VOGONS


The VOGONS Experience

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Reply 40 of 50, by kolderman

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1. Grow up in the 90s
2. Spend 20 years studying and pursuing career
3. Wish it was still the 90s and the shitty culture that came after it died in a cold ditch
4. Build retro PCs to relive the decade of the best games and music in history. Doom/Quake, Metallica in the evening under a dim light? Yes please 🤣

Reply 41 of 50, by schmatzler

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appiah4 wrote on 2020-07-29, 06:21:

Lately I'm very fond of content by , off the top of my head, Jan Beta, Adrian's Digital Basement, Retro Man Cave, Perifractic's Retro Recipes...

Thank you for this list!
There are quite a few channels I didn't know about - since I'm on holidays at the moment I desperately need more retro content to watch 😁

foil_fresh wrote on 2020-07-29, 07:46:

I think there's a limited "lifespan" of a retro youtuber, there's only so much you can cover until the content you're interested in basically drys up or you've experienced/reviewed it all.

LGR is doing a pretty good job of keeping it fresh while still staying in a pretty small time period.

But yes, if you only stick to the typical "DOS retro content" like philscomputerlab did you might run into a wall after a while.

"Windows 98's natural state is locked up"

Reply 42 of 50, by Socket3

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imi wrote on 2020-07-28, 15:31:
appiah4 wrote on 2020-07-28, 15:27:
Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2020-07-28, 14:39:

You forgot the most important part: play your favorite childhood games on your retro rig.

No one ever really does this 😁

yeah, if you actually make it to that part you're doing something wrong ^^

Then I've been doing it wrong all along... Huh. Time to spend more money and increase my level of frustration!

Here's another possible branch: "Built one computer from each generation / socket from XT to LGA775 / socket 939 so you can have one of everything and experience what it was like to use each type of PC." This is where I'm at right now.

Unfortunately for me, I started out with one of the hardest steps: "Built a 486 PC", since my first computer was a 486 and I had a serious nostalgia vibe when I got into the hobby. Then I went trough the "own 4 486 motherboards, 3 of witch are defective". Oddly enough, I stumbled upon VOGONS while searching for ISA sound card drivers. After finding VOGONS, I got interested in building 3DFX PCs - specifically super socket 7 with a K6-III and a socket 370 tualatin PC, since I've never seen a K6-III or a Tualatin in my IT career, and I was simply curious about their performance. That didn't last long, and I moved onto another (impossible) step, perhaps not listed here: "Attempt to built a retro PC that can run everything, from XT era to late win9x games".

As for expensive ebay purchases.... they're not for me. Most of the stuff I find interesting is way over my budget and are usually located in the US - that means shipping costs as much or more then the part I want. I find my parts locally online, at fairs and swap meets or at recycling centers. That's how I got all my 3dfx stuff. The only thing I bought off ebay is a Roland Sound Canvas SC-55 witch I ordered from Japan.

Wish I had more time and $$$ for this hobby. I have 3 projects started - a AMD K5 PR133 + Voodoo 1 build, an IBM PC100 socket 7 rig witch I'm trying to upgrade (and failing due to insufficient info about the machine) and a dual pentium III 1.1GHz PC that I can't decide what to run on or it's final hardware configuration. And instead of working on any of them, when I have a bit of time I find myself playing Uprising - live or die, Starcraft or Jazz Jackrabbit.

Reply 43 of 50, by Arbuthnot

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kolderman wrote on 2020-07-29, 07:56:
1. Grow up in the 90s 2. Spend 20 years studying and pursuing career 3. Wish it was still the 90s and the shitty culture that ca […]
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1. Grow up in the 90s
2. Spend 20 years studying and pursuing career
3. Wish it was still the 90s and the shitty culture that came after it died in a cold ditch
4. Build retro PCs to relive the decade of the best games and music in history. Doom/Quake, Metallica in the evening under a dim light? Yes please 🤣

I'll drink to that, brother!

