• My new* 486 (*=old)

    From xbit@21:4/107 to All on Fri Feb 10 06:25:16 2023
    I have the following retro PC currently being shipped: x-bit.org/retro486/ Fingers crossed that it makes its way to me safely.

    My first PC ever was a 486sx 25 that i later upgraded with a Cyrix 486-100. I don't want to say what i did with it years later as it makes me sad/mad :/

    Looking forward to some 486 era gaming and i'll also install a spitfire bbs just to get the init strings working so it says "waiting for call".

    One of the first upgrads I'm going to do is to replace the badge on the case from this place geekenspiel.com/collections.

    Anyone else have a early era PC? Please share the specs and what your doing with it if so.

    Long live the retro!
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The X-Bit BBS - x-bit.org - Forest Grove, Or (21:4/107)
  • From Ben Collver to xbit on Fri Feb 10 10:59:18 2023
    Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: xbit to All on Fri Feb 10 2023 06:25:16

    Anyone else have a early era PC? Please share the specs and what you're doing with it if so.

    Aloha up there! I am writing from Grants Pass.

    My first PC was an IBM 5150 with two full-height 5.25" drives and no internal disk and it ran DOS 3.x. I no longer have that system.

    Recently i inherited an IBM PC 330 6577-79T, which has a Pentium processor, 200MHz clock, 66MHz bus. It has 32mb EDO memory, 1mb video memory, 4gb IDE disk, 3.5" floppy drive, 52x CD-ROM drive dated 2002, PCI sound card, PCI
    modem, and free ISA slots. It has a parallel port, a serial port, two 1.5MB/s USB ports, and an "infrared" port. According to the spec sheet it cannot boot from CD but the BIOS has the CD-ROM in the boot order. The S3 Trio64V+ video controller with 1MB memory can go up to 1024x768x256 colors or 1280x1024x16 colors.

    The system has Windows ME. It boots to a BSOD even in safe mode. I cannot get it to boot from the CD-ROM and i don't currently have a way to write floppy disks nor IDE disks. So i am effectively locked out of the system.

    My thought is to acquire a USB floppy drive and write a memtest86 boot floppy. I'd test the memory first. Then i would write a BasLinux floppy to test the hard disk. If the hardware tests OK then i would install FreeDOS. My initial use would be recovering data from old floppies of mine that i recently discovered. Then it would be for DOS gaming.

    I have a model M keyboard that would be a good fit for this system.

    Last year i used DJGPP to compile current versions of Angband and NetHack for DOS. I have a Pentium-3 era system for testing, but it would be nice to have an older system to help keep it real. Though not real mode.

    A friend of mine is into ZZT. Archive.org has a trove of ZZT content including a diskmag titled "Hacker's Guide to ZZT." Thought i might check that out.

    -Ben
  • From Mike Dippel@21:4/176 to Ben Collver on Fri Feb 10 12:54:32 2023
    On 2/10/2023 11:05 AM, Ben Collver wrote to xbit:

    Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: xbit to All on Fri Feb 10 2023 06:25:16

    Anyone else have a early era PC? Please share the specs and what you're doing with it if so.

    Aloha up there! I am writing from Grants Pass.

    My first PC was an IBM 5150 with two full-height 5.25" drives and no internal
    disk and it ran DOS 3.x. I no longer have that system.

    Recently i inherited an IBM PC 330 6577-79T, which has a Pentium processor, 200MHz clock, 66MHz bus. It has 32mb EDO memory, 1mb video memory, 4gb IDE disk, 3.5" floppy drive, 52x CD-ROM drive dated 2002, PCI sound card, PCI modem, and free ISA slots. It has a parallel port, a serial port, two 1.5MB/s
    USB ports, and an "infrared" port. According to the spec sheet it cannot boot
    from CD but the BIOS has the CD-ROM in the boot order. The S3 Trio64V+ video
    controller with 1MB memory can go up to 1024x768x256 colors or 1280x1024x16 colors.

    The system has Windows ME. It boots to a BSOD even in safe mode. I cannot get
    it to boot from the CD-ROM and i don't currently have a way to write floppy disks nor IDE disks. So i am effectively locked out of the system.

    My thought is to acquire a USB floppy drive and write a memtest86 boot floppy.
    I'd test the memory first. Then i would write a BasLinux floppy to test the hard disk. If the hardware tests OK then i would install FreeDOS. My initial
    use would be recovering data from old floppies of mine that i recently discovered. Then it would be for DOS gaming.

    I have a model M keyboard that would be a good fit for this system.

    Last year i used DJGPP to compile current versions of Angband and NetHack for
    DOS. I have a Pentium-3 era system for testing, but it would be nice to have
    an older system to help keep it real. Though not real mode.

    A friend of mine is into ZZT. Archive.org has a trove of ZZT content including
    a diskmag titled "Hacker's Guide to ZZT." Thought i might check that out.

    -Ben

    My wife's laptop ran Windows 10 but it took forever to boot, and forget about programs
    loading in a timely manner. She had to load Zoom 15 minutes before the start of a
    meeting.

    I loaded Chrome OS into it, and now it's a screamer.

    Mike Dippel

    --- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v7.0
    * Origin: The Hobby Line! BBS - hobbylinebbs.com (21:4/176)
  • From xbit@21:4/107 to Ben Collver on Fri Feb 10 10:19:14 2023
    Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: Ben Collver to xbit on Fri Feb 10 2023 10:59 am

    Recently i inherited an IBM PC 330 6577-79T, which has a Pentium processor, 200MHz clock, 66MHz bus. It has 32mb EDO memory, 1mb video memory, 4gb IDE disk, 3.5" floppy drive, 52x CD-ROM drive dated 2002, PCI sound card, PCI modem, and free ISA slots. It has a parallel port, a

    This is an amazing system Ben! Does it have the big blue IBM when you first trun it on? Yes, a very nice retro PC with the perfect CPU for old and newer dos games.

    The system has Windows ME. It boots to a BSOD even in safe mode. I cannot get it to boot from the CD-ROM and i don't currently have a way to write floppy disks nor IDE disks. So i am effectively locked out of the system.

    Very sorry about this. Please keep us posted when you found the solution as this is a great PC.

    My first PC was an IBM 5150 with two full-height 5.25" drives and no internal disk and it ran DOS 3.x. I no longer have that system.

    Do you wish you still had this one? :)
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The X-Bit BBS - x-bit.org - Forest Grove, Or (21:4/107)
  • From esc@21:4/173 to xbit on Fri Feb 10 12:24:00 2023
    I have the following retro PC currently being shipped:
    x-bit.org/retro486/ Fingers crossed that it makes its way to me safely.

    Nice! Looks good!

    I have a 486 that I've been "building" now for like a year. I just never finished it up lol. I can't even remember what's all in it but I did recently get a GUS PnP that I'll be throwing in there, which has me all sorts of excited. I love building old hardware.

    My first PC ever was a 486sx 25 that i later upgraded with a Cyrix 486-100. I don't want to say what i did with it years later as it makes
    me sad/mad :/

    My dad had a Gateway 2000 486dx66 if I remember correctly. That machine was great, it was reliable and fast and I loved the aesthetic. Vintage PCs are so cool.

    I had a 386sx33 or something along those lines back then. It was very tempermental and there was something wrong with the HD controller as every HD I threw on there became corrupt after a period of time. But this is the machine that got me deep into the BBSing hobby, so it's important in my personal history haha

    Looking forward to some 486 era gaming and i'll also install a spitfire bbs just to get the init strings working so it says "waiting for call".

    Sweet deal! Yeah, I also install old BBS software on hardware when I can. There's something magical about just seeing the old WFC the way it was intended to be seen. I've done the same with Amiga BBS software on real hardware. It's neat.

    One of the first upgrads I'm going to do is to replace the badge on the case from this place geekenspiel.com/collections.

    Oh cool, I wasn't aware of this seller.

    Anyone else have a early era PC? Please share the specs and what your doing with it if so.

    I'll have to follow up once it's built. I have a WinXP machine, a Win98 machine, and the aforementioned 486 which I still need to build. The Win98 machine is a ton of fun, I have it set up for multiple "hardware profiles" which align with me switching on or off the PCI GPU in BIOS. This allows me to have both a voodoo card and an nvidia card, so it's versatile as hell. I also have a midi tower that this plugs into so I can run games with a couple different midi options. It's spectacular.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: m O N T E R E Y b B S . c O M (21:4/173)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Ben Collver on Fri Feb 10 20:03:00 2023
    Hello Ben Collver!

