Kahenraz wrote on 2025-02-10, 20:33:

It's too bad the ESS Maestro's Adlib synthesis is hot garbage. How does a company with ESSFM fall from such grace?

I'm kinda clueless about this - are there a lot of games using Adlib synth? I generally play a handful of racing games and haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary when using ESS based stuff. (which I think is present on Compaq's Armada E500.)

I suppose the original Carmageddon is one of them? I particularily had some fun-yet-slightly-annoying times getting its audio settings properly running.

momaka wrote on 2025-02-10, 22:27:

Kahenraz wrote on 2025-02-10, 21:48:

Can I borrow someone's time machine? Where are you people that you can find someone selling vintage tech out of a car? I can't even find this stuff in thrift stores anymore.

Hehe, well, it's not so much of a car boot sale, but more of a flea market, I suppose. Or bizarre bazaar would be just as accurate. Most "sellers" there are actually gypsies who don't even have cars. A good part of the stuff is trash-picked garbage, brought on either makeshift "hand carts" or horse carriages.
Then again, I'm in Bulgaria - one of EU's poorest member countries. As such, a lot of the computer hardware was used for many more years past its prime before getting retired... which is why only now are LGA775 and AMD AM2/AM3 systems starting to appear on the used market / flea market "en-masse". And right behind them was P4 and Athlon XP, so those are also really easy to find here. Going a little further back to Pentium II/3... things get a little more scarce, but I can usually still find at least one every other weekend and not for too much (most gypsie sellers don't care about what PC they are selling, but only that they sell it for more than they would if they were to turn it in for scrap metal... though some of them will occasionally ask for silly high prices, based on what someone might have told them that they saw on the internet.)

Kinda like some of them bazaars I frequent here in Romania. AM2/3/775/1155 stuff is fairly popular, but every now and then I stumble upon gems - my own Aureal Vortex 2 card is a testament to that, as well as my first ever Voodoo 3 3000 that I had sold a year ago.

Athlon XPs seem to be harder to find tho - I barely managed to find two of them in recent times - Epox 8RDA3I and an A7N8X-X rev2 with surprisingly a single blown KZG out of the entirety of the CPU VRM - kinda strange considering I'd usually be presented with the whole row of caps gone.

You either never Adlib or you don't. Generally, all Adlib clones sound bad to some extent, because music was never composed for it. ESFM is almost identical to Adlib that it's hard to tell the difference. It also has some unique features, when games support it.

ESS Solo-1 - is it any good?

Duuuudes. I carried this up two flights of stairs, XDXD
Probably more "vintage" than "retro", but computer is computer.

Got this from a co-worker today. Says it twitches/bloops or something? Not going to power it up until a proper cleaning and inspection. A bit of burn-in on the screen and lots of caps were replaced at some point in time. The cabinet is in surprisingly good shape AND has the coin machine still! I just found the keys, too! (They fell out from somewhere carrying it up the stairs.)

I'm a total noob about this type of computer, so it should be extra engaging to fix. Going to want to do it quickly, too as it takes up a lot of space.

PcBytes wrote on 2025-02-10, 22:50:

I'm kinda clueless about this - are there a lot of games using Adlib synth? I generally play a handful of racing games and haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary when using ESS based stuff. (which I think is present on Compaq's Armada E500.)

Lots of games used Adlib/FM synthesis, starting from about 1987-onward. It did somewhat decline in the mid-90s, but some games still supported it even into the late 90s.

Shponglefan wrote on 2025-02-10, 23:42:

PcBytes wrote on 2025-02-10, 22:50:

I'm kinda clueless about this - are there a lot of games using Adlib synth? I generally play a handful of racing games and haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary when using ESS based stuff. (which I think is present on Compaq's Armada E500.)

Lots of games used Adlib/FM synthesis, starting from about 1987-onward. It did somewhat decline in the mid-90s, but some games still supported it even into the late 90s.

Supported it, but had a lot of other options (mainly GM MIDI).

