How many hardware PC AT emulators were there for A500?

[CCCP alert]

I was looking up the cards and I couldn't find an AT compatible version of the KCS Power PC XT board for trapdoor.

The only PC AT compatible I could find was the Vortex AT Once 286 card (plugs into the CPU socket. Also comes with a Gary adaptor, a chip socket with a resistor running between two pins you plug the Gary chip into and the whole thing into the socket for Gary chip on A500 motherboard.

None of these support EGA or CGA 16 colour modes though from what I can tell.

edit: this video appears to show the KCS board doing 16 colour graphics, think it's 160x200 16 colour CGA specifically.

[ Show youtube player ]

[nogginthenog]

Vortex made a few different 286 cards. There was the AT Once, the AT Once Plus and one that plugged into a slot on the GVP HD+.

I had an AT Once Plus and there was no Gary adapter. I did read later boards had compatibility issues though.
Only 4 colour CGA and mono VGA were supported as far as I remember.

It was a great bit of hardware let down by poor software.

[CCCP alert]

I bought a used original bridgeboard for my A2000 back in the day but it didn't work properly so I never got to try it.

I saw there is a KCS model with 16 colour CGA and an NEC V30 (10.?? mhz I think) which is probably quite useable to play classic DOS games with.

Was there anything for the A1200 trapdoor or only software emulators as an option for AGA machines. I wonder what PC Task and the other PC software emulator would be like on an Amiga 4000/040.

[Phantasm]

They kcs powerboard manual says it supports these modes


6.2 Graphic support

The PC recognises a large number of screen formats and the control hardware is usually

located on a separate card. With the KCS POWER PC BOARD, your AMIGA, together

with the emulation software generate a certain screen format. This gives you a software

Flicker Fixer at your disposal. At this moment version 4.50 supports the following screen

formats:

CGA Colour Graphics Adapter. Both the original CGA mode and the CGA mode as

part of the VGA support are available. Resolution is 320x200 in 4 colours, or

620x200 in 2 colours. Text modes 40x25 and 80x25 in 16 colours. Total colour

palette: 16 colours

MGA Monochrome Graphics Adapter, text and graphics compatible with the

HERCULES card, also called HGC (Hercules Graphics Card). This is a

monochrome screen with a resolution of 720x348 in two colours.

* Depending on the type of AMIGA, see 5 3.1
Tandy 1000 These two graphic emulations are exactly the same. Resolutions of

& 160x200, 320x200 and 640x200 in 16 colours. Not all software packages

PCjunior support the Tandy 1000 IPCir) modes. Total palette: 16 colours

EGA Enhanced Graphics Adapter. Resolution is 640x350 maximum in at most

16 colours. Total Palette: 64 colours

EGA-S Super Enhanced Graphics Adapter. Resolution is 640x480 maximum in

two colours tot resolutions up to 640x350 in 16 colours). Total palette: 64

colours

VGA Video Graphics Array. Resolution is 640x480 maximum in 16 colours.

Total palette: 4096 colours

MCGA Multi Colour Graphics Array. Resolution of 320x200 in 32 colours

(16 grey shades on an AMIGA without extra memory). Total

palette: 4096 colours

[Snoopy1234]

I have a GVP PC 286 card that slots into the HD8+ drive expansion. It was given me new by the Amiga Computer FB moderator. It is a 286 card with CGA/EGA pixels. Runs nicely and is neat tucked away in the HD8+ housing. It's also cool that it can run a MSDOS <5.0 partition on the HD8+ HDD.

[CCCP alert]

Originally Posted by Snoopy1234

I have a GVP PC 286 card that slots into the HD8+ drive expansion. It was given me new by the Amiga Computer FB moderator. It is a 286 card with CGA/EGA pixels. Runs nicely and is neat tucked away in the HD8+ housing. It's also cool that it can run a MSDOS <5.0 partition on the HD8+ HDD.

I think that's the Vortex card made for GVP, same tech specs IIRC.

There was another called PC-Ditto but I think that was only for the ST.

Interestingly there was a Vortex 386SX model for the ST, with some of the GAL chips labelled manually as "ST" so you would assume it was designed for ST or Amiga but can't find any evidence it existed as something you could use with an A500 or A1200/600. Not sure when it even came out.

[Aulapatchuc]

Originally Posted by CCCP alert

I wonder what PC Task and the other PC software emulator would be like on an Amiga 4000/040.

Not great, believe me.

[CCCP alert]

Originally Posted by Aulapatchuc

Not great, believe me.

I think one of the reasons I didn't get a PowerPC card for my Amiga was the lack of PPC software 80386 emulator. I could have got by with 386 speeds running DOS and Windows for my studies. I had to buy an actual PC in the end.
I think Golden Gate did a 486SX bridgeboard card didn't they?

[Etze]

Originally Posted by CCCP alert

I think Golden Gate did a 486SX bridgeboard card didn't they?

486SLC-25 and SLC2-50.

[Snoopy1234]

Originally Posted by CCCP alert

I think that's the Vortex card made for GVP, same tech specs IIRC.

There was another called PC-Ditto but I think that was only for the ST.

Interestingly there was a Vortex 386SX model for the ST, with some of the GAL chips labelled manually as "ST" so you would assume it was designed for ST or Amiga but can't find any evidence it existed as something you could use with an A500 or A1200/600. Not sure when it even came out.

I found this on the Amiga Hardware Database:

GVP PC 286

IBM AT emulation
a special version of ATonce Plus designed for the GVP mini slot
80286 @ 16 MHz
optional 80C287 FPU
512 kB PC RAM
can use the Amiga's RAM
Hercules, CGA, EGA / VGA monochrome, T3100 video modes

[CCCP alert]

Originally Posted by Etze

486SLC-25 and SLC2-50.

I did some digging and found there was such a card and there is a video of the 486-SLC50 running PC Bench on Youtube. It comes in about the speed of a 486DX-25, not quite DX33 speeds.

[ Show youtube player ]

Still, on an A2000 IIRC you had 3 8bit ISA slots, 2 16bit ISA slots and 5 Zorro II slots so I am guessing a 486SLC50 with a VGA card, sound card and hard disk + floppy controller was possible to pair up with it. Which would allow you to have quite a usable PC for business software, even Windows 3.1.