Current status.

Posted mostly because @kari.bsky.social said it would be cool to see it, my current soldering setup. JBC T210, T245, PA120 tweezers, DR560 desoldering gun, JT 6040 hot air / tripod vacuum system. Also, watch Kari's videos if you are into retro stuff and on a soldering journey.

It's official! #PicoIDE, the open source IDE/ATAPI drive emulator I've been working on for the better part of this year, will be launching at Crowd Supply! Go there to sign up for updates and to be notified when the campaign is live: www.crowdsupply.com/polpotronics...

Indeed! And they are surprisingly good with nice analog sticks (besides looking 90's awesome with that translucent shell)!! The only annoyance is having to use batteries for the rumble... But that was a thing during the game port days (not enough power through the DA-15 port for such a feature).

How quake.exe got its TCP/IP stack - Fabien Sanglard fabiensanglard.net/quake_chunne...

Made this little tool to help straighten chips on the Voodoo 2 if the chip appears to be twisted/shifted. Turns out if you attempt that, many legs would start to detach, which feels very wrong. So it’s not very useful after all🤔 Also yes, I bought another very broken Voodoo 2🤪

“Working pull from a system I no longer have.”

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...

A walk on the A3D beach😌

“Broken” Voodoo 5 PCI for a bit of a price cut. Turns out it just works. I guess whoever tested it forgot to plug in the Molex again🤡 Now it’ll get cleaned and wait for its turn to get a DVI upgrade😌

Oh yes, the thrift store has delivered this time 😁 $179.00 suggested retail price in 1992 🫨

@16bitmanfred.bsky.social here is the keyboard we discussed

Epic!!

Hey guys! Sooooo..... I re-launched my YouTube Memberships! Just two tiers this time, Texel for $1.99, and Shader for $5.99. If you'd like to support the nonsense that I do, please consider joining! www.youtube.com/@PixelPipes

The newest Card Battles video closes the chapter on the first generation of DirectX 9 GPUs. The GeForce FX 5950 Ultra versus the Radeon 9800XT Can the last and fastest FX Series flagship redeem NVIDIA's troubled architecture? www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ3m...

This is the worst soldering job I've seen in a while. Good lord. 'F' to pay respects to this 1.6a OG XBox board. www.reddit.com/r/originalxb...

If anyone out there has one of these Soyo Soyo SY-6VBA133 Slot 1 motherboards, could you take a photo of this voltage regulator please, I need to replace mine as it's been cut off. I've seen one with a AMS1084CT, but they used alternatives, need to identify the right one. Cheers

OMG, how did I not see this!!!!!???? Spot the difference challenge: ◀️ My Board / Retroweb Board ▶️

@sharkabytes.bsky.social posted about The Dig's soundtrack earlier today, which made me feel like firing the game up on the PicoIDE (coming soon 😉) - this really takes me back!

First release of DOSBox Pure Unleashed, a standalone version of the DOSBox Pure RetroArch core, is here. It offers loading from archives, configuration menus, mouse & keyboard mapping for controllers, save states, screen filters, and other convenient features. schelling.itch.io/dosbox-pure

386.

Tomorrow I'll be helping Trina on stream with a dead vintage GUS - and I've provided her with some hard to find parts that will hopefully help get it working again!

PhilsComputerLab has released a video highlighting the CD-ROM emulation feature of #PicoGUS! www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkzH...

The original 3dfx Voodoo was fast, sure. But what was it REALLY capable of? Turns out, FAR more than most people knew! youtu.be/C4295RCp0GQ

Found some very colourful laetiporus mushrooms on a hike 🍄 #fungifriends

SilverStone has officially announced another retro design PC case: the FLP02 mid-tower: www.gdm.or.jp/pressrelease...

I have an ITE IT8212 PCI raid card that was dead, I reflashed it tonight and it's back in business. So for no apparent reason, let's see if I can do a RAID 0 - 4x Compact Flash array and get it to boot.

So it turns out I may need to replace this RAM and possibly another chip on the opposite side of the PCB. And boy, does the “I don’t have the equipment for this” feeling hit hard.

Last night I pulled off my most delicate micro-bodge yet. I'm powering DVDD on the RP2350 externally and left some VREG pins floating that I shouldn't have. Soldering to the edges of the pads on the 0.4mm QFN wasn't too bad under magnification. The bad part was dealing with the tiny lengths of wire

Wait, what?

You might think this is overkill for DOS game music, but you’d be wrong

One day you just mind your business. Next day… you acquire an engraving tool and grind down RAM on an AGP video card.

In collaboration with id Software, we're excited to announce the definitive re-release of Heretic + Hexen — available NOW on all platforms! 💥 www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqH3...

Oh hey! Looks like Hackaday covered PicoGUS adding CD-ROM emulation. One minor issue in the article - sound cards having CD-ROM drive interfaces was extremely common in the days before ATAPI took over.

With @polpo.org 's latest 3.x firmware, the PicoGUS is able to emulate a CD-ROM drive! Using ISO and BIN/CUE images on a USB stick, it eliminates yet another unreliable component with moving parts in a retro PC. Join me today as I take this new feature for a spin! youtu.be/08IPnmvuatw

After being extremely cryptic about the new hardware project I'm working on in my last "photo of my monitor" post, here's a hopefully less cryptic one. Now that more things are working, here's a clue that is hopefully a little more obvious about what it is:

The PicoGUS is such an amazing piece of technology that @polpo.org has developed. I want to get one working in my custom wood/glass SBC 486 with external enameled wire ISA bus. Let's poke it with the oscilloscope Saturday at noon eastern to figure out what the problem is. youtube.com/live/q7gv79i...

#PicoGUS firmware v3.1.0 is released. It adds the ability to load a CD image by name and has *many* fixes for cd image listing and loading. github.com/polpo/picogu...

🤩

Super excited to give this a try! Awesome work @polpo.org 🍻

This is wonderful insanity... When your ARM powered Acorn RISC PC can have a second 486 DX4 100MHz CPU and run Windows 95 in its own window. Retro computing is so exciting dabbling with these things it truly is!

It's been ages but I finally posted a new YouTube video. Join me as I take an in-depth look at Edro and Leo's brand new MK1869 ISA sound card! This thing ticks off all the right boxes ✅ youtu.be/9bYEq0KIykg

I was traveling for a week and intended to work on CDROM support for #PicoGUS while on the road but forgot the charger for my Pocket386, whoops. Now I'm home. Back in the day I liked how the opening FMV in Return to Zork called back to the original text adventures while saying LOOK AT OUR CD POWER

Say hi to weirdly long capacitor.

This weekend I’m polishing up CDROM emulation on PicoGUS and verified that it works in Windows 98. Once I figure out a nice way to switch disc images and make a utility for it I will release a new firmware version.

Working on trying to fix a Voodoo3 3000 PCI I got in a lot. Only visible damage was a missing 10uf cap, but even replaced, still does this. Verticle bars, either black or RGB colors. 3.3v and 5v rails seem to be going where they should. No idea what to try next. Maybe @vswitchzero.com might know?

This is something I'd be really excited to try out! This project keeps getting better and better 😁

[Bracket for STB System 3dfx Voodoo 3] A simple 3D-printed bracket with a twist.👀 Hope you find it fascinating bending the printed piece into place. It's a small price to pay for the ultimate strength from a thin piece of plastic.🤪 Printables Link: printables.com/model/1289312

Happy birthday to Wolfenstein 3D, released on this day, 33 years ago on 5th May 1992!