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SymbOS MP3MSX Demostration

karloch · 5.9K views · 2011-04-24 · 12:56

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Overview

A demonstration of SymbOS, a multitasking operating system for 8-bit Z80 machines, running on a real MSX turboR with an MP3MSX card and a CF IDE interface. It shows the OS playing audio and running a graphical desktop on very old hardware, captured from the real machine and not an emulator.

On Hacker News

HN points to it as a vivid showcase of how much a modern-feeling GUI OS can do on slow 8-bit hardware.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2014–2018

Topics

Demoscene & retrocomputingOperating systems & kernels
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symbosmsxz808-bitretrocomputing

What people said

exikyut · 2018-10 · Recommendation

Lots and lots of transition animations, and potentially very poor UI/UX model. Demos are not (largely) interactive, so the demoscene is not known for collective skill designing GUIs. The most similar/related type of things I can think of that are interactive are crack/keygen programs that include chiptunes and maybe a cute graphic effect somewhere. For some time I've actually wanted to go track down such programs to analyze/compare/study the progression of design. Kind of difficult to do so though, for obvious reasons (unfortunately). But my impression from the one or two programs I do very vaguely remember using, half for entertainment purposes was that the UI design was sort of at the "48%-50%" mark - good enough, but flitting just below the halfway mark instead of just above it. Not remarkable; maybe a few rough edges. Thanks for your comment. It prompted some mental gears to spin and for me to realize the above. -- I do think I understand the spirit of what you're getting at, though, and there are a few things that my brain has decided is relevant, although I can't describe the working-out process that led me to list these. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ - SymbOS ( [LINK] ): preemptive multitasking, windowed GUI, storage on devices up to 128GB, runs on home computers using the Z80 (starting at 4MHz) with up to (_ up to _) 1MB of RAM. (I found this rambling but very interesting demo of what it can do with one of the more capable machines it supports: [VIDEO] ) - kOS ( [LINK] ): limited-access

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agumonkey · 2015-12 · Recommendation

After finding about pico8, I got interested in low res, low color depth UX, this couldn't come at a better time. Beside the flickering, it's pretty neat. [VIDEO]

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tluyben2 · 2014-11 · Reference

I have many Z80 machines in my 'museum'; happy to see people making software for them still. I am working on applications for Symbos[1] which is really a show of force on these rather slow machines[2]. [1] [LINK] [2] [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by karloch, played through YouTube.

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