[comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc] DEC Rainbow 100 PC

akcs.bill@point.UUCP (Bill Wolff) (02/10/91)

I have a Lotus version for a DEC Rainbow 100 PC. I bought it brand new
a few years ago (yes it was still sealed) for a mere $15. I figured if
the software wasn't any good, I could still use an extra manual. Well
I still have these 5.25 disks and can't figure out what kind of format
these disks are in? CP/M program that determines which format a strange
disk is, comes up with nothing that helps except it is MFM format. MS-DOS
can sort of read the directory, as parts are scrambled. It won't touch
(load) any of the files though from MS-DOS. It could be that these
disks are MS-DOS, but the disks are bad, or this computer is some sort
of CP/M computer. Lotus for CP/M??? I never heard of that, have you?
Any ideas what a DEC Rainbow 100 PC really is? Thanks! <BW>

mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) (02/11/91)

In article <1991Feb10.152807.11084@news.iastate.edu> jdwhite@iastate.edu (White Jason David) writes:
>
>The DEC Rainbow is NOT IBM compatible. 

True. But is IS an MS-DOS computer.


>While you may be able to read and
>write to MS-DOS disks, you will not be able to use any IBM software on your
>machine. 



That is NOT true - any program that uses ONLY MS-DOS system calls and
no bios call or direct screen writes will work. The compiled version of
the Adventure game I have posted is supposed to run, and apparently does,
according to one Dec engineer who tried it.


Doug McDonald

akcs.bill@point.UUCP (Bill Wolff) (02/16/91)

Thanks everyone! I got tons of mail helping me out on this one. All I can
add is thanks a lot. I doubt if I will work with it too much. It sounds
like it will only work from a DEC computer anyway. One of which I don't
have or ever seen one. So much for cheap software. <BW>