    ** On Friday 10.02.23 - 10:59, Ben Collver wrote to xbit:

    Anyone else have a early era PC? Please share the specs
    and what you're doing with it if so.

    Recently i inherited an IBM PC 330 6577-79T, which has a
    Pentium processor, 200MHz clock, 66MHz bus. It has 32mb
    EDO memory, 1mb video [...]

    My retro pr0n. Dunno what to do with it. Probably will end up
    in landfill:

    https://kolico.ca/tmp/c9%20IMG_20230210_192328.jpg https://kolico.ca/tmp/c8%20IMG_20230210_192226.jpg https://kolico.ca/tmp/c7%20IMG_20230210_192207.jpg https://kolico.ca/tmp/c6%20IMG_20230210_192100.jpg https://kolico.ca/tmp/c5%20IMG_20230210_191818.jpg https://kolico.ca/tmp/c4%20IMG_20230210_191713.jpg https://kolico.ca/tmp/c3%20IMG_20230210_191542.jpg https://kolico.ca/tmp/c2%20IMG_20230210_192428.jpg https://kolico.ca/tmp/c1%20IMG_20230210_192514.jpg


    --- OpenXP 5.0.57
    * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)
  • From xbit@21:4/107 to esc on Fri Feb 10 17:28:39 2023
    Re: Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: esc to xbit on Fri Feb 10 2023 12:24 pm

    I have a 486 that I've been "building" now for like a year. I just never finished it up lol. I can't even remember what's all in it but I did recently get a GUS PnP that I'll be throwing in there, which has me all sorts of excited. I love building old hardware.

    Right on esc, it will be very awesome once you complete. And its amazing that you found a Gravis. Not easy to find and they go for $$ on ebay :) What a sweet build.

    My dad had a Gateway 2000 486dx66 if I remember correctly. That machine was great, it was reliable and fast and I loved the aesthetic. Vintage PCs are so cool.

    I <3 Gateways. All of the xbit services (sync, spitfire bbs, web, etc) are running on one of Gateways last systems.. a Gateway FX w/ a i7 920.

    I had a 386sx33 or something along those lines back then. It was very tempermental and there was something wrong with the HD controller as every HD I threw on there became corrupt after a period of time. But this is the machine that got me deep into the BBSing hobby, so it's important in my personal history haha

    lol... that's a great story. My first 486 25 turned into my first spitfire bbs. I remember upgrading its motherboard and a new case. When i installed the PSU i crossed the wires.. what happend next is not good. A spark came out the power button and up my arm. Then the lights went out to the house :/ LOL.. I thought I killed my computer.. but, funny enough it didn't destory anything.

    Sweet deal! Yeah, I also install old BBS software on hardware when I can. There's something magical about just seeing the old WFC the way it was intended to be seen. I've done the same with Amiga BBS software on real hardware. It's neat.

    100% agree my friend. Can't wait to here the clicking of the hard drive.
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The X-Bit BBS - x-bit.org - Forest Grove, Or (21:4/107)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to xbit on Fri Feb 10 19:11:26 2023
    Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: xbit to Ben Collver on Fri Feb 10 2023 10:19 am

    My first PC was an IBM 5150 with two full-height 5.25" drives and no
    internal disk and it ran DOS 3.x. I no longer have that system.

    Do you wish you still had this one? :)

    Oh, god, don't get us going down the road about the systems we've lost along the way.

    IBM 5160 with a 10MB hard drive and matching hercules monitor
    AT&T 6300 with keyboard and matching monitor
    Compaq portable II with a hardcard
    --- SBBSecho 3.15-Win32
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From sPINOZa@21:1/116 to xbit on Sat Feb 11 15:18:45 2023
    I have the following retro PC currently being shipped:
    Anyone else have a early era PC? Please share the specs and what your doing with it if so.

    Hiya, cograts with your new system!

    I also have a complete working setup:

    486/66Mhz - 16MB
    Award Bios 4.50G - 1995
    4xISA / 3xVesa / 1x3.5
    Vesa VGA Card 1MB
    SCSI Adaptec 1542B
    Seagate Cheetah SCSI drive
    Gravis UltraSound Max rev1.8 connected to a Sony F410R 1989 Japan :)
    3com etherlink III

    gtX!
    spI!

    ... My modem init string? ATZ|

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: -.sNd!GRDn.- (21:1/116)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to xbit on Sat Feb 11 13:53:40 2023
    On 10 Feb 23 06:25:16 xbit wrote...

    Anyone else have a early era PC? Please share the specs and what your
    doing with it if so.

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    I have some old ones in storage. Was thinking of taking one of my AMD
    (K7 I think?) out that was set up with NT Workstation 4 and turn it into
    a duplication machine for disks from my retro systems (Atari/Apple/Commodore/etc)

    I have to check to see if I still have any of the badges from when I had
    my own business building those back in the day. I can't remember if my business partner at the time has them, or if I took a bunch.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From Ben Collver to xbit on Sat Feb 11 17:20:16 2023
    Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: xbit to Ben Collver on Fri Feb 10 2023 10:19:14

    This is an amazing system Ben! Does it have the big blue IBM when you first trun it on? Yes, a very nice retro PC with the perfect CPU for old and newer dos games.

    Very sorry about this. Please keep us posted when you found the solution as this is a great PC.

    Do you wish you still had this one? :)

    Yes, it does have the big blue IBM when i first turn it on. I will keep you posted when i get to the bottom of it.

    I do wish i still had my first PC. It had several hand-me-down upgrades over the years including maxing out the conventional memory, adding an Orchid Tiny Turbo 286 upgrade that plugged into an 8-bit ISA slot plus a ribbon cable from the card to the 8088 CPU socket, replacing one of the full-height floppy drives with a full-height 80mb MFM hard disk, adding a Hercules monochrome controller and monitor, and a cassette tape "drive" from a yard sale bargain. I remember using the SIMCGA.COM TSR to play commercial games, simulating CGA by dithering
    to the higher-res Hercules monochrome display.

    Which kind of retro games are you into?

    -Ben
  • From Pavel Pavel@21:1/114 to xbit on Sun Feb 12 06:34:13 2023
    Anyone else have a early era PC? Please share the specs and what your doing with it if so.
    Long live the retro!

    Personally i`d love to get an old Windows 98 machine so i can experience retro computing for some time however in my country it`s hard to find one and i don`t trust ebay so getting one for me will be quite the challenge

    ... A PC a day keeps the Apple away!

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/15 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: throwbackbbs.com -\- meriden, ct -\- (21:1/114)
  • From xbit@21:4/107 to Pavel Pavel on Sun Feb 12 10:16:40 2023
    Re: Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: Pavel Pavel to xbit on Sun Feb 12 2023 06:34 am

    Personally i`d love to get an old Windows 98 machine so i can experience retro computing for some time however in my country it`s hard to find one and i don`t trust ebay so getting one for me will be quite the challenge

    I understand. That said, ebay has a pretty good protection policy and seller rankings and grades help a ton as well. I've always had good luck with it as long as I follow 4.5-5 star sellers. Even if something goes wrong, you can get refunded.
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The X-Bit BBS - x-bit.org - Forest Grove, Or (21:4/107)
  • From xbit@21:4/107 to sPINOZa on Sun Feb 12 10:17:53 2023
    Re: Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: sPINOZa to xbit on Sat Feb 11 2023 03:18 pm

    486/66Mhz - 16MB
    Award Bios 4.50G - 1995
    4xISA / 3xVesa / 1x3.5
    Vesa VGA Card 1MB
    SCSI Adaptec 1542B
    Seagate Cheetah SCSI drive
    Gravis UltraSound Max rev1.8 connected to a Sony F410R 1989 Japan :)
    3com etherlink III

    Grad A system! Very nice. And where are all you getting the Gravis cards :P
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The X-Bit BBS - x-bit.org - Forest Grove, Or (21:4/107)
  • From xbit@21:4/107 to Commodore Clifford on Sun Feb 12 10:19:11 2023
    Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: Commodore Clifford to xbit on Sat Feb 11 2023 01:53 pm

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...



    I have some old ones in storage. Was thinking of taking one of my AMD
    (K7 I think?) out that was set up with NT Workstation 4 and turn it into
    a duplication machine for disks from my retro systems

    Very nice.
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The X-Bit BBS - x-bit.org - Forest Grove, Or (21:4/107)
  • From xbit@21:4/107 to Ben Collver on Sun Feb 12 10:22:02 2023
    Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: Ben Collver to xbit on Sat Feb 11 2023 05:20 pm

    I do wish i still had my first PC. It had several hand-me-down upgrades over the years including maxing out the conventional memory, adding an Orchid Tiny Turbo 286 upgrade that plugged into an 8-bit ISA slot plus a

    At least i'm not the only one that did away w/ my first <3.. lol

    Which kind of retro games are you into?

