Shponglefan wrote on 2022-12-21, 17:44:

kixs wrote on 2022-12-21, 14:13:

Bought Roland MT-32 three years ago. Haven't even tested it 🙁

Could be worse. I have three of them, but can use one at a time. 😜

Well, on that note, did you try this ?

Re: Anybody tried this with your MT-32?

Also, confession-wise, I have a metric crapton of a backlog of hardware (old and new) to test, repair or just install/start using.

Sometimes I feel like I'm going to have a meltdown because sellers send me shit that was supposed to be tested and working. I know old stuff is going to break eventually but I have a hard time believing that it happens between the time they tested it and the time I got it.
I also know that I can just send it back but it's a PITA and there are often no immediate replacements available. I'm winning the bid, get the item and feel like a kid with a new toy then BAM! It's not working, no life, it's shit no matter how much hardware or time I throw at it so I have to message and deal with the seller claiming/pretending that it WAS working perfectly and finally send everything back. I JUST HATE IT SO MUCH.
At that moment I'm questioning if this hobby is bringing me any joy at all.
And yes, I'm writing this rant because I got fkd with another tested but faulty junk, an IBM 6x86 that I never even knew could fail since I have like 10 of them, all working fine. I've never seen a ceramic socket 7 Pentium fail either so this is a real shocker for me.
I accept untested not working. I can live with shipping disasters. I admit to user error when it happens. But when everything is supposed to go well and it all turns south I could just go into rage mode and throw the thing out the window and never look at another retro junk ever again!

Vipachei wrote on 2022-12-23, 07:50:

Sometimes I feel like I'm going to have a meltdown because sellers send me shit that was supposed to be tested and working. I kn […]
Show full quote

Sometimes I feel like I'm going to have a meltdown because sellers send me shit that was supposed to be tested and working. I know old stuff is going to break eventually but I have a hard time believing that it happens between the time they tested it and the time I got it.
I also know that I can just send it back but it's a PITA and there are often no immediate replacements available. I'm winning the bid, get the item and feel like a kid with a new toy then BAM! It's not working, no life, it's shit no matter how much hardware or time I throw at it so I have to message and deal with the seller claiming/pretending that it WAS working perfectly and finally send everything back. I JUST HATE IT SO MUCH.
At that moment I'm questioning if this hobby is bringing me any joy at all.
And yes, I'm writing this rant because I got fkd with another tested but faulty junk, an IBM 6x86 that I never even knew could fail since I have like 10 of them, all working fine. I've never seen a ceramic socket 7 Pentium fail either so this is a real shocker for me.
I accept untested not working. I can live with shipping disasters. I admit to user error when it happens. But when everything is supposed to go well and it all turns south I could just go into rage mode and throw the thing out the window and never look at another retro junk ever again!

eBay was even worse in the early because the sellers would retaliate and give you a bad review if you left a bad one. If possible, I always try to find something locally, but for a lot of people that's not an option.

Vipachei wrote on 2022-12-23, 07:50:

I also know that I can just send it back but it's a PITA and there are often no immediate replacements available. I'm winning the bid, get the item and feel like a kid with a new toy then BAM! It's not working, no life, it's shit no matter how much hardware or time I throw at it so I have to message and deal with the seller claiming/pretending that it WAS working perfectly and finally send everything back. I JUST HATE IT SO MUCH.

Don't just send it back. Do an Item not as described claim. Then if they want it back, they can pay your postage to get it back.

Just realize that sellers on Ebay ARE generally not retro enthusiasts. They cycle through the hardware as quickly as possible to make it profitable to sell. Hence why you will see the minimum amount of work ever done and generally poor presentation of much of the hardware bought from Ebay. So while for you it feels like a shiny new toy, for the seller, it is simply Tuesday.

The most fun I have buying electronics is the gumtree classifieds .... random grabbox for $50 sort of things.

