VOGONS


post up pics of your "computing area"

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Reply 1360 of 2202, by keenmaster486

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Intel486dx33 wrote:

Currently my Macintosh Color Classic extreme.

Ooh nice, the Mac version of the Gravis Gamepad.

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 1361 of 2202, by RichPimp

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Here's my setup. I have 2 workstations on an L shaped desk. I've got a Win 98 machine, Win XP machine, Win 10 machine, and a media server also being powered by Win 10.

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With my retro setup, I share the CRT monitor, mouse, and keyboard with my XP and 98 machines using a KVM switch. The CRT is also hooked up to my main Win 10 machine if I have the urge to play something befitting it (Chocolate Doom, DOSBOX, etc.). I use mostly modern peripherals (since nowadays I prefer wireless), but sometimes I like to use a flightstick or Gravis gamepad via the joystick port. I also only use one mouse for every machine, a Logitech Master. It has a feature where you can share it via up to 3 Logitech unifying usb receivers, so effectively it can be used on 3 separate machines with the push of a button on its underside. Suprisingly, it works with Win 98 with no hassle.

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Here's a better look at my main setup. The top monitor is a 24" Dell 1080p, the bottom is a 27" Dell 1440p G-Sync.

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For sound, I feed all sound card outputs from every machine into a mixer (the bottom device pictured). I then output the mixer into a headphone amp (the top device pictured). From there, I output the headphone amp into all my speakers and headphones. The mixer is useful for when I want simultaneous audio from multiple machines. For example, listening to a podcast via the Win 10 machine while playing a game on the Win 98 machine. The headphone amp allows me to isolate which speakers or headphones (or any combination thereof) I want the sound to come through. You can also see my joystick port extension cable.

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Reply 1362 of 2202, by bjwil1991

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Current desktop setup:

Po9jU99l.jpg

Left to right on top:
Samsung SyncMaster 23" LCD monitor
Packard Bell keyboard and mouse
Gravis Analog Pro joystick
CHiLL WaveTable with my Yamaha DB50XG connected
Roland MT-32
IKEA bendable lamp
Hannspree 23" LCD monitor
Logitech USB Gamepad
Xbox One wired controller
Razer Hexa mouse
Razer RGB keyboard with wrist rest

Below the desk from left to right:
Custom Socket 5 machine (still needs work, but it's functioning)
iMac G4/800 (covered by my coat to prevent screen damage)
Packard Bell Pack-Mate 28 Plus (left monitor, keyboard, mouse, and all of the center)
Main AMD FX-6300 desktop (left and right monitors, right keyboard, mouse, gamepad, Xbox One wired controller, and Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro (not pictured))

Discord: https://discord.gg/U5dJw7x
Systems from the Compaq Portable 1 to Ryzen 9 5950X
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/retropcuser

Reply 1364 of 2202, by bjwil1991

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It's an external logic board that allows you to install a WaveTable Daughterboard that gets inserted into a Sound Blaster or equivalent sound card, which will let you change the daughterboards with ease. PhilsComputerLab did a review about this device.

Discord: https://discord.gg/U5dJw7x
Systems from the Compaq Portable 1 to Ryzen 9 5950X
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/retropcuser

Reply 1366 of 2202, by JonathonWyble

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https://i.imgur.com/0YBwkWWl.jpg […]
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0YBwkWWl.jpg

Heh, the teachers at my school have the exact same laptops as the one you have on the right side of your desk 😜 I could figure that out by seeing the logo on its screen...

1998 Pentium II build

1553292341.th.19547.gif

Reply 1368 of 2202, by Damaniel

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This is my current retro computing setup (the picture's a bit old, but the setup looks exactly the same):

XkruwNQ.jpg

There are 3 PCs set up:
- A 486DX2/66 with a pretty vanilla setup (16MB RAM, Cirrus Logic SVGA, SoundBlaster Pro) running DOS 6.22/Windows 3.11.
- A Pentium 233MMX (the one on the far right) running Windows 98. It also has an original Voodoo card in it.
- A Pentium III 1GHz (the one on the left) running Windows XP. This was built completely out of sealed, NOS parts.

They're all hooked up using a serial Microsoft mouse (to the PIII using the provided PS/2 adapter) and AT keyboard, along with the switch boxes, to create a poor man's KVM that's compatible with all three systems. They also each have a network card installed and are attached to my local LAN, but not the internet - I just use them to pull files from my NAS or FTP them from a more modern PC on my network.

The monitor is an old Hitachi SuperScan Elite (19") that I actually bought back in 1997 for the first PC I ever built from parts. The screen's a little dim though so it could probably use a recapping. The game on the display is a Sokoban clone I've worked on creating off and on for the last couple years, using the 160x100, 16-color CGA mode that most people here probably know as the mode used by Paku Paku.

The books are all assorted PC programming related books, a few of which I actually owned back in the day, but most are more recent acquisitions I've found in local used bookstores and thrift shops. I have about another dozen that aren't on display. Many of the books are Turbo Pascal related, since I was using it (TP7) to write Move-It, Man! and a couple other game projects I've worked on.

Reply 1369 of 2202, by Caluser2000

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Damaniel wrote:
This is my current retro computing setup (the picture's a bit old, but the setup looks exactly the same): […]
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This is my current retro computing setup (the picture's a bit old, but the setup looks exactly the same):

XkruwNQ.jpg

There are 3 PCs set up:
- A 486DX2/66 with a pretty vanilla setup (16MB RAM, Cirrus Logic SVGA, SoundBlaster Pro) running DOS 6.22/Windows 3.11.
- A Pentium 233MMX (the one on the far right) running Windows 98. It also has an original Voodoo card in it.
- A Pentium III 1GHz (the one on the left) running Windows XP. This was built completely out of sealed, NOS parts.

