Welcome to this blog dedicated to the vintage computer Sirius 1 / Victor 9000!
Compared to other vintage computers the information about the computer available in the internet is quite limited. Some of the information is even wrong, like several sources claiming the Sirius ran at 4.77 MHz like the IBM PC. In fact the 8088 in the Sirius was running at 5 MHz.
So the purpose of this blog is to publish more information about the Sirius 1 and the related systems:
- Sirius 1 / Victor 9000
- Victor Vicki
- Victor Sirius VI
I will also post some old school programming code snippets or tools that might be helpful for vintage computers or just to demostrate some fun stuff (mainly 8088 x86 Assembler).
As I am collecting as much information as possible about the Sirius, you are invited to send me your own documentation or software related to the Sirius and help me making it available to everyone.
Axel
Hi Axel,
ReplyDeleteTHNX for giving all these infos!
Now i have a HD-Sirius running. And soon i'll try to run DOS3.1 on it - Floppy first.
In the README is mentioned that "-" isn't the switch-char any more. So "\" has to be used for path separation (?).
But my german keyboard does not have a key for that...
May be, you have a hint for my problem?
Christopher
Hallo Christopher, leider hat die automatische Benachrichtigung nicht geklappt, so dass ich deinen Kommentar erst heute gesehen habe. Ich antworte auf Englisch, vielleicht haben andere ja ein ähnliches Problem.
ReplyDeleteYes "switchar" option has been removed by Microsoft in DOS 3.x. So the path separator is fixed. DOS is looking for ASCII Code 92 (hex 5C). As Sirius exchanged code pages (charsets) in their operating systems also in the area below ASCII 127, this leads to the strange behaviour that if you do not change the switch char and have a system with the German code page, DOS will use "Ö" as separator, because it is has ASCII code 92... Therefore I would no longer recommend to work with German code page in DOS 3.1. The version included in my post could perhaps create the "\" by pressing the "Ö" key as a workaround. Otherwise there are 2 options: 1. patch the system with a different Charset/Keyboard layout table. That's what I did for my machine. Using the Keygen tool I created a keyboard layout very similar to PC keyboards. With this version I use the Cont key as some kind of AltGr replacement and Cont+ß gives me "\" - just like on the PC. Option 2: Load a different Charset+Keyboard layout using Modcon after booting. I can send you the neccessary files.
Hi I just found a victor Vicki at an auction. I don't have a boot disc for it.The keyboard doesn't seem to respond at all. Is this normal or is it faulty?
ReplyDeleteI'm willing to bet that it's a keytronics keyboard, the same as the Victor 9000. It'll have little foam disks with mylar on them which have perished. You need to make some more! Pop out all the old ones, scrape off the crud and hold on to the backing plastic (the thicker bit). Then, using spray adhesive, attach some aluminised mylar (a space blanket) conductive side down, to some 5mm thick open cell polyurathane foam (e.g. http://www.dltpodiatry.co.uk/Padding/polyfoam-5mm.htm) - the non-conductive side is the side you want to make contact with the metal bits on the keyboard. Stick the backing bits to the other side of the foam and trim to fit!
DeleteHello
ReplyDeleteI have 3 Victor/Sirius: one with 2 single Sided floppy, an earlier model (Victor 9000) and 2 Sirius (one with HDD, aka SX, and a S1 with dual double sided disk).
Unfortunately, I do not have any system disk, and the HDD model give me only a X98 error at boot (no system).
Do you stil have your systems ? I'm also collecting all I can find about Sirius and put that on my website.
JV