Some probably risky confessions here:

1. I never used WASD for movement in any game in my life. Using the arrows I have a comfortable and adequately spaced radius of keys all around it to use for all type of games, I just can't understand WASD.

2. I just can't bring myself to like mechanical keyboards. I have an IBM Model M and M2 that were passed down to me that I keep for sentimental reasons, but I just don't like the noise, the spring force, how hard the keys are, etc...

3. Maybe the biggest heresy of all for others, I find Adlib/MIDI/DOS Sound in general way too overrated and overpriced. I feel like we're being almost forced to love it, to the point where everyone with a "retro" build just has to have Roland/Yamaha gear and multi soundcards or else they're just not experiencing DOS gaming at all, or on a more extreme level even a GUS for 2 or 3 games (are Jazz JackRabbit/Extreme or Epic Pinball such fantastic games that justify its price?). I think Vibra cards sound perfectly fine, and I find the differences between CQM and OPL3 barely worth caring about, we're not talking audiophile stuff here... And I think that most people would actually be more than happy with a simple CT4810 with SB16 emulation, a good model of Live! with adequate drivers or an Audigy 1/2 if they would just admit it. People like checking Doom for DOS Sound, and the Audigy 1 sound very good on it for example in General Midi/SB 16. I'm generalizing here, but all of that gear, those apparent nuances, and multi soundcards etc to just end up probably being played through some crappy 90's speakers.

(Starts taping hand knuckles as he hears the angry mob coming)

andre_6 wrote on 2023-01-10, 16:47:

1. I never used WASD for movement in any game in my life. Using the arrows I have a comfortable and adequately spaced radius of keys all around it to use for all type of games, I just can't understand WASD.

When using the mouse with the right hand and the keyboard with the left hand, WASD (or ESDF) are more conveniently located when the keyboard is in its natural position in front of the user.

andre_6 wrote on 2023-01-10, 16:47:

2. I just can't bring myself to like mechanical keyboards. I have an IBM Model M and M2 that were passed down to me that I keep for sentimental reasons, but I just don't like the noise, the spring force, how hard the keys are, etc...

Model M and Model M2 are probably quite poor keyboards compared to the modern day's offerings. They may have also degraded with age. There are many many different mechanical switches nowadays with very wide ranges of noise, actuation force, hardness, etc. Anyone can almost certainly find a flavor they like.

andre_6 wrote on 2023-01-10, 16:47:

3. Maybe the biggest heresy of all for others, I find Adlib/MIDI/DOS Sound in general way too overrated and overpriced. I feel like we're being almost forced to love it, to the point where everyone with a "retro" build just has to have Roland/Yamaha gear and multi soundcards or else they're just not experiencing DOS gaming at all, or on a more extreme level even a GUS for 2 or 3 games (are Jazz JackRabbit/Extreme or Epic Pinball such fantastic games that justify its price?).

Nobody but die-hard collectors / audiophiles goes down this extreme path. A simple card with an FM tuner (OPL3 or equivalent), SBPro/SB16 is quite enough. If one really wants MIDI - then a card with a Waveblaster header and one of the Dreamblaster daughterboards covers all bases for under 100 dollars/euro.

andre_6 wrote on 2023-01-10, 16:47:

And I think that most people would actually be more than happy with a simple CT4810 with SB16 emulation, a good model of Live! with adequate drivers or an Audigy 1/2 if they would just admit it.

They would. My issue with the PCI soundcards emulating ISA is not the sound quality, but the emulation being finicky and not always working well. For a retro DOS system I would always recommend a board with an ISA slot for an ISA audio card.

Just to enjoy DOS games? You don't need DOS at all. A modern PC with DOSBox is good enough to make most people happy, in many cases the experience is better than real hardware.

andre_6 wrote on 2023-01-10, 16:47:

1. I never used WASD for movement in any game in my life. Using the arrows I have a comfortable and adequately spaced radius of keys all around it to use for all type of games, I just can't understand WASD.

