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IBM PC Jr Help Needed

cmbrodermann

New Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2013
Messages
5
Location
Miami, FL, USA
Hello!! This is my first post, but I hope I can get some help.

I have most of PC gaming covered except for the early to mid 80s. So I went looking for a Tandy 1000.

I ended up with a PC Jr...

So I need to know what exactly I can do with this thing.

Specs:
Intel 8088 @ 4.77 MHz
640k RAM (128k internal, 512k in sidecar)
Parallel Port (Modified to be bi-directional)
Internal 5.25 DOUBLE-DENSITY 360k floppy drive
IBM PC Jr Video and Sound

What can I do with it and how can I improve it cause I had planned to buy a Tandy 1000 and I would like to play Tandy games on it.


My three computers I already own:
IBM PS/1 model 2133 ($150.00) (486DX @ 33MHz, 4 MB Ram, 170 MB HDD, AdLib, DOS 6.22 & Windows 3.1, 5.25" Floppy Drive & 3.5" Floppy Drive)

Custom built PII computer ($500.00) (Pentium II @ 450 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 10 GB HDD, Roland LAPC-1, 3dfx Voodoo2 connected up to a S3 Trio64V+ 2D card, Windows 98, DVD SuperDrive & 3.5" Floppy Drive)

Custom Built Gaming Rig ($2500.00) (AMD FX-9590 @ 5.0 GHz [Liquid Cooled], 16 GB RAM, 4 TB HDD (2x 2 TB), BD-RE Drive (BD-R/E, DVD-/+R/W, CD-R/W), 2xMSI Radeon HD 7990 GPU in CrossFire [12 GB GDDR5 VRAM in total], Creative Sound Blaster Z Series ZXR, Windows 8.1 Pro Preview.)
 
A PCjr is a PCjr ... not a Tandy 1000. They can be modified to give them some of the additional graphics modes that the Tandy 1000 included, but there are enough other differences such that if you really wanted a Tandy 1000 you should just go and find one.

As for what can you do with it ... It runs a lot of DOS software fairly well. And there are quite a few modifications you can do to it besides the bi-directional parallel port hack. Do a little digging around and I'm sure you can find some very good PCjr specific web sites to help you.
 
A PCjr is a PCjr ... not a Tandy 1000. They can be modified to give them some of the additional graphics modes that the Tandy 1000 included, but there are enough other differences such that if you really wanted a Tandy 1000 you should just go and find one.

As for what can you do with it ... It runs a lot of DOS software fairly well. And there are quite a few modifications you can do to it besides the bi-directional parallel port hack. Do a little digging around and I'm sure you can find some very good PCjr specific web sites to help you.


It's not that I want a Tandy 1000, I just want to make it as compatible as possible with the Tandy so I can play games like LSL 2 and King's Quest 2. I'm stuck with a PC Jr and I'm happy with it because I got a great deal, getting a printer, the computer itself with addons, lots of PC Jr compatible games and programs (mainly text adventures and other early PC games and programs), a copy of Cartridge BASIC, and 10 blank DSDD floppies in shrinkwrap. So I'm not looking for a Tandy, just I want to make it as compatible as possible so I can play games from around the mid 80s that are not specifically PC Jr compatible but that will work with the earlier Tandy 1000s.
 
My suggestion would be to drop the $ on a Tandy 1000. Maybe you can sell or swap your PCjr. Why make life hard on yourself when there are plenty of Tandy 1000s out there?

Aside from IBM 5150s and IBM PS/2 they are amongst the most common vintage machines (and pretty cheap usually) out there.

http://hickory.craigslist.org/sys/4036567220.html
http://boise.craigslist.org/sys/4041618104.html
http://jacksonville.craigslist.org/sys/4097394373.html
http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/sys/4113603369.html
http://memphis.craigslist.org/sys/4086832940.html
http://longisland.craigslist.org/sys/4101163103.html
http://modesto.craigslist.org/ele/4078124890.html
http://charlotte.craigslist.org/sys/4036580806.html
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/sys/4139427047.html

There are also quite a few on eBay for reasonable prices.

Just my 2 cents. Good luck! :D
 
Thanks PeterLI, I'd love to get a Tandy, but right now I have a PCjr that's pretty much in it's best configuration, with 640k of RAM and I discovered the processor is in fact a NEC V20 and not an Intel 8088, which just makes me even happier. I don't know if I should give it up, and with the modifications to add the Tandy graphics modes already underway and almost done, I'm pretty comfortable with the computer. I just want to know your recommendations for games to play on it and programs to mess around with it.
 
Have you tried them on the jr yet? Some games were aware and had options for different systems in the setup/install.
 
Good luck! Stick with games (like Sierra) that have native PCjr support. When the time comes you can always expand with a Tandy.
 
Good luck! Stick with games (like Sierra) that have native PCjr support. When the time comes you can always expand with a Tandy.

How about the mod to enable the additional Tandy graphics modes on the PCjr? Does that have a high degree of compatibility?
 
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