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Way back in the 80's my best friend had this lovely piece of computing history: It had two cartridge slots in it, so if you wanted it to run BASIC you had to have that cart inserted. Like so:  Eventually it got upgraded to the 800XL, which had BASIC built right in. So fancy   Didn't need a monitor, just used the TV, had an external disc (and/or cassette tape drive) and the games looked much more like the arcade version than the 2600, especially Pac Man and Defender for example. Mostly we played Archon, and Rescue on Fractalus, and M.U.L.E. and Mail Order Monsters... And now I'm having a nostalgia attack. edit: look at those 4 controller slots! Why did that take so long to make a comeback? Was it really not until the original Xbox? (not including adapters) edit: of course  vvvvv
a kitten has a new favorite as of 04:22 on Jun 8, 2014 |
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Jun 8, 2014 04:03
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N64 has four controller ports.
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Jun 8, 2014 04:11
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a kitten posted:
Sup 800XL bro.  I got mine as an upgrade to my membrane-keyboard 400.
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Jun 8, 2014 04:32
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The End posted:You also have one of those lovely Linksys routers. I've killed two of those bloody things. You'd think being Cisco's consumer line, they'd be awesome, but nope. gently caress those routers. Linksys E1000 I've had mine for a few years, got it for $20 as 'recertified' Other than having to reboot it once every few weeks when the WiFi decides to stop working, it's been great
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Jun 8, 2014 06:14
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Jose Pointero has a new favorite as of 06:23 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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Jun 8, 2014 06:58
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Jose Pointero posted:A buddy of mine back in middle school had one of these. It had a pretty kick rear end motorcycle stunt game that I can't remember the name of.
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Jun 8, 2014 07:09
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Jose Pointero has a new favorite as of 06:24 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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Jun 8, 2014 07:20
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Sappo569 posted:Linksys E1000 Might be even better with dd-wrt running on it.
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Jun 8, 2014 07:52
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Jose Pointero posted:A buddy of mine back in middle school had one of these. It had a pretty kick rear end motorcycle stunt game that I can't remember the name of. We would sometimes fire up terminal programs and I'd call his computer with my Tandy 1000SX and we'd chat. It was so much better than just chatting with our voices on the phone because computers! Don't forget they had their own unique sound chip or some poo poo. Actually let me go look this up. "The PCjr's enhanced graphics and sound standards became known as "Tandy-compatible"." Oh so that's what happened. I just remember a lot of my old DOS games that it actually had a Tandy option in the sound which stood out to even my 5yo self at the time. I got a lot of mileage out of that little 80286 machine I had 
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Jun 8, 2014 10:58
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Wilford Cutlery posted:Might be even better with dd-wrt running on it. DD-WRT sucks, use Tomato instead.
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Jun 8, 2014 11:18
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Sappo569 posted:Linksys E1000 Yeah mine with dd-wrt has been running for like six months without a hitch.
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Jun 8, 2014 17:36
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Sappo569 posted:Linksys E1000 Cisco got a LOT of well deserved flack for automatically updating the firmware on several of their Linksys routers to be cloud-based managed devices, and even said that they reserved the right to terminate a router's functionality. After the user backlash, they made it all optional. Cisco really drove the linksys brand in to the ground. I am hoping that Belkin does better with it.
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Jun 8, 2014 18:51
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Lowen SoDium posted:Cisco got a LOT of well deserved flack for automatically updating the firmware on several of their Linksys routers to be cloud-based managed devices, and even said that they reserved the right to terminate a router's functionality. After the user backlash, they made it all optional. Going by the one model they've introduced so far at least, things are looking up.
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Jun 8, 2014 19:04
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KozmoNaut posted:DD-WRT sucks, use Tomato instead. DD-WRT is awesome, use Tomato instead. (Unless you know exactly why you should be using the more esoteric option.)
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Jun 8, 2014 19:09
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Lowen SoDium posted:Cisco got a LOT of well deserved flack for automatically updating the firmware on several of their Linksys routers to be cloud-based managed devices, and even said that they reserved the right to terminate a router's functionality. After the user backlash, they made it all optional. Telenor just recently started doing this in Norway too, and it honestly doesn't seem like people care about it.  Logging onto my parents router last time I was home only gave me a logout button. " Hey if you want to change any of the router's settings, you'll have to log onto our site. "
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Jun 8, 2014 19:49
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Woah, hold up. What is this DD-WRT thing? Is it just user created firmware?