Before WASD became common, I used to use IJKL. That position left your thumb capable of using SPACE, ALT, CTRL, SHIFT and ENTER fairly easily.

Confession, I started my gaming with PC back in 286s up to my Pentium Pro and moved to a console with Saturn and PS1. When i started collecting retro games and build my proper retro gaming room I spent too much time and money on the setup CRTs BVM D and A, RGB modded all my consoles, SCART switches, Extron's Downscaller etc, Retrotink5x to OLED etc and ended up that rabbit hole. I also have a separate retro computer room with a complete P133 setup, voodoo2, sc55mk2, mt-32, awe64g, Amiga 1200, MSX2+ and soon X68000.

But in the end, when I think about it, I spent most of my time actually playing and enjoying more on my p133 setup and my big box pc games collection more than the rest. I rarely played consoles anymore and questioned myself if I want to sell my consoles collection and those CRTs. I guess the period of 1992-1997 represent the best days of my life in gaming and it kinda stuck till now.

I've always considered myself a hardware guy. Even my job is a hardware engineer. I can say that I never built a "gaming" PC -- I've built PCs for productivity, entertainment, and later, video editing. Now I just like building retro systems for the experimentation and challenge of hunting down hardware and software, getting things to work, and simply trying things now that I couldn't when I was younger (and didn't have as much money)!

I run my Windows 98 PC on a widescreen LCD monitor (it looks beautiful, by the way), I had a wireless keyboard and mouse on the system as well. I just don't want to deal with CRTs -- the were big, heavy, and had limited resolution then, and still do now. Plus, I prefer the lower power consumption, space savings, and just plain able to get a big cheap one at Goodwill.

I'm not into MIDI sounds and can care less about the quality of the sound card. That being said, I'm an audiophile with a large record collection and a stereo system with multiple turntables and vintage audio gear (another one of my many hobbies). I even prefer onboard sound chips! I have SoundBlaster 16 in my retro 486 PC and a SoundBlaster Live in my Windows 98 PC, but as long as the games work and the sound plays, it works for me.

I consider anything that does not run a current operating system to be "retro" -- and by "current", I mean one that is still receiving support from the source. At this point in time, I would say the cutoff is late Pentium 4s that can still run Windows 10 and be useful for e-mail, internet browsing, and limited HD video streaming. While I grew up mainly in the era of the original Pentium, my first computers were an 8086 with DOS 3.1, a 286 with Windows 3.1, and later a 386-SX with a 28.8 modem for JUNO e-mail, I could consider a new-ish computer retro if it won't do what I want a computer to do today.

mvm916 wrote on 2023-01-13, 16:56:

I've always considered myself a hardware guy. Even my job is a hardware engineer. I can say that I never built a "gaming" PC - […]
Show full quote

I've always considered myself a hardware guy. Even my job is a hardware engineer. I can say that I never built a "gaming" PC -- I've built PCs for productivity, entertainment, and later, video editing. Now I just like building retro systems for the experimentation and challenge of hunting down hardware and software, getting things to work, and simply trying things now that I couldn't when I was younger (and didn't have as much money)!

I run my Windows 98 PC on a widescreen LCD monitor (it looks beautiful, by the way), I had a wireless keyboard and mouse on the system as well. I just don't want to deal with CRTs -- the were big, heavy, and had limited resolution then, and still do now. Plus, I prefer the lower power consumption, space savings, and just plain able to get a big cheap one at Goodwill.

I'm not into MIDI sounds and can care less about the quality of the sound card. That being said, I'm an audiophile with a large record collection and a stereo system with multiple turntables and vintage audio gear (another one of my many hobbies). I even prefer onboard sound chips! I have SoundBlaster 16 in my retro 486 PC and a SoundBlaster Live in my Windows 98 PC, but as long as the games work and the sound plays, it works for me.

