Re: 1990s PC Hardware Magazine Review Archive

Posted on 2009-05-10, 17:47

by

by samudra

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yep, those thumbs look like shit. Nothing wrong with a default that doesn't crop, people at imagebam. Dark Forces review added. I also found a game controller test in the same mag so I added that one as well. Knock yourself out. Just look at that arcade controller from Datel. Looks like very high …

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Re: Most expensive classic games list on ebay...

Posted on 2009-05-07, 10:41

by

by samudra

in Milliways

in Milliways

Not a PC game, but a sealed copy of EarthBound for the SNES sold for over $1000 yesterday http://cgi.ebay.com/EARTHBOUND-Super-Nintendo-BRAND-New-Factory-SEALED-SNES_W0QQitemZ290313422065QQcategoryZ139973QQcmdZViewItem http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/91470 Now that's the real deal. PC …

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Re: 1990s PC Hardware Magazine Review Archive

Posted on 2009-05-05, 18:28

by

by samudra

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sweet. I got them from storage this afternoon and found a big videocard and soundcard test and an article on the Diamond Edge 3D. I have no clue how interesting that card is because I'm myself interested in an earlier period of retro gaming, but here it is. Came across a review of Dark Forces also. …

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Re: 1990s PC Hardware Magazine Review Archive

Posted on 2009-05-05, 10:41

by

by samudra

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I actually have a few years of the British mag "PC Format". Shall I add to the joy?

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Re: Finishing my 486 pc...

Posted on 2009-05-03, 20:17

by

by samudra

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Hold your horses there people, since when does the DX4 100 outperform the 5x86? Did natural law change the last few months?

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Re: 486 mobo missing its "KBD chip" - is it pointless me testing it?

Posted on 2009-05-03, 19:56

by

by samudra

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

VIA had a way better reputation back then than they do now. They made good stuff. If you don't want to take my word for it, takes Redhill's. http://www.redhill.net.au/b/b-95.html

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Re: BIOS POST test cards - any thoughts?

Posted on 2009-05-03, 19:50

by

by samudra

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I bought one of those ones once. Since I'm smart enough not to put something from Hong Kong I don't know into my valuable system I tested it in another system first. It started to smell and got very hot. The system escaped undamaged. The seller said "maybe yours is broken". Yes, he actually said …

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Re: Most expensive classic games list on ebay...

Posted on 2009-05-03, 19:36

by

by samudra

in Milliways

in Milliways

Why list to active auctions of items that haven't sold yet for the price listed? It only shows how arbitrary these prices are. You can put up a sealed copy of Monkey Island on there for $800, but it doesn't prove anything. Put it up for $1 and see what it ends at and you'll have an indication of …

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Re: Who wants to buy 128kx8 (1 meg) cache chips for their 486 or pentium board?

Posted on 2009-05-03, 19:12

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by samudra

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I don't read this board often, but I noticed your message upon following a notification email. Yes, I'm interested; but as I have for months not spend any time on the technical side of retro computing I'll have to freshen up and will then let you know how many I'll need. Are these chips you have in …

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Re: Everything looks blue - faulty graphics card?

Posted on 2009-01-18, 16:19

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by samudra

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hah! I don't even want to know why you still tried that. Curious what burned plastic smells like? It depends on the shipping costs and the price of the item really. Shipping a motherboard in a jiffy bag is batshit insane though.

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Re: Everything looks blue - faulty graphics card?

Posted on 2009-01-18, 15:46

by

by samudra

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Those leads on big chips are separated not even half a mm (just like the Tseng to the left). Probably some were touching and they were not the most acute ones. You could try separating them carefully using a razor or thin piece of metal.

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Re: Everything looks blue - faulty graphics card?

Posted on 2009-01-18, 12:15

by

by samudra

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If it has capacitors on it you can replace them. Also check (with a magnifying glass if necessary) all the solder points, especially of the SMD. I had a card shipped to me once. I popped it in and there were pixels with incorrect colours all over the place. I took it out, looked carefully and saw a …

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Re: What monitor do you use?

Posted on 2009-01-18, 09:32

by

by samudra

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/7628/monkey2whrfkk5.jpg Just posted this screen to show how the fonts look like. No distortions, right? http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b241/ATMachine/mi2demo/mi2game30.png http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/804/sierravh6.jpg The intro screen of QFG1 VGA. …

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Re: What monitor do you use?

Posted on 2009-01-14, 00:53

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by samudra

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Awesome. I have a Sony GDM-F520 myself and it has an "image restoration" function. It recalibrates the black level automatically. It is unfortunate those earlier models do not have it.

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Re: What monitor do you use?

Posted on 2009-01-04, 14:05

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by samudra

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Sony G500 (Trinitron 21" CRT) here. I'm very happy with it, but it's eight years old and might die soon (black level already half gone). Looking for LCD replacement, but those I've already seen either come with crappy interpolation and useless scaling options or I can't afford them. You can fix …

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Re: Where and what modules to get to upgrade the cache on 486 motherboards to 512kb or 1mb.

Posted on 2009-01-03, 00:08

by

by samudra

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

When you do that the amount of time you spent looking up prices for the things you want to sell, talking with potential buyers, shipping packages, &c. will be very costly. In essence you will be losing money. If you have a 1mb set you wish to sell I'll buy from you at market value.

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Re: Need advice before I spend more money on a VLB SCSI controller.

Posted on 2009-01-02, 23:57

by

by samudra

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I could have spent less, but I wanted an Adaptec controller. You could have spent less and still got the Adaptec. But hey, you probably got one brand new and sealed in the original box for that price which is good.

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Re: Need advice before I spend more money on a VLB SCSI controller.

Posted on 2009-01-02, 15:56

by

by samudra

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

No need to blow $37 on a Adaptec 2842VL. That is way too much money. You should be able to get one for $5 or less. I'd recommend you look at the 2840A instead. It is newest of all the Adaptec VLB SCSI adaptors and is compatible with L1 WB cache.

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Re: Where and what modules to get to upgrade the cache on 486 motherboards to 512kb or 1mb.

Posted on 2009-01-02, 15:10

by

by samudra

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Buying up old motherboards is not the solution, unless you are someone like Amigaz and are doing it anyway . The expenses will be terrible and the returns will be almost nothing. Maybe that would work with chips from an early Pentium board, but it would be difficult to say those are internally the …

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Where and what modules to get to upgrade the cache on 486 motherboards to 512kb or 1mb.

Posted on 2009-01-02, 01:45

by

by samudra

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I tried buying these secondhand, but cache sets of 512kb or 1mb are extremely scarce, because this was very expensive in the day. Since all this memory used on videocards and motherboards is standard the other option would be to buy them new, although this would be expensive. Now, I looked into this …

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