Hi there!

Being pretty much done with my project at this stage (well...as we all know, we're never really done 😁) I wanted to share some pics with you guys of what I've been using my extended time at home during the pandemic for!

As a foreword, as I know some people here are sensitive to that (and I respect it), I am definitely not looking for full period-correctness or "retro perfection". My goal, apart from obvious fun and being high on nostalgia, was really to cover 80's to early 2000 and being able to play all games, with a lot of options, and getting just the right mix of modern convenience put into it. This mainly concerns media, and I mean by that I am more than happy to be (ab)using SATA-IDE adapters and cheap 2.5" 120GB SSD's, CF-IDE adapters and Gotek's. Having a 30 years old+ Conner or Quantum slow ass and noisy HDD that is bound to fail at some point is not a "retro experience" I'm personally missing, but again, I completely understand those that do! On that matter my 486 build had a WD Caviar that failed on me, and I didn't think twice about replacing it with a CF card when it happened and haven't looked back. I'm also happy to use screens a bit more modern and on the bigger side compared to what would've been used back in the days, but still love the CRT look and feel!

Also, while I love the overall setup looking pretty clean, I also hate cable management with a passion and I'm not ashamed 😁 so I went at it quick and dirty, but I'll probably clean the cable jungle up at some point, the shit is a real mess.

And finally, this post is quite lengthy, I'm not a native speaker so apologies in advance for errors or complicated ways of saying simple things. I also am well aware that I am overkilling things left and right in my setup. But as you'll see there will be a common thread in this story - it's all about (potentially useless) options!

1486 DX2-66
22x8MB 72p SIMMs
3MB: Soyo SY-025K
4VGA: CL GD-5426 1MB
5Sound: ESS1868f (Edison Gold 16 Plus), Primax Soundwave M16B (GUS clone), TDNY 3-Sound, MIF-IPC-B (clone) + original MPU-401
6IDE-CF internal 2GB / IDE-CF face-mounted / Gotek (hXc)

Probably my favorite machine. I used to have a DX-33 in there to allow me to slow down the computer more for earlier games, but after some tests I actually ended up using the DX2-66. The Soyo is a great motherboard, and by disabling caches, using turbo and timings, I am able to slow it down to ~8MHz territory! So it's really fine so far. I haven't found anything I want to play for which it was a problem, at least.

In terms of sound most know the ESS1868f is a great chip, but I can only recommend this particular Edison Gold 16 Pro edition as being really quiet and great sounding.
I haven't had the chance to own a Tandy or a GUS back in the days, I started with SB2.0 and kept using Creative cards over the years, so I was happy to get these new options. I had read about the Primax Soundwave before purchasing it and most seemed to agree they were very solidly built, and must say I'm not disappointed, great output and very quiet as well. For the few games that support GUS natively the result is spectacular - it sounded amazing through comparison videos I watched on Youtube, but in real life it was even better! I got goosebumps launching Epic Pinball the first time. What I mostly use it for though is to listen to mods in FastTracker2. Simply awesome. Is it worth the hype and the hefty price? Depends, it's definitely a niche, but I don't regret purchasing it at all.

As for the TNDY 3-sound purchased from matze right on this very website, it's simply brilliant. As a huge Sierra nerd it's just a no brainer for those early AGI games and I highly recommend it!

1AMIGA 1200
2Phase 5 Blizzard 1230 MK-IV
3Indivision AGA MK3
4Internal SD, Gotek (Flashfloppy)+OLED

Not much to say, it's an A1200! I've been a long time fan of demos, I love some Amiga games, never had one but used to play them all the time as a kid at one of my best friends, it's different from its siblings but has a place in my heart nonetheless 😉

Screen is a HP 91 (19"), great tube and fishbowl, got it for free (!) in local ads and couldn't be happier. I've had some VGA contact issues recently, I've taken it fully apart and replaced the cable and connector, almost for nothing as the problem seems to be a bad contact solder on the connector on the CRT neck board itself. Oh well. I found a cable position where it's working fine, and in the worst case wiggling it a bit solves the issue, if it becomes major again I'll take it apart again and properly resolder the neck board.

I'm switching between the 486 and the Amiga with the small black VGA switch (8 bucks new on the bay), works fine.

