In rememberance of....The antiquated hardware/software reminiscence thread

[Josh]

This thread is dedicated to that old piece of hardware or software that despite being problematic, a pain in your rear, and just plain buggy, was probably your most cherished friend

For me, I will always remember...

The Voodoo2 Card

[scancode]

I'll have to say... the turbo switch and the hardware keyboard lock.

[Josh]

Turbo! Go from 4.4mhz to 11mhz with the push of a button!

[app103]

I'll have to say... the turbo switch and the hardware keyboard lock. (see attachment in previous post)

Yes! I used to have a keyboard with a turbo key, and turbo+F11 was awesome! Locked the keyboard so you could do a good job cleaning it without shutting the computer down.

I also miss McAfee Office 2000, but only for 2 things: Crash Protector and Nuts & Bolts.

Crash Protector added an extra button to the poor excuse of a "task manager" in Win98: a "reactivate" button to kick a not responding program back from the dead so you can save your work and exit nicely.

Nuts & Bolts had the best defragger I have ever used. It was lightning fast and quite thorough, unless you chose the option to 0 the free space, which then it was just thorough. I really wish they would have continued the development of that. I really miss it.

A couple more things I miss:

Crystalport browser: that was the power users browser, with tabs and popup blocker, long before other browsers had them. And it had a few unique features I haven't seen in any other browser yet, like channels, which created subtabs to a main tab, that could load all the bookmarks of a particular category under a single tab. And AppCapture, which allowed you to run any Windows application in a tab.

Big Fix, back in the days when Tucows was THE place to get software. It was as close as you would ever get to a package manager for Windows, watching your OS and installed software, comparing your installed patches to what Microsoft had available and letting you know immediately when anything new was released, with a much better explanation of what the patch was for than Microsoft supplied to end users. It also made sure your antivirus was always up to date, back in the days when you had to manually download and update the dat files, yourself. And if a newer version of any of your installed software popped up on the Tucows site, you were immediately informed about it and could download & install it through the Big Fix application. You could even browse the Tucows site through it and select more software to install, while you were waiting for the huge update files from Microsoft to download on your dialup connection. If your PC manufacturer had a contract with the Big Fix company, you even got driver updates. It also reminded you to do things like defrag, clean out your temp folder, scan for viruses, and even made some suggestions for settings changes to make your pc a little more secure, like not hiding files and folders, and known file extensions, and opening certain file types in notepad by default (.js and .vbs). And all of this in a freeware app!

[skwire]

This thread is dedicated to that old piece of hardware or software that despite being problematic, a pain in your rear, and just plain buggy, was probably your most cherished friend

For me, I will always remember...

The Voodoo2 Card

I still have my Voodoo2 cards in my parts bins (I ran an SLI setup back in the day). 

[Crush]

I still have my old Voodoo 1 here I bought for MDK 1 and UltraHLE  

A really cool thing was my Video Backup-System that made it possible to save Gigabytes to video-tapes at a time where you only could buy harddiscs with only a few megabytes. Technical infos are here.
[attachthumb=#1][attachthumb=#2][attachthumb=#3]
Later this job was done by a more flexible Zip-Drive [attachthumb=#4]

[Darwin]

Ah the Zip drive... I still have a perfectly functioning drive with about ten 100 and 250 MB disks. I bought the drive because I got fed up of CD-RWs flaking out on me. It's funny now - the media was so expensive relative to its capacity (especially when compared with CD-R/W's) and it was so quickly superseded, first by external 2.5" USB harddrives and then by USB thumbdrives. At the time (2000), I thought they were to coolest thing, though.

[tomos]

Ah the Zip drive... I still have a perfectly functioning drive with about ten 100 and 250 MB disks. I bought the drive because I got fed up of CD-RWs flaking out on me. It's funny now - the media was so expensive relative to its capacity (especially when compared with CD-R/W's) and it was so quickly superseded, first by external 2.5" USB harddrives and then by USB thumbdrives. At the time (2000), I thought they were to coolest thing, though.

