TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[R-T-B]

Newbie here on this forum but I thought I'd share my retro collection after finding this thread. I've been a passionate collector since about 2011 but I've been passionate about PCs/PC gaming since about 1992 when my family bought their first PC - a Packard Bell 386SX 16Mhz. Anyway, greetings and enjoy a bit of nostalgia!

OMG, that's like hoarders only instead of dead cats you have 3dfx's and Packard Bells. Nostalgia beyond comprehension man, you both are seriously awesome and seriously need help.

 

[Trekkie4]

Status update... This here is the upcoming AMD build which has Duron 750 on that mobo mentioned on the previous page. The one that's been abused & crushed, shorted, even scrapped for parts & thrown on the junk pile at one point. But still going strong regardless of everything, and is now paired with Evil KYRO. Been meaning to see this card in action for a while now, but somehow I get the feeling that the CPU will be a bottleneck, I really should get something better and faster.


Speaking of AMDs, almost forgot to post these next pics... Not exactly what I would consider "nostalgic", but I've been asked recently to fix an old(er) AM2 machine, running Athlon X2.

The problem with this thing was that (according to the person using it) ran too slow, and would sometimes crash with BSOD. I didn't want to waste too much time with it, so I gave it a new mobo, and will soon add more DDR2 memory. I'm thinking of 2x 2GB DDR2 running in dual-channel mode, which is a huge step up from what the system had so far (3GB DDR2 in 2+1 configuration) Unfortunately, I forgot to take pics of the replacement board (which is far more better than this old MSI MS-7309), but I can tell you the model specs - it's Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H, which offers much more features & upgrade options if (and when) the owner decides to step up & upgrade to something better. Even the on-board graphics is far more superior and offers HDMI output.


Speaking of forgotten pics, I suppose now it's perfect time to upload those pics of the Telefunken VCR, when I replaced the loading motor. I was going to write a full tutorial on this thing (and explain every single step), but due to obvious lack of interest, I'm just going to post a bunch of pics & move on


This here VCR is the one I'm donating to a museum, and being a direct drive (JVC based deck) this thing should hopefully last for at least 20-30 more years

 

[msgclb]

In 1975 SWTPC was one of the original suppliers of microcomputers to the general public, focusing on designs using the Motorola 6800 and later the 6809 CPU.

My build was in kit form in 1976.

SWTPC's SS-50 backplane bus was supported by many manufacturers: Midwest Scientific Inc, Smoke Signal Broadcasting, Gimix, Helix, Tano, Percom Data, Safetran, etc.

I started out using a keyboard and cassette to input data but soon had a 5 1/4 floppy drive system and finally an 8" drive.

I had a copy of Microsoft Basic on cassette along with a few other programs.

There was a monthly magazine dedicated to this computer system that included programs to input
using a keyboard but later they included a floppy.

The store where I bought my kit was mostly dedicated to business computers and software.
I had a choice between two computers, the original Apple Computer and the SWTPC kit.
That Apple Computer was outrageously expensive but I paid about half of its cost for my kit.

This purchase turned out to have an added benefit when it wouldn't boot!
The owner of that store set me down with his technician and we troubleshot it together.
The problem turned out to be a bad trace on the motherboard.

I got to know the owner and would help troubleshoot some of his returned malfunctioning computers including those Apple Computers!

I went through this tread and I can say at one time or another I'd bet I've owned about half of the computer hardware shown!

One of my biggest regrets in life is throwing out so much of the computer hardware that I've owned as I could have started my own museum!

I have owned both an Atari 800 and Amiga 1000 so they both could have been in my museum!

This was my original build with terminal and the monitor upgrade that I later purchased.

This is the SWTPC 6800 Computer System along with the manuals that came with the kit.

Here you can see the power supply, motherboard and some system boards.

My first motherboard.

This is the Motorola 6800 CPU board.

My first floppy disk system.

This is the floppy disk controller.

This is a 4k memory board. I soon had an 8k and then four 16k boards.
I believe the maximum number was four boards for a 64k system.

This is what the CT-64 terminal looked like with the cover off although this is the CT-1024.
As you can see this was also a kit.

This is the original CT-64 terminal when assembled.

I’ve seen advertisements that say the SWTPC 6800 cost $450 and the CT-64 cost $325.

I spotted an abacus or two while looking through this thread and that reminded me that for a few years I bought software and a few other items from an Abacus computer store.

