Intel486dx33 wrote:

Currently my Macintosh Color Classic extreme.

Ooh nice, the Mac version of the Gravis Gamepad.

Here's my setup. I have 2 workstations on an L shaped desk. I've got a Win 98 machine, Win XP machine, Win 10 machine, and a media server also being powered by Win 10.

With my retro setup, I share the CRT monitor, mouse, and keyboard with my XP and 98 machines using a KVM switch. The CRT is also hooked up to my main Win 10 machine if I have the urge to play something befitting it (Chocolate Doom, DOSBOX, etc.). I use mostly modern peripherals (since nowadays I prefer wireless), but sometimes I like to use a flightstick or Gravis gamepad via the joystick port. I also only use one mouse for every machine, a Logitech Master. It has a feature where you can share it via up to 3 Logitech unifying usb receivers, so effectively it can be used on 3 separate machines with the push of a button on its underside. Suprisingly, it works with Win 98 with no hassle.

Here's a better look at my main setup. The top monitor is a 24" Dell 1080p, the bottom is a 27" Dell 1440p G-Sync.

For sound, I feed all sound card outputs from every machine into a mixer (the bottom device pictured). I then output the mixer into a headphone amp (the top device pictured). From there, I output the headphone amp into all my speakers and headphones. The mixer is useful for when I want simultaneous audio from multiple machines. For example, listening to a podcast via the Win 10 machine while playing a game on the Win 98 machine. The headphone amp allows me to isolate which speakers or headphones (or any combination thereof) I want the sound to come through. You can also see my joystick port extension cable.

Current desktop setup:

Left to right on top:
Samsung SyncMaster 23" LCD monitor
Packard Bell keyboard and mouse
Gravis Analog Pro joystick
CHiLL WaveTable with my Yamaha DB50XG connected
Roland MT-32
IKEA bendable lamp
Hannspree 23" LCD monitor
Logitech USB Gamepad
Xbox One wired controller
Razer Hexa mouse
Razer RGB keyboard with wrist rest

Below the desk from left to right:
Custom Socket 5 machine (still needs work, but it's functioning)
iMac G4/800 (covered by my coat to prevent screen damage)
Packard Bell Pack-Mate 28 Plus (left monitor, keyboard, mouse, and all of the center)
Main AMD FX-6300 desktop (left and right monitors, right keyboard, mouse, gamepad, Xbox One wired controller, and Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro (not pictured))

bjwil1991 wrote:

CHiLL WaveTable with my Yamaha DB50XG connected

What is that exactly?

It's an external logic board that allows you to install a WaveTable Daughterboard that gets inserted into a Sound Blaster or equivalent sound card, which will let you change the daughterboards with ease. PhilsComputerLab did a review about this device.

spare hand me down desk from my parents and making good use of it

https://i.imgur.com/0YBwkWWl.jpg […]
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Heh, the teachers at my school have the exact same laptops as the one you have on the right side of your desk 😜 I could figure that out by seeing the logo on its screen...

EliteBook 840 G5?

This is my current retro computing setup (the picture's a bit old, but the setup looks exactly the same):

There are 3 PCs set up:
- A 486DX2/66 with a pretty vanilla setup (16MB RAM, Cirrus Logic SVGA, SoundBlaster Pro) running DOS 6.22/Windows 3.11.
- A Pentium 233MMX (the one on the far right) running Windows 98. It also has an original Voodoo card in it.
- A Pentium III 1GHz (the one on the left) running Windows XP. This was built completely out of sealed, NOS parts.

They're all hooked up using a serial Microsoft mouse (to the PIII using the provided PS/2 adapter) and AT keyboard, along with the switch boxes, to create a poor man's KVM that's compatible with all three systems. They also each have a network card installed and are attached to my local LAN, but not the internet - I just use them to pull files from my NAS or FTP them from a more modern PC on my network.

The monitor is an old Hitachi SuperScan Elite (19") that I actually bought back in 1997 for the first PC I ever built from parts. The screen's a little dim though so it could probably use a recapping. The game on the display is a Sokoban clone I've worked on creating off and on for the last couple years, using the 160x100, 16-color CGA mode that most people here probably know as the mode used by Paku Paku.

The books are all assorted PC programming related books, a few of which I actually owned back in the day, but most are more recent acquisitions I've found in local used bookstores and thrift shops. I have about another dozen that aren't on display. Many of the books are Turbo Pascal related, since I was using it (TP7) to write Move-It, Man! and a couple other game projects I've worked on.