Ah, I thought I'd have nothing to contribute here having only started using PC's in 1999, but I had zip drives
- first a real blocky one - there were only 100MB disks then (that's all I had anyways) - I'm sure it wasnt able to read the 250MB disk when they came out, so I got that one showing in Crush's pic.

I loved the sound they made as you ejected them !

[zridling]

HP Laserjet 4. Paid $1400 for it in 1993(?) [can't remember]. Kept it more than 14 years. It weighed a short ton, but got me through two graduate degrees! Replaced it with a $30 inkjet.

[attach]

[40hz]

Borlands's Sidekick (and later on Sidekick Plus) The Granddaddy of all TSR applications. Combined with an AST Rampage! card and you were one smokin' cool Power User.

Faked multitasking from back in the days of DOS. "When men were real men; women were real women; and those little fuzzy creatures from Sirius were real little fuzzy creatures from Sirius."

[attach]

[mouser]

The computers i cut my teeth on, fond memories of them all (stock images):


cromemco z-2d (no graphics, cp/m based)


trs-80 (saved files to cassette player)


radio shack color computer (chicklet keyboard, color graphics!!)


the original ibm pc -- pre-ordered and picked up at computerworld(?) on release day; a joy.

[cranioscopical]

I really tried to like this one.
Sharp manufactured the Newton for Apple.
This variant, marketed under the Sharp name, struck me as a better design.
It had a hard lid that hinged shut to cover the screen.
Roughly the size and weight of a hefty paper-back book.
It could recognize cursive writing (not well enough).
Mine ran through batteries faster than I could buy them 4 x AA (or was it AAA?)
Rechargeable batteries weren't much good in those days.
Must have been in the first half of the '90's.
I was sorely disappointed when work on these was abandoned. I had hoped that the next generation would reveal some real winners.

[attach]

[4wd]

A really cool thing was my Video Backup-System that made it possible to save Gigabytes to video-tapes at a time where you only could buy harddiscs with only a few megabytes.

Oh yes!  A must-have order I gave my wife when she went to the UK in 1993, "Go to the manufacturer and buy this gizmo thanks!"

It got replaced with a HP 5.25" SCSI DAT unit that a mate got for nothing - a LOT faster.

[Innuendo]

Software: QEMM386 & DesqView! QEMM provided the memory management for my DOS games & DesqView provided the multi-tasking for my DOS apps.

Hardware: I cringe when I see people referring to the HP LJ4 as antiquated. I have an HP LaserJet 5, which is a slightly updated hardware version of the LJ4, which I bought off of eBay a couple years ago that had only had 2,500 pages printed on it. Patiently watching eBay like a hawk netted me the RAM to max out the printer, the PostScript chip, the 250 page extra paper tray, the duplexer, *and* the 10/100 managed network card with a built-in web server to control the printer! And I got all of these items for a pittance.

What did it all get me? It got me a printer that's built better than any printer made today, full controls on the printer with an LED screen, network & PostScript capable, and the toner cartridges are dirt cheap price-per-page compared to modern printers.

Another priceless bonus: no-nonsense full-featured drivers that just work without all the goofy upselling modern printer drivers do trying to get you to buy consumables and accessories.

No, I'll be keeping my LaserJet 5 MP printer till they quit making toner cartridges for it.

(Though for color and printing on CDs/DVDs I do have a nice Epson, but it's hardly used as I mostly print text.)

[rjbull]

Software: QEMM386 & DesqView! QEMM provided the memory management for my DOS games & DesqView provided the multi-tasking for my DOS apps.

+1

Patiently watching eBay like a hawk netted me the RAM to max out the printer

Didn't you set up some saved searches?

[AndyM]

I still use a DOS phonelist/dialer (HotLine), and run SuperKey with the same key definitions I was using in the 80's.


[attach]

[Carol Haynes]

Borlands's Sidekick (and later on Sidekick Plus) The Granddaddy of all TSR applications. Combined with an AST Rampage! card and you were one smokin' cool Power User.