 

[Trekkie4]

Just before I've uploaded these pics, I was going to make a joke - some random & silly comment on how I got both new & old generations together in one pic ... but then I realized something! Even the "modern" HP calculator is over 15 years old, I remember buying this thing in early 2001! Yikes, didn't even realize how many years has gone by, since then

 

[Norton]

40MB was big for a portable storage drive in 1999

 

[Retrorockit]

I don't have any photos, but around 1980 I worked in a factory making paint for fiberglass boats (gelcoat). We had a color matching computer. It would not only match colors, but it would give formulas for lowest cost, color stability between various light sources, or lowest pigment load in the formula. It may have been an AST. it was about 5 feet across, 2 feet deep and 3 foot high. It looked like a white kitchen cabinet with an orange Formica top, and a CRT display sitting there. It had a database with each pigment under different lights, cost per pound, and relative tint strength. I suppose there's a smartphone app. that does all that now.

 

[Trekkie4]

Me again, with something a little bit different...

I've always been into mods & modding stuff (as you can probably tell, from that heavily modded Pentium 4 rig couple of pages ago) but I've also been attracted to software mods as well as hardware ones! Don't remember which was the 1st game to mod (either Dark Colony or Need for Speed 3 - Hot Pursuit), but when I 1st got my hands on Grand Theft Auto 3 I've decided to replace, change as much content as I can! Of course, everyone's hardware specs were completely different back then, so there wasn't HD & high-poly stuff, it was all cartoon-ish & low-poly stuff with blurry textures. Heck, some of those mods have been made worse than the original models, already included in GTA3 but I wanted to replace them just for the sake of replacing them, if you know what I mean

15 years later, I'm playing that same game, running most (if not all) mods from 2004, 2005 and older! Some of the hardcore GTA fans (if any) might recognize the famous mods from that time period, which were found in almost everyone's game, before HD stuff (and newer games) replaced them for better & more life-like mods. Still, I've dedicated a lot of time & patience in preserving this copy of the game as it was, true to the "original" which I ran on my old Abit Siluro FX5600 AGP card back in a day. And that my friends really IS nostalgic

 

[Retrorockit]

You should try GPL World. The GPL Sim is still available. 1998 to Now. If you like patches and Mods you'l feel right at home.
http://gplworld.org/115.html

Does anybody here remember Turbonique. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgzGSf45c4I
They produced liquid fueled rocket engines for cars. Some were just rockets mostly used on 240 mph 1/4 mile go karts. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZNc8ZOIkbQ
Some were rocket powered turbines attached to rear axles driving the wheels at 1000 HP.
Some were rocket powered superchargers That took no power from the engine and actually applied force to the pistons on the intake stroke.
Check out their idea of a Volkswagen ad. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6l3WKPsVQcs/TeMn8WAOUPI/AAAAAAABkZQ/Y85i9T-Myas/s1600/0011.jpg

 

[Trekkie4]

You should try GPL World. The GPL Sim is still available. 1998 to Now. If you like patches and Mods you'l feel right at home.
http://gplworld.org/115.html

Does anybody here remember Turbonique. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgzGSf45c4I
They produced liquid fueled rocket engines for cars. Some were just rockets mostly used on 240 mph 1/4 mile go karts. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZNc8ZOIkbQ
Some were rocket powered turbines attached to rear axles driving the wheels at 1000 HP.
Some were rocket powered superchargers That took no power from the engine and actually applied force to the pistons on the intake stroke.

Bookmarked, thanks! Now to find out the sys requirements for this thing, wonder if I could load it on my 4200Ti machine from the profile?

 

[Retrorockit]

When it was released a hot system was a 266MMX with whatever Voodoo was available in 1998. It wouldn't really run it, and FFB wasn't in the original release. It had to be text edited in to activate it in a patch. So I would say fast Slot1 minimum. Faster AMD K6III if you don't load up on detailed carsets. Single car laps aren't too bad but 20 car grids can be taxing. BTW the AI drivers get faster as you get faster. They really don't cut you any slack in that sim. Actually I've heard it looks best on Rendition Verite cards, the other native API. I suppose you could have a rendition card and a couple Voodoo 2s. Don't know what API you would end up with? The art department set the cars up way too low because it looked cool, they bottom out horribly if you don't fix that. I think it has known issues with some Sound Blaster cards.

Ok I pulled out a copy of GPL. It says "Pentium 90, 16Mb RAM, 2x CD ROM, SVGA640X480 256 colors. LOL. Why don't you try it on a AMD 5X86 133! Let me know how it works out.

 

[Trekkie4]

When it was released a hot system was a 266MMX with whatever Voodoo was available in 1998. It wouldn't really run it, and FFB wasn't in the original release. It had to be text edited in to activate it in a patch. So I would say fast Slot1 minimum. Faster AMD K6III if you don't load up on detailed carsets. Single car laps aren't too bad but 20 car grids can be taxing. BTW the AI drivers get faster as you get faster. They really don't cut you any slack in that sim. Actually I've heard it looks best on Rendition Verite cards, the other native API. I suppose you could have a rendition card and a couple Voodoo 2s. Don't know what API you would end up with? The art department set the cars up way too low because it looked cool, they bottom out horribly if you don't fix that. I think it has known issues with some Sound Blaster cards.

