RetroFox
@retrofox8bit.bsky.social
All things old computers, video games/consoles, geeky. Avid flea market and yard sale hunter of electronic goodies.
I mean, Doom is a given. Sound card seems to work well - very clean sound, no glitchy or crackly noise. Doom runs like warm butter, but expected at these specs.
November 16, 2025 at 8:42 PM
I mean, Doom is a given. Sound card seems to work well - very clean sound, no glitchy or crackly noise. Doom runs like warm butter, but expected at these specs.
Talk about time capsule -
November 16, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Talk about time capsule -
Booted right up to Win95. It’s a Pentium 200mhz, 32mb RAM (ram slots full), S3 ViRGE 2mb onboard graphics, Aztec sound card of some sort, and 3gb HDD (backing up and imagining now). :)
November 16, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Booted right up to Win95. It’s a Pentium 200mhz, 32mb RAM (ram slots full), S3 ViRGE 2mb onboard graphics, Aztec sound card of some sort, and 3gb HDD (backing up and imagining now). :)
Inside isn’t too bad but definitely going to blow out the dust first. I also see an S3 ViRGE chip so that’s going to be the onboard graphics, no doubt.
November 16, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Inside isn’t too bad but definitely going to blow out the dust first. I also see an S3 ViRGE chip so that’s going to be the onboard graphics, no doubt.
Survey says… I’m not sure. Pretty sure not AWE32 - I see an Aztec chip with OPL so might still be a good little sound card. Either way, I don’t think SoundBlaster cards of the era had modems built on.
November 16, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Survey says… I’m not sure. Pretty sure not AWE32 - I see an Aztec chip with OPL so might still be a good little sound card. Either way, I don’t think SoundBlaster cards of the era had modems built on.
Today, at the flea, found this Packard Bell tower on a table. I asked price and lady went into story mode, she had it listed on eBay for $250, didn't want to ship. Hounded me for an offer, finally told me her bottom dollar was $50. Against better judgement, I brought it home...
November 16, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Today, at the flea, found this Packard Bell tower on a table. I asked price and lady went into story mode, she had it listed on eBay for $250, didn't want to ship. Hounded me for an offer, finally told me her bottom dollar was $50. Against better judgement, I brought it home...
Also saw an old Dell Pentium I laptop - nothing with it, decent shape but uses an odd power plug. It'd be a decent DOS/Win95 or Win98 machine if you wanted to save some space. Didn't get a price. Finally, saw this flight stick ($3) - passed, I have too many as is, but good price
November 16, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Also saw an old Dell Pentium I laptop - nothing with it, decent shape but uses an odd power plug. It'd be a decent DOS/Win95 or Win98 machine if you wanted to save some space. Didn't get a price. Finally, saw this flight stick ($3) - passed, I have too many as is, but good price
Busy weekend but I did see some things at the flea (finally). Saturday I saw this HP Pavilion PIII tower for$10. Tempting, but port door broken off. These weren't great PCs in their day, but I remember friends having them. Tiny PSU and everything packed in tight...
November 16, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Busy weekend but I did see some things at the flea (finally). Saturday I saw this HP Pavilion PIII tower for$10. Tempting, but port door broken off. These weren't great PCs in their day, but I remember friends having them. Tiny PSU and everything packed in tight...
Aside from putting the 5950 in, I added an IDE to SATA adapter with a 120gb SSD and put a fresh install of Win98 SE, added 512mb RAM (plenty for these specs), and installed Win 98 Plus! because I love themes. Played some Quake III and C&C Red Alert last night on it, as well.
November 14, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Aside from putting the 5950 in, I added an IDE to SATA adapter with a 120gb SSD and put a fresh install of Win98 SE, added 512mb RAM (plenty for these specs), and installed Win 98 Plus! because I love themes. Played some Quake III and C&C Red Alert last night on it, as well.
Sometimes it is just fun to add an over-powered GPU to a very mid computer. Had this GeForce 5950 FX Ultra 256mb kicking around and decided to stick it in the Compaq PIII machine just because I can. CPU and GPU are about 4-5 years apart.
November 14, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Sometimes it is just fun to add an over-powered GPU to a very mid computer. Had this GeForce 5950 FX Ultra 256mb kicking around and decided to stick it in the Compaq PIII machine just because I can. CPU and GPU are about 4-5 years apart.
Still tinkering with the Compaq PIII machine - while it does work, I had to get the power cord at just the right angle. I opened the PSU to reflow the connector wires and found some crusty caps waiting. Replaced the four of that type for now and reflowed, working much better now!
November 13, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Still tinkering with the Compaq PIII machine - while it does work, I had to get the power cord at just the right angle. I opened the PSU to reflow the connector wires and found some crusty caps waiting. Replaced the four of that type for now and reflowed, working much better now!
Looking around the drive, I noticed a Nintendo folder - fitting to find Nesticle, ZSNES, and a Genesis emulator on a PC of this vintage. Had to tool around with some totally legitimate backups. :)
November 9, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Looking around the drive, I noticed a Nintendo folder - fitting to find Nesticle, ZSNES, and a Genesis emulator on a PC of this vintage. Had to tool around with some totally legitimate backups. :)
Backed up/imaged the drive from the Compaq just in case (10gb Quantum) and gave the computer a test. It booted up, 96mb RAM, PIII 450 mhz, S3 Savage4 GT 8mb Video, and Win98 (which reports the CPU as PII) Not a bad start.
November 9, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Backed up/imaged the drive from the Compaq just in case (10gb Quantum) and gave the computer a test. It booted up, 96mb RAM, PIII 450 mhz, S3 Savage4 GT 8mb Video, and Win98 (which reports the CPU as PII) Not a bad start.
