wrote:So my old 386 came up, and I was showing off pictures of it. Waxing lyrical about how the 30+ year old 80 MB hard drive has zero errors, bad sectors or other damage despite not having lived a blessed life.
That's pretty impressive, I've been going through a pile of 300 used floppies and the number with no bad sectors is depressingly low.
I would go through mine, but I don't think any of the floppies I had 25 years ago are in my collection. It would be nice if they were, but I've lost everything too many times for that to be likely. Also, I've come across a lot of floppies with viruses on them. Not that they could really propagate on new systems or anything.
All of the old forums I used to post on about older computers are all gone now, and as such a topic is rather insular, it's hard to stumble across other communities to talk about the subject. I only discovered this site while looking for Soundblaster drivers.
- Where it's always 1995.
Icons, wallpapers, and typical Oldternet nonsense.
EDIT: Oops'! Wrong thread, sorry.
Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.
I understand them.
I have the 'retro gene' too and I collect old computers, WW2 relics, everyday items from my childhood. My interests change often,
My garage looks like an organized waste recycling plant. It must be a nightmare for a tidy person.
I on the other hand find old computers beautiful. I look at an ISA ethernet card from 1988 and I see beauty. The design, the circuitry, the colors, everything. I feel childlike happiness when I win a bid and get my hands on a shiny old hardware.
I don't expect others to think the same way. My mother thinks I'm downright insane for paying money for e-waste.
It's an investment on my part. I put old computers together and they go to storage for a few decades. After I die my children or grandchildren can sell them and earn some profit. By 2070 prices will be through the roof I hope! 😁
wrote:The thing that pisses me off is that during the 80s and much of the 90s, you were tagged as a dork and socially outcast if you were into computers. These days you'll find that every jock douchebag is glued to their screen. These people don't deserve the access to modern technology for their past sins. I say anyone belittling vintage computers ought to have their phones and laptops confiscated.
Their disinterest did make the start of my hobby relatively smooth sailing though. They wanted to give me more than I could carry! D:
SOmetimes quite literally! 🤣
They were the ones saying it was worthless junk, so I got their stuff for free 😜
But it is annoying that computers are tailored to suit their needs. Face book and tw1tter and the likes and how automated software is and "thinks" for you. These people seem to prefer them not owning the software but the software owning them but pretent that they are the ones in charge. They are happy this way, apparently.
And without all the bloatware, this forum is silky smooth! 😁
wrote:Their disinterest did make the start of my hobby relatively smooth sailing though. They wanted to give me more than I could carry! D:
SOmetimes quite literally! 🤣They were the ones saying it was worthless junk, so I got their stuff for free 😜
everyone I asked just said "oh I already threw that away" ...but yeah I did get into it way too late it seems 😐
OP - build a sleeper PC in an old case and then see what they have to say about it.
HP Z420 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-1620, 32GB, RADEON HD7850 2GB, SSD + HD, XP/7
The reason it came up in the first place is we all work in a lab where there is equipment still in active service which is controlled by 3/486 era computers and I mentioned that my interest in retro computing is useful as all the people who know those computers are retiring and then there will just be me. Went into somebodies office a few weeks ago and I immediately noticed an eISA slot VGA card lying on his office-mates desk.
"how the hell do you know what that is?" 🤣
So it WAS relevant me bringing 386 up as I was mentioning how hardware back then could often be unusual and non-standard.
wrote:This reminds me of the term "Eternal September" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September)
That's actually pretty intersting. I kinda wish I'd experienced the internet way back when. Was always curious to what BBSs were when I was a kid and they kept getting mentioned in my dos games when trying to convince be to buy registered versions of games.
BBSs were great if you weren't the one responsible for your phone bill.
"You mean I can call all the way across the country, with my computer, and download a free demo of DooM, all for the low costs of a ninety dollar charge on my phone bill? Sign me up!"
The only time I used one for any real duration was when I was on Lucent's BBS, hunting for a firmware upgrade for my modem. Once that was done, the only number I ever called with my modem after that was my ISP's. There are still BBS systems active today, and you don't need to use genuine dialup to connect to them, so there's no worry about long distance or international charges. Alas, since I didn't have a computer of my own until 1998, I never had any real nostalgia for the BBS system, so I never really dug back into it.
