TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Trekkie4]

Speaking of Picture It, how about some retro software? These are all mine, I owned them since the 1st day and (as you can probably see), I'm holding onto them forever

The Genius of Edison encyclopedia... Originally bought in some random store (supermarket?), it had the original box & papers. Unfortunately, I no longer have either, but I've decided to keep the CD for nostalgia. The actual encyclopedia is pretty simple, sometimes even annoying... After all, it came out about the same time when sound cards & faster sys specs took over the market, so every encyclopedia back then had to be narrated of course, and feature over-exaggerating sound effects


Trivial Pursuit came with previously mentioned Genius of Edison... Bought at the same story, also had a box & some papers. Fun fact, I never EVER played this game in my life... I remember trying to once, but then gave up (maybe like 15 years ago?) & never bothered to give it another try. Oh well, it's still here & in good condition, so I might revisit it some time in the future


Ah yes, something REALLY useful & productive to share with you guys... The original copy of Microsoft Picture it! This one was a gift, and it also came with the box which I kept for years until it finally fell apart one day, so I had to get rid of it. Too bad, it would make a beautiful shelf decoration today! Oh and I was too lazy to mask the CD key on the back, but really - who cares? This thing is 20 years old now, so if you feel like using the CD key for your own purposes, feel free to do so


The Cybwar Mission Thunder Gun. Sounds bombastic, sounds awesome, sounds exciting ... and yet it's basically nothing! Well OK, maybe it was something back in a day, but this game really isn't much by any standards - modern or otherwise! Nevertheless, it's quite useful for those older "AT" systems, such as 5x86, Pentium Pro & similar, which are not capable of 3D acceleration & are limited with Windows 95 and/or DOS environment


Those system requirements... Oh boy!


And the last one ... something every man should have close to him, uhh right? Joke aside, it was a gift from someone looong time ago, and was pretty much collecting dust ever since then. I'm not even sure how to get it started, I remember trying to once, but it kept pushing me into DOS mode & telling me to manually navigate through the files & folders. Maybe I did something wrong...? *shrug*


Once again, these specs! Oh, man!

 

[GreiverBlade]

Speaking of Picture It, how about some retro software? These are all mine, I owned them since the 1st day and (as you can probably see), I'm holding onto them forever

The Genius of Edison encyclopedia... Originally bought in some random store (supermarket?), it had the original box & papers. Unfortunately, I no longer have either, but I've decided to keep the CD for nostalgia. The actual encyclopedia is pretty simple, sometimes even annoying... After all, it came out about the same time when sound cards & faster sys specs took over the market, so every encyclopedia back then had to be narrated of course, and feature over-exaggerating sound effects


Trivial Pursuit came with previously mentioned Genius of Edison... Bought at the same story, also had a box & some papers. Fun fact, I never EVER played this game in my life... I remember trying to once, but then gave up (maybe like 15 years ago?) & never bothered to give it another try. Oh well, it's still here & in good condition, so I might revisit it some time in the future


Ah yes, something REALLY useful & productive to share with you guys... The original copy of Microsoft Picture it! This one was a gift, and it also came with the box which I kept for years until it finally fell apart one day, so I had to get rid of it. Too bad, it would make a beautiful shelf decoration today! Oh and I was too lazy to mask the CD key on the back, but really - who cares? This thing is 20 years old now, so if you feel like using the CD key for your own purposes, feel free to do so


The Cybwar Mission Thunder Gun. Sounds bombastic, sounds awesome, sounds exciting ... and yet it's basically nothing! Well OK, maybe it was something back in a day, but this game really isn't much by any standards - modern or otherwise! Nevertheless, it's quite useful for those older "AT" systems, such as 5x86, Pentium Pro & similar, which are not capable of 3D acceleration & are limited with Windows 95 and/or DOS environment


Those system requirements... Oh boy!


And the last one ... something every man should have close to him, uhh right? Joke aside, it was a gift from someone looong time ago, and was pretty much collecting dust ever since then. I'm not even sure how to get it started, I remember trying to once, but it kept pushing me into DOS mode & telling me to manually navigate through the files & folders. Maybe I did something wrong...? *shrug*


Once again, these specs! Oh, man!

