TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Retrorockit]

I tried to install Grand Prix Legends on my "new" (2006) computer and it didn't go well at first. Then I found a GPL installer utility dated 1/9/2016.
It includes modern car ,sound , and tracksets. Game was Glide/Rendition Verite when new so Open GL/D3D is included. Went very smoothly, and looks great. Now if I just had a wheel hooked up. I've never used a game controller, maybe now's the time. Works with Win7 64 as far as I can tell. There are free downloads available, Mine was CD from Sold Out Software. I still have my Logitech Formula Force wheel. Not a bad wheel but the pedals really suck. Win7 drivers? Who knows.
https://gplps.wordpress.com/gplps-gpl-installer/

 

[Trekkie4]

Been having inet problems for the last couple of days, but now I'm back & got something pretty cool to show later on. Until then, check this out

It's from that link provided by @stinger608, called "Windows 95 demo" for Win 3.11, guess I'll finally be moving up to new Windows after all

 

[STIG_ZA]

There they are, 2x 8800GTX. nice and clean again, poor things were just 2 slabs of brown dust and a snapped off cap on the one which i replaced.

Dont have a beefy enough psu(other than my main rigs psu) to run them in SLI

 

[Trekkie4]

Step 1, find the pattern (sample)

Step 2, multiply the pattern in a grid 6x3

Step 3, print the paper sheet (use glossy photo paper) & cut it into individual badges


Step 4
Apply some paper glue (NOT the superglue) across the surface & place 3dfx logo inside the badge frame (or wherever you want it)

 

[Retrorockit]

I still don't have a controller installed but I got a few races to run in Grand Prix Legends without me. My computer seems to handle full grids from back row view without problem. I can't turn up detail and FSAA settings without setting up a controller so I don't know how it's finally going to look, but since my GPU is way beyond my CPU, and GPL is CPU intensive I think it will max out OK. GPL defaults at 36fps, there's a patch for 60fps. That will probably be the moment of truth.

 

[Trekkie4]

I still don't have a controller installed but I got a few races to run in Grand Prix Legends without me. My computer seems to handle full grids from back row view without problem. I can't turn up detail and FSAA settings without setting up a controller so I don't know how it's finally going to look, but since my GPU is way beyond my CPU, and GPL is CPU intensive I think it will max out OK. GPL defaults at 36fps, there's a patch for 60fps. That will probably be the moment of truth.

Following your advice, I finally got GPL earlier today... Booting it up on my RetroMaster 2000 will have to wait though because the old Maxtor 40GB HDD is completely full so I need to force myself to swap it for 80GB Seagate, one of these days

 

[stinger608]

One I wish they would redo for newer systems it Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed.

Although it just shows what a bunch of idiots EA is. Hell, it will hardly run on XP. It was pretty much made for Win98 and there was a patch for XP.

Dang, I need to get a 98 machine going and play some of that.

 

[Trekkie4]

Porsche Unleashed has been the cause of a lot of problems on both 98 AND XP! Especially with nVidia cards, I've noticed that running either card will result with pixelated image at the main menu, even if you use the Voodoo cards to play the actual game (because the menu part is still using the primary, "2D" AGP card to render the image)

AFAIK, the only way to avoid this is having an older ATI Rage, SiS or similar AGP card inside the system, while the actual gameplay runs 2x Voodoo2 in SLI. Alternatively, you could try Matrox Millenium G450, which doesn't seem to have any problems & is perfectly capable of rendering both the menu & actual gameplay.

 

[Retrorockit]

GPL has a 1937 carset. Maybe hustling an Auto Union around Nurburgring will satisfy you're Porsche addiction. He designed them. Blown V-16 engine in the middle, swing axle suspension, VW beetle torsion bars in front. Some had dual tires on the rear. 520hp @ 5000, 850 ft/lb @ 2500, 1800#, 200+mph.

