One of the amazing things about this project is that the author built physical harnesses for real early CPUs so that he could build test suites against the real hardware and ensure the emulation is 100% correct, down to every timing and quirk of the original hardware.
To add on top this, the author wrote multiple blog posts on their setup [0, 1, 2]. The project itself is hosted at https://github.com/dbalsom/arduinoX86
For not well off geeks you could just solder a bunch of resistors together and get vastly better sound than from the crappy PC speaker and there were games that supported it and I wrote some software for it (which unfortunately is gone I think). I had a lot of just having this on the pc in the house.
"Not long after its introduction, Creative Labs introduced its competing Sound Blaster card. The Sound Blaster was fully compatible with AdLib's hardware, and it also implemented two key features absent from the AdLib: a PCM audio channel and a game port. With additional features and better marketing, the Sound Blaster quickly overshadowed AdLib as the de facto standard in PC gaming audio. AdLib's slow response, the AdLib Gold, did not sell well enough to sustain the company."
besides the fact that it was written in rust, rust happens to be a really nice language to write emulators, you don't have to think much about threading and not much abut memory management, rust makes that easy => you can concentrate on your pixels. Moreover LLM grasp it very well so that you can get a bit more spare time for your emulator-side-project.
It was very long since I wrote any sort of C++ and using rust was pretty refreshing.
Second "besides": marty's PC may not have a lot of breadth in terms of supported hardware, but it gets the accuracy totally right. It's a very special kind of achievement.
(I'm not a rust fanboy :-) I just appreciate the language for writing my emulator)
This comment is itself a meta comment but here we go I guess...How is it possible that half the comments in this thread are about the title itself? It’s not even a made-up title, it’s taken straight from the project’s README...I keep seeing people complaining almost aggressively that others are touting Rust as a useful tool (which, to me personally, it certainly is). Does someone have a financial stake in opposing Rust’s development, or what?
its just ppl trying to be different from their boring parents. wish i had enough karma to flag them too but i keep getting downvoted into oblivion for making fun of written in rust posts
I believe a true engineer should love problems not only languages. But it seems like majority of Rust devs only love the language and try to convert all the problems into Rust problems.
If you have problems in C/C++? Write Rust.
If you have problems in Python? Use Rust.
If you have an issue with your product? Rewrite it in Rust.
Is your company in pinch? Launch a new product in Rust.
If you burn your finger while you’re cooking? Write Rust.
If you have a mental problem? Read a Rust book.
You don’t have a girl friend? You have Rust next to you.
If you hate yourself? Writing Rust will solve your life problems.
"cross-platform" and Rust, as advertised in the current title/link label, is incompatible for sure. Can't get that to run on my older OS X machine nor my Amiga. :)
Yep, before UNIX and C there were no systems programming languages, and after getting the clay tablets from UNIX and C, all civilisation was built upon them. /s
At least when you spend long time around some programming circles.
One of the amazing things about this project is that the author built physical harnesses for real early CPUs so that he could build test suites against the real hardware and ensure the emulation is 100% correct, down to every timing and quirk of the original hardware.
To add on top this, the author wrote multiple blog posts on their setup [0, 1, 2]. The project itself is hosted at https://github.com/dbalsom/arduinoX86
[0]: https://martypc.blogspot.com/2023/06/hardware-validating-emu...
[1]: https://martypc.blogspot.com/2023/05/exploring-dma-on-ibm-pc...
[2]: https://martypc.blogspot.com/2023/10/bus-sniffing-ibm-5150.h...
Hi, thanks for checking out MartyPC. I'm the developer if there are any questions.
Many people are very angry that you used Rust. Did you expect this choice to cause such an uproar?
Adlib support! At least someone else remembers it wasn't only Soundblaster.
All my friends had Soundblasters; I had a self soldered Covox. Fun times.
Whaaat?? Do tell more!
For not well off geeks you could just solder a bunch of resistors together and get vastly better sound than from the crappy PC speaker and there were games that supported it and I wrote some software for it (which unfortunately is gone I think). I had a lot of just having this on the pc in the house.
https://github.com/necroware/silly-sound-bastard
But Soundblaster came with Adlib, so surely complete support for SB should mean Adlib support as well.. ?
Yeah and eventually Adlib was gone.