    FPS mostly.. Duke Nukem, quake, doom.
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The X-Bit BBS - x-bit.org - Forest Grove, Or (21:4/107)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to sPINOZa on Sat Feb 11 09:46:00 2023
    sPINOZa wrote to xbit <=-

    SCSI Adaptec 1542B
    3com etherlink III

    I bought a ton of these cards in the '90s. I worked in a mostly Mac shop
    and we had lots of SCSI peripherals (and all of our servers were SCSI)
    so we used 1542s in our Windows PCs.

    3c509s just seemed cooler than the Intel EtherExpress 16s. :)




    ... Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Pavel Pavel on Sun Feb 12 10:24:00 2023
    Pavel Pavel wrote to xbit <=-

    Personally i`d love to get an old Windows 98 machine so i can
    experience retro computing for some time however in my country it`s
    hard to find one and i don`t trust ebay so getting one for me will be quite the challenge

    I moved to an ultra-wide screen monitor a while ago. I'd love to be able
    to run Windows 3.11, 95 or 98 in DOSBOX or a VM window at full
    resolution, but the best I think I can do is a 1920x1080 window with a
    hacked video driver.

    There's a lot to be said for (re) experiencing the retro computing
    environment without having to maintain the hardware. Then again, that
    was part of the nostalgia.

    Aside: I did see someone is making a 4:3 LCD monitor in beige. That'd
    be a great addition to a retro PC setup.



    ... The answers will be found in the logs.
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Gamgee@21:2/138 to xbit on Sun Feb 12 13:17:00 2023
    xbit wrote to Ben Collver <=-

    Which kind of retro games are you into?

    FPS mostly.. Duke Nukem, quake, doom.

    If you're interested, I have a LOT of maps/addons/utils for those games
    on my board (origin line below). ;-)



    ... Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
    === MultiMail/Linux v0.52
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (21:2/138)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Feb 12 17:20:00 2023
    Hello poindexter FORTRAN!

    Aside: I did see someone is making a 4:3 LCD monitor in
    beige. That'd be a great addition to a retro PC setup.

    How do they accomplish that? Spray-paint?

    In any regard, CRT has definately got to go to landfill.


    --- OpenXP 5.0.57
    * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Ogg on Sun Feb 12 14:48:25 2023
    Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: Ogg to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Feb 12 2023 05:20 pm

    Aside: I did see someone is making a 4:3 LCD monitor in
    beige. That'd be a great addition to a retro PC setup.

    How do they accomplish that? Spray-paint?

    It's a kickstarter campaign -

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/checkmate1500mini/retro-styled-modular-ips -display-for-old-and-new-systems

    gooddogdigital has a listing for a CRT-sized case with an LCD screen,

    Samsung made some old beige/white 4:3 LCDs, too.
    --- SBBSecho 3.15-Win32
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Feb 12 21:38:00 2023
    Hello poindexter FORTRAN!

    How do they accomplish that? Spray-paint?

    It's a kickstarter campaign -

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/checkmate1500mini/retro-styled-modul ar-ips -display-for-old-and-new-systems

    I like the handle!

    Modular and upgradable - interesting.


    --- OpenXP 5.0.57
    * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)
  • From calcmandan@21:1/172 to xbit on Mon Feb 13 05:35:53 2023
    Anyone else have a early era PC? Please share the specs and what your doing with it if so.

    Believe it or not, my daily driver for writing is a Tandy TRS-80 Model 200 laptop. I used to host a phlog on gopher space and I will again at some point, all the entries were written on the 200. All pending articles, for when the phlog comes back online, are stored on there at the moment. I also host a weekly radio show and write my show notes on it. At some point, I intend to
    get a wifi card that plugs into the serial port - so I can bbs on it.

    It has a 80C85A CPU, 72k ram, 240x128 full-dot matrix LCD, interfaces for modem, printer, cassette, and BCR. Funs on four AA batteries that lasts about
    a week for me, sometimes less depending on usage. I bought it with a Rex expansion module giving me 1MB of extra storage. I'm considering the purchase of a backpack device, which mimicks a floppy drive up to 8gb of storage as
    well as a wifi card. I would like to bbs on it.

    Daniel Traechin

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: The Bottomless Abyss BBS * bbs.bottomlessabyss.net (21:1/172)
  • From Ben Collver to Gamgee on Mon Feb 13 10:36:46 2023
    Re: Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: Gamgee to xbit on Sun Feb 12 2023 13:17:00

    FPS mostly.. Duke Nukem, quake, doom.

    If you're interested, I have a LOT of maps/addons/utils for those games
    on my board (origin line below). ;-)

    * Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (21:2/138)

    Nice! I'm saving this for later.
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to xbit on Mon Feb 13 17:31:32 2023
    On 12 Feb 23 10:16:40 xbit wrote...

    I understand. That said, ebay has a pretty good protection policy and seller rankings and grades help a ton as well. I've always had good
    luck with it as long as I follow 4.5-5 star sellers. Even if
    something goes wrong, you can get refunded. --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The X-Bit BBS - x-bit.org - Forest Grove, Or (21:4/107)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    While I may agree about eBay being trustworthy, one thing to consider is shipping. Not sure what country Pavel is from, but I can tell you I
    won't even consider ordering anything from overseas unless it's something
    small that should be good in shipping... but anything like a computer or
    a monitor... no way.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From esc@21:4/173 to Commodore Clifford on Mon Feb 13 22:57:25 2023
    While I may agree about eBay being trustworthy, one thing to consider is shipping. Not sure what country Pavel is from, but I can tell you I
    won't even consider ordering anything from overseas unless it's something small that should be good in shipping... but anything like a computer or
    a monitor... no way.

    I've ordered several Amiga related things from Europe and all have been fine, which is great considering unavailability of parts in the US :)

    I can also recommend using fromjapan if you want to purchase Japanese auction items and have them shipped to the US. There were some cool exclusives over there...FM Towns, X68000, etc

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: m O N T E R E Y b B S . c O M (21:4/173)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to calcmandan on Tue Feb 14 07:05:00 2023
    calcmandan wrote to xbit <=-

    Anyone else have a early era PC? Please share the specs and what your doing with it if so.

    Believe it or not, my daily driver for writing is a Tandy TRS-80 Model
    200 laptop. I used to host a phlog on gopher space and I will again at some point, all the entries were written on the 200.

    That's pretty awesome. I always liked those, bought a 102 online that
    didn't have a working = key. For a machine that runs BASIC, that's sort
    of a deal-breaker. Ended up selling it to someone handier with a
    soldering iron than me.

    I loved the image of a journalist hacking up a story on one of those in
    the field, then going to a phone booth with an acoustic coupler and
    filing the story electronically.




    ... Is the tuning appropriate?
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From dozo@21:1/238 to xbit on Wed Feb 15 16:58:13 2023
    I have the following retro PC currently being shipped: x-bit.org/retro486/ Fingers crossed that it makes its way to me safely.
    Nice! I hope it arrives safely. I bought an AMD 386DX40 mainboard a short while ago, with 4 MB ram. I still have to mount in one of my very old cases and find a suitable PSU for it, since I don't want to toast that 'new' mainboard.

    My first PC ever was a 486sx 25 that i later upgraded with a Cyrix 486-100 don't want to say what i did with it years later as it makes me sad/mad :/
    I lost some stuff too. Luckily, I do have all my hard drives from 40MB onwards. The only one I _don't_ have is from my Novell server that held my BBS files :/

    Looking forward to some 486 era gaming and i'll also install a spitfire bb just to get the init strings working so it says "waiting for call".
    Can relate, I look forward to using the 386 with an IDE to CF adapter and a Gotek FDD emulator, so I can Telix to BBS'es :D

    One of the first upgrads I'm going to do is to replace the badge on the ca from this place geekenspiel.com/collections.
    Thanks for the link, great stuff!

