Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-09-10, 05:39

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not sure if it counts as "retro" - as it's a "modern" part going into one of my Retro Laptops (to test out an idea I have), but I bought one of those $10 mSATA to 44PIN IDE converters on E-bay and I'm going to try a 128GB SSD out of a Dell loaded with FreeDOS and MaxBlast DDO (that DDO Works on …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2020-09-10, 05:36

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've been up to a lot of Retro Stuff lately, though less in the PC vein in some cases..... In the last 3 weeks I have.... - Cleaned and reorganized my closet (mostly) - Setup the stack of retro-systems in said closet next to one of the two free TV's I picked up - picked up 2 free TV's from a pro A/V …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2020-09-05, 16:26

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Finally succeeded at my first old CRT TV set repair last night. About 2 week ago I got two free TVs from a guy in hopes one would work, one did, the other needed a little "help". TV #1 (Working from Day 1) 1993 Magnavox CML192C102 27" CRT TV - I've been using this with the Nintendo and Atari 2600 so …

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Re: What modern activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2020-09-04, 22:20

by

by creepingnet

in Milliways

in Milliways

Writing and recording music on the new iMac and on my phone on BandLab, then posting on Instagram and Youtube. Been taking a break from the retro stuff for a little bit.....got something about to happen soon though on the retro front that is quasi modern - 128GB mSATA SSD on a NEC Versa via Sata to …

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Re: Could you build a retro PC right now?

Posted on 2020-09-04, 19:30

by

by creepingnet

in Milliways

in Milliways

No, I just have just enough spares in case something goes awry with the 7 or so Retro Computers I already have working...these parts include.... - a dead dead PC Chips M919 Socket 3 motherboard - one Intel 486 DX2-66 CPU (from my 486 desktop when it was a DX2) - a big antistatic bag full of 72 and …

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Re: Bought this (Modern) hardware today

Posted on 2020-09-01, 14:30

by

by creepingnet

in Milliways

in Milliways

Not really bought but picked up this circa 2015 iMac from my Auntie-in-law. They got a new one. So yeah, my first modern Macintosh. Prior to this I'd always had ones as old as my 486es or older. I'm finding this thing really handy for making music with Garage Band and BandLab so far. I'm also using …

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Re: UNISOUND - Universal ISA PnP Sound Card Driver for DOS v0.75e

Posted on 2020-08-23, 03:31

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I'll try it on the Versa M75....I like cool stuff like this.

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Re: The quest for the perfect retro laptop: a saga

Posted on 2020-08-23, 03:23

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Those Samsung Sens are kick-butt laptops. I had the AT&T Branded 486 version years ago - it was a DX2-50 - I may even still have it hiding away in my childhood home's closet somewhere. Maybe one day I'll be able to make the 3000 mile trip there and get it. Yours is an 800, they also had a 600, 500, …

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Re: Quality of Life Programs and Additions

Posted on 2020-08-23, 03:11

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by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I tend to hang around in that area of the 8088-early Pentium and not stray further. I have a lot of standard "convienences" to work around. HARDWARE The #1 concern for me here is getting data on and off the hard disk, and, particularly with anything 386 or newer, run multiple O/S on the same machine …

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Re: The Creeping Network (Creepingnet's) Retro PC Build Logs, Restorations, & Repairs

Posted on 2020-08-22, 21:47

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by creepingnet

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Got up to more insanity this noon-afternoon..... Stuff being worked on? - Found out why my AT&T Dock was causing all sorts of crazy Diskette Drive errors on startup......I had the "swatch" in the back wrong (found out about that in the Versa P Service Manual which covers the docking station as well …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2020-08-22, 21:29

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Started building the Monitor stand for the Versa Dock. I also revived the secondary battery in the M/75 using my truck's battery charger, and started copying over the CD-ROMs for Shivers and Lighthouse to the M/75. Considering bringing out the NEC Ready 9522 to mess with after awhile too. More …

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Re: Most beautiful Dos-Games for a 486...what are your favorites?

Posted on 2020-08-22, 16:24

by

by creepingnet

in DOS

in DOS

I486......my favorite era, I have THREE (technically 4 now)....long list ahead.... AD&D Dungeon Hack Arkanoid 1&2 Blockout Car&Driver Chex Duke Nukem 3D Doom/II/Ultimate Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist Grand Theft Auto + London (yes, it is for DOS) Hoyle Card Games Lemmings Leisure Suit Larry 1-6 …

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Re: The Creeping Network (Creepingnet's) Retro PC Build Logs, Restorations, & Repairs

Posted on 2020-08-22, 09:51

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Docking Station Time..... So my methods of procuring this stuff is clear as day - hide out on E-bay....look at the part, recieve an offer or two, wait six or seven months, then strike once the price gets low enough to be worth it on buy it now. AT&T DS DOCKING STATION Now I know what some of you are …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2020-08-22, 08:59

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've mostly been messing around with that Docking Station for the last week. Will probably put more details into my build thread, but basically I got both NEC Versa (40EC and M/75) running off of it with SoundBlaster and Ethernet.....still got a lot of work to do. Put in a SoundBlaster Pro 2.0 and a …

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Re: Value in IBM AT vs a 386 for retro gaming?

Posted on 2020-08-22, 06:54

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I feel the 286 overlaps the 386 by a good margin as well. I've owned quite a few of both in the last 15-20 years. I myself use a somewhat fast (12MHz) 286 for that era currently....but it almost overlaps my Tandy 1000A and 486s a little too much or so it seems by virtue of the slowdown ("turbo") …

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Re: Hassle-free network card for DOS/WfW311?

Posted on 2020-08-22, 06:18

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Linksys Etherfast pnp isa cards. I pretty much slap the drivers on and they just work. It also helps I have the original diskettes as I bought 3 shrink-wrapped 7 years ago and have used 2 so far. I just put a SMC Ether EZ (8416 chip) in my NEC Versa dock last weekend....similar story. Its only issue …

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Re: Difficult games to get working

Posted on 2020-08-15, 21:16

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by creepingnet

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

For me it depends on the game and the hardware of the 486 involved.... Duke Nukem 3D - Used to have an AWFUL time getting music to work on this game in DOS or Win9x DOS Window because for some weird reason it would not find my MIDI hardware on an old IBM PC-330 486 with an ESS1869 (IO Magic …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2020-08-15, 20:42

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Today is going to be all about cleaning and working on my comuting/guitar/electronics/indoor wood-working workspace - basically my "lab" of sorts. Then at some point FedEx "Santa" is going to bring over a new docking station for the 486 Versa laptops which I plan to outfit with some sound and …

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Re: What is your Favorite CPU and Why ?

Posted on 2020-08-15, 20:23

by

by creepingnet

in Milliways

in Milliways

Intel 486 DX4 - any clock speed. I don't know whether it's the L2 cache (doubled to 16K) or certain version's ability to use Writeback Cache but to me the DX4 is that perfect gap bridge between retro and modern - it's just too old and just too new at the same time. It runs Links in DOS comfortably …

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Re: How much RAM do you need ?

Posted on 2020-08-11, 21:00

by

by creepingnet

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The reason I ask is because I dont know what the memory limitations are on old AT and XT computers and memory cards are hard to find and expensive. So what amount of memory on an old AT computer memory card do you need in order to have a good computer for game play in DOS and Windows and …

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