Re: C64 fans seem to me more passionate and committed than retro-computing fans

Posted on 2023-09-26, 11:41

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by Scali

in Milliways

in Milliways

And, wow! I know a lot about PCs and I read tons of stuff. I never even heard of this PCjr thing, I didn't even know it existed!!! I'll look into that! Here's some blog I wrote on it when I got mine: https://scalibq.wordpress.com/2018/01/12/what-makes-the-pcjr-cool-and-what-makes-it-uncool/ And …

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Re: C64 fans seem to me more passionate and committed than retro-computing fans

Posted on 2023-09-26, 11:18

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by Scali

in Milliways

in Milliways

When I started getting into the IBM PCjr a few years ago, I found a similar thing: Even though the PCjr is a system that has been on the market for less than a year(!), and it had flopped terribly (partly because it was a very bad PC... slow, incompatible and limited), there's an amazing amount of …

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Re: C64 fans seem to me more passionate and committed than retro-computing fans

Posted on 2023-09-26, 10:22

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by Scali

in Milliways

in Milliways

But how is it fair to compare your experience with PCs starting from 1992, when the golden era of the C64 had long past, and you missed it? The C64 was a dinosaur by 1992. The golden era of PCs was only just starting. When I got my C64 in 1984, it was still relatively new, and it was one of the more …

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Re: C64 fans seem to me more passionate and committed than retro-computing fans

Posted on 2023-09-26, 10:07

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by Scali

in Milliways

in Milliways

But that is kind of a anachronistic way of interpreting events. I got my C64 in 1984. In theory PCs existed, but they were WAY out of the price range of a C64. So not many people would have a PC at home. They were office PCs. And early PC games were REALLY REALLY bad. PCs had the horrible CGA …

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Re: C64 fans seem to me more passionate and committed than retro-computing fans

Posted on 2023-09-26, 09:05

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by Scali

in Milliways

in Milliways

Scali, your analogy, although interesting and clear, might not be applicable to the topic at hand. Because, in the end, a car is just a car. Yes, you can put some music in it, but it only does ONE thing: it carries you around. No, because that's the thing. PC's are just computers that are boring …

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Re: C64 fans seem to me more passionate and committed than retro-computing fans

Posted on 2023-09-26, 07:05

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by Scali

in Milliways

in Milliways

Still, let's assume our PC-hobby is more popular. We must be less 'effective' or less 'committed' (or probably both) in creating something out of it! I don't think it is. PC's are rather boring, generic machines. Many people may have used them in the past, but they are not likely to feel as …

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Re: C64 fans seem to me more passionate and committed than retro-computing fans

Posted on 2023-09-25, 21:34

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by Scali

in Milliways

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In Japan, the MZ-80K/A/C played the role of an early personal computer. There's an interesting YouTube video about it, still controlling a sewing machine (the Sharp has the patterns stored on real datasette). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWJZFQHklBg Yea, and they do exactly what we did: Standard …

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Re: C64 fans seem to me more passionate and committed than retro-computing fans

Posted on 2023-09-25, 20:17

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by Scali

in Milliways

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The poor people used musical cassettes, MC, of low quality. Not even computer cassettes/datasettes with good magnetic material. Lol, nobody used those "computer cassettes". We considered that a scam. We just used cheap ('normal/ferro/Type I') music cassettes, usually the 60 minute variety. Longer …

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Re: C64 fans seem to me more passionate and committed than retro-computing fans

Posted on 2023-09-25, 18:41

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by Scali

in Milliways

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The thing with a C64 when I grew up was: almost everyone had one. And it was very easy to copy games. In those days we used cassettes, and many stereo systems had two cassette decks and high-speed dubbing. Later we moved to disks, and it was easy to pick up your floppy drive and go to a friend, …

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Re: C64 fans seem to me more passionate and committed than retro-computing fans

Posted on 2023-09-25, 14:59

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by Scali

in Milliways

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If you really want to stretch it, there's 4 computers: The C64 came in a PAL and an NTSC variation, each having slightly different colours and performance characteristics. Then there's the original model, and the new model (known as the C64C), which also came with a chipset that was built on a newer …

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Re: CVX4 : high quality covox adapter

Posted on 2023-09-07, 07:00

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by Scali

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Well I was, sortof... I mean, it should be possible. The Stereo-On-One uses one of the outgoing status signals to select between a left and right DAC. There are 4 outgoing status signals on the printer port in total. So in theory you can decode this as a 4-bit selector, allowing you to select …

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Re: CVX4 : high quality covox adapter

Posted on 2023-09-04, 10:23

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by Scali

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

ViTi95 wrote on 2023-09-03, 22:32: I'd pay for a stereo-on-1 CVX5. Picture this: CVX5.1

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Re: Looking for IBM Music Feature Card owners

Posted on 2023-08-22, 07:06

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by Scali

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

So that's 3 people already who'd like a PCB. If there's more, perhaps we can set up some list somehwere, like a Google doc or whatever?

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Re: Looking for IBM Music Feature Card owners

Posted on 2023-08-21, 19:26

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by Scali

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I would like to build one as well, if someone can burn a ROM for me? And what else is required other than just standard through-hole soldering? (Perhaps we can order a batch of PCBs and divide them?)

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Re: Best gpu for maxing out a athlon 1400 ?

Posted on 2023-08-20, 18:40

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by Scali

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Yea, the 9600Pro will be the faster card. The XT was the top tier model, then the Pro slightly below that, then there was a vanilla 9600, and the 9600SE was the slowest variation I believe (also used for OEMs I believe).

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Re: Looking for IBM Music Feature Card owners

Posted on 2023-08-18, 20:31

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by Scali

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

It turned out that the device was in conflict with the Sound Blaster! The Blaster does not use all address lines for decoding, so it began to occupy the bus along with the IMFC, and prevented it from working. There were no software problems with the drivers, it turns out. It's alive! https://youtu. …

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Re: Best gpu for maxing out a athlon 1400 ?

Posted on 2023-08-17, 16:25

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by Scali

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

The case for a GF4 is better compatibility with legacy features like table fog and paletted textures. For some people, those are important, while others prefer to turn up AA/AF to get improved image quality. Depending on one's preference, each card has some benefits and drawbacks. But then you're …

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Re: Best gpu for maxing out a athlon 1400 ?

Posted on 2023-08-17, 14:54

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by Scali

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

The OP is aiming for pre 2002 Win9x games, where SM 2.0 has zero bearing. You'd have to play 2003-2004 titles like Halo and FarCry to see some use of that feature, and those are well within the WinXP era. Still, that could be useful for nGlide and similar wrappers under Win9x, but those would …

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Re: Best gpu for maxing out a athlon 1400 ?

Posted on 2023-08-17, 13:14

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by Scali

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I would recommend against a GF4, because it limits you to SM1.x A Radeon 9600/9800 can do SM2.0, which gives you much better shading in games (and allows you to play newer games). They are also much better at using AA/AF. My Radeon 9600XT ran most games at 4xAA and 16xAF on my TBird 1400 back in the …

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Re: SBVGM (DOS) VGM Player

Posted on 2023-08-16, 12:15

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by Scali

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

"(and on OPL3 you need to get the order right, because the second set of registers controls how the writes are interpreted)" Prophetic words...

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