    Anyone else have a early era PC? Please share the specs and what your doin with it if so.
    I also have a Pentium 200mmx I had earlier, with 850MB HDD and a Matrox GPU. I'm checking this board and PSU for bad caps and intend to power it on one of these days. I wonder what's on the HDD :D

    Cheers,

    dozo

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: (21:1/238)
  • From dozo@21:1/238 to poindexter FORTRAN on Wed Feb 15 17:00:37 2023
    Oh, god, don't get us going down the road about the systems we've lost alo the way.
    _Very_ good point :/
    I have had 2 computer cases for the past 25 years that moved along whenever I relocated and I was convinced one of them was my 386DX40 system that I remember upgrading to. It wasn't, one was empty and the other turned out to be a Pentium 200mmx...

    Oh well..

    dozo

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: (21:1/238)
  • From dozo@21:1/238 to poindexter FORTRAN on Wed Feb 15 17:16:22 2023
    It's a kickstarter campaign -

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/checkmate1500mini/retro-styled-modula -display-for-old-and-new-systems

    Thanks for sharing, that looks interesting!

    dozo

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: (21:1/238)
  • From Darklord@21:3/171 to poindexter FORTRAN on Wed Feb 15 13:27:12 2023
    On 14 Feb 23 07:05:00 poindexter FORTRAN wrote...

    I loved the image of a journalist hacking up a story on one of those
    in the field, then going to a phone booth with an acoustic coupler
    and filing the story electronically.

    To which Darklord replies...

    Awesome imagry. Kinda like a kid with an Atari Portfolio hacking a banks
    ATM in a movie... :)


    /\
    Dark><Lord
    \/

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From Atari8Guy@21:3/171 to Commodore Clifford on Thu Feb 16 00:21:04 2023
    On 13 Feb 23 17:31:32 Commodore Clifford wrote...

    On 12 Feb 23 10:16:40 xbit wrote...

    I understand. That said, ebay has a pretty good protection policy
    and seller rankings and grades help a ton as well. I've always
    had good luck with it as long as I follow 4.5-5 star sellers.
    Even if something goes wrong, you can get refunded. --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32 * Origin: The X-Bit BBS - x-bit.org - Forest Grove,
    Or (21:4/107)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    While I may agree about eBay being trustworthy, one thing to consider
    is shipping. Not sure what country Pavel is from, but I can tell you
    I won't even consider ordering anything from overseas unless it's
    something small that should be good in shipping... but anything like
    a computer or a monitor... no way.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01] * Origin: STar Fleet HQ -
    Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)

    To which Atari8Guy replies...

    Yeah, shipping is a bitch, especially for the last thing I'm really
    looking for - a CRT VGA monitor. I thought that would be easy to source,
    but I haven't had any luck locally and though the show up on eBay the
    shipping is always more than the monitor...sigh.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From sPINOZa@21:1/116 to xbit on Sat Feb 18 11:24:27 2023
    Grad A system! Very nice. And where are all you getting the Gravis cards

    They have been in the family since release date. Unfortunately the orginal Max is broken (the card is found by the driver but cannot be initialized) but I was able to replace it about 5 years ago.

    gTx!
    SpI!

    ... GF1 - not my 1st girlfriend

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: -.sNd!GRDn.- (21:1/116)
  • From sPINOZa@21:1/116 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Feb 18 11:38:46 2023
    SCSI Adaptec 1542B
    3com etherlink III
    I bought a ton of these cards in the '90s. I worked in a mostly Mac shop and we had lots of SCSI peripherals (and all of our servers were SCSI)
    so we used 1542s in our Windows PCs.
    3c509s just seemed cooler than the Intel EtherExpress 16s. :)

    The 1542B was donated to me by a friend in the late 90s, some years ago I bought a spare one but I cannot remember if it is also a 1542B because it has yellow components instead of red.

    Were they called Workgroup servers?

    Those 3c509s will survive mankind!

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: -.sNd!GRDn.- (21:1/116)
  • From Bikerbob@21:3/171 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Feb 18 06:25:52 2023
    one of the most frustrating things with NEW LED/LCDs is that they have no picture control anymore. I have an old atari with composite out, gives me
    80col - actually a really nice picture on my LCD monitor - but I am
    missing the last 2 columns because I cannot move the picture to the left
    :( you have to find a nice multisync or crt to get that to work, and then
    go through most likely some kind of hardware to convert it to VGA?? too
    much work.

    Bummer

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From Bikerbob@21:3/171 to calcmandan on Sat Feb 18 06:32:02 2023
    On 13 Feb 23 05:35:53 calcmandan wrote...

    Anyone else have a early era PC? Please share the specs and what
    your doing with it if so.

    Believe it or not, my daily driver for writing is a Tandy TRS-80
    Model 200 laptop. I used to host a phlog on gopher space and I will
    again at some point, all the entries were written on the 200. All
    pending articles, for when the phlog comes back online, are stored on
    there at the moment. I also host a weekly radio show and write my
    show notes on it. At some point, I intend to get a wifi card that
    plugs into the serial port - so I can bbs on it.

    It has a 80C85A CPU, 72k ram, 240x128 full-dot matrix LCD, interfaces
    for modem, printer, cassette, and BCR. Funs on four AA batteries that
    lasts about a week for me, sometimes less depending on usage. I
    bought it with a Rex expansion module giving me 1MB of extra storage.
    I'm considering the purchase of a backpack device, which mimicks a
    floppy drive up to 8gb of storage as well as a wifi card. I would
    like to bbs on it.

    Daniel Traechin

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64) * Origin: The
    Bottomless Abyss BBS * bbs.bottomlessabyss.net (21:1/172)

    To which Bikerbob replies...

    WOW.. very cool on the model 200 - I was not aware, sounds like it is
    somewhat close to the Atari Portfolio. My oldest laptop is a Dell D600 or
    a Ibook G4 - The first because it is native serial - for a number of
    reasons not the least of which is a modem - but also other communications issues with other retro hardware - and the IbookG4 because damm that
    thing was SLICK in its day. Great screen fantasic keyboard. I loved to
    WORK on that machine.. light.. battery would last forever.

    I still have my my first machine Atari 400 - now with 48K B-Key keyboard,
    and S-Video output. I dont use it often, but it still fires up a few
    times a year.

    James

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to sPINOZa on Sat Feb 18 07:57:00 2023
    sPINOZa wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    The 1542B was donated to me by a friend in the late 90s, some years ago
    I bought a spare one but I cannot remember if it is also a 1542B
    because it has yellow components instead of red.

    Were they called Workgroup servers?

    Those 3c509s will survive mankind!

    That was a nostalgic time for me. I was working one of my first IT jobs,
    and learned a lot about hardware in those pre Plug-And-Play times.

    My company was mostly Macs and I was building servers, so SCSI was the
    way to go - and you could eke out a bit more network bandwidth with the
    right card.



    ... What is the reality of the situation?
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Bikerbob on Sat Feb 18 08:04:00 2023
    Bikerbob wrote to calcmandan <=-

    WOW.. very cool on the model 200 - I was not aware, sounds like it is somewhat close to the Atari Portfolio.

    Bigger, thicker. Not a clamshell case.

    IbookG4
    because damm that thing was SLICK in its day. Great screen fantasic keyboard. I loved to WORK on that machine.. light.. battery would last forever.

    I kept an IBM Thinkpad T43 going for the same reasons - except the
    battery life. Great hardware design, best keyboard I'd used on a laptop.
    Old Thinkpad laptop keyboards made me feel like I was traveling with a
    portable desktop.




    ... Powered By Celeron (Tualatin). Engineered for the future.
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to sPINOZa on Sat Feb 18 13:50:26 2023
    On 18 Feb 23 11:38:46 sPINOZa wrote...

    Those 3c509s will survive mankind!

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64) * Origin: -.sNd!GRDn.-
    (21:1/116)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    I've heard conspiracy theories that the intelligent cockroaches are
    already buying them all up from eBay!


    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Bikerbob on Sat Feb 18 17:58:00 2023
    Hello Bikerbob!

    ** On Saturday 18.02.23 - 06:25, Bikerbob wrote to poindexter FORTRAN:

    one of the most frustrating things with NEW LED/LCDs is
    that they have no picture control anymore. I have an old
    atari with composite out, gives me 80col - actually a
    really nice picture on my LCD monitor - but I am missing
    the last 2 columns because I cannot move the picture to the
    left :( you have to find a nice multisync or crt to get
    that to work, and then go through most likely some kind of
    hardware to convert it to VGA?? too much work.

    Every LED monitor that I've played with DOES have horizontal
    and vertical adjustments available.


    Bummer

    Maybe there is an auto-adjust feature that would correct for
    that?


