Retro PC thread anyone?

Retro PC thread anyone?

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youtube.com/watch?v=ME2twQ9g7EI
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PS/2s were really kind of crap and every last fucking thing in them was proprietary.

MCA systems were easily the best PCs on the market

...for a price.

There was a lengthy discussion about this on Vogons how PS/2s were ass for PC gaming and that they were intended mostly as basic productivity computers.

While it was an attempt by IBM to recover control over the platform, microchannel was indeed better than ISA. The latter however was established and *good enough,* so it won out.

ISA actually was complete shit, but MCA and EISA were too expensive for consumer-level PCs. It wasn't until local buses appeared that a viable replacement for ISA was out.

Of course, I'm saying that from a purely technical perspective.
They were built for computing, not playing games.

mfw could have had that setup plus software for $2

Yes but it was in a thread where a guy asked about how suitable one would be as a retro gaming PC.

Yeah, I get that, but we weren't talking about just games though. Tons of high-end systems were terrible for that, it's not always a great benchmark to go by.

My elementary school used to have these.

And did they even distinguish specific PS/2s or just in general? There were plenty of PS/2s that fell into the "basic productivity computer" category like the Model 30 or 55SX but also some serious flagships like the Model 70 and 95. I wouldn't be surprised if the latter models were still lackluster, though.

Well no, the flagship models were for servers and workstations.

PS/2s seem to have a lot of issues with the floppy drives self-destructing because they used a combo power/data cable and the heat generated by the power lines would cause the drive PCB to overheat.

Cute twink arm

Also they had way too many models and it's hard to distinguish one apart from the other.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. MCA systems may have been shitty for a consumer, but technically speaking they were easily the best PCs you could get your hands on if cost (and shitty hacked up software) was no object.
Half of mine had bad drives, I managed to revive one of them but now it won't retain any configuration data.

They were kind of logical at first. 20 and 30 at the low end, 50 and 60 in the mid-range and 70 and 80 in the high end.
Then they went full retard with odd-numbered models and suffixes that followed no consistent guidelines.

Just like 90s Apple when they had 250 different Macs with only minor differences between them.

You can fit a standard floppy drive in them if you make an adapter to split off the power lines from the cable.

Or the consumer HP and Compaq alphabet soups after their marketing departments started collectively huffing paint in 1995.
But can you make that actually look good, though? I can live with Laplink if it means I don't have to ruin the look of it with a mismatched drive in a big gaping hole.
I wonder if you could just swap out the guts and attach the plastics to them.

They were supposed to be grouped into Quadra, Centris, and Performa (wow are these names as 90s as it gets) lines in descending order of power/features. But then they had about 40 sub-models of each.

>MCA

RIP in peace.

>They were supposed to be grouped into Quadra, Centris, and Performa (wow are these names as 90s as it gets)

"Test drive the new '94 Audi Quadra."

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lal

I hate weebs, I really do.

>technology board on an anime website created by a weeb

IBM licensed the MCA bus to anyone willing to pay, but NEC and Tandy were the only takers.

Don't forget that some models were under 2 of those lines, either simultaneously or after something new came along. IIRC Performas were mostly just older models chucked towards the education market.

>NEC
Did you mean NCR? They and Olivetti were probably the biggest MCA vendors after IBM.

>"In 2009, Dell commemorated their 25th anniversary as a company by acquiring a rare PC's Unlimited machine, one of their earliest products."

>"The PC giant was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell, a University of Texas student, as PC's Unlimited and quickly gained success selling IBM PC clones at a significantly lower price than a genuine IBM machine. A few years later, the company changed its name to Dell, Inc."

>"Dell's earliest machine was an 8086 PC with an amber monochrome screen, the equivalent of shadows on the walls of Plato's cave against today's machines."

>"When asked why they had not tried to acquire a PC's Unlimited machine earlier, the company founder responded 'Entrepreneurs need to be focused on the future, not the past.'"

Michael Dell confirmed for apparently not a retro bro.

Those were Sony drives, I thought?

youtube.com/watch?v=ME2twQ9g7EI

Dell have to be about the most average company ever. They've never done anything but make extremely generic PC clones. Not bad machines, but there's not a lot interesting about them either.

>The 5100 was based on IBM's innovative concept that, using an emulator written in microcode, a small and relatively cheap computer could run programs already written for much larger, and much more expensive, existing computers, without the time and expense of writing and debugging new programs.
Is it true, that indians was working in IBM even back in 1970s? Or there were no other way to make it that compact back then?
And fun fact: 99% of space is occupied by chips, not CRT or PSU.
And yes, it was using BASIC ROM, as well as APL.

tfw no tiem machine

>Is it true, that indians was working in IBM even back in 1970s?
No that's only a thing since the 90s.

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So, it was impossible to make PC smaller.
Tiem mechine is not needed.

So... Was computahs invented for business, for scientist, or just for fun?

>all those spelling mistakes
Did that kid write it himself?

I dunno. Go ask Bill Gates.

Science, then military.

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Sounds as if he was trying rather poorly to make an advertising pitch about how innovative and forward thinking they are. "Yeah man we're totes coming up with the latest hot PeeCee gear we got no time to worry about this oldskool crud."

that's what most businesses do

And then business, and then games. Unix was invented because Thompson and Ritchie wanted to play a game on their PDP-7.

But IBM (International Business Machines)... They made a calculator of punch cards for buisness I guess, or no?
Transistors were definitely by discovered by fun, and then beefed up for military, until some jews decided to make them shitty, but in big quantities.

