|
LOL if you started with this rather than a Voodoo Banshee. EDIT: Being so old that you don't know how many pages are in a thread. Thanks grandpa!
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 21:44
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 21:52 |
|
|
SopWATh posted:LOL if you started with this rather than a Matrox.Mystique Fixed for me
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 21:46
|
|
|
SopWATh posted:LOL if you started with this rather than a Voodoo Banshee.  Unwrapping this at Christmas nearly made me poo poo myself: box says AGP tho, but mine was the PCI edition because my computer was lucky to have more than one PCI slot, let alone AGP: 
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 21:54
|
|
|
Mak0rz posted:
Wasn't there some deal where the Banshee's ran better in AGP, but the TNT ran better in PCI? I had an Asus P5A (they used the same model number maybe 8 years later) with a K6-2 400MHz and a Voodoo Banshee card. I thought it was the most amazing loving PC ever made! Stepping back even farther, my Apple IIe had a Hercules 80-line card which made for some interesting BASIC options on a monochrome screen. I didn't know poo poo about computers, I was 8, but I was able to get help from my uncle copying programs out of the back of 3-2-1 Contact magazine. Good times writing then playing a lemonade stand rip-off, knowing the formula for sales based on temp, and making sweet sweet virtual bank.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 22:09
|
|
|
thathonkey posted:I had to take a typing class in school that was similar but i knew how to type so instead I installed half-life and played on mute. Another kid noticed and wanted it by the end of the schoolyear we hd a pretty solid LAN deathmatch group going. Actually learned a lot that way. Teacher probably knew and just didnt give a fux I made a netsend shortcut one time (A pretty good way to get around not being able to launch a command prompt) and set the target as "~". That sends a message to everyone logged in. Got questioned about it but didn't fess up, and never heard about it again.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 22:09
|
|
|
Mak0rz posted:
It is a bit silly how fast we went from cards that look like actual PCI/AGP cards to stuff like this:  Same thing with memory (both these images are DDR4 too so they're both top-of-the-line right now):  RAMvs  EXTREMMMMMMMMMME RAMTaking cosmetics into appearance when dealing with internal PC parts is one of the dumbest things I've encountered and I will never stop thinking it's retarded. Go apeshit with your Death Star or Dr. Who phone booth computer cases, but when you start weighing the merit of a component based on if the color scheme of the fan enclosure on your GPU matches the RAM heatsink colors and fan LED colors, it's dumb as hell. I bought some more RAM yesterday on amazon and I literally saved $5 by getting the same exact model sticks in red instead of black, white or blue. Also cooling fans with LEDs in them need to die a fiery painful death
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 22:11
|
|
|
Casimir Radon posted:When I was in high school the district had phased into using Windows machines at that level. They were pretty well locked down so you couldn't install or run an executable from the hard drive. Don't know if a flash drive would have worked or not. Fast forward several years and my brother is in high school in another district (parents open-enrolled him because our district was makinh some really poor decisions). He and his friends are playing Unreal deathmatches in the library during lunchtime off of flash drives, teachers know and don't give a gently caress. Same sort of thing woth cell phones, wheb I was in high school you weren't even supposed to have them on tour person, they had to be in your locker turned off. We had a lab of 286 machines that were totally 100% open and networked with the library. We could a) play red baron when the teacher was out of the room and b) check in/out library books from the other side of the building. We could also chat with staff, but no one ever thought of something more interesting to say beyond "poopy-butt" and "air born AIDS"
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 22:12
|
|
|
i knew bill mushkin from mushkin memory
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 22:14
|
|
|
 Also, having to take the bus back to Egghead Software to exchange my Windows 3.1 copy of Sim City 2000 because I had DOS and couldn't run it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 22:19
|
|
|
Mak0rz posted:lol Buying a Linux was legit because it was either $5 for a disk (or floppies) or waiting 2 days for debian/slackware to download
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 22:35
|
|
|
3dfx was such a complete mess in the end. I rocked an S3 ViRGE (gently caress yeah) and SLI Voodoo2 12 MB cards for a while, but when Banshee and Voodoo3 came about it was just all terrible and outdated. Riva TNT just blew everything away, pun intended.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 22:36
|
|
|
 USE IT OR DIE
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 23:19
|
|
|
Pastry of the Year posted:
Great joystick. Could circle strafe the gently caress out of Descent enemies.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2016 23:52
|
|
|
