Re: IBM PC cassette tape

Posted on 2014-09-28, 21:49

by

by ElectricMonk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Gotta admit I'm shocked there was an IBM PC that utilized tapes. I was always under the assumption that it was the older 8bit systems (amstrad, sinclair, etc...) that used those to hold software. Then again, I cut my teeth on 5-1/4" floppies, so I missed out on the tape trend.

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Re: Thinking about getting Rocksmith. Guitar suggestions welcome

Posted on 2014-09-28, 21:46

by

by ElectricMonk

in Milliways

in Milliways

Thanks! I check those out. Maybe I'll get lucky and find a decent used one at a pawn shop. Like I said, Pecknell Music (only music supply store in town) only carries Michael Kelly branded guitars, and I was kind of wary of those.

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Re: A way to repurpose older PCs for educational uses

Posted on 2014-09-28, 21:42

by

by ElectricMonk

in Milliways

in Milliways

Install linux on them, Fedora is nice when you have MATE installed. For gods sake don't use ubuntu. I have many old Pentium 4 computers that I can still use online and do light gaming with thanks to linux. Give Fedora 20 a try but download the full DVD so that you can easily choose from all the …

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Re: Thinking about getting Rocksmith. Guitar suggestions welcome

Posted on 2014-09-28, 21:26

by

by ElectricMonk

in Milliways

in Milliways

I've heard Rocksmith referred to as "Rosetta Stone: Guitar". I intend on using it to learn how to play guitar. As far as music preferences, I like everything except country. I grew up in the deep south, and have a deep seeded hatred for all things "twangy". I was told that an amp was unnecessary to …

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Re: My vote for best DOS video card

Posted on 2014-09-28, 21:19

by

by ElectricMonk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Riva128 was fine for the time. The crazy dithering is all blending artifacts with the lightmaps and such, it's totally great in vertex lit games (psx/n64/dc crossports which made up a lot of the 98/99 releases) and it also works with the PowerVR PCX2. but i can't see how its opengl/direct3d …

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Re: My vote for best DOS video card

Posted on 2014-09-28, 20:16

by

by ElectricMonk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Old s3 cards are very nice , also my vgas of choice in older systems. For my p1 build I went with the speedy riva128zx , haven't had any serious problems with it over the years I am using the machine :blush: I had one of those in my old P2-300 machine. DirectX games worked great, but the OpenGL …

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Re: A way to repurpose older PCs for educational uses

Posted on 2014-09-28, 20:10

by

by ElectricMonk

in Milliways

in Milliways

"IM THE EXPERT, I HAVE RETRO PC HISTORY!!! MOVE OVER" Probably active virus scanning bogging it down then. Athlon X2s should be snappy for XP, and in the case of a school, that shouldn't even be 'old'! Trust me, first thing I did was thoroughly scan the PCs before I even started uninstalling all …

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Re: Post your 'current' PC

Posted on 2014-09-28, 20:00

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by ElectricMonk

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I've got a self built i7-2600K (Oc'd to 4.5 GHz), 16 GB G.Skill DDR3 ram oc'd to whatever the highest clock it supports, a Corsair Hyper Evo 212 cooler, 6TB of HDD space not counting the 256GB SSD I use for the OS drive, an ATI HD7950 lightly overclocked to 1GHz, an Asus P8Z68-V/Gen 3 motherboard, a …

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Re: My vote for best DOS video card

Posted on 2014-09-28, 19:27

by

by ElectricMonk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The last video card I used exclusively for MS-DOS 6.22 was based off the Tseng Labs ET4000/w32 (which made it windows acceleration capable). I forget who manufactured the board (I ordered it from Chip 'n Bits way back in the day), but it served me well in DOS games back in the 486DX4 era.