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Jun 8, 2014 20:49
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Sappo569 posted:Woah, hold up. Yeah. It has a lot of features, but in my experience it isn’t very stable.
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Jun 8, 2014 20:52
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As noted above, Tomato takes 90% of the functionality of DD-WRT and makes it opaque and user-friendly. I personally never had a problem with stability on DD-WRT unless I was mucking about with things above my paygrade - but Tomato is just a dream to work on. Or not work on, if you prefer.
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Jun 8, 2014 22:24
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My issues with DD-WRT lie more with the developers and the GPL non-compliance including requiring payment foradvanced features developed by other people under the GPL. I admit I haven't read up on it the last couple of years, so the situation may have changed. But it did make me switch to Tomato, which I find much more intuitive to work with.
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Jun 8, 2014 22:36
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Last post to end the derail for me... but what features are we talking about? I've done some reading re: DD-WRT and now Tomato, but everyone seems to be talking about how to use it, not so much what it actually does?
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Jun 8, 2014 22:42
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One feature I remember that you had to pay for was per-user (or per-IP) bandwidth management. As for what the alternative firmwares actually do, they replace the stock firmware in your router and usually give you a bunch of features that the stock setup doesn't have. For instance, better control over the built-in DHCP and DNS servers, more advanced wifi configuration, QoS settings, some of them can even serve as print or file servers on your network, if you have a model with a USB port. In my experience, both DD-WRT and Tomato are a lot more stable than the stock Linksys firmware, as well.
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Jun 8, 2014 22:48
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Sappo569 posted:I've done some reading re: DD-WRT and now Tomato, but everyone seems to be talking about how to use it, not so much what it actually does? What Kozmo said. Also I knew nothing about the charging for features thing and possible GPL violations, that is certainly lame behavior if true. For most users, I would guess "what it actually does" is give your $40 router an uptime of years instead of days. Also some basic tasks like port mapping or having the DHCP server give out IPs based on the mac address are straightforward and well-documented. QoS can also a rather nice thing to have. If you have a router that supports aftermarket firmware and you can recall the last time you had to reboot it to restore your internet connection/wireless, you might want to look into it.
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Jun 8, 2014 23:03
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KozmoNaut posted:My issues with DD-WRT lie more with the developers and the GPL non-compliance including requiring payment foradvanced features developed by other people under the GPL. I admit I haven't read up on it the last couple of years, so the situation may have changed. Ironically, dd-wrt started because of GPL complaints about sveasoft. Tomato is nice but it hasn't been updated in ages. I know there are forks/mods that have continued it, though. Personally I use mikrotik/router board at home, but it's some complex ISP level stuff.
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Jun 9, 2014 00:24
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I was using Tomato on the two E1000's I had (needed to make one into a wireless bridge and the factory firmware doesn't support it). After about a year of pretty spotty service, the one I was using as a router shat itself. I took the one I was using as a bridge and reconfigured it the router, and got less than a month out of it after the first one died. gently caress those routers.
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Jun 9, 2014 06:06
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dd-wrt was a godsend when I was having trouble getting my wireless signal out to the shed on my property. A bit of tweaking and I had something decent enough to do video calls out there.
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Jun 9, 2014 13:02
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Funky Bunch Wikia posted:dd-wrt was a godsend when I was having trouble getting my wireless signal out to the shed on my property. A bit of tweaking and I had something decent enough to do video calls out there. What kind of video calls do you do in your shed? 
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Jun 9, 2014 14:12
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The End posted:You also have one of those lovely Linksys routers. I've killed two of those bloody things. You'd think being Cisco's consumer line, they'd be awesome, but nope. gently caress those routers. I have a similar model, as well. It's been relatively ok for me...except that it hates one of my laptops. Like...just flat-out despises it. I can use the laptop for internet, streaming, etc..., but it can NOT do any kind of internal file sharing/streaming. I tried to transfer a video file from my desktop to it and suddenly my entire network shits the bed. A 100 MB file estimated at taking a few days to continue transferring, and I can't even get Google's homepage to load. None of my other device have a problem, and that includes two other laptops, my desktop, my PS3, and my tablet and phone (though I guess truth me told I can't recall if I've ever transferred files to my tablet or phone over the wifi.)
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Jun 9, 2014 15:09
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serious norman posted:What kind of video calls do you do in your shed? One's where he shows people his tool(s), duh.
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Jun 9, 2014 22:05
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serious norman posted:What kind of video calls do you do in your shed? Maybe he's Amish.
