ChrisR3tro

ChrisR3tro, 2 months ago to retrocomputing

My newest tool for MS-DOS is here. Ever wanted to know which programs/drivers are loaded in memory or even scan for a specific one and take action based on that in your batch scripts? Well now you can, with MCBscan!

Source code will be released soon.
#retrocomputing #coding

ordnung, 3 months ago to random German

And we've updated chaos.social to mastodon v4.2.7 #mastodadmin

root42, 4 months ago to random

Boy, the final battle in Wario Land 2 drives me nuts. The first two hits are okay but catching the bombs, evading the flames AND timing the throw before the bomb explodes is really crazy… rest of the game was pretty much a walk in the park…

ChrisR3tro, 4 months ago to random

Never seen this before (at least on early 90s era PC mainboards) - a BIOS ROM chip that is soldered into the PCB, meaning no socket. Managed to get it out, but yeah, super cheap.

Why would I bother? Well, sometimes I like to feel like an archivist. As a result this board on "The Retro Web" now has a BIOS file: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/shuttle-hot-403h#bios

ChrisR3tro, 5 months ago to retrocomputing

Got a new toy to play around with - a 386/486 mainboard from Jetway, which should support a 386 CPU together with VLB graphics cards. 🚀

But first, there's some repairing to do, as one of those dreaded Varta bombs wreaked havoc on the PCB. Already removed some components. Also some traces have been eaten away, those need to be bridged.

#retrocomputing #RepairReuseRecycle

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ChrisR3tro, 5 months ago to retrogaming

Just my entire collection of VESA Local Bus graphics cards from the '90s. Currently asking myself, if I should run benchmarks on all of them. 🤔

#retrogaming #retrocomputing

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ChrisR3tro, 6 months ago to random

Anyone remember this screen? Great example for terrible UX design by Microsoft. To install a driver you need to select the right one from the list. Fair enough, BUT if there are more than 4 drivers to choose from, the list starts to scroll, for which there is no visual indication given.

However, the best thing is yet to come: You need to scroll UP to see the others, as the last item is the default selection when the screen pops up! 🤣

ChrisR3tro, 7 months ago to retrocomputing

This retro graphics card from german manufacturer míro had two defective so-called "ferrite beads" near the VGA connector, so that only the blue channel made it to the display.

It's actually my second míro card exhibiting this defect, but the FBs could easily be replaced with new ones. Be sure to check the inductivity value. I needed ones with 0.15 µH. Fixed! ✨

#retrocomputing

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ChrisR3tro, 11 months ago to random

This is probably the earliest graphics card based on a chipset by ATi Technologies in my collection now. In case you didn't know: They were taken over by AMD in 2006. The card supports VGA modes and can be upgraded to a whopping 1 mb of video memory! 🔥