From Wikipedia,
"Not long after its introduction, Creative Labs introduced its competing Sound Blaster card. The Sound Blaster was fully compatible with AdLib's hardware, and it also implemented two key features absent from the AdLib: a PCM audio channel and a game port. With additional features and better marketing, the Sound Blaster quickly overshadowed AdLib as the de facto standard in PC gaming audio. AdLib's slow response, the AdLib Gold, did not sell well enough to sustain the company."
besides the fact that it was written in rust, rust happens to be a really nice language to write emulators, you don't have to think much about threading and not much abut memory management, rust makes that easy => you can concentrate on your pixels. Moreover LLM grasp it very well so that you can get a bit more spare time for your emulator-side-project.
It was very long since I wrote any sort of C++ and using rust was pretty refreshing.
Second "besides": marty's PC may not have a lot of breadth in terms of supported hardware, but it gets the accuracy totally right. It's a very special kind of achievement.
(I'm not a rust fanboy :-) I just appreciate the language for writing my emulator)
Ironically, and unfortunately, this doesn't actually emulate the FM Towns Marty (or even the regular FM Towns PC) like I assumed it would.
Doesn't seem to support non-QWERTY keboards :(
But it's written in Rust! Who cares about non-qwerty!
/s
Mysteriously, backslash has been mapped to backspace for some reason.
Old terminals had this shenanigans going on too. Backspace was not backspace and so on
I don't think Backspace as a key was standard internationally until 1994. Apple still doesn't use it, just Delete.
This is about early IBM PCs, not apple computers. And the non-working key is the Backslash key \ , not the backspace key.
This comment is itself a meta comment but here we go I guess...How is it possible that half the comments in this thread are about the title itself? It’s not even a made-up title, it’s taken straight from the project’s README...I keep seeing people complaining almost aggressively that others are touting Rust as a useful tool (which, to me personally, it certainly is). Does someone have a financial stake in opposing Rust’s development, or what?
I suppose it makes a change from complaining that the post was written by an LLM.
But if it's written in rust and with llm then they both implode and we get really insightful comments
probably in the minority but i want the screeching and grumbling hard disk sounds
IBMulator has HDD sounds: https://www.ibmulator.org/
Almost usable on an iPhone.
What does the "written in Rust" contribute to the title, exactly?
I assume it's called MartyPC because it Marty McFlies?
Yet another avenue to play EGATREK in a browser. For that, its work it.
What's great about Egatrek?
Oh, holy crap. I haven't thought about EGATREK in at least 30 years. I'm going to go dig it up right now. Thanks for causing me to recall that memory!
nice
lol
Why never seeing a title “written by C” or Java or js
The main feature of apps written in Rust is that they are written in Rust.
"It's not a feature, it's a bug"
I flag all these “written in Rust” posts.
its just ppl trying to be different from their boring parents. wish i had enough karma to flag them too but i keep getting downvoted into oblivion for making fun of written in rust posts
"Hax – a minimalist, terminal-native coding agent written in C" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49273175
but I see your point.
Because nowadays "written in Rust" means "written by AI", as Java or C are not so sexy for LLMs /s
Because they predate HN, and aren't hip languages any longer.
There was a time for CoffeeScript, PureScript, Elm, Ruby and whatever else you can think of.
Naturally Lisp has to have monthly entries.
/s
Because their following is not cult-based.
(To clarify: I like Rust. I use it every day. But this is going too far.)
I believe a true engineer should love problems not only languages. But it seems like majority of Rust devs only love the language and try to convert all the problems into Rust problems.
If you have problems in C/C++? Write Rust.
If you have problems in Python? Use Rust.
If you have an issue with your product? Rewrite it in Rust.
Is your company in pinch? Launch a new product in Rust.
If you burn your finger while you’re cooking? Write Rust.
If you have a mental problem? Read a Rust book.
You don’t have a girl friend? You have Rust next to you.
If you hate yourself? Writing Rust will solve your life problems.
how to use this fossil computer era ????? I cant type shhiiii
the other week i wrote a program in python, and ive been thinking of upgrading my cpp knowledge from v11, wish me luck
Not specific to this project, but nowadays when I see "written in rust" I hear "written by Claude".
"cross-platform" and Rust, as advertised in the current title/link label, is incompatible for sure. Can't get that to run on my older OS X machine nor my Amiga. :)
Early PCs weren’t written in Rust.
In C neither, despite urban myths.
Is that something people believe? I can’t say that’s a myth I’ve ever heard.
Yep, before UNIX and C there were no systems programming languages, and after getting the clay tablets from UNIX and C, all civilisation was built upon them. /s
At least when you spend long time around some programming circles.
computer, remove the extraneous slash es from the statement.
"I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"
Early PCs were made of steel which can rust
Nicely done!