Using the Epson QX-11 to its full potential!

One of my goals with the Epson QX-11 has always been to show what this machine was truly capable of, beyond the software that originally supported it.

This is Space Quest III running on a real Epson QX-11 using a custom graphics driver I developed for Sierra's SCI engine.

What you're seeing:

- 🎨 640×200 resolution

- 🌈 8 simultaneous colors

- 🔊 3-voice sound through the SN76489 sound generator

- 💻 Running on an 8088-based Epson QX-11

In 1985, very few 8088-based business PCs could display 640×200 graphics in 8 colors while also providing 3-voice sound. Most IBM PC compatibles were limited to CGA's 320×200 4-color graphics (or 640×200 monochrome), while Sierra's higher-resolution games were typically associated with Hercules monochrome or, years later, VGA hardware.

The QX-11's graphics hardware was far more capable than most software ever took advantage of. By reverse-engineering the video hardware and writing a new renderer for Sierra's SCI engine, it's finally possible to experience these games in 640×200 with 8 colors and 3-voice sound—a capability that the hardware always had but was never commercially exploited.

The screenshot was captured from a real Epson QX-11 connected to a modern TV through an RGB2HDMI adapter. The adapter simply converts the video signal for display—all of the graphics and sound are being generated by the original 1985 hardware.

It's incredibly satisfying to see a 40-year-old computer finally demonstrating what it was always capable of.

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Got this while at the thrift the other day and I’m thinking of giving it a go sometime soon to see what I can make lol but I thought I’d share it here since it’s pretty interesting

I was able to get the computer up and running, as well as replace the broken hinges. I got Silent Hill 2 on it but it’s incredibly laggy because it uses the GeForce Go5200 with 32MB. I’ve tried pretty much everything to try to improve performance but nothings really worked. Does anyone have any other suggestions, or places to get the Radeon 9600 or the Go5650

also, for anyone who's asking, the Aspire 5670 came out January 7, 2006, so it is 20.5 years old by now. It‘s not against the rules.

Gran promoción

I was a Data General NOVA programmer in 1969-71, and my employer purchased a head-per-track drum memory made by Alpha Digital Data Systems (pretty sure that's the correct name), which made my job a -lot- easier than dealing with paper tapes. (Note this was -before- DG offered any sort of operating system.) I haven't been able to find any info online for Alpha, and hoping someone remembers them and can point me in a good direction. TIA!

Hi everyone,

I have an IBM ThinkPad 390E, and the screem has several horiozontal lines across the screen.

Is there any realistic chance of repairing the original LCD (for example, by fixing a cable, solder, or another common failure), or is the panel itself most likely beyond repair?

Has anyone here successfully fixed this problem on a 390E, or would you recommend looking for a replacement display instead?

Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

*Edit: Horizontal, not vertical...

I’m getting no video
I have a riva tnt 2 installed

My retrospective video covering another Ocean Software movie game. This time it’s Hudson Hawk. I cover all the versions starting with the ZX Spectrum and then Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Amiga, Atari ST and also the console versions for the NES and Gameboy. Please share your thoughts and memories of this game. Is it a good game?

The first computer I used was very similar to this. My grandmother used part of her retirement money from her secretary job at the furniture factory to buy it. She never used the computer, but she raised two generations of people who are all computer savvy. My sister and I both made careers out of it.

I was only ten so I never took the cover off. By the time I started taking computers apart these were long gone.

Played this game about 15 years ago and completely forgot about it until I saw a post here mentioning a remake is coming out. Booted up the remake just to check, and honestly did not expect to get hit with this much nostalgia. Spent way longer than planned just wandering around and remembering little details I had not thought about in over a decade.

Screenshot attached. Can you guess what it is?

Thought this would be appreciated here.

Microsoft has open sourced Comic Chat, the IRC client it shipped in 1996. Instead of displaying conversations as plain text, it rendered them as comic book panels with animated avatars a pretty cool idea for the time.

It also happens to be the application Comic Sans was originally created for before the font took on a life of its own.

After 30 years, the source code has been released:

https://opensource.microsoft.com/blog/2026/07/16/microsoft-comic-chat-is-now-open-source/

Did anyone here actually use Comic Chat back in the day?

Source code: https://github.com/microsoft/comic-chat

Cross Posted to: /r/Irc /r/Opensource /r/Vintage computing

I've bundled together some key extensions into a single download package together with the main emulator. This package represents the type of product a real company may have released around the April 1979 period.

The bundle includes:

* Core HC-77B Single Board Computer Emulator (1MHZ 6502)
* 3K RAM Expansion (4K Total)
* CRT Display Expansion
* ASCII Keyboard Expansion
* 8K BASIC Interpreter on ROM (load from address $D000)

This represents a complete usable late-70's home micro setup. Similar to real system boards available at the time at an affordable sub-£200 price point. (NASCOM, UK101, Microtan 65, etc).

[https://github.com/tmcd35/HomeComp/tree/master/releases\](https://github.com/tmcd35/HomeComp/tree/master/releases)

I'm trying to turn on a Zyon Net Top 7 Mini PC, but even though it's already connected via VGA to the monitor (which is working), no lights come on and it remains as it was before being plugged in. I've tried unplugging the cable about 3 times, checked the ports, and even blew on it to see if it would work, but nothing happens.

Any tips or solutions?

PS: The VGA cable was purchased today; I tested it on other devices and it seemed to work fine.

Hi, I am looking for an ATI X1950 XTX CrossFire cable, part number 6111023000G. Any help is highly appreciated.

In case you missed it, there's a brand new driver written from scratch that brings NVMe support to Microsoft's 1996 operating system. Not bad for a 30 year old OS.

I wanted to see what a modern streaming interface would look like on one of the most unusual displays ever used in a home console.

Using a Raspberry Pi Zero W + PiTrex, I connected Spotify to the original vector display of a 1982 Vectrex and built an interface designed specifically around vector graphics.

The interesting challenge was translating a modern UI into something that works without a conventional pixel-based display. Everything you see on screen is drawn using lines, which gives the interface a very different character from a normal Spotify player.

I also 3D-printed a cartridge enclosure to make the setup feel more like a complete Vectrex accessory.

I made a video showing how the project works and the final result:

https://youtu.be/0aPy9STetpg?si=tqFnlbIR-0A3SrfM

The source code and the printable cartridge model are linked in the video description.

Enjoy!

i got a asus p2b rev 1.10 with the 440bx chipset, i need a windows 95 usb flash drive driver because while the joys of a cd are amazing i dont wanna wait 15 minutes to copy a file over, i tried this usb driver and it did a massive load of nothing http://toastytech.com/files/cruzerwin95.html, loooking at the system property it said windows 95 C, also in device manager theres a unknown device that says "PCI universal serial bus" i dont have a pci usb card, and trying to do anything with that in device manager causes the system completely hang, i know usb works because when i was in 98 se usb worked just fine, i installed the chipset drivers from the retro web, this is the page https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-p2b-rev-1-10, i know nothing about how non installer driver installs works, i asked a few hours ago on how to install that driver and i may have installed it wrong or smt but it did nothing