Hi, all.
I'm curious to hear what (if any!) day-to-day tasks people are
performing using their retro computers.
I'm in the middle of restoring a 90s Acorn A3020 I saved from a skip (dumpster?) around 20 years ago so at the moment hardware repairs and finding / writing software to get a usable system is keeping me busy.
Now that the serial port is working I have even done a *little* bit of BBSing on there, but to be honest it's not very good at it (quirks
with the ANSI support, etc). I never owned one of these back in their heyday so I don't long for any particular games, however I love the
system and would really like to put it to good use.
telnet://bbs.roonsbbs.hu:1212 <<=-
i'm using two c64s in the studio, one with MSSH cartridge and cynthcart, one with a SFX sound expander. in the studio the synths are synchronized by my Atari ST1040. i also have a vic-20 with vicmidi cartridge.
and i have a p3 for playing win98 games :)
I am going to grab one of my old 386SX20's I've had since F4FBBS first came online to install linux for my old DC2120 tape backup and see if I can pull anything from there.
Hi, all.
I'm curious to hear what (if any!) day-to-day tasks people are
performing using their retro computers.
I'm in the middle of restoring a 90s Acorn A3020 I saved from a skip (dumpster?) around 20 years ago so at the moment hardware repairs and finding / writing software to get a usable system is keeping me busy.
Now that the serial port is working I have even done a *little* bit
of BBSing on there, but to be honest it's not very good at it (quirks
with the ANSI support, etc). I never owned one of these back in their heyday so I don't long for any particular games, however I love the
system and would really like to put it to good use.
I'm a bit of a radio nerd so imagine there are probably a few things
to look at there but how do you guys squeeze utility out of your
ancient tech?
Thanks in advance!
On 03 Aug 23 18:00:45 Bob Worm wrote...
Hi, all.
I'm curious to hear what (if any!) day-to-day tasks people are
performing using their retro computers.
I'm in the middle of restoring a 90s Acorn A3020 I saved from a skip
(dumpster?) around 20 years ago so at the moment hardware repairs
and finding / writing software to get a usable system is keeping me
busy. Now that the serial port is working I have even done a
*little* bit of BBSing on there, but to be honest it's not very good
at it (quirks with the ANSI support, etc). I never owned one of
these back in their heyday so I don't long for any particular games,
however I love the system and would really like to put it to good
use.
I'm a bit of a radio nerd so imagine there are probably a few things
to look at there but how do you guys squeeze utility out of your
ancient tech?
Thanks in advance!
To which Darklord replies...
Well, first off and rather obvious, but I run my BBS on my Atari Mega
ST4 (DarkForce!). I play games, listen to music, zen out to "euro" style demos's and do BBS coding (think BASIC) on my Atari Mega STe. I also have an Atari STacy that I play games on, read classic (text) books from the Project Gutenberg website, etc. The key thing about the STacy is, it's portable! Not really a laptop but more of a "luggable" it's still pretty easy to transport around and a lot of fun. :)
/\
Dark><Lord
\/
--- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01]
* Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
Well, first off and rather obvious, but I run my BBS on my Atari MegaThat's one solid use for classic hardware. Sadly I don't really trust leaving the Acorn on 24/7... And when I did accidentally leave it on over a weekend once I came back to find it had frozen. Maybe I'd consider doing it as an occasional thing, but that's not really how BBS works.
ST4 (DarkForce!).
I play games, listen to music, zen out to "euro" style demos'sI went through a real demos phase in the late 90s / early 2000s. Sadly it was just downloading and watching them rather than attending any of the conventions or coding anything myself. Some of the stuff that is coming out now on C64 is incredible, I can hardly imagine how 10 year old me would have reacted if I'd seen them way back then.
I also have an Atari STacy that I play games on, read classic (text)
books from the Project Gutenberg website, etc.
Roon wrote to Bob Worm <=-
in the summer i also got some other vintage (pc) hardware and the plan
is to build a Netware and a Windows NT network, just for learning. also
i would like to create network-bootable dos images, so i don't need all the hard disks to the dos machines.
I did that with NE2000 NICs and a Netware network, it was interesting
in the summer i also got some other vintage (pc) hardware and the
plan is to build a Netware and a Windows NT network, just for
learning. also i would like to create network-bootable dos
images, so i don't need all the hard disks to the dos machines.
I did that with NE2000 NICs and a Netware network, it was interesting
to set up. It's a shame DOS wasn't more network-aware, we always ran
into problems with multi-user file access.
telnet://bbs.roonsbbs.hu:1212 <<=-
I remember struggling a *lot* getting any kind of networking to work under DOS. To be fair I was a young kid and didn't have any help but it seemed extremely opaque.