I consider anything that does not run a current operating system to be "retro" -- and by "current", I mean one that is still receiving support from the source. At this point in time, I would say the cutoff is late Pentium 4s that can still run Windows 10 and be useful for e-mail, internet browsing, and limited HD video streaming. While I grew up mainly in the era of the original Pentium, my first computers were an 8086 with DOS 3.1, a 286 with Windows 3.1, and later a 386-SX with a 28.8 modem for JUNO e-mail, I could consider a new-ish computer retro if it won't do what I want a computer to do today.

Oi, we are talking here about "retro confessions" not about "retro obsessions" ... talks the guy with 12+ retro PCs in the basement 😀

Last week I let an IBM Series i5 system pass me by, it was almost complete, missing a few plastic bits & side panels.
4GB RAM, 144GB DASD, SLR60 tape, cdrom, V92 PCI modem.
I should've looked it up then & there but I had work to do.
It also had one broken flatcable running to the indicator & button panel.
It's haunting me for leaving it there, there to be ground up into tiny bits for recycling.

Sigh.

I killed a geforce 256...
It was my first time taking out a glued heatsink, i did everything right BUT the last part which is to put a plastic sheet between the screwdriver and the heatsink, i scratched the GPU die.

I hoard old donated computers in giveaway forums in my basement and say that they are for poor kids to go to school. 🫣

Cyberdyne wrote on 2024-06-15, 19:02:

I hoard old donated computers in giveaway forums in my basement and say that they are for poor kids to go to school. 🫣

yikes, you win this thread

Cyberdyne wrote on 2024-06-15, 19:02:

I hoard old donated computers in giveaway forums in my basement and say that they are for poor kids to go to school. 🫣

🤣 FFS!

I was never a fan of the windows color scheme changes the S3 drivers bring to W3x. though by the time I had an S3 card my days of W3x and "pure DOS" days were long over

leileilol wrote on 2024-06-16, 02:42:

I was never a fan of the windows color scheme changes the S3 drivers bring to W3x.

Is it where they change the dark blue title bars to light blue? Or am I thinking about something else?

Yeah

I think i've only seen glimpses of that scheme in some magazines and manuals but never made the connection to S3 until the later DOSbox 0.7x era of emulating Win3x with S3 drivers. The Win7 basic-esque look of the scheme's a coincidence

iraito wrote on 2024-06-15, 16:10:

I killed a geforce 256...
It was my first time taking out a glued heatsink, i did everything right BUT the last part which is to put a plastic sheet between the screwdriver and the heatsink, i scratched the GPU die.

Uh... It sounds like your idea of doing it right is "brutally levering it off - but with a thin piece of plastic"

I'm going to go with most likely you did everything wrong.

The right way is to find out what softens the glue (Eg heat, acetone) apply it, and twist the hs back and forth until the glue breaks.

Levering only ends in failure. Either the die, the substrate, or the pcb.

myne wrote on 2024-06-16, 06:31:

Uh... It sounds like your idea of doing it right is "brutally levering it off - but with a thin piece of plastic" […]
Show full quote

iraito wrote on 2024-06-15, 16:10:

I killed a geforce 256...
It was my first time taking out a glued heatsink, i did everything right BUT the last part which is to put a plastic sheet between the screwdriver and the heatsink, i scratched the GPU die.

Uh... It sounds like your idea of doing it right is "brutally levering it off - but with a thin piece of plastic"

I'm going to go with most likely you did everything wrong.

The right way is to find out what softens the glue (Eg heat, acetone) apply it, and twist the hs back and forth until the glue breaks.

Levering only ends in failure. Either the die, the substrate, or the pcb.

Being a 256 its likely using that epoxy thermal shit which you need to freeze it then either gently twist the heat sink to break the epoxy or level it gently with a plastic spudger. Had to do this with my Voodoo5 using an air duster, just turn it upside down and use the propellant to freeze the heatsink. (Freezing turns the epoxy brittle, do it right and you can generally remove all the epoxy with the heatsink)

works a treat.