    --- OpenXP 5.0.57
    * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)
  • From Bikerbob@21:3/171 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Feb 19 20:47:04 2023
    On 18 Feb 23 08:04:00 poindexter FORTRAN wrote...

    Bikerbob wrote to calcmandan <=-

    WOW.. very cool on the model 200 - I was not aware, sounds like
    it is somewhat close to the Atari Portfolio.

    Bigger, thicker. Not a clamshell case.

    IbookG4 because damm that thing was SLICK in its day. Great
    screen fantasic keyboard. I loved to WORK on that machine..
    light.. battery would last forever.

    I kept an IBM Thinkpad T43 going for the same reasons - except the
    battery life. Great hardware design, best keyboard I'd used on a
    laptop. Old Thinkpad laptop keyboards made me feel like I was
    traveling with a portable desktop.



    ... Powered By Celeron (Tualatin). Engineered for the future. --- MultiMail/Win v0.52 * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is
    power. (21:4/122)

    To which Bikerbob replies...

    LOL.. I have a T43 as well. I use it as my Atari server.. just not the
    same fondness. Old stuff works.. especially appliances.. new stuff is
    garbage.

    Bikerbob

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From Bikerbob@21:3/171 to Ogg on Sun Feb 19 20:49:28 2023
    On 18 Feb 23 17:58:00 Ogg wrote...

    Hello Bikerbob!

    ** On Saturday 18.02.23 - 06:25, Bikerbob wrote to poindexter FORTRAN:

    one of the most frustrating things with NEW LED/LCDs is that they
    have no picture control anymore. I have an old atari with
    composite out, gives me 80col - actually a really nice picture on
    my LCD monitor - but I am missing the last 2 columns because I
    cannot move the picture to the left :( you have to find a nice multisync or crt to get that to work, and then go through most
    likely some kind of hardware to convert it to VGA?? too much work.

    Every LED monitor that I've played with DOES have horizontal and
    vertical adjustments available.


    Bummer

    Maybe there is an auto-adjust feature that would correct for that?

    --- OpenXP 5.0.57 * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)

    To which Bikerbob replies...

    These are Monitor/TVs with either composite/AV/component input. in those
    modes you are not able to adjust the screen on any I have owned.

    Bikerbob

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From Cougar428@21:2/156 to BEN COLLVER on Mon Feb 20 11:18:00 2023
    Quoting Ben Collver to Xbit <=-

    Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: xbit to All on Fri Feb 10 2023 06:25:16

    internal disk and it ran DOS 3.x. I no longer have that system.
    Recently i inherited an IBM PC 330 6577-79T, which has a Pentium processor, 200MHz clock, 66MHz bus. It has 32mb EDO memory, 1mb video memory, 4gb IDE disk, 3.5" floppy drive, 52x CD-ROM drive dated 2002,
    PCI sound card, PCI modem, and free ISA slots. It has a parallel port,
    a serial port, two 1.5MB/s USB ports, and an "infrared" port.
    According to the spec sheet it cannot boot from CD but the BIOS has
    the CD-ROM in the boot order. The S3 Trio64V+ video controller with
    1MB memory can go up to 1024x768x256 colors or 1280x1024x16 colors.
    The system has Windows ME. It boots to a BSOD even in safe mode. I cannot get it to boot from the CD-ROM and i don't currently have a way
    to write floppy disks nor IDE disks. So i am effectively locked out
    of the system.

    I realize I am responding to an older message, but I have a working
    PC350 and could send you boot floppies for DOS if needed. You
    probably already got this working, but just wanted to offer. I have
    the original disks and they might include diags as well.

    Cougar

    ... Enter any 12-digit prime number to continue.

    ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: CJ's Place, Orange City FL > cjsplace.thruhere.net (21:2/156)
  • From Ben Collver to Cougar428 on Mon Feb 20 10:55:36 2023
    Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: Cougar428 to BEN COLLVER on Mon Feb 20 2023 11:18:00

    I realize I am responding to an older message, but I have a working
    PC350 and could send you boot floppies for DOS if needed. You
    probably already got this working, but just wanted to offer. I have
    the original disks and they might include diags as well.

    Thanks for your offer! I'm interested in getting copies of your original disks. I'm open to downloading floppy images if that makes it any easier for you.

    The rest of this message is an update about my computer:

    I ordered a USB floppy drive to write boot disks and i expect it to arrive in a day or two.

    I replaced the CMOS battery and somehow managed to get Windows ME to boot and shut down without BSOD. Now i have a "clean" filesystem to back up. I don't want to run Windows ME, but i plan to back up and view the filesystem in case it has any drivers or useful bits.

    While i was at it, i identified the PCI audio card and modem. They are both Windows-only and i plan to remove them. A friend offered to send me an ISA SoundBlaster 16, which makes me happy.

    The disk is actually 13.6 GB but the BIOS can only see the first 4 GB.

    Looking around, i found a project to emulate a Hayes SmartModem using a serial connection to a Linux host. A few years ago a friend gave me a Raspberry PI with a case. I imagine it could become a modem emulator.

    https://github.com/go4retro/tcpser

    -Ben
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Ben Collver on Mon Feb 20 14:45:00 2023
    Hello Ben Collver!

    The disk is actually 13.6 GB but the BIOS can only see the first 4 GB.

    I thought the BIOS report only referred to the RAM limit, not
    HDD.

    --- OpenXP 5.0.57
    * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)
  • From Darklord@21:3/171 to Bikerbob on Mon Feb 20 12:30:10 2023
    On 18 Feb 23 06:25:52 Bikerbob wrote...

    one of the most frustrating things with NEW LED/LCDs is that they
    have no picture control anymore. I have an old atari with composite
    out, gives me 80col - actually a really nice picture on my LCD
    monitor - but I am missing the last 2 columns because I cannot move
    the picture to the left :( you have to find a nice multisync or crt
    to get that to work, and then go through most likely some kind of
    hardware to convert it to VGA?? too much work.

    Bummer

    To which Darklord replies...

    Have you tried that Dell 27" monitor that everyone has been having really
    good results with? I got one and am using it with my Atari Mega STe and
    it's great. I'm using it with the Exxos version of the UBE VGA adapter.


    /\
    Dark><Lord
    \/

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From Ben Collver to Ogg on Tue Feb 21 11:01:15 2023
    Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: Ogg to Ben Collver on Mon Feb 20 2023 14:45:00

    The disk is actually 13.6 GB but the BIOS can only see the first 4 GB.

    I thought the BIOS report only referred to the RAM limit, not
    HDD.

    As i understand it the 4 GB RAM limit is imposed by the 32-bit architecture.

    The 4 GB disk limit is imposed by the BIOS. When i go into the BIOS setup and configure the hard disk, it recognizes it as a 4 GB disk even though the disk is physically labeled 13.6 GB.

    This BIOS limit is mentioned in IBM's specifications.

    "Up to 4GB of hard file capacity supported"

    From:

    <https://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias ?appname=skmwww&htmlfid=897%2FENUS194-347&infotype=AN &mhq=IBM%20Network%20Station%208361%20Series%20100 &mhsrc=ibmsearch_a&subtype=CA>

    However, another IBM document implies this limit is per-disk.

    Disk / Disk Controller

    "PC 330: 8.4 GB (Two x 4.2 GB IDE disks)"

    From a PDF titled "IBM PC 330 and PC 350 (6577 and 6587) - withdrawn"

    BIOS disk limitations are described in the following post.

    https://dfarq.homeip.net/bios-hard-drive-limits/

    After reading this, i think that if i want to use more than 4 GB disk with FreeDOS, i would need to use a drive overlay. Or i could partition the drive and dual-boot BSD or Linux, provided that i keep the boot partition below 4 GB.

    -Ben
  • From calcmandan@21:1/172 to Bikerbob on Tue Feb 21 17:47:47 2023
    WOW.. very cool on the model 200 - I was not aware, sounds like it is somewhat close to the Atari Portfolio. My oldest laptop is a Dell D600 or

    Portfolio was a dos device and more like a palmtop if I recall correctly. The 100/102/200 line were laptop sized and a few years earlier than the portfolio and was more-or-less an instant on device that loaded a launcher on powerup. YOu could go into basic, text editor, address book, or terminal. I believe there was a multiplan rom available too. The 200 came with multiplan.