Picked up this Nuby Sniper PlayStation light-gun today at the flea for $5. It’s pretty grungy and unknown if it works but figured I’d enjoy cleaning it up and testing it out for that price. (Also bonus power adapter wrapped around it).
November 9, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Picked up this Nuby Sniper PlayStation light-gun today at the flea for $5. It’s pretty grungy and unknown if it works but figured I’d enjoy cleaning it up and testing it out for that price. (Also bonus power adapter wrapped around it).
Surprisingly, the dust isn’t too bad inside considering the seal being intact points to not having been opened. Love to see an AGP port (with card), too! Looks to be a 450MHz PIII if I’m reading the CPU right. Time to blow the dust out and test it!
November 8, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Surprisingly, the dust isn’t too bad inside considering the seal being intact points to not having been opened. Love to see an AGP port (with card), too! Looks to be a 450MHz PIII if I’m reading the CPU right. Time to blow the dust out and test it!
Been a dry spell at the flea market recently - but a family member fished this Compaq tower out of bulk garbage for me. Shame it is missing the drive bays cover door, but looks to be unspoiled and even has FireWire ports.
November 8, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Been a dry spell at the flea market recently - but a family member fished this Compaq tower out of bulk garbage for me. Shame it is missing the drive bays cover door, but looks to be unspoiled and even has FireWire ports.
Of course there was a blue Dell P4 tower out there, too. I was half tempted at the $5 price just as a test box - it was chock-full of dust and while it seemed intact inside, the lack of at least an AGP slot (only 3 PCI) was ultimately a pass.
October 24, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Of course there was a blue Dell P4 tower out there, too. I was half tempted at the $5 price just as a test box - it was chock-full of dust and while it seemed intact inside, the lack of at least an AGP slot (only 3 PCI) was ultimately a pass.
Didn't see much this Flea Market Friday beyond the usual unremarkable laptops that are everywhere. Did see this very crusty Dell Inspiron E1705. I can only imagine the horror inside the thing - fitting with Halloween so close :)
October 24, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Didn't see much this Flea Market Friday beyond the usual unremarkable laptops that are everywhere. Did see this very crusty Dell Inspiron E1705. I can only imagine the horror inside the thing - fitting with Halloween so close :)
I kept thinking the Pismo was suspiciously quiet - nice little bonus inside, someone swapped in a SSD drive (also it's been upgrade to 1 GB of RAM and dual boots OS9 and OSX). Over the weekend, I watched videos about it and loaded/played some Mac games on it. Enjoying it! :)
October 20, 2025 at 1:54 PM
I kept thinking the Pismo was suspiciously quiet - nice little bonus inside, someone swapped in a SSD drive (also it's been upgrade to 1 GB of RAM and dual boots OS9 and OSX). Over the weekend, I watched videos about it and loaded/played some Mac games on it. Enjoying it! :)
Fresh set of batteries and it’s jamming out :)
October 19, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Fresh set of batteries and it’s jamming out :)
Found this cute i-Dog Amp'd for $5 at the flea market today. Batteries were dead but thankfully, it seems I got to it just in time. Only one had just started getting a little crusty. The plastic is yellowing, which is common for these but overall it's in good shape, I'd say!
October 19, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Found this cute i-Dog Amp'd for $5 at the flea market today. Batteries were dead but thankfully, it seems I got to it just in time. Only one had just started getting a little crusty. The plastic is yellowing, which is common for these but overall it's in good shape, I'd say!
I've been told by a reliable source the Mac laptop is the G3 'Pismo' - has firewire ports. All I know is I didn't have a black Mac laptop and it has a really nice keyboard (I got to try one at a previous VCF event). Guy said it worked and so it does!
October 18, 2025 at 6:31 PM
I've been told by a reliable source the Mac laptop is the G3 'Pismo' - has firewire ports. All I know is I didn't have a black Mac laptop and it has a really nice keyboard (I got to try one at a previous VCF event). Guy said it worked and so it does!
Flight Sim 3 was one of my first computer games I had on my old Vendex PC - this is version 4, but close enough and so neat to have boxed. I'm going to have to try the upgrade pack as well. Just one of those nice to have complete of the few games I had. :)
October 18, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Flight Sim 3 was one of my first computer games I had on my old Vendex PC - this is version 4, but close enough and so neat to have boxed. I'm going to have to try the upgrade pack as well. Just one of those nice to have complete of the few games I had. :)
This was my modest haul from the VCF East Swap Meet: Mac Laptop w/ charger -$20, Flight Sim and upgrade - $10, couple USB cards -$5 each, 2 video cards and SB Live card -free, a $2 lenovo PSU (didn't fit the W701ds, sadly), D&D Char Creator CD -$1, and a Lumix LX5 for $20!
October 18, 2025 at 6:22 PM
This was my modest haul from the VCF East Swap Meet: Mac Laptop w/ charger -$20, Flight Sim and upgrade - $10, couple USB cards -$5 each, 2 video cards and SB Live card -free, a $2 lenovo PSU (didn't fit the W701ds, sadly), D&D Char Creator CD -$1, and a Lumix LX5 for $20!
I would have to say, this was the table to be at if you wanted Mac stuff today. Guy was selling cheap - That boxed red iMac was $30, the boxed PowerBook under the table was the same price iirc. I didn't take too many photos, too busy at my table, but I'll share an album later.
October 18, 2025 at 6:15 PM
I would have to say, this was the table to be at if you wanted Mac stuff today. Guy was selling cheap - That boxed red iMac was $30, the boxed PowerBook under the table was the same price iirc. I didn't take too many photos, too busy at my table, but I'll share an album later.