WOw - great thread.

I had completely forgotten about Sidekick (and SK+) - they were awesome in their day.

[ljbirns]

My first ' portable " computer.  The Radio Shack TRS 80 Pocket Computer   ( about  1981)

[40hz]

All those great old computer magazines:

Byte

[attachthumb=#]  [attachthumb=#]  [attachthumb=#]

Probably the finest general computer technology magazine ever published. And still sadly missed by many of us who are old enough to remember it.


Transactor  

[attachthumb=#]

This was a personal favorite of mine. The bible of the Commodore 64 crowd. I used to pore over this mag from cover to cover way back when.

There's an online partial archive of back issues at the following link. Check it out if you're a C64 fan. Maybe even give it a skim if you're not..

http://cbm.csbruce.com/~csbruce/cbm/transactor/


Kilobaud Microcomputing

[attachthumb=#]

Another classic that deserved better.

[mouser]

40hz, you forgot a few, Creative Computing was one of my favorites, although we also LOVED Byte, and DrDobbs.



Check out the Classic Computer Magazine Archive.

[40hz]

Creative Computing was amazing. I remember an article that had a program which could be used as a framework for generating the code for standalone business programs. That was the first time I had ever seen a "template driven application generator" as they later came to be called. Those were eventually replaced by today's more flexible frameworks, but back then appgens were bleeding edge.

And to think they were doing stuff like this on floppies and 64K of RAM.


Addendum:

But I'm surprised you didn't mention 80Microcomputing seeing as you were a fellow  "Trash-80" user from way back.

My sister started her business with a dual floppy TRS-80 Model III (later upgraded with an "amber" monitor and LDOS), Visicalc, Super Scripsit (WP), plus the TRS-80 accounting suite. (And also a copy of Zork if memory serves.  )

This was the TRS-80 crowd's answer to Transactor:

[attachthumb=#] [attachthumb=#]

[Innuendo]

Didn't you set up some saved searches?

No, there was no way to set up saved searches when I was buying this stuff. I forgot to mention in my original post that the duplexer, extra paper tray, and the network card were all brand-new in never-opened boxes when I bought them. Nearly bought the letter feeder at the time, but common sense prevailed at the last minute as I'd have had no use for that. 

[f0dder]

Nuts & Bolts had the best defragger I have ever used. It was lightning fast and quite thorough, unless you chose the option to 0 the free space, which then it was just thorough. I really wish they would have continued the development of that. I really miss it.

Amen to that! - it did some pretty hefty pre-planning, which enabled it to be very smart about how it moved data around... it defragged properly, and it did it fast. Dunno if it's possible to do it this well today; will probably require an offline filesystem defrag at any rate.

Faked multitasking from back in the days of DOS. "When men were real men; women were real women; and those little fuzzy creatures from Sirius were real little fuzzy creatures from Sirius."

...and 16-year-old girls weren't FBI agents.

A couple of my favorite old pieces of hardware have to be the Commodore C=64:

This is where I whetted my teth on Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken, Commando, Last Ninja and whatnot. From the times where I didn't even know you could buy games, since none of the stores around where I lived had any.

And the Commodore Amiga 600:

Which was a real gaming beast, with great graphics and sound. Cannon Fodder, Gods, superfrog, prince of persia, persian gulf inferno , Another World (aka. Out Of This World), flashback, Hunter and a LOT more. Lots of fond memories!

[40hz]

...and 16-year-old girls weren't FBI agents.

ROFLMAO!

[Edvard]

"Memory, turn your face to the moonlight..."

For me, the fondest memories are of the Beagle Bros.

Top quality software,



Programming tips right there in the advertisements,



Foolproof disk care advice,



and that inimitable programming humor.



Aw, crap. Now I gotta go download an Apple ][ emulator...  

Images courtesy of the Beagle Bros Online Museum and the Beagle Bros Software Repository.