    This is regurgitated info you can get from elsewhere, but the line of product was very popular with reporters and journalists. Until the 100 came out, reporters in the field had to call their paper and have a stenographer copy
    for editing. When the 100 came out, it had a built-in modem with terminal software. They could write their story and upload it to their 'bbs.' I don't know if those early system included messaging or not.

    a Ibook G4 - The first because it is native serial - for a number of reasons not the least of which is a modem - but also other communications issues with other retro hardware - and the IbookG4 because damm that
    thing was SLICK in its day. Great screen fantasic keyboard. I loved to WORK on that machine.. light.. battery would last forever.

    During college, I did a sales job at the Apple campus in my town and one of
    my buddies had an ibook g4 that he was still using. I believe it was the
    oldest piece of hardware among all the employees on campus. But it was literally struggling to keep up with osx. I think he finally retired that device around 2015 when it was more of a burden.

    I still have my my first machine Atari 400 - now with 48K B-Key keyboard, and S-Video output. I dont use it often, but it still fires up a few
    times a year.

    My old 400 is in my childhood bedroom under the bed with a dead power brick. I'm sure I fried it trying to make it work back in 1991. I should pull it out and refurbish it at some point.

    Daniel Traechin

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: The Bottomless Abyss BBS * bbs.bottomlessabyss.net (21:1/172)
  • From Bikerbob@21:3/171 to Darklord on Tue Feb 21 23:46:00 2023
    On 20 Feb 23 12:30:10 Darklord wrote...

    On 18 Feb 23 06:25:52 Bikerbob wrote...

    one of the most frustrating things with NEW LED/LCDs is that they
    have no picture control anymore. I have an old atari with
    composite out, gives me 80col - actually a really nice picture on
    my LCD monitor - but I am missing the last 2 columns because I
    cannot move the picture to the left :( you have to find a nice multisync or crt to get that to work, and then go through most
    likely some kind of hardware to convert it to VGA?? too much work.

    Bummer

    To which Darklord replies...

    Have you tried that Dell 27" monitor that everyone has been having
    really good results with? I got one and am using it with my Atari
    Mega STe and it's great. I'm using it with the Exxos version of the
    UBE VGA adapter.

    /\
    Dark><Lord
    \/

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01] * Origin: STar Fleet HQ -
    Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)

    To which Bikerbob replies...

    yeah hear ya there DL, love that monitor, I do have one. But I am talking
    about using an XEP80 on an 8-bit - it has composite out, so need to use a TV/monitor with composite in (AV in) or convert that output to something
    else. 8-bit 40col looks brutal on a wide screen - I only use TV/Monitors
    for my 8-bit computers (As I need S-video input anyway)

    Bikerbob

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From Cougar428@21:2/156 to BEN COLLVER on Wed Feb 22 07:30:00 2023
    Quoting Ben Collver to Cougar428 <=-

    Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: Cougar428 to BEN COLLVER on Mon Feb 20 2023 11:18:00

    Thanks for your offer! I'm interested in getting copies of your
    original disks. I'm open to downloading floppy images if that makes
    it any easier for you.

    I'll check out what I have and see about creating images. I have a
    registered version of Winimage 10 that I can use to create the
    diskette images for download. It creates .img files.

    The rest of this message is an update about my computer:

    I ordered a USB floppy drive to write boot disks and i expect it to
    arrive in a day or two.

    I also have a 386SX and I tried a USB floppy on my newer systems to
    write files for the older system. I didn't have much luck with it,
    hopefully you have better luck.

    I replaced the CMOS battery and somehow managed to get Windows ME to
    boot and shut down without BSOD. Now i have a "clean" filesystem to
    back up. I don't want to run Windows ME, but i plan to back up and
    view the filesystem in case it has any drivers or useful bits.
    While i was at it, i identified the PCI audio card and modem. They
    are both Windows-only and i plan to remove them. A friend offered to
    send me an ISA SoundBlaster 16, which makes me happy.

    I also replaced the CMOS battery on the 386 and the PC350 P90. I am
    suprised you got ME working, I bought that OS new and after
    'upgrading' from 98SE, I had lots of BSOD's just using the ME OS
    normally.

    The disk is actually 13.6 GB but the BIOS can only see the first 4 GB.

    For the PC350, I purchased a 1 GB DOM on Ebay and formatted it with
    PC-DOS 6, the system came with dual boot OS/2 (red spine so it can
    also run Win31 stuff). I don't normally use OS/2 but boot to DOS.

    The DOM's are pretty cheap and they are faster, kind of like SSD's
    for newer systems. It's just a chip attached to an IDE or EIDE
    ribbon that plugs into the system board controller. I still use a
    Seagate 850mb HDD in the 386SX, but only formatted to 512mb.

    Sounds like you are off to a great start! Have fun...

    Cougar


    ... How do I set my laser printer to stun?

    ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: CJ's Place, Orange City FL > cjsplace.thruhere.net (21:2/156)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to calcmandan on Wed Feb 22 09:39:16 2023
    On 21 Feb 23 17:47:47 calcmandan wrote...

    My old 400 is in my childhood bedroom under the bed with a dead power brick. I'm sure I fried it trying to make it work back in 1991. I
    should pull it out and refurbish it at some point.

    Daniel Traechin

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64) * Origin: The
    Bottomless Abyss BBS * bbs.bottomlessabyss.net (21:1/172)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    We got a lot of people around here that can help with that. ;)

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  • From Ben Collver to Cougar428 on Wed Feb 22 13:02:32 2023
    Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: Cougar428 to BEN COLLVER on Wed Feb 22 2023 07:30:00

    I'll check out what I have and see about creating images. I have a registered version of Winimage 10 that I can use to create the
    diskette images for download. It creates .img files.

    Thanks! I'm interested in obtaining the original disks in case the
    diagnostics prove useful in the future.

    I also have a 386SX and I tried a USB floppy on my newer systems to
    write files for the older system. I didn't have much luck with it, hopefully you have better luck.

    I read that USB floppy drives manufactured prior to 2004 are more reliable.
    I ordered a Sony USB floppy drive that was manufactured in 2001. It has
    been working fine so far.

    The PC came with a box of floppies and so far they have all been blank.
    About half of them are failing a low level format with verification.
    I'm marking the bad ones with a sharpie and using the good ones.
    Memtest86 passed 100%. BasLinux read the whole hard disk, so i assume
    it is good.

    I also replaced the CMOS battery on the 386 and the PC350 P90. I am suprised you got ME working, I bought that OS new and after
    'upgrading' from 98SE, I had lots of BSOD's just using the ME OS
    normally.

    I got into Windows ME by stepping through the boot-up and telling it to
    skip loading the registry. I think it has a corrupt registry and quite possibly other problems.

    I hoped to back up the hard disk to a USB drive. Unfortunately, BasLinux
    lacks USB support. I wrote NetBSD/i386 9.3 boot floppies and am currently using NetBSD to back up the disk.

    The USB ports don't seem to work with my USB 2 hard drive, nor with my
    USB 3 Micro-SD adapter. These USB drives seem readable but not writable.
    They report "drive busy" when i try to mount the filesystem writable.
    I had to dig out an older USB thumb drive to get this backup started.

    Looking around on the internal hard drive, i found a DOS driver for the
    PCI audio card. However, i am wary of using it after reading the documentation. It mentioned timing issues. The driver includes a
    utility to patch game executables to work around the timing issues.
    I think i'll skip that.

    For the PC350, I purchased a 1 GB DOM on Ebay and formatted it with
    PC-DOS 6, the system came with dual boot OS/2 (red spine so it can
    also run Win31 stuff). I don't normally use OS/2 but boot to DOS.

    Thanks for the tip about using a 1 GB DOM. I'll look into that.

    That's fun that you are maintaining a DOS 386SX. Does it come from the
    era before PC's had BIOS setup screens? What do you use it for?

    I remember buying a used 386 for $100 and it seemed like such an upgrade
    at that time. I bought a used VGA card for $20 from an older friend and
    that really opened up possilities for gaming. At the time the school PC
    lab had a single 386 as the server and the clients all ran real mode
    software. I installed Wolfenstein, Doom, and Star Control II from big
    sets of floppy disks. I didn't have a sound card, but Star Control II
    could play its soundtrack through the PC speaker. The playback volume
    was quiet so i disconnected the internal speaker and fitted a headphone
    jack into the case. Then i plugged in amplified speakers.

    -Ben
  • From Darklord@21:3/171 to Bikerbob on Wed Feb 22 23:29:50 2023
    On 21 Feb 23 23:46:00 Bikerbob wrote...

