What retro things have you done today?

cee-S-dee said:
Whats is your "Dream" build, or perfect build in regards to a retro machine? Have you built it yet or if not why?
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This is quite complicated for me because I don't have much nostalgia for the era as I was too young to remember. I'm more interested in the hobby for messing with the games and hardware (equally) for the first time rather than for the memories!

As such I don't have an emotional attachment to any of the hardware. A dream build for me would have to be on its technical merits and it becomes hard to pin down as my thinking goes along the lines of a mega W98 (but still dos capable) build with something like a 1.4GHz Tualatin, a "proper" AWE32 and a FX5950. But... why? Any "Windows 98 required" game will be blown out the water by those specs and I'd have a much better 'technical' experience on games that make any use of the extra power if I ran them on literally any XP-era machine. It's too powerful for W98 but nowhere near powerful enough for XP.

A perfect build for me would be targeting 1985 to 1999. It would be cool, silent and reliable. It would use a modern (quiet) power supply, SD or CF card for HDD (in a front 5 1/2" bay), with real OPL, CMS and AWE32 as well as have one of those Roland MPU(?) cards so I don't need an external MT-32. I'd begrudgingly want glide in addition to DX7 and OGL (DX8 is really XP for me).

I guess that would make it something like a Pentium 3 Coppermine 600 (16 watt CPU with 133FSB, so could drop it to 100FSB to get the watts down a little more if needed) with a large heatsink with a 140mm fan somewhere not to far away. I'd use a Voodoo 3 3500 and an MX440/FX5200 (because it is passively cooled and relatively powerful) with DVI out so there is less (none) VGA screen adjusting. I'd want a 1600*1200 screen.

I haven't built this fairly achievable PC because
  • I can't be bothered
  • The internal MT-32 card thing would be as expensive as balls
  • I wouldn't be able to manage the conflicts or set it up properly
  • CMS, SB1 or 2.0 don't work in later ISA motherboards.
  • I think I dream of game ownership more than hardware ownership
This would then be supplemented by my standard XP PC (E8500, 4GB RAM, Audigy 2 ZS, Nvidia GTX645) which is basically perfect from the technical sense for playing XP era games.
 
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cee-S-dee said:
I won a Zalman ZM80D-HP Passive GPU Cooler today. Been searching for one of these for a while now. This is BNIB also.

ZALMAN-ZM80D-HP-Dual-Heatpipe-Noiseless-VGA-Cooler-330888354836.jpg

url
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Bought that kit many years back, although mine wasn't blue so perhaps slightly different in which cards it supported. Used it on a Gainward FX5600 that had developed a noisy fan. Effective, but I found it an absolute pain to fit!
 
almoststew1990 said:
This is quite compPerfect licated for me because I don't have much nostalgia for the era as I was too young to remember. I'm more interested in the hobby for messing with the games and hardware (equally) for the first time rather than for the memories!

As such I don't have an emotional attachment to any of the hardware. A dream build for me would have to be on its technical merits and it becomes hard to pin down as my thinking goes along the lines of a mega W98 (but still dos capable) build with something like a 1.4GHz Tualatin, a "proper" AWE32 and a FX5950. But... why? Any "Windows 98 required" game will be blown out the water by those specs and I'd have a much better 'technical' experience on games that make any use of the extra power if I ran them on literally any XP-era machine. It's too powerful for W98 but nowhere near powerful enough for XP.

A perfect build for me would be targeting 1985 to 1999. It would be cool, silent and reliable. It would use a modern (quiet) power supply, SD or CF card for HDD (in a front 5 1/2" bay), with real OPL, CMS and AWE32 as well as have one of those Roland MPU(?) cards so I don't need an external MT-32. I'd begrudgingly want glide in addition to DX7 and OGL (DX8 is really XP for me).

I guess that would make it something like a Pentium 3 Coppermine 600 (16 watt CPU with 133FSB, so could drop it to 100FSB to get the watts down a little more if needed) with a large heatsink with a 140mm fan somewhere not to far away. I'd use a Voodoo 3 3500 and an MX440/FX5200 (because it is passively cooled and relatively powerful) with DVI out so there is less (none) VGA screen adjusting. I'd want a 1600*1200 screen.

