giantenemycat wrote on 2026-03-27, 13:40:

I was about to transplant a different board into this case, but actually looking at it, it seems like the I/O shield is built into the chassis.

its a punch out, few snips and its out

giantenemycat wrote on 2026-03-27, 13:40:

Even if that pops out, that's not going fit into a different case, is it?

shape is standard, might need to use tape to secure it 😀

wierd_w wrote on 2026-03-27, 15:31:

Genesis is a normal DB9. […]
Show full quote

Genesis is a normal DB9.

Many vintage serial mice used the same kind of molded plastic plug.

It's (genesis controller) physically (and mostly electrically) the same as an Atari Joystick.

There's a community breakout board for TI 99/4A microcomputers for dual joysticks that's basically just some passives and some db9 connectors.

https://texelec.com/product/ti-994a-to-atari- … ystick-adapter/

I can confirm that genesis controllers fit fine.

This is good information, thanks. I'll reply again when it's delivered.

I sorted a lot of floppies today, and found an original 1987 copy of Tetris. The last time it was played seems to be 1991. I have created an image of the disk just in case...

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-03-27, 23:41:

giantenemycat wrote on 2026-03-27, 13:40:

I was about to transplant a different board into this case, but actually looking at it, it seems like the I/O shield is built into the chassis. Even if that pops out, that's not going fit into a different case, is it?

That one doesn't look too unusual. I am seeing some listed under the designation "Motherboard ATX IO Shield Backplate Centre Parallel Port Horizontal Audio"

The board I want to put in does actually have the exact same I/O, minus the LAN. Even though it's also laid out in the same way, I guess there'd probably be small differences in spacing that would have it not fit.

But I think this case is probably slightly too "modern" for the year 2000 anyway, which was my plan for it. What do you think?

My lovely wife came across an awesome find, buried in a cabinet for decades, while cleaning at her parents house. She immediately thought of me! 😀

She ran across their old original Sears Tele-Games Atari 2600! It was completely covered in thick dust bunnies, far worse than in the photo below, but otherwise in good physical condition for it's age. I gave it a good air dusting, brought it home, cleaned it up a little more, and it's already looking much better.

My wife knew I would have a blast restoring this classic gem back to it's original working state, and that's exactly what I am going to try and do. I'll open it up and see if there's any noticeable physical damage, replace what I think should be replaced, before even attempting to power it up. Then, I'll set about fixing whatever I can to bring it back to life!

Cosmetically, I'll clean the plastic and wood bits better while I have it torn apart, but I'm not going to try and restore it to "like new" condition. Personally, I think it already looks good for its age, and those marks, dings, and scratches show this Atari had a good life, and I plan on trying to extend that life.

Without opening it up yet (as soon as I have time) the cartridge looks good. The toggles are all free and not crunchy. The two momentary sliders also feel good. All good signs. The only real changes I intend to make to the system will be adding the composite mod and a new power supply.

This is going to be a fun project! 😀

StriderTR wrote on 2026-03-28, 20:07:

My lovely wife came across an awesome find, buried in a cabinet for decades, while cleaning at her parents house. She immediatel […]
Show full quote

My lovely wife came across an awesome find, buried in a cabinet for decades, while cleaning at her parents house. She immediately thought of me! 😀

She ran across their old original Sears Tele-Games Atari 2600! It was completely covered in thick dust bunnies, far worse than in the photo below, but otherwise in good physical condition for it's age. I gave it a good air dusting, brought it home, cleaned it up a little more, and it's already looking much better.

My wife knew I would have a blast restoring this classic gem back to it's original working state, and that's exactly what I am going to try and do. I'll open it up and see if there's any noticeable physical damage, replace what I think should be replaced, before even attempting to power it up. Then, I'll set about fixing whatever I can to bring it back to life!

Cosmetically, I'll clean the plastic and wood bits better while I have it torn apart, but I'm not going to try and restore it to "like new" condition. Personally, I think it already looks good for its age, and those marks, dings, and scratches show this Atari had a good life, and I plan on trying to extend that life.

Without opening it up yet (as soon as I have time) the cartridge looks good. The toggles are all free and not crunchy. The two momentary sliders also feel good. All good signs. The only real changes I intend to make to the system will be adding the composite mod and a new power supply.

This is going to be a fun project! 😀

I was very confused when I saw that Atari logo. I was thinking this had to be some kind of modified system with a modern computer in it to be able to display an image like that... but now I get that you were just showing the logo as part of the collage of pictures. That makes a lot more sense. 😋

Should be a fun project though! I had to fix one up for someone a few years ago by replacing the RIOT chip and doing a few other things. It was the person's original Atari from when they were young and had sentimental value. In trade for the work I was given two complete Apple IIe systems and an Apple IIc with monitors, piles of drives, printers, etc. I think it was definitely a fair trade!

