Allowed: DOS/Windows 3.x/9x/2000
Sort of allowed: Pre-OS X Macs
Not allowed: Windows XP, OS X Macs
"In a lengthy editorial in the December 1980 issue of Kilobaud Magazine, chief editor Wayne Green decried the poor state of business software available for the TRS-80 and the state of the microcomputer industry in general. He described in colorful terms how Kilobaud had purchased an $8000 Algorithmics Disk System from Seal Computers in 1977 complete with word processor for their office, and that the machine barely functioned most of the time, being plagued by continuous memory, printer, and disk snafus. Not only was the included word processor nearly impossible to use due to the UI and almost unreadable documentation, but Green complained that there was no guarantee that files saved to the disks would be recoverable. A monitor purchased with the computer was never delivered despite payment in full, and most of the past four years had been spent trying to get the computer to work, during which time Seal Computers had gone out of business."
"Green remarked bitterly that 'It's likely to be a long time before any business would be sane enough to trust their vital data to a personal computer and until then, I'm sticking with my trusty IBM typewriter.'"
>>42924636
Is there like a general quick guide to the history of (consumer?) computing?
Primarilly interested in Apple-][ to Win 2000 in terms of "timeline", but ideally as much coverage as possible.
Basically, I have a lot of misc knowledge of old systems and some of their history, and I want to quickly catch up on the notable parts of the rest of it, so a book, a web-article, or anything cool like that would be nice to learn. Even if it doesn't meet my initial question (quick general guide to a broad subject) and just covers a small segment (say web-browser wars of the 90s) I'd be interested to see.
In short, can someone link me some cool pages/info on old tech stuff?
Won't be here to reply for a little bit since I'm heading out to my parents to get my old laptop back.
I was wondering if you guys could help me.
I have an old laptop with MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 installed.
The laptop has all the drivers it needs (I had a field day trying to find the graphics driver for the graphics chip)
Everything works in windows (well almost)
First problem:
If I launch a game like Quake or Duke Nukem 3D from Windows, the game fails to load and either crashes the computer or sends me back to Windows. Quake always freezes the computer.
Second problem:
The only way to control the volume on the computer is with a key combo.
This works perfectly fine under DOS in games and such, but as soon as I start Windows the volume drops to around 10% and the key combo does nothing.
Windows has the proper drivers for both the sound chip and graphics chip.
Any idea what could be causing these issues?
>>42925508
Err, isn't Quake a Windows 95 game?
>>42925508
Windows 3.1 should have a sound control program; at least I remember it did.
>>42925508
>The laptop has all the drivers it needs (I had a field day trying to find the graphics driver for the graphics chip)
Ah yes, so you can use 256 color graphics.
>>42926747
It goes up to 32-bit
>>42926765
Kinda pointless since I don't think any Windows 3.x software can use more than 256 colors.
>>42925508
What are the specs for the laptop? Could Windows 95 be run on it instead?
>>42926828
Well Windows 95 COULD run on it had my sisters not destroyed the floppy drive ~4 years ago by cramming a ketchup packet in it.
(They thought they'd be funny and play a prank)
System will only boot from HDD or Floppy.
The only way I got the OS installed was with VMware and mounting the HDD as a physical drive in VMware.
I tried to install Windows 95 using two methods:
>fully install Windows 95 under VMware
>produces a bluescreen on the laptop
>install DOS on HDD, copy Windows 95 installer and files over to HDD
>install goes without a hitch
>on second reboot where you're supposed to see the desktop for the first time, right after the BIOS screens I get a black screen and blinking cursor
DOS and Windows 3.1 was the only thing that would work.
And the replacement floppy drive is around $20 on eBay and I'm seriously thinking of going for it.
>>42926923
I had a Grid laptop once that one of the floppy heads broke off its mounting and was left hanging down at an angle, making it impossible to read any disks.
That and the A key stopped working so it could only be used with an external keyboard.
>>42926828
>>42926923
As for the specs:
133MHz Pentium
40MB EDO RAM
6GB HDD
OPTi 82C930 sound chip
Chips & Technologies F65548 graphics chip
4x CD-ROM
Broken Floppy Drive (Mitsumi D353F2)
I could deal with the floppy drive being broken, I don't use it for anything. However, the install program for the sound drivers will only install from the floppy drive because the programmers were fucking morons.
The only reason it works now is because I managed to extract the vital drivers and installed them using windows.
Sadly, the mixer program won't run because it wasn't installed properly.
>>42927077
Why the fuck is a Pentium 133 running Windows 3.1? Put 95 or 98 on that sucker.
>>42925314
>Web browser wars
http://toastytech.com/evil/retrospective.html
http://www.dejavu.org/emulator.htm
http://www.dejavu.org/
come to mind
>>42927077
I was going to say why don't you use the CD...then I remembered that Windows 9x still uses a boot floppy for the installation process.
>>42928524
He could get around that though. Just make a disk image of the installation floppy and write it to the hard drive using disk imaging software. Once it's booted into the CD installer, he can overwrite the floppy stuff on the drive.
Hard drive, floppy disk... It's all the same to the BIOS anyway.
