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TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

Hello Trekkie4,
very nice vintage catch.
The "Unknown ISA controller card" is a very early QIC controller card "Wangtek Assy 30850-(008)". It's the controller card for your tape drive.
The tape drive should be a Wangtek QIC (-36 ???) Tape Drive of the 5000er series. One matching tape cartrigde (3m C6150) is in your drive.
With these info you can look for spare parts and the connecting cable, when needed.

Years later the tape cartridges became more common as QIC-40 or QIC-80, connected to PC with floppy disk port or SCSI. Used for daily or large backups and moving datafrom one location to an other. Internet and even CD-R(W)s were unknown at that time. A cartridge was cheap, a HDD costs more than one Dollar a MB!
Wow, thanks bunches! I didn't even realize they have something (or rather, anything) in common! And yes, I do have appropriate ribbon cable with edge-connector. I figured it would be silly to take a picture of the cable, alone :)
 
Among all those motherboards, power supplies & other assorted components, there was also this laptop. From what I can tell, it's in fully working condition, but it's missing the battery (runs fine on AC charger though)


Don't suppose someone here knows more about this particular model? I tried Googling it, but only came with one (somewhat) useful hit...
 
Among all those motherboards, power supplies & other assorted components, there was also this laptop. From what I can tell, it's in fully working condition, but it's missing the battery (runs fine on AC charger though)


Don't suppose someone here knows more about this particular model? I tried Googling it, but only came with one (somewhat) useful hit...
This might be the laptop over at MSI's website.
 
Interesting, thanks! I tried to Google "MS-1011", but couldn't find anything useful...
 
I'm guessing that'll sell..... :eek:
 
Ha-ha... All I can say is good luck to the seller! (Wouldn't give that much money for a Voodoo card, even if I had that much to spend) :)

Even the Rampage?

134241
 
Yup! Let me put it this way - all the 3dfx cards were notorious for heat damage & VRAM chip problems. Well OK, not /just/ the 3dfx cards, but pretty much any hardware that's 20+ years old. There's no telling what you're paying for, and if your investment will pay off (or bite you back).

From all we know, that Voodoo5 6000 could be a "diamond" in disguise, in which case the value will only increase over years as it gets older and older. On the other hand, it might as well be a fancy paper weight, or a cool-looking PCB that you can frame & put it on your wall. In worst case scenario, it'll be a combination of both - a good card that will eventually cook itself & lose most of its value. Either case, it would be a cool thing to have (and to show it off), but it's certainly not worth THAT much money. If I'd have $15,000 laying around, I'd probably buy a brand new gaming system instead, invest into some serious HiFi, and save the rest for rainy days! :)
 
"Worth", is in the eye of the beholder. ;)
 
"Worth", is in the eye of the beholder. ;)
Exactly that! If you can, and want to spend 15,000 on an old card (which also happens to be a prototype, meaning you won't be able to source replacement parts if & when something goes south), then by all means, go for it. This is just my personal opinion :)
 
Yup! Let me put it this way - all the 3dfx cards were notorious for heat damage & VRAM chip problems. Well OK, not /just/ the 3dfx cards, but pretty much any hardware that's 20+ years old. There's no telling what you're paying for, and if your investment will pay off (or bite you back).

From all we know, that Voodoo5 6000 could be a "diamond" in disguise, in which case the value will only increase over years as it gets older and older. On the other hand, it might as well be a fancy paper weight, or a cool-looking PCB that you can frame & put it on your wall. In worst case scenario, it'll be a combination of both - a good card that will eventually cook itself & lose most of its value. Either case, it would be a cool thing to have (and to show it off), but it's certainly not worth THAT much money. If I'd have $15,000 laying around, I'd probably buy a brand new gaming system instead, invest into some serious HiFi, and save the rest for rainy days! :)

i've got a Revisoin 3700 A that works, it's not a paper weight, does that count?



is that better than a paper weight ???
 
@erek, you're missing my point. Yes, your card does indeed works, and will hopefully work for many years to come. But pretty much all the graphics cards from around that time suffered from overheating, and were prone to cooking themselves. Mostly due to careless OC, small-size cooling heatsinks & fans, and (later on, as they got older) simply due to their age.

You want proof? I got 20+ Voodoo cards in my collection, and I even had 10 (or more) which failed on me at some point due to one reason or another. Mostly heat damage, VRAM modules going bad but I've had other & more serious problems as well. Usually starts out with random crash (and garbled textures), to the point where it doesn't want to work any longer, whatsoever. Not to mention a certain Diamond Monster (Voodoo1), which apparently has a problem with the actual GPU core. Because it works fine under "Glide", but refuses to run in Direct3D. Again, who knows what's going on with these things ... they will work for years and years, everything will seem OK and then one day they will simply shut off.

