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Retro Rig Photo Thread

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Reply 1560 of 2685, by creepingnet

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Tandy 1000A
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Finally brought out the Tandy for at least part of the summer.

- 1985 Tandy 1000A
- 53 Watt Proprietary PSU
- 3 slot original 1000 case
- i8088 at 4.77 MHz
- no coprocessor
- 1x360k 5.25" Teac FDD
- 1x8GB Seagate Barracuda
- LianLi RH37 Mobile Rack
- TGA Video
- Tandy 3 voice sound
- 3c509 Ethernet Card
- Original Tandy 85 Key Keyboard
- Home Made Lightpen Dev Kit (basically a forum pin wire from the light pen port via a DB9 that will allow me to breadboard one up)
- MS-DOS 6.22
- Deskmate II, Windows 1/2/3
- lots of games

I'm currently trying to wire up a Light pen using old cast off parts. Planning to maybe nab a phototransistor from an optical mouse.

~The Creeping Network~
My Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/creepingnet
Creepingnet's World - https://creepingnet.neocities.org/
The Creeping Network Repo - https://www.geocities.ws/creepingnet2019/

Reply 1561 of 2685, by JonathonWyble

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creepingnet wrote:
Finally brought out the Tandy for at least part of the summer. […]
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Finally brought out the Tandy for at least part of the summer.

- 1985 Tandy 1000A
- 53 Watt Proprietary PSU
- 3 slot original 1000 case
- i8088 at 4.77 MHz
- no coprocessor
- 1x360k 5.25" Teac FDD
- 1x8GB Seagate Barracuda
- LianLi RH37 Mobile Rack
- TGA Video
- Tandy 3 voice sound
- 3c509 Ethernet Card
- Original Tandy 85 Key Keyboard
- Home Made Lightpen Dev Kit (basically a forum pin wire from the light pen port via a DB9 that will allow me to breadboard one up)
- MS-DOS 6.22
- Deskmate II, Windows 1/2/3
- lots of games

I'm currently trying to wire up a Light pen using old cast off parts. Planning to maybe nab a phototransistor from an optical mouse.

By "for at least part of the summer", are you saying that you're just going to have that computer until fall, and then get rid of it? Or does it just mean you spent some of the summer getting it to work? It is neat, though.

1998 Pentium II build

1553292341.th.19547.gif

Reply 1562 of 2685, by arncht

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i really dont understand the v5, from the "using" aspect 😀 it is interesting (freak) hw, but it was worse than the concurrency.

My little retro computer world
Overdoze of the demoscene

Reply 1563 of 2685, by appiah4

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creepingnet wrote:
Finally brought out the Tandy for at least part of the summer. […]
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IMG_20190607_190415.jpg

Finally brought out the Tandy for at least part of the summer.

- 1985 Tandy 1000A
- 53 Watt Proprietary PSU
- 3 slot original 1000 case
- i8088 at 4.77 MHz
- no coprocessor
- 1x360k 5.25" Teac FDD
- 1x8GB Seagate Barracuda
- LianLi RH37 Mobile Rack
- TGA Video
- Tandy 3 voice sound
- 3c509 Ethernet Card
- Original Tandy 85 Key Keyboard
- Home Made Lightpen Dev Kit (basically a forum pin wire from the light pen port via a DB9 that will allow me to breadboard one up)
- MS-DOS 6.22
- Deskmate II, Windows 1/2/3
- lots of games

I'm currently trying to wire up a Light pen using old cast off parts. Planning to maybe nab a phototransistor from an optical mouse.

The Spidarman Tandy!

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 1564 of 2685, by creepingnet

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JonathonWyble wrote:

By "for at least part of the summer", are you saying that you're just going to have that computer until fall, and then get rid of it? Or does it just mean you spent some of the summer getting it to work? It is neat, though.

At least part of the summer in play around with it, if not all summer, then I'm likely putting the NEC Ready up on the desk to set it all up and load it with programs. What I've been doing is switching my retro rigs out on rotation. I ran the 486 all year last year, but as of this spring I ran the GEM 286 for awhile, then decided to break out the Tandy, give the Micron SVGA monitor a break, and use the NEC MultiSync II and the Tandy for awhile.

I'm not getting rid of it by a long shot, actually I'm using the Tandy to start breadboarding up a light pen for it since I got the hardware reference manuals and all that for it, I got something close working using a light sensors and a resistor but it did not actually "work work" (seemed the CGA chipset saw it for a second and moved the cursor there) - thinking about using a phototransistor from a USB Optical Mouse instead (then I can make using one Optical mouse). The wiring is pretty simple, just the first four pins of the DB9 - +5VDC, Light-Pen Data, GND, Button Data - and it only uses the emitter and collector of the Phototransistor. The base is not used.