    To which Bikerbob replies...

    yeah hear ya there DL, love that monitor, I do have one. But I am
    talking about using an XEP80 on an 8-bit - it has composite out, so
    need to use a TV/monitor with composite in (AV in) or convert that
    output to something else. 8-bit 40col looks brutal on a wide screen -
    I only use TV/Monitors for my 8-bit computers (As I need S-video
    input anyway)

    Bikerbob

    To which Darklord replies...

    Ah, okay - sorry about that. I didn't realize you were talking about with
    8bit machines. :)


    /\
    Dark><Lord
    \/

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    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From Cougar428@21:2/156 to BEN COLLVER on Wed Mar 1 06:24:00 2023
    Quoting Ben Collver to Cougar428 <=-

    I'll check out what I have and see about creating images. I have a registered version of Winimage 10 that I can use to create the
    diskette images for download. It creates .img files.

    Thanks! I'm interested in obtaining the original disks in case the diagnostics prove useful in the future.

    I lied, I looked in the box and the only thing in there were
    manuals. The system booted to DOS for the previous user. I was
    able to make it switch to booting OS/2, however there were some
    problems booting. So I downloaded the OS/2 Red spine edition and
    the boot floppies from FSKTechnology:

    tinyurl.com/bdfwwkcu

    Hate to type in those long links that wrap...

    I read that USB floppy drives manufactured prior to 2004 are more reliable. I ordered a Sony USB floppy drive that was manufactured in
    2001. It has been working fine so far.

    Thank you for that tip!

    The PC came with a box of floppies and so far they have all been
    blank. About half of them are failing a low level format with verification. I'm marking the bad ones with a sharpie and using the
    good ones.

    That would be about normal for floppies in my experience. I usually
    make an image of the floppy if it works for applications, that way I
    can restore it to a good disk if I have issues.

    I hoped to back up the hard disk to a USB drive.

    I used a 'Ghost 2002' boot disk to backup the original drive on the
    386. Plugged in the DOM to the second IDE port and cloned from one
    to the other.

    That's fun that you are maintaining a DOS 386SX. Does it come from
    the era before PC's had BIOS setup screens? What do you use it for?

    Well, I learned on commodores and upgraded to an XT compatible, so I
    kind of 'grew up' with these systems. The 386 does have a BIOS, but
    I only had to fiddle with it when changing the HDD. For these
    systems, you have to know what type of drive you have and set the
    correct number in the BIOS. Strangely the DOM was recognized
    without that. Might have to fiddle with com ports, but I haven't
    used a modem with it.

    I use the 386 for all of my old apps. I still use Lotus 123 V3.1,
    Wordstar 7.0, dBASE III+, XTree Gold and all the old apps I started
    with. Wordstar is the system I started using back in the 80's and I
    still find it the easiest system to use for writing. It lacks
    anything but basic image insertion, but if you need to type and are
    a touch typist you can fly in it. And I love programming apps in
    dBASE III, it's so easy. I have an Epson LQ570 dot matrix printer
    that is hooked up to it for output. I use Colorado backup for DOS
    with a T1000 drive for system backukps.

    I remember buying a used 386 for $100 and it seemed like such an
    upgrade at that time. I bought a used VGA card for $20 from an older friend and that really opened up possilities for gaming. At the time
    the school PC lab had a single 386 as the server and the clients all
    ran real mode software. I installed Wolfenstein, Doom, and Star
    Control II from big sets of floppy disks. I didn't have a sound card,
    but Star Control II could play its soundtrack through the PC speaker.
    The playback volume was quiet so i disconnected the internal speaker
    and fitted a headphone jack into the case. Then i plugged in amplified speakers.

    Sounds like quite the setup in school! The 386 has 3.5" and 5.25"
    diskette drives and both work flawlessly.

    Thanks Ben!


    ... A truly wise person knows that he knows not.

    ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: CJ's Place, Orange City FL > cjsplace.thruhere.net (21:2/156)
  • From Ben Collver to Cougar428 on Wed Mar 1 11:02:30 2023
    Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: Cougar428 to BEN COLLVER on Wed Mar 01 2023 06:24:00

    I hoped to back up the hard disk to a USB drive.

    I used a 'Ghost 2002' boot disk to backup the original drive on the
    386. Plugged in the DOM to the second IDE port and cloned from one
    to the other.

    That sounds pretty straightforward.

    As it turned out, the USB ports on this PC were not reliable. My USB
    storage would attach and function, but large transfers would freeze
    part-way through.

    I ended up buying an inexpensive USB2 adapter on eBay that has plugs
    for SATA, 3.5" IDE, and 2.5" IDE. I used that to plug the IDE disk
    into my working Linux system and recover data from the disk. While i
    was at it, i ran a SMART self-test, which completed without logging
    the results. So i used the "dd" command to read all sectors, and
    then write all sectors. This completed without any new errors in the
    SMART error log.

    A friend gave me an 80 conductor IDE cable. It is keyed by blocking
    one of the holes. I used a dremel to drill a pin hole. Now the
    hard drive is on the 80 conductor cable to the primary IDE controller
    and the CD-ROM is on the 40 conductor cable to the secondary IDE
    controller.

    I installed FreeDOS 1.3. The CD-ROM drive has intermittent read
    errors, so it took me more than one try.

    I removed the Windows-only PCI cards and installed a non-PNP ISA
    SoundBlaster 16 card. It seems to be working perfectly.

    Eventually i plan to set up WIFI connectivity through a serial
    connection to a Raspberry PI running modem emulation software. I
    found a USB DB9 RS232 adapter at a thrift store for $0.50 and it works
    great. I think it has a Prolific chipset.

    I have already tested connectivity between Taylor UUCP on Slackware 15
    and "UUPC" on FreeDOS, and it worked as expected.

    I use the 386 for all of my old apps. I still use Lotus 123 V3.1,
    Wordstar 7.0, dBASE III+, XTree Gold and all the old apps I started
    with. Wordstar is the system I started using back in the 80's and I
    still find it the easiest system to use for writing. It lacks
    anything but basic image insertion, but if you need to type and are
    a touch typist you can fly in it. And I love programming apps in
    dBASE III, it's so easy. I have an Epson LQ570 dot matrix printer
    that is hooked up to it for output. I use Colorado backup for DOS
    with a T1000 drive for system backukps.

    Nice setup! I like that you have a printer for output and tape drive
    for backups. That sounds like the real deal.

    I remember using Borland TurboBasic and the Q.EXE editor (now known as
    Semware TSE), and they both have Wordstar key bindings.

    I also remember using Crocodile backup software with a QIC tape drive.
    If i remember correctly, the controller is very similar to a floppy
    controller, but not exactly identical because the timings are
    different for tapes.

    -Ben
  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to Cougar428 on Wed Mar 1 13:54:06 2023
    Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: Cougar428 to BEN COLLVER on Wed Mar 01 2023 06:24 am

    problems booting. So I downloaded the OS/2 Red spine edition and
    the boot floppies from FSKTechnology:

    tinyurl.com/bdfwwkcu

    That's a cool resource.. I see they have some OS/2 software (and other things) as well.

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to Ben Collver on Wed Mar 1 13:56:54 2023
    Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: Ben Collver to Cougar428 on Wed Feb 22 2023 01:02 pm

    That's fun that you are maintaining a DOS 386SX. Does it come from the
    era before PC's had BIOS setup screens? What do you use it for?

    When did PCs not have BIOS setup screens? My first PC was a 286 (hand-me-down), and I'm pretty sure it had a BIOS setup screen. I remember back then, for the hard drive setup in the BIOS, there were specific choices for the hard drive type and size in the BIOS.

    I always thought all PCs had a BIOS setup screen (as you would have had to configure what type of hard drive, floppy drive, etc. was in the system), but maybe not?

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Nightfox on Thu Mar 2 05:56:00 2023
    Nightfox wrote to Cougar428 <=-

    tinyurl.com/bdfwwkcu

    That's a cool resource.. I see they have some OS/2 software (and other things) as well.

    OS/2 Warp for Power PC?
    Windows NT for MIPS and Power PC?
    SCO UNIX and SCO Xenix?

    That site is a gold mine for legacy software!



    ... Onward, to meatspace!
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Nightfox on Thu Mar 2 05:59:00 2023
    Nightfox wrote to Ben Collver <=-

    When did PCs not have BIOS setup screens? My first PC was a 286 (hand-me-down), and I'm pretty sure it had a BIOS setup screen. I
    remember back then, for the hard drive setup in the BIOS, there were specific choices for the hard drive type and size in the BIOS.

    Jumpers.

