Grabbed a Roland SC-88 VL, semi-locally. However I currently lack the cable to use it as it hasn't arrived yet. Boourns.

Have a pair of 7950GX2 cards on the way for some more quad GPU fun.

And I am kinda sad because one of the GTX 295 cards I bought is damaged/faulty. Waiting to hear back from the seller.

dionb wrote:

Today started out crappy, but I think I sorted some karma out as it just took a big turn for the better. Just agreed to pick up an "old vintage computer" tomorrow evening. It's an AT minitower (that alone is worth the drive+price), with some Seasonic PSU. The tower looks seriously old (or at least with a design dating back to ±1990 - it could just be industrial retro-chic 😉 ), but the contents aren't. However they're no less interesting: if the photographs don't deceive me, the case contains a PICMG backplane with an early-ish Pentium 4 SBC (PATA, DDR1 and either So423 or So478). And a DVDRW, floppy and multi-card reader (looking bone white and totally out of place in that case).

Now, I'm not really into P4-era stuff, but enough others are. And I had been looking for an affordable PICMG backplane that would fit into an AT case for an ancient Wyse 386 system I want to resurrect. So it seems I just found one, it just happens to be complete with case and other contents 😀

Cool stuff, depending on the chipset used that P4 board might have decent ISA compatibility (i.e. with DMA support.) Look for an ITE bridge chip. I've been keeping an eye out for something like that for a while.

Will post pics when I get her home. Given it's on a PICMG backplane I'd be surprised if ISA wasn't well supported, but we'll see.

elod wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

I hate all of you you who can find affordable VLB graphics cards.. 😠

Hey, I worked my ass off getting up early each weekend to hunt down stuff at the local market. Been doing it for about 16 months and I found a grand total of 3 VLB cards. A CL, a Trident and a multi I/O card.

There is allways S3 cards on eBay, wich are affordable.
Not saying they are cheap and all, only saying that they are not yet made from unobtainium. So yeah... They are affordable, just not cheap. Prices are still fair.

Well...since you just mentioned it, I just picked up some VLB cards too. 😎

An Orchid Kelvik 64 with the CL GD5434 chipset, and a #9 Motion FX 771 with the S3 968 chipset (2MB).

Anonymous Coward wrote:

Well...since you just mentioned it, I just picked up some VLB cards too. 😎

An Orchid Kelvik 64 with the GL GD5434 chipset, and a #9 Motion FX 771 with the S3 968 chipset (2MB).

Mmmmm..... Yummi. 😜

An Aztech PCI168 with AZFIN3328 onboard which, according to Amoretro.de, has integrated true OPL3 and works flawlessly in Windows 98 as an SB Pro on even later soundcards without a true PCI bridge let alone DDMA/PCPCI..

I can't find the datasheet or confirmation of any of these claims, so I will definitely look into this card at some point.

Bought last week...

Looks pretty standard.... but it was upgraded with 512KB module:

appiah4 wrote:

An Aztech PCI168 with AZFIN3328 onboard which, according to Amoretro.de, has integrated true OPL3 and works flawlessly in Window […]
Show full quote

An Aztech PCI168 with AZFIN3328 onboard which, according to Amoretro.de, has integrated true OPL3 and works flawlessly in Windows 98 as an SB Pro on even later soundcards without a true PCI bridge let alone DDMA/PCPCI..

I can't find the datasheet or confirmation of any of these claims, so I will definitely look into this card at some point.

>>
>>
Manual here;
ftp://ftp.aztech.com/support/DOWNLOAD/Manual/pci168.pdf

Drivers:
ftp://ftp.aztech.com/support/DOWNLOAD/sg/PCI168/

xjas wrote:

My awesome corner gaming shop was having a sale today, so I traded in some Dreamcast dupes (including a spare console) and walke […]
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My awesome corner gaming shop was having a sale today, so I traded in some Dreamcast dupes (including a spare console) and walked out with this for about $16 out of pocket (not the laptop.) If you were thinking about getting into original Xbox stuff, now's a great time.

xthebox.jpg

Note that I have no intention of actually playing "Splinter Cell." Some googling around will tell you what it's for. 😉

...aaaaand I got SUCH a good deal on the rest of the Xbox package, that I went on Ebay and accidentally one of the best games on the system. (That's not a great price, but it's fair, and it had a BIN and free non-international shipping, so... win. I was pretty surprised to find a copy free of the usual Ebay gouge right away.)

Nice haul! I still maintain that the original Xbox is the best Xbox, as despite its massive overlap with an actual PC, it got the best console-exclusive multiplats (no Burnout 3 or TimeSplitters 2/Future Perfect on PC, for instance, barring a certain Homefront: The Revolution easter egg bearing TS2), it's quite moddable, and nobody's ported the likes of Panzer Dragoon Orta, Jet Set Radio Future, and especially Steel Battalion to any later platforms. (And we're still harping at From Software to #FreeMetalWolf already, but I think they're too busy with all those Souls games!)

