VOGONS


First post, by dank0

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Hello, (please excuse my english)
I always wanted to build cool retro station with classic look, but i never had time or resources to do it. I moved to Shenzhen/China from Toronto (I got tired of the PC culture - politically correct society) I am not Chinese and i dont speak Chinese.
Shenzhen is mecca of the world electronic production. It is really cool to be here and see it. But i also realize, that china can have some retro HW from 80'- early 90'. And i found the gold 😀

There are many old computer parts or complete rigs for very reasonable price. Only what is missing is more specific HW - MIDI or very specific Audio HW. (Adlib, GUS etc.)
So i begin to buy my parts, but i want something special. In a Mac community people are getting old Macintosh cases or G4 or G5 Mac Pro cases and modding it. But PC doesn't have much iconic look that represent the PC line - BUT there is only one memorable design and that is old IBM cases, which i think they are still beautiful even today.

I did search and i found some old computer house/storage that have many of these machines

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AMD K6-II 500, Nvidia TNT2 AGP, 256 MB RAM

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•• WANTED: ROLAND SCP-55 ••
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Reply 1 of 18, by dank0

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I contact the seller and ask if i can get the case. Of course Chinese seller figure out i am foreigner so he put the price high. But i was persistent and told him i want only case.
First case he offered was this: 😀

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AMD K6-II 500, Nvidia TNT2 AGP, 256 MB RAM

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•• WANTED: ROLAND SCP-55 ••
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Reply 2 of 18, by dank0

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Terrible, but he knows i saw the rest of his stock and he offered me this beauty:

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AMD K6-II 500, Nvidia TNT2 AGP, 256 MB RAM

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•• WANTED: ROLAND SCP-55 ••
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Reply 3 of 18, by dank0

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the only problem was, it didnt have the power supply (which i dont care tham much, but i really want the big Power Switch. It is soooo iconic and cool design. And again he didnt want to take apart some other power supply units so he sent me this:

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AMD K6-II 500, Nvidia TNT2 AGP, 256 MB RAM

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•• WANTED: ROLAND SCP-55 ••
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Reply 4 of 18, by dank0

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I was just shaking the head, but it is better to get something than nothing. because i have skills 😀 I have 3D printer and i am 3D modeler for many years so I would try to print it out and try to recycle parts that are not destroyed. Here is the result:

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AMD K6-II 500, Nvidia TNT2 AGP, 256 MB RAM

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•• WANTED: ROLAND SCP-55 ••
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Reply 6 of 18, by Intel486dx33

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You could use the components of a 486 computer, 1st gen. pentium computer, or Super socket 7 computer.
And turn this into a DOS gaming computer.
Use a ISA sound card with Dreamblaster X2-GS wave table for the best DOS game Audio out put.
Install a 3.5 and 5.25 floppy drive and external parallel port CDROM drive.
Any basic video card will work well for DOS gaming.
Maybe an ISA S3.
Just find a nice iBM keyboard and CRT.

Reply 7 of 18, by dank0

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I do turning it into socket 7 computer. I will post here my updates. I am printing out many parts and i will share all STL files.

AMD K6-II 500, Nvidia TNT2 AGP, 256 MB RAM

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•• WANTED: ROLAND SCP-55 ••
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Reply 8 of 18, by Grem Five

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Sounds like an awesome project I wish you all the best of luck but it also can become a slippery slope... I started out wanting to build a unique looking HTPC using an old IBM PCJr case with new hardware inside it.

Well a few years later I have about 4 PCJrs, 2 5160 XTs and large range of pcs that came after those..... I think I'm up to around 20ish computers but kinda lost count. Sad part is I got so side tracked with all these other machines which lead from one to another to another that I still havent finished my original HTPC project.

Best of luck on your project and I would love to see the build process, might help me get back on track of my original project.

Reply 9 of 18, by dank0

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I get the case without any Floppy drives or HDD it looks like this(check the attachment image) before my 3D print and drives solution. I decided to use Gotek as a floppy drive replacement, I also will use CD drive for CD games and the big hole i will fill with led panel (power and HDD)

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AMD K6-II 500, Nvidia TNT2 AGP, 256 MB RAM

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•• WANTED: ROLAND SCP-55 ••
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Reply 10 of 18, by dank0

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And here is my result, I 3D printed the 2.5 Floppy bracket for gotek drive and the big HDD cover with two led light positions on the left bottom corner. I think it looks good. But i will print new version of the HDD cover with black reset button on the right side.. I was also thinking to put inside raspberry pi with mt32pi system and put the display in the center of the HDD cover. I will see, maybe it will look cheesy. What you guys think?

