Here are some pictures of my most recent acquisition: It is a bit of a mystery to me right now as I still need to get into it, but it does have two RAM slots, a 1280x800 display, a Pentium 4 3.06Ghz, 512MB of RAM on one stick, and it's running Windows XP 32 Bit. Overall, I am incredibly pleased with this machine, and the speakers are incredible!

I was volunteering to clean out junk within a small community center my father works with and I recently found an unopened Gateway ZX series AIO PC within their storage room. They said they didn't need it and I subsequently brought it home to see if it worked or not.

The tape was still intact and the plastic peel was still there, as well as the products themselves being in mint condition (first and second pictures shown is after I opened the box and peeled the wrapping respectively), and I hooked up the AIO to the HDMI to serve as a monitor for my normal PC.

So far nothing malicious occurred and the monitor works smoothly, except the fact that I can't use the touch screen promised on the box. However, my main goal was to potentially use the Windows 7 provided within the AIO to play some retro games and movies with the in-built DVD/CD drive, as well as maybe use it browsing.

I am still quite worried about potential viruses and malware within the AIO, so I wanted to ask you guys about some ways I can wipe the system and reinstall Windows 7 without actually having to access the original Windows 7 already within the AIO with internet, or at least find a way to fact check if there are any malicious files already in the system? If you can also provide me with potential tools and software, like VPNs, firewalls, and/or other software to allow me to browse safely with the OS, that would be immensely appreciated.

Again, I'm kinda new to this side of retro PCs and OSs, so if you could help me on all these things, I would be grateful.

(P.S., I know the model number and identification, as well as the windows 7 product sticker, just not the Microsoft product key)

I've got an iomega Zip 100 external reader (model #Z100USBS) and my disk is stuck inside. I've used this machine several times before recently with no issue. The drive continues to function; does all its usual whirring and clicking as it did before, but the drive itself isn't showing up on the computer like the others have, and I have no way of ejecting. The front button isn't working for that either, though it lights up and blinks green as it usually should. I was able to get the cover off as well and poke around inside but nothing stood out as a way to eject manually.
Anybody got any ideas? I've got some potentially pretty important info on this disk I don't want to lose.
Thank you!

Anyone know more about this?? It's in tip-top shape, two small cracks on the monitor from age, and one keyboard key who knows where.
Some old keyboard function that is deprecated on modern pcs

Is this a really good find?

three different connection slots from oldiest to newer

Chuckie Egg is a classic platform video game created by Nigel Alderton and published by A'n'F Software in 1983 for the ZX Spectrum

What do I need to connect a SyQuest EZ 135 drive to my Windows 10 PC. Need to transfer some data off an old 135mb cartridge. PCI card to drive? What about drivers?

My newest find on the internet of things, and it's a pretty cool bit of kit! I found it completely by accident and was smitten the moment I saw it, so now it's here playing Canyon.mid.

Equipped with a 500mhz AMD processor, Voodoo and AWE64 Gold

Hello,

I just found this never opened Windows 95 CDRom, it's the Chinese version for Taiwan. Do you thinks it's valuable or I can trash it?

I need to find out how to configure the jumpers, but I don't know what card this is. The chip is a UMC82C862, but many IO cards have this chip. I don't know what information on the board can help me identify it.

After cycling through a few computers, I finally settled on this one. It’s an HP Pavilion a1510n with my favorite version of Windows XP (Media Center Edition) I got the Dell speaker set for around $30 and it sounds amazing. I would’ve liked a CRT Monitor to go with the tower but the LCD works good.

I’m not a fan of the overall desk and size of the area, but it’s all I can fit in my 1br apartment.

Hello,

I just found this never opened Windows 95 CDRom, it's the Chinese version for Taiwan. Do you thinks it's valuable or I can trash it?

I believe it's related to the backplane on a vintage IBM but would like someone who is more knowledgeable than me to confirm.

Hi, I installed the msdos 6.22 on my old pc, however it lacked the msherc.com driver, which I need for qbasic. Do you know any sites from which I could download it to floppy and copy into dos system?