>>42924672
"Green also remarked that a year passed between the Altair 8800's introduction in the spring of 1975 and the existence of any usable programming language for it. In the meantime, other machines using its bus (the soon-to-be-named S-100) had emerged, again suffering the same deficiency of software, tech support, hardware reliability, and availability of parts."
"While the S-100 bus had been a very good idea, he opined, the industry, Green felt, had been set back years by the introduction of computers such as the TRS-80 and Commodore PET which had neither S-100 buses, disk drives, or a real operating system. The PET in particular suffered immense delays in getting disks available."
>>42928689
Guy with the laptop problems here.
Holy shit I never thought of this.
Can I just use the standard linux dd command?
Also, would it be possible to back up the entire HDD with dd?
>>42928719
Yeah, Linux dd should work for all of that. Good luck~
>>42928689
>>42928689
>Just make a disk image of the installation floppy and write it to the hard drive using disk imaging software
What are you, nuts? You can't write a floppy image to a hard disk.
>>42928737
Sure you can.
Just the first 1,440KB though
>>42928750
Sure as heck not. It would fuck up your hard disk partitions. And even if it did work, the installation program would still try to look for the files on Drive A.
>>42928767
It would look for installation files on whatever drive it was booted from. Also, we're talking about fucking up the hard disk partitions anyway. He's intending to make a backup.
You sound like you don't have much experience with systems programming~
>>42928802
No I mean, if the disk image isn't the same size as the partition it's on, the hard disk won't boot up at all. It might in theory work if you reformatted the hard disk and created a 1.44MB-sized partition.
>>42928818
That's why I said use disk imaging software. The floppy image will contain all the partition and filesystem information needed to be bootable on an MBR system.
>>42928846
Floppies don't have partitions.
>>42928866
And?
If he's using dd, it's a simple matter of dd if=floppy.img of=/dev/sda1 (or whichever partition he wants to overwrite) and then setting the boot flag. The floppy image contains a filesystem that can be recognized by an MBR bios.
I have an Me VM on my Hackintosh.
>>42924636
>tfw we will never have a simple, relaxing interface like this again
That background colour is embedded deep within my psyche by this point.
>>42924672
In those days, most companies used IBM minicomputers if they needed to do business stuff and DECs if they were into engineering/scientific activities. Microcomputers were just seen as hobbyist toys.
>>42929014
Well that was hard.
>>42929078
>Different shade of blue
>those icons
>that taskbar
It's not the same. I probably should have clarified I meant "out of the box" though. While I know one can customize their system to look like that, I miss when it was the standard, not the exception.
>>42924672
"The manual for the word processor came in a large ring binder and was so cryptic and poorly written that it was almost impossible to figure out anything. I had to keep a bunch of index cards next to my desk with commands written down on them. There was a command to search for a specific word in a document which I couldn't find any occasion to use, and apparently one for highlighting and moving blocks of text around, although I never did figure out how that was supposed to work. A particularly annoying aspect of computer word processors is that you can only see a small part of your document at once unlike having a stack of papers next to you."
>>42929078
All well and dandy until you open up the 'start menu' and see all those different coloured multi sized squares.
>>42929078
slackware
>>42930181
I'm gonna get laughed at, but I always wondered how those operated
Did they output results to paper, via their lights, or to a screen, or what?
When specifically did Intel/IBM/Microsoft "win"?
Because it seems like all through the 80s the consumer market was dominated by inexpensive "family computers" like the Commodore and TRS-80, but then all of a sudden there's just this explosion where the DOS/Windows/x86 environment devours everything and rules for decades.
I know the basics of it (IBM clones, etc.) but I'm not especially clear on how or why it happened so quickly.
>>42930257
I've a feeling it was a slow process through the late 80s to early 90s, as asian-made IBM clones fell within affordability, more people wanted to take their work home, and the 8-bit computer lines were retired and (often less-successfully) replaced (ie c64 > Amiga 500)
Posted this a while ago, still running mac se/30 with os6. Has office '89 which unsurprisingly doesnt play nice with 2010
>>42930257
8-bit computers stopped being relevant after 1984.
>>42930243
Its an S-100 bus blackplane, and there were different boards for different forms of output.
Most common was an interface board for the Teletype 33 teleprinter (and the ASR model Teletype had both a paper type puncher and reader)
But there were also RS-232 serial boards for connection to a terminal.
>>42930243
>>42930243
>Did they output results to paper, via their lights, or to a screen, or what?
All of the above :D
You could use a teletype, a terminal, or a dedicated video board for screen output. Those things were truly DIY computers.
>>42930431
You mean Office '10 won't read documents created with it.
>>42930431
That thing is so cute
>>42930472
Not without changing character encoding and removing all the garbage text no
>>42930473
Its a tiny little thing, tibook for size comp
There were lots of serial terminals back then; the DEC VT-10x line were among the most popular. My dad used to use one at work on a PDP-11 in the late 70s.
The keyboard and monitor are self-contained and they use the serial port on the computer to receive keystrokes. DOS used to have a command CTTY which would redirect output to various devices (LPT1, COM1, etc), the main intended use being for connecting terminals to the PC.
>>42930485
There's filters available to read all kinds of old, screwy file formats on Office.
