Re: Mac OS X - minimum useable system ?
Posted on 2015-02-10, 02:13
You won't save any money building a system to run OS X as opposed to just shelling out for a Mac Mini. Apple does a great job with the hardware.
Re: Things you regret giving or throwing away?
Posted on 2015-02-07, 02:02
Re: Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo E, the (not so retro) late 2006 90s VHS look-alike media PC
Posted on 2015-02-06, 23:36
I used to have one of those. Great machine for running Linux, it has a rare compliant BIOS (meaning, it will hibernate/suspend without issue).
Re: After a storm hit... reviving a dead CRT.
Posted on 2014-06-14, 09:31
I took the monitor to a local electronics repair shop and they said they'd look into it for free and if they couldn't do anything about it they wouldn't charge me anything. I expected the repair bill to be upwards from a 100 euros but turns out the repair cost only 40 euros parts and labor included. …
Re: After a storm hit... reviving a dead CRT.
Posted on 2014-03-29, 08:01
Any reason why you can't use an LCD? It's a collector thing. It's kind of like asking why you couldn't use a black widescreen LCD with your IBM PS/2 system (except obviously mine isn't as epic). Also, I generally prefer CRTs to LCDs in old systems due to the horrible scaling and other artifacts …
Re: After a storm hit... reviving a dead CRT.
Posted on 2014-03-29, 07:50
Thanks guys, this has been most educational. However I don't feel competent enough to go mucking in the internals. I was hoping there'd be some cheap or easy trick but based on the commentary I'd have to take it in for repair. I suspect parts are negligible cost, but the labor... I guess now it all …
Re: After a storm hit... reviving a dead CRT.
Posted on 2014-03-28, 08:36
How can I most reliably detect the static if it's there? As I've said, all the working signs including the faint buzzing sound it always made when it was on are present. All the lights and buttons respond and the degauss function works. Just... no picture.
After a storm hit... reviving a dead CRT.
Posted on 2014-03-28, 06:15
We had a series of power outages as a result of strong wind in the past week. After sitting down in front of my retro-PC I noticed that my beloved Hyundai DeluxScan 7695 has suffered as a result. It will power up, but it will not display a picture. I know it's the monitor and not the PC because …
Re: Wow, Matrox is still around
Posted on 2014-03-13, 13:56
They're out of the game for consumer graphics now that picture quality is basically a moot point. Back in the day when people were still using analogue connections (D-SUB) and tube monitors, Matrox had a clear edge in picture quality. I remember when the Millennium G400, Voodoo3 and TNT2 were pretty …
Re: Win95 vs. Win98 for pre-Pentium 200 games
Posted on 2014-03-06, 15:33
I think there are too many variables here. There are probably some configurations - not just RAM size, but probably the video card as well - where there might be a larger difference than others. WDM drivers in Windows 98SE are supposedly slower than VXD drivers, for instance. There are few apps …
Re: Win95 vs. Win98 for pre-Pentium 200 games
Posted on 2014-03-05, 18:43
Has anyone done an in depth comparison of Win9x-specific games for P75 - P166 rated machines to determine how many more frames can be squeezed out of the game? For example, if you are using a Pentium 100 and playing GLQuake, what frame rate do you get using Win95 vs. Win98 vs. WinME ? Which games …
Re: POLL: What is your favorite vintage processor?
Posted on 2014-03-01, 14:08
Tough call between the Pentium MMX at 166 MHz and the 350 MHz Slot1 Pentium II. Both due to nostalgy and because they really felt like big improvements compared to their predecessors. No machine since the P2 has felt like as big an upgrade when it came to running games. I might have gone for 80386 …
Re: Confessions of a compulsive hoarder...
Posted on 2014-03-01, 13:58
I do seem to have some of the hoarding genes myself. I can't seem to let go of hardware once I acquire it, at least if it's still functional. I have diagnosed this and my own observations are that the hardware I hoard seems to be either be a) stuff that I always wish I had back when it was hot and …
Re: Phil's "Playing GOG.com games on your MS-DOS Gaming PC" Thread
Posted on 2014-02-26, 14:48
Nevermind. Looks like the other burning app which shall remain anonymous screwed up the mp3-to-wav conversion somehow. After using ffmpeg to convert the mp3s and InfraRecorder to do the actual burning, the disk turned out not to be even half full. Strangely, installing the game on original hardware, …
Re: Phil's "Playing GOG.com games on your MS-DOS Gaming PC" Thread
Posted on 2014-02-24, 14:26
I'm getting grey hairs over this. Mounted image in Daemon Tools, converted the MP3s to WAV files but apparently they don't fit on a 700 MB CD with the data. It seems GOG didn't use the original DOS Tomb Raider release but some screwed up re-release that has IE and a whole bunch of other crap on disk …
Re: Phil's "Playing GOG.com games on your MS-DOS Gaming PC" Thread
Posted on 2014-01-31, 09:38
I was wondering if you knew how to deal with the original Tomb Raider from GOG? I bought it and the installed game directory contains the music tracks in mp3 format, a game.dat (my guess, this is the cue sheet) and game.gog (this must be the bin file). However I'm unable to mount these in standard …
Re: Athlon XP really retro?
Posted on 2013-12-05, 20:14
Hey it just occurred to me that in my quest to figure out why VIA seems sluggish I did some 2D GUI speed tests years ago. I even posted about it here and the thread is still buried here. Essentially VIA AGP causes performance degradation for the 2D GUI acceleration of graphics cards. I used a …
Re: Windows 95 setup guide (late 2013)
Posted on 2013-09-14, 13:46
...BTW - have you ever gotten USB2 to work on W95? As for USB2, I think the point is sort of moot since there are hardly any USB devices with Win9x support to begin with. I did however once manage to get it working by using a PCI-to-PCMCIA (Cardbus) adapter and a generic Via chipset USB2 cardbus …
Re: Windows 95 setup guide (late 2013)
Posted on 2013-09-13, 11:09
Perhaps it should be noted that early versions of Win95 have known issues with CPUs released after it (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/156492, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/179897), AGP cards will be treated as PCI and SSE is not supported at all (not that important for games, but certain …
Re: Windows 95 setup guide (late 2013)
Posted on 2013-09-13, 10:51
Excellent primer and you list a couple of utilities I need to check out. I also include the following utilities in my base installs - versions are the latest I've found that install and run properly under W95: CCleaner v116 good for routine junk clear outs Daemon Tools v333 create virtual drives …
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