Old tech you'd love to get a hold of

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One of these in order to have a PowerPC machine to use once in a while but not take up much space when I'm not using it. Plus it looks nice
 
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tehpope said:
Fat PS2 are the best. At least the later models (3900X and 5000X). 3900X are the last models to have the i.link port while 5000X remove it in favor of an IR port for DVD remotes. You can run games off the internal HDD if you add one. You'll need the network adapter for that. There are 3rd party adapters that have SATA instead of IDE, but they don'y include the network adapter. Its easy enough to mod the SATA connector into the OEM one. The earlier units have a lot of build quality issues. Stay away from the 3000X series. Disc drive issues.

You can use run games off a network share and that works too.
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Running PS2 games off of a network share was fantastic, same with the Xbox. That and XBMC felt like the future and it kind of was now that we have digital downloads, media players and streaming.
 
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Pickle Dick said:
I've lately been looking at physical media combo players to pick up. There's this one specific combo that I really want to get. It can actually play anything from Blu-Ray to VHS.
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Too bad they are all out of my price range, so I can't get any of them at the moment, but I think it would be cool to have it so I can play every piece of physical media I have all in one player.
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VHS combos are unreliable garbage, and if you actually care about video quality you're going to want something else for VHS anyway.
 
Smaug's Smokey Hole said:
Running PS2 games off of a network share was fantastic, same with the Xbox. That and XBMC felt like the future and it kind of was now that we have digital downloads, media players and streaming.
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XMBC is the best dash for the OG Xbox. The emulators on the OG Xbox aren't too bad either. Newer options like a SBC or just building your own PC is better. But in the 2000s, it was the best option for playing emulators on the couch.

Edit: Not even a day after I made my ps2 post, someone comes out and finds a way to boot unsigned code on all revisions with the DVD drive. https://www.retrorgb.com/freedvdboot-burn-and-run-ps2-homebrew-on-an-unmodified-console.html
 
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Kosher Dill said:
VHS combos are unreliable garbage, and if you actually care about video quality you're going to want something else for VHS anyway.
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Could you elaborate just out of curiosity? I have a DVD-VHS combo and outside of aspect ratio issues with widescreen DVDs it looks fine, but then I guess I don't know any better.
 
Smaug's Smokey Hole said:
20 years ago: download a MAME emulator for Xbox, drop the games into a folder called roms, it works without any setup or fuzz and they're all configured for a joypad.

2020: Download RetroArch...
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That reminds me of how I was really glad when MAME PC apparently grew the ability to try to load a rom set even if it wasn't the exact set for the exact version.
 
Duncan Hills Coffee said:
Could you elaborate just out of curiosity? I have a DVD-VHS combo and outside of aspect ratio issues with widescreen DVDs it looks fine, but then I guess I don't know any better.
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Well, the one I had a million years ago broke down pretty quickly (the DVD part, anyway), and from what I read all of them are similarly shoddy, regardless of brand.
I believe the VHS output on those is all composite internally and/or run through the same circuitry as the DVD output whether that's optimal or not, but I really haven't looked into this in a long time so don't quote me on that.
 
Kosher Dill said:
Well, the one I had a million years ago broke down pretty quickly (the DVD part, anyway), and from what I read all of them are similarly shoddy, regardless of brand.
I believe the VHS output on those is all composite internally and/or run through the same circuitry as the DVD output whether that's optimal or not, but I really haven't looked into this in a long time so don't quote me on that.
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This is true. Also the fact that they were made at a time that VHS was becoming less popular and DVDs were becoming the norm for home media, so companies used as much cheap parts as they could for those combos. The more "quality" consumer VCRs are from 1995-1999 and usually for certain brands like Panasonic and Sony.
 
a "quality" VHS unit would be like, a dog with one leg and sort of a stump racing a bunch of other dogs that only have one leg
 
XYZpdq said:
a "quality" VHS unit would be like, a dog with one leg and sort of a stump racing a bunch of other dogs that only have one leg
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Well yeah, it's more about maximizing what you can get out of the format than getting what would be considered "good" video in this day and age.
 
