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Modern Retro computing
Sebby writes "This is pretty neat - the folks over at retrosystem rebuild old computers/consoles with new guts inside. They have Amiga 1000, Atari 2600, and also NES systems, with lots of options for configuration. If they only made a Sinclair ZX81 with the same specs, I'd be sold!" I mean, who wouldn't want a PC in an
NES box ;)
Putting a PC into an Xbox case! Oh, wait..
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
being used for security purposes. Who's gonna steal an original NES? I don't think they've acquired antique status, yet... Other than that, why the hell would you want to do this?
I just picked up a mini-itx board for a mp3/divx player in my car. These things are really tiny. I saw one project where they stuffed one of these boards into a playstation, old sparcstations, and lots of other strange places. Not a gaming board, but those are starting to happen too - take a look at the small Shuttle boards that have a bit more kick (and heat) to them.
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
Such a shame there is no CDROM for my^H^Htheir Amiga. But I'll still buy it, because it has firewire, and I happen to have an external IDE firewire box, so I can run a CDRW externally. Amiga did almost all expansion externally anyways, so this is great!
I really recommend these external firewire IDE drive bays by ADSTech, they're so useful when I go out on a service call with my laptop and this portable drive bay, I can do things like drive imaging and software backup at lightning speeds for my clients. They're a geek's best friend.
Now I can use it to emulate my old A2000 that was surrounded by bizarre periphirals back in the day!
Bork!
How about working on emulators so the tons of old game cartridges you see at flea markets and swaps can be used again.
The hardware of an Atari2600 or an original Nintendo system were only fairly or moderately impressive when they were state of the art. However, the programming involved to eek every ounce of performance out of the hardware is simply gorgeous. Yeah, the graphics sucked, and were made worse when you pumped it through a modulator and rf generator to display it on channel 3, but impressive nevertheless.
It's fun to play these games because they programmers didn't have unlimited memory for use nor to store the finished result.
I would think that something like the Shuttle SV24 with a 1U copper heatsink would do the trick. Would be cool if you kept the "external power brick" paradigm and extended the ATX power cable a few feet, shrinktubed it and ran it outside the case.
Hey Taco! Looks like you're using the "infinite monkeys and typewriters" scheme to generate Ask Slashdots again...
Programming can be fun again. Film at 11.
You could serrate the edge of the rule and use it to drive the gear of a small DC generator in the slide... but man, that could get nasty. ;)
"We are patenting this process of customizing old computer and game console cabinets to be Windows, Linux or other contemporary operating systems based on x86 systems. Contact us if you are interested in licensing from us."
Is it just me, or does anyone else find this a bit disturbing?
I think the NES/Atari Boxes look great, but I'm curious as to how well they do airflow-wise with a 800Mhz processor inside??
I seem to recall my those systems could get a little warm just playing their cartridges.
Cool idea, though.
There may be a difficulty finding boards that small that support a P4. There's also serious heat issues - generally, the slower the chip, the less heat is radiated. Price is probably a factor (most of this computer's reason to be is to look cool, not to be a speed demon). Heck, I don't even know if a P4 heatsink and fan would fit in that A1000 case.
Writers imply. Readers infer.
Sure, it says that on the page. But the illustration is a stick of ram. Trust these guys to build a PC when they can't see the difference between a CPU and a DIMM?
Writers imply. Readers infer.
turning a VAX into a keg dispenser with webmonitoring
or maybe just a bar or how about a fridge
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Agreed wholeheartedly; this is an abomination and an affront to history.
I'll admit to doing things to enhance my CoCo 3s, like putting in a 6309, using an AT keyboard interface, adding SCSI and IDE cards and eventually putting at least one in a PClone case, so that from a strict preservationist point of view I suppose I'm sinning...but those mods at least preserve the spirit of the machine rather than turn it into just another (insert favorite expletive) PClone under the hood.
Anyone wanna put an Atari 2600 in a PC case?
It's just for the sake of cosmic karma balance.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
I totally agree. There are some situations when it is acceptable. If you come across a chassis that has been completely stripped of all its original hardware (or enough that there is no hope of ever getting it working in its original form), I guess shoehorning PC parts into it is a better fate than letting it be thrown away. But the thought that someone would take a working original Amiga, or next cube, or other funky old system, and knowingly replace the original hardware with commodity PC junk, makes me shudder.
"(Man) tries to live his own life as if he were telling a story. But you have to choose: live or tell." --Sartre
I don't understand why someone just doesn't do this mod themselves.
Their pricing is quite expensive @ $999-1099+
I'd recommend getting a mini ITX form factor motherboard like VIA's eden. (Go check the specs on the motherboards vs. the console boxes because I'm not sure if they'll fit exactly)
So for ~$150 for the motherboard
~$60 for the VIA CPU
~$5-10 for an old NES / Atari system
~Old PC Components
You'd have a pretty decent setup. (Not to mention you'd be saving around $700!)
