I really like these trash to treasure videos you're doing. It's similar to some of the videos from the 8-bit guy, but you've put a different spin on the story you tell, which is nice.
This series really took me back in time to my 386. Thank you so much for taking the time to share it. I've been mugged down memory lane now and am a little sad my old Pc's have long since met their council dump end. Thanks again and keep up the good work. Also, great choice in music, cheers for that :)
Awesome video series. As a fan of restoration videos, I was impressed with the quality, editing, thoroughness... And great music at the end! Definitely gonna follow you around!
I enjoyed this series. The 486 era was a fun time in PC computing. Dune II, Comanche, Need for Speed, Falcon 3.0, Doom, and so many other great games. Npt to mention that this is when multitasking, networking, and the beginning of Internet all happened. Thanks for your videos.
Man, what a great build! So many memories of playing these games on my Gateway 2000 486-DX2-66 back in the day! I really wish I had kept that old machine... But, of course, when I got rid of it, it was just an old used-up 486 that no one wanted. Who'd have thought that retro-gaming would ever be a thing in the future.
The first computer I purchased with my own money was an IPC ValueMagic 486DX4/100 Those Decals at the Expansion Ports were factory. There were also extra Drive Rails inside the Case, Taped to the bottom. It had a KTX 15" Monitor. I made a Custom Cyan Decal for the Monitor to match the Cyan highlights on the Keyboard and Power Switch.
I think you need to add a 5.25" floppy drive in that unused drive bay... or something - even if it's a drive bay storage drawer - maybe a removable drive bay or card readers... but unpopulated with that blank plastic plate - It feels like you haven't quite taken it to the max.
Really great build series, and an awesome presentation at the end there. You've turned me onto The British IBM now. Been listening to their album on Soundcloud. Great stuff.
Absolutely incredible, slightly envious too reminds me of the times I have had with 386/486 systems and wished I had kept hold of them. Keep the videos coming, theyre amazing
Wow, what a blast from the past!... back sometime during 1990~1995 I was in my 2nd job rolling these IPC Valuemagic PCs out to a few hundred users, I affectionately called them the "Smurf computers" owing to the giant OTT Smurf-coloured power button prominent on the top front left of the machine... they were ridiculous, but you never ever had a problem telling users where it was... visually impaired people could even see it! Thanks very much for doing such a nice restoration, brings back memories of a simpler time.
I've just thought of the game I really want to play after seeing this video - Aces Over Europe! I spent many hours playing that, and spent what was an absolute fortune on a joystick to play it - a CH Flightstick Pro, which cost me £89 back then! Thanks RetroManCave, for a brilliant series.
That looks amazing! I love the Trash to Treasure videos! I only wish I could get a job restoring and refurbishing old PCs and micros, but where I'm from it's still a VERY niche thing I guess. Couple that with modern PCs being comparably one-and-done units no one wants to repair because they can just replace with something new, which according to the manufacturers is "better," and you have what's pretty much the saddest state of technology I've ever seen. Oh, well! At least someone is keeping these traditions alive! VIVA LA 486!!!!!!!
Loved the 5 parts of this video. In the early 90s I had a PC but no way could I afford the upgrades .so took me much longer to get CD drive and my first voodoo 2 card. Brought back some great memories though Neil and that's what lots of your videos do. Keep them coming
+Shmeh Fleh hehe its in the Cotswolds. It's a basement flat so really is a cave I live in. I see you've worked your way through the series, hope you enjoyed it
What a brilliant result ! You might also try using oil (I prefer olive oil) for carefully removing sticker residue. Dab some onto a cloth and keep rubbing the sticky residue until it is gone, adding more oil as and if needed. Then clean up as you would normally.