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/tpus-nostalgic-software-club.190108/ which ... died pretty fast because we mostly posted them here

although i find better to have all here (nuuuhhhh my pics are gone ... oh well i guess i have to retake some pics of my softwares book'n boxes )

 

[Trekkie4]

You can't really show (or touch, feel) software in real life, other than having some sort of media. Floppy, CD, USB, whatever. And the thing about those is that they're all hardware - not software, therefore old floppy disks & CDs belong into the hardware thread which is probably why the other topic dried up so soon. At least that's how I see things... *shrug*

Speaking of old software, I might find more... I got couple of games on CDs, but mostly just CDs salvaged (and found) inside old CD-ROM units, therefore without the original boxes and/or cover art. The rest of them are all home-made, either backups or downloaded stuff from the web. One thing I learned over the years is that you NEVER, EVER want to use your precious (original) CDs for every-day purposes, because they can blow up and/or end up scratched. So if you have something that's valuable, I strongly suggest that you back it up, make a copy on a modern CD & only then use it as you please.

 

[GreiverBlade]

You can't really show (or touch, feel) software in real life, other than having some sort of media. Floppy, CD, USB, whatever. And the thing about those is that they're all hardware - not software, therefore old floppy disks & CDs belong into the hardware thread which is probably why the other topic dried up so soon. At least that's how I see things... *shrug*

Speaking of old software, I might find more... I got couple of games on CDs, but mostly just CDs salvaged (and found) inside old CD-ROM units, therefore without the original boxes and/or cover art. The rest of them are all home-made, either backups or downloaded stuff from the web. One thing I learned over the years is that you NEVER, EVER want to use your precious (original) CDs for every-day purposes, because they can blow up and/or end up scratched. So if you have something that's valuable, I strongly suggest that you back it up, make a copy on a modern CD & only then use it as you please.

books ... are hardware too indeed ... nonetheless touching or not a software is still something

and yep, you're right both S & H belong here

 

[Trekkie4]

Time for more software...

How about Sim City 2000, Network edition? This one was a donation from the guy on a similar forum, he also gave me the upcoming Broken Sword. Never tried to set it up, but the actual CD seems to be in mint condition.


Broken Sword, The Shadow of the Templars. Or just Broken Sword (1), the game is already famous enough so I don't really have to say anything else about it. And yes, I do have the other disk but it's currently out of my reach, on top of the shelf Again, this game is 20 years old now!


Sim City 2k & Broken Sword together


The original copy of Unreal. Therefore not the "Gold" one, this copy only works with Glide & 3dfx cards. Or in software mode, if you couldn't afford 3dfx cards. Come to think of it, most ppl can't afford one even today, which makes this game kinda unique & rare IMHO. It came bundled with one of the Voodoo2 cards that I bought over the years, no surprises there! Diamond Monster 3D (12mb) to be exact, although I'm not sure if Voodoo (or Voodoo2) was originally distributed with the copy of Unreal or not?


My Grand Theft Auto collection... I also have the 1st and 2nd one, but those are home-made copies, so I didn't want to waste my time with those. They're not even illegal to have (or talk about), since Rockstar Games released them to public & made them available for download long time ago!


Starting with Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy. Although this particular bundle is somewhat new, the actual games inside are old enough to be mentioned here It features GTA3, Vice City (my favorite!) and San Andreas, along with maps & guides for each & every game individually. I'm quite pleased to own these, because The Trilogy pack got sold pretty fast & ended up unavailable. In fact, I believe this one may have been the very last copy in stock, from the store. Or at least 2nd to last one, because they removed it from their web store within couple of hrs.


Yes, I realize that GTA IV is far from old and/or nostalgic, but since I'm talking about GTA series, I might as well put the entire collection here I thought GTA IV was a bad game ... until I bought GTA V *eye roll*


Also have the expansion pack, so called Episodes from Liberty City featuring "The Lost & Damned" and "The Ballad of Gay Tony" The other one was somewhat better than Lost & Damned IMHO, and featured much more content than the original IV, including the new vehicles & weapons.


And finally, GTA V... Got this one not so long ago, tried to play it on my Q6600 running 8800GT and 4GB of RAM but nope. Also, the entire "playing online" concept is annoying, and the game keeps on updating over & over to the point where I emailed customer support & asked them how to prevent the game from ever updating again. Needless to say, I never got my answer, so now it's just sitting here & doing nothing. I considered selling the game, but being a one-time activation thing, it's unfortunately tied up to my Social Club acc forever, so it's completely useless to anyone else On a side note, this is probably the last GTA title to own, I'm tired of wasting my time & money on Rockstar Games, especially since they couldn't come up with decent product since 2002...


