I believe my first DOS system in early 1992 was the Tandy 1000 RLX/HD 286 with a 40Mb HD and DeskMate software. I could not quite afford a multimedia 486 but ended up getting a generic brand anyway 8 months later and selling off the Tandy. My brother and I had a blast on the Tandy during that summer of 1992 exploring the new world of DOS games. The first game I got was Monkey Island 2. The case was very close to this and I would like to find one again, but I never see them in my area... oh well these videos help. Thanks!
I haven’t thought about Monkey Island 2 in a long time…I’m glad you mentioned it! I think it needs a place on my retro game night rotation. 😀 The RL and RLX machines are some of the most quirky machines in the Tandy 1000 line, which is what makes the so appealing in my mind. Even when they were new. Thanks for watching!
Without putting in a crazy 486-on-a-card upgrade, I think this system is pretty much at its max config. It caps out at 16 MB of RAM, the processor is soldered on, and now it has the co-processor. I’ve added a sound card, CD-ROM drive, and a network card, it’s pretty much decked out. 😁. My 4825 SX has an overdrive chip and the max (32 MB RAM) in it, as well as sound and CD-ROM, so it probably qualifies too. Thanks for watching!
It was my first stop back in the DOS days when I needed to get a basic idea of a system, and since DOS 6 always seemed to have it, I could rely on it being there for the most part.
Couldn't you install a 486 in that co-processor socket? I thought there were some companies back then that made upgrade modules designed to do just that. Though I know some actually pressed on top of the 386 itself using a really neat inverted socket thingy.
Since it was a coprocessor socket only, I don’t know if there were any products available to upgrade to a different processor class through that socket or not. If there were I’d have passed anyway…this is a 386 SX system, so the processor has a 16-bit data path. That would choke even the base 486, since all 486s have 32-bit data paths. The upgrade processors that clipped onto the CPU would probably work on this, but even then, the 16/32 bit thing would make me think twice. One of those plug-in 486-on-a-ISA card upgrades would also work. Thanks for watching!
MS Flight Simulator 4 would be a contemporary game that makes use of the FPU. AutoSketch 1.0 or AutoCAD 11/12 likewise and they both come with pretty example drawings.
Thanks for the suggestions! FS4 will be a fun addition to the growing list of games on it. I’ll play with AutoCAD as well. I may have to pull the 80387 and do some comparisons 😁. Thanks for watching!
Try running the game Sim City with the math co-processor installed. I've noticed that it's a game that will actually use the co-processor.
Thanks! I’ll give that a shot!
@@TJBChris Cool! Let me know your results.
I believe my first DOS system in early 1992 was the Tandy 1000 RLX/HD 286 with a 40Mb HD and DeskMate software. I could not quite afford a multimedia 486 but ended up getting a generic brand anyway 8 months later and selling off the Tandy. My brother and I had a blast on the Tandy during that summer of 1992 exploring the new world of DOS games. The first game I got was Monkey Island 2. The case was very close to this and I would like to find one again, but I never see them in my area... oh well these videos help. Thanks!
I haven’t thought about Monkey Island 2 in a long time…I’m glad you mentioned it! I think it needs a place on my retro game night rotation. 😀 The RL and RLX machines are some of the most quirky machines in the Tandy 1000 line, which is what makes the so appealing in my mind. Even when they were new. Thanks for watching!
Copy of generic cadd would work
Where did you find the Math coprocessor? eBay I assume? I have a 2500 SX/33. I should get one to "fill in that hole" as well...
It was an eBay special. I took a chance, and this one turned out to both work and not be a fake. Thanks for watching!
Have you done a max possible upgrade on this or another system?
Without putting in a crazy 486-on-a-card upgrade, I think this system is pretty much at its max config. It caps out at 16 MB of RAM, the processor is soldered on, and now it has the co-processor. I’ve added a sound card, CD-ROM drive, and a network card, it’s pretty much decked out. 😁. My 4825 SX has an overdrive chip and the max (32 MB RAM) in it, as well as sound and CD-ROM, so it probably qualifies too. Thanks for watching!
I completely forgot about MS Diagnostics! lol
It was my first stop back in the DOS days when I needed to get a basic idea of a system, and since DOS 6 always seemed to have it, I could rely on it being there for the most part.
MSD was awesome.
Couldn't you install a 486 in that co-processor socket? I thought there were some companies back then that made upgrade modules designed to do just that. Though I know some actually pressed on top of the 386 itself using a really neat inverted socket thingy.
Since it was a coprocessor socket only, I don’t know if there were any products available to upgrade to a different processor class through that socket or not. If there were I’d have passed anyway…this is a 386 SX system, so the processor has a 16-bit data path. That would choke even the base 486, since all 486s have 32-bit data paths. The upgrade processors that clipped onto the CPU would probably work on this, but even then, the 16/32 bit thing would make me think twice. One of those plug-in 486-on-a-ISA card upgrades would also work. Thanks for watching!
Great video man you deserve more views!
Thanks, I’m glad you liked it!
MS Flight Simulator 4 would be a contemporary game that makes use of the FPU. AutoSketch 1.0 or AutoCAD 11/12 likewise and they both come with pretty example drawings.
Thanks for the suggestions! FS4 will be a fun addition to the growing list of games on it. I’ll play with AutoCAD as well. I may have to pull the 80387 and do some comparisons 😁. Thanks for watching!
@@TJBChris AutoCAD for DOS (at least R10+) requires a math co to run, it wlll spit out a mean sounding error if you do not have one.