TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[jlewis02]

Found these today unknown if they work or not.

 

[MaxiPro800]

Top looks like a Voodoo 3 2000 or 3000, bottom should be a Matrox G400.

EDIT: Correction, the top card is a TNT2 Ultra.

 

[biffzinker]

EDIT: Correction, the top card is a TNT2 Ultra.

Got it as a Christmas present from my parents.

 

[QuietBob]

Discover which CPU never clocked even 1Hz above the stock speed?

Are those two on the right Northwood chips as well? If so, I'm gonna go with the 486

 

[Trekkie4]

Wow guys, can't believe it's been so much time already. So, first things first - I was quite serious when I announced my "retirement" from old tech. During this time I gave away several of my builds, and am hoping to sell at least 4 or 5 more builds by end of the year. Maybe even more, who knows...? I guess enough is enough, over the last 10 years or so I've done pretty much everything I wanted except for one (the most personal project, Pentium II restoration) which failed mostly due to financial reasons, so I'm just not into this as much as I used to be.

That being said... A while back (I think it was April, or perhaps early May?) I was given two really old & very cool-looking retro systems. AMD 386 SX (40MHz) & AMD 486 DX2 (80MHz). They both appeared pretty much complete, but required some maintenance & repairs, not to mention overall cleanup & decent cable management Honestly, if it was any other system I would just let them go, I wasn't looking for more hardware. But these are really cool & brought back a lot of good memories from my childhood, just what the doctor ordered for 2020!

Don't know if there's any interest for those (I see people talking more & more about Pentiums 4 & Core2 gens, referring to those as "old" and "vintage") but if you guys want me to, I might drop additional pics & more information.


Considering the unfortunate circumstances in 2020 and continuous earthquakes (following the initial hit, back on March, 22.) it took me a very, VERY long time to address both of these builds properly, but I'm happy to report that as of recently, both 386 & 486 are now fully set & working properly! Of course, both cases were cleaned up (as much as possible), and patched up with all the extra openings & holes properly closed.
386 SX40 (before/after)


486 DX2 (before/after)


There is tons of pictures to share, depending on whenever you find this sort of hardware interesting or not. Both hardware & software of course, otherwise I'm going to stop here. Working on both of these was a blast from the past, quite literally even

 

[biffzinker]

Wow guys, can't believe it's been so much time already.

I can't believe I'm seeing a post from our long time nostalgic hardware enthusiast poster. Glad to have you back.

 

[Trekkie4]

I can't believe I'm seeing a post from our long time nostalgic hardware enthusiast poster. Glad to have you back.

Heh, thanks!

Don't know if I'm "back" back, we shall see what happens next but since I've done so much work on those two systems figured I'd stop by & share all the fun & excitement with you guys

 

[stinger608]

Wow @Trekkie4 , it is awesome to see you posting man!!!!!!!! Been awhile bro!

I don't know about everyone else, but of course I want to hear more and more about these two truly old systems man.

As you mentioned, it is amazing how time has caused the.........well, newer hardware to become vintage or nostalgic.

Wasn't that long ago that a core2duo was pretty much newer hardware.........And look where we are today!

So, by all means man, post up some more pics and tell us about them systems.

 

[biffzinker]

I've done so much work on those two systems figured I'd stop by & share all the fun & excitement with you guys

Please do share. I’d like to hear more about these two systems.

 

[kiriakost]

First computer parts them crashed down my wallet and I will never forget this experience.
16MB ram stick module (First ever produced)

Panasonic 4X CD Rom player...

Diamond Stealth64 Video VRAM S3-968 VLB/PCI ( First ever produced VGA for full speed video / AVI files)
This would be the RTX3090 developers edition 20GB of our times.

 

[Bones]

That was my guess. LOL
Not bad, but I don't have a good enough small tip soldering iron/gun. Plus I don't have the solder sucking thingy as well.

Personally I don't really need the solder-sucky-sucky thing just a good soldering setup to make it happen.
I normally use my station's airwand for that and alot of the time don't even have to worry about really soldering anything and if I do, it's an easy fix.

Get a good soldering station - You'll thank yourself later.

 

[Trekkie4]

Wow @Trekkie4 , it is awesome to see you posting man!!!!!!!! Been awhile bro!

I don't know about everyone else, but of course I want to hear more and more about these two truly old systems man.

As you mentioned, it is amazing how time has caused the.........well, newer hardware to become vintage or nostalgic.

Wasn't that long ago that a core2duo was pretty much newer hardware.........And look where we are today!

So, by all means man, post up some more pics and tell us about them systems.

Please do share. I’d like to hear more about these two systems.

Right, OK then! more it shall be...