Speaking of Steel Battalion, I actually do own a blue-button controller set, for which I should fabricate a stand out of wood or something. I just hope that the Line of Contact community's out there still; STEELBATTALION.org/LINEOFCONTACT.net have been dead for years, so I lost touch.

liqmat wrote:

The only time I used a game disc for something other than the game on that system was to upgrade the Xbox to its last and latest firmware since you could not download it from Xbox Live anymore. It was a late release sports game of some sort. I was unaware of the Splinter Cell vulnerability, but the original Xbox has a great mod community for sure. I was big into the whole Steel Battalion thing when it was released. Still my favorite mech game to date by far.

Yeah, that's the one problem with digital distribution services like that: when they go down, lots of content gets lost forever. I wonder how much those Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack releases have gone up in value - oh, wait, never mind, Master Chief Collection was a thing on Xbox One, however badly executed at first.

The real appeal to Steel Battalion to me actually goes beyond the huge controller; the game itself really made it feel like you were controlling this multi-story-tall walking behemoth of destruction, complete with this sense of heft and weight, particularly in Line of Contact where you can feel your VT take every step (particularly in an Earthshaker with its distinctive swagger) outside of the added 5th gear wheel mode, for obvious reasons. Oh, and LoC runs in 720p, too; everyone keeps forgetting that the original Xbox is technically the first major HD console!

Alas, I'm not sure I can get LoC going again without getting a second controller setup and getting my two Xboxes rigged up for some 1v1 LAN action.

Specific hardware cards and manuals to repair Acorn 8 bit machines.

PARKE wrote:

>> >> Manual here; ftp://ftp.aztech.com/support/DOWNLOAD/Manual/pci168.pdf […]
Show full quote

appiah4 wrote:

An Aztech PCI168 with AZFIN3328 onboard which, according to Amoretro.de, has integrated true OPL3 and works flawlessly in Window […]
Show full quote

An Aztech PCI168 with AZFIN3328 onboard which, according to Amoretro.de, has integrated true OPL3 and works flawlessly in Windows 98 as an SB Pro on even later soundcards without a true PCI bridge let alone DDMA/PCPCI..

I can't find the datasheet or confirmation of any of these claims, so I will definitely look into this card at some point.

>>
>>
Manual here;
ftp://ftp.aztech.com/support/DOWNLOAD/Manual/pci168.pdf

Drivers:
ftp://ftp.aztech.com/support/DOWNLOAD/sg/PCI168/

Many thanks. The manual does indeed state:

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS […]
Show full quote

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Sound Standards Compatibility
♦Sound Blaster Pro compatible (DOS Box)
♦General MIDI compatible
♦Roland MPU401 UART compatible
♦AC'97 compliant

Sound Standards Features
♦Supports 33MHz PCI Local Bus Specifications Rev 2.1
♦Supports PCI Power Management Revision 1.0
♦Built-in 3D Enhancement
♦Supports simultaneous Full-Duplex Record and Playback at independent Sampling Rate
♦Built-in original OPL3
♦Supports Legacy Address MPU401 MIDI and Joystick
♦Supports Sound Blaster Emulation under DOS Box.
♦Built-in support for DirectInput
♦Built-in General DirectX Timer having a 20bits counter with 1μs resolution
♦Power Amplifier with 4watts per channel @ 4ohms

System Audio Sources
♦Mono Mic-In
♦Stereo Line-In
♦Stereo CD-In
♦TAD Audio
♦Stereo (PCM) Digital Audio
♦Video Audio

I'm guessing it's a decent Windows 9x/NT sound card with OPL3 but no DOS drivers per se..

A nice, clean & clicky Model M2 keyboard (part no. 1395300). Amazingly all the keys work perfectly fine, so no need to replace the capacitors immediately... but I will likely do so anyway this weekend.

My personal favourite, above the original Model M. 😜 Mainly because this one is a bit more compact.

This evening's haul:

The ad was just for the minitower with contents, but when I was there I got a box with (crap) monitors, keyboards and cables too.

- Dedicated PICMG minitower (so not AT, basically just ten slots onderneath the PSU)
- Seasonic SS-300FS ATX PSU (30A on +5V 😀 )
- PICMG backplane (see below)
- Pentium 4 SBC (see below)
- DVD-RW (dead), DVD-ROM and CDRW drives
- 3.5" HD floppy, 3.5" USB card reader
- 80GB Seagate PATA HDD
- XFX GeForce4 MX4000 DDR TV PCI (supposedly conflicts with SBC)
- "USBVIA REV F" Via VT6212-based PCI USB2.0 card
- 2x 17" 1280x024 TN panel, VGA connector TFT screens (crap)
- HP USB keyboard, HP PS/2 keyboard, "Qboard" tenkeyless beige USB keyboard and a black Cherry PS/2 keyboard (rubber dome unfortunately)
- Wibra (NL low-price clothes shop...) and Logitech USB optical mice
- pile of floppy, IDE and power cables

The interesting bits in more detail:

1) the backplane:

PBPI-8SA VER:1.1

This is the reason I jumped on this ad. I have an old Wyse 386 consisting of a few interconnected ISA boards that need a backplane with external power to work. Pre-PICMG, but an ISA bus is an ISA bus, so this should work.