The keyboard is a Mitsumi 5p DIN keyboard coupled to a Logitech Pilot mouse, both NOS in sealed boxes that I found (separately) in local ads, and both being great scores in my book! I'm not overly sensitive or precious but still was pretty happy getting my own new-old peripherals without extra hair and dirt.

The small external mixer is a Behringer Xenyx Q1002USB. It's great and not very expensive, highly recommended. The TNDY 3-voice uses 1 of the mono channels, while the 4 stereo channels are used by the A1200, the ESS1868, the Primax, and MIDI. Output is sent to the beautiful pair of Roland MA-12C speakers of LGR fame, they're amazing, and Roland sound hardware makes me horny anyways.

The rest of the machines from right to left:

1Pentium 233 MMX
22x 32MB PC66
3MB: FIC PA-2010+
4VGA: Matrox Millenium + 3DFX Voodoo
5Sound: Orpheus, SB AWE32 (CT3900), PC-MIDI (Orpheus)
6IDE-SATA + 120GB SanDisk SSD

1Celeron 800 Ezra on MSI MS-6905 Slotket (FSB100) 
22x 128MB PC100
3MB: Gigabyte GA-6BXS
4VGA: 3DFX Voodoo3 3000
5Sound: ESS1868f, SB Live! Platinum (CT4760) with front panel, PC-MIDI
6IDE-SATA + 120GB SanDisk SSD

1P3-S Tualatin 1.4 on MSI MS-6905 Slotket (FSB133) 
22x 256MB PC133
3MB: ASUS P3B-F
4VGA: NVidia FX5950 Ultra, 2x 3DFX Voodoo2 12MB SLI
5Sound: ESS Solo-1, SB Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
62x IDE-SATA + 120GB SanDisk SSD

The two last configs are obviously pretty close to each other. They're both 440BX based and using a slotket for a socket 370 CPU, and the last one could probably be improved with a real socket 370 board as I don't really care about ISA for that build. A project for another time, and I had the parts laying around so why not having again more options 😀

P233 I'm using a Matrox Millenium, there are probably better choices, but I had it already. For sound, the fantastic Orpheus from keropi and Marmes with included PC-MIDI, and my beloved CT3900 for those games that support it natively or benefit from SB16 support.

In the Celeron, apart from the obvious Voodoo3 3000, I wanted to use an ALS100 with Crystal soundbanks I already had but proved to be faulty 🙁 so for DOS support, just in case, I went for another 1868f cheap card off ebay instead, and of course the SB Live for Win9x.

The Korean-modded Tualatin build, as said would probably deserve a true s370 build at some point, and I'd switch the P3B-F in the Celeron instead. In the meantime, it's great. The FX5950 is a beast, it's throttled on this mobo, but still this makes a very good D3D build for the games I want to play. And the 2 Voodoo2 in SLI, well....I HAD THEM! OPTIONS! I LOVE OPTIONS SO WHY NOT! 😁
For sound I used the Solo-1 for DOS/MIDI along with a proper Audigy 2 ZS. Can't say the Solo-1 is used often, though...but what can I stay. Options. It's there in case.

The screen is a wonderful Sony CPD-G500 21" Trinitron I picked up for cheap in local ads again, another big score in my book. Colors were all messed up though and it was heavy on the greener side - I posted about that problem on Vogons when I got it and someone linked me to a procedure to connect to the screen with a TTL serial cable that allows to modify internal parameters using some recovered configuration software, so I purchased a color calibration device and did just that! It was quite painful to do, but in the end the result is absolutely amazing, it's good as new, black is as black as black goes, and I couldn't be happier.

I'm switching between the different machines with a 4ports ATEN KVM and it works brilliantly. I'm using some Logitech USB keyboard I had laying around, and a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 USB mouse I purchased when it came out many moons ago, it's still a great mouse and working fine! The P233 and Celeron motherboards only support legacy USB keyboard and not the mouse in DOS, so I'm using Bret Johnson's DOS USB drivers for these two, that let me enable the ATEN as a USB hub and both the keyboard and mouse work fine with this! The P3B-F is better and supports all USB devices out of the box with Legacy USB enabled. The P3B-F is a wonderful board in any case, way better than the GA-6BXS for sure.

