RetroLizard wrote on 2026-06-15, 23:35:

brostenen wrote on 2026-06-15, 14:42:

RetroLizard wrote on 2026-06-14, 22:52:

Installed Mac OS X 10.5 on a Mac Mini A1176 via USB. It seems to be missing apps like iMovie and Garageband, though.

Wondering what software to get for it.

Is it the one with nVidia? If so, then outrun 2006 C2C.
I have it on my Mini.

It's got an Intel GMA chipset.

Sadly Outrun 2006 C2C need nVidia to work. Else there are tons of Dos games, packed with DosBox to run.
I bet you can even get Sid Meiers Pirates to work on it, pending version of MacOS you are using.

I finished sorting my CPUs today. All the loose guys. This is everything except the Slots, those are huge and just in a box, with the Slot-heatsink collection as well.

I downloaded some trays, I believe off thingiverse (a pretty long time ago now) and just upscaled the 478 one to use with the AM2. A whole tray of SL52R, were still OG pasted and dirty. Cleaned everything up and seriously enjoyed looking over such a spread!

The old-timers are still loose in the drawer, except the gold ones; they're on display. Same with the slotkets and 370 -370 adapter.

The two modern-looking guys are a couple of Xeon X5670, which I got from my brother to upgrade my Sabertooth X58 system (my OG computer from back in the day). I dumped my 3rd gen i5-3570k/GTX660 system for it, because I wanted to try the triple-channel memory (and 24GB of it!). At the time I played a LOT of Minecraft (with mods) and it helped significantly with loading world and "extreme" view distance (which was unbelievably taxing with the 64x64 textures I made/used). I was very satisfied with the "downgrade" and am excited to see how it runs with the new CPU. Still got the OG windows 7 install and hasn't touched the internet in over 10 years now.

brostenen wrote on 2026-06-23, 12:10:

RetroLizard wrote on 2026-06-15, 23:35:

brostenen wrote on 2026-06-15, 14:42:

Is it the one with nVidia? If so, then outrun 2006 C2C.
I have it on my Mini.

It's got an Intel GMA chipset.

Sadly Outrun 2006 C2C need nVidia to work. Else there are tons of Dos games, packed with DosBox to run.
I bet you can even get Sid Meiers Pirates to work on it, pending version of MacOS you are using.

I'm going to install 10.6.3.

Boy... I have just found myself engaging in a surprising retro activity.

Going through video tapes from an old Sony Handicam Video8 that was owned by an older sibling of mine that passed away almost 15 years ago. I had no idea that we still had this camcorder and the tapes. The footage I have seen so far is from the mid to late 90s. Lots of footage of close family members getting together at our house, and even some footage that a friend and I made goofing around when I borrowed the camcorder for a while. This friend actually just died a couple years ago too. In fact, half the people in these videos are no longer alive.

It is absolutely amazing to see this stuff after all these years. I'm still processing what I've just watched. It's so surreal...

I'm not going to play any more because I want to get a device to record these onto my PC, rather than risk degrading or damaging these old tapes by just watching them.

In fact, one of the tapes seems to be broken. The one reel just spins freely and the tape flops around while the other reel doesn't move at all. I will have to take it apart and tape the ends back together I guess.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-06-24, 03:23:

Boy... I have just found myself engaging in a surprising retro activity. […]
Show full quote

Boy... I have just found myself engaging in a surprising retro activity.

Going through video tapes from an old Sony Handicam Video8 that was owned by an older sibling of mine that passed away almost 15 years ago. I had no idea that we still had this camcorder and the tapes. The footage I have seen so far is from the mid to late 90s. Lots of footage of close family members getting together at our house, and even some footage that a friend and I made goofing around when I borrowed the camcorder for a while. This friend actually just died a couple years ago too. In fact, half the people in these videos are no longer alive.

It is absolutely amazing to see this stuff after all these years. I'm still processing what I've just watched. It's so surreal...

I'm not going to play any more because I want to get a device to record these onto my PC, rather than risk degrading or damaging these old tapes by just watching them.

In fact, one of the tapes seems to be broken. The one reel just spins freely and the tape flops around while the other reel doesn't move at all. I will have to take it apart and tape the ends back together I guess.

that's an amazing experience, must be strange to see that, long ago yet there. definitely worth preserving them

its often said how youtube has x 1000 hours uploaded every minute and so on, and how will all this stuff be kept or viewed in the future - but the stuff that matters to us personally is not ever abundant, its rare and easily lost

Just watched this great video about force feedback controllers by Shane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKXhFYwTiS8

Excellent video, thanks for sharing.
Back in the day I had the MS FF Pro so a few years ago bought the last release using USB. After disassembly and removing the now sticky rubberized coating, I refinished the handle and it's held up well.
It's a great stick.

