Tech Relics: Now integrating PIII processors for the wank factor.

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Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

One thing you definitely don't want to do is hot plug PS/2 stuff unless you're particularly fond of soldering tiny pico fuses.

# ? Feb 11, 2022 05:10

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# ? May 26, 2024 17:26

Thomamelas: Mar 11, 2009

Mantle posted:

I also kind of remember sometimes needing to reboot when a ps2 mouse or keyboard got unplugged. Was that a hardware or Windows thing? Or a me thing

PS/2 wasn't really hot swapable. Later on, there were some motherboards that kinda supported it. In addition they would have a polyfuse that would reset if there was an issue removing the ps/2 device. Trying this on older motherboards could cause problems because they used a surface fuse. Hence leading some people to kill their motherboard by yanking out a keyboard or mouse. While other people would do it on a whim and never have the issue.

# ? Feb 11, 2022 05:15

SCheeseman: Apr 23, 2003

I remember someone trying to convince me back when optical mice were getting more widespread that ball mice would always have a place in gaming because you could flick the ball when lifting from the pad.

# ? Feb 11, 2022 05:17

Woolie Wool: Jun 2, 2006

SlowBloke posted:

That is my office daily driver, salvaged from a box of ewaste since it was “unwieldy” to the rest of the staff. They are decent but they tend to get stuffed full of lint and dust in the ball cradle.

The Something Awful Forums > Post Your Favorite > Tech Relics - Tend to get stuffed full of lint and dust in the ball cradle

# ? Feb 11, 2022 05:33

Dewgy: Nov 10, 2005; ~🚚special delivery~📦

SCheeseman posted:

I remember someone trying to convince me back when optical mice were getting more widespread that ball mice would always have a place in gaming because you could flick the ball when lifting from the pad.

Inadvertently flicking the ball sounds like a downside to me, but I guess some people are into that.

# ? Feb 11, 2022 06:50

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

Don't flick the ball when you've got dust in your ball cradle.

# ? Feb 11, 2022 07:02

Computer viking: May 30, 2011; Now with less breakage.

Progressive JPEG posted:

To be clear, in the case of the 486 any benefit there might be from polling frequencies is greatly outweighed by not having the original serial ball mouse jam up randomly in the middle of firing at rebel scum. Upgrading to any optical mouse was a huge improvement.

Oh yeah I can imagine - and I doubt you got a steady 85 fps, either. I was thinking about more recent cases.

# ? Feb 11, 2022 09:15

Humphreys: Jan 26, 2013; We conceived a way to use my mother as a porn mule

Humphreys posted:

Also for the grand price of FREE I got some bogan material!

EDIT: I used to have one of these... played a LOT of GTA 1 on it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEByD6vhawU

Humphreys has a new favorite as of 13:41 on Feb 12, 2022

# ? Feb 12, 2022 10:52

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Jim Silly-Balls posted:

I had this TV when it was new (but about to be obsolete). Bought it in 2002? 3? for cheap when I was doing shifts in master control for a tv staton so I could take walks around the building and still keep tabs on what was going to air. I don't even think it was active matrix and the view angles were absolute trash but it was still a neat novelty that solved a particular problem for me.

# ? Feb 12, 2022 20:42

Kazy: Oct 23, 2006; 0x38: FLOPPY_INTERNAL_ERROR

Good Craigslist find today, another Libretto, only $100! :toot:

drat it

Ah well, at least it came with enough accessories to make up for the cost. :v:

Two docks, the floppy drive, and a neat little case! Unfortunately it didn't have the memory upgrade module I was hoping for. Maybe it'll be in the next one I buy to fix the screen.

# ? Feb 13, 2022 03:10

azurite: Jul 25, 2010; Strange, isn't it?!

Sweevo posted:

Super high polling rates are the computer version of audiophile bullshit. Nobody can actually tell 1000hz from 200hz, but it must be better somehow because Number Bigger.