OK, enough rambling about modern stuff. How about something pretty old & nostalgic? This particular CD came bundled inside the box with Wave Blaster II MIDI extension card, which is currently paired up with Diamond Monster MX300 Aureal Vortex2 sound card. It has 4 games from what it seems - Descent, Doom, Heretic & Warcraft. Again, I never tried to set any of these up, but the actual disc seems to be in mint condition so they're most likely OK.

 

[Trekkie4]

Messing around with tape decks & couldn't resist not to upload pics in this thread

Nostalgic or not, there's something about cassettes & VCRs... Anyhow, you might recognize this Akai deck from couple of months ago, when I overhauled the entire mechanism. Due to noticeable wow & flutter, the condition is far from perfect, but that's what you get for using belts that are out of specs. Simply because I couldn't find the original ones anywhere, some repair shops won't even mess around with tape decks & VCRs any longer due to the same reason. There's a global-wide shortage of pinch rollers & rubber belts, so the future is not looking too bright for these things My advice? Enjoy them while you still can! As for this one in the picture, don't worry. The condition is only going to improve over time, as the rubber belts will stretch & lose the excessive grip on the flywheel & motor pulley, but this might take a while... In fact, it already sounds so much better than 6 months ago, when I replaced them.

Akai CS-703D


Aiwa AD-F550

 

[biffzinker]

How old is the Akai CS-703D? 1979?

 

[Trekkie4]

That is correct yes, 1979! How did you know? (there was a stamp on the motor, says manufacturing date is 79)

 

[biffzinker]

That is correct yes, 1979! How did you know? (there was a stamp on the motor, says manufacturing date is 79)

Found it at hifiengine. http://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/akai/cs-703d.shtml

 

[Trekkie4]

Found it at hifiengine. http://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/akai/cs-703d.shtml

Ah, OK then I assumed you also worked on (and/or owned) one... It's a nice little unit, but also a money pit. I've spent over 15USD on replacement parts, and still not happy with the final result. Revamped clutch assembly, new pinch roller, belts, axial VU bulb (the brighter one, on the left), the list goes on & on. But it was worth it I suppose, even though I'm not using it for anything.

 

[biffzinker]

Been along time since I've seen a tape deck or a cassette tapes. Use to have a Sony Walkman, and I forget the brand name for the tape deck along time ago.

 

[Trekkie4]

You mean one of these?


Too bad, you really should get yourself a decent deck while you still can. Like I said in the upper post, the time is running out for those & they'll most likely become impossible to find & maintain in the future

Speaking of decks, I also have this nice Kenwood KX-W4080 (which is not being used at the moment, but would need to be serviced before playing any music since the belts are completely shot & pinch rollers are glazed to the point where I need to renew them with chemical solution)


...along with this nice ITT SL59 automatic. This one was in the family even before I was born, used to belong to someone very close to me who passed away in 1997. Would you believe that ITT haven't been maintained or properly serviced since the early 90's, and yet this thing STILL works today, without any wow & flutter or hissing? Now THAT'S a high quality product!


What I'd love to do is find some decent (yet cheap) speakers for this rig down below, so that I can hook it up with that Kenwood deck. It would make one heck of a HiFi!


Edit
Oh, and here are few more pics of the Akai deck, taken couple of months ago when I swapped the belts, clutch & pinch. It's more than obvious that the capstan belt is about twice the normal size, when comparing to the original one, so therefore it's causing a lot more traction with the surface. More traction means more friction, and more friction means more resistance, kinda like the tires on your car. Except in this case, you don't want more friction because even though the actual motor can be adjusted in the terms of speed, there's still a matter of torque. So to put it simply, the original motor just doesn't have enough torque to keep the speed at the same pace, it keeps on accelerating & decelerating depending on the tape & tape spool resistance. But like I said, the belts will only stretch more & more, meaning they'll eventually get to the point of normal, acceptable traction level where the mechanism won't stall & cause excessive wow & flutter

 

[biffzinker]

Front and back of the Geforce GTS 250 I posted earlier. The big sticker on the shroud started peeling off so along time back I took it off.

How about this old game?

I have a cardboard box stuffed full of old games.

 

[Trekkie4]

Front and back of the Geforce GTS 250 I posted earlier. The big sticker on the shroud started peeling off so along time back I took it off.
View attachment 78431 View attachment 78433

How about this old game?
View attachment 78436 View attachment 78437 View attachment 78441 View attachment 78440
I have a cardboard box stuffed full of old games.