Damaniel wrote:

This is my current retro computing setup (the picture's a bit old, but the setup looks exactly the same): […]
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This is my current retro computing setup (the picture's a bit old, but the setup looks exactly the same):

There are 3 PCs set up:
- A 486DX2/66 with a pretty vanilla setup (16MB RAM, Cirrus Logic SVGA, SoundBlaster Pro) running DOS 6.22/Windows 3.11.
- A Pentium 233MMX (the one on the far right) running Windows 98. It also has an original Voodoo card in it.
- A Pentium III 1GHz (the one on the left) running Windows XP. This was built completely out of sealed, NOS parts.

Cool set up.

oeuvre wrote:

EliteBook 840 G5?

No, they have some model of ProBook. I meant to say that your laptop looks like the ones my teachers have, because your's has the same white color, and the same HP logo as their's.

Damaniel wrote:

Many of the books are Turbo Pascal related, since I was using it (TP7) to write Move-It, Man! and a couple other game projects I've worked on.

Any quality books you'd care to recommend? I've been fiddling about with TP7 for the past while enjoying it quite a bit (the near instant compiles is highly addictive when you do all your retro-coding on actual retro hardware... in my case a 486DX2), but my personal library does not have any Pascal books other then "PC Underground".

I have a couple of PASCAL books if your interested. No TP specific but cover the basics:

Software engineering the development life cycle (second edition)
Fiona Stewart
Kirkman Publishing - 1993
ISBN - 1-874107-02-5

PASCAL (third edition)
William Findlay and David A Watt
UCL Press - 1994
ISBN - 1-85728-364-3

Gered wrote:

Damaniel wrote:

Many of the books are Turbo Pascal related, since I was using it (TP7) to write Move-It, Man! and a couple other game projects I've worked on.

Any quality books you'd care to recommend? I've been fiddling about with TP7 for the past while enjoying it quite a bit (the near instant compiles is highly addictive when you do all your retro-coding on actual retro hardware... in my case a 486DX2), but my personal library does not have any Pascal books other then "PC Underground".

it's not on the shelf there, but the one I use the most (other than the official manuals) is called 'Turbo Pascal 7: The Complete Reference' by Osborne. It has a good overview of Pascal in general, plus a pretty comprehensive collection of information about TP7 and the standard Turbo Pascal units. I picked it up on eBay a couple years ago for not too much - they apparently printed quite a few of them so finding one shouldn't be too hard. (I really wish that there were more scans of PC-centric programming books out there - all the 8-bit micros have very extensive PDF archives of old programming books and magazines, but MS-DOS era PCs - not so much. I've really had to look around over the past few years to find the books I have already.)

Thank you both for the recommendations. Think I'll pick up "Turbo Pascal 7: The Complete Reference" for now as I already had my eye on that one anyway... good to hear from someone else who owns it and found it useful.

Damaniel wrote:

The screen's a little dim though so it could probably use a recapping.

If you have used it a lot (i.e. high hour), then it's possible that the CRT is starting to get weak. You might be able to rejuvenate the CRT with a CRT tester, but usually that doesn't make a lot of difference on the long term. Another option is to increase the brightness and contrast, perhaps the monitor has (additional) internal potentiometers for those.

Someone over at VCFed suggested I post this here. I'm uncertain if I perhaps have... But here it is, in case I haven't. This is the overall shot, taken a few years ago. Things are basically the same, though -- a few more computers is all... 😀

A bit of info and a click-thru version that's labelled can be seen here:

https://www.bytecellar.com/photo_pano.html

Cheers!

bp

blakespot wrote:

Someone over at VCFed suggested I post this here. I'm uncertain if I perhaps have... But here it is, in case I haven't. This is […]
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Someone over at VCFed suggested I post this here. I'm uncertain if I perhaps have... But here it is, in case I haven't. This is the overall shot, taken a few years ago. Things are basically the same, though -- a few more computers is all... 😀

A bit of info and a click-thru version that's labelled can be seen here:

https://www.bytecellar.com/photo_pano.html

Cheers!

bp

OMFG!! This is brilliant and amazing!! Congratulations

bfcastello wrote:

OMFG!! This is brilliant and amazing!! Congratulations

Thank you! The person at VCFed forums, 'liqmat', who suggested it had a particular interest in my framed vintage computing posters. I link to that gallery, here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/album … 157604317583021

Cheers.

bp

JonathonWyble wrote:

oeuvre wrote:

EliteBook 840 G5?

No, they have some model of ProBook. I meant to say that your laptop looks like the ones my teachers have, because your's has the same white color, and the same HP logo as their's.

ahh mine's silver