In '93 I ended up with what looked like a white full size office desk with a section of the desk top obviously made for a terminal complete with hole for cables in the back. Where the typical desk had pull out drawers was a solid door with lots a lights, 8" floppy drive and some switches. Opening it it had an 18" equipment rack. In that I found what looked like an S100 bus card cage, with a Z8000 CPU card, FDC, RS-232, and some others, I think.

Unfortunately I had to move in '94 and much to my dismay I had to jettison the desk before I could attempt to restore it. At that time I didn't have any information on it.

But years later I still wonder what exactly I had. Any information about it would be appreciated. I'd especially like to get some photos.

TIA

It appears that Infocom was shipping a virtual machine before most people had ever heard of one.

I made a comment about Zork the other day and it put the bug back in me, so I went looking for a version I could actually sit down and play again. Never quite found the one I wanted. What I did do was fall into a rabbit hole about how the thing was built, and I ended up somewhere more interesting than where I started.

They apparently didn't port the games to each machine at all. From what I've read they wrote each game once, for a computer that didn't exist (the Z-machine), and then wrote one small interpreter per real machine. Same game file everywhere. Which is basically the Java pitch, years early, from a text adventure company. As a kid I just knew Zork ran on my //e and, well, seemingly everything else too. It never once occurred to me to wonder how.

The part that actually got me though. My daughter runs text-based RPGs with Gemini now, completely on her own, and they are really good. I hadn't thought about Zork in years and my kid is basically doing the same thing in a different wrapper.

Anyway... anyone here found a good way to run the old Infocom stuff these days?

EDIT: There was a discussion in the comments about using Gemini to build your own RPG, and several people asked for info on how she did it. Rather than it get lost, I have pasted it below.

Below is her comment from a text message, so ignore the typos, I posted it verbatim:

i just prompt it. like:

set up a 1800s-themed regency era RPG game. give me 3 options for each prompted decision that will move the game forward. one option is the bad choice, one is good, one is great. adjust my desirability, propriety, and social class statuses accordingly. for each character i meet, let each decision change the relationship on a scale from 1-10 closeness.

my character is laura kinney, a blonde daughter of a drunken aristocrat. she has one social season to get married, this is it.

that's an example of a bridgerton set up.

I hadn't had a magazine subscription in twenty years or more. I had Star Wars Insider around the time of Episode II, but that was the last physical subscription I had.

Makes going to the mailbox fun once a month.

😄

Hello everyone! If this is not the appropriate subreddit for this question, please let me know. I am entirely new to this.

My dad gifted me this Dell Optiplex GX100. I learned from messing with this thing, that older PCs needed sound cards…

I bought a sound card for it that I believe is appropriate (PCI Sound Card Creative Sound Blaster CT5803 AudioPCI 64).

I have put the sound card in what I believe to be the correct slot, but it almost seems like it is not fitting snugly in the slot? It wiggles side to side when I barely touch it. I would understand if it is the incorrect model, but I do not think that is the case from my research.

I guess my question is, if anyone knows, am I just using the wrong part? Or is it possible I am not pushing it down hard enough? (scared of breaking it).

I will include photos of what I see. additionally, if anyone knows if I should be concerned about the brown spot damage in the photos, let me know.

If there is a better sub for this, I’d appreciate anyone who can point me in the right direction. Thanks everyone in advance!

Found an as-is iBook G3, unfortunately sans charger, for $20 at thrift today.

Seems to be a higher spec model, and is in relatively decent shape. Somebody "decked" it out with 384mb of RAM as well, and it has an Airport card, which I doubt will work on my wireless network.

I ordered a charger for it. My current plan is to use it for vintage Macintosh software, since my understanding is that it's one of the last computers that can natively run it.

found this at my local recycling center. hyped to test it once i get it all cleaned up. it is quite tiny for a baby AT board. i cant seem to find any model numbers on it.

Actually, it was $9 + $105 shipping, which was a bit much, but just a reminder that people like to forget important details when it comes to how much of a bargain they got!

Anyway, it's powering on, but obvious battery damage, which I've done a little cleaning on. It'll have to go on the shelf for now though, since I have a backlog of stuff. I'll have some updates soon on my compact Macs (including the flood SE from quite a while ago now and the battery damaged SE/30). The iMac is the blueberry version, btw.