09.14:
a Back in the day
My thought is they meant color games on reasonably priced and relative "ease of use" home systems.
There are plenty of examples of B&W and text games. Some on mainframe and some on kit hardware.
They left out every pong system. The Magnavox odyssey as well.
08.22:
GTX 960
My P/S went wonky somehow.
And the old card, a 770, didnt want to work with the new P/S.
So I got this MSI gaming card.
Was the best deal for the power and output config.
11.27:
Update 11.016
Presenting a new background left slide.
Some other minor improvements.
Next will be a new title banner and new cat, posted by and comment buttons.
Some other minor improvements.
Next will be a new title banner and new cat, posted by and comment buttons.
10.22:
X-Arcade mod
This is my first X-Arcade mod.
That big red dial on the right is a usb spinner.
This is a high quality item with an anodized aluminum finish and
a heavy duty flyweight.
More images and info after the jump.
That big red dial on the right is a usb spinner.
This is a high quality item with an anodized aluminum finish and
a heavy duty flyweight.
More images and info after the jump.
09.07:
Micro system area
My meager collection of vintage micros on this custom shelf unit.
I built the shelves for multiple uses, but it turned out perfect for storing
the micro systems.
The 2nd and 3rd shelves (up from bottom) slide out as seen with the 2nd.
This accomodates keyboards and other system components.
Support free code by Six gaming on Patreon
07.18:
Mysterium Ascendant
Some may have noticed the site changes. After years of static existance
the site is being spiffed up. Its a new era so to speak.
That includes the title change. (Though some mozilla browsers may not see
the full title :-( no idea why either...)
You also need a wide window (1600 px minimum) to see Eppy and the new title.
I'm learning some new tricks!
The grimoire has given way to the Mysterium. Still with the power of Grendel of course.
More redesign may sally forth.
the site is being spiffed up. Its a new era so to speak.
That includes the title change. (Though some mozilla browsers may not see
the full title :-( no idea why either...)
You also need a wide window (1600 px minimum) to see Eppy and the new title.
I'm learning some new tricks!
The grimoire has given way to the Mysterium. Still with the power of Grendel of course.
More redesign may sally forth.
01.21:
Dual 27"
Last upgrade I went to the nixeus 27".
One soyo 24" died - they no longer make them.
And 24" offerings were just lame.
Only choice - bigger monitors.
Had to get a heavy bracket to hold them.
With a wee little 19" on the side for vars things.
I am most pleased with these monitors.
09.27:
Game system - latest config
Latest build:
AMD 6000+ dual core
Geforce 560ti "Hawk"
4G Mem
2Tb HD
Strike 7 keyboard
RAT 9 mouse
Razer Nostromo Gamepad
38" Westinghouse LED widescreen
Labtec 2.1 speakers
Logitech trackball
2 stick X-arcade
06.04:
conquest - space amoeba gfx
Greetings programs;
Haven't done much with conquest lately.
This is some graphics I did as a doomsday machine replacement - the giant space amoeba.
It has a dark area around it that masks out planets and background as well.
Read more for more views.
Haven't done much with conquest lately.
This is some graphics I did as a doomsday machine replacement - the giant space amoeba.
It has a dark area around it that masks out planets and background as well.
Read more for more views.
07.18:
renovations reloaded
Changes in life have recently led to moving my office setup around. This includes moving the main computing center, always a big operation. It amazes me how many more connections there are with every upgrade and doo-dad addition. USB hasn't helped - the standard is responsible for upwards of 4 devices that are not a mouse.
Going dual 24" widescreen monitors really necessitated the need for some kind of mounting system. The steel frame shown came from a show - "Imaginary Invalid". Some monitor mounts on clearance at office max secured the dual 24". That left my previous dual 19" off the desk edge, so I custom built some arms for them. Needless to say the arms need re-engineered, but thats one of my specialties so its ok.
The mounting frame has solved all kind of issues from the old desktop from speaker mounts to the keyboard light.
The desk is so clutter free now (compared to this) I keep knocking over drinks!
As you can see in the full view after the link, I judiciously left some expansion room for either a) more smaller monitors or b) a big widescreen. I'm thinking big widescreen myself.
Click for more detailed pics
Going dual 24" widescreen monitors really necessitated the need for some kind of mounting system. The steel frame shown came from a show - "Imaginary Invalid". Some monitor mounts on clearance at office max secured the dual 24". That left my previous dual 19" off the desk edge, so I custom built some arms for them. Needless to say the arms need re-engineered, but thats one of my specialties so its ok.
