You got backups for life. 🤣

Or I could build a twenty-channel OPL3 surround-sound system 🤣

Now that is a good investment!
Almost as good as the savings I invested in.. Ringtones. 😉

Are you offering them for E 2,- at you-know-where? 😀

I did a similar thing, I now own five examples of the Acer Magic S23 soundcard. With CS4232 chip, OPL3 and waveblaster header.

Just found this out! Another way to get that retro feeling boosted is getting basic powered 2.0 Stereo speakers.

So no sub, no Hi-Fi speakers, just something really basic. Took me right back to my school days when I listened to the tunes of Monkey Island. 😀

I have these now hooked up to the speaker out of the AWE64. The line-out goes to the other PC for capturing footage / sound.

That HDD bay is also new (you can buy it on eBay) and allows me to access the CF cards inside.

On the topic of speakers, I just got these powered Labtec speakers to use with my Pentium and Pentium 3 machines. I got these specific units because we used to have the same models (heck we may still have them somewhere, haven't found them yet though), and since my Pentium 3 is one of the machines I used most growing up, I think it's fitting to have the speakers I grew up with too.

I've also ordered a smaller pair of Labtecs for my 386; once they and my desktop case arrive my 386 will FINALLY be ready 😀

Picked up a new (but old) gem 😀

I found a Harris 286-25 chip today.

Is there a particular motherboard that is best with these, or can you use any 286 board with a PLCC socket and the right oscillator?

Not a computer but it's retro hardware. I found for $2 at a thrift shop this Casio graphing calculator, a CFX-9850G. If I'm not mistaken, these were on store shelves in '96 or '97. The build quality feels pretty cheap; just like a TI product but I think the TIs from that era had slightly nicer buttons. However, the calculator's very easy to use and to make it interesting, it has a primitive three color LCD. Unfortunately, traded for color is viewing quality; at most angles the display looks blurred. Still a neat relic I think.

I really need to start going to thrift shops.

I used to have a TI scientific calculator in the late 80's i bought for geometry class and I loved it. Wish I still had it today for I have no idea what happened to it. I would give $2 for it now. 🤣

sliderider wrote:

I found a Harris 286-25 chip today.

Is there a particular motherboard that is best with these, or can you use any 286 board with a PLCC socket and the right oscillator?

Where did you get that and is there any more remaining?

nemesis wrote:

sliderider wrote:

I found a Harris 286-25 chip today.

Is there a particular motherboard that is best with these, or can you use any 286 board with a PLCC socket and the right oscillator?

Where did you get that and is there any more remaining?

I managed to catch the last one in an ebay listing where the seller had a few of them. I let a few things go recently that were down to the last one or two that I regretted so I decided to grab this to make myself feel better. I have to go back to my austerity program for a while now, but I will still be looking for a reasonably priced 286 motherboard with 4 30 pin SIMM slots on it. I don't want to have to mess around trying to match individual RAM chips to fully populate a board. Some very late 286 boards did use 30 pin SIMMS and they are still a bit easier to find than chips. Intel was already selling 486SX/DX 33's at the time Harris released the 286-25 so some of those late 286 boards must have been pretty advanced.

Artex wrote:

Picked up a new (but old) gem 😀[/img]

Very nice! Well worth the investment 😀

Make sure you get a MT-32 as well!

This is (hopefully) the last piece of my 486 puzzle; I haven't had time to try it yet but the plan is for this to handle general MIDI and drive my MT-32:

EDIT: wow, the SCC-1 is rocking my world! DOOM is a trill ride, and the intelligent mode MPU-401 driving the MT-32 works perfectly. Very happy.

Roland midi gear is on everyone's vintage computer parts want list for good reason.

I just got a Quantum3D Graphite system off ebay for $150. The seller said there was a "GeForce 3" in it, but I think I'll stick my Voodoo 5 in that rig! 😀 It's not a Mercury brick, but it's cool 3dfx tech nonetheless. I'll post pics once it arrives in the mail.

badmofo wrote:

EDIT: wow, the SCC-1 is rocking my world! DOOM is a trill ride, and the intelligent mode MPU-401 driving the MT-32 works perfectly. Very happy.

Beautiful 😀

It's awesome when things just work.

jmrydholm wrote:

I just got a Quantum3D Graphite system off ebay for $150. The seller said there was a "GeForce 3" in it, but I think I'll stick my Voodoo 5 in that rig! 😀 It's not a Mercury brick, but it's cool 3dfx tech nonetheless. I'll post pics once it arrives in the mail.

Actually, if it has an nVidia card in it then it was built after nVidia bought out 3dfx so it's an nVidia system, not 3dfx.

@sliderider, you are probably right! Maybe this one was made around 2001 or so? I found a cool page with some Quantum3D Iron/Mercury/Graphite etc. related info here:

http://www.thedodgegarage.com/3dfx/index.htm

It's amazing what one can make out of a "brick" of Voodoo cards. There was an AAlchemy box listed too, but WAY out of my price range:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Quantum3D-AAlchemy-82 … =item256f899443

Sheesh. I could refurbish my car's A/C for that much.

Grabbed this today, it's a CT2940 Vibra, and I believe it has a real OPL3 as opposed to the CQM chip. It's the first one I've seen on Ebay, and since it just says #2940 rather than CT2940, it's lucky I even stumbled onto it at all. The card in my Pentium machine right now is a CQM version, and I remember reading on here that an OPL3 2940 is one of the best-sounding SB16s, so I jumped on it 😁

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300670337838?ssPageNa … 984.m1497.l2649

Also grabbed a Sound Blaster Live for $10 to put in my 1.1GHz Celeron with a Voodoo 3 2000. Figured it deserves a decent sound card to go with the Voodoo 3.