The Cursed 386 – The Atronics International ATI-386/B2!
20,382
Published 2024-04-25
The Retro Web page for the ATI-386/B2:
theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/atronics-internatio…
SiS Rabbit chipset datasheets and information:
theretroweb.com/chipsets/410
ThisOldTech's Links:
twitter.com/ThisOldTech2
www.ebay.ca/str/thisoldtech
More info on SRAM and TAG ram:
• Upgrading the Full Yes 82430I to 512K...
More info on CMOS battery pack construction:
• My Daily Use 486 Build - Part 3
David E. Larsson's Sound Blaster 1.5 and GUS clone review:
• Sound Blaster 1.5 and Gravis Ultrasou...
Interesting vogons thread about SimCity Classic and math co-processors:
www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=28177
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00:00 Introduction
02:00 SiS Rabbit Chipset Overview
03:18 The Cursed Memory Layout
06:27 Different Board Revisions
06:43 Hardware Overview Continued
08:38 Other Parts for the Build
10:05 Initial Power Up!
11:15 Troubleshooting Some Instability
12:17 Poor Performance!
13:37 Performance Tweaks
15:20 Some Classic Games
19:04 Conclusion
All Comments (21)
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If you manage to find the RAM expansion board, you should do a follow-up!
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Totally crazy layout.
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You unlocked an old memory. I had this mobo back in the day, well much later as I got hand-me-downs from family and friends back then, about 92' or 93'. I used this mobo in an old metal case and my CGA monitor sat on top of it. I mostly used it for BBS and downloading MOD files to listen to.
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This was great Mike, very interesting board. You scored a nice piece of history here. Good to see Willy Besmish get some attention. I had been locked out of that whole class of Sierra game when I got my 386 running, as it had moved to all VGA about that time, and Willy was one of the first games I played on my new machine.
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Been looking forward to this one! Amazingly archaic BIOS - never seen one like that before. I'm glad this unique board has been saved and is working. Nice selection of games, too. I really like what you've done with the front panel components - would love to do something like that myself when I get back into the hobby. Thanks for sharing, Mike!
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Very strange layout indeed, but to be fair, how often would a typical user change memory in the lifetime of their system? That XCMOS interface is a beast, imagine somebody going, "Hey developer we need a utility for the user, and you need to set these registers." "Sure here is exactly what you asked for.". Also shoutout to Halloween Harry, this game doesn't get a lot of love, although it deserves it.
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Wow that's the craziest thing I have seen in a long time.
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Love videos like this. They make me want to descend into my vault and build a PC.
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What a bizarre layout!
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That is a genius setup
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When Doom came out, I immediately went to the store to buy a new computer to replace my old 386 machine.
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Halloween Harry! Oh man, I almost completely forgot about that game. You don't really see people mention it or show it off on these kinds of videos. You typically see the same demos of Doom, Duke 2D/3D, Jazz Jackrabbit, etc.
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Wow. 15+ years doing retro stuff and this is the first time I've seen this board.
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only a minute in and back in the 90s I had this board. I couldn't find a case for it, so it sat in discombobulated pieces. I loved to modify and overclock this guy.
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8mb of ram is rockstar status with this relic. Awesome build.
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Loved Halloween Harry! I remember it eventually ended up on a magazine coverdisk in the mid 1990s.
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Giving someone a 3dfx card in 2024 isn't just kind it's a gesture of true friendship
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That Doom demo made the SNES port look smooth. XD Interesting design. Hindsight says cursed but kinda clever for the chunky chip days.
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I loved Willy Beamish!
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3:59 just like the mini-computers of the previous era, the memory was an extra card plugged into the "backplane" which is the motherboard.