>>42925508
http://quakewiki.org/wiki/QUAKE.EXE
>>42930257
Looks like they were absolutely running the show by 1987.
>dat Commodore flash in the pan
lel
Does /retro/ watch computer chronicles?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4Uk_e0WHyc
It ran for a fair while, so you can run right from 1983 to the late 1990s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpXnqBfgvPM first ep
>>42931013
>Does /retro/ watch computer chronicles?
I've watched too many episodes of computer chronicles, that sometimes when I talking to peopl- Welcome to the computer chronicles I'm Stewart Cheifet
Anyone remember that schmuck with the IBM XT that refused all my suggestions about hot-rodding the thing?
Put some feelers out on craigslist for a 386/486 era portable to use for native DOS gaming, ended up getting ahold of four old Satellites from a guy.
Two of them were 486 DX2s at 75MHz, two were P100s.
This one is the flagship, a 75MHz 486 with 20MB of RAM and a 500MB hard drive. It has a 2X CD-ROM drive and a beautiful 12" screen that's blurrier than shit. It was also the only one of the four with speakers, although the other 486 did have headphone/mic ports.
Installed NT 4.0 while I was waiting for a friend to come by with some blank CDs, ended up with 3.1 although I thought about installing Windows 95. Decided against it because a 75MHz 486 is too slow for DirectX gaming.
I have a PC card ethernet adapter. I'm tempted to hook it up to my network just to see what browsing the web is like on an unsecured Windows box with 20MB of RAM running IE5.
>>42932989
20MB of RAM is too small for most Windows 95 software anyway.
>>42932989
Some of the earliest DirectX stuff might work.
>>42932989
>I have a PC card ethernet adapter. I'm tempted to hook it up to my network just to see what browsing the web is like on an unsecured Windows box with 20MB of RAM running IE5.
Most sites won't even be displayable, plus Windows 3.x browsers are limited to 16MB max memory which is insufficient for modern webpages.
>>42933034
Wait what?
16MB of ram is enough for 95.
Hell, you could run 98 on 32MB.
>>42933093
Not if you want to run actual 32-bit software it's not. The OS itself uses 4MB, so on a 16MB system you really only have 12 free. Since Windows 95 applications almost all occupy 16MB or more, you need in practice at least 24MB.
>>42933093
I don't really need to though. The only reason I'd need a GUI is because no matter how hardcore I think I am, moving files in Program Manager is a shitload easier than doing it by hand using a command prompt.
Windows 3.1 also has a side benefit of taking up fuckall in terms of hard disc space, whereas 95 is happy to take up 50-100MB on a fresh install.
>>42930431
Get some furniture and cleaning products to wipe off the feces on the side of that thing.
>>42933146
3.1 is about 15MB in size while 95 is 50MB. But more importantly, the computer isn't really powerful enough for Windows 9x applications anyway.
>>42933182
It would run much faster as well, especially if he's using it in Standard Mode.
>>42929111
>>Different shade of blue
No, just a much higher resolution.
>>42933193
On a 75Mhz computer, the actual speed difference between Standard and 386 Enhanced mode is negligeable. Moreover, Standard Mode limits you to 16MB maximum memory and doesn't allow any hard disk swap files. I think that most multimedia software requires Enhanced Mode to run anyway.
Basically, Standard Mode served a purpose when people were using 286s and 20Mhz 286s, but by the time 486s were common, it was an anachronism which is why WfW 3.11 removed it entirely.
>>42933223
>Moreover, Standard Mode limits you to 16MB maximum memory
I should clarify a bit: Each individual Windows 3.x process has a 16MB limit, but in Enhanced Mode it can use paging to allow multiple processes. In theory, the entire 386 4GB address space could be accessed, each application occupying no more than 16MB.
Standard Mode is 100% 16-bit code thus there's no provisions for virtual memory, paging, or v86 mode.
>>42928767
have you even installed windows from floppy before?
once the boot disk has booted the machine, you take it out and put in setup disk #1
and of course a floppy image would work on a hdd, i can't imagine why you think it wouldn't
>>42930243
why, to an AM radio, of course
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgYhVnmeWrk
>>42933276
Not him, but I once had to reinstall XP after a fluke accident:
>want to get files off a hard disk from an dead PC
>this drive happened to also have XP on it
>stick it in the computer
>well, at it turned out, two hard disks with bootable XP partitions on them do not mix
>the main drive got completely corrupted
>>42933320
that also makes absolutely no sense
>>42933325
And somehow, it did. It kept switching between the two hard disks during bootup and loading pieces from one and the other until the C: drive got trashed.
>>42933341
i don't know what you did, but i've had xp installed multiple times on multiple drive before and never had them fuck with each other
>>42933353
I suspect because the boot drive was a generic copy of XP Pro while the other was a Compaq OEM edition of XP Home. If they'd both been XP Pro, perhaps it wouldn't have corrupted anything.
>>42933370
i never used home edition or oem copies
>>42933386
There's your explanation. I did it, it fucked shit up, the end.
>>42933370
What exactly was unique to this Compaq OEM version anyway?
>>42933401
can't argue with that
>>42933420
I seem to recall it had Compaq wallpaper instead of the XP cow pasture thing. That and there was an awful lot of adware preinstalled on it.
