|
Sex Hobbit posted:I'm 26 and I remember when 3.5" floppies were the hot new poo poo. I was probably in second or third grade and the teacher held up a 5.25: I'm 30 and remember being pissed when PC games started coming out on 3.5" disks, because my machine didn't have that type of drive.  e. behind me on a bookshelf I have a sealed box of 5.25" disks I bought at Goodwill a few months ago. Was going to use them in my C64 since I've been learning Commodore Basic, but I dunno, the novelty of owning an unopened box of those is kind of cool [and I already have a zillion already-used-but-reusable 5.25" disks I could use anyway] Code Jockey has a new favorite as of 08:05 on Oct 12, 2012 |
#
¿
Oct 12, 2012 08:03
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 19, 2024 13:09 |
|
|
WebDog posted:
Holy poo poo that's cool. Very interesting stuff, thanks for that!
|
|
#
¿
Oct 13, 2012 06:56
|
|
|
0dB posted:
Hooooooly poo poo my parents used to have a calculator a lot like this! It wasn't RPN but it had that same display system [which I still think looks cool] and same general style. It was just a regular calculator, though. I'm sure it was a regular old $5 calculator, but I totally forgot about that, until I saw this.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 14, 2012 08:22
|
|
|
Ron Burgundy posted:Let me present my hobby that is comprised of 100% obsolete technology. That is so freaking cool. Awesome post. That FP3 looks like it weighs a ton, as did any big piece of technology of the era.  The modular processor is really cool too, what a good idea.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 20, 2012 07:36
|
|
|
Coffee And Pie posted:Well it's not really a problem if it falls off, I guess. Either that or it becomes The Hulk, in dong form. Worth the gamble, if you ask me.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 28, 2012 07:15
|
|
|
Despite my love for it, I would say the Famicom Disk System is rather obsolete. Basically: it's an add-on disk drive system for the Famicom [the Japanese NES]. Something interesting about the system is how different some games for it are than their NES counterparts; for instance, Metroid for the FDS has savegames thanks to being able to write to the disk [as opposed to using a battery backup solution inside the cart, which I assume hadn't been developed yet when Metroid came out]. And one of the most famous differences, a number of titles had remarkably different music than their NES versions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txF7fZeOuyM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxTvoTeoBNc One advantage that disks had over carts is that disks could be rewritten. Nintendo set up Disk Writer stations around Japan which allowed people to pop a disk in and write a game to it from a big selection of them. Kind of like a proto-Red Box kiosk, if Red Box made you provide your own DVD. I myself have a Sharp Twin Famicom, which is a kickass little device which has a built in Famicom and FDS all in one package:  [not mine, but I have the same model/color] Pretty awesome. Plus, it uses actual Nintendo hardware, which comes in handy when the inevitable happens: The disk drive fails. Y'see, the FDS disk drive is belt driven. The belt is made from a material which is hard to describe; I'm sure at one point, the belt in mine was a solid, durable, flexible-yet-tight piece of rubber. However, when I bought it a year or so ago, the drive didn't work [very very common when buying FDS/Twin Famis], so I popped it open to replace the belt only to find that the belt had turned into some semi-solid semi-fluid horrific mess all over the pulleys it was attached to. Also, it stains the poo poo out of everything and is impossible to get out; I'm glad I plan to replace the carpet in my home office anyway.  I finally replaced the belt today, and come to find out I didn't align something right inside, so it still won't read disks.  So moral of the story: be glad, kids, that the BDROM in your PS3 isn't belt driven!