PcBytes wrote on 2025-02-24, 21:28:

Prepping a slightly-unusual-than-usual dual-boot machine to be sold.

P4 631, P5P800, a 160GB HDD halved in two 80GB partitions, FX5700LE and 2GB worth of DDR.

(I'm screwed, aren't I?)

P5P800 doesn't officially support Cedar Mill. How did you get it to work? I'm looking to build the same PC more or less. Much appreciated.

Some time last year I bought a 9600GT because I wanted the Zalman VF700 cooler on it for a Radoen 9800Pro. The 9600GT turned out to be a completely working card. Today I soldered on a 4pin fan connector from a donor card because all the replacement heatsinks I have came with a 4pin connector. Before soldering I checked the GND and +12V pins to see if they connect. They did and run the 4pin fan, but didn't do extensive testing to see if PWM works.

Also, with the 2pin the GND doesn't connect (directly) to ground so there is probably some sort of fan speed regulation on it. I just assumed it just blasts full speed all the time.

We also got a new office in our building and cleaning out the trash I found this:

KB-5160 AXT
The stand-off is missing on one side and there is extensive yellowing, but otherwise looks OK.

Finally, a coworker bought a house and the previous owner left him with a PC in the attic. Turned out to be mostly working. The PSU shuts down every 20 minutes or an hour if I replace the graphics card with a GT210. With a verified good PSU it finishes 3DMark 2005 and runs fine for extended periods.
It has a mediocre AM2 board (GA_MA61PME-S2) with an Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (ADO4200IAA5DO) and 2×4GB Kingston DDR2. The graphics card is an MSI Radeon HD3850 256MB which I find really tempting. I'll think it over this weekend and maybe help him sell it to me.

Not that I really need it, I have several cards around this performance level and age (8800GT, 9600GT, HD4670, 8800 Ultra, GTS450), but I was fascinated with this gen back then, but by the time I had the upgrade money, the HD4000 series was already out.

RandomStranger wrote on 2026-06-25, 14:03:

Some time last year I bought a 9600GT because I wanted the Zalman VF700 cooler on it for a Radoen 9800Pro. The 9600GT turned out […]
Show full quote

Some time last year I bought a 9600GT because I wanted the Zalman VF700 cooler on it for a Radoen 9800Pro. The 9600GT turned out to be a completely working card. Today I soldered on a 4pin fan connector from a donor card because all the replacement heatsinks I have came with a 4pin connector. Before soldering I checked the GND and +12V pins to see if they connect. They did and run the 4pin fan, but didn't do extensive testing to see if PWM works.

The attachment IMG_20260625_153403.jpg is no longer available

Also, with the 2pin the GND doesn't connect (directly) to ground so there is probably some sort of fan speed regulation on it. I just assumed it just blasts full speed all the time.

We also got a new office in our building and cleaning out the trash I found this:

The attachment IMG_20260625_153304.jpg is no longer available

KB-5160 AXT
The stand-off is missing on one side and there is extensive yellowing, but otherwise looks OK.

Finally, a coworker bought a house and the previous owner left him with a PC in the attic. Turned out to be mostly working. The PSU shuts down every 20 minutes or an hour if I replace the graphics card with a GT210. With a verified good PSU it finishes 3DMark 2005 and runs fine for extended periods.
It has a mediocre AM2 board (GA_MA61PME-S2) with an Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (ADO4200IAA5DO) and 2×4GB Kingston DDR2. The graphics card is an MSI Radeon HD3850 256MB which I find really tempting. I'll think it over this weekend and maybe help him sell it to me.

The attachment IMG_20260625_132126.jpg is no longer available

Not that I really need it, I have several cards around this performance level and age (8800GT, 9600GT, HD4670, 8800 Ultra, GTS450), but I was fascinated with this gen back then, but by the time I had the upgrade money, the HD4000 series was already out.

Schematics exist 😉

myne wrote on 2026-06-26, 07:18:

RandomStranger wrote on 2026-06-25, 14:03:

Some time last year I bought a 9600GT because I wanted the Zalman VF700 cooler on it for a Radoen 9800Pro. The 9600GT turned out […]
Show full quote

Some time last year I bought a 9600GT because I wanted the Zalman VF700 cooler on it for a Radoen 9800Pro. The 9600GT turned out to be a completely working card. Today I soldered on a 4pin fan connector from a donor card because all the replacement heatsinks I have came with a 4pin connector. Before soldering I checked the GND and +12V pins to see if they connect. They did and run the 4pin fan, but didn't do extensive testing to see if PWM works.