Micro-stutters are apparently a thing, but whether they matter or are even perceptible to most people is another thing entirely. I guess that is the definition of audiophile bullshit, now that I think about it.

https://blurbusters.com/faq/mouse-guide/

# ? Feb 13, 2022 03:29

CaptainSarcastic: Jul 6, 2013

In a box somewhere around here I have a Pentium II Toshiba laptop, maybe a Protege?, that I installed Puppy Linux on and got it online using a PCMCIA wireless card. Not for any particular reason, other than to see if I could. Can't remember if it's an 800x600 screen or even lower resolution, but I do remember it was an amazing pain in the rear end trying to navigate a modern website.

# ? Feb 13, 2022 04:01

my turn in the barrel: Dec 31, 2007

I saw a junk vic 20 in a box at the estate sale I posted about buying color organs from in another thread.

I had one as a kid and figured it was worth a few bucks. Guy said make an offer on the computer junk, I even have the monitor for it. So I made a joke offer that was immediately accepted.

And it turns out he had boxes and popcorn tins of commodore / coleco / atari poo poo that he included with my joke offer price.

I didn't know they made a tape drive flashcard thing for the 2600.

Even ended up with a complete Action Max that I know I have the pops ghostly tape for somewhere from when I was a kid.

Some of the C64 titles are in nice shape

I tested the Vic and the monitor and they seem to work.

I posted a whole gallery of pics here if anyone is interested.

https://imgur.com/gallery/p6UJeRm

my turn in the barrel has a new favorite as of 05:32 on Feb 13, 2022

# ? Feb 13, 2022 05:29

CaptainSarcastic: Jul 6, 2013

Wow, that big Coleco controller with the 4 buttons and full-size joystick on top takes me back. I played the poo poo out of the Colecovision with that controller.

The one in the top left of this pic, for reference:

https://imgur.com/rcokwtp

# ? Feb 13, 2022 06:05

Tunicate: May 15, 2012

Computer viking posted:

High monitor refresh rates feel notably nicer in fast games, but I assume the returns start diminishing somewhere. If I, a 38 year old spare time gamer playing ten year old games, can easily tell the inference between 60Hz and 144Hz, then there's at least room for differences on that scale to matter?

I imagine you'd want a mouse polling rate that's at least the same as your display refresh rate. Several times more would probably be good: if it's merely double, then presumably you'd risk some frames having one poll's worth of movement and the next having three. A 2000 Hz rate is pointless for reaction time, but at least you won't get any notable aliasing between the polling rate and the refresh rate. Assuming there's no mouse smoothing in effect, of course.

E: to be clear I don't know if this is a genuine issue or if it would be glossed over somewhere in the chain from sensor to rendered game graphics. But it's at least the sort of thing that I can imagine happening when you have two mostly independent clocks on similar frequencies interacting.

Mechanically-induced input lag on computers is long enough, and experiments control for it poorly enough, that literature benchmarks for human reaction times are now noticeably higher than they were before the advent of computer-based testing.

# ? Feb 13, 2022 07:35

SubG: Aug 19, 2004; It's a hard world for little things.

my turn in the barrel posted:

I didn't know they made a tape drive flashcard thing for the 2600.

The Starpath/Arcadia Supercharger library, while tiny, is surprisingly strong for something built on top of the 2600. There are a bunch of knockoff/clone games: Phaser Patrol which is a pretty good Star Raiders knockoff; Communist Mutants from Space which is a decent Galaga-like; Fireball which is a lacklustre Breakout clone; and Suicide Mission which is a good-for-the-Atari-2600-but-not-good Asteroids clone.

There is also a surprisingly good very early console RPG for it called Dragonstomper which is one of the best games on the 2600, and a 3D maze/puzzle thing called Escape from the Mindmaster which is cool but kinda janky.

And that's like 3/4 of the games for the Supercharger. There were a couple more released at the tail end of the Supercharger's life, and a couple that were mail order only, but I never played any of them.