I haven't built this fairly achievable PC because
  • I can't be bothered
  • The internal MT-32 card thing would be as expensive as balls
  • I wouldn't be able to manage the conflicts or set it up properly
  • CMS, SB1 or 2.0 don't work in later ISA motherboards.
  • I think I dream of game ownership more than hardware ownership
This would then be supplemented by my standard XP PC (E8500, 4GB RAM, Audigy 2 ZS, Nvidia GTX645) which is basically perfect from the technical sense for playing XP era games.
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Good Post dude, I actually have a machine not far off your specs but it's changed, but due to change back. My Original system was a Tualatin 1400-S on a DFI BX Motherboard with 512mb ram. I had it running at 140mhz fsb with a TI4600 and a number of soundcards, included a Proper Awe32 with a DB50XG attached. For some reason (I don't know why) I dismantled it. The machine was fast. In its current guise, it sits in a MATX system in a 815i board at 152fsb (1.6ghz) with 512ram, quietly cooled 5900XT, Audigy 1 and a Vortex2 with a DB50XG for DOS midi. I'm going to move it back to the BX build i think. I will try the 5900XT on the BX build and see how it fairs.

I think i'm working towards my dream build, but i didn't realize it was such until i started to find that i like to mainly play dos games, with some Win98 games. I grew up with a DX4 100 as my first machine so most of my fond memories were doom, duke 3d, Theme Park, Lucas Arts click 'n' point games etc. I can't say it's a dream build as I didn't know about MT-32 and the like back in the day, but my exposure to gaming of the era spans from 95 onward's. The current machine i'm working on is getting close to being "Perfect" for my gaming tastes and that's my Via C3 build.

This is how i would like it to finish up, but there is some hardware (Voodoo 2's) I either won't get because of price, or will take me a long time to pick them up a reasonable prices.

This is how i see it,

Via C3, Some Geforce 2, 2x Voodoo 2 12mb's, Awe32 (OPL3) Dreamblaster X2, Kerpoi's New Orpheus Sound Card (Crystal Chip. HardMPU for MT-32, Wavetable header with ability to host other wavetable boards) And other sound cards in the 3rd slot. External Midi Modules (MT-32, SC-55)

The reason for this setup is because it can run as a vast amount of systems. I'm not far off completing it, only things missing are the V2's and Keropi's sound card. I think this one machine would allow me to enjoy all the games from the Dos/Win98 period that I would play.

Its funny, because i bought a great XP system from @marv for such a great price and i think its spot on for XP Gaming. I use it for Need for Speed Underground, Test Drive Unlimited, Outrun 2006 and MGS2. Its a Q9650, 8gb OCZ Ram, gtx560ti, X-Fi Fatality.
 
cee-S-dee said:
Considering we are building a hell of a lot of cool machines in this thread, Here's an interesting question and i'm interested to see what people come up with in regards to what they would build, have built. Whats is your "Dream" build, or perfect build in regards to a retro machine? Have you built it yet or if not why?
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It's a good question, I had a good long think about it last night and still don't believe that I have a "dream" build. Like yourself my computing life is heralded in DOS to early 9x gaming, and it seems we share quite a number of titles that hold the nostalgia candle, this "should" point my "dream build" to something akin to your own (not to mention the fact that I'm also drawn in by the rare and the odd in terms of hardware), but on the flip side of that, condensing all of my retro activities down to a single "one-fits-all" beige box I think would take away some of the magic that keeps me in the hobby, it's the same reason I'm yet to actually move any kit on as I've got such a broad yet overlapping spectrum I've still not used all of the components yet along use all the components in all the possible combinations!

I have never (and likely will never) be an audiophile, I can barely tell the difference between two cards (though I can appreciate the massive difference that the Dreamblaster X2 has added to my MIDI), so chasing various sound cards is likely something I'm not going to do (least of all because the handful I do want for simple nostalgia's sake are all cards that seem to cost a fortune), though I would possibly grab a Sound Canvas at some point if I stumble across one that's not too expensive. Like yourself again, spending over the odds for hardware isn't a prospect that fills me with joy, I got lucky with my Voodoo II pair (though I'd have been luckier still if I'd simply not sold my old pair), and I hope to get lucky with the Voodoo 5 5500 (if it's repairable, great, if it's not then I'll flip it on, someone will buy it for a framed hardware piece or similar).