Cool, the original Deus Ex!! Great story, loads of features & parallel storylines (not to mention endings), all delivered on amazing Unreal engine Would definitely love to have one of these, as mine is home-made copy, bought from some guy who was distributing cracked games in late 90s and early 2000s.

 

[biffzinker]

Anyone remember this game?


Edit: The only place with the title of the game is on the spine.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Anyone remember this game?
View attachment 78442

Edit: The only place with the title of the game is on the spine.

It's right there in Black & White.

 

[GreiverBlade]

Anyone remember this game?
View attachment 78442

Edit: The only place with the title of the game is on the spine.

black and white? i think i have the box somewhere .. or it's the second ... not sure
argh @Mr.Scott beat me to it

talk about retro ... Outcast 1.1 on steam ... i still have the 2 original disc but i bought the reworked on STEAM out of nostalgia

 

[biffzinker]

 

[GreiverBlade]

View attachment 78444 View attachment 78445

i have that one ...i am sure of it ... rahhhh i need to dig for boxes soon ...

 

[Trekkie4]

I received a very generous donation today, entire box full of goodies So here are some of them...

Seems familiar? It should be, I got the same, identical one not so long ago, except the other drive was manufactured in Hungary! Same capacity, even

"Old" IBM HDD "New" IBM HDD


I've been hunting for more capable AGP card for a while now, but couldn't find anything that's dirt cheap. This one here might just do the trick, it's Radeon 9550 with 128MB of VRAM. Most importantly (for me, anyway) it's DirectX9 compatible!


Also got this Inno3D MX200. I'm honestly not sure at this point, but I might already have one of these among the spares...

Edit
Yup, I was right...

Inno 3D Tornado, aka NVidia GeForce2 MX200 with 64mb of VRAM. From what I heard, pretty decent card, but since I had several GF4 MX400 laying around, I never got around to use it in any of my builds.

PCI USB controller & Dial-Up modem


SoundBlaster 128 ... I really, REALLY need those because I ran out of sound cards quite some time ago.


Hitachi DVD-ROM


Along with this cool-looking Gigabyte 80x80 fan ... even comes with speed controller. I might put it on top of the Spire FalconRock CPU cooler


and this highly unusual Xilence 120x120 fan.


Also got the Epox Socket 462 mobo, model number is EP-8KTA2 which has Duron 800 already mounted in place, but I can tell just by looking that the board doesn't work. 2 caps are completely bulged, one of them even leaked so I'll have to address those. Or not, we'll see. To be honest, I got more than enough S462 boards for now ... far more than I need!

 

[biffzinker]

Too bad I went through and cleaned out a lot of old hardware I use to have. Oh and thanks for the post Trekkie4.

i have that one ...i am sure of it ... rahhhh i need to dig for boxes soon ...

For some reason I'm not finding my copy of the first version of MDK.

 

[Trekkie4]

Too bad I went through and cleaned out a lot of old hardware I use to have. Oh and thanks for the post Trekkie4.

Well, that's what I do here ... collect other ppl's stuff so that it doesn't end up wasted or destroyed

I was once called by someone close to me " a hoarder", as in a bad way. But I don't see myself that way... Hoarders will hoard, stockpile pretty much anything, regardless of the condition & value. What /I/ do is stockpile parts which are tested, (at least somewhat) rare & WILL become hard to find in nearby future. If something doesn't work out, and I'm not capable of fixing it (or if it's not worth fixing), then it goes into the trash. So yeah... Oh, and I also keep all my stuff categorized & documented. So that if & when I DO need something, I know where to look for it!

 

[biffzinker]

At one time I did own a PowerComputing PowerBase 240 with the accompanying CRT monitor, and a Performa 577. The only two Mac/Power Mac systems I've owned. Switched to one pre-built OEM system (forget the brand name) been building my own since that OEM with a Pentium with MMX 233MHz.

 

[Trekkie4]

At one time I did own a PowerComputing PowerBase 240 with the accompanying CRT monitor, and a Performa 577. The only two Mac/Power Mac systems I've owned. Switched to one pre-built OEM system (forget the brand name) been building my own since that OEM with a Pentium with MMX 233MHz.

Nice! Oh and that's the system I got right here, several of them actually! (Pentium 233, Socket 7)

 

[AsRock]

Look what i found hidden away.