bushwack wrote:

Shagittarius wrote:

Keep a hold of your boxes. Someday you'll have the time and space and regret it if you lose them.

Back in the late 90's I threw many of my big boxes away. We were living in a small apartment and my wife and I had a baby. We just didn't have the room for those big buggers. 🙁

Over the years I've never hung on to any games, right from the first game I bought (The Legacy) in 1993. Too late now to collect them. My friend, however, never throws anything away and he must have every title he ever bought (through my advice) from Screamer to Fatal Racing, Command and Conquer and till the present day. He bought maybe 3-6 games a month, every month, since 1995.

The most galling thing is, he has the TA Commander Pack and a big box System Shock 2 (which was opened and installed ONCE, and he didn't like it, so it was uninstalled and put away).

So now I have money, and he has the games. But will he sell them? Now thats the question.... will he....... wheres my phone book?

Big box System Shock 2 will still go for more than retail price when it was originally released if he sells it on ebay. Wouldn't be surprised to see him get 80+ dollars for it if its in good shape.

It's in perfect condition, only really handled once or twice for a few seconds, then put away. I don't think he will know how much it is worth. In fact, he won't have a clue.

I finally took a picture of what my setup looks like on a good day (normally, everything is covered in papers). The computer's an old Dell with a 3ghz Pentium 4 HT, 1gb PC3200, 256mb Radeon X800, 100gb hard drive, SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS, Windows 7 Ultimate.

Click for full size (1024x768):

Alphakilo470 wrote:

I finally took a picture of what my setup looks like on a good day (normally, everything is covered in papers). The computer's a […]
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I finally took a picture of what my setup looks like on a good day (normally, everything is covered in papers). The computer's an old Dell with a 3ghz Pentium 4 HT, 1gb PC3200, 256mb Radeon X800, 100gb hard drive, SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS, Windows 7 Ultimate.

Click for full size (1024x768):

Nice, a 2004-ish Dell Poweredge lowend server 😀

"Low end" wouldn't begin to describe the computer before I replaced just about everything in it (even the stock heatsink had to go!). However, as far as I know, it's the only PowerEdge with an AGP slot and it features the same motherboard as some of their Precision workstation systems of the time. I don't think the thing would have been fit for Windows 7 before I upgraded everything.

BTW, sadly, if you look around my desk, you'll see that tower is far from being the oldest thing I have sitting out.

I like these OEM machines. Some don't like the limited BIOS options, but I find it convenient. Some of these old school BIOS options are just way to confusing 😜

DELL has a bunch of these small PCs. Optiplex or something like that. I always found them cute and they are getting quite cheap now (all Pentium 4s)

Alphakilo470 wrote:

"Low end" wouldn't begin to describe the computer before I replaced just about everything in it (even the stock heatsink had to go!). However, as far as I know, it's the only PowerEdge with an AGP slot and it features the same motherboard as some of their Precision workstation systems of the time. I don't think the thing would have been fit for Windows 7 before I upgraded everything.

BTW, sadly, if you look around my desk, you'll see that tower is far from being the oldest thing I have sitting out.

Yeah, some "low end" Precisions were s478 machines while the more high spec one's were s604 beasts

Gotta love these old Dell's before they turned into POS around 2005/2006
Use to have a Dell Precision 340 and and prior to that a 330...very solid machines

Iris030380 wrote:

The most galling thing is, he has the TA Commander Pack and a big box System Shock 2 (which was opened and installed ONCE, and he didn't like it, so it was uninstalled and put away).

Zomg! If I ever were to find this second hand or anything, I'd grab it and NEVER LET GO 😁

Here goes.

Welcome to my Gametopia!

Over at the left end is Consolia, housing my console collection.

Middle table houses my x86 retro PCs: 486/66, 286/20, and Pentium 133 (from left to right). My P3 667 doesn't have a home at the moment, but is awaiting a new PSU anyway.

Right table has my Quadra 700 and Amiga A1200HD.

Up in the shelves is the remains of my meagre boxed game collection. My disk-only stuff is in those Case Logic CD wallet type things. I had loads of boxed games before I moved out of home. *sigh*

Awesome!

It looks really neat! Though a little bit cramped at the keybaord(s 😁)

aaand I see a NWN collector's box? Neat!

Tetrium wrote:

It looks really neat! Though a little bit cramped at the keybaord(s 😁)

Thanks!

Yeah it is a little cramped on the desk there, but I can't see myself using the Mac and Ami simultaneously, so I can just shuffle them around as needed. 😀

Tetrium wrote:

aaand I see a NWN collector's box? Neat!

Yeah, picked that up quite cheaply, about a week before Undrentide came out.

SquallStrife wrote:

Thanks! […]
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Tetrium wrote:

It looks really neat! Though a little bit cramped at the keybaord(s 😁)

Thanks!

Yeah it is a little cramped on the desk there, but I can't see myself using the Mac and Ami simultaneously, so I can just shuffle them around as needed. 😀

Tetrium wrote:

aaand I see a NWN collector's box? Neat!

Yeah, picked that up quite cheaply, about a week before Undrentide came out.

Bit off topic, but I was kinda looking for an offline version of GuildWars, but NWN was nice also!
I ended up giving myself a couple extra magic tricks, like that "Death" skill 😁

SquallStrife wrote:

Here goes.

Welcome to my Gametopia!

Nice collection, and I see GIR!

Sitting here bored at work, thought I'd just chat a little bit about the KVM setup.

It's a LASER brand KVM switch with PS/2 style connectors. Problem is that all my x86 retro boxes use AT keyboards and serial mice.

So, I made a bunch of custom pigtails to connect the AT sockets on the computers to the PS/2 sockets on the KVM switch, and another short adaptor to connect the AT keyboard. I could have bought adaptors, but the parts were actually cheaper.

The serial mice thing was a little more difficult, though. Since there was just no way to get the KVM to speak serial mouse language, I decided to build that part myself. I bought a 4-pole, 3-position rotary switch and some cable, found the four pins that serial mice actually use, and followed that through to the logical conclusion. It's not elegant, but it works fairly well, and even if I forget to toggle the switch before I power up a PC, I can just do it afterwards and re-load the mouse driver.

SquallStrife wrote:

Here goes. […]
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Here goes.

Welcome to my Gametopia!

[...............]

Over at the left end is Consolia, housing my console collection.

Middle table houses my x86 retro PCs: 486/66, 286/20, and Pentium 133 (from left to right). My P3 667 doesn't have a home at the moment, but is awaiting a new PSU anyway.

Right table has my Quadra 700 and Amiga A1200HD.

Up in the shelves is the remains of my meagre boxed game collection. My disk-only stuff is in those Case Logic CD wallet type things. I had loads of boxed games before I moved out of home. *sigh*

OMG, ever hear of retr0bright? Make that stuff look good! 😲

From what I've read, retrobright is also a PAIN to actually uhm..."do".
When I read about "mixing x% of this with y% of that, then stirr for z minutes...", it's more like a recipe 🤣

I've had a go with retrobrigt, and its not as painful as you might think. I just mix up a small batch in a disposable cup and that gives enough to smear over the front of the average case.
However it wasn't super effective. It did take the edge off but there was a certain point after which repeated treatments didn't make much difference.

Since I did that, some have discovered that simply using whitening laundry power like 'napi-san' or 'Vanish' in a tub of warm water is just as effetive:

http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showt … 2614#post162614

Seems that the more sodium percarbonate, the better.