Went on another thrifting adventures today and got an IBM Quietwriter 8 (font light flashes), NIB sealed KVM PS/2 4-PC switch box, a remote control for my Toshiba TV/VCR Combo, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - Spearhead expansion CD, and an Atari Plug and Play that hooks up to a TV set (had one back then).

bjwil1991 wrote:

Went on another thrifting adventures today and got an IBM Quietwriter 8 (font light flashes), NIB sealed KVM PS/2 4-PC switch box, a remote control for my Toshiba TV/VCR Combo, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - Spearhead expansion CD, and an Atari Plug and Play that hooks up to a TV set (had one back then).

Atari Flashback?

Found this in a thrift store today. Sound Blaster 2.0 box with I think everything. Too bad it didn't have the card in it.

Continued in next post:

Got these in my latest scrap haul. I also got a couple more AWE 64 cards - CT4380 and CT4520. There was a bunch of other stuff as well.. such as numerous MFM drive controllers, a regular ISA multi-i/o controller, some Apple stuff, and some other random stuff.

Last (for now) haul from the hoarders house (who's the hoarder now?!).

sf78 wrote:

Last (for now) haul from the hoarders house (who's the hoarder now?!).

Wow...one board cooler than the other 😎 Hope they are working!

I had been sniping for a Siemens-Nixdorf PCD-4ND for a while, and this week one popped up for the sensible price of 48€ including shipping. It's coming from Austria, so I'm still waiting.

• CPU: Intel 80486-DX2, 50MHz
• RAM: 20MB
• HDD: 800MB 2,5" IDE HDD
• FDD: 3,5" Floppy 1.44Mb
• VGA: Western Digital 1MB VRAM (16Bit 640x480 mode supported)
• Sound: ESS AudioDrive
• Display: 10,2" VGA TFT LCD display
• Keyboard: German layout
• Mouse: Integrated Trackball
• Power: 100-240V AC, Power supply: 22.8V DC, 1.5A
• Battery: 14.4V 12 cell NIMH, 1800MAH
• Serial port
• Parallel port
• VGA
• 2x PS/2 port
• Sound I/O
• Dock connector
• 2x PCMCIA
• Infrared

The belt on the floppy drive is done and the battery basically dead, but otherwise the unit seems in good shape.

The second piece of Siemens "vintage hardware" I bought is this flip-flop/butterfly-style BRN1 Toaster

I've had a toaster like this since I was a little boy and while the original one my family owned ended up with me and is still running, I scored this one for about 5€.
The guy said it was missing the cable so he was selling it at untested. Judging by the looks, and most importantly the smell when I first fired it up, it was never used at all, which, given that it was first built in 1952 is quite astounding.

cyclone3d wrote:

Found this in a thrift store today. Sound Blaster 2.0 box with I think everything. Too bad it didn't have the card in it.

box_front.jpg

Wow, cyclone3d. Nice pickup.

How long did the old sound blaster last after the box redesign? Its days had to be pretty numbered by the time they moved to the blue on orange look.

@ henryVK

Mmh, a super slim-drive with a belt. That's unfortunate (and rare 😜). Be sure to replace it with a newer super-slim that has a direct drive.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

bjwil1991 wrote:

Went on another thrifting adventures today and got an IBM Quietwriter 8 (font light flashes), NIB sealed KVM PS/2 4-PC switch box, a remote control for my Toshiba TV/VCR Combo, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - Spearhead expansion CD, and an Atari Plug and Play that hooks up to a TV set (had one back then).

Atari Flashback?

Here it is:

jaZz_KCS wrote:

Mmh, a super slim-drive with a belt. That's unfortunate (and rare 😜).

Most super slim-drives actually have a belt, as motors flat enough to fit were hardly available.

I'm wondering if I should even bother replacing it, since I'll transfer files either with USB-to-IDE interface or by infrared from my Toshiba Libretto.. or via LAN.

Out of curiosity: this is just a "regular" floppy drive with an IDE plug, right? So any drive that fits into that slot would theoretically work?

http://www.ebay.de/itm/MATSUSHITA-PANASONIC-E … 5.c100005.m1851

Thanks for the heads-up though!