Bob Worm wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
I remember struggling a *lot* getting any kind of networking to work
under DOS. To be fair I was a young kid and didn't have any help but
it seemed extremely opaque.
Roon wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
i saw yesterday that os/2 warp 4.52 server is also capable to remote
boot dos and os2 images. didn't dig further yet, but i am curious for
this as well.
Spectre wrote to Bob Worm <=-
The first cards and networking I had were Etherlink II's and NetWare
lite (IPX/ODI). This was really straight forward. Like you sans help
once you got off the beaten path it was tricky getting stuff to behave.
I recall having no idea what IRQ, IRQ Vector and Ports were for. It
got harder if you had extra serial ports kicking around too taking up common address/irq locations.
It got really tough when we tried integrating crynwyr drivers and using TCP/IP I farted around with SHIMs for the IPX drivers and all manner of black magic. Best result I could ever manage was the various devices
able to see each other and retrieve basic information, but refusing any serious data transfer. ALways just showed up as generic drive failure
to DOS.
Pretty sure you'd need a NIC with a boot rom, a share on the OS/2 server that held the DOS binaries, and another share to act as the c: drive.
Learning about PC hardware and getting DOS networking to work was exciting. I inherited a LANTastic setup from work when we moved a small network over to Novell, and took it home.
I was able to run the DOS BBS box with LANTASTIC and share the serial printer connected to it with my OS/2 desktop box. I could share drives from the BBS to my desktop to back it up and use a QWK reader locally. There was a screen redirector that let you remote control another
Spectre wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
They were exciting times... mine came about in a similar way only a
fried worked for a government dept that had its network replaced, all
the existing stuff went in the dumpster.
At one of my recent jobs in 2016, my new boss told me that before I'd
come in, they e-wasted pallets of old crap my predecessor hadn't gotten
around to disposing of. IBM XTs, ATs and PS/2s, mostly. With IBM
keyboards, mice and monitors.
At one of my recent jobs in 2016, my new boss told me that before I'd
come in, they e-wasted pallets of old crap my predecessor hadn't gotten around to disposing of. IBM XTs, ATs and PS/2s, mostly. With IBM keyboards, mice and monitors.
I wept silently.
Wow, you can read books on old computers? What kinda books do you
read?
candycane
Re: Day to day uses for retro computers By: Darklord to Bob Worm
on Sat Aug 05 2023 20:00:56
Hi, Darklord!
That's one solid use for classic hardware. Sadly I don't really trust leaving the Acorn on 24/7... And when I did accidentally leave it on
over a weekend once I came back to find it had frozen. Maybe I'd
consider doing it as an occasional thing, but that's not really how
BBS works.
If I'm honest I probably don't have the creative flair to build
something different enough to be worth visiting!
I went through a real demos phase in the late 90s / early 2000s.
Sadly it was just downloading and watching them rather than attending
any of the conventions or coding anything myself. Some of the stuff
that is coming out now on C64 is incredible, I can hardly imagine how
10 year old me would have reacted if I'd seen them way back then.
I admire your dedication reading entire books on that screen :)
I never had an ST - my slightly richer friend had an STFM which I
always found interesting, at that point I think I was busy with my
Sega Megadrive and probably wishing my dad would get a mouse for his
286 PC. The first computer I ever remember us having was an Atari
800XL - it still makes me very sad that it got thrown away, these
days I could probably get it working again :(
Thanks!
Sure can. Project Gutenberg has many famous and popular titles in text format. As long as your platform can read text, you should be good. The
Atari ST does have a handy piece of software that organizes their files into chapters 'n such for easy reading.
As far as subject matter, I have a lot of varied tastes. I love the old classics as well as fantasy stuff like "Lord Of The Rings". I also like a good western by well-known authors like Louie L'amour. :)
Built in 1987 and running my BBS 24/7 since the early 1990's,
it's been a champion workhorse and then some.
You should acquire another 800XL or ST. They're really fun machines to
play with! :)
Bob Worm wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
I'm sure we've all disposed of "old" stuff, i.e. 5 years past
mainstream use, but I'd like to think most people would at least check eBay before scrapping 20 / 30 / 40 year old kit.
At one point, the server room had a handful of AS/400s running in there
- by the time I got there, they were down to one. In one of the back offices, there was a fully operational PS/2 model 80 with a Model M keyboard, one of those 2-button IBM mice from the '90s, and an 8515 CRT monitor. IBM 4019 laser printer. Running an older version of OS/2 with a tape drive attached. It was kept in use to verify and restore files from the AS/400 backup system.
I still like to play around IN these systems;
https://pub400.com
I'm 'paulie42' if anyone else is over there..