# ? Feb 13, 2022 12:41

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

man, we had a VIC-20. I used to gently caress around on it before I eventually disassembled it just to see what was in there and never put it back together. Not sure where it ended up, but I do know where my Laser 128 Apple ][e/c compatible still is

# ? Feb 13, 2022 18:31

my turn in the barrel: Dec 31, 2007

My dad was an underpaid school admin with 7 kids so growing up there was a string of obsolete computers that the school was tossing that were usually just used to play newer and newer variants of Oregon trail.

I remember having had an Apple II, Apple IIGS, Vic 20, C64, Trs80, ti-99/4a around the house as a kid. Most years past being obsolete and in various stages of functionality. Then my sister gave us her SE classic Mac after she finished college and we then upgraded to a Performa 6200 until I bought a used pentium 75 deskpro around 96 and learned dos/windows.

At one point around 1998 or so I helped my dad pickup donated pentium 133 pcs from an insurance company for the school and load them in an old store room. Turns out the room was still full of bell and howell Apple IIs/drives/monitors that we took to recycling to make room for the pentiums.

Being a computer nerd back then I thought they were cool being all black and having the extra ports/handle so I saved 3 CPUs and 6 disk drives from getting recycled.

In the intervening years I had them stashed in a closet at my parents. They have skyrocketed in value and I was in a really tight spot a few years back and went to dig them out and... my mom decided to toss out all of the Vader apples and various other 80s Era systems I had saved. 😞

Looking at just what the Bell&Howells would be worth now is crazy.

I have managed to find at least some stuff she missed. Found an original Mac M0100 mouse and an apple 2 815-0540 monitor stand back last night plus a bunch of original 1984 Mac OS/Utility/App/Game 3.5 floppies.

# ? Feb 13, 2022 22:42

Humphreys: Jan 26, 2013; We conceived a way to use my mother as a porn mule

# ? Feb 14, 2022 11:36

Arivia: Mar 17, 2011

Humphreys posted:

Tinted sunglasses should work to make eclipse viewing safe right? So those were actually effective? Also they make you look like Elton John.

# ? Feb 14, 2022 13:29

Tiny Timbs: Sep 6, 2008

Tint alone does nothing; solar filters block UV and such too

Tiny Timbs has a new favorite as of 14:10 on Feb 14, 2022

# ? Feb 14, 2022 14:07

Mr.Radar: Nov 5, 2005; You guys aren't going to believe this, but that guy is our games teacher.

I have some genuine solar eclipse glasses from the last time an eclipse came near where I was (which unfortunately turned out to be an overcast day :negative:

) and the only thing you can see through them (that's not the sun) is the bare filament of a lightbulb. I'm guessing those glasses are not quite up to that level...

# ? Feb 14, 2022 20:12

Casimir Radon: Aug 2, 2008

The day of the solar eclipse in 2017 was about the foggiest I�ve ever seen Minneapolis get. Didn�t even bother going outside.

# ? Feb 14, 2022 20:15

madeintaipei: Jul 13, 2012

Tiny Timbs posted:

Tint alone does nothing; solar filters block UV and such too

hosed if I remember the year. Iowa, me being born in '85.

Dad pulled me out of school, and took a few hours out of his temp warehouse work, to bring me to a park with the toiletpaper roll and piece of paper apparatus art class has us make to view the eclipse. Found a pair of welding glasses in the St. Luke's warehouse for us, too.

They told the kids for a week not to look at it. I didn't expect anything to happen, wasn't even planning to be outside at that time. Dad made sure it would be something special for me.

# ? Feb 14, 2022 20:27

Beve Stuscemi: Jun 6, 2001

The last major eclipse here in the Midwest (I think 2017 or so?) I brought out two sets of welding shield glasses (the square glass pieces, not glasses like spectacles) and looked through both of them layered on top of one another and it was perfect. Cut the brightness down to where I could look directly at the sun, but let enough light through to see really good detail

Beve Stuscemi has a new favorite as of 23:44 on Feb 14, 2022

# ? Feb 14, 2022 23:41

Data Graham: Dec 28, 2009; 📈📊🍪😋

I'm sorry, I keep reading every post on this page as a Python routine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qQEsVl0wkQ

"To look at the eclipse of the sun through..."

# ? Feb 15, 2022 00:44