powerofrecall posted:.....It was estimated that at one point there were more illegally modified VCII boxes receiving programming than real, authorized legal ones, and that the company that manufactured them, General Instrument, was actually complicit in this. They only made money selling descrambler boxes, and what kind of box sells better: one that you have to pay out the rear end to get HBO on, or one that gives you everything for free? General Instrument was actually trying to combat piracy. Through the lifespan of VCII, the standard was modified twice from the initial roll out of VCII. The other two were known as VCII+ and VCRS (Renewable Security). While there wasn't too much difference between VCII and II+ VCRS added a card slot to the module with the idea being once the system was compromised GI could merely send out cards to subscribers that would update the module to whatever new security would be implemented. This never occurred because around the same time was when the small DSS satellite dish systems started hitting the market and GI never invested the R&D into keeping VCRS up to date. They instead developed Digicipher which was an all digital form of up/downlink with encryption. One of the reasons C band piracy was so rampant was the method employed in scrambling the signal. The video portion of the signal is restored with relative ease because the scrambling merely inverts the video and relocates the color information to a nonstandard frequency. That method stayed the same through all three VCII revisions. The real meat of VCII is the fact that the audio was digital and encrypted with DES. Since brute forcing DES, while feasible would still take a long time with 1980's technology "cracking" the audio relied on modifying the cracked VCII module with a modem that would call into rouge computers where actual earth station operators would "leak" the current encryption key. The cracked modules would download the key and the audio was restored. GI tried to combat this by increasing the frequency in which the key changed from monthly to daily and later twice daily. By the time the mid 90's rolled around, The rogue dialup systems had disappeared and there were rogue websites publishing the "autoroll" 56 bit key which could be copied and entered by hand using the receiver remote control keypad and arrow keys. Satellite and cable piracy in the 80's and 90's was indeed fascinating and a lot of fun. I find it pretty surprising that it's all but disappeared and modern cable and satellite are still secure.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 00:05
|
|
|
Casimir Radon posted:Same sort of thing woth cell phones, wheb I was in high school you weren't even supposed to have them on tour person, they had to be in your locker turned off. Same where I teach. Used to be tighter security with the PCs, but now we outsource our IT and they don't really give a poo poo. Cell phone policies have changed drastically since I started in 2000 mostly due to crazy parents and the whole "it's my child's right! This is America! What if there was an emergency?" crap. Back in 85 or so, my dad had the great idea to add speakers to our Tandy 1000 (SX?). The speakers were cool for a short period until someone moved one too close to the computer case and wiped the drive.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 00:19
|
|
|
blugu64 posted:Buying a Linux was legit because it was either $5 for a disk (or floppies) or waiting 2 days for debian/slackware to download True. I never bothered messing with Linux until I had a high speed connection, and I guess the $60 is justified by a comprehensive manual. Still lmao at paying money for a web browser even back then. mng posted:3dfx was such a complete mess in the end you mean to tell me this is ridiculous and stupid and not actually loving rad?? 
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 00:49
|
|
|
lol just lol if you didn't upgrade your Packard Bell's onboard VRAM from 1MB to 2MB.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 00:54
|
|
|
Mak0rz posted:True. I never bothered messing with Linux until I had a high speed connection, and I guess the $60 is justified by a comprehensive manual. Dear lord, the noise those tiny 60mm fans must have produced. There was this infamous 60mm Delta fan that sounded like a jet engine. Very popular with extreme overclockers, but it was insane. I dunno if this was the one, but sure as hell sounds like it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgInNCr2JuY
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 01:03
|
|
|
Pastry of the Year posted:
Sidewinder Precision Pro forever
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 03:08
|
|
|
Mak0rz posted:Playing doom like this sucks actually Wow I must not be the most stuck in the past computer relic  I admit that with modern controls DOOM seems slightly too easy. laserghost posted:obligatory: GEORGE.TXT lol Pham Nuwen posted:RedHat in the box was like $60 so I went for the $30 massive third-party Redhat book which included a single CD in the back. It didn't have everything the full distribution had, but at the time (early 2000s) I was running Linux on a 486 with a 1GB drive so I didn't have a lot of room/power for additional programs anyway. I bought this:  4 CDs including: kernel sources up to 1.2.13 & 1.3.15 XFree86 version 3.1.2 Slackware 2.3 Red Hat Mother's Day release +0.1 DOOM So without any real specific goals I just messed around getting X to work and played DOOM, which I could have played under DOS instead
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 04:35
|
|
|
I cut my Linux teeth on a distro called Phat Linux, which let you install alongside Windows without partitioning the drive. It was based off Mandrake, and is where I first got my feet wet with a Linux desktop. It died fairly early on, and I started running dual-boots as a matter of course after that. Posted from openSUSE 42.1 running KDE 5
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 04:38
|
|
|
How about things you attach to parallel ports? Printers: yes, most printers were parallel, this is acceptable Scanners and ZIP drives: no, you should have used SCSI Ethernet: For some reason my father's work bought parallel port Ethernet adapters (I think they were powered off the keyboard jack) for their laptops. Their laptops already had PCMCIA slots, so I don't know why parallel port adapters seemed like a good idea. Sound: Before we had a sound card, we got a cheap parallel port sound thing from some store. It wasn't even a Covox Speech Thing, so basically nothing supported it. I think it was a box that had the speaker built into it. We took it back and continued to not have anything other than PC speaker audio for another few years. Am I missing something here, or is anything that you attached to the parallel port that wasn't a printer merely a cheap, disappointing substitute for the real thing?
