https://bootleggames.fandom.com/wiki/Phantom_System

Brazil used to make everything back in the 1980s. I think they banned importation of foreign computers?

Errius wrote:

I remember swapping cartridges with friends around that time.

Cool. Was there a used game scene in local shops, or was it just kid-to-kid among neighbours & schoolmates? Or perhaps a BBS.

I'm remembering here there were a handful of boxed games (like Falcon) at a used bookstore, and otherwise it was try your luck at the thrifts & fleas.

No just school friends. I got Activision's Tennis that way I remember. One of the best ever games for the platform.

(I don't remember what I traded for it, I think it was Donkey Kong. I definitely got the best of that deal.)

Errius wrote:

https://bootleggames.fandom.com/wiki/Phantom_System

Brazil used to make everything back in the 1980s. I think they banned importation of foreign computers?

Yes, they cloned a lot of computers, and they went even as far as to clone the Macintosh 512k, dubbed the Unitron Mac 512. Apple however claimed Unitron copied the ROMs outright, and lobbied the US Government to exert pressure on the Brazil to stop Unitron from selling them, which was successful. Always love interesting computers and clones from the more isolated countries, it's fascinating what the engineers and developers achieved with the limited resources given to them.

Went to go clean my Cybernet Elite-4i ZFP yesterday and wouldn't boot. I accidentally bent a couple of pins on my P4 3.2GHz CPU and broke 1 off when I bent it back too hard. After I installed the P4 processor from my 4550 and a mobile P4 CPU, it would not turn on. Must've killed the aftermarket PSU (cheap Chinese crap that has missing safety precautions (UL listing) when I installed the mobile P4 CPU). I didn't see anything broken, burnt, or anything else on both the motherboard and DC power board.

Going to source a Dell R0423 PSU and a P4 3.2GHz processor.

After installing a couple of programs and games on my Windows 2000, I had to extend the partition. Guess what, I had to convert it to NTFS (aaarrrgh) and extend using diskpart. Easy.

Unfortunately my plan to run some vanilla apps got a hit, I needed BWC Kex to install newer browsers and now, newer mIRC version for security reasons.

Installed a 5.25" HDD caddy w/ CF adapter and a Teac FD-55GFR into my 8088. I may want to swap those to black to make it more appropriately styled to the original Swan XT10 color scheme though.

Made a couple of boxes for my precious old motherboards. Not as good as the original box, but it will do.

brostenen wrote:

Playing Dynablaster and Gianasisters with my son today, on this Amiga.

Assembling-06.jpg

That case is very close to a Unisys 486 workstation. Is that Amiga retrofitted in any way on a pc case ??

pan069 wrote:

wiretap wrote:

Designed this for a case badge: […]
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Designed this for a case badge:

Original:

That's a pretty good job. What software did you use to draw this with?

Photoshop. I just took the original tiny photo and scaled it huge, then traced the outlines and filled them. For the sound blaster text, I grabbed a PNG image of the logo and pasted it at the bottom. It isn't exact, but it will look 95% the same when printed.

I'm thinking about creating a new thread just for retro case badges and logos. I have a huge collection saved, most in high res. Or I could create my own.

Don't forget about the excellent Pentium Pro case badges created by Vogons members KCompRoom2000 and Thallanor.

The great Pentium Pro haul of 2018

The great Pentium Pro haul of 2018

Finished benchmarking my Socket 7 chip stash, and then spent WAY too long making this with some of the "duplicates":

The frame is a nice commercial aluminum one I bought in a pawn shop, but the inlay, matting, etc. was all done by me with card stock, a utility knife, ruler, glue stick+hot glue gun, etc. Fun times.

That said, it looks good from 2 meters away, but when you get up close there are some mistakes that are gonna bug me. I might pull this apart and make a Mk.II version at some point.

Note: before any of you give me a hard time for this, please know that it is COMPLETELY reversable. I made sure to mount the CPUs in a way that wouldn't damage them at all, and I used the least-staticky frame & glass I could find. People who use parts like this for "art projects" and ruin them is a pet peeve of mine, too. I'll probably end up using these in systems eventually, in which case I can always just open this up and take them back out, but they look nicer on display here than in my parts closet. 😀

Framed CPUs look great - I have a dead socket 3 motherboard + Sound Blaster that I’d like to frame one day, I think they’re art 😵

I upgraded my K6-2 system to a K6-2/500 (I wonder what the Pentium II equivalent for this really is)..

I also did some troubleshooting on my dead Athlon64 PC to find my X1950PRO had died, so I replaced it with a more period correct X800XTPE AGP. I will try to fix the X1950PRO AGP later.

Xicor wrote:

brostenen wrote:

Playing Dynablaster and Gianasisters with my son today, on this Amiga.

Assembling-06.jpg

That case is very close to a Unisys 486 workstation. Is that Amiga retrofitted in any way on a pc case ??

http://to9xct.blogspot.com/2019/08/amiga500-i … intage.html?m=1

It is a case-converted Amiga500 with upgrades. Basically not your average Amiga anymore. 😁

Someday when I have time and money I'd love to make a display-style case for a lot of my still-working older hardware.

I'd sorely love to get hold of some of the Brazilian PC/Mac/Other clones, and maybe even some of the French stuff from the 80s. France also pushed hard for home industries, and hated foreign standards, so there was a lot of unique stuff. There are some cool circa 1990 Eastern Block items as well, and I'd love to see some of the home market Taiwanese stuff - but it's such a small place I don't imagine they have a lot of hoarders.

Right now I'm testing my new main PC, so not very retro - but not quite brand new either. The Asus Q87, i4790k, GTX 970 SSC, 32Gb RAM, and pair of 1Tb drives, and the Corsair 400R case and PSU were all free. Even not counting my life being saved in the hospital, I have a lot to be grateful for this year.

Was testing the original Nvidia Quadro (Elsa) aka Geforce SDR, under Windows XP in my Sis 651 AGP test system. Initially the card kept pausing, freezing and artifacting in 3D Mark 2000 and 2001 when using the popular drivers like the 45.23, 41.09, or the latest official 71.89. I was starting to suspect a faulty card or a motherboard incompatibility, but decided to keep trying even older drivers before I could be sure. Eventually I downgraded (more like upgraded) the older 21.83 driver and then suddenly the card passed all tests flawlessly. Gonna keep that driver handy in case other old NV cards give me problems.

Has anyone managed to get the iTunes on Windows 2000 to see the iPod Nano? I'm using the last version supported on Win 2k (7.3.2) and yet it can't see the iPod Nano. All I get on Device Manager is a USB Mass Storage Device with an yellow exclamation.

Started finishing the restoration of some no-name 486 notebook I started years ago and kind of forgot... 🤣

Oooooh, UMC! Best kind of 486 there is. Mmm..