Re: Your saddest retro computer pictures, a feel bad topic

Posted on 2021-04-08, 21:46

by

by gca

in Milliways

in Milliways

Sadly no pictures but when I was working for SUN two Storedge (no, not a typo its the brand name) racks got dropped while being loaded onto a plane for shipping. That was one hell of a week pushing the replacements through test to refill the order.

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Re: Booting FreeDOS from a vinyl record (YouTube video)

Posted on 2020-11-24, 14:32

by

by gca

in Milliways

in Milliways

Impressive indeed. And I thought loading 8-bit software from a C15 was retro. Maybe for his next trick he could try a wax cylinder? Or these ancient music programme sheets that were once used for automatic pianos? The only older technology I can think of is the one that served in ancient weaving …

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Re: Booting FreeDOS from a vinyl record (YouTube video)

Posted on 2020-11-23, 22:25

by

by gca

in Milliways

in Milliways

Impressive indeed. And I thought loading 8-bit software from a C15 was retro. Maybe for his next trick he could try a wax cylinder?

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

Posted on 2020-11-15, 19:40

by

by gca

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Today I found time to test a 386 motherboard that I recently purchased, with a 386SX 25MHz CPU. Inserted a couple of 30-pin SIMMs and powered it up and happily it POSTs ok - https://i.imgur.com/TTTyLw7l.jpg https://i.imgur.com/lUM6zvEl.jpg Motherboard seems to be from some kind of Ambra-branded LPX …

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Re: 386DX-33 Help! Mouse stopped working

Posted on 2020-11-04, 23:19

by

by gca

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Have you tried the obvious and changed the mouse for a known good one and if so does the problem persist even with the new rodent in place?

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Re: Windows 95/98 games you never get tired of?

Posted on 2020-10-23, 17:33

by

by gca

in Windows

in Windows

Starcraft/Broodwar I'm so lame that I only started playing it on Vista. Now 10 years later and on Windows 7 I'm still stuck half-way through the Brood War campaign... Just wait until you hit Omega (very last level in Broodwar) then the struggle really begins. Took me an age to get through that one.

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Re: Windows 95/98 games you never get tired of?

Posted on 2020-10-23, 12:44

by

by gca

in Windows

in Windows

I was never much of a Windows gamer TBH but for me the titles I did play were: Starcraft/Broodwar Mechwarrior 3/Pirates Moon Freecell

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Re: Programming on DOS/Windows 95/98

Posted on 2020-09-02, 11:30

by

by gca

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

On DOS mainly Borland Turbo C++ 3.0 and a couple of the Turbo Pascal compilers. Then migrated to DJGPP because it made code easier to port between DOS and Linux platforms. Free Pascal compiler is also handy because its very similar to Turbo Pascal (you can just move code directly between them …

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Re: Anyone got an Ambra Sprinta 386 Motherboard Manual?

Posted on 2020-08-15, 20:41

by

by gca

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi GCA. Sorry I haven’t been back to Vogons since the beginning of lock-down and have only just read your response. I’m busy again of course but I’ll find time to dig out these details for you and send on what I have. B/w Dave No rush, I know how it is right now with lock down and other Covid …

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Re: XCOPY problem

Posted on 2020-06-20, 17:44

by

by gca

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Did you try using the /s switch, like this: xcopy /s d:\abc123 c:

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Re: MicroProse Resurrected!

Posted on 2020-05-17, 20:49

by

by gca

in Milliways

in Milliways

A couple of new games from Drakeling Labs are being published by them on steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/793560/Warfare_1944/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/736590/Ope … Harsh_Doorstop/

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

Posted on 2020-04-12, 21:43

by

by gca

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Did some final work on my breadbin C64 Rev. B from 1983. Added a heatsink to the SID chip, removed some rust from the tv modulator, and also removed the C9 cap from the modulator to improve sharpness of the picture. Had not much effect, however, as it is using an R1 VIC II. Just saw a couple of …

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Re: Proprietary software in MS-DOS

Posted on 2020-04-05, 15:12

by

by gca

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

I think it was called Amstrad Program Manager, you can find it buried somewhere on the Amstrad PC4386 disk images that you can find here: https://banjosmods.wordpress.com/2019/01/28/a … tom-win3-shell/

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Re: Proprietary software in MS-DOS

Posted on 2020-04-05, 14:16

by

by gca

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

My first PC was a PS/1 as well, replaced funnily enough by an Amstrad with Counterpoint. Amstrad also did a custom Windows shell as a replacement to progman on Windows 3.0.

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Re: Sun SPARCstation LX help

Posted on 2020-03-28, 12:09

by

by gca

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If it helps you can get a lot more details from here including the official servicing manual. http://www.obsolyte.com/sun_lx/

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Re: eMachines eMonster 500a Restoration/Sleeper

Posted on 2020-03-20, 23:04

by

by gca

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

My eTower 600CD has the exact same case. Pretty much stock apart from the inclusion of a NIC and jacking the memory up to the max. The mobo is some $deity awful Trigem Cognac unit. Temperamental as hell and does not play nice with anything this side of XP (including XP, bloody BIOS ACPI issues cause …

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

Posted on 2020-03-11, 01:51

by

by gca

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Who at Toshiba thought that a computer with no internal CD ROM or floppy drive, and no USB boot support was a good idea? To add insult to injury their SD Card formatting tool for making bootable SD cards doesn't work with my SD card adapter. The only way I can realistically get an OS onto this mofo …

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Re: 42

Posted on 2020-03-09, 23:51

by

by gca

in Milliways

in Milliways

Only the 42nd anniversary, I thought it was older than that. Maybe I'm thinking of the books instead of the radio show, not sure which came first. I still remember watching the TV series (yes, I saw the more recent film and kind of regretted it instantly).

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Re: Anyone got an Ambra Sprinta 386 Motherboard Manual?

Posted on 2020-03-04, 14:03

by

by gca

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a nearly new unit in original packaging. It should still have all original manuals. It's been boxed up for over 25 years and I was thinking of getting it out to see if it still runs. Are you still interested if I'm able to find anything that might be useful? Yeah if you do still have the …

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Re: Windows xp boot removal.

Posted on 2020-02-26, 21:16

by

by gca

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

I was going to suggest fdisk /mbr which would have roughly the same effect.

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