Continuing the repairs, I had two keyboards. One USB Kensington ValuKeyboard and a A4Tech KBS-720. The Kensington had a fried PCB (don't ask, I have zero ideas how it died) and the A4Tech wouldn't register a whole row of keys.

Little do people know that they're both the same keyboard 🤣

All it took was swapping the PS/2 PCB from the A4Tech into the Kensington and presto, a working keyboard!

My fav dos tracker/player is IT. Somehow over all those years I did not register that it sports native EMU8K support. Yeah it upconverts 8bit samples but I'm not that purist.

So today I dusted off my CT3670 and slapped 8M memory on it. Sounds fantastic to me. My old ears cant hear any "downgrade" from up-sampling.
Also it means that for AWE64 cards EMU8K SPIDIF output can be used. I need to buy SIMCONN addon since with native 512k memory it's useless. Modules will not fit into memory.

Also it looks like there should be AMP - AWE module player by Lada Kopecky around, with native EMU8k support but I'm having trouble finding working download link.
Edit: Found 2.4 here https://files.scene.org/browse/mirrors/hornet … ograms/players/ But last version should be v3.0..

vutt wrote on 2024-01-06, 13:03:

But last version should be v3.0..

https://www.sac.sk/files.php?d=11&p=4

this one?

when you sort by "A" there are even more versions:

@DerBaum Thanks.
That's rather nice page to bookmark for retro fans!

vutt wrote on 2024-01-06, 14:38:

@DerBaum Thanks.
That's rather nice page to bookmark for retro fans!

i would recommend a maximum of 4 ftp connections while mirroring it 😏
Its around 50GB.

In case somebody was thinking about that too... 😉

And another sweet recap done. Totem TM-S730LMV, aka PCChips M810LR ver7, or Matsonic MS8308E (which the Totem release was cloned from, as you can clearly see.

PcBytes wrote on 2024-01-06, 15:40:

And another sweet recap done. Totem TM-S730LMV, aka PCChips M810LR ver7, or Matsonic MS8308E (which the Totem release was cloned […]
Show full quote

And another sweet recap done. Totem TM-S730LMV, aka PCChips M810LR ver7, or Matsonic MS8308E (which the Totem release was cloned from, as you can clearly see.

In my opinion you should have a Duron 1800, (133x13.5), you should try from a diagnostic program to read the detailed information on the CPU, if they correspond to the Duron 1800, the FSB must be changed in the BIOS from 200 to 266.
I have the same PCChips motherboard with an Athlon 800, but I can't remember from memory whether FSB 266 (or 133) is available, or whether an overclock needs to be done (???)

It indeed is a 1800. I'm currently in the process of updating the BIOS release from the 10/08/01S to 11/11/2002 from Kobian (since it's the same board)

There's an overclock BIOS for the PC Chips iteration, I think you can go to 150+ with good RAM. The applebred (appaloosa/thoroughbred) core durons, do no run out of steam until over 2.3 Ghz or so, some going as far as 2.7 depending how much voltage you want to give it. 2.2 usually doesn't take any, might need to bump it .05 for a bit more stability, at 2.3-2.5... well that would probably take having it in a KT400 or NF2. HoneyX modded BIOS is what you'd be looking for.

You got me curious. Does the BIOS work across all M810 revisions that use SDRAM?

Back on the topic, restored this dumpster dived LG 3D-510 optical mouse. Gave it a spray paint into white and black (originally was silver instead of white) replaced the laser LED w/ a blue one and added another one near the scroll wheel.

PcBytes wrote on 2024-01-06, 22:32:

You got me curious. Does the BIOS work across all M810 revisions that use SDRAM?

Back on the topic, restored this dumpster dived LG 3D-510 optical mouse. Gave it a spray paint into white and black (originally was silver instead of white) replaced the laser LED w/ a blue one and added another one near the scroll wheel.

There's releases that work across many revisions, I guess it might be hard to tell which other brands apply to which original PC Chips revision though.

I forgot something though, most of these mods done before thoroughbred cores existed, so done to BIOS that don't have support for them, maybe just end up with wrong CPU display though.

A page that seems to have some live files archived still
https://web.archive.org/web/20060422190543/ht … L_BIOS_Page.htm
or at least AM810H.zip worked.

When it's talking about Duron/Athlon really it means 100Mhz CPU / 133Mhz CPU given not all that many spitfire cores would do full jump from 100 t0 133+ speeds.

Rescued a Pentium 233 MMX PC, Pentium 2 333 mhz PC, and a celeron 2.8ghz pc before it was sent off to a scrap yard.