For an early 1990s system (or at least, one aimed at games from that period), AdLib is a hard must, but speaking for myself, I only hear the differences between good (ESFM, CSFM) alternatives and OPL3 if I hear them side-by-side. Even CQM just sounds a bit harsh, but I might miss it unless I knew what it was supposed to sound like. The only totally obvious fails are cards that try to use wavetable samples to approximate FM (which is as hilariously bad as it sounds). Of course, of you're really sensitive you might experience this differently.

For a system aimed at late 1990s stuff, it's only a must if you are a complete OPL3 freak and want to hear the FM soundtrack on anything that can produce it. Hardware at the time was focused on WIndows sound, which was PCM-centric, and software generally followed suit, even DOS games. That doesn't mean you can't choose a card with great OPL3 in a machine like that, but panning a particular sound option because it doesn't offer that is a bit unreasonable and probably not relevant to most.

Grabbed this ASUS ISA-386U3 "untested" (https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-isa-386u3) for a good price. Hopefully I can bring her back to life. Going to clean the corrosion, figure out what the broken parts are and replace them. I'll also replace all the tantalums before powering up. I have a spare DX40 CPU to put in it. Wish me luck!

zuldan wrote on 2025-02-11, 02:25:

Grabbed this ASUS ISA-386U3 "untested" (https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-isa-386u3) for a good price. Hopefully I can […]
Show full quote

Grabbed this ASUS ISA-386U3 "untested" (https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-isa-386u3) for a good price. Hopefully I can bring her back to life. Going to clean the corrosion, figure out what the broken parts are and replace them. I'll also replace all the tantalums before powering up. I have a spare DX40 CPU to put in it. Wish me luck!

Some really nasty corrosion on there so nip that battery off there as fast as you can and hit it up liberally with some baking soda.

Poor little 386, needs a ton of love so throw some pics up as you repair it.

Shponglefan wrote on 2025-02-10, 23:42:

PcBytes wrote on 2025-02-10, 22:50:

I'm kinda clueless about this - are there a lot of games using Adlib synth? I generally play a handful of racing games and haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary when using ESS based stuff. (which I think is present on Compaq's Armada E500.)

Lots of games used Adlib/FM synthesis, starting from about 1987-onward. It did somewhat decline in the mid-90s, but some games still supported it even into the late 90s.

ESS used to be excellent. Is the Maestro and Allegro chips that had terrible Adlib reproduction.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-02-11, 04:58:

zuldan wrote on 2025-02-11, 02:25:

Grabbed this ASUS ISA-386U3 "untested" (https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-isa-386u3) for a good price. Hopefully I can […]
Show full quote

Grabbed this ASUS ISA-386U3 "untested" (https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-isa-386u3) for a good price. Hopefully I can bring her back to life. Going to clean the corrosion, figure out what the broken parts are and replace them. I'll also replace all the tantalums before powering up. I have a spare DX40 CPU to put in it. Wish me luck!

Some really nasty corrosion on there so nip that battery off there as fast as you can and hit it up liberally with some baking soda.

Poor little 386, needs a ton of love so throw some pics up as you repair it.

Yep the battery will come off right away and the keyboard connector replaced. I’ve repaired a 386 in a little worse shape than this one so I have some hope of bringing it back to life.

Haven’t done too much research but it may be a rare board Re: Ultimate 386 system?

I didn’t know ASUS made a 386 board.

Major Jackyl wrote on 2025-02-10, 23:31:

Duuuudes. I carried this up two flights of stairs, XDXD
Probably more "vintage" than "retro", but computer is computer.

I'd send you a PM, but Vogons won't let me...

There are lots of resources to guide you in repairing/restoring classic arcade games. I've done multiple Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe games over the past 25 years.
Scans of the Asteroids Deluxe manuals and schematics are all online. There is a specific manual for the cocktail cabinet game as opposed to the upright or cabaret.
Be cautious poking around in the monitor. The high voltage in it is ~16kV. Once you know what brand & model it is, you can find the manuals for it online too.
If you want to pay for local repairs by experts, contact Paradise Arcade Shop in Minneapolis.