|
|
#
¿
Oct 29, 2012 01:49
|
|
|
Mister Kingdom posted:That looks like something you would have seen on Star Trek TOS. Ha! I wouldn't be too surprised. That reminds me, I've been re-watching Red Dwarf since Season 10 just came out, and early in Season 1 I spotted this:   The Commodore 64: So awesome, it's used to control spacecraft. Obviously the Jupiter Mining Corp doesn't consider it to be obsolete, even if we might.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 29, 2012 02:01
|
|
|
blugu64 posted:You can still get them brand new! I think I am going to ask MY WIFE for one of those beautiful Unicomps for christmas. I had no idea what I wanted until you just reminded me they exist, so thanks! Also, some of the keyboards on the clickykeyboards site are so nice looking. Maybe it's just fondness for what I grew up on, but they just have such a nice, professional, clean aesthetic appeal. Way better than the cheapo mass produced Dell pack-in media keyboard I'm typing on now. I can't wait to get a proper mechanical keyboard. I have long threatened my developers that I'd get one and drive them all nuts [I type fast and I type a lot]. e. I love the gently caress out of the fact that I can order a Unicomp without Windows keys. I hate Windows keys. I am that guy.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 30, 2012 05:24
|
|
|
blugu64 posted:
Oh whoa, what? Is this how they used to be? Because drat I don't ever remember that, and I've been using PCs since the 8088 era.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 30, 2012 07:00
|
|
|
blugu64 posted:It was always more of a unix thing, I think. Why put a key you rarely use in a easy to hit place on the home row, and a key you use all the time all the way in the corner? This is true! Huh, I kind of like that, pretending my keyboard is set up that way. More ergonomic for, like you said, a key that gets used a lot more than caps lock does.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 30, 2012 07:21
|
|
|
Gregslo posted:
I absolutely love this, and stuff like this is why I wish I'd been born a few decades earlier and could've come up during this period in computer science. I mean yeah, coming up in it during the internet era is incredible, but that just looks awesome. I imagine it'd be far less fascinating if I had, though. Blows my mind what early CS did with equipment like that. Programmers these days have it way easy. I'm a C# developer, and I never take the advantages of .Net for granted.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 15, 2012 04:45
|
|
|
^^ Going to go ahead and guess "scram" means "oh gently caress" mode? 0toShifty posted:You might be interested in visiting your local nuclear power plant when they open up on their community information night. That's a neat idea! Unfortunately my closest one is Hanford [I'm in NW Washington], and... they've... had their share of issues, lately. I don't think it's open to the public.Hmmm. Definitely something to keep in mind, I'd love to tour a nuclear plant. Not something I ever thought about. Thanks!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 15, 2012 05:55
|
|
|
HOLY poo poo THESE BOTTLES! I haven't seen one in ages! I totally remember the thick as hell bottoms on these. Whoa, nostalgia rush. quote:And I mourn the obsolete technology of instant-win contests that don't require you to go to the company website and register to enter the number on the cap. Ugh, this. I miss just... knowing I'd won. Fast food still does these kinds of contests, but yeah, most of the soda/other food item ones are ENTER THIS CODE AT OUR WEBSITE TO SEE IF YOU'VE WON drat it game I just want to know now!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 15, 2012 08:07
|
|
|
Smoke posted:I'm a Super Advantage owner myself: Same here. Had one as a kid, and bought one a couple of months ago as part of my retro collecting binge. It really is built like a tank, and a great stick, even if fighting game enthusiasts sometimes complain about the L / R button positions [the gray buttons] since the buttons aren't in two rows of three like a normal arcade stick. Now then, its daddy:  This thing is indestructible. I should know - I had one as a kid, and was prone to gettin' mad at video games. This thing took all the pounding I gave it and kept on truckin'. It's a truly great stick. Also, I totally love the style of both sticks.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 15, 2012 18:00
|
|
|
Athenry posted:I actually cracked the plastic on my NES advantage around the joystick from pushing right too hard. Still works fine. Are you the Hulk 
|
|
#
¿
Nov 15, 2012 18:20
|
|
|
I would be scared to cut my finger on that, or is it not sharp?