>>42925508
Late DOS games don't really like Windows 3.1, many say in their readme file to launch it on MS-DOS directly.
>>42926790
Yes some do. Paint programs can display 24bit pictures just fine, and browsers too.
>>42926574
Nope it's a DOS game.
>>42930181
Noice, I love this kind of computers anon.
>>42930257
Because hey were considered as toy computers by businesses, so Dad didn't wanted to buy just a toy computer but the exact same one he had at work, and it happened that this one also had games. Also Taiwanese clone flooding the market.
>>42930533
What is fun with CTTY is that I don't see anything useful in it. I mean, mainframes and mini-computers had time-sharing systems and stuff that allowed multiple users and terminals to be hooked and used at the same time, but MS-DOS don't have anything like that.
>>42931676
Yup, he just wanted to have an IBM XT that looked like what it could have been in the mid-80s which is understandable. Forcing someone to hot-rod his computer isn't cool.
Anyway, how cool on a scale from 0 to 255 would it be to make a BBS on a custom, over-powered S100 computer running a heavily modified version of BSD, that could be available on Dial-up, Telnet and HAM Radio, and that could support everything from Teletypes to multi-session terminals, without forgetting Vector-graphics capable terminals (VT-240/340)?
>>42933594
>Late DOS games don't really like Windows 3.1, many say in their readme file to launch it on MS-DOS directly.
Even most earlier DOS games from the CGA/EGA era don't play nice.
>What is fun with CTTY is that I don't see anything useful in it. I mean, mainframes and mini-computers had time-sharing systems and stuff that allowed multiple users and terminals to be hooked and used at the same time, but MS-DOS don't have anything like that.
IBM apparently thought it was useful since they had assorted cards for connecting their terminals to PCs.
>Yup, he just wanted to have an IBM XT that looked like what it could have been in the mid-80s which is understandable. Forcing someone to hot-rod his computer isn't cool.
Yeh but the way he said it was incredibly autistic.
CTTY could be used for teletypes as well; if you redirect it to LPT1, all keystrokes get printed instead of displayed on the screen. Of course you can't get out of it except by rebooting the computer.
>>42933679
Doesn't the EXIT command work?
>>42933594
Remember that there were non-IBM PC x86 machines around in the early 80s which ran customized OEM versions of DOS, and some of these did use terminals for output. There was a useful purpose for CTTY.
Who's the best computer in town? I bet it's the FM TOWNS!
>>42933703
Of course not. EXIT quits the current session of COMMAND.COM.
>>42933738
Well, CTTY could have been a simple redirection of COMMAND.COM to a communication port (COM or LPT), like you have to do if you want to use a terminal on an Amiga.
>>42930195
What's that "HP" logo doing there in the bottom?
>>42934644
could be from printer support software or something similar
i've seen it before, but i can't remember what uses it
>>42935087
Ha-ha
I can't stop watching Demos on my Amiga. I love this kind of programs, they're alway entertaining.
>>42935615
I particularly dig the aesthetic of pre-90s demos. It's all about shiny stuff everywhere, and that's pretty cool:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2QQA7nYRcM
Anyone here into 3Dfx hardware by any chance?
What should I do with my Apple PowerBook 1400cs?
>>42933194
I have no idea how that works
I copy-and-pasted the image of win95 on top of your image and there is a clear colour difference.
>>42937279
I have a Voodoo 3 3000, but I can't brag about being into 3DFx stuff.
Time to fuck around with Windows 95 in a VM.
Wish me luck.
>>42940756
I hope you tried to configure your VM like a 90s machine anon.
Microsoft Toolkit 2.5.2
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dcit957ygxisge8/AACSWMlanAFtVsR04QZr0ARYa
>>42928730
>tumblr
http://windows95tips.com/
Remember to check out these useful tips!
>>42943464
this is fucking awesome
>>42943464
can someone explain the purpose of "notes"?
>>42945282
I don't get it either, anon.
Also:Bump
>>42946920
I think it's an Ego-O-meter.
Anyway, here's some stuff.
>>42946959
This machine is the sexiest computer ever made. I mean, look at how well designed it is (And normally I'm not design freak)!
>>42946959
Hah, was just reading about the PET yesterday
Laughed at Commodore finding out that people were buying the 16k model then adding more RAM since it was cheaper than a 32k. Instead of lowering the price of the 32K, they removed the extra memory spaces to stop people doing it.
>>42946997
Man I love this beauty.
>>42947018
Too bad Commodore started to make bad decisions around that time. I think the PET could have been what would save Commodore from losing the Business market. I mean, the later PET/CBM models were powerful beasts compared to many computer of the time, just look at pic related: A 8088 allowing to use CP/M86 and MS-DOS, 256KB of RAM was more than almost ANY computer could have back then, and with the SID included, before the C64 was even out there.
>>42929078
i hate that flat interface
>>42947147
Also, really nice External disk drives, recording almost 1MB per floppy (don't forget, we're in 1980).
>>42947147
I get the feeling that it's looking at me for some reason.
>>42947242
It is anon, it is.
