What retro activity did you get up to today?

[Deksor]

@bfcastello check out a phpbb style named "legacy". It's been made for ie5 minimum and it looks good even on ie4. So if you want to have examples on how to do vintage browser webdesign, this is probably the way to go.

[SaxxonPike]

Picked up "Legacy of the Ancients" for PC, which was distributed on two 360k floppies. I imaged them - the disks were thankfully immaculate. Installed and ran great.

I like to pick up originals to be absolutely sure the stuff I've got is unmodified, and this game wasn't particularly easy to get my hands on until recently. To my surprise, these files really are 1:1 to what I had before, although now I have the intact installer. But now I've also got the album, code wheel and other feelies. This stuff rocks.

I have plans to image some other old PC floppies before they rot forever, now that I know what the process is start to finish.

[derSammler]

I have plans to image some other old PC floppies before they rot forever, now that I know what the process is start to finish.

I'm working on this for more than a decade now (see http://pcpp.retro-net.de/), but unlike with other systems like the Amiga, interest in dumping PC games seems very low.

[Deksor]

The really annoying thing with old floppy disks is that many copy protections can't simply be copied with a regular PC with a floppy imager.

I'm currently struggling at imaging Lemmings and marble madness

[bfcastello]

@bfcastello check out a phpbb style named "legacy". It's been made for ie5 minimum and it looks good even on ie4. So if you want to have examples on how to do vintage browser webdesign, this is probably the way to go.

Thanks for the tip! I will have a look later, ofc.

But my game plan "was" simple: Keep most of the HTML structure possible closer to the modern thing, and play with the CSS so it could be not only semantically correct for modern browsers, but also valid W3C code. I figured out that for vintage browsers I could just do "graceful degradation" like I used to do before, but no luck. Then I have to resort to plan B: Treat the older browsers with the smartphone version of my responsive design, so I don't have to float or position anything. That should do the job (theoretically).

I remember I had done a website when I was a kid for a school assignment before, I think it was when we had IE4. I can't believe how I managed to do it that day and now I cannot. I'm shocked hahahaha

[Deksor]

Well I think (I've never really looked at how it worked, but I've talked with the guy who made it a lot) it's ok for modern browsers (you can use "legacy" on modern browsers without any issues).

[wiretap]

Got my FIC VA-503+ v1.2a finally working at 100MHz FSB with the K6-2 500MHz. Man, the jumper setup is ridiculous, haha. Lots of poor documentation out there. (at least the legends on the board were somewhat helpful) Now onto the K6-III+ and overclocking. Updated to the beta BIOS with the K6-II+/K6-III+ support.

Jumper settings if anyone is interested..
Older K6-2 (non-CTX core) --- 2.5x Multiplier Setting = 6x Multiplier
Newer K6-2 / K6-3 / K6-2+ / K6-3+ --- 2x Multiplier Setting = 6x Multiplier

PC100 Jumper Settings (VERIFIED WORKING):
CLK4 1-2
SDRAM1 2-3
SDRAM2 1-2
SDRAM3 2-3

500MHz = 5x Multiplier * 100MHz FSB (VERIFIED WORKING):
CLK1 1-2
CLK2 1-2
CLK3 2-3
FREQ1 1-2
FREQ2 2-3
FREQ3 2-3

[Caluser2000]

Cleaning up some 2-6gig hard drives remove any sensitive/personnal data the previous owner may left on them. Install Xandros 2 in the process. Spent about five minutes customising the installation..

Quite a compact install really , at well under a gig, compared other Distros of the period. Networking was running as soon as I hit the desktop. Install takes about 45 minutes on the P166MMX set up. Also added my Debian Sarge sources.list so I can easily get more apps

[xjas]

"Linux just isn't ready for the desktop!" -every blowhard pundit until around 2015

[appiah4]

"Linux just isn't ready for the desktop!" -every blowhard pundit until around 2015

That was bullshit since 2000.

[Caluser2000]

Yip. It's been quite fun trying out the older Distros. Xandros 2 is just made for P1 hardware. Small foot print. Just enough applications to get you going and awesome hardware auto detection. Auto mounts floppies, CDs and USB sticks no problem... Intigrates with SMB networks no worries. To give it a better selection of programs just remove the current sources.list and put in some archived Sarge repository's and you are away laughing.

Damn sight more installed in the time it takes to install the bare OS that is Win9x/NT/W2K on a similer specced system. Plus a huge selection of emulators to choose from. Oh and it doesn't slow down with age.

Edit-Found a Xandros 3 Open Circulation CD in my stash. It added DVD burning support. Installing it now and it will come out at about a gig once installed. Half way through already.,,,

Install complete. The only glitch was that Xandros 3 did not detect the serial mouse like Xandros 2 did. As I have a two port pci usb expansion card it in the P166MMX test rig it did detect the usb mouse fine. It know has Firefox 1 as part of the package which seems quite a bit snappier than the older Mozilla web browser in Xandros 2. As you can see from the pic below every thing on our home SMB network was picked up sraight away.Multi-function printer, wife laptop, the Linux Mint box and of course this system

As one does one has to fiddle and do a wee bit of customisation just........... Original sources.list overwriten using good ol mc (Midnight Commander), ntp sync and we'er all good to go.