Other future upgrades - though maybe not this year
- V20
- 8087
- Overclocking board, my own design or copied booster interposter of some kind.
- Color Mouse or Deluxe Mouse

I've also been looking at 8-bit guy's Planet X 3, I've not bought a DOS game in a long time but that one looks like an awesome candidate for the Tandy.

appiah4 wrote:

The Spidarman Tandy!

🤣, actually that's because I posted the photo from my phone, a google Pixel 3, and it was being a bit silly. If you click on it it'll give a decent closeup high res photo.

~The Creeping Network~
My Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/creepingnet
Creepingnet's World - https://creepingnet.neocities.org/
The Creeping Network Repo - https://www.geocities.ws/creepingnet2019/

Reply 1565 of 2685, by MMaximus

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creepingnet wrote:
IMG_20190607_190415.jpg

Finally brought out the Tandy for at least part of the summer.
...

This looks like a really fun machine to play with.

I like your approach of rotating old systems - makes a lot of sense when space and time are limited. I might start doing it as well 😀

Hard Disk Sounds

Reply 1566 of 2685, by JonathonWyble

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creepingnet wrote:
At least part of the summer in play around with it, if not all summer, then I'm likely putting the NEC Ready up on the desk to s […]
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JonathonWyble wrote:

By "for at least part of the summer", are you saying that you're just going to have that computer until fall, and then get rid of it? Or does it just mean you spent some of the summer getting it to work? It is neat, though.

At least part of the summer in play around with it, if not all summer, then I'm likely putting the NEC Ready up on the desk to set it all up and load it with programs. What I've been doing is switching my retro rigs out on rotation. I ran the 486 all year last year, but as of this spring I ran the GEM 286 for awhile, then decided to break out the Tandy, give the Micron SVGA monitor a break, and use the NEC MultiSync II and the Tandy for awhile.

I'm not getting rid of it by a long shot, actually I'm using the Tandy to start breadboarding up a light pen for it since I got the hardware reference manuals and all that for it, I got something close working using a light sensors and a resistor but it did not actually "work work" (seemed the CGA chipset saw it for a second and moved the cursor there) - thinking about using a phototransistor from a USB Optical Mouse instead (then I can make using one Optical mouse). The wiring is pretty simple, just the first four pins of the DB9 - +5VDC, Light-Pen Data, GND, Button Data - and it only uses the emitter and collector of the Phototransistor. The base is not used.

Other future upgrades - though maybe not this year
- V20
- 8087
- Overclocking board, my own design or copied booster interposter of some kind.
- Color Mouse or Deluxe Mouse

I've also been looking at 8-bit guy's Planet X 3, I've not bought a DOS game in a long time but that one looks like an awesome candidate for the Tandy.

Well, that seems like a smart plan. Sometimes it's good to switch things around a bit once in a while 😎

1998 Pentium II build

1553292341.th.19547.gif

Reply 1567 of 2685, by Windows9566

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dEPLAZl.jpg
Pentium P54C 133 MHz
ASUS VX97
32 MB EDO RAM
S3 Trio 64v+ 2 MB
Sound Blaster 16 CT1740
Windows 95 OSR 2.1
40 GB Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 8

R5 5600X, 32 GB RAM, RTX 3060 TI, Win11
P3 600, 256 MB RAM, nVidia Riva TNT2 M64, SB Vibra 16S, Win98
PMMX 200, 128 MB RAM, S3 Virge DX, Yamaha YMF719, Win95
486DX2 66, 32 MB RAM, Trident TGUI9440, ESS ES688F, DOS

Reply 1568 of 2685, by Mike

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Windows9566 wrote:
https://i.imgur.com/dEPLAZl.jpg Pentium P54C 133 MHz ASUS VX97 32 MB EDO RAM S3 Trio 64v+ 2 MB Sound Blaster 16 CT1740 Windows 9 […]
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dEPLAZl.jpg
Pentium P54C 133 MHz
ASUS VX97
32 MB EDO RAM
S3 Trio 64v+ 2 MB
Sound Blaster 16 CT1740
Windows 95 OSR 2.1
40 GB Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 8

That's one hell of a tower you've got there! Definitely looks like the ultimate DOS PC with these killer specs, especially the RAM and the HDD! My old Pentium rig ages ago only had a 1 GB HDD.

Reply 1569 of 2685, by bjwil1991

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My Socket 7 system has a 200GB HDD (set to 32GB due to the BIOS limitations). In the old days, it was 6.4GB, which was good storage.

Also, for that case, how long of an IDE ribbon cable are you using? That's got to be at least 3-4 feet from the IDE port to the CD-ROM drive and that case is pretty darn cool.

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

Reply 1570 of 2685, by Windows9566

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bjwil1991 wrote:

My Socket 7 system has a 200GB HDD (set to 32GB due to the BIOS limitations). In the old days, it was 6.4GB, which was good storage.

