Psion Series 3a/Siena Emulator

[inmontanis]

One of the first things I wanted to do when I received my Gemini, was to run the Psion Series 3a - Emulator to open a few old files and programs .. last used maybe 15-20 years ago ..

Those early Psion emulators run on a plain MS-DOS, so on Android you can use various Dos-Boxes with a pre-installed MS-compatible DOS. You don't have to install DOS, you don't have to use a virtual hard-disk  - just copy the Emulator and your old Psion files below the Download-directory for example and map the C-Drive to that...

If you have no Psion-Emulator from the golden age, it seems you can find them here, hopefully including the readme-file with the instructions:
https://psion.info/GJ5/emulator16.html

I tried various Dos-Boxes on the Gemini, I think "Magic DosBox Free" is quite good, because you can define On-Screen-Buttons/Keys with Images. As you may know, you need the F-Keys for the Psion-emulators (for the Menu-Key and the Diamond-Key and the soft buttons) ..

So here's a screenshot how such a S3a/Siena-Emulator with a large VGA-screen can look on the Gemini:
[img]http://extra.inmontanis.info/d/47679-4/DSC02258.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /]

Here are the pictures of the keys I used for Magic-DosBox (My Siena hasn't survived the last 15-20 years in the shelf, btw.):

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[gidds]

Interesting!

But I haven't used any S3 stuff since I migrated everything to a S5 20 years ago.  Now, if there were a 5/5mx emulator…!

[inmontanis]

Now, if there were a 5/5mx emulator…!

There is one for "Win32", so I think it should run under Win95 or Win98 on the Gemini (using a PC-Emulator like iBochs) ..
https://psion.info/GJ5/emulator32.html

[Dixit]

That's cool !

And I am not surprised that it actually works. The 3a/Siena used a standard Intel processor, so the DOS emulator was a real emulator for those machines. Everything on the 3a ran on the emulator.
I actually succeeded in running the "3" emulator on my 5mx under XTM. That worked. The 3a emulator needed some AT instructions (and XTM only emulates an XT), so that did not work.

Note: for the 5mx that's something else. The 5mx is ARM and the emulator is standard Intel, so you need an emulator-compatibel version of each program. Nevertheless, the built-in apps already came with the emulator.

One of the coolest programs I ran under XTM was "UCAMS". UCAMS is a program to chip tune certain Ford engines often used for sports cars. I connected it to the sports car through a serial null modem and could monitor the engine conditions while being in it (not being the driver - of course).
There was also a "Kill" button, but it's not a good idea to use that on the road.

I was actually thinking to try it out on the Gemini again, but the Gemini does not have a pure serial port.