Hang on a minute - that’s the Abbey. I’ve been enjoying your videos while living 5 minutes away from the cave! One day I’ll get back to Retro collecting
Freaking awesome set of restore videos! They definitely brought me back. Aaaah the possibilities of all those ISA slots. What can I upgrade next? What can I put in there to make my computer do something completely different? The magic of the possibilities was what drew me to computers in the first place in the early 80's... And the magic of all those slots waiting to be populated with *something* is probably why my most recent build is still with a full sized ATX board.. I just can't give up the expansion possibilities ;-)
A lot of these older machines being yellowed aren't just from sun light, but from office buildings using florescent lights. TL:DR - Keep your old stuff away from the sun AND florescent lights (tubes and the CFL's in your lamps). Florescent lights emit UV light. The white coating on the tube is phosphorescent. When the gas inside the tube becomes energized, it emits UV light; the coating absorbs most of the UV light and gives off visible light as a byproduct. It's not much UV, as the coating blocks/absorbs most of it, but a small amount does seep through. The yellowing in these plastics is cumulative, so over a long enough period, a noticeable yellowing will occur.
Glad to be here! will be looking out for interesting kit to donate to the channel! Your restorations are excellent, the Amiga 500 (I had one too!) looks box fresh after your hard work. Your retrobrighting technique is probably the best I've ever seen. The Roland SoundCanvas is an excellent bit of kit, I have a Roland MT-32 somewhere (possibly in the attic), if I find it, I'd be happy to donate it, if I do find it, it's yours.
Major Mo an MT32 has been on my wish list for years, if that's something you want to donate it would find itself in a very good home and would make for a very happy RetroManCave :D You can contact me on retromancave at gmail dot com - Look forward to hearing from you
Ryan Korniloff that's very kind thank you. I'm always trying to improve the channel and it has certainly grown in the last 8 months. These things take time I guess
I loved this series! nice computer, I loved it, I think I liked this one a lot more than the amiga series because I never had an amiga so I don't have nostalgia or any attachment to it, it's like "a different universe" for me, but I've been on PC since the XT days and for me this was the golden era, I miss those times, so this brings back memories and nostalgia. lots of warm fuzzy feelings hahaha.
Awesome stuff! How could I go this long without knowing about your channel? ^^ I saw that you were following me on twitter, so I checked your channel out. I was very pleasantly surprised indeed =)
R. F. R. Hey thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed it. My channel is old but I only really started making content recently...on to the next project now
Just stumbled on your channel after your A500 trash to treasure vid hit my recommended and I came over all nostalgic. The 3rd PC i built when i was in my late teens was the 486 Dx2 so this series got my attention and you didn't disappoint with the final spec, what a dream that would have been back in the day. That final montage just left me sat with a dumb smile and old memories of an easier life where all the earnings when into tech and beer! Been planning a winter project of a pc and server built in a desk but i think a trip to my parents attic and a bigger desk might be in order!! Keep up the good work and thanks for the inspiration
You are correct! A slip of the tongue well spotted. Incidentally my local charity shop has now got a PAT unit and are now selling electricals. I'm keeping an eye out for bargains
Sorry to be late to the party, but the VLB I/O card does have a pin header for the HDD activity LED. As seen in the original dumpsrer find video at 3:22, it’s J1 at the top left of the card. Just connect to pins 1 and 2 of the 4-pin header.
Steven Schulz interesting thanks Steven. I'm firing her up this week to play some games so I'll take a look, although we did find a solution in the end for this series using the card reader. Thanks for watching.
Did you not need to run a cable from the CD-ROM drive to the sound card? I thought that was pretty much standard for PCs from the era. That said, I'm insanely jealous of your build. Especially your sound setup. Great work, and thanks for sharing your restoration process!