This thread has convinced me I'm way too autistic for the farms. A good chunk of everything yall posted I either have, have had, or experience with irl (i.e., I've seen Crays, messed with a few while they were being worked on for exhibits, they're amazing). I could power level all day long on vintage tech.

To contribute, I'd die and go to heaven if I could get my hands on a loaded-out Amiga 2000 with a Video Toaster. A buddy of mine has one and it is an absolute unit. Peak 80s computing.
 
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I'm trying to get my hands on an old famiclone that was sold in eastern europe decades ago. And not just your standard bootleg nes, the one with the built in keyboard and cartridge that had software and games that used it, hell it had some form of Basic on it. It was like a weird Frankenstein's monster where someone took the insides of an NES and merged them with an 80s Computer via Chinese techno magic. Things used to be known as "Educational Computer"

I used to have one when I was a kid but it broke and went into garbage with my carts years and years ago.

They pop up on eBay and other sites every now and then but I'm not a collector so the things are essentially worthless for me save for having a nostalgia trip and maybe tinkering with one a little so I'm waiting to get it for a really, really low price. Will too eventually.
 
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XYZpdq said:
VHS kinda sucked ass even back when it was the dominant format.
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Go Beta or go home.

Migraine Box said:
This thread has convinced me I'm way too autistic for the farms. A good chunk of everything yall posted I either have, have had, or experience with irl (i.e., I've seen Crays, messed with a few while they were being worked on for exhibits, they're amazing). I could power level all day long on vintage tech.

To contribute, I'd die and go to heaven if I could get my hands on a loaded-out Amiga 2000 with a Video Toaster. A buddy of mine has one and it is an absolute unit. Peak 80s computing.
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If I'm going to watch old school anime, I'd kind of need to have a Laserdisc player output to a Video Toaster with the subtitles genlocked onto a Beta tape.

Also I'd love to have a MUSE HD Laserdisc setup, but apparently it requires a certain kind of decoder setup that, for most people, would only be viable if we went back in time to 90s Japan and bought it. And that includes the cost of building and developing the time machine. Techmoan has a couple of interesting videos on the subject.



There's a bunch of old school tech I'd love to have but Herr TaimuRadiu won't let me have.
 
TaimuRadiu said:
Go Beta or go home.


If I'm going to watch old school anime, I'd kind of need to have a Laserdisc player output to a Video Toaster with the subtitles genlocked onto a Beta tape.

Also I'd love to have a MUSE HD Laserdisc setup, but apparently it requires a certain kind of decoder setup that, for most people, would only be viable if we went back in time to 90s Japan and bought it. And that includes the cost of building and developing the time machine. Techmoan has a couple of interesting videos on the subject.



There's a bunch of old school tech I'd love to have but Herr TaimuRadiu won't let me have.
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Yeah, some of the most amazing Japanese tech is neigh impossible to find. It's possible to hunt some stuff down if you lived there and practically camped out at all the Hard-Offs, but shipping something as large and heavy as a laserdisc player will thoroughly murder your wallet.
 
It's not really old, but I've kinda wanted to get a butane cell phone charger for a while. They look neat, and that article says it can charge a (2015 era) iPhone 11 times on a single fill. I have no practical use for it, but I like the idea.

But the one in the article was apparently a part of a kickstarter campaign, and their page is MIA, so who knows if it was a scam or not. Still, it's a cool invention.

Butane cell phone charger kraftwerk-internals.jpg




Joe Swanson said:
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One of these in order to have a PowerPC machine to use once in a while but not take up much space when I'm not using it. Plus it looks nice
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Same, but with a Mac Mini. I like the mini's form factor and I'd like a way to run PPC games without having to worry about the CRT monitor eventually giving out.
 
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