>>42947212
>>42947327
>>42933594
Quake came with Windows 9x/NT binaries too (WinQuake and GLQuake).
>>42947507
Yup, but they were available later.
>>42947147
IBM PCs would have still killed them off pretty fast. The writing was on the wall at that time.
Anybody here ever work with Novell Netware (pre-6x) or just IPX/SPX protocol networking in general?
Anything to share?
I've been playing with the copy of Personal Netware that came with Novell DOS 7.
Also
>os vendors that bundle games that are actually good to show off their OSes capabilities
Fuck yeah.
Win9x had Hover, Win2k/XP had Space Cadet Pinball, and Novell Netware has fucking NetWars.
>>42947626
Nope. I've never used any kind of LAN setup and have zero knowledge of that field.
>>42930195
Where did you get the icons?
>>42947693
Not him, but I think its this:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Classic95?content=157298
>>42947740
thanks
>>42943464
That's creepy and I've been on the internet long
>>42947767
There seems to be something special about the choice of 95. It just wouldn't be the same on 3.1 or Mac-Classic.
I wonder if it's the familiarity/popularity factor that makes Win-95 memorable, but still distant enough for the creepiness to work.
>>42947616
More like it's clones. The IBM PC didn't do the damages caused by the never-ending cloning spree of many computer manufacturers, it even suffered from it.
>>42947978
Lotus 123 alone was enough to obliterate competing architectures in the business market. In no small part because it was an IBM exclusive and they didn't port it to other platforms.
>>42948039
There's an Amiga version of Lotus 1-2-3.
>>42948126
They did later port Lotus 123 to 680x0 machines, but that was not until 1990 or so and the classic 80s versions of Lotus were IBM-only. They were also written in straight assembly language, and C was used starting in Release 3.x when Lotus wanted to port it to other platforms.
>>42924636
Hi guys!
>>42948333
how'd you get the storage tile to show up?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6nSwhdZdOk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wge9RFMYbuk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLBInZxGA34
Some music for this thread.
My desktop when I was 14.
>>42930431
>lack of backspace
it's like hard mode of using computer, no room for error. awesome idea anon
>>42948494
Proxomitron is a cool ass name.
I assume its a proxy configuration program?
>>42948553
Man, that's the way REAL computer users do. They get it right the first time, or they restart from scratch. Altair-style m8.
>>42948562
Yeah, I'm not sure if I ever got it to work properly. I was worried about people hacking me.
i miss "classic" mac os, mac os x looks so gay, even worse than XP luna
>>42948650
Get out Ray Charles.
>>42948666
>666
Sorry, but I agree with him, you Satan's spawn.
Also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al4E0CUrlFk
(the tune that comes with it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al4E0CUrlFk )
>>42948494
>real player
>aim
>zone alarm
>nec
10/10 i nostalgiad
>>42948650
I agree on the look. OS9 was so pretty.
I liked the early OSX look too, but it wasn't as nice as 9.
>>42948457
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0HU4H0A_tk
>>42948800
Does SC4 run well on that thing? It runs ok, but a little choppy on my C2D E7600. Haven't tested it on my i5 yet.
Post your Aida32.
>>42948800
That was fucking excellent.
>>42948860
That was my desktop from 10 years ago, but yes SimCity 4 worked just fine on a Pentium II 450 with a nVidia TNT2. I kept that machine all the way until Firefox stopped working on Windows 98.
>>42924636
does vista or windows 7 count as retro
>>42948954
They didn't have windows 2007 years ago silly. People were still using CP/M.
>>42948860
SC4 is actually increasingly slow the newer your computer is, it seems. It really doesn't like dual cores either Of course back then I wasn't using any mods either..
>>42948887
>>42948993
I remember it came out right before I bought my Athlon XP 2500+. Might resurrect my first home built for that game. Use it for XP era games.
I think I will try it on my 933 MHz coppermine too.
am i doing it right /g/?
>>42949532
Yes anon.
>>42949588
I wonder how many hot-list items still work
>>42949610
Maybe a few, I never brothered trying to check them.
>>42949532
Needs more Bonzi Buddy.
>>42948494
I remember playing Kiddonet on my grandpa's Packard Bell PC. I was about 4 years old so it was around 1998-1999. It still works, but the web pages are shut down of course. The coloring pages might be fun for a little kid though.
>>42949729
>Packard Hell
I'm very, very, very sorry your childhood had to be that way.
>>42949729
And you guys thought my personal PC was bad. The family desktop is insanely cluttered.
>>42949743
My grandpa gave the computer to my brother and he threw it away without telling me.
He asked me if I could use a 266 Mhz PC anyway and I said I needed at least a 486 to play Duke Nukem 3D. We thought that meant 486+ MHz, so he trashed it anyway.
>>42945282
something like tumblr retweets I think
>>42949729
wtf so ur only 19 years old?
gb2gaia kid
>>42950124
So what, you didn't know that already? Why would I go to Gaia? I guess I can go back to Warframe for another rousing night of waiting for my Rhino to finish building.
>>42930584
>NeXT
top kek, its like wheres waldo
only 80s kids will remember this
>>42949588
I'm surprised it renders that well.
Funny, I'm actually in the middle of building another Pentium III rig right now.