|
|
#
¿
Nov 16, 2012 00:16
|
|
|
leidend posted:But I also liked the original xbox controller and am one of those weirdos who uses both my middle and index fingers on modern controller triggers. I like you. Let's be friends. I have giant loving hands, and the original massive xbox controller feels great to me. I have a pile of them, since I use an xbox for an emulation station now. Feels good, man. I didn't have any fun controllers for my C64 though, just a standard ol' flight stick style joystick. I feel like I was missing out.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 16, 2012 07:35
|
|
|
Ron Burgundy posted:
This is how I thought it was done all the time!  Thank you Ron Burgundy, you have expanded my mind. This thread continues to be awesome.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 22, 2012 00:36
|
|
|
einTier posted:Indestructible was this monster. Got one of these babies in a lot of C64 stuff I bought a few months ago. Definitely a tough little stick!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 22, 2012 01:00
|
|
|
Before my oldschool Trackball Explorer died, I LOVED IT for doing stuff with my old laptop. Not gaming, but like taking my laptop around and doing network management with it [it was my only laptop with a serial port, and I didn't have a USB->Serial thingy yet]. Trackballs require only their footprint worth of space, which is nice when space is limited. You can use it against your leg, even! A good device.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 22, 2012 07:21
|
|
|
Qotile Swirl posted:
Is this the first ever video compression technology? That's genius.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 27, 2012 05:29
|
|
|
BattleMaster posted:That's when you enter your password. I use the fingerprint scanner on my phone to unlock it but I can also enter a PIN. Yeah, I have one of those USB fingerprint scanners that works with XP [doesn't work for anything past XP, it seems] and you either use your fingerprint or ctrl-alt-del and enter a password as usual.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 29, 2012 08:35
|
|
|
spog posted:And I guarantee that you can get through it by walking up to it with a handfull of papers just after someone opened it and smiling helplessly. Yeah, this works a lot. I don't work in an especially high security job, but the upper floor of my building, where most of the corporate offices are - and where I work - is secured by swipe card. I've seen so many people let total strangers in, who I've never seen before, because they simply wait by the door and give a v  v kind of look. I don't do it anymore but did a few times. I imagine it's mostly vendors taking tours or maintenance people for our lousy HVAC system, but they need to go through the front desk, drat it!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 29, 2012 17:19
|
|
|
treiz01 posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHlRmKAPFt0 Ha! I had this exact same keyboard, and yep, drove the parents nuts with it.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 12, 2012 08:32
|
|
|
I paid about $2000 for my Pentium 200 upgrade when I did it. I paid extra so I could get MMX. Welp.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 15, 2012 09:27
|
|
|
Nathan Explosion posted:The best thing for locking your keys in your car is having a friend who is a locksmith. I lost $5 when I bet him he couldn't get into my car in under a minute. He got in. Still couldn't start it though I've got a brand new CX-5, and having an NFC key is really awesome. It's weird, since I'm so used to using a key to start and not a push button, but it's pretty cool. It still does have a key, which slides out of the NFC fob, so I can give the fob to a valet and keep the key for myself. I believe it opens the hatch and glovebox, that kinda thing.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 17, 2012 02:27
|
|
|
minato posted:
"AAAAAAAA-AAAAaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaghhhh..." Fond memories of the falling-in-a-hole scream echoing through my house. 
|
|
#
¿
Dec 17, 2012 19:13
|
|
|
Suzuran posted:
That is so cool.  I love that you can get that working on a modern PC.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 21, 2012 17:26
|
|
|
Someone remind me what the Win95 demo was like. It was mostly functional just time limited right? I remember being all MAN gently caress THAT WIN3.1 FOR LIFE 95 LOOKS DUMB but as soon as I fired up that demo I was in love.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2013 18:33
|
|
|
If this gamepad didn't define your 90s PC gaming experience, you missed out. Best pad ever. The second I saw that, I thought "Jazz Jackrabbit, Commander Keen, Jill of the Jungle".
|
|
#
¿
Jan 10, 2013 18:05
|
|
|
DrBouvenstein posted:That looks really uncomfortable to hold. Why does it curve up on the left? Just so Nintendo didn't sue them? Did Nintendo ever freak out about the Gravis pad? I never thought about it before, though the similarity to the Super Famicom controller [those colored buttons ] is undeniable. The Gravis pad didn't have shoulder buttons, if that counts for anything.Also, the Microsoft pad you posted Dr. Ohnoman was one of my favorites of all time. Sooooo nice. It had a port in the back you could daisy chain controllers together with. That was my go-to emulation controller for a long, long time, until I finally got a Dualshock 2 adapter and used my PS2 controller when the MS pad died. The MS pad was programmable with macros too [what the center bottom gray button was for, if I recall, and the "Mode" button I think] but I never used 'em. e. and honestly the Gravis pad wasn't too uncomfortable, at least for my tiny rear end kid hands. My monstrous man-hands might have a problem, though.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 10, 2013 18:30
|
|
|
My brother had one of those giant rear-projection TVs when I was growing up, and while looking back the picture was awful, at the time my young mind fixated on HOLY gently caress GIANT NES LOOKS AWESOME I think that's what established my love for giant displays. First thing I bought when I moved into my house [and thus had the room] was my projector. No other furniture was in the home theater room, just the projector and my PC and me sitting on the ground next to it.