Mixer is another Behringer, this one a Xeryx 1002b as the layout fits the desk better. Again, not too expensive and very good. As all 3 machines have 2 soundcards and because I can AND LOVE OPTIONS, I purchased those 3 small minijack switches at the bottom-right of the screen (black box/red button), that each feed 1 of the 4 available stereo channels on the mixer, the last one being used for MIDI. Those minijacks switches are made by some guy in the UK on ebay, in a 3D printed case, not expensive and they do the job well.

Speakers are Edifier R1280T, they're very very good speakers for the price, but unfortunately not shielded...so I have to be careful with their placement around the CRT, but apart from that they're really fine. I had them already, so didn't feel like purchasing a new set even if I'd like something more retro and shielded at some point.

And to finish the piece de resistance, my MIDI setup and the homemade budget rack 😁 again it's all about having plenty of OPTIONSSSSS

I had no idea until a few years ago how good and cool SIERRA games in MT-32 sounded, and already loving Roland synths, I went all out on the MIDI binge.

From top to bottom:

- Roland MPU-401 unit hooked to the 486
- Korg NS5R
- Yamaha MU80
- Roland CM-32L
- Roland MT-32 (old)
- Behringer Eurorack Pro mixer
- Left: SC-55 MK1 / Right: SC-50 (basically a SC-55 MK2 with a single input and no MT-32 support, which I don't care for)
- Roland A-880 MIDI patcher

I love having all these OPTIONS and testing how games sound with the different units. I've been patient and scoured local ads offline and online, and managed to get them all on the very cheap! Same for the mixer, I purchased good as new in box off local ads for cheap. The only two things that ended up being more expensive were the A-880 patcher and the CM-32L as I got them off Japanese Yahoo auctions. Does one need all these expanders? Nah, not really. It's definitely an overkill, but it's fun.

The NS5R is...meh. It's not bad but the GM patches are not that great. It has an internal wavetable header though, which is a cool option. Unfortunately it's pretty inconvenient - you have to fully open the box to reach it, and you have to manually change each instrument's sound bank to use the wavetable instead every single time you want to use it. Also it made the device crash on me on occasion. But...it has the MissionMan demo song, which is hands down the best MIDI demo song ever! And the device looks cool. For these two reasons it makes it OK in my book.

The Yamaha MU80 actually sounds very good with GM games. I end up using it sometimes. I believe MU80 is an overkill for computer use as the MU50 would basically be the same, but again, got it cheap on local ads so why not.

MT-32 is amazing as we all know. CM-32L is too, and is nice to have for those few games that make use of the extra sound effects. (AND MOAR OPTIONS!)

SC-55 and SC-50, again it's all about OPTIONZZZ BABY and some games behave better with one or the other.

For those knowledgeable about MIDI this will be obvious but if some people reading this aren't, they may find a small explanation about the setup useful: The A-880 patcher has 8 MIDI inputs and 8 outputs. All computers' MIDI interfaces are hooked as input on the A-880 patcher with MIDI cables (5 in total: 486, Amiga, P233, Celeron, P3). Those will send the MIDI instructions. Then, 6 outputs from the patcher are connected into the MIDI input of each of the 6 expanders. Then on the patcher itself I can "patch" any computer to 1 or several expanders, that will receive the MIDI instructions from the computer and play them. That's it for the MIDI part.

Then comes the audio: each expander has RCA or jack outputs where the actual sound goes out, so each output from a device is plugged to one of the channels of the Eurorack mixer, which lets me manage volume, balance for every single device, or even mute it completely. This way I can even send a single MIDI signal to all 6 expanders simultaneously and easily compare their output on the fly by muting/unmuting single channels.
The Eurorack mixer has an output for speakers, but as I have two different setups I want to connect to it (486+A1200 on one side, P233/Celeron/P3 on the other side) what I ended up doing is using Y splitters on the output to send the sound on both setup, using 1 channel of each smaller mixer. The "downside" of doing it that way is MIDI will play on both set of speakers simultaneously, but as I'm never using more than one computer at a given time, that's not really an issue and I just turn off the other set of speakers I'm not currently sitting in front of.

That's it for now! Thanks for reading, I hope it was somewhat enjoyable and happy to discuss or answer anything 😀

Cheers!