    My XT had jumpers on the motherboard to control what drievs were present
    in the system. Jumpers on the IO card controlled the port config.
    Running a debug command from DOS got you into the firmware on the MFM
    disk controller to do low-level formatting.




    ... Onward, to meatspace!
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
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  • From Ben Collver to poindexter FORTRAN on Thu Mar 2 11:10:40 2023
    Re: Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: poindexter FORTRAN to Nightfox on Thu Mar 02 2023 05:59:00

    Jumpers.

    My XT had jumpers on the motherboard to control what drievs were present
    in the system. Jumpers on the IO card controlled the port config.
    Running a debug command from DOS got you into the firmware on the MFM
    disk controller to do low-level formatting.

    Same here. My first hard disk was a full-height 80 MB MFM disk and i
    remember Dad initializing it using DEBUG.COM and a cheat sheet. It was
    the second loudest hard drive i have used. The loudest was a Seagate
    SCSI drive from the same era. It sounded like a box of marbles dropped
    on a hard floor.

    I read that old Compaq's came with a utility floppy for the BIOS
    configuration. If you lost the utility, then you lost the ability to
    configure BIOS. I think i might have used one of those floppies once.
  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to poindexter FORTRAN on Thu Mar 2 09:40:57 2023
    Re: Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: poindexter FORTRAN to Nightfox on Thu Mar 02 2023 05:59 am

    When did PCs not have BIOS setup screens? My first PC was a 286
    (hand-me-down), and I'm pretty sure it had a BIOS setup screen. I

    Jumpers.

    My XT had jumpers on the motherboard to control what drievs were present in the system. Jumpers on the IO card controlled the port config.

    Ah, makes sense.
    My first couple PCs had I/O cards with jumpers to configure the IRQs & such of the ports (as well as the earlier Sound Blaster cards with jumpers to configure them).

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From Cougar428@21:2/156 to NIGHTFOX on Thu Mar 2 20:20:00 2023
    Quoting Nightfox to Cougar428 <=-

    problems booting. So I downloaded the OS/2 Red spine edition and
    the boot floppies from FSKTechnology:

    tinyurl.com/bdfwwkcu

    That's a cool resource.. I see they have some OS/2 software (and
    other things) as well.

    Yeah, they have quite a bit of stuff on there. It's a great
    resource to keep in mind if you are looking for pretty much any
    retro computing stuff. I used to have an Amiga 1200, and they have
    Kickstart and Workbench for the Amiga! Too bad I don't have the
    hardware any longer...

    Cougar


    ... All I need is a Wave and a board to surf it on.

    ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: CJ's Place, Orange City FL > cjsplace.thruhere.net (21:2/156)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Nightfox on Thu Mar 2 17:57:17 2023
    Re: Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: Nightfox to poindexter FORTRAN on Thu Mar 02 2023 09:40 am

    My XT had jumpers on the motherboard to control what drievs were
    present in the system. Jumpers on the IO card controlled the port
    config.

    I worked at a software company back in the '90s. One of my friends, the audio guy at the company, and I decided to play a trick on the lab manager, who was overdue for payback.

    We took the soundblaster setup disk from his desk and modified the sound files used by the installer, Now they played:

    "per-per-per-forforforming IRQQQQQ test..."

    Then, we put it back on his desk.

    He spent 30 minutes trying to get a soundblaster working on a test box - of course it worked fine, and played the jittered-up audio file perfectly. After he stormed out to get a smoke, we swapped the disk. with a clean one.
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Win32
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Bf2K+@21:3/171 to Ben Collver on Fri Mar 3 10:16:18 2023
    My first hard disk was a 5mb full-height Tandon that I attached to an
    Atari 8-bit computer back in 1986.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From Darklord@21:3/171 to Bf2K+ on Fri Mar 3 15:17:56 2023
    On 03 Mar 23 10:16:18 Bf2K+ wrote...

    My first hard disk was a 5mb full-height Tandon that I attached to an
    Atari 8-bit computer back in 1986.

    To which Darklord replies...

    And how much did that sucker weigh? :)


    /\
    Dark><Lord
    \/

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From Oldbieone@21:4/122 to Ben Collver on Fri Mar 3 13:10:34 2023
    Re: Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: Ben Collver to poindexter FORTRAN on Thu Mar 02 2023 11:10 am

    Same here. My first hard disk was a full-height 80 MB MFM disk and i remember Dad initializing it using DEBUG.COM and a cheat sheet. It was
    the second loudest hard drive i have used. The loudest was a Seagate
    SCSI drive from the same era. It sounded like a box of marbles dropped
    on a hard floor.

    I had a 20 or maybe 25MB MFM drive in the first machine my dad gave me. It was an Olivetti M-something. A beige and brown monster-sized desktop. I mean, this thing was YUGE! After a while, the drive became tempremental and it's performance (if you can call it that) seemed to be affected by room temperature/humidity, and if it was a hot and humid day, sometimes the drive would just refuse to spin up at all. The "fix" was to pop the cover off and stick a fan facing the drive for a couple of minutes before trying to start the machine, lol!!

    Biggest POS ever, but super exciting for an 8 yr old to have their own computer just like the grown ups :)
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Win32
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Oldbieone@21:4/122 to Bf2K+ on Fri Mar 3 13:13:07 2023
    Re: Re: My new* 486 (*=old)
    By: Bf2K+ to Ben Collver on Fri Mar 03 2023 10:16 am

    My first hard disk was a 5mb full-height Tandon that I attached to an
    Atari 8-bit computer back in 1986.

    Nice! I can hear the clickity-click of those old-school drives in my head right now, lol
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Win32
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Bf2K+@21:3/171 to Darklord on Sat Mar 4 23:02:26 2023
    Tandon 5 MB

    Well... let's just say that you would not want to drop it on your foot.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to Bf2K+ on Tue Mar 14 23:05:10 2023
    On 03 Mar 23 10:16:18 Bf2K+ wrote...

    My first hard disk was a 5mb full-height Tandon that I attached to an
    Atari 8-bit computer back in 1986.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01] * Origin: STar Fleet HQ -
    Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    I wish I had been able to have a HD in my 8-bit youth days. My first HD
    was a 20mb Supra HD for the ST which I soon traded for an 80mb. Both
    times I figured "I'll never use up all this space".

    A couple years later, I had a 320mb and a 2.1gb (that monster cost me
    $999). 5.25" full height monster. It was still running the BBS a few
    years ago but started to flake out and I got nervous about it.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to Bf2K+ on Tue Mar 14 23:07:28 2023
    On 04 Mar 23 23:02:26 Bf2K+ wrote...

    Tandon 5 MB

    Well... let's just say that you would not want to drop it on your
    foot.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01] * Origin: STar Fleet HQ -
    Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    Or even move it around. Once it's on the desk, that's where it's
    staying. Just get a long cable for if you have to move the computer.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From Bf2K+@21:3/171 to Commodore Clifford on Sat Mar 18 21:09:08 2023
    I might have mentioned that this past week, I found a backup of my old
    Express v1 BBS from 1986. I set it up on a little test PC under Altirra
    and when I logged in, it displayed the newset news which was the
    announcement of the Tandon 5mb hard disk being added to the BBS.

    :)

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From Blue White@21:4/134 to Bf2K+ on Mon Mar 20 17:00:25 2023
    Bf2K+ wrote to Commodore Clifford <=-

    I might have mentioned that this past week, I found a backup of my old Express v1 BBS from 1986. I set it up on a little test PC under
    Altirra and when I logged in, it displayed the newset news which was
    the announcement of the Tandon 5mb hard disk being added to the BBS.

    That's pretty cool! :)




    ... "Mmmmmmmm.....bacon..."
    --- MultiMail/DOS
    * Origin: possumso.fsxnet.nz * SSH:2122/telnet:24/ftelnet:80 (21:4/134)
  • From Commodore Clifford@21:3/171 to Bf2K+ on Tue Mar 21 09:42:00 2023
    On 18 Mar 23 21:09:08 Bf2K+ wrote...

    I might have mentioned that this past week, I found a backup of my
    old Express v1 BBS from 1986. I set it up on a little test PC under Altirra and when I logged in, it displayed the newset news which was
    the announcement of the Tandon 5mb hard disk being added to the BBS.

    :)

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01] * Origin: STar Fleet HQ -
    Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)

    To which Commodore Clifford replies...

    Oh wow...

    So, unfortunately, doing another test on the drive I was going to send
    The Doctor, after about half an hour it started making horrid noises....

    So I have 3 drives off ebay on the way. I'm feeling all sorts of spinny platter love right now.

    --- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)