to progress due to the lack of hard disk space as this motherboard can only address around 518MB due to being reliant on the old C/H/S system. It seems Windows 98 is the max we can take this install to.

Maybe using a SCSI hard disk could get around that issue.

Sony VAIO PCG-505G

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The VAIO goes portable

The Sony Vaio 505 was a line of laptop computers that were first introduced by Sony in the late 1990s. The Vaio 505 was known for its thin and lightweight design, which made it a popular choice among mobile professionals.

The Sony VAIO 505 series of laptops were available with different variations of the Intel 440TX chipset, which was a popular chipset at the time of the VAIO 505’s release in the late 1990s. The chipset provided support for Intel Pentium III and Celeron processors, as well as support for AGP graphics and up to 1 GB of RAM. Some variations of the Vaio 505 also included integrated graphics using the Intel 810 chipset.
Closest match we have is the Intel YM430TX which uses the same i430TX chipset as the VAIO laptop.

The (cracked) restore utility, this requires us to have a HDD that is already preformatted to FAT32. IF this isn’t done you will need to use the FDISK utility found on the Windows 9x bootdisk to set this up. Also if you have two or more CD-ROM drives the install will not be able to mount the optical drive, as it assigns it the letter Z:

After the restore has completed we are booted into Windows 98, the first edition.

OEM Customization

A few wallpapers are included with the VAIO water being set as the default, other wallpapers include VAIO Sky (As seen in the PCV-70), VAIO Earth and VAIO Wind.

A screensaver is also included, the PictureGear Screen Saver which acts as a photo screensaver that you can link your images to. Up to eight image files can be used with transition effects.

A customized Welcome To Windows screen, with a fifth option for launching the Vaio desktop space.

Included Software

Start Menu with its own category for preinstalled VAIO software

VAIO Space

Demonstration software that details the features and capabilities of the notebook. It also provided tutorials. It was a pre-installed software on Sony VAIO computers that provided a centralized location for managing media and accessing online services.

FrontPage Express

FrontPage Express was designed to be an easy-to-use tool for creating basic web pages without requiring any knowledge of HTML coding. It had a simple interface that allowed users to drag and drop images, text, and other elements onto a page and arrange them as desired. It also provided basic formatting tools, such as font and color selection, and allowed users to preview their pages in a web browser.

ScribblePad

Why I need a Waccom

Some models for this laptop had a touchscreen along with a stylus which allowed the user freehand input. TO take advantage of this Sony had included their own ScribblePad utility. This was a necessarily as Windows 98 did not include any pen input functionally (That I know of).

VoiceMemo

A utility for recording notes in text or voice format. These remain on the desktop after creation and can be moved about freely, similar to the sticky notes on Windows 7. The background colour can be customized using the standard Windows palette along with the font style.

PowerPanel

A very interesting utility that lets you control some of the power features of the laptop. The CPU speed can be adjusted to a slower speed to conserve the battery, You can also switch the HDD into standby immediately rather than wait for the OS to do it, and switch to standby or hibernate mode.
The PowerPanel appears as a sidebar on the desktop than can be set to autohide if its not needed.

MediaBar

Some sort of Sony branded music CD player, kind of redundant since Windows 98 already comes with one, unless this plays some specific Sony format? Video files in the AVI/MOV or MPEG format can be played.

PictureGear WallpaperMaker

A software program developed by Sony Corporation that allows users to create customized wallpapers for their computers. With this, users can choose from a variety of pre-designed templates or create their own custom wallpaper designs using their own photos or images. The software includes a variety of tools for editing and manipulating images, such as adjusting brightness and contrast, adding text and graphics, and applying special effects.

Sony Notebook Setup

Graphical BIOS utility where you can change settings without having to enter the BIOS.

PhoneTools

A utility to manage phone calls, Fax and user contacts.
It also appears to support cellular 2G GSM modules to make add receive phone calls over a mobile network, and there is also support for SMS messages. Alternatively you can connect a Sony phone to the computer instead, and use its GSM modem for an internet connection.