The 233 and 333 will be Win98 gaming machines, the 2.8ghz will be an XP machine. The Xp one I am limited on a 1.5V AGP slot so a 128mb GEforce card might be the most that I can put in it

Currently working on building up this AMD 386DX-40. I hope to use it for some light prototype and interfacing to some old electronic projects that I've been meaning to do for years.
So far I got it installed with 32MB ram which is probably more than I need for a 386, and a Cyrix FasMath FPU. It will ultimately run DOS6.21/WFW3.11. I plan to have it fully networked into my home network.

Playing Metal Gear Solid.

System: Pentium 3 600MHz
Graphics card: 3D Blaster Voodoo 2
Operative System: Windows 98 SE
Input: MS Sidewinder Game Pad

The year's first monthly vintage market. This time it was really small, about a quarter of what it normally is. The one right after Christmas season and just before pay day is always small. And the weather was also shit. Taken all this into account, it was still better than expected.

There weren't too many vintage electronics, but I found this:

It supposed to be the Magnavox Oddissey 2's EU variant. At least according to Wikipedia It also had around half a dozen game cartridges. I was mildly interested, but I didn't buy it. I'm not interested in hardware that old.

But there were a decent amount of games. Mostly 2000s PC and 6th 7th and 8th gen console games. There was a guy selling some for 1€ each with a 3 for the price of 2 discount. I picked up
Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga - The disc is well taken care of, almost like a brand new item, it had the anemic sheet of paper posing as a manual and over all great condition. I was interested in the game since I've seen this review about it. At some point I might even get to play it 😁
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow - The localized CD-ROM version. This one had me sweating. It was only at home that I checked that it supposed to have 4 CDs and mine had only 3, but the game installed and never asked for more, so I guess in this specific version they just threw out all the other language packs so it can fit. Again almost as if it was brand new with the manual included. Got a little wet in the rain, but it didn't get inside.
No One Lives Forever - Best seller version without a manual. I already had an identical copy, also in great condition, also got a little wet. But it was essentially free.

RandomStranger wrote on 2024-01-07, 16:04:

The year's first monthly vintage market. This time it was really small, about a quarter of what it normally is. The one right af […]
Show full quote

The year's first monthly vintage market. This time it was really small, about a quarter of what it normally is. The one right after Christmas season and just before pay day is always small. And the weather was also shit. Taken all this into account, it was still better than expected.

There weren't too many vintage electronics, but I found this:
IMG_20240107_092222.jpg
It supposed to be the Magnavox Oddissey 2's EU variant. At least according to Wikipedia It also had around half a dozen game cartridges. I was mildly interested, but I didn't buy it. I'm not interested in hardware that old.

But there were a decent amount of games. Mostly 2000s PC and 6th 7th and 8th gen console games. There was a guy selling some for 1€ each with a 3 for the price of 2 discount. I picked up
Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga - The disc is well taken care of, almost like a brand new item, it had the anemic sheet of paper posing as a manual and over all great condition. I was interested in the game since I've seen this review about it. At some point I might even get to play it 😁
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow - The localized CD-ROM version. This one had me sweating. It was only at home that I checked that it supposed to have 4 CDs and mine had only 3, but the game installed and never asked for more, so I guess in this specific version they just threw out all the other language packs so it can fit. Again almost as if it was brand new with the manual included. Got a little wet in the rain, but it didn't get inside.
No One Lives Forever - Best seller version without a manual. I already had an identical copy, also in great condition, also got a little wet. But it was essentially free.

I had one. I think i am to young to enjoy it... for me it was just boring. It was just 20 Euros back in the day and i sold it for 30... good deal 😁

I still have a game left. Its the game 2. I dont remember what it is because the games look exactly as boring as they gameplay...
I kept it because it has a handle 😁

I think Philips bought magnavox back in the day... Then like everything Philips does it ended in cool products that flopped really hard (CD-I) ... That was the end for magnavox 😁

DerBaum wrote on 2024-01-07, 16:11:

I had one. I think i am to young to enjoy it... for me it was just boring. It was just 20 Euros back in the day and i sold it fo […]
Show full quote

RandomStranger wrote on 2024-01-07, 16:04:

The year's first monthly vintage market. This time it was really small, about a quarter of what it normally is. The one right af […]
Show full quote

The year's first monthly vintage market. This time it was really small, about a quarter of what it normally is. The one right after Christmas season and just before pay day is always small. And the weather was also shit. Taken all this into account, it was still better than expected.

There weren't too many vintage electronics, but I found this:
IMG_20240107_092222.jpg
It supposed to be the Magnavox Oddissey 2's EU variant. At least according to Wikipedia It also had around half a dozen game cartridges. I was mildly interested, but I didn't buy it. I'm not interested in hardware that old.

