While many would argue that the Consumer Electronics Show has transformed beyond its intended purpose there is still some very interesting things that companies show during the event from simple upgrades to personal electronics to the latest in hydrogen powered cargo ships. For the most part you won’t find the latest in computer components at CES, that is unless you know where to look.
In this project my quest to add boom to my Retro PC pushes me to explore the concept of doubling the output of my two 5.25” Tang Band subwoofers by putting two speakers into a single box. The results will amaze you.
In this project I am on the hunt to find a way to make my Retro PC projects sound better and I am starting by adding a little boom to the existing sound solution. The overall project will become a multi part series as I experiment with different box designs and find out what configuration will be best while still offering a nice desktop experience.
My Sleeper Storage Device rides the wave between a modern PC and the Retro PC. For those looking to add a modern storage solution to their Retro PC build but want to ensure that everything is visually period correct then, my project is a perfect solution.
Now here is something you don't see every day. A Retro PC 386 with a MFM/RLL hard drive installed which is the ultimate expression of true retro computing. It may not be period correct or all that useful but, it is amazing.
One of the defining characteristics of vintage computers is the “beige” box. This was a rather neutral color for the time period and allowed other hardware vendors a sudo color standard to follow when offering up their accessories.
The motherboard in the Classic Case build had extensive damage that was targeted right around the motherboard mounting hole below the battery. My guess is that when this system was taken out of service it was stored on its side which allowed the battery contents to pool up and attack that one region.
The system featured in this ongoing project is a build from Magitronic. This was a Taiwanese based hardware maker that was able to design and build just about everything that went into their systems. I could not find any specific details about this particular build but, it features a Magitonic 602 motherboard along with some other parts with a Magitronic sticker.
For this Real Retro Gaming adventure, I’m going to play a game from my youth called “Hack”, or PC Hack as its official name. This was a freeware offering that you could download from Bulletin Board Systems or buy out of the back of computer magazines. I'll also be playing this on a 386 40Mhz with dual 5.25" Floppy drives.
During the service life of these computers there were reports of batteries exploding and/or leaking, sometimes they would destroy the motherboard and other times they just stopped keeping time. Either way it was an acceptable risk and usually when the board or battery failed it was time to upgrade anyway.
I have been in the process of collecting some old Retro PC hardware for some YouTube projects and before I started tearing into each of the computers, I wanted to take an image of each hard drive and then document the components in each system.
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