+Sean Daugherty yes indeed that was needed for the CD audio. I mention it in ep3 I think (the audio one) and then fail to show it being added for the finale. If I had a prize for observation you'd win it :) It's a lovely machine to revisit old memories on. Thanks for watching the series
i remember these 486's we were running windows 3.1 were I work ..i cant believe that we were still using this until 2003 .. then after that they updated to windows 98 that ran so slow on a 486 with 4 mgb ram ..... those were the days
Awesome job! I hope to get my hands on a similar system. It would sit so nice next to my amiga 1200, C128 and MSX2 on my retro computer desk. One day... one day! You sir, have a new subscriber! Greetings from Belgium :)
I noticed you are using baking POWDER. this is not the same as baking soda (bicarbonate of soda), you would be better off using full soda as baking powder is only part soda and contains other things. Buy bicarb in bulk from Amazon or somewhere much cheaper than the tiny pots we get in British supermarkets.
It was when this video was made, I've since moved, but yes it was in a basement flat opposite a church yard, so I was on the same below ground level as the graves!
A couple of suggestions for anyone looking to do the same. Firstly you can get IDE to SD card adaptors which could be a good alternative for the CF adaptor used here as the CF media is getting a bit hard to find. Seconly the Roland Soundcanvas external unit is great but rare and expensive. Sound cards of this era often have a wavetable connector onboard that you can use to fit a daughter-board that does the same job, just neater since you don't need the midi cables, etc. Also you can get hold of these daugher-boards in the form of the Dreamblaster S1 www.serdashop.com/waveblaster. The Roland GS sounfont that you get access to from one of these boards will give you the best quality midi music playback possible for most computer games of the era. Check out Doom and Tie Fighter comparisons to hear the real difference in quality between wavetable types. Finally, and most importantly, the power supplies of older computers often lack the voltage protection that modern power supplies have to save connected components if the PSU blows. If you can, best practace is to replace the original PSU with a modern one. If not you had better get that old PSU serviced by someone who knows what they are doing as those things often have capacitors that will die from old age and they can store electricity for a considerable amount of time after they are unplugged.
Hey thanks for taking the time to give some valuable input and tips, all really useful and good points. RE the daughterboard connector on the sound card I mention this in the episode where we deal with the audio. The card used supports a daughter board which as you mention is a good alternative. There are also some great moves being made in emulation of these old Sound Canvases with integration in SCUMMVM etc which sounds great. I wouldn't be surprised if we have a Raspberry Pi SC setup before long to give us further alternatives. Thanks again.
Great series. It makes me want to go look for an old 486 DX4 100 or an AMD 5x86-133. Curious, did you do anything with the RAM or Cache? I'd end up wanting to max it out as much as possible.
Wow looks amazing. I love these series you do and such great production values. Keep up the good work !!! P.s. would be interested to know the total cost of the system if built back in the day - minus the 2005 CD drive. ..
Beautifully done. Sadly much of what you've done already sucked away enough of my life to revisit. Thankfully you have, saving me from attempting for nostalgic reasons. Well done! Huzzah!
Gonna be on the lookout for an old machine too now. I have a feeling you're from the same area of the UK I am before I moved to the US. Did you ever read any of the PC mags back in the 90s?
Railz28 Sure did before the PC I read ST/Amiga Format, Amstrad Action etc, PC was probably PC Zone, PC Format, a few like that with the odd PC Pro thrown in. Mags are in a sad state these days.
That game is "4D Sports Driving" ABKA "Stunts". Check it out on www.mobygames.com/game/stunts and also check the related links section on that page. One of the best racing games ever, a mix of a simulation and arcade driving phyics. I wouldn't play it on a 486 though, in my experience the game becomes better controllable the faster the machine is, the best might even be playing it in DOSBox on current hardware.
Nice Job! I loved the inclusion of an mpeg decoder board. I forgot those had dos support early on. I didn't have one until my first DVD drive years later (that was mpeg-2). The only two things I would change would be having the compact flash adapter in one of the front bays (like the StarTech 35BAYCF2IDE though you would have to repaint it) and using dos 7.1 for the fat32 support. The only downside to that is the patches it needs to get win 3.1 working. Only one question, did you crack the psu open?