Pic related.
Its a Coppermine, so still 90s.
Fortunately, this board is cool enough to still have an ISA slot, so I stuck in a Yamaha YMF-719. Basically a SB Pro 2 with a godly SNR and a legit OPL3 chip.
>>42950421
I was surprised too. Too bad the boards aren't rendered at all if you don't deactivate the CSS.
>>42950439
>so I stuck in a Yamaha YMF-719
Noice anon! Adlib Tracker II stuff are yours! Good luck trying to reproduce Raiden's 1st stage music with it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH2Rk7csm8g
How about that video where a guy shows how to browse the Web on a Mac Plus from 1986? He installed System 7 and some old browser and after turning off everything but bare HTML got it to work (crawl is more accurate)
And in goes the Diamond Viper V770.
Its an nVidia TNT2 Ultra, 32MB.
Was going to stick in a Geforce 2, but I wanted good VESA VBE compatibility, and the TNT2 is the most powerful card I have that is on UniVBE 6.7b's compatibility list.
Was also thinking of putting in a Matrox card for that sharp-ass display output, but its the G100 Productiva, so the 3D is shoddy.
Then again, I don't know if any 3D accelerated games I would play on here need that much power.
Also have a Voodoo 3 3000 AGP, but the poorly dithered "24-bit" color makes me want to puke. And unfortunately, so does my phone cameras image quality.
3Dfx is overrated after Voodoo2.
>>42950560
With a setup like this one, you can play Quake 2, UT99 and Quake 3 Arena at a decent framerate.
The source code for WinWord 1.0 was recently released by Microsoft; one of the original programmers posted on a blog about the development of it. He said that Windows Write formed the nucleus of what would become WinWord and that "Trying to fit the Word BASIC macro language into 640k was an almost superhuman programming challenge." The Mac version of Word from 1985 helped provide some useful practice on how to develop a GUI-based word processor, at that time something new and as-yet untried.
>>42950600
Sure could.
And if I stuck in the Geforce 2 Pro, it would be even better.
The Coppermine P3 is 800MHz.
Hardware T&L helps out there.
I have a couple PII-S Tualatins at over 1GHz lying around, but they don't work in this board, even with the BIOS update.
>>42950646
Yup. My Pentium III@933MHz PC run them perfectly (the fact that I'm using an ATi Radeon 9250 PCI helps a lot too), even with all the stencil vector shadows and stuff.
>>42950706
Nice.
I kinda wish I had a Voodoo5, though. There was a build of Q3A with special support for its "T-Buffer" extensions, which are kind of like todays pixel shaders. Motion blur and stuff.
RAM, anyone?
I think 256MB PC-133 SDRAM should be good enough.
Want to run Win9x and don't want any stability problems.
Yes I know there is an .ini file workaround and unofficial patches, but I don't want to fuck with em.
Besides, I honestly can't see using more than that on a system like this, anyhow.
Running Windows XP with a 8 Mhz CPU:
http://winhistory.de/more/386/xpmini.htm
It lives!
POST is bitching about the CD Drive though. I'll look into it. I'm gonna need it to install Windows.
Which I still need to burn a copy of.
And then get all the drivers.
Maybe tomorrow, 1:06AM and I am tired.
I'll score a CRT and an actual desk tomorrow. This is the top of an entertainment center I found on the street earlier this week.
>>42950757
>>42950950
I didn't knew about the Voodoo 5. I wonder How this card could compete against the competition, because as you said earlier, 3Dfx cards post-voodoo 2 were pretty bad compared to the others.
As for the RAM, 256MB is enough, yes (even though my Win2k machine when fully upgraded was running slowly with only 256MB).
Nice Boombox anyway anon, this photo just reminded me of this:
http://youtu.be/RVM3tLxMq8c?t=8m30s
>>42950950
Just swapped the IDE cable to the other CD drive below it. Works now.
Turns out the Harddisk I used had a riced out Debian installation. Fortunately I used the same credentials for everything when I made it, so got in. Has DOOM, so I'll be okay for a bit.
But now I really should go to sleep and install Win98SE tomorrow.
>>42951038
>Nice Boombox anyway anon, this photo just reminded me of this:
Thanks, and that is a nice setup.
Ever play Geograph Seal on the X68000? That game is the shit. And its soundtrack is awesome with an external MIDI module like the SC-88Pro.
Have another boombox, a Fisher PH-W405. Both tape decks are broken. Both drive belts need to be replaced and the motor might be burned out on one of them.
I don't use it much.
There was a point in time where I had lodsofemone and bought every stereo Goodwill had. Bad idea.
I'm not even that much of an audiophile, I'm just completely apeshit.
Anyway, now I need sleep. Seriously. After I see 'Post Successful,' I'm closing the browser.
See you in the morning guys. If this thread 404s when I wake up, I know there will be another one, so whatever.
>>42951157
I never tried it (The emulator I use is pretty bad, so I don't really play games on it, I only play musics most of the time), but I love the soundtrack, yeah. There's Sion II that has a great soundtrack too when using the MT-32, Atomic Robo kid, Gradius II (too bad the synchronization between the internal FM and my MT-32 is really bad on this emulator, because the musics are godlike).