The attachment IMG_20260625_153403.jpg is no longer available

Also, with the 2pin the GND doesn't connect (directly) to ground so there is probably some sort of fan speed regulation on it. I just assumed it just blasts full speed all the time.

We also got a new office in our building and cleaning out the trash I found this:

The attachment IMG_20260625_153304.jpg is no longer available

KB-5160 AXT
The stand-off is missing on one side and there is extensive yellowing, but otherwise looks OK.

Finally, a coworker bought a house and the previous owner left him with a PC in the attic. Turned out to be mostly working. The PSU shuts down every 20 minutes or an hour if I replace the graphics card with a GT210. With a verified good PSU it finishes 3DMark 2005 and runs fine for extended periods.
It has a mediocre AM2 board (GA_MA61PME-S2) with an Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (ADO4200IAA5DO) and 2×4GB Kingston DDR2. The graphics card is an MSI Radeon HD3850 256MB which I find really tempting. I'll think it over this weekend and maybe help him sell it to me.

The attachment IMG_20260625_132126.jpg is no longer available

Not that I really need it, I have several cards around this performance level and age (8800GT, 9600GT, HD4670, 8800 Ultra, GTS450), but I was fascinated with this gen back then, but by the time I had the upgrade money, the HD4000 series was already out.

Schematics exist 😉

Schematics is for pussies. You find what you need with your own multimeter 😁

I bought Silverstone Temjin TJ04 (2004.)

Messed around with the Mac Classic II I picked up 2 days ago a bit to see what general condition it's in while waiting for a long screwdriver and mouse + keyboard to arrive. Turns out the main internal speaker doesn't work, but it does Bong on startup through the headphone port. The Drive home also loosened up the hard drive or something because it is now booting into a very un-wiped install of System something or another. The floppy drive also does not pull in disks, but does grab them, eject them, and read them. CRT isn't showing any wobblyness or weirdness which is nice. Spent way to much time trying to find a set of System 7.5.3 floppy disk images that would work but never found any, tried a System 7.5 set and those worked. I'll probably have to wait until I have a SCSI external CD drive before I can upgrade farther since 7.5.3+ seem to be CD focused. My 286 and PB150 got a good workout tossing and verifying files back and forth. Overall much better condition then I anticipated but we'll see the damage when my long T15 driver shows up tomorrow.

I got a Toshiba Satellite 1800-S203 from a friend for a Christmas gift. I've been playing games on it, but it's only got a Cyberblade Ai1 and is a bit pokey for the kind of 3D games I usually like. It's got an 800MHz Celeron and a 60 gig hard disk, though, so it has promise 😀

Well, it has a big and bright screen, a good keyboard (with NO TRACKPAD! as I like these things to be), and a serial port... I've wanted a single-purpose dev machine for writing TI-92 software, and this seems to be it. Previously, I wrote and tested on my main work machine with an emulator, then hauled it over to this little Dell desktop I have with a serial port, but that was annoying. This promised to be a pretty decent solution.

I got my dev environment set up, the interface software, TI emulator, winamp, and loaded this guy down with music. It's really nice to work with. I have my projects on a CF card which I can easily pop into another machine for making backups, and the whole thing is quick even with music playing, the emulator running, and building a project all at once. I feel more productive already without distractions and without the barrier of transferring to real hardware. Maybe in a few months I'll have a silly dungeon crawler to show off.

RetroLizard wrote on 2026-06-23, 23:25:

I'm going to install 10.6.3.

That is a good stable one. Running it on my own MacMini that are from around the one you have.
That said, it has been over a year since I used that machine last time.

brostenen wrote on 2026-06-27, 07:53:

RetroLizard wrote on 2026-06-23, 23:25:

I'm going to install 10.6.3.

That is a good stable one. Running it on my own MacMini that are from around the one you have.
That said, it has been over a year since I used that machine last time.

I upgraded it to 10.6.8. Though now I'm wondering if a Mac Pro would be better. I like my machines to be as self-serviceable as possible.

RetroLizard wrote on 2026-06-27, 14:12:

brostenen wrote on 2026-06-27, 07:53:

RetroLizard wrote on 2026-06-23, 23:25:

I'm going to install 10.6.3.

That is a good stable one. Running it on my own MacMini that are from around the one you have.
That said, it has been over a year since I used that machine last time.

I upgraded it to 10.6.8. Though now I'm wondering if a Mac Pro would be better. I like my machines to be as self-serviceable as possible.