CkRtech wrote:

cyclone3d wrote:

Found this in a thrift store today. Sound Blaster 2.0 box with I think everything. Too bad it didn't have the card in it.

box_front.jpg

Wow, cyclone3d. Nice pickup.

How long did the old sound blaster last after the box redesign? Its days had to be pretty numbered by the time they moved to the blue on orange look.

Not sure. The Sound Blaster 2.0 was released after the Sound Blaster Pro 1.0, but I couldn't find any reference to when the Sound Blaster 2.0 stopped production or when the box design changed.

From the dates on the different versions of the Sound Blaster 2.0, it looks like it was available from 1991-1993 at least.

See here for a bit of box info.. no specific dates though.
Matching ISA Sound Blaster to Original Box

Bought another QuickShot II Turbo joystick. Was on eBay as "sold as seen / untested" which as expected pretty much always means "doesn't work" these days. True enough when I received it, it didn't work properly - no working Fire buttons or Right direction. I opened it up and discovered the issue, somebody had been a little overzealous on the Right microswitch and somehow pressed it down hard enough for it to cause a short with the fire button. A quick and dirty fix by prising up the metal slightly and all was well.

Will probably need to look at it further when I get time, as I found the left & down directions to be a little stiffer than usual, but otherwise it's fully functional now.

So anyway, now I have 2. 🤣 May not be everybody's favourite controller, but I'm used to this as it's what I used back in the day.

Been using it to play Wild West Seymour on the Spectrum emulator all day. 😎

bjwil1991 wrote:

Here it is: […]
Show full quote

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

bjwil1991 wrote:

Went on another thrifting adventures today and got an IBM Quietwriter 8 (font light flashes), NIB sealed KVM PS/2 4-PC switch box, a remote control for my Toshiba TV/VCR Combo, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - Spearhead expansion CD, and an Atari Plug and Play that hooks up to a TV set (had one back then).

Atari Flashback?

Here it is:

Nice, that's exactly the same as the one I bought at Value Village in 2014. I still have it, it didn't come with a battery cover so I printed one with my dad's 3D printer.

Picked up a Tandy 1100FD in good working condition, and a big box of supposedly new floppy disks:

henryVK wrote:

I had been sniping for a Siemens-Nixdorf PCD-4ND for a while, and this week one popped up for the sensible price of 48€ includin […]
Show full quote

I had been sniping for a Siemens-Nixdorf PCD-4ND for a while, and this week one popped up for the sensible price of 48€ including shipping. It's coming from Austria, so I'm still waiting.

• CPU: Intel 80486-DX2, 50MHz
• RAM: 20MB
• HDD: 800MB 2,5" IDE HDD
• FDD: 3,5" Floppy 1.44Mb
• VGA: Western Digital 1MB VRAM (16Bit 640x480 mode supported)
• Sound: ESS AudioDrive
• Display: 10,2" VGA TFT LCD display
• Keyboard: German layout
• Mouse: Integrated Trackball
• Power: 100-240V AC, Power supply: 22.8V DC, 1.5A
• Battery: 14.4V 12 cell NIMH, 1800MAH
• Serial port
• Parallel port
• VGA
• 2x PS/2 port
• Sound I/O
• Dock connector
• 2x PCMCIA
• Infrared

snip

Sooo jealous. Trying to find one myself - or a similar laptop from late DOS era with SB and 640x480 resolution, TFT screen and not expensive. The closest I got so far is Panasonic CF-41 - good machine, but it's THICK and runs hot, which means loud cooling. I'd much prefer something thinner and passively cooled.

derSammler wrote:

jaZz_KCS wrote:

Mmh, a super slim-drive with a belt. That's unfortunate (and rare 😜).

Most super slim-drives actually have a belt, as motors flat enough to fit were hardly available.

Not quite true. Seems to be only true for the eldest super slims. All the 1/3rds I have in my laptops 1994 and up are all direct driven. Only had one belt driven so far coming out of a 1994 compaq. It seems that most super slims from 1994/95 onwards were already direct driven.