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In the early/mid 90s my family had an Apple II and dot matrix printer. The only game I can remember playing back then is Glypha (Joust clone) and a bunch of weird visual-Zork-like hypercard games. Running into enemies in those games spooked me real bad as a kid. I can't find youtube videos of them, and it was long enough ago that I don't remember their names. One of them involved you being in a zoo I think? They were like those tile-by-tile turn based first person RPGS. Around 1996-2000, the family computer was a Mac Performa. One of the CDs we had was a library of OLD mac shareware, somewhere between 500-1000 games. One that I fondly remember is Shadow Keep. It was my first roguelike game, long before I knew what that even was. It reminds me a lot of Elder Scrolls games, because you can attack passive/friendly NPCs and guards will come to gently caress your poo poo up. There's no set order of area/quest completion. Right off the bat, you can just wander around the continent, finding new areas/biomes and dungeon entrances. Exploring new areas and finding that you're way "out of depth" was fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEA67hW2-Y8 The other game I have vivid memories of playing on that Performa is Gahan Wilson's Ultimate Haunted House: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mWuZGFC4JA I remember getting really uneasy playing it alone in the evening. It's a click and point puzzle game. You have to go through this haunted mansion full of classic movie monsters and more, to collect 13 keys before the timer hits 13 o' clock. It had spooky ambient music a lot of the time. Besides monsters that were part of the set/decor for each room, you could always run into a random encounter that would poo poo your pants in the middle of trying to solve a puzzle. Sometimes your interactions could make things worse, like feeding the carnivorous fish in the animal room too much. It would burst out of its aquarium and join the pool of random-encounter monsters. Scared me shitless back then. I think the haunted house one still holds up. It's a little slow to navigate, but pleasantly weird and spooky in a way that would only scare a kid.
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Nov 19, 2018 07:33
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JediTalentAgent posted:Didn't Rambus RDRAM have a short burst in PC popularity around the late 90s/early 00s until DDR RAM came out? I worked at an electronics recycler circa 2008 and when we tore down systems for parts, RDRAM and DRDRAM sold for excellent prices on ebay. The terminator/dummy chips were worth posting for auction as well. Did that have use as parts/replacement for enterprise rack unit poo poo, or was it just dwindling supply for old (in 2008) home computers?
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Nov 27, 2018 05:48
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Horace posted:I was big into online auctions in the late 90s/early 00s. I bought a capture card and took screen grabs from an old camcorder's live feed. While the quality was exactly what you're imagining, it was absolutely amazing being able to take a photo and immediately upload it and add it to a listing. It was one of those "this is the future!!!" moments. Besides, with enough light and a tripod the images weren't really that bad. Haha that is such a janky solution to your specific need, but it works.
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Mar 17, 2019 02:58
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I have an old P4 Dell Optiplex tower in the closet as a "backup" in case my computer and phone decide to poo poo the bed at the same time. I'm pretty sure that still has CS2 on it. What is the more specific reason people still use it? Is it a  thing?
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Mar 18, 2019 04:46
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wa27 posted:I have a nice Hitachi VCR that has a real jog wheel and when I first used it, I couldn't believe I was using a VCR that could go frame-by-frame forward and backwards. Like, all my previous VCRs couldn't even pause a frame on the screen and have it look good. 10 years ago when I was working at an electronics recycler, we would get a lot of A/V gear that had already been obsolete for a decade, if not more. The kind of poo poo a local news station would have circa 1980-2000. Some of the VHS/SVHS/etc. players had a jog wheel that really worked. You could go one frame at a time, and they were sharp and crisp. I had absolutely no personal use for them, but they were so satisfying to use. Absolute, effortless control of the video playback.
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Apr 23, 2020 08:10
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UnkleBoB posted:I just picked up a relic. It was missing the power/AV cords, so I have those on order. Always wanted to try one of these out back in the day, and this one turned up on eBay for cheap because it was missing the cables. Bonus was that the seller was only two blocks from my house. Hey, there's an LGR for that! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-c9S3cdAe0
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Apr 25, 2020 04:51
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Humphreys posted:If you all still aren't using SoulSeek in 2020 for your music acquiring you are missing out. I've been scoffed at by the few people I know IRL that are really into music like I am, every single time I mention that I still use SoulSeek. "That still exists? Why are you still using it?" but it is my most reliable source when I want to get some obscure track or album. The stuff that isn't on any streaming service, and you can't even find a torrent for.
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May 29, 2020 06:47
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The only time I have ever bought a GAMING MOUSE it was some Razer snake-named thing circa 2005 that had a really high DPI setting. It was very flat and symmetrical, and felt awful for gaming. I loved using it for photoshop and other image editing software, felt like a godsend at the time. It died in ~3 years. Before and since then, I have always used free/extra USB wired mouses (mice?) from like Dell or HP office workstations and they all work great for do video game, no complaint. Never had any of them wear out or die. I got to Master Guardian I in CS:GO with my free/recycled keyboard and mouse and that's good enough for me. Wireless battery powered keyboard or mouse can go Eat A gently caress Sandwich, don't even get me started on bluetooth bullshit. Never play a game you actually try to be good at with those.