 

[STIG_ZA]

Any IBM thinkpad fans here? got these in my collection

T22(900mhz p3, 256mb pc100, 30gb)
T23(1.13ghz p3m, 256mb pc133, 60gb)
R50(dead but in amazing exterior condition so got it for parts)
T61(2ghz t7300, 4gb ddr2 800, 160gb, nvidia quadro gpu).....the 15.4" 1920x1050 version. I think the 160gb is original, but soooo slow. Keen to stick an sshd in also original battery still lasts 3hours it needs a new lcd though, got tones of little grey dots on it

will post pics and more info sometime

 

[Keullo-e]

Audigy2 came. Still waiting for the X800XL so that I could fire my server up.

 

[Retrorockit]

Following your advice, I finally got GPL earlier today... Booting it up on my RetroMaster 2000 will have to wait though because the old Maxtor 40GB HDD is completely full so I need to force myself to swap it for 80GB Seagate, one of these days

Here's another GPL page for you.
http://www.gpllinks.org/

 

[STIG_ZA]

Theres one of them. The T23, got it a while ago for a very low price. The lid is quite rough and both latches are broken but otherwise its in good shape. Love this thing, even with XP its surprisingly quick and snappy I do use it for any long typing since they keyboard is heavenly to use(office 2003 runs fine on it). something else that's rather awesome is the sound card, not bad sound quality at all

just sad that modern thinkpads don't come close to the build quality of this and their keyboards aren't even half as nice. Must have cost a fortune at the time to have these specs:

P3-M 1.13Ghz(thing is fasssst)
256mb(2x 128mb pc133 sodimm)
60gb original ibm drive(massive at the time)
DVD/CR-RW combo ultra bay drive
S3 super savage IX 16mb graphics card
Crystal sound fusion sound card
Intel pro/100VE lan
56k modem
windows XP home sp3

 

[JunkBear]

Why not trying the low power demanding Xubuntu and use it as a full time torrent machine ?

View attachment 72248 View attachment 72249 View attachment 72250

Theres one of them. The T23, got it a while ago for a very low price. The lid is quite rough and both latches are broken but otherwise its in good shape. Love this thing, even with XP its surprisingly quick and snappy I do use it for any long typing since they keyboard is heavenly to use(office 2003 runs fine on it). something else that's rather awesome is the sound card, not bad sound quality at all

just sad that modern thinkpads don't come close to the build quality of this and their keyboards aren't even half as nice. Must have cost a fortune at the time to have these specs:

P3-M 1.13Ghz(thing is fasssst)
256mb(2x 128mb pc133 sodimm)
60gb original ibm drive(massive at the time)
DVD/CR-RW combo ultra bay drive
S3 super savage IX 16mb graphics card
Crystal sound fusion sound card
Intel pro/100VE lan
56k modem
windows XP home sp3

 

[Trekkie4]

I've been playing some more, uhh should I dare to say modern games (from around 2003, 04) lately on my retro rig, trying to see how much performance I can squeeze from that WinFast A280 GF4 Ti4200 card. Although I'm being pleasantly surprised over & over, there's really not much reason to; especially when you think about it because 4200 certainly was among the more powerful & capable models out there. Maybe not top of the line, like that other GF4 4800 I got, but still powerful enough to handle the games such as Broken Sword 3 (The Sleeping Dragon), Half-Life 2, FlatOut, NFS Underground & similar...

In fact, the weakest link in the entire system would probably be that Athlon 1800, but seeing this system also doubles as Pentium 1 & 2 replacement (not to mention 486, DOS machine), I had to draw a line somewhere & sacrifice the performance for the sake of backward compatibility.

Speaking of backward compatibility, I've also been on a lookout for pic quality degradation due to Voodoo2 pass-through VGA cable. According to 3dfx enthusiasts, this cable tends to degrade the pic quality & cause some issues when running the primary (in this case AGP, 4200) card. Alas, I couldn't really see anything obvious with the screen quality, in fact if I'd have to say, I would say it looks amazing! Kinda makes you forget that the hardware running previously mentioned games is almost 15 years old!

