What retro things have you done today?

Vinno said:
I did the exact same thing a couple of months ago! I also enjoyed the first stage. Sadly though, for me it gradually got less enjoyable as the game progressed.
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I had the game on near release and you know what? Despite playing through it, the game does peak in my opinion with the first level.
I tried playing through it recently on my Series X and again I stopped straight after the first level, I don't know what it is but it seems to peak there for me.

Future Perfect on the other hand, the first level is awful but then onwards is amazing!
 
!bluetonic! said:
Just had a browse around Retrofest at the Swindon Steam Museum. It's a grade above my geekiness. Lots of stuff that was just before my time which was good too see. The RM machines were lovely and seeing that blue menu screen again in person was worth the visit. I bought a PicoMem with Sound add on for the 386 I was going to sell. :o
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Not much mention of Amiga or Atari, was it pretty much all 8 bit?
 
picnic said:
Not much mention of Amiga or Atari, was it pretty much all 8 bit?
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My Experience at the Event
I know how much effort goes into organizing events like this, and there were certainly some brilliant exhibits tailored for their specific audiences. While not many caught my personal interest, I'm still glad I attended and supported it.

Exhibits That Didn't Quite Grab Me
A few setups, while impressive, weren't really for me:

"Teletext" setup: This was technically amazing, but it's just not my area of interest.
ZX Spectrum graphics card add-on: A very clever piece of kit, but again, not something I'd personally use.
Massive Psion/Palmtop collection: An incredible display for enthusiasts, but it didn't do it for me.
I also spent some time near the RM Nimbus machines, hoping to chat with the owners, but unfortunately, the opportunity didn't arise.

Highlights from the Event
I did find a couple of stands particularly interesting:

The Swindon Museum of Computing had an Amiga 1200 on display, which was cool to see.
I also spoke with the representative from Flamelily, who walked me through their new PCB Amiga 500+. From a technical standpoint, it's brilliant, boasting features like Zorro and RAM slots, PS/2 and 9-pin joystick ports, and RTG. However, with my existing Amiga 1200, Raspberry Pi Amiga, and MiSTer Amiga setup, I absolutely couldn't justify another Amiga at £400. If I were to invest that kind of money, an Amiga One or the new "GS" would be much higher on my list.
Overall, it was a worthwhile visit.

Blowing up my own ego, I reckon I have enough kit to fill that room. :p
 
So a lot of isopropyl and magic eraser usage later the computer is lovely and clean! I wish I took a before photo because other than the yellowing I'm amazed at how clean this has turned out, you would think it was a different pc!
lDTdXD1.jpeg


RW7QX4x.jpeg


I still need to fully dust the inside but I've repasted the CPU as it was in need of it.
I'm yet to boot the system up as I still need to check the PSU over, better be safe than sorry I guess :)
 
Fonz-Valo said:
So a lot of isopropyl and magic eraser usage later the computer is lovely and clean! I wish I took a before photo because other than the yellowing I'm amazed at how clean this has turned out, you would think it was a different pc!
lDTdXD1.jpeg


RW7QX4x.jpeg


I still need to fully dust the inside but I've repasted the CPU as it was in need of it.
I'm yet to boot the system up as I still need to check the PSU over, better be safe than sorry I guess :)
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Oh I always give the power button a press just to see, I like to live dangerously. :D
 
I've had a really positive experience with the Pico Mem card. It's amazing to think of the skills that have made this happen in terms of software, hardware and ease of use.

On my last 386 post, I had so many issues in getting it all and running with CF card partition issues. I managed it, but it took days.

I cloned all that I did onto the PicoMem MicroSD card from my CF card in less than 20 mins. The firmware update is the best that I've seen. Plug the card into a modern PC via USB. Drag and drop the firmware across and bam, it's done. WiFi is connected okay.

I haven't even used the sound card functionality.

I've never played AlleyCat before (nod to LGR), but I now have.

PXL-20250602-103430872.jpg
 
Recently bought myself an old socket 462 motherboard to facilitate my Duron 800 build. I've had this CPU sitting in it's little case for the past 23 years since I upgraded from it. I really hope it still actually works lol.
 
