jheronimus wrote:

BTW, it's weird to me that people keep saying "GUS is ideal for 386 builds" when the earliest game that supports it is actually from 1992.

You are quite right on that. I have the same opinion, yet I think a GUS is kind of well suited for 386dx-40 to 486dx4-120/5x86-133. It is not for 386sx-33's or Pentiums in my book. Anyway.... Great haul.

brostenen wrote:

jheronimus wrote:

BTW, it's weird to me that people keep saying "GUS is ideal for 386 builds" when the earliest game that supports it is actually from 1992.

You are quite right on that. I have the same opinion, yet I think a GUS is kind of well suited for 386dx-40 to 486dx4-120/5x86-133. It is not for 386sx-33's or Pentiums in my book. Anyway.... Great haul.

As someone who bought a GUS MAX with his P60 in 1995 I'd beg to differ. DOS game support was rare, although amazing when present (OMF2097, Descent...) and SB emulation was an irritating memory hog. Most of the games that actually supported it were from >1994 and needed at least a DX2 to run smoothly (OMF2097 and Descent being case in point - they will run on a 386DX40, but slows down when a lot is going on or you need to turn down quality and (in Descent) field of view so much it hurts). Outside of DOS games that specifically supported it, GUS was great in Win3.11 or x too, so I'd say it is typically a late 486, early Pentium-era device. For a 386 I'd go for a basic Sound Blaster, or if you want something more fancy try to find a Roland MT-32 or SC-55

Got an EPSON IM-425 industrial PC today. What a nice litte thing! It's using a SBC with a 486 DX2/100, 1 PS/2 module for RAM (has 8 MB currently), on-board VGA, 2.5" IDE slot, slim-line floppy, 1x PS/2 for keyboard and 1x COM. On top, there's a small add-on which provides additional 2x COM and 1x LPT. And it still has 1 ISA and 1 PCI slot free. It can even be run from a battery. The whole thing isn't much larger as two stacked DVD drives. 😲

Will post pictures later.

OldCat wrote:

Sooo jealous. Trying to find one myself - or a similar laptop from late DOS era with SB and 640x480 resolution, TFT screen and not expensive. The closest I got so far is Panasonic CF-41 - good machine, but it's THICK and runs hot, which means loud cooling. I'd much prefer something thinner and passively cooled.

Yeah,if you're from Poland, German ebay is probably still the best bet. There seems to be no shortage of these, and most appear to have been owned by business-type users that treated them well 😉

There are two machines available here:

https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-siemens-pcd-4nd/k0

I have a Toshiba Satellite 400CDT as well, but I've not seen one on (German) Ebay since I bought it about a year ago. Satellite and Tecra series laptops show up a lot, but it's tricky because there are so many different models and configurations. The Toshiba TXXXX series has maybe two more models that fit the bill.

henryVK wrote:

Yeah,if you're from Poland, German ebay is probably still the best bet. There seems to be no shortage of these, and most appear […]
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Yeah,if you're from Poland, German ebay is probably still the best bet. There seems to be no shortage of these, and most appear to have been owned by business-type users that treated them well 😉

There are two machines available here:

https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-siemens-pcd-4nd/k0

I have a Toshiba Satellite 400CDT as well, but I've not seen one on (German) Ebay since I bought it about a year ago. Satellite and Tecra series laptops show up a lot, but it's tricky because there are so many different models and configurations. The Toshiba TXXXX series has maybe two more models that fit the bill.

Thanks, HenryVK! I will check this eBay ads. The two PCD-4ND that are there at the moment are unfortunately more expensive than yours and their floppy drives are out (either hard or expensive to repair). But I will keep looking there. Thank you for the pro-tip.

derSammler wrote:

Will post pictures later.

they look nice together 😀

Today I won an auction for my first foray into real FM synths (i.e. not soundcard-chip based ones): Yamaha YS-200 4 operator 8 voice 61-key FM synthesizer keyboard with aftertouch and integrated 8-track sequencer (basically a Yamaha TX-81Z module in keyboard shape), made in 1988. 😎

Youtube sample (not mine): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgs_ZHUh17I

derSammler wrote:

derSammler wrote:

Will post pictures later.