Be warned, I put nearly $400 in parts into the last Asteroids cocktail that I restored. When I later sold it, I earned about $2 per hour return for my labor.
If you don't plan to keep the game for yourself, your maximum return would be to sell it now, as-is.

I grabbed this 3d voodoo banshee the other day for 60 Cad.

I dont really need it or have a system at the moment to put it in, but the banshee was my first 3d card back in the day. I sold it to buy a voodoo 3 2000 which i still have and use today.

zuldan wrote on 2025-02-11, 02:25:

Grabbed this ASUS ISA-386U3 "untested" (https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-isa-386u3) for a good price. Hopefully I can […]
Show full quote

Grabbed this ASUS ISA-386U3 "untested" (https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-isa-386u3) for a good price. Hopefully I can bring her back to life. Going to clean the corrosion, figure out what the broken parts are and replace them. I'll also replace all the tantalums before powering up. I have a spare DX40 CPU to put in it. Wish me luck!

This is nice 😀 Gonna take 10 hours of work unless it's not only traces..
Wish you the best!

Major Jackyl wrote on 2025-02-10, 23:31:

Duuuudes. I carried this up two flights of stairs, XDXD Probably more "vintage" than "retro", but computer is computer. […]
Show full quote

Duuuudes. I carried this up two flights of stairs, XDXD
Probably more "vintage" than "retro", but computer is computer.

Got this from a co-worker today. Says it twitches/bloops or something? Not going to power it up until a proper cleaning and inspection. A bit of burn-in on the screen and lots of caps were replaced at some point in time. The cabinet is in surprisingly good shape AND has the coin machine still! I just found the keys, too! (They fell out from somewhere carrying it up the stairs.)

I'm a total noob about this type of computer, so it should be extra engaging to fix. Going to want to do it quickly, too as it takes up a lot of space.

That is really cool.

There's a place not far from me that has an original "Computer Space" arcade machine in the museum section of their building (they have an amusement park and arcade too), but it wasn't running when I went there a couple years ago. If I had any experience working on vintage arcade machines I would have loved to get that thing running.

I gotta say... someone is going to need to start producing new CRTs eventually to keep these old machines running. Since that isn't going to happen, a more likely option would be purpose-built OLED displays with glass over them to give the image a proper curve, as well as a scanning beam simulation so that it actually looks like a CRT.

Quickly sniped an ABIT SL6 last evening.

Never had a 815 based ABIT so it's gonna be fun I guess.

Aight, today's results:

-MX300 ports look dire af, some missing SMD caps but otherwise might work.
-GA-5AX is pretty dead... one of the transistors is literally covered in soot
- MSI 5169 looks pretty okay, just needs a recap
- DFI AK70 is kinda dusty, needs recap, came w/ 600MHz Pluto Athlon
- Soyo 5ED needs a few pins on the SB resoldered after straightening out
- ABIT SL6 works fine
- Dell C810 runs great, even holds charge!

Up next: Dell C610 (Radeon Mobility 7500 + Tualatin)

Bought this NIB Vintage ATX Case

And this set of Creative SB380 Speakers, the box is a bit beaten up but the speakers are clean and unyellowed, they are still wrapped so they dont look to have had much if any use.

Also grabbed a NIB PS2/USB Microsoft Optical mouse for dirt cheap, always liked the MS mice so its nice to have a spare one.

PcBytes wrote on 2025-02-12, 12:03:

Aight, today's results: […]
Show full quote

Aight, today's results:

-MX300 ports look dire af, some missing SMD caps but otherwise might work.
-GA-5AX is pretty dead... one of the transistors is literally covered in soot
- MSI 5169 looks pretty okay, just needs a recap
- DFI AK70 is kinda dusty, needs recap, came w/ 600MHz Pluto Athlon
- Soyo 5ED needs a few pins on the SB resoldered after straightening out
- ABIT SL6 works fine
- Dell C810 runs great, even holds charge!

Up next: Dell C610 (Radeon Mobility 7500 + Tualatin)

Do you keep all these parts that you repair or do you sell them on to other collectors ?