* A free and public Server running IBM i 7.5 for everyone
* You can create your own user profile, you have 500MB of disk storage and two private libraries
* You can program in CL, RPG, SQL, COBOL, train your skills and start learning about the best server operating system ever :)
* Create your own programming projects, you can even use node.js or other web technologies (contact us for http settings)
* An average of 25 new users per day! Great IBM i community!
OOO cool! What's it called? Can it be found online? (or in FSX's file area?)
As far as subject matter, I have a lot of varied tastes. I love
the old classics as well as fantasy stuff like "Lord Of The
Rings". I also like a good western by well-known authors like
Louie L'amour. :)
Neat! I haven't actually read LoTR but I watched the Hobbit movie a
couple times. My favorite books are probably Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and A Series of Unfortunate Events.
candycane
I'm pretty tempted by an 800XL. My birthday is coming up so maybe
I'll have a look around on eBay - the question is do I go for "spares
/ repairs" or "working"?
Decisions, decisions...
It's actually called "Textbook". Check it out here:
http://www.anodynesoftware.com/textbook/index.html
You definitely should read Lord of the Rings - just bear in mind it's not a lightweight reading assignment. :)
I really like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, books 1-4, but I did not care for the dark tone of book 5. The first 4 though, awesomeness! :)
Wait, what do you mean book 5? I have the more-than-complete
collection and that only has 4 books plus the short story.
candycane
As I said, I love the first 4 books. Book 5 is dark and has a horrible ending. Book 6 just doesn't feel like the first 4 books written by Adams to me.
Everyone's mileage may vary of course... :)
Darklord wrote to candycane <=-
On 13 Aug 23 19:49:14 candycane wrote...
There are actually -6- books in the series, although the last one was written by someone else. Here's a list:
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
The Restauraunt at the End of the Universe (1980)
Life, the Universe, and Everything (1982)
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (1984)
Mostly Harmless (1992)
And Another Thing (2009)
Re: Day to day uses for retro computers By: Darklord to candycane
on Mon Aug 14 2023 12:01 pm
As I said, I love the first 4 books. Book 5 is dark and has a
horrible ending. Book 6 just doesn't feel like the first 4 books written by Adams to me.
Everyone's mileage may vary of course... :)
Dang, I have to look into this, for research of course.
candycane
One of my omnibus editions refers to his works as the "Increasingly ill-named 'Hitchiker's Guide Trilogy'".
BTW, I just turned the realitycheckRADIO shoutcast stream to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy BBC radio show.
https://radio.realitycheckbbs.org for the web page, or http://radio.realitycheckbbs.org:8000 for the stream.
Darklord wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
I've not heard the radio version. I loved the BBC series on TV. I've
got it ripped from the DVD release. How different is the radio version from that? Thanks.
They're pretty close - the same voices/actors and the lines are almost identical.
Re: Re: Day to day uses for retro computers
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Darklord on Fri Aug 18 2023 08:20 am
They're pretty close - the same voices/actors and the lines arealmost
identical.
Wasn't the CGI on the tv show pretty bad? I remember hearing specifically Zaphod's heads looked really bad.
Wasn't the CGI on the tv show pretty bad? I remember hearing specifically Zaphod's heads looked really bad.
Unless there was something newer, that wasn't CGI...
Re: Re: Day to day uses for retro computers
By: Shurato to candycane on Sun Aug 20 2023 05:46 am
Unless there was something newer, that wasn't CGI...
Then the practical effects.
Yeah, and for the late 80s even then it was pretty iffy. A head taped onto the shoulder more or less... Zaphod's second head is what we're talking about since all of the quotes weren't kept...
Wow, that bad?
In case that doesn't translate for non-Brits, a "school play" is when the drama teacher gets children from the school to star in a musical performance, usually with a œ0 budget, which the parents then have to watch :) --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
We have school plays outside Britan, lol. I've had to participate in a few..
I really like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, books 1-4, but I did
not care for the dark tone of book 5. The first 4 though,
awesomeness! :)
But it was a bit like Dr Who for the time... you watched it because
the story was good, and the actors ok, and you had a huge suspension
of disbelief for the sets.
Eh... I watched Dr. Who because sometimes the Doctor's female companions were hot.
I'm sure the concept is universal, but the name probably changes - sometimes my English friends get confused by my (English language) Welsh colloquialisms... which I don't even realise are colloquialisms :)
Idiot publishes a "Complete Hitchhiker's Guide" and then writes another story... publishes a "More than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide"... then
dies.... then his SON publishes ANOTHER book.
*mutters and throws things around the room swearing in British*
frustration at now having bought TWO >WORTHLESS< leather bound collections.
Wait, do Brits have different swears? Besides bloody I mean.
*mutters and throws things around the room swearing in British*
Wait, do Brits have different swears? Besides bloody I mean.