This should help clue you into the whole thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb7te_HZyiA
- Where it's always 1995.
Icons, wallpapers, and typical Oldternet nonsense.
wrote:I would go through mine, but I don't think any of the floppies I had 25 years ago are in my collection. It would be nice if they were, but I've lost everything too many times for that to be likely. Also, I've come across a lot of floppies with viruses on them. Not that they could really propagate on new systems or anything.
All of the old forums I used to post on about older computers are all gone now, and as such a topic is rather insular, it's hard to stumble across other communities to talk about the subject. I only discovered this site while looking for Soundblaster drivers.
I use ircjr for dos, PIRCH16 for Windows 3.x, xchat for linux and ArdilRC for later windows. They discuss a whole variaty of topics. vcfed.org is a good forum for older systems as well.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
wrote:There are some that don't understand the preservation of history
Well, let's be fair and accept that the average 386 PC (and not just that) was build from standard parts and has no place in history. The only 386 really relevant for preservation is the original Compaq Deskpro 386 from 1986, as that was the first 386 ever released and is in line with the IBM 5150, 5160, and 5170. Clones don't really matter, even if WE have a nostalgic feeling for them.
The 386 Deskpro was nothing more than a redesign of the original 286 Deskpro. Indeed they could be fitted with 287 math co-pros. The majority of first batch of 386s were faulty being able only to run 16 bit programs and at the time there were no 32 bit x86 programs available even if it could. And of course you had the ISA expansion bus which was only 8Mhz so was a bottleneck right up to the late 80s early 90s when you had mca, eisa, vlb and a few other odd setups.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
I guess it depends... Some may want to preserve machines for historical significance or whatnot.
For me the functional aspect is more important. I mainly use old machines to create demoscene productions. In my case it doesn't matter that much whether I use the 'original' or a clone, as long as the results are the same.
Although, at certain extremes, having the 'original' as reference hardware is a good thing. I do think it has to work on the original hardware first and foremost, and only then do I worry about clones or emulators.
There is quite a big pitfall in only using clones or emulators, and never testing on the original hardware. These clones and emulators may have various quirks and bugs that the original hardware does not, or vice versa. So there is a real risk of writing code that works fine on a clone or emulator, but not on the original... or vice versa.
I suppose the catch-22 here is that I don't know how accurate my hardware needs to be until after I've finished the demo. Which effectively means I can't take chances, and need to have original hardware available for testing.
Indeed. Some OEMs made interesting choices. Like in the way you added ram or that you could simply slip out the cpu card and replace it with another without replacing the whole system, or swapping out the mobo. On my wee Zenith 286/12, which was designed to run Windows 3.0 and was bundled with and MS Dos 4.01, could be fitted with 8megs of ram. Quite a huge amount at the time. You could also have the small 286 cpu board replaced and 386SX board fitted in it's place. VGA, com ports as well the printer port are built ito the planer so three ISA slots were plenty for a modem and sound card. Allowing one spare for a bnc nic if needed. The system is in quite a small form factor compared to other systems at the time. Because the system is well integrated it skips along at just under the speed of my old generic clone 286/16.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
wrote:ir.slaschnet.org
Doesn't exist.
- Where it's always 1995.
Icons, wallpapers, and typical Oldternet nonsense.
wrote:wrote:irc.slashnet.org
Doesn't exist.
Amended. Thanks for picking up on that. Often you'll be directed to *.slashnet.org Like the one below posted with Netscape Communicator 4.75
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
wrote:wrote:wrote:irc.slashnet.org
Doesn't exist.
Amended. Thanks for picking up on that. Often you'll be directed to *.slashnet.org Like the one below posted with Netscape Communicator 4.75
What's this OS?
wrote:What's this OS?
Turbo Linux 6.0 from 1999. Just updated the browser.
Used Netscape to browse a ftp site download the compressed browser file, extracted the file and surf.. Non of this silly install.exe stuff.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
Reminds me, I need to put RetroZilla on my Win95 system, as IE 5 hates PNG images.
- Where it's always 1995.
Icons, wallpapers, and typical Oldternet nonsense.
