What retro things have you done today?

Had a chance to try out the CRT that came with the 386 this evening. Still in its OG box with inserts. Also inside the box were 2 beige kettle leads to match although I opted to use my known safe ones instead...


It does work but with some problems, the brightness is stuck on max and in lower resolutions there are lines at an angle almost horizontal to the screen. Appears that this is caused by dead caps but I do not feel thats a job for me to be trying.

I really just wanted this for the case but I dont think I can break it up now. I wouldnt even be making use of the lcd or turbo with my intended pentium system. Once the cmos battery arrives I am tempted to try and flip it and put that £ into buying something more suitable!
 
LewisRaz said:
Had a chance to try out the CRT that came with the 386 this evening.
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I've never understood the fascination with CRTs - they're huge, flickery, hum, hot, power hungry (something I'm aware of with lots of electronics on one plug) and reflect outside light on the glass. I used CRTs until about 2003 but have no nostalgia for them at all.

I need to get myself a nice 4:3 or 5:4 19" LCD which has both VGA and DVI and I'll be sorted.
 
I kind of agree with that, I used CRTs for something like 20 years and initially didn't miss them at all. But for retro computing CRTs have two fundamental advantages over LCDs; they make low res graphics look considerably better because they don't have a native resolution like LCDs, and they offer outstanding motion clarity even at low refresh rates.

With the passage of time I'd forgotten just how good motion on CRTs is until I dragged an old 19" VGA screen out of the cupboard (with some difficulty, it's damn heavy) and tried it out. No LCD I've ever used comes close, even ones with high refresh rates and black-frame insertion.
 
almoststew1990 said:
I've never understood the fascination with CRTs - they're huge, flickery, hum, hot, power hungry (something I'm aware of with lots of electronics on one plug) and reflect outside light on the glass. I used CRTs until about 2003 but have no nostalgia for them at all.

I need to get myself a nice 4:3 or 5:4 19" LCD which has both VGA and DVI and I'll be sorted.
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There certainly are a lot of cons and I wouldnt use one on my main retro rig. There are some positives too! (including nostalgia for me ;) )

For virtually all of my retro gaming and testing I use a HP 1702 as I was given loads of them a while back. Still got 3 in the loft iirc.

Currently winning this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-TriGem-486SX-2-Computer-base-unit-complete-Untested/174180336548?

Same guy that I picked up the first p3 motherboard from.

He is also selling this which looks really interesting and I would love to have that case but even the starting bid is a bit strong for an impulse purchase.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

He says the GPU is over the 2 large cards but to me they look more like those boards with entire systems on. You can even see a DX2 on the back of one.
 
Picked up a PCI ATi Rage128 Pro 32mb card for my 95 machine, all installed happily but I seem to have absolutely no 3D acceleration? The settings menus show all the ATi tabs including OpenGL and 3d settings and its enabled but Need for Speed 3 wont detect it as a 3d card and only shows Software Renderer and the same goes for Quake 2, software only. Bit gutting

Looks like I am going back to the Riva128 unless anyone can tell me something I am missing. I remember the old ATi drivers being a pig but never had missing acceleration before.

Got a SB Vibra card which is installed and working great which is nice though! Vogons software library is an amazing resource :)
 
Picked up a console only Atari Jaguar £70 was advertised as for parts. It works perfectly! Luckily I had the psu and pads and some games
 
phatboy said:
Picked up a PCI ATi Rage128 Pro 32mb card for my 95 machine, all installed happily but I seem to have absolutely no 3D acceleration? The settings menus show all the ATi tabs including OpenGL and 3d settings and its enabled but Need for Speed 3 wont detect it as a 3d card and only shows Software Renderer and the same goes for Quake 2, software only. Bit gutting

Looks like I am going back to the Riva128 unless anyone can tell me something I am missing. I remember the old ATi drivers being a pig but never had missing acceleration before.

Got a SB Vibra card which is installed and working great which is nice though! Vogons software library is an amazing resource :)
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That software library is amazing. Has come in useful a few times for me already!
 
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