If you need some motivation look at Project Jellybean:
http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=120
The computers in the article are just glorified case mods. When you plug a modern keyboard monitor and mouse into those old cases and boot Windows 2000, you totally lack the retro look and feel. The coolest artifacts from the old days are green-screen monitors and heavy, loud keyboards. They are what create the retro look-and-feel that we remember from the old days.
In middle school, we had these Apple IIe computers with green-screen monitors that tilted up and down in a stationary case. Those were sweet. At the time, we had a computer at home with a color screen (CGA graphics, baby). Even though the CGA screen was technically superior to the Apple's, I thought the Apple monitor was way cooler. Now I have a 19 inch Viewsonic monitor and its infinitely more useful than the old Apple screen -- but the Apple monitor is still cooler.
Likewise, I miss those big-ass keyboards that click when you type. These flimsy, wussy keyboards that come with modern PCs are terrible! My favorite keyboard was an old IBM AT keyboard from 1984. My dad found it at work, and I used it for several years. The keys are covered with plastic caps, which are what the letters are printed on -- if you want remap your keyboard to Dvorak, you can reposition the printed letters by removing and rearranging the little caps. Pretty sweet. I had to retire it when, while moving from one dorm room to another, I broke off some of the caps that cover the keys. I've still got it in my closet, though.
I guess my point is that, while this is a cool idea, it's somewhat misguided. Creating a retro look and feel is much more important than having a retro case, which you're just going to shove under your desk anyway. And to have the retro look-and-feel, you need cool-looking screens and clicky keyboards.
Steve
Addendum: there is nothing wrong with taking an older commodity PC and modifying it to run newer hardware. I have a couple of very solidly built full-AT desktop cases that I can't wait to put to use with newer guts (perhaps after some modifications, or finding decent AT mainboards). There is no historical loss in discarding the original 286 or whatever was in it before, that stuff is still very widely available and basically worthless.
"(Man) tries to live his own life as if he were telling a story. But you have to choose: live or tell." --Sartre
And yet, they don't offer a version of the Atari that *uses* a Supercharger.
~Philly
Yes, I know we always talk about trying to get linux to run on an older computer, but gutting the case and replacing the innards is cheating. :)
As far as appeal goes, consider you're intentionally purchasing a machine with limited upgrade options. In order to minimize the footprint, the boards won't have many PCI slots, and its debatable if they could be used anyway in that case. While old computer cases can probably be picked up for free, or very very cheap, there's still the labor cost of adapting them to fit modern components. That's going to jack the price a bit, not to mention a power supply will still be required, which is typically a good percentage of the case cost.
Of course, people buying one of these are probably doing it for the novelty purposes and not because they're concerned about cost or usability.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
I would rather get a console system inside a PC case. This way it would look like I'm furiously coding while playing old school galaga.
How about a TI99/4A? Just make that and Parsec 2002 and I can die a happy geek.
Duffman can never die! Only the actors who play him!
Yeah.... there's even a PC emulator for the Timex/Sinclair 1000/ZX-81 out there. Why you'd want to emulate one though, I dunno.
I used to own a TS-1000, with the 16K RAM expansion. (I believe you couldn't go larger than that using anything sold by Timex/Sinclair. As I recall, there was a popular 3rd. party expansion cartridge made by MemoTech or somebody like that.... Those went up to 32K or 64K.)
I even had the plastic Sinclair carrying case. I had to order it via direct mail. Apparently, only 2,000 were made or something... Supposed to be sort of a collector's edition item. It held all the cables and AC adapter, TS-1000 itself, memory pack, and 4 cassette tapes.
The Timex/Sinclair 1000/ZX-81 had a flat membrane keyboard though, not even a "chicklet" keyboard. It was horrible, but back in the day, it seemed cool enough to me.
My brother eventually bought a newer Timex/Sinclair. Can't remember the model number anymore... might have been a 1500 or 2048? Anyway, it was a silver plastic case and real chicklet keys, and I believe more standard RAM in it. I think it's the only one I ever saw, other than in magazine photos. (We used to subscribe to a Sinclair magazine called Sync.)
Wow - that goes back a ways! I remember shopping for software on cassettes tape at the local K-Mart store, back when they had a "computer center". The Timex/Sinclair stuff was always behind the glass counter though and you had to ask for it. They had an Atari 400 on display too, also with sort of a membrane keyboard (but full-sized at least).
The thing about gutting an NES that bugs me is that it's no longer an NES, it's just a cool case.
I think that they can do better than this. How about a mini-itx board, a laptop hard drive, and an NES-on-a-chip connected to the cartridge and controller ports? If you want to make it come up as a computer, flick a switch, and video output comes out of the PC video card.
There should be just barely enough space in the original US NES case to pull this off, although it would certainly be tough to do.
Raptor
"Procrastination is great. It gives me a lot more time to do things that I'm never going to do."
Maybe I can fit this with some kind of Passive PCI plane, and add multiple Single-board computers...
HMMMMmmmmmmm....
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
This won't fly, prior art can be found in this comment and this comment.