Going back to the very beginning, I tested both units to see if they will boot or not. I've been told by the former owner that 486 is exhibiting video issues & that it will not output any video. Most likely a video card fault (the old card was just your average Trident ISA card, nothing special or exciting about it), so I pulled it out & immediately replaced for S3 VLB card which would be more accurate & better choice for this system anyway, especially since it already has VLB compatible board.

Sytem POSTed perfectly fine afterwards, but for some reason it couldn't read/write from the hard drive & kept reporting battery fault, which was hardly a surprise considering the sorry state of onboard battery. Long story short, the hard drive fault turned out to be related to that 5.25" caddy, so I removed it entirely & system FINALLY booted into MS-DOS & Win 3.1.


On the other hand, 386 had somewhat similar issues... Although the initial POST went fine, it kept reporting "HDD controler failure". Again, I'm not 100% sure what was going on, because I pulled the old controller out & replaced it for another one, from 486 (486 was upgraded with VLB controller card, just like graphics). Again, I wouldn't be surprised if the fault was related to that hard drive caddy, but since I never had any plans or intentions to keep them inside, I didn't want to waste any time on repairing them & troubleshooting loose connections.


Eventually I pulled out all the hardware & documented every single component, including the "upgrades" & various fixes:

386:


486:


Regarding 486 & CPU frequency indicator... For some reason, it was programmed to feature "65" for non-turbo & "66" for turbo speed, even though none of the two speeds were relevant to the ACTUAL speed of this DX2, which is 80MHz. Therefore it should had been 40 for non-turbo & 80 for turbo ... I guess?


Several months later, my replacement NiMh batteries arrived from China (oddly enough, I couldn't find these locally...) and so I could finally replace them! Not a moment too soon, before the old ones damaged the PCB underneath.


I also relocated & secured the internal PC speaker, as I initially found it on the bottom of the case, held to the frame by the speaker magnet, itself.


A lot of patience & one decent cable management later & 386 was officially completed


I had some issues with non-functioning COM ports which turned out to be related to COM port extension header. So I replaced it for another & tried again - this time without any issues
At this point I was finally ready to set up all the software, starting with DOS 6.22 & Windows 3.11...


...followed by the games

Stunts


Prehistorik 2


Wolfenstein 3D


Indiana Jones & Fate of Atlantis


Doom (had some lag on 386, but it was perfectly playable)


Doom2 (too much lag, had to give it up)


Lotus Ultimate Challenge


Ski or Die


The Incredible Machine


The Lion King


Monkey Island


Dangerous Dave


Micro Machines


Prince of Persia (had some memory-related issues which were eventually resolved through EMS)


Dyna Blaster (Bomberman)

 

[stinger608]

Oh wow!!!!!!!! @Trekkie4 , your post was frigging awesome man!!!!!!!!!!!!

Talk about bringing back some memories.

I hope you continue to stay active in this forum and post often man.

 

[QuietBob]

That takes me back...
My first PC wasn't too dissimilar to @Trekkie4's 386 - had an Am386DX-40 with 4 MB of RAM. It originally came without a sound card or even a hard drive, not to mention an optical one! Played the same exact games. Even made it to the final level of Doom II, where every frame would freeze the display for a couple of seconds

 

[Trekkie4]

Thanks guys But it isn't over yet ... that was only 386, time to finish it off with 486!

Again, some soldering required...


About a week or so later, and the entire system was finally done. Normally it would have taken me a lot less, but I had some drama which needed my attention, therefore it took twice as longer.


You may have noticed that I put a small heatsink on top of that 486, but not the fan. Fair enough, the actual CPU only requires passive cooling, but why not make it easier for 486? I found a small 40x40 fan inside one of the boxes, and connected it to a molex pass-through power adapter, so now that DX2 is properly cooled & will (hopefully) remain in service for years & years to come!


Overall, I suppose it looks decent enough ... I even found a way around & managed to patch up that 3.5" opening on the front panel, using the blank filler plate from another, identical case (which received 2nd 3.5" floppy drive, but more about that in a minute...)

Win 3.11 (this time running in proper video 16-bit color mode), Audio Excel software


Followed by some of the games which hadn't been featured on 386 (or I couldn't get them to work properly)

Aladdin


Jazz Jack Rabbit (unplayable on 386)


Jungle Strike


Pipe Mania


The Lost Vikings


Commander Keen


Heretic


Bumpy's Arcade Fantasy


Rise of the Triad


Tristan Pinball


Super Mario


Pac-In-Time


Rally Championship


Soko-Ban (officially the oldest game in my database, from 1984)


Pizza Worm


Tetris


Hocus Pocus (from what I can tell, not related in any way to a movie from 1993.)