Also, for that case, how long of an IDE ribbon cable are you using? That's got to be at least 3-4 feet from the IDE port to the CD-ROM drive and that case is pretty darn cool.

I am using a patch for my VX97 which increases the HDD capacity to 127GB. and for the IDE cable, it barely reaches but it does, and it opens/closes and reads discs.

R5 5600X, 32 GB RAM, RTX 3060 TI, Win11
P3 600, 256 MB RAM, nVidia Riva TNT2 M64, SB Vibra 16S, Win98
PMMX 200, 128 MB RAM, S3 Virge DX, Yamaha YMF719, Win95
486DX2 66, 32 MB RAM, Trident TGUI9440, ESS ES688F, DOS

Reply 1571 of 2685, by wiretap

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486 done -- although I'll be upgrading to a VLB graphics card for better DOS performance. But I'm surprised all the parts work great with no issues. Quality stuff. 🤣

Core Specs:
Biostar MB-1433/50UCV-D Ver 1.0
Intel 486DX2-66MHz SX955
4x4MB Siemens 60ns SIMM
ATI Mach64 ISA 2MB EXM913
Sound Blaster Pro 2 CT1600
DTC 2278-EB LBA Support VESA Enhanced IDE/Floppy Controller
CF-->IDE w/ 2GB Sandisk CF Card
16x CD-ROM
3.5" 1.44MB Floppy
5.25" Teac FD-55GFR 1.2MB Floppy
Running DOS 6.22 / Windows 3.1 OEM

r51jXu5h.jpg

My Github
Circuit Board Repair Manuals

Reply 1572 of 2685, by henryVK

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As a person who plays a lot of games on a tiny laptop screen I feel like I have to ask:

Do you use this lil CRT for gaming or is this mostly for originality's sake?

Either way, this is a really cool setup!

Reply 1574 of 2685, by wiretap

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henryVK wrote:

As a person who plays a lot of games on a tiny laptop screen I feel like I have to ask:

Do you use this lil CRT for gaming or is this mostly for originality's sake?

Either way, this is a really cool setup!

I play on that little 10" SVGA monitor sparingly, it is more of a collector piece because they're hard to find. I feel it does give a better image quality though, especially in lower resolution games for DOS. I usually play on a 19" CRT or 19" 4:3 LCD.

My Github
Circuit Board Repair Manuals

Reply 1575 of 2685, by wirerogue

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my dually build.
antec p160w
asus pc-dl dual socket 604
2 xeon gallatin 3.2ghz
2gb patriot ddr333
pny 6800gt
audigy 2zs

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Reply 1576 of 2685, by xjas

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Damn, great looking build. I love that front panel design with the blue glowing through.

My PC-DL is in an early-2000s AOpen case that doesn't even have a window. Seems like a shame to hide it. 😜

twitch.tv/oldskooljay - playing the obscure, forgotten & weird - most Tuesdays & Thursdays @ 6:30 PM PDT. Bonus streams elsewhen!

Reply 1577 of 2685, by wirerogue

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xjas wrote:

Damn, great looking build. I love that front panel design with the blue glowing through.

My PC-DL is in an early-2000s AOpen case that doesn't even have a window. Seems like a shame to hide it. 😜

the downside to using a windowed case of that era is you have to get very creative with cable management. the board does have 4 sata ports so i was able to go all sata and i used round sata cables. the floppy cable is hardly noticeable because i velcroed it to the drive cage and the bottom of the case.

for the storage, i decided to skip mechanical drives and use 2-120gb crucial bx500 ssd in raid0 using the on-board promise raid controller. they are only $20 and have no problem saturating the sata I interface, so why not? there is also a 240gb bx500 for backups, driver storage and game patches.

i have the xeons running comfortably at 3.4ghz. not alot of overclocking options on this board so, i think i'll stay there.

i am going to try out speedfan today as the cpu fans only seem to run at loud or really loud.

Reply 1578 of 2685, by mothergoose729

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I am building up my own retro rig fleet 😀

Love the retro cases. I decided to go all modern ATX cases for uniformity myself, but there is nothing like a beige beauty with a turbo button 🤣

Last edited by Stiletto on 2020-03-21, 23:03. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1579 of 2685, by starcube

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mothergoose729 wrote:

I am building up my own retro rig fleet 😀.

Love the retro cases. I decided to go all modern ATX cases for uniformity myself, but there is nothing like a beige beauty with a turbo button 🤣

Thanks! What are your specs?

One thing I could not work out in that box is getting a DVD decoder card working.

I have a Monster DVD-1000 card, I connected it to the LPB connector on the S3 Virge card, installed the drivers and player software, and it only plays sound. I get a solid purple screen instead of video. Tried different ribbon cables, refresh rates, color depths, and no dice. Using the last S3 driver released from December 1997 which has DirectDraw.

Last edited by Stiletto on 2020-03-21, 23:03. Edited 1 time in total.