Reply 44 of 50, by appiah4

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schmatzler wrote on 2020-07-29, 08:12:

LGR is doing a pretty good job of keeping it fresh while still staying in a pretty small time period.

But yes, if you only stick to the typical "DOS retro content" like philscomputerlab did you might run into a wall after a while.

To be fair LGR also has the enviable advantage of access to seemingly infinite hardware and software donations to make videos about.

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

Reply 45 of 50, by NyLan

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Awesome list. So true, so funny 😀
I'm currently on step 15.

My Intel SE440BX-2 Intel's website Mirror : Modified to include docs, refs and BIOSes.
Proud owner of a TL866 II
Personal GitHub

Reply 46 of 50, by Sedrosken

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My experience was more like, "hey, you're poor and can only work with what you're given or can get ahold of on a shoestring budget" for many years. I learned most of what I know now on a late PIII machine, a Dimension 4100. 866MHz PIII, 256(later 512)MB of RAM, 32MB GeForce2MX. It's only been relatively recently (within the last three or so years) that I've actually managed to get to a point where I've been building machines I've wanted. First a PPro, since I just thought they were so cool when I got to mess with some PPro hardware in late high school, then I got bored of it and sent it on its way.

Then a Tualatin PIII that I lusted after since working with my Dimension 4100 back in middle school. I quickly learned that Tualatin isn't all its cracked up to be, it can still be held back by its FSB and it's difficult to get ahold of everything you'll need for one. This isn't even to get into the quagmire that is motherboard choice -- do I want the 815, stability with an absurdly low RAM ceiling, making WinXP a chore, or do I want to trade some stability (and even more money) for a VIA chipset with a more reasonable RAM limit?

My current project is a 486, where I learn more every day and slowly eke out a fully-functional mid-90s system for DOS and early Windows stuff. I've wanted one of these boys ever since I got into the hobby -- I'd always been curious about pre-Pentium machines, since they hail from that mysterious time before I was born but not so much before that it's completely alien to me. I have very specific goals in mind for it -- being able to play MP3s and FLACs, play Duke Nukem 3D, and hopefully get to the point that Diablo is fully playable while still having a stable machine. Is this the best machine to accomplish those goals with? Ha, no. A Pentium would do it easily and probably cost less money to boot. But I like the 486 platform. I want a faster 486, not a slow Pentium. This project started with me getting a great deal on a basic but decently-rounded 486 board with a DX2-66 and 32MB in 30-pin SIMMs. Only once I got past my first (failed) CPU upgrade did I realize that I was probably spending more money than I wanted on this. Realistically, the upgrade train on this machine ends once I get my BIOS upgraded to fix my L2 issue with my DX4 overdrive.

Future projects include a rebuild of an XP machine, hopefully using an 865 board with around 2GB worth of dual-channel 400MHz RAM and at least a 3.2HT Northwood. Hopefully I can use my X1950Pro AGP with it, since I still don't really know if that card even works. Ideally at some point I'll get a socket 7 or super socket 7 rig built, but I'm not holding my breath, as that stuff is expensive especially for anything I'd actually want. I'm not as vehemently opposed to AT form-factor hardware anymore since this 486 build gave me experience in mounting it and adapting it for use with ATX cases and PSUs, so that might help me get a decent deal on something in that realm sometime. Other things I actually want to mess with is MIDI stuff, hopefully some Roland hardware someday, but that's pretty expensive too. I'll settle for my OPL3, maybe I'll get a DreamBlaster S2 or something someday.

Nanto: H61H2-AM3, 4GB, GTS250 1GB, SB0730, 512GB SSD, XP USP4
Rithwic: EP-61BXM-A, Celeron 300A@450, 768MB, GF2MX400/V2, YMF744, 128GB SD2IDE, 98SE (Kex)
Cragstone: Alaris Cougar, 486BL2-66, 16MB, GD5428 VLB, CT2800, 16GB SD2IDE, 95CNOIE

Reply 47 of 50, by chinny22

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Apart from the socket numbers, yep that's more or less my story. Need for Speed 3/4/Porsche was the game.

