Re: SUN computers, what can you do with them? Should I get one?

Posted on 2016-09-26, 13:04

by

by ynari

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I wouldn't bother. I've a Sparcstation 20 sitting upstairs in my loft, unused. Why? It's noisy (fans, narrow SCSI hard drives), hot, and slow. The neatest part of it is the BIOS. Additionally support for sparc32 is being dropped from various Unixes (OpenBSD has just binned it). I used it as a …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2016-09-23, 16:06

by

by ynari

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Couriers tend to be more reliable under different line conditions - for dialing your ISP it might not be worth it, but if you were doing lots of commercial data transfer it was. Additionally, there were lots of different types of Sportster, each with subtle differences in command set and cables. The …

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Re: Worst cpus and worst computer builds

Posted on 2016-09-23, 15:56

by

by ynari

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It'd have to be an Adlib Gold as a soundcard - not completely useless, but one of the most short lived products ever. Hercules graphics card of course..

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Re: Which modern games can the Geforce 7 generation run?

Posted on 2016-09-23, 15:10

by

by ynari

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm sure some indie games will run fine; more modern games will struggle due to the 256MB limit. Grim Fandango remastered, perhaps? My last big upgrade back in 2005 started with dual 7600GTs in SLI to run Oblivion. With one card it was very slow, but two was pretty good. They don't even have enough …

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

Posted on 2016-09-22, 12:34

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by ynari

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

.. I've also been faffing about in X-Wing and TIE Fighter a little. I'd play them more if I just had an ADB joystick right now, since the mouse controls leave a lot to be desired, but I'll have to wait a few more days for that. They look way better on Mac than on DOS, and you still get to keep …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2016-09-22, 08:40

by

by ynari

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Hurrah! One bought! 😀 Two left for anyone else looking..

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2016-09-21, 13:29

by

by ynari

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Damnit, didn't realise there was a final batch. Currently waiting on my amibay account being authorised..

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Re: A3D 1.0 vs 2.0 vs EAX 1.0 vs 2.0

Posted on 2016-09-20, 15:57

by

by ynari

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Munx wrote: Thanks for the quick response, that was very helpful. I'll be on the lookout for a vortex2 card then. If only those werent so expensive... Last time I looked there were a load of quite cheap (20-30GBP) for sale on ebay from Russia

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Re: Multi button PS/2 mouse

Posted on 2016-09-19, 11:45

by

by ynari

in Milliways

in Milliways

I'm generally liking it so far - haven't tried it for any real gaming yet, though. It also behaves itself with my KVM (the MX518 works with the KVM but upsets it so the list of active devices doesn't display). The only thing that's irritating is a lack of a scroll wheel, I really miss that. I've …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2016-09-01, 09:23

by

by ynari

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah, I had at least 1GB in the system, possibly more as the GX chipset tops out at 2GB.

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Re: Bought this (Modern) hardware today

Posted on 2016-09-01, 01:22

by

by ynari

in Milliways

in Milliways

As briefly mentioned elsewhere, bought a Logitech Trackman Marble. Lists only USB on the latest Amazon listing, and on the cover itself, but the Logitech website says it works in PS/2. It does not come with an adapter. Take the adapter from my expired MX518, plug it into the KVM - works straight …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2016-09-01, 01:02

by

by ynari

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My 450 MHz PIII is pretty decent, the only reason the HP Vectra makes any noticeable fan noise is because the PSU one is a tad tired. Then again, it doesn't have a fan on the CPU, only a massively thick one on the front with some plastic ducting over the CPU heatsink fins. Yeah, I have a HP Vectra …

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Re: DIY retro PC case projects

Posted on 2016-08-31, 15:39

by

by ynari

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Very nice indeed! I have to admit, though, modern cases are usually much easier to work on than retro ones. True, they're not as beige tastic, and they won't handle someone standing on them without buckling, but neither will they slice your fingers trying to fit components. Personally I'm very …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2016-08-31, 15:23

by

by ynari

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I loved my dual slot 1 machine - P3 500 to start, then P3 1GHz. I kept it as my main system until upgrading to a Core2 system; it rankled that after the P3, multiple CPUs became uneconomic for the average user. Slot 1 CPUs tend to be annoyingly noisy, though, with their tiny fans. The case I used …

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Re: SB Audigy RX ms-dos compatability?

Posted on 2016-08-31, 13:50

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by ynari

in Milliways

in Milliways

Oh, I see, yes I suppose that might happen. It'd be fairly useless as PCI is far too slow to run USB3, but I suppose there's some specialist applications. I'm speculating but I imagine that, yes, it would work in a 486. The problem would be driver support, and CPU features, especially if they depend …

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Re: SB Audigy RX ms-dos compatability?

Posted on 2016-08-31, 09:46

by

by ynari

in Milliways

in Milliways

You've got it the wrong way round - it's a PCI to PCI-e bridge chip, so the card is effectively PCI internally, but a bridge chip has been added to make it work in PCI-e systems. The physical card is PCI-e. 486s are too old to use PCI-e. So, if Windows 9x was installed on a system with a PCI-e …

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Re: Any interest in collecting old game system requirements?

Posted on 2016-08-31, 09:37

by

by ynari

in Milliways

in Milliways

Ideally it should have four sets of requirements to mildly reduce arguments (there will still be arguments over what is 'playable' though) Minimum requirements as per original box Recommended requirements as per original box Actual requirements to play well on original platform Actual requirements …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2016-08-31, 09:27

by

by ynari

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

It should also get around the highly irritating Tie Fighter bug, where it can frequently pause for a second during gameplay. Can't remember if this is just a digital audio and MIDI on a soundblaster at the same time bug, or if a joystick needs to be plugged in too. I've only managed to get it to …

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Re: SB Audigy RX ms-dos compatability?

Posted on 2016-08-30, 16:03

by

by ynari

in Milliways

in Milliways

PCI-e is simply seen as a faster PCI by unaware OS, so if it behaves in the same way it should work. I'm surprised it's supported in DOS, though. I can't imagine the soundblaster emulation will be up to much, and by the stage the Audigy was released, DOS games were no longer a thing as far as I'm …

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Multi button PS/2 mouse

Posted on 2016-08-30, 16:00

by

by ynari

in Milliways

in Milliways

My lovely Logitech MX518 has finally died - the right switch has become temperamental, and whilst trying to fix it the little spring sproinged somewhere on to the floor. It's time for something new. Looking around, there aren't many options. It is possible to get a new MX518 from the USA (and face …

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