TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Trekkie4]

Hey, who are you calling old? hahaha... Cyrix produced quite a few CPU's, no idea what happened to them. I found that one at a PC tradeshow here in Manchester, NH back in the 90's



Go figure... also the F-35 apparently

Hey, as long as you're old enough to remember the old days & DOS commands, you ARE old Speaking of ATMs, 486 CPUs and "Nostalgic Hardware", check this out!

 

[Sasqui]

Hey, as long as you're old enough to remember the old days & DOS commands, you ARE old Speaking of ATMs, 486 CPUs and "Nostalgic Hardware", check this out!

Hahaha, that's awesome!

(And yes, I read the DOS 5.0 manual front to back in 1991... seriously)

 

[dorsetknob]

Still got MS Dos 4.0 and GW Basic full manual on my bookshelf ( from AST )
pics in thread earlier ( around page 15 ish i think )

and the Tandon guide to windows (circa 1987 )

 

[Trekkie4]

Took apart & cleaned one of those serial Microsoft-branded rodents IDK why am I even wasting my time with this, but it seemed a waste to throw away, especially since serial-ones are kinda hard to find these days. On the other hand, I got the entire box of these things, both serial & PS/2... Not to mention a brand new, never used Primax "Rainbow series" with serial interface, in blue color...

 

[Sasqui]

Took apart & cleaned one of those serial Microsoft-branded rodents IDK why am I even wasting my time with this, but it seemed a waste to throw away, especially since serial-ones are kinda hard to find these days. On the other hand, I got the entire box of these things, both serial & PS/2... Not to mention a brand new, never used Primax "Rainbow series" with serial interface, in blue color...

Its amazing what a quantum leap to get an optical mouse after swearing at and rubbing mouse balls for so many years, lol. They sure were good for what they were at the time tho.

 

[Trekkie4]

Indeed, I remember playing games such as DX-Ball, Boogaloopers & similar and how frustrated I felt at the time, because damn thing would slip or get stuck (always in the worst possible moment, of course)

This one came with that 5x86 machine, but like I said earlier, I got tons of these in the box. In fact, think I got couple of these Microsoft branded rodents (featured on Win95 setup screen, along with MS "Natural" keyboard)

Edit
Wow! Apparently these things are going for $19.25! - LINK

 

[Trekkie4]

Sneak peek of the upcoming project - the unnamed build! (is it just me, or this case resembles Compaq Presario design, from the late 90's?)

 

[Ahhzz]

Sneak peek of the upcoming project - the unnamed build! (is it just me, or this case resembles Compaq Presario design, from the late 90's?)

ewwww ewww ewww!!!!

 

[Trekkie4]

Close... But no - actually I was thinking more of something like this, here

 

[Ahhzz]

no.

 

[Trekkie4]

Seriously? Rounded edges, oval details at the bottom, 3x 5.25" drive bays, etc... That 1st one you showed me looks more like a server case IMHO.

 

[Ahhzz]

It was Just brings back awful retail memories

 

[Trekkie4]

It was Just brings back awful retail memories

Don't worry, there won't be any Compaq parts in this build Speaking of which, I've been gathering components, all scattered around the room & boxes, pics coming up tomorrow! However, since I don't have spare PSU at the moment (along with 10GB HDD), I won't be able to boot it up just yet.

Edit
At least now I'm able to tell the final specs for this thing...

CPU: Intel Celeron (Mendocino) @ 433MHz, S370
MBO: DFI CA61, S370
RAM: either 2x 32MB or 1x 64MB
VGA: Matrox Mystique AGP, 4MB
ODD1: Asus 34X CD-ROM
ODD2: LG DVD-ROM
FDD: 1.44MB Floppy
OS: Either Win95(C) or Win98 first edition

Along to these, this system is also going to have Voodoo1 accelerator, DVD (MPEG) accelerator and fax modem (or network adapter)

 

[Retrorockit]

My homebuilt only had 1- 3.5 bay so I got the LS120 drive which was bigger than Zip, and backwards compatible with floppies too. It was IDE and Zips were SCSI . It was free after rebate. I just had to file mail fraud charges with the Postal Inspector to get it. Maybe my friend still has her Castlewood Orb 2GB 5.25" drive. It came and went between CD, and DVD. I t wouldn't surprise me if she's still using it though. The hottest beige CD player was the Kenwood 52X true-X. Instead of turning insane RPMs to get fast throughput, it used 7 lasers at once to scan the disc. Came in 40X also. Quiet and super fast. Worth keeping an eye out for one. One of my favorite pieces of software back in the day was Virtual CD Copier. It made copies of all your CDs on the HDD, and assigned virtual drive letters up to Z:, I could load all 5 discs of Riven on virtualCDs at once and move between them seamlessly. It was fun going to My Computer and seeing 10 CD drives available. Things weren't so standardized back then. There was really cool stuff to play with.

 

[Trekkie4]

My homebuilt only had 1- 3.5 bay so I got the LS120 drive which was bigger than Zip, and backwards compatible with floppies too. It was IDE and Zips were SCSI . It was free after rebate. I just had to file mail fraud charges with the Postal Inspector to get it. Maybe my friend still has her Castlewood Orb 2GB 5.25" drive. It came and went between CD, and DVD. I t wouldn't surprise me if she's still using it though. The hottest beige CD player was the Kenwood 52X true-X. Instead of turning insane RPMs to get fast throughput, it used 7 lasers at once to scan the disc. Came in 40X also. Quiet and super fast. Worth keeping an eye out for one. One of my favorite pieces of software back in the day was Virtual CD Copier. It made copies of all your CDs on the HDD, and assigned virtual drive letters up to Z:, I could load all 5 discs of Riven on virtualCDs at once and move between them seamlessly. It was fun going to My Computer and seeing 10 CD drives available. Things weren't so standardized back then. There was really cool stuff to play with.