Wacky Wheels


Kingpin (finally, all those bowling events with cousin Roman paid off )


And that's about it, I guess. Plenty of other games to choose from, but I had to draw a line somewhere

Anyhow, regarding that 3.5" blank plate... I had an issue where I needed to plug the hole on this 486 somehow but didn't have the appropriate plate, so I ended up using one of my other, earlier builds which share the same case (Pentium 166, or maybe 133?) and gave it a pair of identical Samsung-branded 3.5" 1.44 Floppy drives. Thing is, 486 already has two floppy drives, so therefore adding the 3rd drive would be kinda pointless, since it couldn't be used (or even connected) to the motherboard, so it would serve only as a decoration piece which isn't good enough (or acceptable) for my standards.

 

[QuietBob]

Ahh, more DOS gaming awesomeness! Happy with how your builds turned out. Thanks for this trip down memory lane, buddy

 

[biffzinker]

Again, some soldering required...

Board appears it had a silk screen for a CSR2032 holder?

 

[Trekkie4]

Ahh, more DOS gaming awesomeness! Happy with how your builds turned out. Thanks for this trip down memory lane, buddy

Thanks! That is part of the reason why I did all these builds, over the last decade or so! Primarily to have fun, sure. But also to remind others of their similar (or sometimes even identical) experiences & memories

Board appears it had a silk screen for a CSR2032 holder?

That was going to be my assumption as well, yes. However, now that I look at the board, I'm not exactly sure. The upper pin, positive terminal seems too high up, when compared to standard CR2032 battery holder, I don't think that it would fit and/or line up with silk screen on the board. There is also an issue of charging the battery - both NiCd & NiMH are continuously being charged, when the system is powered up. So that lithium 2032 would immediately leak or explode... Unless I'm missing something obvious? *shrug*

 

[biffzinker]

There is also an issue of charging the battery - both NiCd & NiMH are continuously being charged, when the system is powered up. So that lithium 2032 would immediately leak or explode... Unless I'm missing something obvious? *shrug*

It might of been a configurable option on the board via a resistor?

A few of the games you showed I've never heard of before.

 

[Trekkie4]

It might of been a configurable option on the board via a resistor?

A few of the games you showed I've never heard of before.

Well, I found the manual online (available HERE), but from what I could tell, there is no mention of CR2032, non-rechargeable option.

As for the games, you really should play more often... What are you waiting for?!

 

[biffzinker]

As for the games, you really should play more often... What are you waiting for?!

I'm waiting for you to send one of those systems my way. At least I would know it passed your inspection, and is in working condition. I see it as I might at as well get the authenticate experience.

I'd need a appropriate monitor though. Shipping a CRT would be an expensive preposition though.

 

[Trekkie4]

I'm waiting for you to send one of those systems my way. At least I would know it passed your inspection, and is in working condition. I see it as I might at as well get the authenticate experience.

I'd need a appropriate monitor though. Shipping a CRT would be an expensive preposition though.

Hehehe

I used to have several CRTs around... In fact, I used to have a CRT on my desk, as part of the famous Retro Master system. But over the last couple of years, I gave them all away and now I have a generic "Lenovo" 17" LCD. But yes, after trying both options for retro gaming, I have to agree that CRTs are way, way better than any LCD/LED on the market...

The only remaining 15" CRT is in the basement storage room, and it is part of my old Pentium II system, which was supposed to be overhauled earlier this year, but never did. Like I said, mainly because of the money, having the case blasted & then painted (powder coated) would cost a lot more than I initially thought & expected. And besides, that CRT which I just mentioned doesn't work, there is something wrong with the voltage regulation in the power supply, so it would need to be professionally serviced (I'm not getting my fingers inside the CRT!) Sooo...

So, I forgot to add & mention several things... First things first - CD-ROM drive(s). 386 came with Mitsumi (get this) QUAD-SPEED unit. Have to admit, this is my very first Quad speed CD-ROM, ever! Even my own 486, DX2 (66) from back in a day had 16X GoldStar drive, as it was initially bought without the sound card & CD drive, but eventually got upgraded with so called "Multimedia Package" as they called it back in a day. Anyhow, I was sincerely hoping that I wouldn't have to replace it for something else, since even just the outer look of that Mistumi drive feels nostalgic enough And sure enough, it seems to be working just fine!

486 on the other hand came with 8X GoldStar unit (as seen on some of the previously-uploaded pics). But the owner also gave me some spare parts, including 8x Mitsumi drive AND yet another ISA sound "ESS" card. Goldstar drive had the usual problem (the tray belt was shot & couldn't eject properly) but there is obviously an easy fix for that & shouldn't pose much of a problem. But since I already had Mitsumi drive available, I figured why not... Mitsumi (yet another name for Panasonic, along with National, Quasar, Technics, and many other brands I'm sure) is a very reliable & good unit, so it was a no brainer if you ask me Obviously, I kept the old GS unit, and might use it eventually for something else if & when necessary.

Also, I forgot to add my Autoexec.BAT & Config.SYS configuration. I used the same model for both machines, with only the minor changes for the sound drivers & folder names.