What makes V5 6000 even more problematic is that you're basically dealing with a prototype, so it doesn't matter how skilled you are with soldering iron &/or SMD work station - if it's a prototype, it will be next to impossible to find replacement parts. Assuming it's not something generic like a RAM module, or capacitor/resistor of course.
 

I've never seen these before... AGP GPUs???.... Wow...

i've got a Revisoin 3700 A that works, it's not a paper weight, does that count?



is that better than a paper weight ???

Amazing :) How long have you had it and it seems like you've had too much spare time to play Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament... :D :D

@erek, you're missing my point. Yes, your card does indeed works, and will hopefully work for many years to come. But pretty much all the graphics cards from around that time suffered from overheating, and were prone to cooking themselves. Mostly due to careless OC, small-size cooling heatsinks & fans, and (later on, as they got older) simply due to their age.

You want proof? I got 20+ Voodoo cards in my collection, and I even had 10 (or more) which failed on me at some point due to one reason or another. Mostly heat damage, VRAM modules going bad but I've had other & more serious problems as well. Usually starts out with random crash (and garbled textures), to the point where it doesn't want to work any longer, whatsoever. Not to mention a certain Diamond Monster (Voodoo1), which apparently has a problem with the actual GPU core. Because it works fine under "Glide", but refuses to run in Direct3D. Again, who knows what's going on with these things ... they will work for years and years, everything will seem OK and then one day they will simply shut off.

What makes V5 6000 even more problematic is that you're basically dealing with a prototype, so it doesn't matter how skilled you are with soldering iron &/or SMD work station - if it's a prototype, it will be next to impossible to find replacement parts. Assuming it's not something generic like a RAM module, or capacitor/resistor of course.

We are all geeks here with collections of hardware, some have rare kit and some don't but have other things that are considered a gem :)

I suppose if you have something that's rare like this, you could be called a serious collector or just an enthusiast because of it being a darn rare Voodoo card...

I love this thread, brings up all sorts of awesomeness :) Voodoo cards are just another card I'd love to get a few of but probably never will :)
 
Technical issues aside, Voodoo5 6000 is without any doubt, the very top among 3dfx collectibles. 6000 and Obsidian 3D, not to mention very rare & expensive! The ultimate conversation starter :)
 
Technical issues aside, Voodoo5 6000 is without any doubt, the very top among 3dfx collectibles. 6000 and Obsidian 3D, not to mention very rare & expensive! The ultimate conversation starter :)

If I could afford things like that I possibly might among all of the other bits and pieces I'd like to get my grubby little hands on... The list is still long as ever and it's not getting any shorter which is most disappointing!! :laugh:
 
just tried Descent 1 and it was a turd fest FPS so low it was a flicker show
Which web browser are you using? The DOSBox emulator is running on JavaScript.

The program runs very slow.
The EM-DOSBOX emulator is a javascript program running in a browser - it requires a lot of CPU to run, and definitely requires the most up-to-date browsers to take advantages of speed enhancements. We highly suggest you update to the latest Chrome or Firefox to ensure the program runs at top speed. The difference between versions even a few months or a year apart can be multiple times. In a few rare cases, the game or program being run does certain video or programming tricks that confuse the emulator, and the whole program runs notably slow, slower than even a taxed system should run. This is due to incompatibility with the emulator, and unfortunately will require the DOSBOX project to improve emulation going forward.

This is what the Internet Archive is using.
 
i've got a Revisoin 3700 A that works, it's not a paper weight, does that count?



is that better than a paper weight ???
I think I had that same Viewsonic monitor roughly 20 years ago! I believe it had to ride shotgun when I moved to and from college each year.

IMG_0526.JPG

My Dad brought me my old desk from when I still lived at home. In one of the drawers was some old software.
 
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IMG_0528.JPG

Anyone care to guess what this card is? Hint: the SDRAM below is NOT a clue! :p
 
Anyone care to guess what this card is? Hint: the SDRAM below is NOT a clue! :p
Hmm......”ANT1” on the top port, and one of the chips is made by Motorola. Some sort of very early wireless communication card? I don’t think there were any 802.11 standards until the mid-late 90’s, so it must be propriety. Very interesting, whatever it is.
 
Hmm......”ANT1” on the top port, and one of the chips is made by Motorola. Some sort of very early wireless communication card? I don’t think there were any 802.11 standards until the mid-late 90’s, so it must be propriety. Very interesting, whatever it is.
It does have something to do with radio frequencies.

Aerial Antennas help reception
 
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