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Jul 2, 2020 08:15
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mobby_6kl posted:Diamondback? I think all their mice were/are snake-named but that's the one I got around then and I'm still using it lol That's the one! Mine was exactly this, but blue lights:  It felt so great for image editing because it was symmetrical. I remember having many cheap/free mice that were... engorged on the right side? Just checked my current dumpster rescue HP office mouse and it's symmetrical, but I swear there used to be a bunch of them that were asymmetrical. Not insanely so, just the right side was a little bigger. For reasons. Ergonomic reasons(?)
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Jul 7, 2020 06:12
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Computer lab report ticket: HLEP MY DIKCS IS STUCK IN THE DRIVE DICS STUCK HELP CALL 911 DICKS DRIVE IS JAMMED
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Jul 22, 2020 07:25
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If we are airing our grievances over tech relics/retro/etc. youtube video makers, I have got to say being some kind of racist/nazi/chud/hate crimelord is the number one thing that makes me not want to watch their videos but an EXTREMELY close second place are people who scream/screech multiple times in a 10 minute long video and all of their videos are like this. just screaming like they got cut in half and blowing out their audio until there is hiss and static because they yelled that loud I really love watching channels like LGR with the volume real low as I fall asleep. It's relaxing, but not boring. Every single time youtube recommends me a new user that makes similar videos, they invariably wail and shriek at random things that are not a big deal at all. Is this like the audio version of how youtube thumbnails have become some uncanny valley melty faces showing bulging eyeballs and agape mouths??? YOU WONT BELIEVE HOW INTERNET FACE PERSON REACTS TO [$media]! DOCTORS HATE HIM!!
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Sep 14, 2020 04:14
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The G4 tower was the first computer I ever played online games with. Starcraft, then Diablo, then Diablo II. I also remember watching Niel Cicierega's "animutation" flash movies on it. My Cool Computer Uncle had restored it to factory defaults before giving it to us, but put those flash files on the desktop.
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Sep 26, 2020 05:46
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Sweevo posted:Apparently what you need to succeed on youtube is to have an annoying high-pitched voice and shriek non-stop. I've posted about this already in this thread, but that poo poo drives me absolutely mad. I can understand being excited about a video when you are covering a new hit game or patch. I can understand being excited when you win some big multiplayer lobby. Why do these people insist on screaming until they are hoarse in the throat while reviewing/testing a game or computer from 30-40 years ago???
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Nov 11, 2020 07:38
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this image gave me a random flashback of my first computer use as a kid at like age 5 I associated the "read me" icon as hieroglyphics instead of a newspaper because I mainly used it to play Glypha (Joust, but Egyptian themed)
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Jan 5, 2021 06:31
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Last Chance posted:why is this person shouting at me? There are so many youtube channels that deal in old, weird, forgotten, or even banned back in the day electronics that I would love to learn about. But the person hosting it has to scream and blow out their mic at every exciting discovery. It's a 30+ year old VGA graphics card settle down bub. It's like the audio version of Youtube thumbnails where everyone has cartoon facial features. Bulbous glassy eyes and lolling tongues, jaw agape. CLICK ME, LOOK! I WAS ASTONISHED BY WHAT HAPPENED WHEN [click for full video] It completely turns me off from some channels that cover stuff I think is really cool. I don't care what cool hardware or ancient console ROM you have to show me, if you are going to spend the whole time screeching and doing jump-scare cuts for a 1988 fantasy RPG. Nobody actually enjoys this, right? It's just some algorithm thing?
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Feb 8, 2021 07:55
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wa27 posted:Youtube almost does this for you, but I don't see a way to reverse the order of a playlist: It is absolutely maddening that you can't have youtube play a user/channel's videos from oldest to newest. Any video that is cut in parts will play backwards from last to first. The uploader or you the viewer could make a playlist in the correct order, but why is the correct order not a default option??? you can even have it show all videos in an oldest->newest arrangement but if you click to actually watch them it's a newest->oldest playlist lol
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Feb 9, 2021 07:42
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I think I mentioned it before in this thread, but I use soulseek to this day for music. It's not my primary source of ; it is my option of last resort when I can't find some obscure album or track elsewhere. It feels archaic/anachronistic to use it, but when I can't find something anywhere else, someone is sharing it on soulseek
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Mar 6, 2021 09:54
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Code Jockey posted:Man I absolutely love the color distortion at the edges of letters and other graphics that those Apple color monitors have. Chromatic abberation is a thing that happens in photography, and I feel like that's the same thing in old CRTs. Something is just a little bit off-center so you get colors leaking out the edges of something that is supposed to be white. I usually go for filters that mimic that when I'm running an old videogame system emulator on my desktop. Looks better than the other options that upscale to modern resolutions but round out the edges of pixels so they look like someone hastily converted everything in MSPAINT. Who the gently caress uses those filters that make all the pixels have a round edge, and it's all jaggy and incongruous between colors? Do those look good output onto a CRT? Because they look like steamy piles of poo poo when you're using your regular LCD monitor.