Ok I pulled out a copy of GPL. It says "Pentium 90, 16Mb RAM, 2x CD ROM, SVGA640X480 256 colors. LOL. Why don't you try it on a AMD 5X86 133! Let me know how it works out.

Think I'm going to stick with my confirmed & trusted choice, Voodoo2 in SLI And nah, not going to use 5x86 for this one, as the video card only has 1mb of VRAM. Nope, this is the job for RetroMaster 2000 as I called it, just for the giggles Specs are in my profile, under "system specs"

 

[Retrorockit]

Check which Sound blasters had issues. Some did some didn't I think. Mine did. It corrupt the video I believe. That system looks about the right era to get good play.

My 586X133 had a 2Mb STB Nitro ISA video card. It really wouldn't play much of anything. It would run 4 desktops at once which was pretty cool.

 

[stinger608]

Well, until I am able to frigging edit the original post again I'll put this here.

Over on [H]ard forums one of the news posters put this line up: "Windows 3.1 Programs Brought Back To Life By Internet Archive." So naturally I checked it out, and its frigging awesome! Downloadable software for Windows 3.x:

https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_win3

There are a ton of ole nostalgic software titles in that web site!!!

So go check it out!

 

[msgclb]

My Windows 1.0 Experience

I was one of the shop chiefs in the Avionics Maintenance Squadron at Eglin AFB between 1985 and 1987 when this new computer showed up for evaluation to track maintenance on our aircraft.

This PC computer was based on Intel’s 286 with the Microsoft Windows 1.0 OS.

It took 'forever' to switch from one window to another!

I'm guessing that Windows 1.0 doesn't deserve all the credit for this total failure as Intel's 286 CPU didn't have the speed to handle this graphical OS.

Needless to say we stayed with our text based tracking computer system that was not made by MS!

 

[Ruru]

Just bought an Audigy 2 soundcard w/ 8 euros (including shipping). I remember having an Audigy Platinum and Audigy2 ZS, and if it's even near of those, damn my server is going to have good sounds!

I'm guessing that Windows 1.0 doesn't deserve all the credit for this total failure as Intel's 286 CPU didn't have the speed to handle this graphical OS.

Like Vista some years ago, when used with a single-core processor and low memory?

 

[Retrorockit]

I posted about GoBack here. Just thought I'd let you know I found a new version fo this type utility for newer OS from another developer. I would have put it in Must Have Software for Overclockers but they closed the thread. Rollback RX has a free version for MS 2000 and up, also Freeware Rollback XP . It doesn't do continuous backup like GB. It takes snapshots you restore to, but you can go forward to later snapshots to bring back lost files. Low overhead and space use. Runs if Windows won't boot.
http://www.horizondatasys.com/en/products_and_solutions.aspx?ProductId=40#Features
http://www.horizondatasys.com/en/RollBack_XP.ihtml

 

[stinger608]

You should toss the link up @Retrorockit

 

[Retrorockit]

Added them above.

 

[stinger608]

Sooner or later I'll be able to edit the original post and will add the newer members and web links..............I'm afraid that many of these awesome links will end up getting lost in the pages.

Hopefully @W1zzard will get something figured out on being able to edit older original posts.

 

[GreiverBlade]

won 2 auction ... might have 2 new beauty for my collection (well technically 3 ...) stay tuned (not tuna ...)

AND WOW FOR THE COLLECTION I SAW ON THE PREVIOUS PAGE

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Sooner or later I'll be able to edit the original post and will add the newer members and web links..............I'm afraid that many of these awesome links will end up getting lost in the pages.

Hopefully @W1zzard will get something figured out on being able to edit older original posts.

PM a mod, i did it yesterday and he obliged by removing some content from a thread i started where i stated i was going to add to the original post. I told him what to delete and it was done, i had a notification back to say that my post had been amended at my request.

 

[stinger608]

PM a mod, i did it yesterday and he obliged by removing some content from a thread i started where i stated i was going to add to the original post. I told him what to delete and it was done, i had a notification back to say that my post had been amended at my request.

Yea I just hate bothering a moderator over something like that though.

Trust me, I am a moderator on a couple of sites and there is enough to do without fooling with threads for members.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Yea I just hate bothering a moderator over something like that though.

Trust me, I am a moderator on a couple of sites and there is enough to do without fooling with threads for members.

Amen to that.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Yea I just hate bothering a moderator over something like that though.

Trust me, I am a moderator on a couple of sites and there is enough to do without fooling with threads for members.

Perhaps this will help to resolve the issue.

 

[Ruru]

Bought a Corsair HX620 PSU with 20 euros, at least I have a fine spare PSU now. Can't use it in my server though since it has its own hotswap non-ATX PSU :/