2) the SBC:

Arbor HiCore-i6411 Rev:1.1
- So 478, with i845GV chipset
- P4 2.4 Northwood and 2x 1GB PC3200 DDR1
- nice CF slot on the back too

xjas wrote:

[...]

Cool stuff, depending on the chipset used that P4 board might have decent ISA compatibility (i.e. with DMA support.) Look for an ITE bridge chip. I've been keeping an eye out for something like that for a while.

ITE bridge chip: check.
DMA support: looks like it 😀

Assumption: working SB audio requires DMA, so is proof that DMA works.

First test I did was to take a known-good ISA non-PnP sound card (Aztech AZT2316A-based) and try to reserve the relevant IRQs (5, 10) and DMA (1) in BIOS. Then boot with my DOS 6.22-on-a-CF install. That failed, the card was simply not detected/usable by any of the CLI tools and did not produce audio in games.
Second test - on a hunch the problem was with resources, I grabbed the nearest - untested - ISA PnP sound card (AZT2320-based). Removed all reservations in BIOS, booted and - all the Soundblaster goodness I had hoped for, both CLI and in Doom2 😁

So at the very least my formerly untested Aztech/Packard Bell Rocky 2.5 modem/sound combo card is now tested and working, at least the sound bit is, and it seems this SBC has a fully functional ISA bus including DMA. At least, as long as my assumption about SB audio is correct...

Gered wrote:

A nice, clean & clicky Model M2 keyboard (part no. 1395300). Amazingly all the keys work perfectly fine, so no need to replace t […]
Show full quote

A nice, clean & clicky Model M2 keyboard (part no. 1395300). Amazingly all the keys work perfectly fine, so no need to replace the capacitors immediately... but I will likely do so anyway this weekend.

My personal favourite, above the original Model M. 😜 Mainly because this one is a bit more compact.

Have fun with that one. I got one that was brand new two years ago and it ended up having lots of blackened traces in the key matrix. After replacing the cap that always goes bad and trying to patch up the black traces several times I finally gave up. The casing is immaculate, but these things are a nightmare to work on. I don't even want to think about how much time I spent removing and replacing all the keys and switches. I still have it, just in case I ever find a donor with good internals, but I honestly don't even know if it's worth it since it's so problematic and cheaply built.

@dinob: That is one interesting system, especially the case, yes? Whomever owned the system did a great job keeping that system in good shape.

Ozzuneoj wrote:

Have fun with that one. I got one that was brand new two years ago and it ended up having lots of blackened traces in the key matrix. After replacing the cap that always goes bad and trying to patch up the black traces several times I finally gave up. The casing is immaculate, but these things are a nightmare to work on. I don't even want to think about how much time I spent removing and replacing all the keys and switches. I still have it, just in case I ever find a donor with good internals, but I honestly don't even know if it's worth it since it's so problematic and cheaply built.

I hear you. Definitely am aware of the mostly poor reputation that these keyboards have from a reliability and build quality perspective. But even still, I figure that as long as I'm careful and patient disassembling it (so as not to break any of the cheap plastic tabs and whatnot holding it together), the capacitor replacement is simple enough. And I think (read: hope) that since all the keys work fine at the moment the probability seems good that there are no other problems. But I'll see for myself once I open it up.

@dionb.

That SBC should most definitely have full ISA support.

For the PCI/ISA SBC boards, you should have full ISA support no matter what from what I have found. I am guessing that that board has an ITE8888 PCI to ISA bridge chip on it... which incidentally has full ISA support including DMA.

I've been doing quite a bit of research on the SBC setups as I have a 386DX-40 SBC, a full Pentium 4 PCI/ISA SBC based rackmount computer, and am working on getting stuff for a Pentium 4 PIAGP system although the LPC to ISA and PCI to ISA bridge modules that are needed (either one will work with my SBC and backplane) for ISA support are eluding me.

Holey mackerel... I found a cheapish ASUS P3B-F v1.04 motherboard with 1GB RAM, an AGP Rage IIc video card.. and wait for it... a Slot-1 Pentium III 1000/256/100 CPU.

MWAHAHAHA 😈 for the CPU. The motherboard and video card were not really even on my radar as I have plenty of Slot 1 440BX motherboards already and the video card is meh.

Seller's pic.

Exactly how rare is the PIII-1000 100fsb Slot-1 ?

I couldn't find any on eBay or on the sold or finished sales/auction history.