Thanks, those are some nice suggestions. I'm happy with 2 partitions but any bigger a SD card and FAT32 would be nicer. I didn't open the PSU but again it's a good suggestion just to check the caps out at some point.
What a charming machine this turned out to be, and a great set of videos.
+Lazy Game Reviews Thanks Clint, I can't help but hear you say Charming in an English accent 🖒
I really like these trash to treasure videos you're doing. It's similar to some of the videos from the 8-bit guy, but you've put a different spin on the story you tell, which is nice.
Joseph Lawhorne thanks for watching I'm glad you enjoy them
I also found this channel via LGR and Im so glad I did! Might be up in my top 5 channels ^^
Utterly brilliant.....mmmmmm
This series really took me back in time to my 386. Thank you so much for taking the time to share it. I've been mugged down memory lane now and am a little sad my old Pc's have long since met their council dump end. Thanks again and keep up the good work.
Also, great choice in music, cheers for that :)
RMC thank you for this amazing series of videos and for turning me on to The British IBM...what great sound.
Awesome video series. As a fan of restoration videos, I was impressed with the quality, editing, thoroughness... And great music at the end!
Definitely gonna follow you around!
Jérémie Faucher-Goulet --- Stalker ;)
Liofa Now that's a great idea ;-)
Great build! And also,what a great song in the ending montage! I've never heard of British IBM before today, but thank you for sharing.
I just found your channel an hour or so ago, watched the whole of this series, the end result was outstanding, great work :)
5:50 "Two sturdy screws on one side is more than enough to hold it insecurely." Uh...
Oh... "to hold it in securely." :-D
Anonymous Freak It really does sound like that! Live dangerously and screw your CDROM in insecurely like me
The final montage was just glorious!
Thank you! I had to sacrifice any revenue on this one to include that song but I think it was worth it!
I enjoyed this series. The 486 era was a fun time in PC computing. Dune II, Comanche, Need for Speed, Falcon 3.0, Doom, and so many other great games. Npt to mention that this is when multitasking, networking, and the beginning of Internet all happened. Thanks for your videos.
Man, what a great build! So many memories of playing these games on my Gateway 2000 486-DX2-66 back in the day! I really wish I had kept that old machine... But, of course, when I got rid of it, it was just an old used-up 486 that no one wanted. Who'd have thought that retro-gaming would ever be a thing in the future.
The first computer I purchased with my own money was an IPC ValueMagic 486DX4/100
Those Decals at the Expansion Ports were factory. There were also extra Drive Rails inside the Case, Taped to the bottom. It had a KTX 15" Monitor. I made a Custom Cyan Decal for the Monitor to match the Cyan highlights on the Keyboard and Power Switch.
I won't comment on the (excellent) job here, but, man, what an excellent choice of music :)
So glad this channel is blowing up. Really enjoying these videos.
Best 486 ive seen restored. Wonderfull brings back all the memorys of when i moved from the c64 to a 486dx66
I think you need to add a 5.25" floppy drive in that unused drive bay... or something - even if it's a drive bay storage drawer - maybe a removable drive bay or card readers... but unpopulated with that blank plastic plate - It feels like you haven't quite taken it to the max.
Really great build series, and an awesome presentation at the end there. You've turned me onto The British IBM now. Been listening to their album on Soundcloud. Great stuff.
Absolutely incredible, slightly envious too reminds me of the times I have had with 386/486 systems and wished I had kept hold of them. Keep the videos coming, theyre amazing
Wow, what a blast from the past!... back sometime during 1990~1995 I was in my 2nd job rolling these IPC Valuemagic PCs out to a few hundred users, I affectionately called them the "Smurf computers" owing to the giant OTT Smurf-coloured power button prominent on the top front left of the machine... they were ridiculous, but you never ever had a problem telling users where it was... visually impaired people could even see it! Thanks very much for doing such a nice restoration, brings back memories of a simpler time.
loved this i havent been able to get hold of a 486 without forking over 300 pounds so ive love watching you restore yours
Looked like Cambridge perhaps? Not sure anyway lovely video - great journey and enjoyed you taking us with you on it.
