Computer nostalgia - Post your relics!

[OVERKILL]

I will say though, I don't really see much practical use for most pre-Pentium laptops, because unless you get some of the very high end models that sold in small numbers, you have no onboard sound and Dual Scan screens suck, when I see people in retro computing/gaming spaces looking for a recomendation for a laptop to play old dos games on I always say to look for a Pentium era laptop with a SB compatible and an active matrix display.

Agreed.

I had a Toshiba Satellite 330CDT which had a nice TFT screen, Pentium MMX 266 and 32MB of RAM. It was great for that sort of stuff. Another piece of missing hardware, I have no idea where it went.

 

[blufeb95]

How the heck did you get into all the same old stuff as the rest of us geezers? I feel like this is akin to me liking 1960's cars, even though the pre-date me by 3 decades.

I grew up around computers, I could name all the specs in everybody's computers when I was like 7 years old, I used a Packard Bell Pentium 60 spare computer at my dad's a lot when I was young, I used to always love to look over the old manuals my dad had lying around for the Packard Bell 486 system he used to have and in 2004 someone my dad worked with gave him that SLT286 and that became a toy for me to play with. Over time I found things like Winworld and the Old OS website that had screen shots, the old computer websites that had pictures and specs of ancient machines. A big thing is when Microsoft made Virtual PC 2004 free, it made experimenting with older operating systems easy for someone who had no old hardware at the time. I didn't really start building my "Computer Graveyard" as my dad calls it until about 2011. Then I built an Atari Collection at least the 8-bit computer and 2600 and 7800, I still have no desire to own a 5200 as it's just a worse way to play pretty much the same exact games that are on the 8-bit computer line.

 

[blufeb95]

Agreed.

I had a Toshiba Satellite 330CDT which had a nice TFT screen, Pentium MMX 266 and 32MB of RAM. It was great for that sort of stuff. Another piece of missing hardware, I have no idea where it went.

I owned two Libretto 70CTs with docking stations and everything, after my dad moved in 2016 and I moved a bunch of stuff in 2017, I still have no clue where they went, and at this point they've probably suffered NiCad death from the CMOS and Standby batteries.

 

[OVERKILL]

I grew up around computers, I could name all the specs in everybody's computers when I was like 7 years old, I used a Packard Bell Pentium 60 spare computer at my dad's a lot when I was young, I used to always love to look over the old manuals my dad had lying around for the Packard Bell 486 system he used to have and in 2004 someone my dad worked with gave him that SLT286 and that became a toy for me to play with. Over time I found things like Winworld and the Old OS website that had screen shots, the old computer websites that had pictures and specs of ancient machines. A big thing is when Microsoft made Virtual PC 2004 free, it made experimenting with older operating systems easy for someone who had no old hardware at the time. I didn't really start building my "Computer Graveyard" as my dad calls it until about 2011. Then I built an Atari Collection at least the 8-bit computer and 2600 and 7800, I still have no desire to own a 5200 as it's just a worse way to play pretty much the same exact games that are on the 8-bit computer line.

Great story! I'm glad you are here

Did you ever get to play with BeOS?

 

[blufeb95]

Great story! I'm glad you are here

Did you ever get to play with BeOS?

Never messed with it and I don't think I've ever gotten around to OS/2 either.

 

[OVERKILL]

Never messed with it and I don't think I've ever gotten around to OS/2 either.

You definitely should! I've used almost every OS out there in some capacity. I love some of the old Unix ones like DEC Alpha Unix and SGI's IRIX. Pretty sure you can still get BeOS from archive.org. It's not overly useful, but it's a neat OS to play with, and incredibly fast. It's a shame it never really was able to gain a foothold.

 

[blufeb95]

I find with Unix systems once you've ran one, you've pretty much ran them all, IRIX though has it's coolness factor if you have the software and some files to show off how they were used for making 3D animations in their day. When the source for V7 Unix got made public O messed with it a bit but it wasn't particularly useful, I don't remember if I ever figured out how to use ed, It'd probably make more sense if I seen it demonstrated on a teletype, since that was the intended output for ed, just like why vi seems confusing but makes more since when you put it into context that it was designed for low baud rate terminals.

 

[OVERKILL]

I find with Unix systems once you've ran one, you've pretty much ran them all, IRIX though has it's coolness factor if you have the software and some files to show off how they were used for making 3D animations in their day. When the source for V7 Unix got made public O messed with it a bit but it wasn't particularly useful, I don't remember if I ever figured out how to use ed, It'd probably make more sense if I seen it demonstrated on a teletype, since that was the intended output for ed, just like why vi seems confusing but makes more since when you put it into context that it was designed for low baud rate terminals.

