A new little restoration project.
We have computers with 8086, 188, 286, 486, P1, P2 and P3 at home, but we didn't have a 386 machine. I saw a listing of an Amstrad 386 laptop that got me curious: there were photos of a working greyscale LCD, and the seller said they recapped the board, but couldn't quite make it fully work still, so it was sold for cheap as "parts".
On arrival the screen was not working, and the computer insisted that something was wrong. The keyboard was dead, hard drive was dead, and even a poor floppy drive inside was dead. Video card had signs of corrosion. The computer has one ISA slot, and it boots when there's an external video card and a keyboard. The floppy drive cabling hasn't standard, but it was easy to cut some tracks and solder two bodge wires to make it work. Now we can boot into DOS.
Internal video is going to be an interesting fix. After washing, VGA BIOS seems to be working, but there's no video signal generated. Thankfully there's a schematic, and it's "simple".
You can tell when a computer is thinking rapidly because it goes clickclickclickclickclick really fast. You may notice computers stopped doing this around 2007, that's because that was when they got fast enough they didn't have to think anymore. Since 2007 all computers have just sort of been phoning it in. That's why you buy a more powerful computer every five years but they never *feel* like they get any faster: Loafing
Someone should make a picture book of crowded cartoon spreads of isometric views of different cities in Eorzea, full of fun details and little comic vignettes.
Obviously itβd have to be called βWhereβs WoL?β.
Am still very thankful for this flatbed scanner though, given to me for free by my former next door neighbor who hated it and never wanted to see it again (but works perfectly for me somehow)
What I listened to today: "illogical", Jack Howell
"Music 2000", released in America as "MTV Music Generator", was a complete and apparently highly capable DAW released as a commercial video game for the Playstation 1.
Jack here has a YouTube channel where for 15 years he has consistently uploaded nothing but Gran Turismo 2 recordings and songs made in Music 2000. He uploaded this one this weekend, and it rocks actually. Grinding rave techno with 303s and Juno hoover.
A Mac SE/30 with two external monitors in Mac cases.
Iβd like to image an alternate universe where you could purchase a second (or third!) Apple display for your classic Mac and it would be in the same form factor. What a panorama! Iβve wanted to do this for a long timeβ achievement unlocked. π
Thanks to CJ at the swap meet yesterday for the Classic case!
Did you know that Activision were due to release an ambitious Alien VS Predator game in 1993, where you had essentially three different games in one. It was tragically canned after licence issues.
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2024/06/alien-vs-predator-nightmare-on-ryushi/
https://netizen.club/~wildweasel/updates.html - The Golfshrine Birthday Update! I've been receiving all kinds of golf stuff this month and finally got the last package of it today, so here's a big ol update with images and video, because Multimediaβ’!
I kept this thing running for like fifteen years because it kicked that much ass
Nice tall 4:3 screen, 1400x1050 (in 2005!), Wacom tablet built right into the monitor, touchpad AND nipple AND stylus, swivel the screen around and turn it into a tablet, press a button and get a vertical monitor (!!!), pull out the optical drive and replace it with a bigger battery, it Kicked, the Ass
After 32-bit architecture no longer cut the mustard I went to a desktop and since then I've been sat around sighing and twiddling my thumbs with my laptop-buying cash bored in my wallet patiently waiting for laptop makers to come to their FUCKING SENSES
Another #PixelArt daily done! :) Hues of a quiet night.
You can grab the full-quality versions (for free) here: https://ko-fi.com/i/IW7W3ZJWHK
ENJOY!
#mastoArt #digitalArt #fediArt #art #landscape #wallpaper #creativeToots #gameDev
He/him. Puzzle-Adventure Hybrid with RPG Elements. Supports 3D Acceleration. He Is Essentially What He Believes. Just in case, π, LGBTQ+ π, DOS π, ππ©π.
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