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-03-28, 20:52:

I was very confused when I saw that Atari logo. I was thinking this had to be some kind of modified system with a modern computer in it to be able to display an image like that... but now I get that you were just showing the logo as part of the collage of pictures. That makes a lot more sense. 😋

Should be a fun project though! I had to fix one up for someone a few years ago by replacing the RIOT chip and doing a few other things. It was the person's original Atari from when they were young and had sentimental value. In trade for the work I was given two complete Apple IIe systems and an Apple IIc with monitors, piles of drives, printers, etc. I think it was definitely a fair trade!

Hah, yeah, I just used it as a place holder since I only took 3 photos of it before I started cleaning it and looking for cosmetic damage. 😜

It will definitely be fun, I'm glad my wife sat it aside for me. She knows me well! This was the unit they originally bought way back in the day when she was a kid.

I'm not sure what I'll do with it once I'm done. I have 5 or 6 Atari games on hand and a couple controllers, so I'll be able to test it and make sure it's all good when I'm done. May keep it for nostalgia's sake, but I don't need it as I have other units. Or maybe I'll sell it off to someone to recoup the repair/upgrade cost who will get some real use out of it. Atari 2600's aren't exactly rare and can be had over on eBay pretty cheap. We'll see.

giantenemycat wrote on 2026-03-28, 19:00:

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-03-27, 23:41:

giantenemycat wrote on 2026-03-27, 13:40:

I was about to transplant a different board into this case, but actually looking at it, it seems like the I/O shield is built into the chassis. Even if that pops out, that's not going fit into a different case, is it?

That one doesn't look too unusual. I am seeing some listed under the designation "Motherboard ATX IO Shield Backplate Centre Parallel Port Horizontal Audio"

The board I want to put in does actually have the exact same I/O, minus the LAN. Even though it's also laid out in the same way, I guess there'd probably be small differences in spacing that would have it not fit.

But I think this case is probably slightly too "modern" for the year 2000 anyway, which was my plan for it. What do you think?

IDK I've seen a few Athlon XP systems in similar cases. That look with translucent panels was copycatting the iMac G3 which came out in 1998, it's in the ballpark.

Opened the 2600 up tonight. Other than a few dust dinos, far too large to be bunnies, it was in remarkably good shape! No noticeable serious internal damage on the boards, components, or case. The black foam switch backs are in great shape. Not a lot of rust anywhere. After some IPA and DeoxIt on the boards, and good old soap and water on the case, with care to not damage the labels, it's looking spiffy!

Just need to get some caps and the composite mod.

Though, seeing how good a shape it's in internally... I'm tempted to see if this old heavy sixer functions as-is, then re-cap and mod it. 😀

I'm gutted!! 🙁

Today was supposed to be a great day for my retro project. I cheerily set off, finally crossing the country to the old house where I'd agreed to collect my old PCs including a decent 3Dfx collection (Voodoo1/2xVooodoo2SLI/Banshee/Voodoo3) and my most memorable Radeon - a surprise model I've been eager to rediscover and verify the identify of...

It was over 20 years ago but I vividly remember leaving that mystery Radeon safely in my PC because it was the best performing K6-2 pairing; tested comparisons had included my GeForce3 (original spec), and my GeForce4 MX 128bit DDR -5ns.

I also remember positioning a spacer followed by low profile NIC to maximise airflow to that unicorn of an AGP card... This was supposed to be my moment of truth!

What did I find?

One tower missing.

One tower gutted of its graphics cards, and err.. replaced with weird tobacco dusts. It's missing side panels too. Even the HDDs were removed. Who would do that?! At least the SDRAM DIMMs were left.

The last tower looks more complete. I think it's an i430TX/ViRGE/Voodoo1 but waiting for the delivery of an extra big bottle of isopropyl before taking any parts out for a closer look.

I'm hoping there are cardboard boxes hiding my missing Radeon and 3Dfx collection somewhere, but there was no sign of them today and I feel so low.

Edit: Actually, there should have been other old PCs in desktop format (LC2, 386, and something else.. maybe an i430VX) but I didn't see any of those. Might need take a crowbar and angrier face next time.

Shouldn't be too surprised at that outcome. Not following up on it for 20 years and hoping time would stand still.

AndrettiGTO wrote on 2026-03-30, 23:21:

Shouldn't be too surprised at that outcome. Not following up on it for 20 years and hoping time would stand still.

It's not time though. If it were just time, I'd expect a leaky capacitor. This is something else.

So you "agreed to collect" your old PCs in an old house on the other side of the country 20 years ago? Wat?

badmojo wrote on 2026-03-31, 06:18:

So you "agreed to collect" your old PCs in an old house on the other side of the country 20 years ago? Wat?