Autoexec.BAT

@ECHO OFF
C:\DOS\MODE CON RATE=32 DELAY=2
C:\DOS\MODE CON CP PREP=((852) C:\DOS\EGA.CPI)
C:\DOS\MODE CON CP SEL=852
LH /L:2 C:\DOS\KEYB YU,852,C:\DOS\KEYBOARD.SYS
ECHO.
LH /L:2 C:\DOS\MOUSE
ECHO.
PROMPT $p$g
PATH C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\AP6400
SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
SET TMP=C:\TEMP
SET TZ=CET-1CDT,3,-1,0,7200,10,-1,0,10800,3600
C:\AP6400\APINIT /WE /WA:530 /WI:11 /WM:0 /VE /VA:220 /VI:5 /VL:1 /VH:5 /GE /MD /MA:330 /MI:9 /MX:100 /WIN=C:\WINDOWS
C:\AP6400\APMIX /V:15,15 /C:00,00 /F:15,15 /I:00,00 /M:00 /P:10 /R:A  /X
GOTO %CONFIG%

:EMSBOOT
LH /L:2 C:\DOS\MSCDEX /D:MSCD000 /M:15 /E /S /L:D /V
ECHO.
LH /L:0;2 /S C:\DOS\SMARTDRV 2048 128 /V
GOTO END

:NOEBOOT
LH /L:2 C:\DOS\MSCDEX /D:MSCD000 /M:15 /S /L:D /V
ECHO.
LH /L:0;2 /S C:\DOS\SMARTDRV 2048 /V
GOTO END

:MINBOOT
LH /L:0;2 /S C:\DOS\SMARTDRV 2048 /V
GOTO END

:WINBOOT
LH /L:2 C:\DOS\MSCDEX /D:MSCD000 /M:15 /E /S /L:D /V
ECHO.
LH /L:0;2 /S C:\DOS\SMARTDRV 2048 128 /V
WIN
GOTO END

:END

Config.SYS

[MENU]
MENUITEM=EMSBOOT, Start with EMS support.
MENUITEM=NOEBOOT, Start without EMS support.
MENUITEM=MINBOOT, Minimal Boot
MENUITEM=WINBOOT, Windows 3.11
MENUDEFAULT=EMSBOOT,30

[COMMON]
BREAK=ON
DOS=HIGH,UMB
FILES=40
REM FCBS=1,0
BUFFERS=10,0
LASTDRIVE=J
STACKS=9,256
COUNTRY=038,,C:\DOS\COUNTRY.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS /V
DEVICEHIGH /L:1 =C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,1)
SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS\ /E:1024 /P

[EMSBOOT]
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM /MIN=0 I=B000-B7FF /V
DEVICEHIGH /L:1 =C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS
DEVICEHIGH /L:2 =C:\CDROM\GSCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD000

[NOEBOOT]
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS /V
DEVICEHIGH /L:2 =C:\CDROM\GSCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD000

[MINBOOT]
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS /V

[WINBOOT]
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM /MIN=0 /V
DEVICEHIGH /L:1 =C:\DOS\ANSI.SYS
DEVICEHIGH /L:1 =C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS
DEVICEHIGH /L:2 =C:\CDROM\GSCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD000

 

[Keullo-e]

Which one I should use for my ultimate XP/7 retro build..? Phenom II X2 @ X4 or Xeon 3230..?

 

[Apocalypsee]

Which one I should use for my ultimate XP/7 retro build..? Phenom II X2 @ X4 or Xeon 3230..?

Depends on how old/new the game you intend to play on it IMO. Every now and then I see videos on Youtube saying 'Ultimate XP build' but to me, it really depends on the game you plan to play on it, whether its old games during early XP era, mid XP era or late XP era. I also read some early XP game wont work with XP that being patched with Service Packs.

 

[Trekkie4]

Which one I should use for my ultimate XP/7 retro build..? Phenom II X2 @ X4 or Xeon 3230..?

Depends on how old/new the game you intend to play on it IMO. Every now and then I see videos on Youtube saying 'Ultimate XP build' but to me, it really depends on the game you plan to play on it, whether its old games during early XP era, mid XP era or late XP era. I also read some early XP game wont work with XP that being patched with Service Packs.

What @Apocalypsee said... To me, the "ultimate" XP rig would be Socket 478 or 462/A. That is, if we are talking about early XP. On the other hand, late XP era would require Socket 775 with multi-core CPU (at least Core2 Duo) or AM2 with Athlon X2 (and above). From personal experience:

SP1 - Athlon, Duron, Pentium 3, Pentium 4 & Celeron between 500MHz & 1GHz
SP2 - Athlon, Athlon64, Sempron, Pentium 4, Pentium 4 HT & Celeron between 1GHz & 2GHz
SP3 - Athlon64, Sempron, Pentium 4 HT & Celeron between 2GHz & 3GHz