Cool set up.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 1370 of 2202, by JonathonWyble

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oeuvre wrote:

EliteBook 840 G5?

No, they have some model of ProBook. I meant to say that your laptop looks like the ones my teachers have, because your's has the same white color, and the same HP logo as their's.

1998 Pentium II build

1553292341.th.19547.gif

Reply 1371 of 2202, by Gered

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Damaniel wrote:

Many of the books are Turbo Pascal related, since I was using it (TP7) to write Move-It, Man! and a couple other game projects I've worked on.

Any quality books you'd care to recommend? I've been fiddling about with TP7 for the past while enjoying it quite a bit (the near instant compiles is highly addictive when you do all your retro-coding on actual retro hardware... in my case a 486DX2), but my personal library does not have any Pascal books other then "PC Underground".

486DX2-66/16MB/S3 Trio32 VLB/SBPro2/GUS
P233 MMX/64MB/Voodoo2/Matrox/YMF719/GUS CD3
Duron 800/256MB/Savage4 Pro/SBLive (IN PROGRESS)
Toshiba 430CDT

Reply 1372 of 2202, by gca

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I have a couple of PASCAL books if your interested. No TP specific but cover the basics:

Software engineering the development life cycle (second edition)
Fiona Stewart
Kirkman Publishing - 1993
ISBN - 1-874107-02-5

PASCAL (third edition)
William Findlay and David A Watt
UCL Press - 1994
ISBN - 1-85728-364-3

Reply 1373 of 2202, by Damaniel

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Gered wrote:
Damaniel wrote:

Many of the books are Turbo Pascal related, since I was using it (TP7) to write Move-It, Man! and a couple other game projects I've worked on.

Any quality books you'd care to recommend? I've been fiddling about with TP7 for the past while enjoying it quite a bit (the near instant compiles is highly addictive when you do all your retro-coding on actual retro hardware... in my case a 486DX2), but my personal library does not have any Pascal books other then "PC Underground".

it's not on the shelf there, but the one I use the most (other than the official manuals) is called 'Turbo Pascal 7: The Complete Reference' by Osborne. It has a good overview of Pascal in general, plus a pretty comprehensive collection of information about TP7 and the standard Turbo Pascal units. I picked it up on eBay a couple years ago for not too much - they apparently printed quite a few of them so finding one shouldn't be too hard. (I really wish that there were more scans of PC-centric programming books out there - all the 8-bit micros have very extensive PDF archives of old programming books and magazines, but MS-DOS era PCs - not so much. I've really had to look around over the past few years to find the books I have already.)

Reply 1374 of 2202, by Gered

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Thank you both for the recommendations. Think I'll pick up "Turbo Pascal 7: The Complete Reference" for now as I already had my eye on that one anyway... good to hear from someone else who owns it and found it useful.

486DX2-66/16MB/S3 Trio32 VLB/SBPro2/GUS
P233 MMX/64MB/Voodoo2/Matrox/YMF719/GUS CD3
Duron 800/256MB/Savage4 Pro/SBLive (IN PROGRESS)
Toshiba 430CDT

Reply 1375 of 2202, by SpectriaForce

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Damaniel wrote:

The screen's a little dim though so it could probably use a recapping.

If you have used it a lot (i.e. high hour), then it's possible that the CRT is starting to get weak. You might be able to rejuvenate the CRT with a CRT tester, but usually that doesn't make a lot of difference on the long term. Another option is to increase the brightness and contrast, perhaps the monitor has (additional) internal potentiometers for those.

Reply 1376 of 2202, by blakespot

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Someone over at VCFed suggested I post this here. I'm uncertain if I perhaps have... But here it is, in case I haven't. This is the overall shot, taken a few years ago. Things are basically the same, though -- a few more computers is all... 😀

panorama_2012.jpg

A bit of info and a click-thru version that's labelled can be seen here:

https://www.bytecellar.com/photo_pano.html

Cheers!

bp

:: Visit the Byte Cellar, my vintage computer blog (since 2004).
:: See a panorama of my own Byte Cellar (a.k.a. basement computer room)...
:: twitter: @blakespot

Reply 1377 of 2202, by Bruninho

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blakespot wrote:
Someone over at VCFed suggested I post this here. I'm uncertain if I perhaps have... But here it is, in case I haven't. This is […]
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Someone over at VCFed suggested I post this here. I'm uncertain if I perhaps have... But here it is, in case I haven't. This is the overall shot, taken a few years ago. Things are basically the same, though -- a few more computers is all... 😀

panorama_2012.jpg

A bit of info and a click-thru version that's labelled can be seen here:

https://www.bytecellar.com/photo_pano.html

Cheers!

bp

OMFG!! This is brilliant and amazing!! Congratulations

"Design isn't just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
JOBS, Steve.
READ: Right to Repair sucks and is illegal!

Reply 1378 of 2202, by blakespot

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bfcastello wrote:

OMFG!! This is brilliant and amazing!! Congratulations

Thank you! The person at VCFed forums, 'liqmat', who suggested it had a particular interest in my framed vintage computing posters. I link to that gallery, here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/album … 157604317583021

3860428163_1581fe9364_w.jpg

Cheers.

bp

:: Visit the Byte Cellar, my vintage computer blog (since 2004).
:: See a panorama of my own Byte Cellar (a.k.a. basement computer room)...
:: twitter: @blakespot

Reply 1379 of 2202, by oeuvre

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JonathonWyble wrote:
oeuvre wrote:

EliteBook 840 G5?

No, they have some model of ProBook. I meant to say that your laptop looks like the ones my teachers have, because your's has the same white color, and the same HP logo as their's.

ahh mine's silver

HP Z420 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-1620, 32GB, RADEON HD7850 2GB, SSD + HD, XP/7
ws90Ts2.gif