It seems like you would have quite a few duplicates in your collection by now if you were keeping them all 🤣

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-02-12, 14:56:

PcBytes wrote on 2025-02-12, 12:03:

Aight, today's results: […]
Show full quote

Aight, today's results:

-MX300 ports look dire af, some missing SMD caps but otherwise might work.
-GA-5AX is pretty dead... one of the transistors is literally covered in soot
- MSI 5169 looks pretty okay, just needs a recap
- DFI AK70 is kinda dusty, needs recap, came w/ 600MHz Pluto Athlon
- Soyo 5ED needs a few pins on the SB resoldered after straightening out
- ABIT SL6 works fine
- Dell C810 runs great, even holds charge!

Up next: Dell C610 (Radeon Mobility 7500 + Tualatin)

Do you keep all these parts that you repair or do you sell them on to other collectors ?

It seems like you would have quite a few duplicates in your collection by now if you were keeping them all 🤣

No duplicates, they're the same stuff I got from the scrapper earlier in this thread - it just happened to arrive today, and so far the most work that is needed to be done is on the MX300, 5AX (which is far worse than what I had to do to the MX300) and the 5ED which needs some pin re-enforcing. The MSI and DFI appear to be the easiest to fix out of the bunch 🤣

Speaking of which, anyone know or happen to have a MX300 bracket to spare? I've tried the bay but to no avail, it's mostly complete (and pricey) cards. I managed to fix the mangled jacks thanks to a CMI 8738 card, of all things 🤣

PcBytes wrote on 2025-02-12, 15:05:

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-02-12, 14:56:

PcBytes wrote on 2025-02-12, 12:03:

Aight, today's results: […]
Show full quote

Aight, today's results:

-MX300 ports look dire af, some missing SMD caps but otherwise might work.
-GA-5AX is pretty dead... one of the transistors is literally covered in soot
- MSI 5169 looks pretty okay, just needs a recap
- DFI AK70 is kinda dusty, needs recap, came w/ 600MHz Pluto Athlon
- Soyo 5ED needs a few pins on the SB resoldered after straightening out
- ABIT SL6 works fine
- Dell C810 runs great, even holds charge!

Up next: Dell C610 (Radeon Mobility 7500 + Tualatin)

Do you keep all these parts that you repair or do you sell them on to other collectors ?

It seems like you would have quite a few duplicates in your collection by now if you were keeping them all 🤣

No duplicates, they're the same stuff I got from the scrapper earlier in this thread - it just happened to arrive today, and so far the most work that is needed to be done is on the MX300, 5AX (which is far worse than what I had to do to the MX300) and the 5ED which needs some pin re-enforcing. The MSI and DFI appear to be the easiest to fix out of the bunch 🤣

Speaking of which, anyone know or happen to have a MX300 bracket to spare? I've tried the bay but to no avail, it's mostly complete (and pricey) cards. I managed to fix the mangled jacks thanks to a CMI 8738 card, of all things 🤣

If you have to it wouldn't be hard to 3d print a new bracket for that card

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-02-12, 15:12:

PcBytes wrote on 2025-02-12, 15:05:

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-02-12, 14:56:

Do you keep all these parts that you repair or do you sell them on to other collectors ?

It seems like you would have quite a few duplicates in your collection by now if you were keeping them all 🤣

No duplicates, they're the same stuff I got from the scrapper earlier in this thread - it just happened to arrive today, and so far the most work that is needed to be done is on the MX300, 5AX (which is far worse than what I had to do to the MX300) and the 5ED which needs some pin re-enforcing. The MSI and DFI appear to be the easiest to fix out of the bunch 🤣

Speaking of which, anyone know or happen to have a MX300 bracket to spare? I've tried the bay but to no avail, it's mostly complete (and pricey) cards. I managed to fix the mangled jacks thanks to a CMI 8738 card, of all things 🤣

If you have to it wouldn't be hard to 3d print a new bracket for that card

That's the thing - I have no other MX300 to use as a reference for printing, nor I could find any STL (or any 3d printing format for that matter) file for it.