It's nostalgia for me, I started doing a computer program at the local Uni when I was in grade 9, so like 1993 or 1994? I was dropped into the computer science department and was using a couple of DEC Alpha workstations with these huge grayscale Trinitron screens (think they were 21"?) and a 486 running OS/2 Warp (which was brand new at the time). That was my crash course in learning *NIX. I had previously accessed their VAX over dial-up, but it was obviously a very different experience using these workstations. So, that's a strong memory for me. First graphical browser I'd ever used as well, NCSA Mosaic, as previously I'd used Gopher through dial-up.

 

[blufeb95]

I've installed most of the early Linux distros at one point or another, a few years ago I had Slackware 1.1.2(circa 1994) running in PCem, I even managed to get XGalaga to compile against a too old version of XFree (Requires X11R6 compliant server, I was using an X11R5 server) after symlinking some similar named libraries that the compiler complained did not exist. The compilation would still fail at the sound part but it produced a working binary sans sound, I eventually compiled a newer kernel 1.2.something on it so it had an appropriate enough sound driver to compile against to get working sound. I think to get X working I used a newer version of Slackware on the same configuration of system and used the XFree config tool because it either didn't exist or didn't work right on the old version and I still don't understand manually creating an XConfig file without some assistance on the parts that I don't understand at all. I didn't really use it when it was relevant but I love 90s GUIs there's something nostalgic to me even about 90s unix-like environments and even Windows (for Workgroups) 3.x and NT through 3.51. I still think GNOME 2 and KDE 3.x were the peak of the Linux desktop and everything after has just gotten extremely bloated, When I use modern Linux I tend to use MATE.

 

[mr_neutron]

My first computer was an IBM 370/168 running VM/370. I was the night shift computer operator at Security Pacific National Bank in LA working 6 storeys underground and by day I was working on my Computer Science degree at Cal Poly Pomona. This was back before the IBM PC existed. Good times.

 

[Skippy722]

How the heck did you get into all the same old stuff as the rest of us geezers? I feel like this is akin to me liking 1960's cars, even though the pre-date me by 3 decades.

I was 12 in 2006, 6th grade IIRC

I don’t think we have any pictures of it, but I wish I would have kept our old indigo iMac G3… 14 year old me wanted to tear it down to its individual components in 2008. PowerPC g3 at a whopping 500mhz, ATi Rage 128 Pro GPU, and 256mb RAM.

 

[OVERKILL]

I've installed most of the early Linux distros at one point or another, a few years ago I had Slackware 1.1.2(circa 1994) running in PCem, I even managed to get XGalaga to compile against a too old version of XFree (Requires X11R6 compliant server, I was using an X11R5 server) after symlinking some similar named libraries that the compiler complained did not exist. The compilation would still fail at the sound part but it produced a working binary sans sound, I eventually compiled a newer kernel 1.2.something on it so it had an appropriate enough sound driver to compile against to get working sound. I think to get X working I used a newer version of Slackware on the same configuration of system and used the XFree config tool because it either didn't exist or didn't work right on the old version and I still don't understand manually creating an XConfig file without some assistance on the parts that I don't understand at all. I didn't really use it when it was relevant but I love 90s GUIs there's something nostalgic to me even about 90s unix-like environments and even Windows (for Workgroups) 3.x and NT through 3.51. I still think GNOME 2 and KDE 3.x were the peak of the Linux desktop and everything after has just gotten extremely bloated, When I use modern Linux I tend to use MATE.View attachment 185561

I had Slackware (probably that same version) on like 20 CD's, lol. Came as a huge kit, with a Linux bible manual. Holy crap, it was nuts. I had already installed FreeBSD from a floppy over dial-up at that point (that took a week) and used it a fair bit, but I wanted to see what all this hype about Linux was, compared to the mature Unix releases I had used prior. I also did LFS at one point there (never again!) and later on, got hooked by the "enthusiast" distro of Gentoo.

That's pretty cool that you were able to get XGalaga working!

I've always liked the Xfce DE, I find it's nice and lightweight, which was always good for the old hardware I was typically running Linux or BSD on. I do agree that Gnome 2 and KDE 3 were like "peak" UI though, lol.

 

[OVERKILL]

I was 12 in 2006, 6th grade IIRC

I don’t think we have any pictures of it, but I wish I would have kept our old indigo iMac G3… 14 year old me wanted to tear it down to its individual components in 2008. PowerPC g3 at a whopping 500mhz, ATi Rage 128 Pro GPU, and 256mb RAM.
View attachment 185563

I have one of those in red on my bench, works perfectly! I can't remember if it still has Yellowdog Linux on it or if I re-installed MacOS....

 

[brianl703]

Only token ring network I ever used was the one that we had at grade school that the Unisys ICON systems were connected to, but that was like grade 4 or something, lol. By the time I was able to get my hands on stuff, Ethernet was the standard.

Last time I saw a token ring network in use was at a retail store connecting to an IBM cash register. Maybe 10-15 years ago.

 

[brianl703]

I also had some old BNC token ring cards, which were 16Mb/s.