The mounting frame has solved all kind of issues from the old desktop from speaker mounts to the keyboard light.
The desk is so clutter free now (compared to this) I keep knocking over drinks!
As you can see in the full view after the link, I judiciously left some expansion room for either a) more smaller monitors or b) a big widescreen. I'm thinking big widescreen myself.
Click for more detailed pics
10.09:
Strange snapping sounds
A few months ago late one night, the old Cat was sitting around spawning some code and heard a sound in the room.
Nothing presented itself for visual inspection, so we took a look about - and found nothing.
The noise was like a plastic ruler being slammed on a desk hard.
It happened again last night, and when we observed the system the main video display, a geforce 8800gt, was filled with artifacts. 3 electrolyte capacitors had blown...not leaked, blown!
Word to the wise: if you are ever computing late at night and hear a snap like a good cap gun - check your caps!
Nothing presented itself for visual inspection, so we took a look about - and found nothing.
The noise was like a plastic ruler being slammed on a desk hard.
It happened again last night, and when we observed the system the main video display, a geforce 8800gt, was filled with artifacts. 3 electrolyte capacitors had blown...not leaked, blown!
Word to the wise: if you are ever computing late at night and hear a snap like a good cap gun - check your caps!
So, the latest linux implementation project is a bootable usb drive to improve my media machine running geexbox.
I found a 1G flash drive on sale for $10. This is perfect as I can install geexbox, a mini linux, and theoretically still have room for a movie or a couple of tv series episodes.
Great idea...I just discovered the media machine (a dual celery 500 from 99) doesnt allow usb boot.
Doh.
I found a 1G flash drive on sale for $10. This is perfect as I can install geexbox, a mini linux, and theoretically still have room for a movie or a couple of tv series episodes.
Great idea...I just discovered the media machine (a dual celery 500 from 99) doesnt allow usb boot.
Doh.
So, we have been planning an upgrade for some time for the watching of video in widescreen. I like a number of widescreen TV, but the main issue is space (well ok, the darn things are pretty expensive...)
A few months back I started thinking of a widescreen to replace one of my 19" flat panels (been running dual view since I had 17" crts on a geforce 2.) The problem here was matching the vertical height, as I run a large extended desktop. For a total swap out this was a requirement. Office max has had some decent sales, but they always lack the 22" samsung (my 19"s are samsung syncmaster 930b) I want to measure for fit. I figured the swapped 19" for my second best game box till I could build the gauntlet / xmame project.
Only thing was I couldn't quite connect to the 22" wide flat panel deal I wanted. Tiger direct had one for 179.00, the ideal price...till I tried to buy it. Then the price was 199.00 - after a stupid mail in rebate. Really, why isnt that crap automated electronically by now? This needs to be a separate rant under "gripe writer" :-)
I trolled ebay, pricewatch, google, amazon and tiger till I found the best deal - a 24" wide panel for well less than 400.00! Woo hoo.
Now, do I remove a 19" and continue the dual view on my geforce 8600GT? Heck no! I found amidst my massive stack of hardware, buried in a hidden corner, an STB MVP pro. This thing is cool - it has an octopus cable that can drive 4 monitors ;-) The downside are the dual Riva 128's powering 4 monitors...but they can still do 1280x1024 at 15 bit color. And going from 2560x1024 desk top to 1280x1024 + 3200x1200 is just freaking killer.
But I got no desk (real wood antique type) space for this massive thing. The answer is simple - new desk. Office max had a deal there too - L desk with hutch & file for 199.00. It was bogus tho - the deal was only on the L desk, damn false advertising in their periodical ad. So I built an extension out of cabinet grade plywood. Great stuff, wish I had discovered it when I built my library 7 years ago. Somehow managed to grab the wrong can of stain on the way to paint - it was supposed to be red mahogany, a much darker color. Oh well, the 24" flat panel more than makes up for that.
Read more to see the big pic.
A few months back I started thinking of a widescreen to replace one of my 19" flat panels (been running dual view since I had 17" crts on a geforce 2.) The problem here was matching the vertical height, as I run a large extended desktop. For a total swap out this was a requirement. Office max has had some decent sales, but they always lack the 22" samsung (my 19"s are samsung syncmaster 930b) I want to measure for fit. I figured the swapped 19" for my second best game box till I could build the gauntlet / xmame project.