If you have the space and room for an old cheese grater, then yeah, way better choice than Mac Mini.
I do not have the space and room. And are actually in the process of selling off a lot of my hardware.
I will keep one old PC (Pentium-166) as well as the families first computer (Unisys PW/2 Series 300).
I am going into collecting vinyl now, and a lot of what I listen to, are in no way collectable for the mainstream
and normal vinyl collectors. Also. Selling off stuff, can give enough for a decent new Danish produced turntable.

brostenen wrote on 2026-06-29, 14:03:

If you have the space and room for an old cheese grater, then yeah, way better choice than Mac Mini. I do not have the space and […]
Show full quote

RetroLizard wrote on 2026-06-27, 14:12:

brostenen wrote on 2026-06-27, 07:53:

That is a good stable one. Running it on my own MacMini that are from around the one you have.
That said, it has been over a year since I used that machine last time.

I upgraded it to 10.6.8. Though now I'm wondering if a Mac Pro would be better. I like my machines to be as self-serviceable as possible.

If you have the space and room for an old cheese grater, then yeah, way better choice than Mac Mini.
I do not have the space and room. And are actually in the process of selling off a lot of my hardware.
I will keep one old PC (Pentium-166) as well as the families first computer (Unisys PW/2 Series 300).
I am going into collecting vinyl now, and a lot of what I listen to, are in no way collectable for the mainstream
and normal vinyl collectors. Also. Selling off stuff, can give enough for a decent new Danish produced turntable.

A1289 model seems to be the best fit. Gonna look for one of those.

While I'm thinking about it, are there any places that I can get replacement front case panels from? I have an old beige front panel that's not in the best condition.

RetroLizard wrote on 2026-06-29, 14:18:

brostenen wrote on 2026-06-29, 14:03:

If you have the space and room for an old cheese grater, then yeah, way better choice than Mac Mini. I do not have the space and […]
Show full quote

RetroLizard wrote on 2026-06-27, 14:12:

I upgraded it to 10.6.8. Though now I'm wondering if a Mac Pro would be better. I like my machines to be as self-serviceable as possible.

If you have the space and room for an old cheese grater, then yeah, way better choice than Mac Mini.
I do not have the space and room. And are actually in the process of selling off a lot of my hardware.
I will keep one old PC (Pentium-166) as well as the families first computer (Unisys PW/2 Series 300).
I am going into collecting vinyl now, and a lot of what I listen to, are in no way collectable for the mainstream
and normal vinyl collectors. Also. Selling off stuff, can give enough for a decent new Danish produced turntable.

A1289 model seems to be the best fit. Gonna look for one of those.

While I'm thinking about it, are there any places that I can get replacement front case panels from? I have an old beige front panel that's not in the best condition.

Sorry. Can not help you with advice like those. Sure Mac are great, but I have more knowledge and experience in Amiga and C64 than Mac's.

That said, the 1289 seems like a über wonderfull machine, taken you keep to the right software.
I am only basing it on the first Mac I ever owned. It was that blue first gen 400 mhz G4 PowerMac.
What the actual model and all was, I really can not remember. But it ran perfect on MacOS-9 and like crap on OsX Tiger (10.4)

Uhhh.... Forgot to mention what actual turntable I am going to buy. It is the Argon Audio TT-MKII (Danish seller)
That seller, once owned NAD for a short periode. Prior to full ownership, they owned some 40%. (they are the reason NAD are still alive, as NAD was close to bankrupt)

My stereo setup as of now, are a mix of older and semi older stuff.

- NAD 701 Stereo Receiver
- Sony CDP-XB720 CD Player
- Bang And Olufsen Beovox S35 speakers. (4 ohm, 35 watt continious)

And with the Argon, I will be getting something in the lower end of Hifi.
As of now, there are no feeling of pumping bass in the guts, but all sounds comes clean and balanced.

Opened up my retro PC again, put in the new SSD with a tonne of pain trying to figure out where to put it (for the time being I've put it where the 3.5" bay thingy is on this case, although I think that might be meant for a HDD anyway) since the SATA to IDE bridge did not fit in the spot where a 2.5" SSD was meant to go in that infernal case.
Also swapped out the CFcard adaptor so that I can put in the wifi card instead, which is nice, and I got the case fans both working too with a fan-splitter.

My plan was to have a Linux distro (namely Alpine Linux) on the SSD, with something like GRUB as the boot manager so that I can use that to boot USBs by proxy, and then I'd have a USB flash drive or a USB SSD to run Vista and XP on via. (tbh I should probably have inverted that but oh well)

Uuunfortunately now I'm getting a read error immediately after it tries to boot into GRUB. And I think this might be my cheaping out on 40pin IDE cables coming back to bite me in the butt-