Don't get me wrong.. i still love the machine.. i've always wanted one just never able to get my hands on one because they don't pop up very often. I wanted a 286 ISA model but this was just the machine i stumbled upon. Someone was selling it cheap nearby and i picked it up because i can't resist anything this clean.
More and more with my collecting, i'm trying to make due with what i can find locally, and around here the pickings are SLIM. I just can't bring myself to spend $200-$300 shipped for one on ebay.
I just think if someone had to have ONE machine (i'm sure that use case is very small here on vogons) to run this generation of games, they're better served by a whole bunch of other machines (ATs or AT clones to name a few, or several Tandys). When you choose the PS/2, you must REALLY want it (as I did in this case) and it takes a certain commitment to the platform. Growing up the PS/2 always had this mystique as something much more advanced than the PC/XT/AT, and I guess that stuck with me all these years.
Performance actually isn't terrible, but i was running Thexder and several times it seemed to lag.. I'm beginning to wonder if my relatively new keyboard might be causing problems as i've read there are some issues using really new PS/2 keyboards.
Also with only 3 slots i don't want to sacrifice one for a VGA card. Part of the reason i wanted a PS/2 was specifically for MCGA.
I've got a bunch of stuff going into this machine, was going to try a spare 16 bit ISA NIC in the hopes that it'll work (i've read some NICs would work in an 8bit slot) .. if you've got one you're willing to part with at a reasonable price I'll pm you.
thanks for the info!
I have no clue what I'm doing! If you want to watch me fumble through all my retro projects, you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/user/MrDavejustdave