Anyway, good night anon, see ya later.
Got one for free from the company where my mother worked back in 2002
>>42951622
Noice! That's exactly How I got most of my computers as a kid.
>>42951622
I wish computers still had this general aesthetic today.
To think of it I have my old AMD k6-2 PC.
I love the k6-2. I was able to play Diablo 2 with my friends, even CS 1.6 and hl1. Back then Tibia and Ultima Online were popular so we spent good few days straight hunting.
I think I'm going to revive him. Just for the memories of 13 something.
98 or 2000? I wonder if I could mount a little 8 gig ssd somehow..
>>42951746
98 will run better on it. For the 8 gig SSD, as long as it uses IDE, you can use it.
has anyone else here tried hooking up a plain crt tv up to their computer via RGB?
after discovering any tv can be modified to take RGB and achieve arcade-perfect imagery, i had to try it
so i picked up a 20-something inch tv for $5, which i originally planned to modify to get access to the RGB pins, but it turns out the thing has a SCART port, and supports RGB natively through it (what luck)
just got a radeon gpu today to go with it (my nvidia cart refuses ~15khz modes), and are still working on a custom vga>scart cable
currently have a picture, and the colors show up fine, but i'm having syncronization issues
>>42951819
Good luck anon, I've never had the patience to make VGA ? SCART stuff.
>>42952097
there isn't really that many critical pins needed
R, G, B, csync, and mode(16) are the bare minimum
select(8) is also commonly used for mods since supplying 12v to it tells the tv to switch to AV automatically, but i'll probably just use my remote to switch to av
right now i'm a bit stuck, i've got the tv to accept RGB mode, and the colors are correct, but sync just isn't working right
the picture rolls quickly horizontally, and slowly vertically, but both at a constant pace
to me this suggests that i'm just using a mode the tv can't do, but i've tried lots of modes, including a few supposedly standard PAL/NTSC modes (there's so many variations out there)
of course, i also have a 3.5mm phone jack wired into the scart connector for sound, and that works fine
>2013+1
>Not using Windows 98
>>42952157
excuse the black level, i have the tv's constrast turned down so i can more easily tell which mode it's in
>>42952314
btw, that image is being produced out of a DVI-I port (vga adapter), and with a modeline matching SNES specification
>>42952166
KaZaA hell yeah.
>>42952166
What thinkpad is that, the T22?
>>42952805
T21
>>42952157
i'm pretty sure my issue is that i've just done nothing about converting the regular, ttl h/v sync of vga to what rgbs expects
there's several conversion circuit diagrams around, but i'm not that good at small circuit building
i think i'll just get this
http://arcadeforge.net/UMSA/UMSA-Ultimate-SCART-Adapter::57.html
I'd like to install Win98 into a VM. Any suggestions where to find as plain a copy as possible?
as in, no ULTRA BLACK GAMING EDITIONS or Chinese Russian gangster botnet versions
>>42953195
Goodwill usually has an install disk laying around.
>>42953195
Torrents.
>>42953057
OK, first of all you need to make sure that the sync polarity is set correctly for hsync and vsync if you are setting up custom refresh modes. (for TVs you want negative polarity for both.) Secondly the vsync pulse probably isn't long enough which is what that circuit is supposed to fix.
>>42953326
Plan B.
>>42953397
Like I said: botnets. You'd be surprised how difficult it is to find a plain-jane ISO, and not a trillion floppy images last modified in 2000.
Just curious if there's anything vaguely reputable (lel) out there
>>42924636
>Retro Computer thread
>Windows 2000
i m old
I found these on /g/ last year:
https://paste.installgentoo.com/view/58a10b13
https://paste.installgentoo.com/view/58a10b13
https://paste.installgentoo.com/view/bf948b8e
The first link includes betas of some OSes, the other link includes old OSes from the pre-XP era.
Maybe you can find something useful there. Credits to whoever posted those links first.
I found these on /g/ last year:
https://paste.installgentoo.com/view/58a10b13
https://paste.installgentoo.com/view/a90892c5
https://paste.installgentoo.com/view/bf948b8e
The first link includes betas of some OSes, the other link includes old OSes from the pre-XP era.
Maybe you can find something useful there. Credits to whoever posted those links first.
>>42953421
i'm using negative polarity for both
i've already ordered it anyway, i don't really want to spend hours hacking together a "it works" circuit when i can just get something quite proper for ~$50
i can solder a bit, but much more than just connectors and wires doesn't really interest me
i'll internally justify this on the fact i got a scart tv for $5, i didn't really expect to find a decent sdtv for less than $30 or so, letalone one with scart
i only somewhat recently moved to au from nz, so i've never actually seen or used a scart tv before (au apparently (used to) use it a bit, but it's nowhere in nz, despite also using the same standards). i grew up using sdtvs with nothing better than composite
>>42950560
>Diamond Viper V770
I should've searched for that before ordering my TNT2. I searched for TNT2 Ultra and was given were pretty expensive when compared to a plain TNT2. Lots of cheap options for V770.
>>42953517
>Ethernet cable breaks
>Go to computer store to buy a new one
>Teenage worker asks what I want
>"One Cat-5 ethernet cable please"
>"What's a Catfive?"