Only thing was I couldn't quite connect to the 22" wide flat panel deal I wanted. Tiger direct had one for 179.00, the ideal price...till I tried to buy it. Then the price was 199.00 - after a stupid mail in rebate. Really, why isnt that crap automated electronically by now? This needs to be a separate rant under "gripe writer" :-)
I trolled ebay, pricewatch, google, amazon and tiger till I found the best deal - a 24" wide panel for well less than 400.00! Woo hoo.
Now, do I remove a 19" and continue the dual view on my geforce 8600GT? Heck no! I found amidst my massive stack of hardware, buried in a hidden corner, an STB MVP pro. This thing is cool - it has an octopus cable that can drive 4 monitors ;-) The downside are the dual Riva 128's powering 4 monitors...but they can still do 1280x1024 at 15 bit color. And going from 2560x1024 desk top to 1280x1024 + 3200x1200 is just freaking killer.
But I got no desk (real wood antique type) space for this massive thing. The answer is simple - new desk. Office max had a deal there too - L desk with hutch & file for 199.00. It was bogus tho - the deal was only on the L desk, damn false advertising in their periodical ad. So I built an extension out of cabinet grade plywood. Great stuff, wish I had discovered it when I built my library 7 years ago. Somehow managed to grab the wrong can of stain on the way to paint - it was supposed to be red mahogany, a much darker color. Oh well, the 24" flat panel more than makes up for that.
Read more to see the big pic.
Greetings Programs.
I have been an advocate for using Linux for many years now. I abandoned win 9x (98) sometime in 98 for the relatively more stable programming environment under win NT4. At least crashing code didnt take down the whole box. In 99 I used NT and Mandrake 8.0 in a dual boot config. The year prior I experimented with Slackware 5.x, Red Hat 7.x, Mandrake 8.0 and some other small Linuxes. Mandrake was the most impressive at the time but always disappointing because I couldnt get quake 1 & 2 to run.
In 2000 I left windows behind completely, electing to install a new machine I was building with only my latest discovery - Morphix (www.morphix.org) - a great os - it installed in less than 300Mb, didnt come with a ton of duplicate and or useless apps, and had an alternate to KDE and Gnome: xfce4.
Its always disappointing to discover a new piece of hardware or new game will _only_ run under windows. Thus my irritation upon getting a DVDr dual layer burner and spending months trying to get dvdrecord to record a 7.4G disk!
Read more on this problem and its solution...
I have been an advocate for using Linux for many years now. I abandoned win 9x (98) sometime in 98 for the relatively more stable programming environment under win NT4. At least crashing code didnt take down the whole box. In 99 I used NT and Mandrake 8.0 in a dual boot config. The year prior I experimented with Slackware 5.x, Red Hat 7.x, Mandrake 8.0 and some other small Linuxes. Mandrake was the most impressive at the time but always disappointing because I couldnt get quake 1 & 2 to run.
In 2000 I left windows behind completely, electing to install a new machine I was building with only my latest discovery - Morphix (www.morphix.org) - a great os - it installed in less than 300Mb, didnt come with a ton of duplicate and or useless apps, and had an alternate to KDE and Gnome: xfce4.
Its always disappointing to discover a new piece of hardware or new game will _only_ run under windows. Thus my irritation upon getting a DVDr dual layer burner and spending months trying to get dvdrecord to record a 7.4G disk!
Read more on this problem and its solution...
10.16:
Conquest Strategy Guide
Greetings Programs.
This is the *** Conquest *** strategy guide v1.4
The guide has game information and a basic strategy lesson for neophyte players.
Read more for full details...
10.06:
Conquest Synopsis
Say you need to relate Trek, a VAX mainframe, and one of the earliest networked multiplayer games ever...
The VAX/VMS is an interesting and special piece of hardware. Relevant to our topic, it had shared memory segments. This one feature made unique multiplayer games possible.
Conquest is the fusion of Trek lore, VAX hardware and a realtime network multiplayer game. Read the full article for details and screenshots.
The VAX/VMS is an interesting and special piece of hardware. Relevant to our topic, it had shared memory segments. This one feature made unique multiplayer games possible.
Conquest is the fusion of Trek lore, VAX hardware and a realtime network multiplayer game. Read the full article for details and screenshots.
09.24:
Live CD movie player
For anyone looking for a live CD (bootable) movie player system, we recommend:
Geexbox
The cd image is 7Mb (!), boots _fast_ and plays everything we threw at it so far.
The one issue we have is a problem with audio clipping on old mpg music viddys.
Geexbox
The cd image is 7Mb (!), boots _fast_ and plays everything we threw at it so far.
The one issue we have is a problem with audio clipping on old mpg music viddys.