|
|
#
¿
May 6, 2013 04:12
|
|
|
Ha! I've heard the ICQ Uh Oh! in NW Washington and NW Oregon too. I couldn't remember where I'd heard it, but I remember thinking "holy poo poo, that sound!" Also I've been to a few stations that play the Sonic "pick up a ring" sound when the register processes an order. It's awesome. And I was in college in early 2000s [graduated 2006] and I remember buying piles of scantron packets at the bookstore.
|
|
#
¿
May 9, 2013 05:50
|
|
|
Krispy Kareem posted:Getting in on scantron-chat, all the big standardized tests use them. Our neighboring school district got in big trouble for erasing incorrect marks and replacing them with correct answers. Like get fired and go to jail kind of trouble. Slight derail but is this part of the massive investigation going on with this in Atlanta? I heard on NPR the other day that a bunch of schools got nailed for changing test scores, erasing bad ones and entering good ones. If I recall, erasing a scantron answer bubble still left quite a mark on it, dark enough that I used to worry that it'd still get picked up as my answer instead of the one I changed it to. I also always wondered about those mystery bubbles that weren't part of the main answer grid. Never did fill any in, but I always wondered what they controlled.
|
|
#
¿
May 9, 2013 17:10
|
|
|
UltimoDragonQuest posted:I've heard the Sonic ring sound. I think it was Virginia. Ughhhhhhh this. I had a really awesome monster truck as a kid... which was wired, meaning I had to chase it everywhere. It only had like a 3-4' cord. Phanatic posted:The big problem was that the engines weren't designed for a pusher configuration. This is totally awesome, thanks for the info. I never really knew how engines iced over/caught fire, but this makes total sense.
|
|
#
¿
May 11, 2013 09:57
|
|
|
Whoa, that is seriously neat. I love interesting old hardware like that.
|
|
#
¿
May 12, 2013 07:27
|
|
|
Oh man I want one of these so bad.
|
|
#
¿
May 13, 2013 04:54
|
|
|
Yeah, I beat the living gently caress out of my Galaxy S [first gen] and it kept working until the day I got a Galaxy S3, except the touch screen sometimes registered phantom touches. Skidded that thing across a parking lot and all that happened was the back popped off, and the plastic got a little scuffed on the back, but the screen is still pristine. I use it for an alarm clock still. My GS3 is shaping up to be pretty good too, not counting Samsung's god-awful built in software [but who doesn't flash something better over the top of carrier provided Android?]
|
|
#
¿
May 14, 2013 22:00
|
|
|
Pilsner posted:Maybe I'm wrong, I just see cracked smartphones way more often than I remember seeing cracked regular old phones. I'd be terrified if I dropped my iPhone on asphalt - has anyone tried? I'm pretty sure my GS3 uses the same glass the iPhone does [Gorilla Glass 2] and I have dropped mine on tile, asphalt, metal from 4-5 feet and it's turned out a-okay. I can't advocate going out and throwing your phone everywhere, but mine seems pretty tough. e. I destroyed my wife's Vibrant by crushing it between the trunk lid and edge of her trunk though, so high pressure does tend to do them in.
|
|
#
¿
May 14, 2013 23:11
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 19, 2024 13:09 |
|
|
Post pictures of it! Reel to reels always seemed really cool to me. Speaking of media which comes on reels, somewhere in my garage I have my old 8mm and a box full of old cartoon reels. I wonder if they're worth anything? The reels are in great shape, last I checked.
|
|
#
¿
May 20, 2013 19:16
|
|