Currently at
29. Time to get serious: Invest into a soldering/repair kit. Overpay for something you will use maybe a few dozen times at most.
S/O and kids are what's currently preventing me making that jump for the moment but it's enviable.

Phil was quite active here when I first joined under his Mau1wurf1977 account. His interest has always been more about helping people get into the hobby so was useful at the time but have kind of outgrown him over the years, is worth keeping an eye on his channel though as sometimes he finds useful hardware alternatives.

Rest of my Youtube viewing was already mentioned by appiah4 including some I didn't know. Only channel missing is Kugee
Main one though is LGR. I don't learn much from his channel but enjoy watching his games and hardware reviews

Reply 48 of 50, by debs3759

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hwh wrote on 2020-07-29, 06:40:

if I had a source of old hardware, I would probably be tripping over it in the bathroom and climbing over it to reach the kitchen sink.

That sounds like me. I have so many parts and cases that I have to step over thing to get anything done. Being a disaster prepper as well, I have crates of food as well as literally a ton or more of computer parts (cases and power supplies making up half of that). I just can't seem to stop buying 😀

See my graphics card database at www.gpuzoo.com
Constantly being worked on. Feel free to message me with any corrections or details of cards you would like me to research and add.

Reply 49 of 50, by Sago7

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At yeat 99 I got my first computer.
K6-2 500
Soyo 5ehm
128MB
HDD 10GB
S3 trio 8mb (upgraded yo a TNT2 32MB).

Since then I have been always surrounded by hardware. And from a couple of years ago I started to think that is time to build the PC that i never had. I started with a socket A for XP (Athlon XP 3000+, , MSI K7N2, 2GB, 7800gs OC).
And two more projects on the way for Win98 and another XP (s939).
I have a notebook, but always have been attached to a desktop pc. My daily pc is a FX8050, MB Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3, 16GB, GTX1070.

I read A LOT before I make a decision, maybe too much. And this forum has been an excellent source of information. And some delusions xD
😀

Reply 50 of 50, by Socket3

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Sago7 wrote on 2020-07-29, 15:05:
At yeat 99 I got my first computer. K6-2 500 Soyo 5ehm 128MB HDD 10GB S3 trio 8mb (upgraded yo a TNT2 32MB). […]
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At yeat 99 I got my first computer.
K6-2 500
Soyo 5ehm
128MB
HDD 10GB
S3 trio 8mb (upgraded yo a TNT2 32MB).

Lucky you had a motherboard with an AGP slot 😀 My K6-2 back in 99 had a Lucky Star MVP4 motherboard with on board video and no AGP port. That's the reason I didn't hold on to it for very long, and upgraded to a 700MHz Duron in 2001.

Sago7 wrote on 2020-07-29, 15:05:
Since then I have been always surrounded by hardware. And from a couple of years ago I started to think that is time to build th […]
Show full quote

Since then I have been always surrounded by hardware. And from a couple of years ago I started to think that is time to build the PC that i never had. I started with a socket A for XP (Athlon XP 3000+, , MSI K7N2, 2GB, 7800gs OC).
And two more projects on the way for Win98 and another XP (s939).
I have a notebook, but always have been attached to a desktop pc. My daily pc is a FX8050, MB Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3, 16GB, GTX1070.

I read A LOT before I make a decision, maybe too much. And this forum has been an excellent source of information. And some delusions xD
😀

Same here. I used to work at a local PC builder when I was in school - installing dos, win 3.11, win95, drivers and so on. Didn't get to assemble anything myself until highschool - the owner didn't trust a middle school kid with no practical experience to handle hardware. But I saw loads of cool hardware there witch I lusted over. I remember staying late and installing game demos that didn't run very well (or at all) on my 486 on the computers I was installing software for and marveling at the performance. I also read any computer magazine I could get my hands on - hardware and software / games.... good times.