>They haven't stocked Cat-5 cables for years. I walk home with a Cat-7.
>Oh the times they are a-changing....
>>42954832
must have been a while since you last got one if you didn't at least ask for 5e
that or you're still oblivious to gigabit ethernet
>>42945282
When number is big, it's popular. When number is low, check out list for like-minded blogs.
>>42955412
I hear it is sometimes better to simply search for 3dfx when looking for voodoo cards. People sometimes don't know what they have, so they just write what they see on the card itself.
I first looked for a Voodoo3 3000, but those were kinda expensive as well (20-30 pounds isn't really that expensive).
I'm sure a plain TNT2 is good enough for most of the games I want to play (not sure about severance, maybe a Geforce 2 is better for that). It is a nice bonus if it turns out to be a Pro. It says Asus AGP-V3800 on the PCB.
>>42955695
>Asus AGP-V3800
Theres a couple variants of that.
If its just "AGP-V3800", its a plain TNT2.
If its AGP-V3800-TVR, it has an additional S-Video Out and support for a pair of shitty 3D glasses Asus made.
If its AGP-V3800 Ultra, its the TNT2 Ultra.
None of them are based on the Pro.
>>42929014
Screenshot from my nexus 7
>>42955055
The local infrastructure for my area is ancient. I was helping people install their first broadband internet connection in 2009. The absolute maximum downspeed money could buy was 7Mbps up until very recently when it became 20Mbps. Upspeed is still 1Mbps.
Furthermore, I have never owned a computer that could reach gigabit speeds.
So TL;DR, yes I was oblivious to gigabit ethernet.
Seriously guys all those Windows 9x screenshots are only retro if you are 15.
Post more amiga, riscos, pre-10 mac os and everything else but please stop with the 9x. Its dumb as fuck.
Test2
>>42956669
How do I reach this enlightment on my device?
>>42957281
Okey let us begin.
>>42957332
>>42957359
4
>>42957395
Thats a 386 laptop by the way. If I remember correctly it still boots.
Picture from the same laptop with the lid closed.
>>42957438
6
>>42957308
>apex launcher
>search deviantart for "windows 95 icons" for icons
>attached is dock
>clock/battery/internet icon in bottom right are apps by nullium on Google play
>>42957455
Some of these are Apple II, MSX or IBM HUEland clones. They had to be manufactured here because military dictatorship had a ban imports.
>>42957499
8
>>42957529
9
>>42957281
>>42957332
>>42957359
>>42957395
>>42957438
>>42957455
>>42957499
>>42957529
>>42957554
Nice collection anon, now I'm officially jealous, really. That's some great machines you have here.
>>42957554
10
>>42957570
Thanks but they aren't mine. They belong to a client and I've took some hasty pictures last time I've visited him.
Now the fabled Amiga. Its the A600 model if I'm not mistaken.
>>42957641
>>42957662
Same as >>42957359. I think its the cartridge slot.
There is something quite "delorean"-ey about 80s designs don't you think?
>>42957702
This is a floppy drive my friends. Besides the huge UPS-like machinery there is also a clunky connector that was inserted on the cartridge slot.
>>42957641
>>42957662
Too bad, well, it's still pretty cool.
Also, yes, it's the 600.
>>42957736
Right here.
>>42924636
sort of relevant
what windows compatible OS would work best on a t43? ill be connecting it to the internet too
Lastly, guts from >>42957499
From a time you could buy schematics at the electronic store and build your own computer.
>>42957786
hue.
>>42924672
>Wayne Green
>lengthy editorial
You don't say!
RIP W2NSD/1 (SK) you crazy bastard.
>>42930195
please tell me the name of the wonderful DE and theme youre using
>>42957738
>Too bad, well, it's still pretty cool.
If they were mine I would grace you guys with better pictures. He keeps them in a badly lit room.
>>42957797
>dat UVPROM without label
Well too bad...
Anyone have that story about a guy that somehow managed to get OS X to run on a 128k Mac through some sort of bizarre emulation rigup, and it literally took a MONTH just for it to boot up?
>>42957948
Not sure whether upset, or still mildly impressed.
Is the screen displaying natively plugged into the win-8 machine, or just a full screen picture?
>>42957154
are you me?
>>42957781
>sort of relevant
no, not at all
>what windows compatible OS would work best on a t43?
well it came with XP
>>42957781
Lubuntu runs really well on those. Install DOSbox for retro gaming
>>42958205
DB15 (used by old Apple Monitors) are compatible with VGA connections.
>>42924636
"Sort of"? Why not just "allowed"? Mac OS Classic, Windows 3.x and 9x are basically siblings in terms of system architecture and they were relevant in the same time frame.
>>42958371
its 11 years old, and fuck running that bloatware on it
>>42958447
ive got fedora LXDE spin on it, but its a toy laptop so ive no qualms about switching to a non Unix-like OS on it
>>42958500
Eh? System 7 doesn't work anything remotely like Windows 95.
>>42958679
>its 11 years old, and fuck running that bloatware on it
fuck off. 11 years old isn't relevant in a thread about machines and operating systems from the 80's and 90's.
reported underage