Far as I know token ring never used a BNC connector because it never used coax. It ran on either shielded twisted pair with an IBM proprietary connector or unshielded twisted pair with the standard RJ45.

16 meg token ring is why there was a Category 4 standard for twisted pair. I've never seen any Category 4 cable but it was apparently made for a short period of time.

While I'm on that subject, for a period of time in the 90s someone (I think it was Superior Essex or Superior or Essex, since they merged in 2000 if I recall correctly) made twisted pair telephone cable they labeled as "CAT 1". I tested some of this stuff and it passed the CAT 3 tests on my verifier so I used it for VOIP phones. Not sure what the heck would make a company produce a cable they label as "CAT 1" which is really CAT 3, especially in the mid 90s!

 

[mr_neutron]

It's nostalgia for me, I started doing a computer program at the local Uni when I was in grade 9, so like 1993 or 1994? I was dropped into the computer science department and was using a couple of DEC Alpha workstations with these huge grayscale Trinitron screens (think they were 21"?) and a 486 running OS/2 Warp (which was brand new at the time). That was my crash course in learning *NIX. I had previously accessed their VAX over dial-up, but it was obviously a very different experience using these workstations. So, that's a strong memory for me. First graphical browser I'd ever used as well, NCSA Mosaic, as previously I'd used Gopher through dial-up.

OS/2 was by no stretch of the imagination a *NIX. It was a next generation MS-DOS hobbled by the need to maintain compatibility with MS-DOS. It was good. I liked it. But it wasn't a *NIX. I soon abandoned it for Slackware.

 

[blufeb95]

Far as I know token ring never used a BNC connector because it never used coax. It ran on either shielded twisted pair with an IBM proprietary connector or unshielded twisted pair with the standard RJ45.

16 meg token ring is why there was a Category 4 standard for twisted pair. I've never seen any Category 4 cable but it was apparently made for a short period of time.

While I'm on that subject, for a period of time in the 90s someone (I think it was Superior Essex or Superior or Essex, since they merged in 2000 if I recall correctly) made twisted pair telephone cable they labeled as "CAT 1". I tested some of this stuff and it passed the CAT 3 tests on my verifier so I used it for VOIP phones. Not sure what the heck would make a company produce a cable they label as "CAT 1" which is really CAT 3, especially in the mid 90s!

Maybe it's Comic Book Guy's fabled Token-Ring Ethernet LAN Configuration. Also let's talk about how Comic book guy would be affording a T1 in 1997, that would've been if my research was correct somewhere in the $1500-2000/mo range, even medium businesses probably only paid for a partial T1, which probably got a little cheaper as a guaranteed 1.5mbit of routing capacity in that time frame was probably the greatest part of the cost of getting a full T1.

 

[mr_neutron]

Far as I know token ring never used a BNC connector because it never used coax. It ran on either shielded twisted pair with an IBM proprietary connector or unshielded twisted pair with the standard RJ45.

16 meg token ring is why there was a Category 4 standard for twisted pair. I've never seen any Category 4 cable but it was apparently made for a short period of time.

Interesting. Token-ring with BNC connectors? I don't think so, not that I remember. I worked for a company in the mid-90's that ran token-ring and it was all RJ45 at that time. Token-ring was competing with (and losing to) ethernet. From 1998 to a little after 2000 I was the maintainer of the Linux token-ring driver (ibmtr) and most of my user population was in Africa, South America and some Asian countries. Some in Europe but not much. Very sparse in the US.

 

[brianl703]

Maybe it's Comic Book Guy's fabled Token-Ring Ethernet LAN Configuration. Also let's talk about how Comic book guy would be affording a T1 in 1997, that would've been if my research was correct somewhere in the $1500-2000/mo range, even medium businesses probably only paid for a partial T1, which probably got a little cheaper as a guaranteed 1.5mbit of routing capacity in that time frame was probably the greatest part of the cost of getting a full T1.

At that time I worked for a company which offered "net metering" T1. The customer only paid the telco charge (around $400 a month) plus a usage fee. I don't recall what the usage fee was. It was charged per megabyte of data transfer.

They did make Cisco 2500 series routers with token ring interfaces, and back then, the Cisco 2500 was THE router used to connect a T1 line to a LAN. I think they even made a Cisco 2500 with BOTH token ring and ethernet interfaces.

 

[mr_neutron]

Maybe it's Comic Book Guy's fabled Token-Ring Ethernet LAN Configuration. Also let's talk about how Comic book guy would be affording a T1 in 1997, that would've been if my research was correct somewhere in the $1500-2000/mo range, even medium businesses probably only paid for a partial T1, which probably got a little cheaper as a guaranteed 1.5mbit of routing capacity in that time frame was probably the greatest part of the cost of getting a full T1.
View attachment 185569

It was actually a pretty big deal when T1's went below $1K/mo. I'm pretty sure it was in the 80's.