 

[GreiverBlade]

i decided to update the "collection pics" with the newest additions details lower (funny surprise also)

so i received a Asus 9800XT AGP and a box of a MSI NX6600GT, the seller told me the NX6600GT had a surprise in it

9800XT a nice piece of cooler with a Heatpipe, and a pseudo backplate (and a focus on the Rage Theater chip )


and the NX6600GT indeed surprise ... there was 2 of them in the box


all 3 card were in superb condition (not even a speck of dust on the fan or the heatsink) 7chf + 9chf shipping ... i feel freakin great today!

 

[Retrorockit]

Someone tried my Dell BTX O/C method and he's reporting Optiplex 780, QX9650 3.99GHz. Prime 95 stable. So it looks like I'm not the BTX champ anymore. Pretty impressive result considering it's a 3 phase motherboard. I think there's probably more to be had. He didn't say anything about moving the fan power off of the MB which can be huge in a BTX overclock.

 

[stinger608]

Okay, Thanks to @W1zzard allowing for some editing on certain threads I have now been able to edit the original post to add links to the user names as well as add the links for RollBack that @Retrorockit was so kind to share with us all!!!

 

[dorsetknob]

Also like to THANK @W1zzard for allowing those that need this PRIVILEGE

 

[Mr.Scott]

Okay, Thanks to @W1zzard allowing for some editing on certain threads I have now been able to edit the original post to add links to the user names as well as add the links for RollBack that @Retrorockit was so kind to share with us all!!!

Sad that I still don't make the club. *sniff*

 

[stinger608]

Sad that I still don't make the club. *sniff*

Well that will change!!!!!! Dang @Mr.Scott I'm sorry for not getting ya in the group man!!! Dang, I thought I had.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Well that will change!!!!!! Dang @Mr.Scott I'm sorry for not getting ya in the group man!!! Dang, I thought I had.

LOL. It didn't matter anyway. I would still post stuff. Thanks though.
It's my favorite thread at TPU.

 

[Trekkie4]

A while ago, someone posted movie projector ... 8mm, I think. Anyhow, couple of days ago I've been given 2 projectors for the repairs. Therefore, they're not exactly mine but I'm sure the owner wouldn't mind me sharing these pics with you guys

One of them is the movie, 8mm projector on the pics down below. As you can see, it does (barely) work as it should, but only after I took care of the slipping belts, oiled up the bearings & replaced the blown fuse.


Other one is the slide projector, from the same "Pentax" company...


Fully functional & restored unit. Had a missing belt for the fan (lamp cooling), blown fuse for the changer & focusing motor and needed to be re-aligned

Speaking of slide projectors, I DO have my own one... Much newer, made in early 90's I believe, or at least late 80's. If anyone's interested in seeing more details, I might take it off the shelf & plug it in!

 

[GreiverBlade]

LOL. It didn't matter anyway. I would still post stuff. Thanks though.
It's my favorite thread at TPU.

yep me too it's my favorite thread at TPU

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Nowadays we use lazers to give us lines and levels.
A theodolite is a precision instrument for measuring angles in the horizontal and vertical planes. I have never used this particular one but i could if i had the correct tripod mounting.

Bubble to set level of instrument

Bubble to set level of telescope

This fitting is either screw on or is designed to fit on a TRIG point or triangulation station for mapping purposes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulation_station

the view through the telescope, the view is upside down so the measuring staff (or big ruler) would be held upside down to make it easier to make the measurement.

The surveyors assistant or "chainboy" would lay out a chain (exactly 22 yards) to mark the distance and the engineer/surveyor would use the theodolite to measure angle and height differences.

Early mapmakers used devices similar to this, i have no idea how old this one is, my guess is 1920,s, i know it was last calibrated 50 years ago.