I think I have more of a wishlist of bits than I do a full on dream build:

Voodoo 5 5500 (might have got this one, but we will have to see)
Dual Socket 8 Pentium II Overdrive Setup
Dual Slot-2 Pentium III Xeon Setup
Dual (or Quad) Socket 603/604 Setup
Geforce 3 Ti500 (these are now ridiculously priced)
Geforce 256 DDR

It would also be nice to find a pair of Tualatin 1.4GHz CPUs to replace my 1.13GHz tiddlers, but again due to cost I doubt this will happen.
 
As for a Dream PC, I've got about it a different slightly different way.

I bought all the kit I wanted way back when (fortunately when it was a bit cheaper and over the course of a few years) and built the PCs I would have wanted at that point in time.

My Dell P90 is my nostalgic favourite, but is limited with its 2 MB Hawkeye PCI GFX card; but, that's what it had.

And then I've bought bits of hardware I always wanted or had and re-wanted:

  • Roland MT-32 (now sold)
  • AWE64 Value
  • Creative Labs Audigy
  • Creative Labs Extigy
  • Anything that LGR or Phil's computer lab deals with (Dreamblasters, nostalgic games etc)
  • Iomega Zip Drive
  • Dot matrix printer
  • Various speakers include a few pairs of Altec Lansings.

And for my Amiga 1200, a genlock, hand scanner, joystick/mouse switcher, Philips monitor,

And then I've put together some smaller 6 year old SFF PCs as retro stations for MAME, DOSBox, Emus etc.
 
Its great to see your thoughts guys. Its seems like we all have a different view on what dream is, but it also seems to be a slights acknowledgment that some sort of high end P3 Is a machine everyone could go with. Sound is a funny one, I like the different sound cards because they can offer a different sound with the same game. Its also interesting to see how quality of the card can also play a big factor. Some ISA cards can be shocking!

This nice boxed copy of Descent 2 arrived today. I have the original and now Decsent 2 boxed. Just need to pick up the 3rd now. I made a very crude video of the sound setup with the different Synths.

DxN2bAsl.jpg


 
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My Ebay delivery today; they'd shipped the wrong item.

I was after their shrink wrapped external / serial BT Voice/Fax modem for my Dell and I got a shrink wrapped PCMCIA Modem.

When profits are so-low, that's got to hurt them and me in coughing up to return the item.

The in-laws dropped off two CRT televisions from a garage clearout a 17" or thereabouts Goodmans and a neat 14" one, perfect for my consoles, N64, Megadrive, PS1, PS2 and Dreamcast.
 
Armageus said:
Couple of potentially cheap lots £29/each

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Computer-Parts-Lot-1/124250053577
Sis Socket 7, Nforce Socket A, Diamond Riva TNT

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Computer-Parts-Lot-2/124250061687
Intel Slot 1 Motherboard, Socket 7 board with SIMM and DIMM slots, and a socket 478 pentium board


Edit:
Slot 1 board has SIMM slots?
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The person that got lot 2 has listed some of the parts from it for fairly big money

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/rare-vin...oard-AT-TXpro-ii-Pentium-166-MMX/143659381052
 
So I'm definitely getting shot of the motherboard in the Time Machine (DeLorean?) case, I have no need for an AGP-less Slot-1 board based on the 440ZX chipset with a built-in ATI Rage 128 VR. The question is, do I sell it on as a bundle (Board/CPU/RAM) or as individual components? If I sell as a bundle, with how much RAM and with which CPU (500MHz Katmai or 650MHz Coppermine)?
 
I'd say a bundle to get it sold, unless it was an interesting board. Particularly if you suspect the board won't support Coppermines or whatever. Slightly annoying as a box for just a motherboard is a lot smaller than a box for a motherboard and CPU cooler (although Slot 1 isn't that big really).
 
almoststew1990 said:
I'd say a bundle to get it sold, unless it was an interesting board. Particularly if you suspect the board won't support Coppermines or whatever. Slightly annoying as a box for just a motherboard is a lot smaller than a box for a motherboard and CPU cooler (although Slot 1 isn't that big really).
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I'm yet to try a Coppermine in the board, as I say I've got a 650MHz Slot-1 (100fsb) CPU that I can try in it. If it works, it might "sweeten the deal" over a Katmai bundle.

EDIT: Coppermine 650MHz boots fine :)

EDIT2: And will boot at 112MHz FSB for 728MHz CPU :D
 
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