I've just thought of the game I really want to play after seeing this video - Aces Over Europe! I spent many hours playing that, and spent what was an absolute fortune on a joystick to play it - a CH Flightstick Pro, which cost me £89 back then! Thanks RetroManCave, for a brilliant series.
I was quite amazed at what you did with that old machine, i remember using the 286 and the 486 at college in the early 90's 👍
That looks amazing! I love the Trash to Treasure videos! I only wish I could get a job restoring and refurbishing old PCs and micros, but where I'm from it's still a VERY niche thing I guess. Couple that with modern PCs being comparably one-and-done units no one wants to repair because they can just replace with something new, which according to the manufacturers is "better," and you have what's pretty much the saddest state of technology I've ever seen. Oh, well! At least someone is keeping these traditions alive! VIVA LA 486!!!!!!!
Loved the 5 parts of this video. In the early 90s I had a PC but no way could I afford the upgrades .so took me much longer to get CD drive and my first voodoo 2 card. Brought back some great memories though Neil and that's what lots of your videos do. Keep them coming
Boy you really aren't kidding about the cave part! Where the heck do you live, man? Warwick Castle?
+Shmeh Fleh hehe its in the Cotswolds. It's a basement flat so really is a cave I live in. I see you've worked your way through the series, hope you enjoyed it
What a brilliant result ! You might also try using oil (I prefer olive oil) for carefully removing sticker residue. Dab some onto a cloth and keep rubbing the sticky residue until it is gone, adding more oil as and if needed. Then clean up as you would normally.
Hang on a minute - that’s the Abbey. I’ve been enjoying your videos while living 5 minutes away from the cave! One day I’ll get back to Retro collecting
Hah yes, I'm based on the high street. Say hi if you see me in the co-op wrestling with a self service checkout
RetroManCave I’ll be next door at the Summer Cafe...
Those IDE to CF adapters are a godsend. No need to worry about a death click from a 20 year old hard drive and it makes putting files on it easy.
What a great series... that box is '90s fantasy. Truly amazing work. Cheers man!
Thanks for watching Hans, glad you enjoyed it
Freaking awesome set of restore videos! They definitely brought me back. Aaaah the possibilities of all those ISA slots. What can I upgrade next? What can I put in there to make my computer do something completely different? The magic of the possibilities was what drew me to computers in the first place in the early 80's... And the magic of all those slots waiting to be populated with *something* is probably why my most recent build is still with a full sized ATX board.. I just can't give up the expansion possibilities ;-)
This guy has serious OCD. I like him already.
Hah thanks, and welcome!
A lot of these older machines being yellowed aren't just from sun light, but from office buildings using florescent lights.
TL:DR - Keep your old stuff away from the sun AND florescent lights (tubes and the CFL's in your lamps).
Florescent lights emit UV light. The white coating on the tube is phosphorescent. When the gas inside the tube becomes energized, it emits UV light; the coating absorbs most of the UV light and gives off visible light as a byproduct. It's not much UV, as the coating blocks/absorbs most of it, but a small amount does seep through. The yellowing in these plastics is cumulative, so over a long enough period, a noticeable yellowing will occur.
Just discovered your channel, absolutely epic restoration! subscribed immediately! Well done sir!
+Major Mo thanks and welcome to the cave!
Glad to be here! will be looking out for interesting kit to donate to the channel! Your restorations are excellent, the Amiga 500 (I had one too!) looks box fresh after your hard work. Your retrobrighting technique is probably the best I've ever seen. The Roland SoundCanvas is an excellent bit of kit, I have a Roland MT-32 somewhere (possibly in the attic), if I find it, I'd be happy to donate it, if I do find it, it's yours.