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Thinking about getting Rocksmith. Guitar suggestions welcome

Posted on 2014-09-28, 19:14

by

by ElectricMonk

in Milliways

in Milliways

I'm thinking about making the plunge and getting Rocksmith. If anybody here uses it, what kind of guitar would you recommend? The only music supply store near me sells nothing but Michael Kelly 6 string electric guitars. Are those any decent, or should I just scour pawn shops looking for a deal? …

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Re: A way to repurpose older PCs for educational uses

Posted on 2014-09-28, 18:34

by

by ElectricMonk

in Milliways

in Milliways

The PCs I used were old Dell C521s, and those have Athlon X2s, 1GB ram, and an onboard ATI X1300. I cleaned everything off the machines other than IE and Office 2003, and they still ran at a snail's pace. Installing Ubermix 2 on them resulted in faster boot times, and improved system responsiveness. …

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Re: Sound problem with Putt putt goes to the moon on Windows 95 on DOSbox SVN

Posted on 2014-09-28, 17:58

by

by ElectricMonk

in DOSBox Games/Apps

in DOSBox Games/Apps

Doesn't ScummVM support all the Putt Putt games? That's the easiest way to get them running.

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A way to repurpose older PCs for educational uses

Posted on 2014-09-28, 17:48

by

by ElectricMonk

in Milliways

in Milliways

I recently came into several older PCs (nothing vintage) that were barely suitable to run Windows XP, let alone do anything neat. So, I decided to re-purpose them as an educational machine for kids. I ended up selecting Ubermix as the OS, since: A) It's Ubuntu based (it is vulnerable to Shellshock …

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Re: What retro computing gadget that doesn't exist would you like to have?

Posted on 2014-09-28, 17:28

by

by ElectricMonk

in Milliways

in Milliways

I'll echo philscomputerlab about an SBC with an embedded pentium, onboard roland + SB16, 16MB ram, and a sata port for an SSD. I'd also like to see a handheld dreamcast, and an improved version of the Neo Geo X with a better screen.

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Re: Get a real MT-32 or SC-55, or stick with MUNT?

Posted on 2014-09-05, 23:18

by

by ElectricMonk

in MT-32 General

in MT-32 General

Cool! Nice vids! I think I'll follow

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Get a real MT-32 or SC-55, or stick with MUNT?

Posted on 2014-09-04, 17:35

by

by ElectricMonk

in MT-32 General

in MT-32 General

I was poking around ebay, looking for some parts for another project, and decided on a whim to price check Roland MT-32, CM-32L, and SC-55s. The MT-32s still run around $140 or more (most are in japan), all I could find CM-32L-wise was AC adapters, and the SC-55 mk2s average about $100. Any …

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Re: Police Quest 1 VGA sound question

Posted on 2014-09-01, 19:17

by

by ElectricMonk

in DOSBox Games/Apps

in DOSBox Games/Apps

collector wrote: ElectricMonk wrote: Really!? When did they start adding MT-32 support? KQ4 SCI0. Wow... I was waaaay off. *ashamed*

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Re: Police Quest 1 VGA sound question

Posted on 2014-09-01, 17:22

by

by ElectricMonk

in DOSBox Games/Apps

in DOSBox Games/Apps

Really!? When did they start adding MT-32 support? I thought I remembered a few that used it... I'm getting too old and forgetful... 😒

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Re: 5.25" Floppy Drives

Posted on 2014-08-30, 19:29

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by ElectricMonk

in Milliways

in Milliways

Hey I was just wondering, are 5.25" floppy diskette drives really as rare as ebay would suggest? I mean I need one for transferring files easily from my regular computers to a computer with USB and 5.25" floppy disk compatibility (which I have) so that I can write and read disks for and from my IBM …

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Re: Police Quest 1 VGA sound question

Posted on 2014-08-30, 16:51

by

by ElectricMonk

in DOSBox Games/Apps

in DOSBox Games/Apps

I'd use GM for the VGA remake, and MT-32 for the original. IIRC, the older AGI versions used the "bugs" found in the original MT-32, and sound wonky on the newer rev. That said, the PQ1 VGA remake sounds AWESOME with Crisis GM 3.0.1! I tried the SQ1 VGA remake using both versions of MT-32, and …

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