VOGONS


something I have learned in life

Topic actions

First post, by ncmark

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Something I have learned - whatever it is worth. This applies to computers, as well as many other things in life.
This is it: you can't go back.
Sure, I could build a replica of an old computer I had. If I got really lucky I might even find the same components. But it wouldn't *BE* that computer, and it won't be *BE* that time again. That time has passed.

Reply 1 of 24, by ratfink

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

yes. you have moved on, and the older you get the more you have moved on. I often feel like a Haggunenon:

" if, sitting at the table, they are unable to reach a coffee spoon, they are liable without a moment's consideration to mutate into something with far longer arms - but which is probably quite incapable of drinking the coffee"

Reply 2 of 24, by Joseph_Joestar

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

I kinda get what you mean, but for me, it doesn't apply to computer or console gaming. If I fire up my DOS 6.22 retro PC with an AT keyboard and CRT monitor attached, then run Duke3D on it, I'm pretty much back in 1996. It plays and looks exactly as it did when I was young. Same thing when I connect my Sega Mega Drive to a CRT TV and play Sonic 3 or Contra: Hard Corps on that setup.

And if I'm feeling really nostalgic, I might also put on a few episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (or Voyager) since I used to watch that during the mid-late 90s. It might not be exactly the same, but it's close enough for me.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Core 2 Duo E8600 / Foxconn P35AX-S / X800 / Audigy2 ZS
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 980Ti / X-Fi Titanium

Reply 3 of 24, by leileilol

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

A new cane thread!!!!

Not having the old internet (and having too much hindsight for curiosity to drive) probably hurts. Wrappering in IA (either proxy or cringe 'aesthetic' frame sites) isn't the same at all

Also the TV landscape turning into repeat central of a small show pool + clearchannel radio takeover, doesn't help at recreating the hands-free background entertainment either!

apsosig.png
long live PCem

Reply 4 of 24, by ncmark

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Cane thread? (shrug)

Reply 5 of 24, by Shagittarius

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

You can be anything in life you want to be, except younger. If that's what you want you are screwed.

Reply 6 of 24, by ncmark

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Now THAT is a true statement

Reply 7 of 24, by AppleSauce

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

And I guess that's true but most of the hardware i have now I never owned back in the day l , I did dabble with dos games when I was a kid but I only played a few compared to the amount I have now , never had a mt32 never had a sony trinitron flat screen monitor or a voodoo or a gravis ultrasound or a powervr card so I dont know if you could call it nostalgia, yet I still enjoy using the hardware , I dunno for me it feels more like hardware and software archaeology maybe mixed in with a tiny bit of nostalgia.

Reply 8 of 24, by zuldan

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-07-20, 19:30:

I kinda get what you mean, but for me, it doesn't apply to computer or console gaming. If I fire up my DOS 6.22 retro PC with an AT keyboard and CRT monitor attached, then run Duke3D on it, I'm pretty much back in 1996. It plays and looks exactly as it did when I was young. Same thing when I connect my Sega Mega Drive to a CRT TV and play Sonic 3 or Contra: Hard Corps on that setup.

And if I'm feeling really nostalgic, I might also put on a few episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (or Voyager) since I used to watch that during the mid-late 90s. It might not be exactly the same, but it's close enough for me.

Exactly the same! We would have been best mates in the 90’s

Reply 9 of 24, by theelf

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Man, when i turn on my 286 im back to 1989 and my 486 to 1994

No matter i have a bad day, taxes or work problems, as soon turn on one of my computers i travel on time

My wife need to came 2 or 3 times to tellme is time for dinner...just like my mother did 30 years ago...

Reply 10 of 24, by Joseph_Joestar

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
zuldan wrote on 2024-07-21, 08:33:

Exactly the same! We would have been best mates in the 90’s

Heh, I wager a lot of us here were fans of sci-fi TV shows, and got into PC gaming during the middle of the 90s. That kinda goes together, at least from my experience. 😀

theelf wrote on 2024-07-21, 08:37:

No matter i have a bad day, taxes or work problems, as soon turn on one of my computers i travel on time

My thoughts exactly. It's easy to forget everyday issues when you fire up a retro rig. No wonder Phil calls them "time machines" in his videos. 😁

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Core 2 Duo E8600 / Foxconn P35AX-S / X800 / Audigy2 ZS
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 980Ti / X-Fi Titanium

Reply 11 of 24, by ncmark

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I STILL watch DS9 and Next Generation. But lately I have been in an OUter Limits mood 😉

Reply 12 of 24, by badmojo

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
ratfink wrote on 2024-07-20, 19:18:

" if, sitting at the table, they are unable to reach a coffee spoon, they are liable without a moment's consideration to mutate into something with far longer arms - but which is probably quite incapable of drinking the coffee"

I like that.