I've heard a couple Brits use "bollocks!" as a swear..
Eh... I watched Dr. Who because sometimes the Doctor's female companions were hot.
By the time he was getting hot companions, the story lines were
starting to decay unfortunately.
Spec
*** THE READER V4.50 [freeware] --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval) *
Origin: A camel is a horse designed by a committee. (21:3/101)
And Another Thing (2009)
Re: Day to day uses for retro computers By: candycane to
Commodore Clifford on Wed Aug 23 2023 12:20 am
*mutters and throws things around the room swearing in British*
Wait, do Brits have different swears? Besides bloody I mean.
I've heard a couple Brits use "bollocks!" as a swear..
Nightfox --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
Re: Day to day uses for retro computers By: Nightfox to candycane
on Wed Aug 23 2023 09:31:13
I've heard a couple Brits use "bollocks!" as a swear..
I can confirm that "bollocks" is one of our favourites. It's so
diverse, I'm not sure how you do without it.
I'm not sure where that puts us within FSXNet posting rules but it seems like a fun game :)
As a side note, if you're ever working with a Brit and make a disastrous mistake just tell them you completely bollocksed it up. They will likely forgive you on the spot and / or help you fix it.
They're pretty close - the same voices/actors and the lines are
almost identical.
To which Commodore Clifford replies...
DO.... NOT..... EVEN.....
Idiot publishes a "Complete Hitchhiker's Guide" and then writes
another story... publishes a "More than Complete Hitchhiker's
Guide"... then dies.... then his SON publishes ANOTHER book.
*mutters and throws things around the room swearing in British*
And Another Thing (2009)
That guy normally writes kids' books, and it really comes through in
his other writing. Was not really a fan of the book, but I didn't
want to stop reading about Arthur and Ford and Zaphod and Trillian.
We use the "F" word for that. In fact, as we once learned, it can be
used in place of almost every word of a sentence, as in...
F those Fing Fers
Does that apply to ANYTHING? Is this a cheatcode???
On 22 Aug 23 19:26:00 Commodore Clifford wrote...
To which Commodore Clifford replies...
DO.... NOT..... EVEN.....
Idiot publishes a "Complete Hitchhiker's Guide" and then writes
another story... publishes a "More than Complete Hitchhiker's
Guide"... then dies.... then his SON publishes ANOTHER book.
*mutters and throws things around the room swearing in British*
To which Darklord replies...
I know I know...but just like Aliens 1/2, Young Guns, Highlander,
etc, just act like nothing else was ever released past that point.
Works for me... :)
We have some experience with that word, sometimes it's a sledgehammer
to crack a nut, though :)
Next time you spill coffee down a clean shirt I'd encourage you to
give "bollocks" a try, you might like it.
BobW --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux * Origin: >>> Magnum BBS <<< - bbs.magnum.uk.net (21:1/205)
On 24 Aug 23 07:57:28 Bob Worm wrote...
We have some experience with that word, sometimes it's a
sledgehammer to crack a nut, though :)
Next time you spill coffee down a clean shirt I'd encourage you
to give "bollocks" a try, you might like it.
BobW --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux * Origin: >>> Magnum BBS <<< - bbs.magnum.uk.net (21:1/205)
To which Commodore Clifford replies...
Perhaps I will at that. :)
--- RATSoft/FIDO v09.14.95 [JetMail 1.01] * Origin: STar Fleet HQ -
Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
On 24 Aug 23 07:57:28 Bob Worm wrote...
Next time you spill coffee down a clean shirt I'd encourage
you to give "bollocks" a try, you might like it.
To which Commodore Clifford replies...
Perhaps I will at that. :)
To which Bf2K+ replies...
I don't own any clean shirts...
I can confirm that "bollocks" is one of our favourites. It's so diverse, I'm not sure how you do without it.
Eh... I watched Dr. Who because sometimes the Doctor's female
companions were hot.
By the time he was getting hot companions, the story lines were
starting to decay unfortunately.
Sorry... uh... huh.... storylines?
It sounds about as general purpose as "bugger" is down under... Things can be buggered, people can be buggered, situations can be buggered.. and of course there is always "bugger me" or "I'll be buggered..."
To which Commodore Clifford replies...
NO. NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!
I wanna throw tantrum!
*folds arms across chest and holds breath till he turns blue*
On 24 Aug 23 00:48:26 Commodore Clifford wrote...
To which Commodore Clifford replies...
NO. NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!
I wanna throw tantrum!
*folds arms across chest and holds breath till he turns blue*
To which Darklord replies...
Methinks you're there... :)
Idiot publishes a "Complete Hitchhiker's Guide" and then writes another story... publishes a "More than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide"... then dies.... then his SON publishes ANOTHER book.
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