Book of Jornada: Chapter 12 Go The Full Monty of MS-DOS 6.22

After running DOS programs under PocketDOS for a couple of weeks, I decided to go the full monty by installing the complete MS-DOS 6.22 (plus the supplement disk) on my Jornada 720.

Here is a quick demonstration of how to get this done.

Book of Sigmarion II: Chapter 10 USB client mod ... setback!

Just finished soldering the wires. Tested on my Win2000 WM. The CH340 was detected, but on the HPC end, connection with PC failed to be established. I suspect it's due to the incompatible chipset or lack of driver.

Book of Sigmarion II: Chapter 8 Preparing for Serial to USB modding

Continuing with yesterday's work, as my first step towards the new serial to USB mod on Sigmarion II, I went to buy a cheap serial (R232) to USB cable (HKD$35, about USD$4.5) and a USB mini B connector (HKD$5, ~USD$0.65).  

The serial to USB cable is very basic in terms of build quality, with the connectors wrapped in cheap rubber like soft plastic, which is actually good for easy removal. 

Book of Sigmarion II: Chapter 7 USB Mutation Aftermaths: Custom Cover, Various Peripherals, ActiveSync

The success of implanting a USB port in my Sigmarion II came more quickly than I had expected. 

Ahead are three more quests to complete this USB adventure.

The three quests are summarized as follows:

I. The small quest: To design and 3D print a custom cover for the new USB port

II. The medium quest: To test different USB peripheral devices (keyboard, mouse, etc.) and their drivers with this port. 

III. The big quest: To unlock the secret of how to enable ActiveSync via USB using this new port.

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The Champion knows, despite the obstacles and his ignorance, he must get started from somewhere. 

Book of Sigmarion II: Chapter 6 USB Mutation ... Completed!

Previously, in Book of Sigmarion II:

The Solo Champion managed to find his way through the challenge of replacing the FOMA port with a regular USB port on the Sigmarion II. However, his progress was blocked by missing DLLs for the USB devices. So instead of continuing to battle the beast, he turned around to seek out those keys to break the deadlock...

At last, after another couple of hours of research, the Champion finally retrieved the much needed DLL keys in the vast wasteland of lost websites:  https://web.archive.org/web/20070103091648/http://www.softclub.jp/~zoro/ce/usb020522.lzh

The archive contained four DLL library files, namely: fsdmgr.dll, udfs.dll, usbdisk6.dll, usbmsc.dll

Book of Sigmarion II: Chapter 5 USB Mutation (Part 2)

Previously, in Book of Sigmarion II:

The Champion was contemplating on different possibile battle plans to add USB support to the good old rare Sigmarion II. In the end, he came up with the idea to replace the FOMA port with a regular USB port. This is certainly a brave move especially due to his low soldering skill level and poor knowledge in electronics.

And now, the quest goes on...

Not willing to back down before the fomadable foe, the Champion gave the beast a powerful clean sweep, chopping off the head of the FOMA connector!

Book of Sigmarion II: Chapter 4 USB Mutation (Part 1)

Sigmarion II, just like most of its contemporary devices, was produced in an era of proprietary standards and peripherals. An undesirable consequence is poor and unsustainable hardware support. Many of these digital devices use their own special connectors, which made finding even just a connection cable a next to impossible proposition after all these years. 

Despite the striking similarities between Sigmarion II and Jornada 720, the former lacks PC card slot. The only expansion slot is for CF card. In addition to the proprietary serial port, since the Sigmarion series was made and sold exclusively within Japan by NTT DoCoMo, a special PHS (Personal Handy-phone System, an old Japanese mobile network system) port is added to attract those nerdy road warriors who would take the plunge into the first wave of mobile computing technology.

Now it's 2020, PHS is no more, and I am not living in Japan. Even though Sigmarion II is such an adorable device, it clearly loses to Jornada 720 in terms of expandability and connectivity. As my machine comes without the serial cable, how can I get it to synchronize with my PC if I really want to make it a daily driver?

Book of Sigmarion II: Chapter 3 By the Power of PocketDOS (MIPS)

Even though Sigmarion III doesn't seem to get along with PocketDOS very well, Sigmarion II runs it just fine!!

To install, I copied the CABs to a CF card (since I don't have the serial sync cable). Then run the CABs directly from the card. Install the CABs in this order:

(1) PocketDOS.mips_hpcpro.CAB

(2) PocketDOS_DOSFS.mips.CAB

(3) PocketDOS_UTILITY.CAB

(4) PocketDOS_HELP.CAB

(5) FREEDOS_100.CAB

Interestingly I seem to feel that Sigmarion II runs a bit snappier than Jornada 720. I am going to find out more by running some simple benchmarking tests, which will show up as part of my upcoming comparative review of Sigmarion II and Jornada 720. 😎 

 

Book of Sigmarion III: Chapter 3 The Sigmarion Clan reunited

A couple of weeks ago the Solo Champion summoned the old Sigmarion clan (I, II, III) by NTT DoCoMo (the actual manufacturer was NEC) on Yahoo! Japan via Buyee, an international package forwarding service specialized in online shopping.

At first I chose to have all three devices packed up together and shipped via DHL, which was faster and cheaper than EMS. However, the big box was returned to Buyee the very next day by DHL due to exceeded limit of the amount of batteries allowed in one package. Oops.

It took another couple of days for Buyee to process the returned package, refund the DHL fees, and rerun the shipping instructions step. This time I chose Japan Air Small Package, priced almost the same as DHL with a bit longer delivery time. 