I'm currently re-reading a sci fi story that I loved 20 years ago, but this time meh - plot holes everywhere, paper thin characters, dialog not so great. I must have mutated somewhere along the line.

Last edited by badmojo on 2024-07-22, 11:05. Edited 1 time in total.

Life? Don't talk to me about life.

Reply 13 of 24, by darry

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
ncmark wrote on 2024-07-21, 11:32:

I STILL watch DS9 and Next Generation. But lately I have been in an OUter Limits mood 😉

IMHO, the world has been giving off increasingly dystopian future vibes these last few years, so I guess it sort of makes sense to revisit the Outer Limits and try to guess which bleak alternate future prediction is most likely to come true (or which ones). Black Mirror works for that too, again IMHO.

Reply 14 of 24, by chinny22

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

I'm lucky that I do have a few of my PC's from my youth but unlike then. It's why I'll never upgrade the CPU in my DX2/66, it feels like its part of the machine and won't be the same as it was back then.

But its a nice escape to when I think I was happier. I probably wasn't worrying about school, girls, how cool I was, All those things that teenagers worry about and now don't give a second thought.
Instead even when playing that exact same game on the exact same computer as you say it's not the same as now in the back of my mind I'm thinking about work, kids, bills and all those things the men in their 40's worry about but it's a nice illusion just as long as you do accept that you can't actually go back to that time.

and honestly I have no wish to relive highschool again, even with all the freetime I had.

Reply 15 of 24, by Unknown_K

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I never cared much about rebuilding the same system I had back in the day, I want to build the higher end ones I didn't have (exotic cards and stuff).

While playing around with EISA and MCA systems I never had back then is fun and takes me back to that happy time, playing some of the games I loved back then isn't the same.

Collector of old computers, hardware, and software

Reply 16 of 24, by iraito

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Well the beauty of memory (the pure one at least) is that it's a perpetual becoming, you will keep feeling new things even when experiencing old things, it's dynamic and cumulative, the important thing is not searching for the same identical feeling you had in the past, it's simply impossible to get those back and it's fine like that.
So yeah i like recreating my old machines but mostly to have a fresh take at them.

uRj9ajU.pngqZbxQbV.png
If you wanna check a blue ball playing retro PC games
MIDI Devices: RA-50 (modded to MT-32) SC-55

Reply 17 of 24, by Errius

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

My main regret is that I didn't pay attention to computer specs back in the day. I simply don't know what computers we owned in the 1990s. It's all just a blur. I think we had a 386 at one point, but I'm not sure. Computers were like fridges or washing machines. You bought one, used it until it broke, then tossed it, and got another.

For example, someone just started a thread about their old DX4-100. I had one of those too, but I don't know what mobo it had, what hard drive, what floppy drives, what case, what mouse - I don't even have a photograph. It makes me sad.

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 18 of 24, by ncmark

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Don't get me wrong - I still have "replicas" of an old machine I had.
Instead of a 166mmx, it's a p3/650, instead of a 4gb drive it's two 40-gb drives, instead of win95 it's win98se, but other than that all the same software is still there.
I have two machines like that - asus cubx, one is 650 and one is 850

But the older stuff - dos and win3.1, I got rid off. Occasionally I think of going back and trying to rebuild one of those systems, but the slowest I have is not a slot1 p3/450.

Reply 19 of 24, by ncmark

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
chinny22 wrote on 2024-07-22, 07:28:
I'm lucky that I do have a few of my PC's from my youth but unlike then. It's why I'll never upgrade the CPU in my DX2/66, it fe […]
Show full quote

I'm lucky that I do have a few of my PC's from my youth but unlike then. It's why I'll never upgrade the CPU in my DX2/66, it feels like its part of the machine and won't be the same as it was back then.

But its a nice escape to when I think I was happier. I probably wasn't worrying about school, girls, how cool I was, All those things that teenagers worry about and now don't give a second thought.
Instead even when playing that exact same game on the exact same computer as you say it's not the same as now in the back of my mind I'm thinking about work, kids, bills and all those things the men in their 40's worry about but it's a nice illusion just as long as you do accept that you can't actually go back to that time.

and honestly I have no wish to relive highschool again, even with all the freetime I had.

THIS