Why not? After all..

badmojo wrote on 2026-03-31, 06:18:

So you "agreed to collect" your old PCs in an old house on the other side of the country 20 years ago? Wat?

🤣, well... kind of. I don't remember what I said 20 years ago. In my post, I meant I'd agreed more recently to go back and collect things that were left behind 20 years ago.

It's a consequence of having been born into a family, living with them for a while, moving out, leaving stuff behind.. and letting them know I'd be back for it one day.

I understand your experiences on the progression of time might be different.

MattRocks wrote on 2026-03-31, 12:29:

🤣, well... kind of. I don't remember what I said 20 years ago. In my post, I meant I'd agreed more recently to go back and collect things that were left behind 20 years ago.

It's a consequence of having been born into a family, living with them for a while, moving out, leaving stuff behind.. and letting them know I'd be back for it one day.

I understand your experiences on the progression of time might be different.

My experience has some similarity - I too have lots of my 'retro' and other stuff stored at my parents' place, which I've moved out of 20+ years ago. In my case, it's simpler, though, because it's not 'across the country' or anything, but <2 hours drive away, so I have been visiting regularly throughout the years, and "maintaining" my hoard. Sometimes I collected things from there and brought them to my place, sometimes the other way around.

I think many people have similar experiences that sit somewhere between mine and yours.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-03-26, 15:18:

I don't know if you could maybe clone the KBC code to another 8051 type chip in order to use that as a scratch monkey.

Hmm, it's seemingly unique to the T3400 but I think the maintenance manual is telling porkies:

One M37452M4 chip is used. This KBC includes the keyboard scan controller and
keyboard interface controller. The KBC controls the internal keyboard, Accupoint
(pointer control stick), external keyboard, and PS/2 mouse.

The T3600 uses a M38802M4 and the spare dead T2110 board I have has similar. Oh but wait what's this? The T3400's keyboard controller has different writing on it under the firmware version sticker:

Hrm, looks like I shouldn't take the maintenance manual as gospel since it's copy/pasted between rapidly iterated versions - seriously look at how many laptops Toshiba made in the 1993 to 1995 period. The M38802E4 chip is probably similar - M means mask ROM and E means OTP ROM.
Gonna have to dig out my T2110 spare board and see if the pinout kind of matches, hopefully I can use that since it's far less integrated than I feared. Initially I was thinking this chip was basically the laptop's embedded controller but it's not, just a PS2 keyboard/mouse manager chip.

Today not a retro thing but I'm not making two posts about this - I got my Infiray P2 Pro thermal camera working again. Somehow the flex cable for the USB-C port got damaged, rendering it useless. Had to do resolder 3 tiny traces + power and ground, took 3 retries because the stupid flimsy flex cable kept breaking. Now it's hot-glued onto the USB cable and will stay attached to that forever. Can't afford to buy a new thermal camera right now.

edit: ooh this looks promising. The keyboard controller on the T2100 series moved over to being a Toshiba labelled '187HP' chip but the pin count and pinout kind of match on my board shots. I hope this could work!

Yesterday & today, I busted 3 knuckles trying to restore 3 old computers.
The dual athlon and p3 didn't work so they're dismantled.
Luckily, the good son lives.

- Soyo SY-6BA+ III Slot-A motherboard, with 2 16-bit ISA slots, 5 32-bit PCI, and 1 3.3V AGP slot.
- Celeron 300A clocked to 450.
- Windows 98 SE build 4.10.2222
- 512 MB RAM
- 3 hard drive partitions: 2 GB, 1.5 GB, 17 GB, and another drive not connected. There's not even a slave connector on the cable.
- The Sony disc drive failed, but a Panasonic from another box worked. Panasonics always were reliable.
- The CMOS battery is a 2032 which I have on hand. Very unexpected!
- Sound Blaster AWE-32, full length (I measured 13")
- Diamond Voodoo graphics card
- Elsa Gladiac 511 TV-out (NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX NV11B, AGP 4x, 64MB RAM)
- Network card: 100Mb ???!!! I'll be replacing this

What a sweet gaming box it was. But now what?

All of my Windows 98 era games are working perfectly on an HP/Compaq 8710w laptop.
Not portable, of course, since there's no way to get a battery.
Not without hacking one myself.
The other games are easily run in an emulator.

Looking back, I note my only posts here were in two threads back in 2011.
Perhaps I should hibernate again for another 15 years.
We'll see if the old Celery 300A still works.
Or if I do.

I bought a high-end Radeon AGP card.

Unrelated question, but does anybody know the best way to paint a computer case and have it last?

RetroLizard wrote on Today, 04:12:

Unrelated question, but does anybody know the best way to paint a computer case and have it last?

I don't know, but I think it's the same way you paint a car so my hunch is you'd find tried & tested answers on car forums.