>Uses a old computer
>Must be autistic
>System broke, lets not get it repaired, or find the reason why it isn't working anymore

>Implying autism = spelling errors

They're an example of what's called an industry parasite. Basically, instead of innovating, you see an opportunity to tap into a market quickly, easily, and profitably. In this case, back when Michael Dell was in college, he figured there was a lot of money to be made peddling generic IBM clones which required minimal R&D or engineering effort. You just bought stock parts, slapped them together, and sold them. Instant profit.

Strange, but I have literally never seen a Dell box that's older than Windows 95. I've seen old IBMs and Compaqs and Tandys and plenty of other miscellaneous 80s-early 90s gear, but no Dells at all.

I had a Dell Optiplex Pentium. Loved that machine, but it was pretty generic hardware.

Everyone had generic hardware by the Windows 95 era. IIRC Microsoft started demanding that companies standardize more and stop having proprietary features because it got tedious having to support all of it.

and?

That monitor looks to predate Windows 95 by some time though.

It's an old PS/2 monitor.

Man, that guy is ugly.

>lose weight
>haircut
>contacts
this guy probably is a chad

Uggh, it was. I don't miss those days, not at all.

>Welcome to Sup Forums.

Guysguysguys. You don't grasp just how little normies care about about your retro shitboxes. A guy like Mike Dell there probably is just all like "W/e that old shit is not relevant anymore what's our next product going to look like."

A whole lot of people just see a computer as a tool for accomplishing work and not a piece of art or a fashion statement.

Cleaned it up, new caps, battery, "new" 300MB drive, 20MB RAM upgrade. Fast as fuck. 3D FPS spectre plays nice on it.

sort of mystifying how people could stare at 9" CRT screens all day. perhaps we've been spoiled by modern gear too much.

>analog controls

People also used to watch the super bowl on 15 inch TVs

Better than staring into an LCD backlight all day.

Buddy of mines family had a 12" color TV with bunny ears for most his life growing up. They had an awesome 486 with internet back in 1994 tho, which was amazing.

At least it was color. I had one of these in my bedroom up until high school.

What Youtube comment section was this pasted from?

mfw I sit on this same desk at my work

lol. I'm serious. He had this tank game we'd play, and I never wanted to play anything else. He kept saying "you want to see sim city?" and I was all like.. naah. Then finally one day he was like fuck it we're playing sim city.... OH MY GOD HOLY SHIT THIS IS AMAZING :O

>not knowing about John Titor

This is a scam btw.

Every free classified has them, and they always have spelling errors, and a pity-hook.

C64s, Amigas (especially A600s) with their kit sell for 300 every day of the week on ebay. Get something like a ram card or rare game in the box and you're making even more.

These adds are looking for dumbasses that cant do 'completed listing' searches on ebay.

you realise people watch netflicks on their tiny phones right?

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>But can you make that actually look good, though? I can live with Laplink if it means I don't have to

I swear this same guy with the PS/2 and Laplink has been on Sup Forums since about 2013.

Not on eye-raping CRTs though.

you have to be in pretty bad shape if someone can tell you are disgustingly obese from just seeing the tip of your finger.

I've been here since 2010 and have maybe mentioned using laplink like once or twice, don't think that's me.

The soy wrist.

Dell looks like an anti-semitic Ben Garrison caricature.

It's no different from dailying a netbook or a tablet.
People didn't usually spend their entire lives in front of those systems anyway.

That's LGR, newfag.

Not every one with thin wrists drink soylent.

Tfw bought countless vintage IBM, NEC, Northgate, and Apple computers off of craigslist and ebay just for their mechanical keyboards.

I usually throw away these PCs in the dump and flip the keyboards for some sweet money. Clueless craigslisters.

>call yourself a flipper
>pay out the ass in shipping on a complete computer+peripherals set (on eBay) or waste the money, time and effort picking up a complete boat anchor setup off of CL just for one component
>toss the hundreds of dollars in gold scrap/parts/retrogamer hipster bait to sell individually on eBay right into the trash, not even donating/recycling it for a $20 tax write off or $2 scrap payout
>flood your local craigslist with more mechanical retro cool keyboards than there are fashion-crazed bugmen to buy them
>in the end recoup your shipping/gas and half of the purchase price at best if anyone even buys your dirty garbage you probably poorly listed to begin with
Get better bait, nigger.
t. someone who actually flips old shit

it's nice that you know it's some dude on youtube by his fat fingers. everyone is very proud of you.

thnx for the write up. exactly the kind of (you) i wanted.

Use it wisely to plausibly trigger /vr/tists for years to come.
But seriously fuck mechanical keycucks, I hate those niggers.

Sweet! I'm going to order one soon.

Got this french MSX1 a few days ago. Doesn't work, but it should make a nice restoration project.

Love the design!
Good luck and have fun fixing it!

Thanks:) I love the design of MSX machines, they generally have the most pleasing designs of all the 80s "compact keyboard computer" types. The fact that almost every japanese home appliance manufacturer came out with one makes for a great variety. My favorite has to be Panasonic's FS-A1 line but they're crazy expensive since they were only sold in Japan. Used to have a Philips NMS8245 but had to sell it because the plastic parts were beyond economical repair.

Agree and not only Japanese! The Phillips you had has a nice design too.

>a computer contained in a keyboard
I don't understand why they don't make these anymore. We have the technology to fit a very powerful computer in the empty space inside a Model M.