Never had LS120 drive before, but I've heard a lot about those Kenwood drives, they're kinda legendary (even today!) I wanted one of those back in a day, but couldn't afford spending so much money on a CD-ROM, especially when I already had a BTC 36X which served its purpose...

 

[Retrorockit]

This game was released in 1998. It's been updated by the community continuously since.

This next track was a classic over the road race from the 50s-60s. The track is basically 1 lap of Sicily, on 2 lane country roads. A driver could make a career just by being able to remember the route. It was recreated from films, maps ,and photos by the GPL community. F1 cars never ran there, but there are GT carsets too.

The cars were set up wrong to start with, the learning curve was vertical, and if you couldn't drive faster than Jim Clark you didn't win a race. The computers of the day couldn't run it really. The FFB was the best ever (the same guys are doing iRacing now). You needed to convert the best cable wheels to ball bearing to feel what it was able to communicate.

It was a Glide game. This is what I bought the Voodoo 5500 for.

 

[dorsetknob]

Never had LS120 drive before,

still got 2 of the suckers both still work
got 5 disks as well boy they were expensive for the time
They were a niche product to start with and the cheap deployment of CD Re writers killed them off

 

[Trekkie4]

still got 2 of the suckers both still work
got 5 disks as well boy they were expensive for the time
They were a niche product to start with and the cheap deployment of CD Re writers killed them off

Not really that surprised, since Iomega & their ZIP drive had pretty much the same fate. And now (after all these years), the same thing is happening to optical media due to online streaming &/or USB drives.

 

[Retrorockit]

This is Dell's Desktop Support Forum's response to asking how to adjust the BIOS video resolution setting.

That $300 video card is for a high powered, much faster and much more recent computer. The E520 is an obsolete model now and cannot run that card. You should return the card and put that money towards a new computer. You can buy a new computer now that cost less than the video card.

Instead I just ordered another Sapphire Dual BIOS R9-285 ITX O/C from Newegg for $170.

 

[Trekkie4]

So much for my "final" specs, I was just about to mount that CA61 mobo inside the case when I noticed that despite the "older" design, it would be way too modern for what I have in mind. Also, I've been reading about Voodoo1 cards, and most 3dfx fans out there agree that running 450MHz (and above) CPU is too much for V1 cards to handle, which often results with screen artifacts & other problems. 433 is right there on the very edge, so I didn't want to risk anything & changed the board to Slot-1 with Celeron 333, instead!


So, once again - presenting the following (and hopefully final) specs:

CPU: Intel Celeron (Mendocino) @ 333MHz, Slot-1
MBO: iWill BD-100 (Slot-1)
RAM: 1x 64MB, PC100
VGA: Matrox Mystique AGP, 4MB
ODD1: Asus 34X CD-ROM
ODD2: LG DVD-ROM
FDD: 1.44MB Floppy
OS: Windows 95(C)

It might seem totally random, but actually I was inspired by those Hot Wheels (and Barbie) computers from back in a day. In other words, just the basic & low budget components, slightly modified (and upgraded) with certain features. Such as DVD drive for example, along with DVD encoder card, Voodoo1 & 64MB of RAM memory


They had better & "improved" models, which came with 64MB of RAM so I don't feel bad for upgrading RAM (and therefore wouldn't feel bad for using 433 Celeron, either) but like I said - that CA61 S370 board was too much for this build. I wanted a system which runs @ 100MHz, not 133MHz one. Furthermore, I wanted ATA/33 and not /66 which means CA61 was immediately out of the game for this build


So, here's the current progress... Obviously, there's still quite a lot of things to do. I need to find the PSU, add the HDD, add those CD-ROM audio cables, do a proper cable management & do a complete check on the Mystique pinout, where it hooks with Creative DVD card (don't want to cause any damage, in case the cable is flipped other way around)


Oh, and by the way... As you can see @Ahhzz - no Compaq parts inside, so you can relax

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

I found the charger.

The bloody thing still works !!



Sony CM-H333 "Mars bar" 1993

 

[Trekkie4]

My cellular, bananular phoooneee Seriously though, nice one! Makes me kinda sad for not having our 1st mobile "Philips Diga" from around 1996, 97 any longer.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

I first dialled 999, i hoped against hope there might be a analogue network ( being run by somone ) which would allow a free call to emergency services.
The next best thing i found to do with it was to type the obligatory word BOOBS.

 

[Trekkie4]

I first dialled 999, i hoped against hope there might be a analogue network ( being run by somone ) which would allow a free call to emergency services.
The next best thing i found to do with it was to type the obligatory word BOOBS.

OMG, can't believe it took me so long to realize that

 

[Retrorockit]

I had a favorite Utility program back in the day. It got killed off by the much inferior Microsoft System Restore included free in XP. It was called Go Back from various publishers. Developed in 1998 it could restore you hard drive to a previous state. The interesting and important feature was that it loaded before and outside of Windows. So it would work even if Windows wouldn't boot. Get a virus, Go Back before the infection, problem gone. Want to try 5 different versions of AOL (notoriously hard to remove)? Done in an hour w/o a trace. There were some programs it didn't play well with but they seem to be well documented in Wiki now. I wasn't afraid to load anything with that program running. It had a setting for public computers where it would revert the drive to it's original state every shut down.