86Box 5.0 released

[igor_kavinski]

Release 86Box 5.0 · 86Box/86Box

See the release announcement for more information! What's Changed Qt: Remove leftovers of the "Reload previous image" option by @lemondrops in #4788 Use ftruncate on Unix to create hard disk image...

github.com

Huge list of changes.

Some of the things I liked:

Pentium Pro and Pentium II accurate emulation
Sound Blaster AWE64 and Gravis Ultrasound Max
Runs on Linux ARM64 too
Mac Universal binary!

Oh man, armed with just this and just 1 TB SSD full of old software, I could spend a few years in a bunker exploring the good old days!

 

[igor_kavinski]

 

[Jan Olšan]

Pentium Pro and Pentium II accurate emulation

We have Pentium Pro at home

 

[igor_kavinski]

We have Pentium Pro at home

What's the history behind that purchase, if it was bought at launch?

 

[Jan Olšan]

I just wanted one for a long time. It was in a AT tower that reportedly has been used in some warehouse (bought sometimes in 1990s obviously, but dunno when it was decomissioned).

They got relatively expensive on used market due to collectors (not really expensive, but gotta watch these impulse purchases). Another thing that got stupidly expensive due to collectors are AT cases, so I ended up buying a whole box for a price that was less than an empty (and often rusty from getting rained on at a recycling plant) AT case. Sadly the collectors punish people who sell whole systems like this, nobody else put a bid, while profiteers that break up a vintage PC into parts usually rake in much more.

I wanted the case for a nostalgia K6 PC, but when I learned it's mostly original build, I felt unable to take it apart, so now I'm where I started on that.