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May 1, 2021 07:49
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longview posted:Speaking of: Circa 2005-2010, my 2.1 computer speakers would constantly pick up this interference when there was an incoming call on anyone's cellphone in the house. It would also sometimes pick up radio transmissions that would play through the speakers. They were at a fixed volume, the volume knob had no effect. As far as I can tell, they were of two types. One type sounded like I was picking up a local AM radio station, very fuzzy reception but you could hear someone describing sports being played in english. The other type seemed to be an international shortwave radio frequency. It was in Mandarin or Cantonese, sometimes just a person speaking and sometimes... classical?traditional? Chinese music? It's so weird but I think I must have placed my left/right/subwoofer speaker wires just right so that they worked as an antenna for AM/shortwave frequencies? When I moved and assembled the same speakers in a closer configuration I never got the radio interference again. Back then I had a handheld shortwave radio and I vaguely recall that you could like, string a big length of copper wire around the wall/ceiling edge of the room and use it as an antenna? It's been a while since I used one. Got into it from a shortwave radio thread in GBS. It was very cool, got to hear a Cuban numbers station live broadcast a few times. I wonder how shortwave radio is today, compared to 10 years ago. Have some big broadcasters gone offline or switched to internet streaming?
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Nov 29, 2021 07:21
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rndmnmbr posted:Re: streamchat: puny mortal it took me 6 months to sort through, delete unwanted stuff, and complete missing albums/songs for my music library when moving to a new backup hard drive. I only got to the letter F. Then my old backup hard drive died and I frantically skipped through things, keeping stuff I would rather delete and not updating/completing stuff that was poor quality or missing files. Backing up the only copies that I had from my desktop's hard drive. I got to the letter O. Then my son plugged a USB C cord into the desktop and "plugged" the other end into the surge bar. Fried everything to poo poo. Now I have to pore over my ancient 2005-2015 era last.fm scrobbles to try and to figure out what I lost but can't instantly remember for artists from O to Z. There is this compilation album of Mongolian throat singing that I can't remember the name of but it had some really good renditions of folk songs that can be found performed by other artists (but not as good) and I can't remember what the album was called or any of the contributing artists. I also lost some Sahel Sounds stuff that had cell phone music/ringtones circa 2010 that is not readily available anywhere by hook or by crook as far as I can tell. If I sit down at my computer in my free time and I don't play a video game these days, it's 100% spent scouring soulseek (yes it still exists) to try and repair my burned library of alexandria. For musical groups that currently exist or recently existed, you can often find them on soundcloud or bandcamp and legally download an album for free. The real weird poo poo that is out of print and/or never released on your side of the planet is bitch to hunt down. I lost a bunch of pre-1975/Khmer Rouge Cambodian music rips that I probably can't find again unless I learn the Khmer script or something. poo poo sucks. Make redundant backups for everything, because sometimes lightning does strike twice. Also I feel like this post is prime material to end up in the PHIZ scoff thread. If I end up there, hi guys does the dude that lives on a boat still post he seems like quite the rascal
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Nov 30, 2021 07:03
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rndmnmbr posted:*pats 4tb backup drive, unplugged in drawer across room* Lesson learned. The thing that took me longest was going through my giant pile of poo poo to get rid of stuff I won't listen to anymore, and migrate the keepers to new storage. Sifting through it manually got me back into stuff that I hadn't listened to in a long while and still enjoy. And then since I haven't listened to that artist in years, might as well see if they released new stuff and download that and put it into the "to listen" pile. I deleted probably half or more of the stuff I got through. Like you said, sometimes it's just some weird poo poo that caught your fancy for a bit but when you listen to it now... no thanks. That one goes in the trash. barbecue at the folks posted:I meant I have Spotify now and don't need those files anymore since most of that stuff is on some streaming service already, but, hey, you do you If it works for you, streaming music is the most convenient way. My other half has a subscription and they can listen to all the music they want, whenever they want, wherever they want, on any device, with no ads. That's livin' in the future! That's good poo poo! I used spotify for a while and finding out the song/album/artist you want is not on there happens pretty rarely even if you are a music weird. The thing that made me go back to local storage was when an album would be available, I would add it to my library or playlist, then later when I wanted to listen to it again the license lapsed or something and it was no longer available. You can still see it in your playlist, but it's greyed out and you can't listen to it. It rubs me the wrong way badly enough that I will go back to hoarding my poo poo by hand, even if it takes me so much more time. I like my music enough to waste all that time on it.
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Dec 4, 2021 04:07
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:Extra fun cell weirdness: if your signal Is low enough on the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan, you can often unintentionally pick up service from the Michigan side, despite it being like 90 miles away over water, which also has the fun bonus of shifting your clock forward an hour. I was at NY state park/beach on the south coast of Lake Ontario a few weeks ago, and my cell reception was spotty. About an hour after we got there I got a text saying "welcome to Canada! From [service provider]. Additional fees may apply while you are outside of country. Is it like shortwave radio where the signal can bounce back and forth between water surface and clouds to reach far away?
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Aug 7, 2022 07:59
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