But there were a decent amount of games. Mostly 2000s PC and 6th 7th and 8th gen console games. There was a guy selling some for 1€ each with a 3 for the price of 2 discount. I picked up
Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga - The disc is well taken care of, almost like a brand new item, it had the anemic sheet of paper posing as a manual and over all great condition. I was interested in the game since I've seen this review about it. At some point I might even get to play it 😁
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow - The localized CD-ROM version. This one had me sweating. It was only at home that I checked that it supposed to have 4 CDs and mine had only 3, but the game installed and never asked for more, so I guess in this specific version they just threw out all the other language packs so it can fit. Again almost as if it was brand new with the manual included. Got a little wet in the rain, but it didn't get inside.
No One Lives Forever - Best seller version without a manual. I already had an identical copy, also in great condition, also got a little wet. But it was essentially free.

I had one. I think i am to young to enjoy it... for me it was just boring. It was just 20 Euros back in the day and i sold it for 30... good deal 😁

I still have a game left. Its the game 2. I dont remember what it is because the games look exactly as boring as they gameplay...
I kept it because it has a handle 😁
2024-01-07 17.07.41.jpg

Yeah, this one had the games' names on the cartridge, but all of them sounded very generic, like shooter and marksman.

RandomStranger wrote on 2024-01-07, 16:04:

The year's first monthly vintage market. This time it was really small, about a quarter of what it normally is. The one right af […]
Show full quote

The year's first monthly vintage market. This time it was really small, about a quarter of what it normally is. The one right after Christmas season and just before pay day is always small. And the weather was also shit. Taken all this into account, it was still better than expected.

There weren't too many vintage electronics, but I found this:
IMG_20240107_092222.jpg
It supposed to be the Magnavox Oddissey 2's EU variant. At least according to Wikipedia It also had around half a dozen game cartridges. I was mildly interested, but I didn't buy it. I'm not interested in hardware that old.

But there were a decent amount of games. Mostly 2000s PC and 6th 7th and 8th gen console games. There was a guy selling some for 1€ each with a 3 for the price of 2 discount. I picked up
Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga - The disc is well taken care of, almost like a brand new item, it had the anemic sheet of paper posing as a manual and over all great condition. I was interested in the game since I've seen this review about it. At some point I might even get to play it 😁
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow - The localized CD-ROM version. This one had me sweating. It was only at home that I checked that it supposed to have 4 CDs and mine had only 3, but the game installed and never asked for more, so I guess in this specific version they just threw out all the other language packs so it can fit. Again almost as if it was brand new with the manual included. Got a little wet in the rain, but it didn't get inside.
No One Lives Forever - Best seller version without a manual. I already had an identical copy, also in great condition, also got a little wet. But it was essentially free.

I've got one of those. Not a great deal you can do with it even if you have the programmers cart (which I do, nothing to get excited about) as there is absolutely no way of saving anything so why bother. The games are nothing to write home about either, if you've played on a VCS then this is more of the same, possibly not even as good as the VCS if I'm brutally honest. My folks bought one as it has a keyboard and thought it might be educational in some way ... yeah that thought didn't last long.

Been playing a little more around with the P2B-DS. Gotten w98 to run, and installed W2K for some dual processor goodness. IIRC, W2K wasn't really bad in terms of games - at least I tend to believe that I ran it at some point when stability got to be a priority ...

RandomStranger wrote on 2024-01-07, 16:04:

The year's first monthly vintage market. This time it was really small, about a quarter of what it normally is. The one right af […]
Show full quote

The year's first monthly vintage market. This time it was really small, about a quarter of what it normally is. The one right after Christmas season and just before pay day is always small. And the weather was also shit. Taken all this into account, it was still better than expected.

There weren't too many vintage electronics, but I found this:
IMG_20240107_092222.jpg
It supposed to be the Magnavox Oddissey 2's EU variant. At least according to Wikipedia It also had around half a dozen game cartridges. I was mildly interested, but I didn't buy it. I'm not interested in hardware that old.

But there were a decent amount of games. Mostly 2000s PC and 6th 7th and 8th gen console games. There was a guy selling some for 1€ each with a 3 for the price of 2 discount. I picked up
Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga - The disc is well taken care of, almost like a brand new item, it had the anemic sheet of paper posing as a manual and over all great condition. I was interested in the game since I've seen this review about it. At some point I might even get to play it 😁
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow - The localized CD-ROM version. This one had me sweating. It was only at home that I checked that it supposed to have 4 CDs and mine had only 3, but the game installed and never asked for more, so I guess in this specific version they just threw out all the other language packs so it can fit. Again almost as if it was brand new with the manual included. Got a little wet in the rain, but it didn't get inside.
No One Lives Forever - Best seller version without a manual. I already had an identical copy, also in great condition, also got a little wet. But it was essentially free.

I have an recently acquired Odyssey 2 that wont boot. Watching the picture and audio you can tell its trying, but keeps trying over and over every 2 seconds. Trying a different power supply doesnt do anything. Guess it'll be put on the "get to it at some point" table. Even came with "the voice" module too