Any love for retrocomputing?

[AppleDashPoni 165]

For those that don't know: Retrocomputing is a hobby for those who are interested in using old and outdated computer hardware - often for the purposes of playing older games and running older software that interests them. I'm personally interested in MS-DOS and Windows 98 era stuff, but it can refer to basically any older computing stuff back as far as you'd like.

 

So... Does anyone else on MLPF share my interest?

[Scrubbed user 3,415]

I'm more into hardware. My dad has a Commodore VIC-20 that I would love to get running some day to see what it was like. We also have a perfect condition (no idea if it works or not) Intel i486 SX. 

 

[BlueStreak98 828]

I booted up the old family Packard Bell (With a Pentium processor and Windows 95!) a while back and tried to get it in running order. I got as far as stable function, but never made it much beyond that. 

[Luminance 2,181]

I've been playing around with a HP 5036A 8085 microprocessor trainer.  

[AppleDashPoni 165]

Glad to hear there's more people around here who share my interest at least somewhat! I've got a medium-sized collection of stuff myself... 386, 486, Pentium 1, 3, 4 systems, DEC VAX and Alpha systems, mostly all in working order. I hope to one day get everything properly set up in a room & make a webpage about it all, but I don't have the space or the time right now

[Techno Universal 2,575]

We have an old Dell dimension 4600 series PC that we got in 2003 and it has Windows XP on it. The thing with this computer is that it still works and is still in top condition and we still occasionally use it to this day to capture footage from tapes in our old Panasonic video camera that was one of the first digital cameras ever made as we got it sometime in 1999. My dad did have a Commodore 64 in the 80s and he still has the metal tapes that he used on it today but in the 90s when he moved out of his parents place he started using them for recording music in his dj mixes. Annoyingly his parents throw away the computer a few years later after he moved our thinking that he would never need it again and it was useless to his parents so they simply got rid of it as it was just taking up space in their garage. It's a shame they got rid of his Commodore 64 as I would of loved to have it and it would of been worth quite a lot of money if we decided to sell it on EBay.

[Moore Tides 9]

I do not think much about old hardware, but I do want to know how it all works. I do not have the experience with hardware though so besides playing with a breadboard I mostly program in C and assembly.

[Jon C 229]

I have a Sinclair ZX Spectrum up in the attic somewhere along with a couple hundred software tapes.

 

[Ed Lyons 105]

OMG same. My pride and joy is my 48k speccy. Sure, the keyboard isn't the easiest/fastest to type on, but the games, quirks and nostalgia is unrivalled.

[simba86 1,541]

not really "retro" for me , I can remember when a lot of this stuff first came out. I remember when windows 95 was high tech and I was glad I didn't have to use BASIC to play games anymore

[zerox 1,050]

I love retrocomputing. I'm into MS-DOS, 486, Pentium (1, 2, 3), windows 9x and that kind of stuff. I will be getting a thinkpad 600 or 770 in the near future. I will obviously use it for retrocomputing (playing older games and playing around with DOS and Windows)

[Kaneki 1,072]

I love old versions of Windows, as well as old OSes. I have a site where you can get old versions of Windows, as well as other abandonware OSes (I'm not gonna post the link, though they refuse to post anything newer than XP). I usually go there and run say, a copy of 95 or 98 on VBox just to play with it.

[Denim&Venöm 16,459]

Does having an '09 netbook that runs on Windows XP count?

 

As far as other old computers? My dad had a laptop from like '99, but he tossed it cause it wasn't working. I think we've gotten rid of most of our old tech cause it's not really feasible to use. In my basement is like a half disassembled dell from '03 that runs on XP or 2000 I don't remember. I thought about plugging it back in. See what my browsing habits were like 10-15 years ago. That is if the software isn't too ravaged by viruses.

 

And a number of years back, my grandma sent me her 2007 laptop. But it was pretty much like my netbook, except slower and bulkier, so it's off in storage somewhere.  

 

Also if you want videos on old tech, you may want to check this guy out. 

 

[Scrubbed user 3,415]

Does having an '09 netbook that runs on Windows XP count?

 

I can do better. 

 

We still have a Dell Inspiron E1505 in the basement. This thing has an Intel Centrino Duo and ran Windows XP, but the sticker on it said it was "Vista Ready". Good thing we never went to Vista with it (or ever really, which is probably a good thing). I'm not sure what is wrong with it though, but I have no interest in bring it back to life, despite me pretty much learning how to properly use Windows with it.

Edited February 21, 2017 by Vulon Bii

[AppleDashPoni 165]

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