Book of Jornada: Chapter 11 Venture into the ultimate world of Ultima

At last, the Solo Champion answered the calling from Ultima I, a groundbreaking quintessential classic CRPG in the 1980s. I still remembered when the game was out I was a very poor school kid.  Without any pocket money, let alone any gaming or computing gadgets, I found my pure joy and excitement munching the walkthroughs in computer magazines in the library during lunch breaks day after day. 

Book of Jornada: Chapter 10 Beware! The Ogre is coming!!

Ogre, my all-time favorite turn-based tactical game, both on PC and on tabletop, now runs great on my Jornada under PocketDOS!

Champion, fight on!

Book of Jornada: Chapter 9 Capture Video Display Editor (VDE) for DOS

Yesterday I started a thread on hpcfactor discussing PocketDOS (which doesn't seemed to get mentioned much there). A fellow member there recommended VDE (Video Display Editor). I wasn't aware of this program until the forum post. Then I checked out the dedicated website for VDE and started to learn more about the app.

Book of Jornada: Chapter 8 The Famed City of GrandView 2.0

Having completed the Quest for WordStar 7.0D, the Solo Champion visited the famed city of GrandView 2.0 for carousing.

GrandView 2.0 is one of the best outliners for DOS by the good old Symantec.

Book of Jornada: Chapter 7 The Quest for WordStar 7.0D

WordStar was one of the first full-fledged word processors and a major player back in the 1980s. Many professional writers (including George R. R. Martin) swear by this archaic but effective program. There is no reason not to run it under PocketDOS on my Jornada 720. 

Champion, let's go!

Book of Jornada: Chapter 2+ Revamped Battery Pack Duo

Yesterday I bought another pair of Sanyo 18650 cells which are claimed to hold 3,400 mAh. The previous pair worked so well (over 16 hours runtime!) that I found no excuse not to revamp the other aging battery pack. 

Side Quest 2: The Battle of VM

Background

In the beginning of the HPC era, there was HPC Explorer for WinCE 1 & 2. Then Microsoft's ActiveSync became the dominant synchronization method since WinCE 3. Then after the official end of development of the Handheld PCs, Microsoft pulled out Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) for its Pocket PCs and the later Windows Mobile products.

When I started using the Handheld PCs a month ago, I researched the way to have my handhelds communicate with the PC. It turned out that Windows 10 has already dropped its support for its own mobile devices for good. Not even WMDC is working without certain tweaking.

Book of Sigmarion III: Chapter 2 SlashToShift

The major roadblock for me to get into using my Sigmarion III is the unconventional keyboard layout, especially the punctuations and various symbols spread all over the place.

Over last couple of weeks I was searching for an old Japanese app called SlashToShift. The app enables the user to redefine the values of many of the keys. Despite the fact that all the links on Japanese websites are dead, and nifty.com is in a way immune to the grand WaybackMachine (the largest online archive of websites, living or dead), I finally managed to track down a copy on some obscure Chinese software download website. 

Since the original documentation and the app interface are in Japanese, I prepared a brief user guide in English for those who are interested in using this app on their Sig3. https://www.hpcfactor.com/scl/1087/QTA_Software/SlashToShift/version_1.50

Side Quest 1: I see, I come, I Slay!

Interlude

Just wanna touch base with my blog here. It's not very easy to persist in blogging every single day. Not because of losing momentum, but simply due to real life matters: family, work, etc. just like what every typical mortal is living through. Although it was not really part of my intention, writing blogs here has become a special treat for myself. Despite quite a few draft blog posts are already sitting in the pipeline, a solid block of quiet moment and peace of mind is still much needed to complete them.

Similar to scripting the adventures of different HPC heroes in individual "Books", I am thinking of starting a Side Quest series to talk about different cool programs and experiences when using my adorable small old devices.

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Side Quest One: PocketSlay

I assume many oldtime gamers have already known this title so well. Truly, the almost 30 years old Slay is a stroke of genius. The fun and challenges it provides are astronomically greater than its tiny footprint. This is the only game I play to death on PCs, Android, and finally the HPCs.

Besides Slay, the author's other titles are still prevailing! http://www.windowsgames.co.uk/index.html

The best part is Slay for HPC has become Exemptionware (i.e. GRATIS!): https://www.hpcfactor.com/scl/218/Sean_OConnor/HPCSlay/version_2.0

I see, I come, I Slay!

Book of Jornada: Chapter 6 HPC Notes Professional v4.3d - First Victory!!

Thanks for the help by hpc12, a new installer has been uploaded to hpcfactor.

He verified that the installation did work for the HPCs (on his mobilepro).

However, I still got the same error (missing the CAB installation step) when running the new installer.

I began to suspect that the issue had to do with my using WMDC (Windows Mobile Device Center) on my Windows 10 PC. In fact, ActiveSync errors began to pop up after the latest update two days ago. Oh, thank you and congratulations, Microsoft, you have scored yet another victory of killing your own software ... 

Then, the Solo Champion recalled the brief encounter with the Casio Cassiopeia Fiva MPC-103 in a dream. So he set out to seek this fabled lady warrior.

Book of Jornada: Chapter 5 A New Danger! HPC Notes 4.3 Professional! Go Fight!!

HPC Notes was said to be one of the killer apps on the Win CE platform, similar to Bonsai for Palm OS. 

After several previous failed installation efforts, I removed the previous installation and went over again using the updated upload on SCL. During installation, there was the same popup windows letting me to choose what to install. Again I didn't see any option for HPC or PPC. 

Then at the end of the installation process, there was only a notification saying the Palm OS file will be installed during next HotSync. Right after I close the installation window, a small popup saying "Starting ActiveSync Manager" appeared for a couple of seconds and then disappeared. Nothing happened on the HPC end.

Is it just me or has anyone successfully installed this version?  😢