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
Thaat's a great way to celebrate maybe the single greatest personal computer ever designed (top 3, at the very least). Give it a piece of shit celeron, the shittiest cpu ever, made by the shittiest cpu manufacturer ever. Way to pay homage to the 68k, a paragon of simplicity and power. What better way to honor the first color GUI, a gui that fit on a single 880k floppy, than to put the cruddiest OS ever invented? They did put windows on it, right? It's some kind of sarcastic performance art, and the only thing that could contrast beautiful Workbench would be XP, which is lean if it installs in what, less than 300 megs?
Now, I'm hardly a purist. Things don't have to have original condition. I'm fine with PPC's in a1000's, linux on amigas, someone doing a messy hack that gives it more ram. If you want to see a real A1000 hack, ask for pictures of the FrankenThousand on comp.sys.amiga.hardware. But don't pull this shit. This isn't retro-computing, it's vivisectiony at its most sociopathic.
Go ahead, mod me down. Claim I don't know what I'm talking about. But don't come begging when you want to buy a 20mhz overclocking kit for your sinclair 1000.
They only have inside pictures for the Amiga case. Well duh, big deal there are plenty of low profile commercial cases already out there. Nothing interesting to see there.
I was really disapointed that there were no photo galleries for the Atari and NES cases. I mean for all we know those are just mockups and there are no pc parts inside.
You also got to be kidding me with those systems specs. What brand of cpu is it? What speed is the Hard drive? What kind of Ram is that? What video card is in there and how much ram does it have? What type of warranty does it have?
There is no way I would drop $1,200 with so little info, especially via Paypal.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
I had a bad floppy drive in a 1000 once...talk about Proprietary hardware...
I don't know about Amigas, but NESes and Atari 2600s are a dime a dozen. There are literally millions of them floating around. I bet this company buys broken ones as well, since they'd be cheap, and they're only after the case.
I'm really surprised at the negative reaction the slash crew is giving this. Of course you can't really upgrade them, and they're a nostalgia/retro kick, but what's so wrong with that? How is this any lamer than someone putting a MAME PC into an old arcade cabinet?
They're basically cool, somewhat underpowered, $1000 PCs. If I were in need of a second system, I'd probably go for one.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
Hmm, cool idea... put 3-4 gaming system in one tower case, and use something like a DigitalDoc or other device to turn them on a off, and another thing to switch the video (modified KVM switch?).
I am sure that you could rip apart a Gamecube, PS2, and an Xbox and fit them all in one system with a 400-600 watt power supply(modified) (or just use the ones that the systems came with). I have s Supermicro S-760 case that I know would fit the guys of all of them.
That would be quite a system to show off, better yet, rackmount it in a 4U case... or even better make 1U rack products of each of the systems, with supercool looking faceplates, with an LCD on each to show the game name, or something about the system status at least.... Now that would be cool to have in the server room...
Tibbon
tibbon.com
Is to yank the guts from an old TRS-80 Model III, replace the display with an old 13" CRT, and install a basic PC into it... Would look hella funny at a LAN party, IMO...
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Likewise, I miss those big-ass keyboards that click when you type. These flimsy, wussy keyboards that come with modern PCs are terrible! My favorite keyboard was an old IBM AT keyboard from 1984.
Check your local university's surplus department. I know here at OU, we have a decent surplus department with lots of old stuff for sale. (Anybody need a VAX? There's one down there.) Among other things, they have a large bin (i.e. large hotel laundry bin) full of keyboards, many of them IBM PS/2 (the computer PS/2, not just the 6-pin mini-DIN connector) models. About eight pounds apiece, nearly indestructable (very handy when you can't find that last bug, get pissed, throw the keyboard across the room...), and great feel. You'd be surprised what turns up at University Surplus.
"Make it ten--I am only a poor corrupt official."
--Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains), Casablanca
Emulation has its place. And this isn't it. Some of what made the Amiga great, was done in hardware, in such a way that it can't be emulated.
Nor can you open up the case of a virtual machine, and take a peek inside. Or upgrade it. You see, someone like myself likes the amiga for alot more than just being able to play games.
But, if you absolutely HAVE TO HAVE uae, why the fuck do you have to butcher an a1000 just to run it?
I agree -- I'm actually not an Amiga fan (really don't like the UI, but don't want to start a flamewar.
What bugs me is people modifying NeXT cube cases. They do awful things like put PC motherboards in them. One I saw had a plexiglass front, spray-painted silver, and with blue fluorescent lights. It was ghastly and they though they'd done the l33test thing possible. They'd really just destroyed a beautiful piece of history (that's still very useful as-is today!)
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
it would depend on the rarity of the game, if it were say tetris, which is relatively rare, then yeah, that would be in poor taste, but if it's common like galaga or Ms. Packman, which are still everywhere, then I say, the owner can do what he or she wants to with it. the point is, we're not going to run out of NESes or 2600s anytime soon.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
wot? ok, i'm not a gamer. so even if i knew what you were talking about, i wouldnt know what you're talking about. but, like, what are you talking about?