Supermodel – a Sega Model 3 Arcade Emulator – Download

Update:

I´ve added the Supermodel-UI to the downloads. It´s a graphical user interface which will make the use of Supermodel much more easy.

I was very surprised today when I found out, that there´s a rather good Sega Model 3 emulator available called “Supermodel”. Check out the official site at http://www.supermodel3.com – it´s really great work.

The official version is 0.2 but better versions are available that have been built directly fromthe  svn repository. I have uploaded the version 260 for x64 and x86 Windows machines.

I´ll try to update the versions from time to time. Have fun !

Download Supermodel3 v260:

Adaptec AHA 2940 AU SCSI Controller and Epson GT-7000 Scanner on Windows 7 x64

A few months ago I upgraded my girlfriends pc to Windows 7 x64. Sadly it was impossible to find a driver for her 99,- EUR scanner (Belkin somewhat USB).  So it didn´t worked anymore. Since then she bugged me with that situation and last weekend I promised her to find a solution. Luckily I had an old Epson GT-7000 SCSI scanner fooling around and an Adaptec AHA 2940 AU SCSI Controller. I used both in my old Windows XP set up years ago. And I thought that the Epson scanner is too precious to simply threw it away. (And by the way: the Adaptec card is from 1997 and the scanner might be 1 or 2 years older). I still remember that I got it from my uncle and that it was so incredibly fast even compared to modern USB scanners. So why not use this for my girlfriend ?

But…I knew that my solution may have some flaws. Firstly finding Windows 7 compatible x64 drivers for the Adaptec and secondly finding Windows 7 compatible x64 TWAIN drivers. Since TWAIN might have a bit of a brilliant design it is commonly known as the most shitty peace of protocol / API in computers history. Especially the last point didn´t equipped me with a lot of hope.

Today was the day to check it out. I was happy that my quite modern pc at least still features an PCI bus. So I fitted the Adaptec SCSI controller in it, connected the scanner through an pretty old school SCSI connection cable (after all that modern it didn´t require a terminator (and no, this has nothing to do with Arnold Schwarzenegger)) and turned my pc on full of expectation. Well the surprise wasn´t too big that neither Windows itself nor Windows Update found a driver for at least one of the 2 devices.

But good Google and a guy called “Linky”(Thx !!!!) in this thread of Germany´s 3DNow Forum solved my first problem with a customized Windows 7 x64 compatible driver for the Adaptec controller (it reminded me very much of my sound driver odyssey with Windows XP x64). I was skeptical towards this approach but I suddenly changed my mind after watching 2 minutes of fine Windows driver installation. And there it was. The device manager showed a successfully installed SCSI controller AND it had also recognized my Epson GT 7000 scanner. But no driver for this baby. Well no surprise. (By the way for all you nerds out there: the driver is actually an emulation of the Adaptec AIC 7870 SCSI controller. But it works. Who cares ?)

But somehow I knew that I wouldn´t find a working driver for the scanner at all. And I was right. Shitty TWAIN shit. I ended up with a tool called VueScan. I was already familiar with it, cause I tried to get my girlfriends old scanner working with this tool (it failed). But I gave it one more try and HOLY SHIT IT WORKED !!!

I was astonished ! Surprised ! Wow…

And it´s so easy. After the successful installation of the customized Adaptec driver I downloaded the software and installed it, choosing “yes” when it asked me if I have an old scanner with not working drivers attached (well exactly my case). And again after watching 2 minutes of fine Windows driver installation it worked. Unbelieveable. There is one little drawback. The software is really not cheap. For the standard edition you have to invest around 30,- EUR and for the professional you have to invest around 60,- EUR. But on the other hand the author Ed Hamrick must be the master of TWAIN so it´s just fair to help him out a bit.

To help all you guys out on this, I have uploaded the customized Adaptec driver and attached some screens to make you believe !

Download: Adaptec_7870_and_2906_and_2940_driver_for_Windows_7_-_64_Bit.rar

Update 1:

NeO mentioned in the comments, that it also works with the Adaptec 2940 UW SCSI Controller. Thanks a lot !

Update 2:

Chip mentioned in the comments, that is also worked with the CANON DR-2080C SCSI scanner. Thanks a lot !

Windows XP 64bit & T-Mobile web’n’walk Stick 3 / Huawei E170

Well this is part 2 of my personal driver odyssey with Windows XP 64bit. I own a T-Mobile web’n’walk Stick 3. Without branding it´s a Huawei E170 and – important at a later point of this article – similiar to a iCON 225 USB HSDPA / HSUPA modem.

stickThe problem :

After installing Windows XP 64bit the usb modem doesn´t work. Installing the provided drivers directly from the device (the device is also a USB mass storage) is without any sense, cause it comes without any 64bit drivers.

If you´re lucky the device is listed as not working in the device manager. If you aren´t then it simply doesn´t appear.