What is that? Looks like a compact computer, or part of a Point of Sales system.

arncht wrote:

they look nice together 😀

20180206_193033.jpg

What am I looking at here? 😁

appiah4 wrote:

arncht wrote:

they look nice together 😀

20180206_193033.jpg

What am I looking at here? 😁

gravis ultrasound pnp (4-8-8mb)

bjwil1991 wrote:

derSammler wrote:

derSammler wrote:

Will post pictures later.

What is that? Looks like a compact computer, or part of a Point of Sales system.

See my post before. It's an industrial PC made by EPSON. This will be my new 486 retro PC, replacing my Amstrad PC7486SLC33. It has an AMD DX4/100 (seller wrote Intel DX2/100...), 8 MB RAM (72-pin PS/2, max. is 32 MB), very fast CHIPS F65545 VGA graphics, and even a free ISA slot to fit a sound card. Lots of COM and LPT ports as well. 😀

derSammler wrote:

See my post before. It's an industrial PC made by EPSON. This will be my new 486 retro PC, replacing my Amstrad PC7486SLC33. It has an AMD DX4/100 (seller wrote Intel DX2/100...), 8 MB RAM (72-pin PS/2, max. is 32 MB), very fast CHIPS F65545 VGA graphics, and even a free ISA slot to fit a sound card. Lots of COM and LPT ports as well. 😀

Interesting system. I've never seen something like that before. You planning on installing an external CD-ROM drive that uses the Parallel port? I'm also guessing the card at the bottom is the SBC card that has all of the bells and whistles on there (VGA, COM, LPT, HDD, FDD, CPU, RAM, etc)? Wish I can get something like that. Also, the PSU header is weird. Guessing that requires the external brick PSU that has that proprietary connection in the back?

arncht wrote:

they look nice together 😀

Hmm I dont see any "pro" card here 🤣 🤣 🤣

bjwil1991 wrote:

You planning on installing an external CD-ROM drive that uses the Parallel port? I'm also guessing the card at the bottom is the SBC card that has all of the bells and whistles on there (VGA, COM, LPT, HDD, FDD, CPU, RAM, etc)? Wish I can get something like that. Also, the PSU header is weird. Guessing that requires the external brick PSU that has that proprietary connection in the back?

No plans for a CD-ROM. I'm going to use Zip disks for transfering larger stuff.

The PSU is 24V, 4A. The 3-pin connector isn't proprietary, it's fairly standard.

"Micro Switches" hue
Uses two joystick inputs for DOS (2 Analog axis, single plug) to make use of all buttons without a TSR.
D-pad and triggers have mechanical switches.

I swapped a Dreamcast and games for a Dell XPS 466v. I'm much more of a XT guy than a 386/486 guy, but it's a neat system.

I love the combo 3.5/5.25 drive, I haven't seen one of those in ages. It has a 486/66 VLB motherboard with a Number Nine GXE VL video card, which is another plus as I was always a big #9 fan back in the 90's when we sold them at Media Play.

The soundcard isn't the 466v standard SB16 either, someone replaced it with a Pro Audio Spectrum 16, which is ANOTHER card I'd always hoped to come across for my collection. All in all I'm pretty satisfied with the swap.

On a distinctly non-retro note, it was also recycling day for my department, and during our inventory I snagged 15 fully working Intel DC3217 NUC systems, you can see a few of them sitting on top of that 466v. They were used as digital signage systems across our facilities, they were replaced with touch-screen smart tvs a few months ago.

Media Play, is that the store that sold music and stuff back then from 1992-2006? I remember those stores. A few of them are used as thrift stores nowadays in my area.

Yeah, they sold music/books/software, and a little bit of computer hardware.

Those old Dimensions were pretty cool. They were built really well until around 2001 or so.