Major Mo an MT32 has been on my wish list for years, if that's something you want to donate it would find itself in a very good home and would make for a very happy RetroManCave :D You can contact me on retromancave at gmail dot com - Look forward to hearing from you
Just found your channel and nerding out to the restorations vids. 😉😉😉 OMG the RealMagic card brings back memories.
Thank you and welcome to The Cave Jenny!
@@TheRetroCollective I'm loving the Cave. Just finished watching your Amstrad PC restoration. The conversations with Alan Sugar cracked me up. ;)
8 months since its posting, this video has only 18,200+ views. It deserves waaaay more than that.
Ryan Korniloff that's very kind thank you. I'm always trying to improve the channel and it has certainly grown in the last 8 months. These things take time I guess
And grow it will. I'd rank your videos up there with the likes of The 8-Bit Guy and Nostalgia Nerd. Your work is outstanding I enjoy them very much.
I loved this series! nice computer, I loved it, I think I liked this one a lot more than the amiga series because I never had an amiga so I don't have nostalgia or any attachment to it, it's like "a different universe" for me, but I've been on PC since the XT days and for me this was the golden era, I miss those times, so this brings back memories and nostalgia. lots of warm fuzzy feelings hahaha.
Very nice. Liked the restoration work. You're pretty knowledgeable about DOS and old hardware as well.
Thanks, I have a spot spot for DOS and Amigas but like to tinker with all kinds of hardware. Glad you enjoyed it
Just rewatched the entire series. Excellent set of videos.
Thank you sir, it seems like a long time ago since I did this but the machine still gets a lot of use
Awesome stuff! How could I go this long without knowing about your channel? ^^
I saw that you were following me on twitter, so I checked your channel out.
I was very pleasantly surprised indeed =)
R. F. R. Hey thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed it. My channel is old but I only really started making content recently...on to the next project now
Wow, TFX that brings back memories of being a 10 year old kid playing it on a 486!
Many harddrives of the era had the activity led connector on themselves, would allow to have multiple indicators. Nice build!
Your 486 would be great at the original 2 Descent games with the memory and that overdrive.
Just stumbled on your channel after your A500 trash to treasure vid hit my recommended and I came over all nostalgic. The 3rd PC i built when i was in my late teens was the 486 Dx2 so this series got my attention and you didn't disappoint with the final spec, what a dream that would have been back in the day. That final montage just left me sat with a dumb smile and old memories of an easier life where all the earnings when into tech and beer!
Been planning a winter project of a pc and server built in a desk but i think a trip to my parents attic and a bigger desk might be in order!!
Keep up the good work and thanks for the inspiration
PAT stands for Portable Appliance Test, not Personal
You are correct! A slip of the tongue well spotted. Incidentally my local charity shop has now got a PAT unit and are now selling electricals. I'm keeping an eye out for bargains
Sorry to be late to the party, but the VLB I/O card does have a pin header for the HDD activity LED. As seen in the original dumpsrer find video at 3:22, it’s J1 at the top left of the card. Just connect to pins 1 and 2 of the 4-pin header.
Steven Schulz interesting thanks Steven. I'm firing her up this week to play some games so I'll take a look, although we did find a solution in the end for this series using the card reader. Thanks for watching.
Did you not need to run a cable from the CD-ROM drive to the sound card? I thought that was pretty much standard for PCs from the era.
That said, I'm insanely jealous of your build. Especially your sound setup. Great work, and thanks for sharing your restoration process!
+Sean Daugherty yes indeed that was needed for the CD audio. I mention it in ep3 I think (the audio one) and then fail to show it being added for the finale. If I had a prize for observation you'd win it :) It's a lovely machine to revisit old memories on. Thanks for watching the series
Retr0bright works wonders on those old yellow plastics.
lowpinglag Sure does but always be careful I've seen some horrible results from marbling if you don't get it right
i remember these 486's we were running windows 3.1 were I work ..i cant believe that we were still using this until 2003 .. then after that they updated to windows 98 that ran so slow on a 486 with 4 mgb ram ..... those were the days
I thought Windows 98 needed 16mb of ram as a dead minimum, 32mb if you wanted to do anything greater than notepad??
some hardware geek at my work place fixed to work on 4mgb it ran awful
oh! The nostalgia! What a glorious era!