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AMD K6-II 500, Nvidia TNT2 AGP, 256 MB RAM

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
•• WANTED: ROLAND SCP-55 ••
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Reply 11 of 18, by H3nrik V!

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Grem Five wrote on 2021-07-15, 00:22:

Sounds like an awesome project I wish you all the best of luck but it also can become a slippery slope... I started out wanting to build a unique looking HTPC using an old IBM PCJr case with new hardware inside it.

Well a few years later I have about 4 PCJrs, 2 5160 XTs and large range of pcs that came after those..... I think I'm up to around 20ish computers but kinda lost count. Sad part is I got so side tracked with all these other machines which lead from one to another to another that I still havent finished my original HTPC project.

Best of luck on your project and I would love to see the build process, might help me get back on track of my original project.

I think a lot of fellow enthusiasts can tell similar stories. Seems to be the nature of this hobby 🙂

Please use the "quote" option if asking questions to what I write - it will really up the chances of me noticing 😀

Reply 12 of 18, by Intel486dx33

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Oh, I would have kept it looking original with 3.5 and 5.25 floppy drives and just add an external SCSI or USB CDROM drive.
Do they have a USB Gotech drive ?

Oh, wait. Why do you need a Gotech drive if you have USB ?

Reply 13 of 18, by chinny22

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Quite like that rusty old first case. Could make a "ratrod" kind of build. I wouldn't pay more then a token amount for it though.
Your build is coming along real nice as well, kind of funny seeing a CD drive in a XT case.
I agree having the MT-32 Display somewhere is important and if its located inside the case then your idea makes the most sense.
Maybe you could do a traditional 1/2 height HDD plate and a second "custom" plate for the MT32 so it's kind of original but kind of not?

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-07-15, 15:55:

Why do you need a Gotech drive if you have USB ?

USB on socket 7 isn't that useful with crappy Win9x support and even worse in pure dos.
Gotek bypasses any driver requirement, as far as the PC knows its just a standard 1.44 floppy disk

Reply 16 of 18, by dank0

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Yes I am using Gotek as an non headache solution. I have USB working in DOS and win98. But i use Gotek as a the starter for new PC . I have all important drivers, configs and even windows 95 floppy version on Gotek USB stick . BTW. is here someone who have win98 floppy version?

I will very soon post new update, I am printing rails for the motherboard, so i can fit any Mobo in this case.

AMD K6-II 500, Nvidia TNT2 AGP, 256 MB RAM

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
•• WANTED: ROLAND SCP-55 ••
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Reply 17 of 18, by dank0

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thank you guys 😉 I really love the look. I think it will look good with some modern parts and devices. I ordered new MPU-401 from Keropi. I am planing to use RasberryPi as a MT32 emulator (it sounds close enough to original MT-32.) to my ears and as a SoundCanvas I am planing to use iPad with VirtualCanvas app. Sound Card will be probably SB16. Graphics Card I want PCI Nvidia card. I am not planing to use Win 3.11 so I will probably get TNT2. My machine specs are Pentium 233 MMX, 32 GB RAM, I have few 16GB Industrial Flash disk Modules - Hyperdisk and I also bought brand new 80GB IDE HDDs. Power supply I go modern very small PSU very quiet 500W. System will be Windows 98 with booting to no GUI DOS. Monitor will be Lenovo LCD (non 16:9) speakers small Logitech speakers that fits the color design. the keyboard and mouse I still don't know. I am choosing new devices like raspberry or iPad etc. for convenience of modern devices and also because I am not insane to pay lot of money for old Roland devices (Which I have in Canada)

AMD K6-II 500, Nvidia TNT2 AGP, 256 MB RAM

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
•• WANTED: ROLAND SCP-55 ••
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Reply 18 of 18, by Intel486dx33

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I have seen on eBay used IBM motherboards from IBM Aptiva.
These have the IBM Bios so they boot up with the IBM Spash screen Logo
These come with AMD k6 and Pentium CPU’s
They sell for cheap too.
I think the only way someone could have gotten the WIn98 floppy diskette version is to request it directly from Microsoft.
I don’t think they actually sold it in stores but they offered a coupon inside the Win98 box to request the floppy diskette version for FREE. But I see them for sale online “search google”

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