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Jun 10, 2014 00:31
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serious norman posted:What kind of video calls do you do in your shed? I'm gonna bet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5ceYtR22Ww Edit for content: Floppy ROMs:  Essentially the same as those cardboard records in the back of music magazines, but for software! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_ROM#Floppy_ROM Humphreys has a new favorite as of 12:51 on Jun 10, 2014 |
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Jun 10, 2014 08:20
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Build your own PC : 1991 edition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR41OwThUu4
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Jun 12, 2014 14:31
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WebDog posted:Build your own PC : 1991 edition. Quote of the video: "Most PCs do not have three floppy disk drives even though I think it's a necessity today" I've used and worked on a lot of computers from back in the day, but I had no idea there was a way to connect more than two removable drives. But if you have 8- AND 16-bit ISA slots, why not?
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Jun 12, 2014 14:57
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Related (same show): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHuwKBJwEx8 I like the Intel guy saying that in 1989 33Mhz is the fastest CPU they make, but in ten years they expect to hit speeds up to 200Mhz. 
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Jun 12, 2014 16:07
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Antifreeze Head posted:Quote of the video: "Most PCs do not have three floppy disk drives even though I think it's a necessity today" Quite a few motherboards at that time had support for more than 2, I had 3 drives on my PC for a while (in '89), a combo 5.25+3.5 drive and a second 5.25 drive for software/games that needed 2 drives but were on 5.25 disks e: A combo drive like this:  it was, of course, poo poo, because it was really cheap and nasty, so a year or so later when I upgraded to a 386 motherboard I dropped it in favour of 2 3.5" drives (I didn't get my first HDD until '92 because until IDE became mainstream HDDs were too expensive or unreliable (ST506 was the cheapest, but often really crap, SCSI and ESDI were just too expensive) SybilVimes has a new favorite as of 16:22 on Jun 12, 2014 |
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Jun 12, 2014 16:09
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I had both a 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 inch drive and was considered a golden god by my friends. Anyone have those PS/1 model 25's at school? Those were the AiO IBM PCs with two 3 1/2 inch drives.  It was stepping into a time machine and seeing the future.
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Jun 12, 2014 23:41
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SybilVimes posted:it was, of course, poo poo, because it was really cheap and nasty, so a year or so later when I upgraded to a 386 motherboard I dropped it in favour of 2 3.5" drives (I didn't get my first HDD until '92 because until IDE became mainstream HDDs were too expensive or unreliable (ST506 was the cheapest, but often really crap, SCSI and ESDI were just too expensive) The first PC we had in our house growing up was an Epson Equity II  Two 5.25" floppy drives, CGA color, and an 8088 processor- nothing special, and I remember happily playing Curse of the Azure Bonds at a glacial pace in glorious four colors. Battles took forever, as an arrow travelling from one side of the screen to the other took about five seconds to move one space, and for years I thought of 'azure' as being a cyan color. The compy was scrapped about fifteen years ago after taking up space in the basement, though I do wish I had salvaged this out of it:  The HardCard, a solution for plunking an HDD on a system with ISA slots. This is the same one we had, with an insane 20MB of storage data, meant that DOS booted up in no time and thousands of elementary school reports/dot matrix printer banners could be saved. It's gotta be said, for a piece of technology that's a quarter of a century old, the HardCards look pretty slick and modern. The Epson monitor blew out so my parents replaced it with a 486DX Packard Bell machine- back when Windows (3.1) ran on top of DOS, so most games were either activated by exiting Windows first, or by using a boot disk that loaded the bare minimum you needed to get Doom running.
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Jun 13, 2014 01:52
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On this talk of 80s computers, I have been eagerly awaiting episode 3 of this new series by AMC: Halt and Catch Fire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMi6fYsqW9s It actually is very interesting, I kinda think of it as the Breaking Bad of Computer Tech with a sweet soundtrack.
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Jun 13, 2014 07:18
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... HCF is a known enough thing for AMC to name a series after it?
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Jun 13, 2014 14:40
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Krispy Kareem posted:Anyone have those PS/1 model 25's at school? Those were the AiO IBM PCs with two 3 1/2 inch drives. Yep! Keyboarding class in 1995-1996, this is how I learned to type. I also took a programming class that year. It was BASIC on Apple IIs.
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Jun 13, 2014 14:43
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My old elementary school was still using Apple IIs through 99-2000. They'd been relegated to the keyboarding classes, but they were still working for that so why replace them? And the lack of access to the school network and the internet was probably considered a benefit, not a downside.
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Jun 13, 2014 14:50
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