If it was, I didn’t do it. I remember it being discussed. I think it allowed you to essentially have an unlocked multiplier which made for easier overlocking. Looking back, my PSU at the time was such garbage I probably wouldn’t have bothered or been brave enough.

I eventually moved to a Pentium 4 2.8Ghz with HT after that and I can say it was quite the upgrade…!
 
alex24 said:
Nice. My first own PC was a Duron 1GHz! It was slow to say the least when using XP.
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My first 'proper' PC upgrade after my 486 system (as in it was purchased and not kit that was handed down) was from a K6-2 to a Duron 800 OC'd to 1.2GHz I believe and I did the pencil mod on both that and the Athlon TBird that later replaced it :)
 
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Fonz-Valo said:
I had the game on near release and you know what? Despite playing through it, the game does peak in my opinion with the first level.
I tried playing through it recently on my Series X and again I stopped straight after the first level, I don't know what it is but it seems to peak there for me.

Future Perfect on the other hand, the first level is awful but then onwards is amazing!
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Ah, I was wondering if it was just that it hadn't aged particularly well but that first level is definitely a high point!
 
Another small 386 update.

I connected my speakers to my PicoMem DAC and configured for AdLib sound in the setup Bios.

I loaded up Kings Quest IV and it works a treat.



free upload direct link

This is one of those games I remember seeing on my friend's dad's home office PC, thinking how cumbersome but cool that beige box and CRT monitor was. 35 years later, I have the same setup running those games.

The AdLib card was never on my radar back in the day. It was all about SoundBlaster. But credit to it, the fact it didn't need drivers or configuration to work.

This PicoMem card is a game changer on this retro unit. It's just so easy now to plonk stuff on the card and tinker.
 
picnic said:
Youtube video from RetroFest


Quite a bit of kit, loads of stuff I'd never seen. If they do another I hope to hear about it earlier enough I could plan a trip
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im 20mins from there and work in swindon once a week didnt know anything about until it popped up on my youtube.. a lot of it looks well to dorky for me though
 
!bluetonic! said:
The AdLib card was never on my radar back in the day. It was all about SoundBlaster. But credit to it, the fact it didn't need drivers or configuration to work.
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I remember always wanting a Roland MT-32 but yeah, a SoundBlaster was what I always found myself with...I think I had an AWE32 -> AWE64 for a time :)

Then I discovered Aureal and that SoundBlaster rubbish went out the window :p
 
So I finally hit the power button on the Packard Bell and its all good!
It was a proper throw back seeing the old W98 install I did whilst my PC of the time was in for repair, this would have been around 2003 near the end of my college course.
There was a very questionable copy of Office XP installed as well as a bunch of games, Quake being one of them :D
P200-Quake.jpg


I also decided to load Internet Explorer up in off-line mode to see If I left anything in the temporary files and low and behold the home page was still cached!
oldweb.jpg



So my plans now are to upgrade the onboard video memory to 2mb with memory from a donor card as per @Armageus suggestion. I've got the card here I just need to remove the chips and install them now, they seem like awkward things to remove though.
Other than that i'm going to restore the original install from the restore disks and if I ever find one for a good price i'd love to install a 3dfx Voodoo card , I was always jealous of seeing Quake and Tomb Raider running on those back in the day
 
Fonz-Valo said:
So my plans now are to upgrade the onboard video memory to 2mb with memory from a donor card as per @Armageus suggestion. I've got the card here I just need to remove the chips and install them now, they seem like awkward things to remove though
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I think it's a PLCC Chip puller that's ideally needed for these.

Something like this:

Sourcingmap Professional Tool PLCC IC Extractor (WTS-610) Chip Spring Assisted: Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools

Buy Sourcingmap Professional Tool PLCC IC Extractor (WTS-610) Chip Spring Assisted : Tool Sets : Amazon.co.uk ✓ Free delivery on eligible orders
www.amazon.co.uk
 
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