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 04:42
|
|
|
CaptainSarcastic posted:I cut my Linux teeth on a distro called Phat Linux, which let you install alongside Windows without partitioning the drive. It was based off Mandrake, and is where I first got my feet wet with a Linux desktop. It died fairly early on, and I started running dual-boots as a matter of course after that. Same, I didn't have the guts to repartition, but that CD set included "ZipSlack" which was Slackware designed to go onto a 100MB FAT-formatted ZIP disk. You could put it onto your regular hard drive if you didn't actually have a ZIP disk. So yeah I think my DOS boot menu had an option for Linux alongside the options for whether or not I needed EMS for that particular game.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 04:44
|
|
|
CaptainSarcastic posted:I cut my Linux teeth on a distro called Phat Linux, which let you install alongside Windows without partitioning the drive. It was based off Mandrake, and is where I first got my feet wet with a Linux desktop. It died fairly early on, and I started running dual-boots as a matter of course after that. Same, but mine was DSL Posted from kubuntu 16.04
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 04:45
|
|
|
this was the first 3d game i played it was on my gpa's windows 95 computer edit: I found a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctr54kopo8I 
gbaby has a new favorite as of 05:03 on Jan 8, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 05:01
|
|
|
Panaflex posted:General Instrument was actually trying to combat piracy. Through the lifespan of VCII, the standard was modified twice from the initial roll out of VCII. The other two were known as VCII+ and VCRS (Renewable Security). While there wasn't too much difference between VCII and II+ VCRS added a card slot to the module with the idea being once the system was compromised GI could merely send out cards to subscribers that would update the module to whatever new security would be implemented. This never occurred because around the same time was when the small DSS satellite dish systems started hitting the market and GI never invested the R&D into keeping VCRS up to date. They instead developed Digicipher which was an all digital form of up/downlink with encryption. I'll have to find the source of it, but I read about someone claming that a GI executive was caught dealing with some of the more prolific satellite dealers at the time w.r.t. hacks, and it was particularly suspect that no legal action came out of it from anyone. I've heard some of that stuff about the keys before and the ridiculous lengths pirates went to, to get them. Installing a modem to circumvent paying is just nuts to me. Though I guess that was the point where the piracy was starting to lose its cost-effectiveness. I read somewhere that some people in urban areas opted to not "properly" descramble the VC II at all, instead just using a simple video descrambler/sync device for the video and piping the audio in from a local cable system where the audio would have been in the clear. edit: I think some of those earth station operators ended up getting caught and in trouble too when GI came up with keys that would let them trace where the leak happened. I want to say this was in the same article I read the bit about GI being complicit with pirates, I really need to find it. It was in a satellite newsletter PDF, but I don't remember the name of it. powerofrecall has a new favorite as of 05:34 on Jan 8, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 05:29
|
|
|
Computer farted during a burn and gave you a coaster? Not for me, shitlord   It only cost around $250 but surely you'd make some of that up in CD-R media being saved from the coaster fate? "Burnproof" (as Plextor called it, stood for Buffer Underrun Protection) seems like such a no-poo poo idea in hindsight it still boggles the mind it didn't show up in consumer CD burners until around 2000. Even then it wasn't totally perfect since I recall some devices didn't handle the small gap that would occur in the CD-R dye layer if the laser had to stop and then resume writing during the original burn. I also remember not all CD recordable media being created equal: Some brands or types of media didn't play nice with some brands of drives. During those days you'd get drive firmware updates that sometimes included fixes like "Brand XYZ CD-R model type ABC should now be recognized by drive". Strange times, it was. Speaking of CD-ROM read speeds around the same time all the CD-R buffer underrun stuff showed up Kenwood was marketing a "72X" equivalent drive that tried to side step the physical limitations of spinning the disc at warp 10 by adding multiple laser diodes to read data from different points of the disc at once while using a lower spindle speed. Seems like a good idea on paper but I think they proved to be unreliable.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 06:52
|
|
|
Fabulousity posted:I also remember not all CD recordable media being created equal: Some brands or types of media didn't play nice with some brands of drives. During those days you'd get drive firmware updates that sometimes included fixes like "Brand XYZ CD-R model type ABC should now be recognized by drive". Strange times, it was. There were huge quality differences between vendors. I have 20 year old blue Verbatim CDs that still work today. Other, cheaper brands, not so much.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 06:55
|
|
|
The_Franz posted:There were huge quality differences between vendors. I have 20 year old blue Verbatim CDs that still work today. Other, cheaper brands, not so much. I still have a few blank Kodak silver/gold CD-Rs (not as great as just plain gold) waiting for something really important to burn on them.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 08:13
|
|
|
In my teens I spent around a year saving up for that exact model of Plextor. It worked especially well with CloneCD and allowed the software to have complete control over writing subchannel data, which meant that you could make perfect duplicates of games even if the disc had copy protection like SafeDisc. It paid for itself pretty drat quickly after I started selling games at school for $5.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 14:48
|
|
|
Fabulousity posted:Computer farted during a burn and gave you a coaster? Not for me, shitlord Hey, that was my first burner!
