VOGONS

The challenge of passing on beloved hardware

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First post, by insanefind

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Hi all, I am new to Vogons—not as a viewer, but as a member actually posting. My journey started with a 486 SX-25 purchased by my parents. I learnt DOS and Windows 3.11 along with Quattro Pro and WordPerfect. Before getting a pc one friend had one where we played Lemmings and The Incredible Machine via PC speaker; another friend with DuckTales, Commander Keen, Golden Axe, and Stunts. A third friend had a 386 with internet following digital magazines, MOD music, and tech demos. He hooked his new sound card up to a home stereo system, and I remember staying over Friday night, playing Prince of Persia, completely blown away by the sound. Before bed we watched Future Crew’s Unreal demo. I was in awe. Later, I got the Second Reality demo from him, hooked my sound to my parents' old stereo, turned off the lights, and brought them in to watch. Everything new in computing back then was amazing.

Before PC gaming, I had a system that took cartridges, though I mostly recall using a separate cassette player for data input. It had high color—maybe an MSX—where I played Jet Set Willy and beat Green Beret. With the 486, I got into real PC gaming myself. I still get major nostalgia vibes on Dune 2 start up, so it may have been one of my firsts. I also loved Doom, Hexen, and the great old Blizzard and LucasArts games.
I own a number of computers that I want to pass on so others can enjoy them as much as I did. It took me months to get a listing up, but I took it down after just 2 days. It felt like I was going about things the wrong way, missing the people with real passion. Seeing how other marketplace systems were treated and listed online made me somewhat down.

I still have my beloved Toshiba Tecra 500CDT that I have owned since new, which I originally used for field calibration checks. It sat until I pulled it out to switch to Windows 98 and install my old games for nostalgia. While I keep it around, I mostly use my old custom XP desktop system nowadays, which I originally built.
I wish I still had my Dell XPS R400 with its Turtle Beach sound card, Labtec speakers, and RIVA TNT (later upgraded to a TNT2). Later on, I built a PC in an Antec SX1030B case with a beautiful Abit NF7-S, an AMD Mobile 2500+ overclocked to 2.4Ghz, and a high-RPM TMD fan that I absolutely loved. I also had a Radeon 9500 Pro overclocked to near 9700 speeds. Those were the days.

I wanted to share a video of my 500CDT. This site actually helped me discover the program for scaling the image, so thank you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrM72p_9dso

I am doing this as I don't know how to sell it to a good home and as mentioned, the bay just felt not ideal. Having systems you have cherished and looked after seems to deserve staying in a community of like minded people.

Reply 1 of 4, by EduBat

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Wow, incredible. It looks just like it came out of the factory today.
Back then I had a 660CDT provided by the company I worked for, which was very similar to your 500 and your video brought back a lot of good memories.

Reply 2 of 4, by TheMLGladiator

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VOGONS has rules against selling/promoting, so I would suggest creating a listing on a local auction site so you can check if someone is willing to put in the effort to pick it up in person. There are also some other retro-focused groups like The Retro Web or AmiBay that have a marketplace.

Reply 3 of 4, by EduBat

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Have you considered loaning it to a computer museum in your area?

Reply 4 of 4, by insanefind

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Here in Calgary the computer scene is less passionate about old systems, that is why it feels difficult and unexciting to find a home for a nice vintage computer. I have a number of my old XP desktop systems also (too new for here), the one I mentioned which I will forever keep. But also one with a P180 Case, dual EVGA 8800GT Akimbos with 1GB VRAM. It had an Asus Maximus Extreme socket 775 I got my hands on, which I had for a number of months until I decided after much pondering to update BIOS. The board had dual bios but it never came back, I swear I nearly cried.
So it went back to the Asus P5K it once had, just like other simpler XP system I have. One originally had a EVGA 8800GS Superclock, but that went into my the simpler XP system with BitFenix Shinobi and I scavenged my brother's Akimbo and bought a second as I'd never had SLI when I was younger. Both now have a E8400 which I find better than the Q6600 that died from years of overclocks. I just kept dropping the clocks then one day data on HDD was getting corrupted and not RAM but CPU.
Anyway, thanks for encouragement. I did post on VCF and will look at the other two sites mentioned. In writing this I really find myself wanting to blurt out all the different hardware and parts I've had the pleasure of playing with through the years... interesting.

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