[xjas]

Wasted QUITE a lot of time today trying to unlock an 8GB Xbox HDD without knowing the user password. Wasn't able to do it. I know the MASTER password, but the security settings on these don't allow you to unlock them without the USER password, which is stored in an eeprom on the Xbox. I actually don't care about the data on this one, I just want to wipe the drive for re-use in a DOS PC with an 8.4GB BIOS limit (this particular Xbox is dead & I'm using it for parts anyway.) Newer drives can run an ATA Secure Erase with just the master key which makes it available to reformat, but this one's too old for that.

"Locking" the drives in these things is one of the most cynical attempts to hinder user repairs or upgradability I've ever seen. Microsoft never offered an upgraded drive for the OG XB, so who cares if 3rd parties or users could've? They got cracked anyway, it's just an extra layer of pain in the ass they added for no reason. Anyone involved in that decision should've been forced to sort e-waste for the rest of their career.

Next step is to build a tool to read the eeprom and get that password. This is way more effort than anyone should be putting into this, but it's war now.

[bjwil1991]

Xbox HD Maker can unlock the drive with the EEPROM.bin file stored in the eeprom directory. I have another Original Xbox myself that needs new caps and check to make sure the HDD is functioning, do a soft mod, upgrade the HDD to an SSD or SSHD (SATA to IDE) by cloning the HDD, and make a backup of the files (FTP) or remote imaging in case the drive ever fails.

I think the master password should be XBOXSCENE by default. PonyProg is a good software to use for archiving the EEPROM password contents.

[Shagittarius]

Swordfish

[derSammler]

"Locking" the drives in these things is one of the most cynical attempts to hinder user repairs or upgradability I've ever seen.

They did not lock it to prevent repairing or upgrading, but to prevent dumping its contents (which is legit imo).

ps: did you ever buy a HP business notebook? They had (and maybe still have) locked hard disks as well. That locking feature is part of the ATA standard.

[Mister Xiado]

Swordfish

I need to see that again. I haven't watched it since it was new. Reminds me, there used to be a hidden WiFi network at the company I worked at. Its SSID was Swordfish. Of course, the IT staff that set it up, also dubbed the laser/fax machines Autobot, and Decepticon, complete with the appropriate insignias on the printers for visual identification. Too bad that place rapidly stopped being cool.

I kept my original 8GB Xbox drive locked, just in case the 120GB drive I installed goes sideways. Should that happen, I still have a soft-modded drive I can go back to with no BS, and can use that to quickly format and configure another, bigger drive. I'd rather use a CF card instead of a small, borderline multiple-decade old HDD in anything if possible, anyway. At least anything that's not going to have a metric buttload of write/erase operations on it.

Got an 8-pin mini-DIN connector for my Genesis 2/32X, so I can make a new A/V cable that isn't left/mono audio. Seems like all 3rd party Genesis A/V cables come from the same factory where the audio is wired wrong, and it's not like you can just open them up and move the wire, as it's all molded together with only three pins in the connector.

[MMaximus]

CameraZOOM-20190912124337482.jpg

Good to see I'm not the only one using optical drives to prop up HDDs when plugging these outside the case

[liqmat]

CameraZOOM-20190912124337482.jpg

Good to see I'm not the only one using optical drives to prop up HDDs when plugging these outside the case

Guilty as well. Some of the crazy towers of junk I've propped up hardware on over the decades is true stupid to downright dangerous at times.

[verysaving]

Try this :

files.hddguru.com/download/Software/zu.betta.050911.rar

Wasted QUITE a lot of time today trying to unlock an 8GB Xbox HDD without knowing the user password. Wasn't able to do it. I know the MASTER password, but the security settings on these don't allow you to unlock them without the USER password, which is stored in an eeprom on the Xbox. I actually don't care about the data on this one, I just want to wipe the drive for re-use in a DOS PC with an 8.4GB BIOS limit (this particular Xbox is dead & I'm using it for parts anyway.) Newer drives can run an ATA Secure Erase with just the master key which makes it available to reformat, but this one's too old for that.

CameraZOOM-20190911171750529.jpg

CameraZOOM-20190912124337482.jpg

CameraZOOM-20190912132912772.jpg

"Locking" the drives in these things is one of the most cynical attempts to hinder user repairs or upgradability I've ever seen. Microsoft never offered an upgraded drive for the OG XB, so who cares if 3rd parties or users could've? They got cracked anyway, it's just an extra layer of pain in the ass they added for no reason. Anyone involved in that decision should've been forced to sort e-waste for the rest of their career.

Next step is to build a tool to read the eeprom and get that password. This is way more effort than anyone should be putting into this, but it's war now.

[kolderman]

A few firsts for me:

- first pentium mmx (want to see if it can "beat" my k6-3+ with setmul)
- first YMF724 with SBLINK (anyone have any hints on how to use it?)
- first install of Win98 on Compact Flash (industrial model, seems OK so far)

Mobo is a Epox MVP3G2 and the gpu is a mx440. I actually intend this to be my standard testbench board especially for testing combinations of ISA and PCI cards (e.g. digital sound out over the YMF spdif with opl/midi from an ISA card).