The software (T-Mobile Internet Manager) will install anyway (together with the not compatible drivers) but it will probably say something like “Device not found / or device not connected” although the stick is connected and may as well blink blue (HSPA) or green (EDGE).

The solution (might differ for every particular case) :

0.) Plug your web’n’walk Stick into a USB port of your pc. Update the firmware of the web’n’walk Stick with the software from the T-Mobile webpage (can be found here).

1.) Install the drivers and the software directly from the updated stick and restart your pc.

2.) Start the T-Mobile Internet Manager, check if the device is recognized and if you can connect. If so, congratulations, this one was easy for you. If not – continue with step 3.

3.) Download the iCON 225 device drivers (can be found here – Driver Installer 4.0.17.0) and extract it to a folder on your disk.

4.) Uninstall the T-Mobile Internet Manager and restart your pc.

5.) Install the iCON 225 driver, by using the \TcpSchema 2\without service\x64\DriverInstall.msi from the folder where you extracted your iCON driver. Restart your pc.

6.) Open the device manager and check if the USB mass storage device (aka the stick) has a yellow exclamation mark. If so, unplug the stick from the usb port, wait a moment and reconnect it (the exclamation mark should disappear afterwards).

7.) Now install the T-Mobile Internet Manager by using the setup.exe directly from the usb sticks T-Mobile Internet Manager folder. Restart your pc.

8.) Start the T-Mobile Internet Manager and yesssssssss now the device is recognized and you can connect.

Have fun !!!

Appendix :

devicemanager

These 2 Huawei devices must appear in your device manager. Otherwise the stick won´t work at all. In some cases you might see these devices already after installing the inital drivers and software from the stick (Step 1), but marked as not working with yellow exclamation marks. In this case, ETNA will help you out. ETNA is a user developed driver by Maysi2k originally designed to bring a web’n’walk Stick to live with Windows Vista x64. But ETNA also proved suitable for some Windows XP x64 installations.

Howto :

0.) Download and extract ETNA to a folder on your disk.

1.) Open the device manager, choose the yellow marked device(s) – (you have to do it one by one).

2.) Update Driver and give Windows the folder you extracted ETNA to search for newer versions.

3.) Windows will automatically install the ETNA drivers for the appropriate device.

4.) Repeat these steps until all the Huawei devices are no longer marked as not working.

5.) Start surfing !

Windows XP 64bit

Well I heard many good things about Windows XP 64bit, especially in combination with dual core cpu´s and x64 designed applications. So I decided to install it on my Fujitsu Siemens Si 1520 notebook.

I prepared myself that this might be a little complicated but I didn´t expect such an nightmare. At first I got my hands on the Windows XP 64bit Superior Release, June 2009. It installs pretty smooth and really quick (about 20 minutes total) and recognizes nearly all of the devices.

But…drivers for all the not recognized devices are damn hard to find and in about 70% of the cases simply unavailable. A good try are the Vista x64 drivers – they may not work either ;-).

My installation of Windows XP 64bit didn´t recognize the beloved Conexant High Definition Audio Chipset. And who can live without sound today ? I couldn´t so I started to search the net for suitable x64 drivers. Fujitsu Siemens as manufacturer doesn´t support XP 64. They have a Vista x64 driver, but that one doesn´t work. I found a great variety of drivers in the net, though most of them didn´t fucking work.

It took me around 3 days to get the Conexant Windows Vista x64 driver working, (yeah I know it´s a Vista driver, but the XP 64 driver didn´t work) but than the epic fail. Sound from the internal speakers (sound like shit), but no sound out of the headphone plug. The red SPDIF light was there, but no SPDIF headphones in sight – and by the way – who the hell needs SPDIF headphones ?

I was pretty annoyed, searched the net again, found nothing, got angry and decided to modify the Vista x64 driver on my own. And after some modifications on the INF files there was SOUND – also out of the headphone plug. You can find the modified driver at the end of this article, with absolute no warranty for anything. It should work with nearly any Fujitsu Siemens notebook that has a Conexant High Definition Audio Chipset.

But there´s one important limitation. I didn´t manage to get the microphone plug working. I couldn´t find the correct routing within the INF files. Any help is appricated. The internal microphone is working, but not the microphone plug.

I also own a T-Mobile web’n’walk Stick 3 (a Huawei UMTS / HSDPA / 3G usb modem). Though T-Mobile provides an update for the device, I couldn´t get it working. Also not with the included XP 64 drivers ?!?!

My conclusion(s) so far :

+ fast and reliable operating system

+ great for dual core cpu´s in combination with a bunch of memory ( > 3 GB)

+ high speed on x64 applications

+ more “modern” than the antiquated Windows XP SP2 32bit

– driver compatibility is a nightmare

– driver support by the manufacturers is bad

– requires too much time to get all the things working

Modified Windows XP x64 Conexant HD Audio Device Drivers by Pac, October 2k9

Download : windows_xp_x64_conexant_hd_audio_device_drivers

Instructions & Notes : readme_first