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 14:51
|
|
|
A FUCKIN CANARY!! posted:In my teens I spent around a year saving up for that exact model of Plextor. It worked especially well with CloneCD and allowed the software to have complete control over writing subchannel data, which meant that you could make perfect duplicates of games even if the disc had copy protection like SafeDisc. It paid for itself pretty drat quickly after I started selling games at school for $5. Same here but I used it to copy and sell karaoke CD's. You had to have a burner that could read and write subchannel data because that was where the graphics/lyrics of a CD+G were stored. Made tons of money off of both people I knew and ebay--copied karaoke CD's were kind of a gray area of piracy no one cared about.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 17:56
|
|
|
elmo_pimps_hoes.wav
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 19:03
|
|
|
OMG JC a Bomb! posted:elmo_pimps_hoes.wav terminator_goes_to_mcdonalds_drivethrough_FUNNY.ra e: which reminds me that we're at 30 pages of talking about how awful some old tech was and nobody has mentioned RealPlayer/RealOne I'm pretty sure I have some porn vids on my computer that are .rm files even today (thankfully VLC plays Real files) e2: gently caress me, RealNetworks still exists Snow Cone Capone has a new favorite as of 19:53 on Jan 8, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 19:04
|
|
|
Yahoo chat rooms in the early 2000s were pretty awesome for free cam shows. LiveJournal had some good "Gone Wild" type communities too.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 19:30
|
|
|
Buttcoin purse posted:I still have a few blank Kodak silver/gold CD-Rs (not as great as just plain gold) waiting for something really important to burn on them.  I will never use them, maybe I'll get rich on ebay never
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 21:13
|
|
|
my first linux (Debian 1.3) was included with this magazine
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 21:25
|
|
|
surrender posted:my first linux (Debian 1.3) was included with this magazine 200mhz MONSTER systems with onboard 3D
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 21:28
|
|
|
surrender posted:my first linux (Debian 1.3) was included with this magazine https://archive.org/details/boot-magazine-vol01-issue01-sept-1996
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 21:31
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 21:52 |
|
|
slidebite posted:Read the magazine if you want here: And the website https://web.archive.org/web/19980130151144/http://www.bootnet.com/ E: dream machine 1997  https://web.archive.org/web/19980130151144/http://www.bootnet.com/youaskedforit/dreammachine.html > Intel Pentium II 300Mhz https://www.mtrends.com 888.868.7363 $851 AIR P6-KDI Dual Pentium II Motherboard https://www.airwebs.com 408.428.0800 $550 64MB buffered ECC EDO DIMM http://www.cybertechmall.com/kpo/index.html, 800.888.348 $381 Diamond Monster 3D https://www.diamondmm.com 800.468.5846 $159 Diamond Monster Sound 3D https://www.diamondmm.com 800.468.5846 $191 ATI All-In-Wonder https://www.atitech.com 905.882.260 $239 Altec Lansing ACS48 PowerCube Plus https://www.altecmm.com 800.648.6663 $149 Internal Iomega Zip Drive https://www.iomega.com 800.697.8833 $135 Plextor 12/20PleX CD-ROM Drive https://www.plextor.com 800.811.3757 $248 Logitech 4-Button Mouse https://www.logitech.com 800.231.7717 $49 US Robotics Sportster 56K Fax Modem https://www.usr.com 800.342.5877 $190 Cherry Electronics G83-6300 Keyboard https://www.cherrycorp.com 847.662.9200 $40 OptiQuest V95 19" Monitor https://www.viewsonic.com 800.888.8583 $995 Micropolis Stinger 4.3GB UW Hard Drive https://www.micropolis.com 800.395.3748 $395 IW-A500 ATX Medium Tower case w/300W Power Supply https://www.compudex.com 619.467.9305 $110 Thrustmaster Millenium 3D https://www.thrustmaster.com 503.615.3200 $70 Samsung Floppy Drive https://www.samsung.com 888.868.7363 $22 Cooling Fan https://www.cpvue.com 800.888.4437 $40 CP-VUE Early Warning System https://www.cpvue.com 800.888.4437 $40 Windows 95 OSR2 https://www.microsoft.com 800.426.9400 $90 TOTAL $4,944 theultimo has a new favorite as of 21:37 on Jan 8, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 21:33
|
|