Cool! You have your own graveyard.
Awesome job!
I hope to get my hands on a similar system. It would sit so nice next to my amiga 1200, C128 and MSX2 on my retro computer desk. One day... one day!
You sir, have a new subscriber!
Greetings from Belgium :)
I still watch this over for a rerun as it brings so many memories. Any updates to this project?
I noticed you are using baking POWDER. this is not the same as baking soda (bicarbonate of soda), you would be better off using full soda as baking powder is only part soda and contains other things. Buy bicarb in bulk from Amazon or somewhere much cheaper than the tiny pots we get in British supermarkets.
Saw a video on Computer Chronicals about the Realmagic Card. I only had back in the day the DXR3 with 6X DVD Creative
Great video. i'd recognise that abbey anywhere! I used to deliver drinks to The old bell.
The oldest hotel in the country...apparantly!
Is your retro man cave located by a old church graveyard? Kind of like the old man Dampe from Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask
It was when this video was made, I've since moved, but yes it was in a basement flat opposite a church yard, so I was on the same below ground level as the graves!
Still love the song used at the end of this episode.
I really like your way of speaking. It's easy listening to you :)
Someone needs to sponsor your cave with a 3d printer so you could have printed proper CD mounting rails, other than that, fantastic series!
I'd love a 3D printer. I use a friends in the trs80 series but need to get my own
Great series brings back memories to the 90s , 1 thing did you forget to retro-bright the floppy drive & 5.25" adapter plate??
7:10 whats the name of this song? i really like it.
That's "The British IBM" by "The British IBM"
@@TheRetroCollective Thanks :D
@@TheRetroCollective Wait, this is a reference to Acorn and the making of the BBC micro i think. thats awesome >__
It sure is :D
getting the itch to build one of these!
A couple of suggestions for anyone looking to do the same. Firstly you can get IDE to SD card adaptors which could be a good alternative for the CF adaptor used here as the CF media is getting a bit hard to find. Seconly the Roland Soundcanvas external unit is great but rare and expensive. Sound cards of this era often have a wavetable connector onboard that you can use to fit a daughter-board that does the same job, just neater since you don't need the midi cables, etc. Also you can get hold of these daugher-boards in the form of the Dreamblaster S1 www.serdashop.com/waveblaster. The Roland GS sounfont that you get access to from one of these boards will give you the best quality midi music playback possible for most computer games of the era. Check out Doom and Tie Fighter comparisons to hear the real difference in quality between wavetable types.
Finally, and most importantly, the power supplies of older computers often lack the voltage protection that modern power supplies have to save connected components if the PSU blows. If you can, best practace is to replace the original PSU with a modern one. If not you had better get that old PSU serviced by someone who knows what they are doing as those things often have capacitors that will die from old age and they can store electricity for a considerable amount of time after they are unplugged.
Hey thanks for taking the time to give some valuable input and tips, all really useful and good points. RE the daughterboard connector on the sound card I mention this in the episode where we deal with the audio. The card used supports a daughter board which as you mention is a good alternative. There are also some great moves being made in emulation of these old Sound Canvases with integration in SCUMMVM etc which sounds great. I wouldn't be surprised if we have a Raspberry Pi SC setup before long to give us further alternatives. Thanks again.
Great series. It makes me want to go look for an old 486 DX4 100 or an AMD 5x86-133. Curious, did you do anything with the RAM or Cache? I'd end up wanting to max it out as much as possible.
It turned out great, despite the glorious British summer! Well done & happy gaming
Thank you!
Wow looks amazing. I love these series you do and such great production values. Keep up the good work !!!
P.s. would be interested to know the total cost of the system if built back in the day - minus the 2005 CD drive. ..
