Old-Ass Hardware

[HeaterCore]

The old games thread got me thinking about old hardware, and I remembered my family's PC Jr. My father and I waited in line for hours at a computer show to buy one back in 1984, when I was six; we got the "expanded" version for almost $2000, for which we got 128KB RAM, 5.25" floppy, 14" monitor, and -- get this -- a wireless keyboard and mouse (infrared).

The system.
The quickstart guide.
Those cartridges stuck to the side of the unit are, believe it or not, 128KB RAM upgrade modules.
Panaflos are an OLD fan model! This one cools the floppy drive.

Good times playing Jumpman, Touchdown Football, F15 Eagle, the original King's Quest, Space Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry, and messing around with Colorpaint and the original Printshop. Speaking of King's Quest, I thought this was a funny snippet from a 1984 interview with Roberta Williams:

Q: What's so special about the PCjr?

A: It has sixteen solid colors. It's hard to do animation with artifacted colors [using patterns to simulate different colors--Ed.], but with solid colors things are much easier. Also, it has more memory -- 128K -- and it takes a lot of memory to do animation. My game will be available on the PCjr only until other computers come up to the game's requirements.

Anyway, I thought it'd be interesting to see what ancient hardware people remember or still have stashed in a closet somewhere.

-HC-

 

[amol]

WHOA

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

That's hot stuff. Solid colors are the way to go

Our first computer was a 40mhz amd from 1993, not nearly as old as that.

I recently used sharpie to turn it black and will be using the case for a cheapo HTPC with some more modern parts I had laying around.

 

[HeaterCore]

Now there's a hell of an idea. I wonder if I could drop a micro-ATX board in there somehow and make an HTPC out the old thing? I'm laughing just thinking about it.

-HC-

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Yeah, I thought it would be kinda cool to use the old case instead of paying $50 or $100 for a HTPC case.

It's not ideally set up naturally since it's an AT case (I think). I'm not sure if I'm really going to use it or not. I managed to fit a ATX board in sideways but I ended having to put the power supply on its side (which was then taller the top of the case frame so the top wouldn't fit on anymore :frown so I ended up cutting out some foam board stuff to make a new outside surface with a hole left for the top of the powersupply to come out.

I think I'm only going to use it if next year when I move out of the dorms I need a computer to put in the HT area and If I'm not going to keep my main rig in the livingroom. Right now my main rig is about 5 feet away from all my HT stuff due to my 10x12 foot room, so it would be pretty stupid to not just hook the main rig up.

Here's my one pic of how the AT case looks black it's just sitting up by the projector for now.

 

[Shawn]

REPOST