Should have gotten on this earlier. Would have loved to have seen Another World playing on that end montage. Great music too.
now I'm in the mood for fluffy muffins
Good to know that even the experts use compressed air from poundland ;)
Just found you channel through LGR, loving the vids
Beautifully done. Sadly much of what you've done already sucked away enough of my life to revisit. Thankfully you have, saving me from attempting for nostalgic reasons. Well done! Huzzah!
+Mike Walton glad to see you're enjoying the restorations Mike and thanks for sharing your memories and crossing your fingers!
great video series, and also great music TY sir
The first chapter of the civilization series. definitely worth it
If you have your Roland plugged in where are you plugging in your joystick?
+Super Hamster Gaming these are not the droids you're looking for *waves hand*. It was of course for montage illusion, well spotted that man
great stuff.. and such memories. a work of love.
Wow, that looks new! Good job..😀👍
Thanks Andrew, and thanks for following the build. What to do next I wonder....
Gonna be on the lookout for an old machine too now. I have a feeling you're from the same area of the UK I am before I moved to the US. Did you ever read any of the PC mags back in the 90s?
Railz28 Sure did before the PC I read ST/Amiga Format, Amstrad Action etc, PC was probably PC Zone, PC Format, a few like that with the odd PC Pro thrown in. Mags are in a sad state these days.
They are indeed. I used to work for Pc Power and Sega Pro :)
I also live near a cemetery but yours is so cool.
Very nice setup well done👌
A really nice series..great job👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Thanks! I appreciate you watching
What a work of art. And those games.... The memories.
what game was the car simulation one just before the lemmings?
That game is "4D Sports Driving" ABKA "Stunts". Check it out on www.mobygames.com/game/stunts and also check the related links section on that page. One of the best racing games ever, a mix of a simulation and arcade driving phyics. I wouldn't play it on a 486 though, in my experience the game becomes better controllable the faster the machine is, the best might even be playing it in DOSBox on current hardware.
Do you by any chance have the driver/utilities disk(s) for that TopGun Joystick??
Looks good, man! Great job!
Thank you!
You have the same issue I would have. Live in Western Washington. Near Seattle. Lots of gray.
Fantastic series! Keep it up!!
Such a great series, Netflix should be doing this!
Thanks!
Thank you for watching :)
Nice Job! I loved the inclusion of an mpeg decoder board. I forgot those had dos support early on. I didn't have one until my first DVD drive years later (that was mpeg-2). The only two things I would change would be having the compact flash adapter in one of the front bays (like the StarTech 35BAYCF2IDE though you would have to repaint it) and using dos 7.1 for the fat32 support. The only downside to that is the patches it needs to get win 3.1 working. Only one question, did you crack the psu open?
Thanks, those are some nice suggestions. I'm happy with 2 partitions but any bigger a SD card and FAT32 would be nicer. I didn't open the PSU but again it's a good suggestion just to check the caps out at some point.
What's the limitation for Win 3.1 in that case, the file system being FAT32 or the high version of DOS?
THOSE LEMMINGS WERE TRYING THEIR HARDEST YOU MONSTER
Is that Malmesbury Abbey? I live 30 minutes from it! :)
what game was the car simulation one, just before the lemmings?
That was called Stunts in the US, or 4D Sports Driving everywhere else
Thanks!!
This Videos inspired me to do a similar thing to my MS-Dos PC
why you put the cd-rom on the bottom slot? it can hit keyboard when the tray open
Great job!
Doma Thank you!
Excellent restoration...
I think I got an creative video blaster mp400 mpeg1 card. True its nice, I just do not have anything to play on it though. 😔
Beautiful thing I wish I could find one love the channel !!
great job
Lemmings original is still good now.
So the secret location of the RetroManCave would be in Malmesbury then.
*taps nose* maybe that's what I want you to think :D
Tfx, best ever flightsim!
Andrew Littleboy Damn right, nigga