IDE-to-SD adapters are usually the easier way to go on PC's, but I can see the utility (especially for CD-ROM images) of using a BlueSCSI. I had several laughs watching along as you wrestled with this one. Great video. Happy New Year!
Happy New Year Steve! Late in 1998, I got a Compaq Presario in this form factor, from a wealthy uncle. It had had a Pentium II, and and an ATI graphics card and it came with the game Moto Racer. It was great, and I wish I still had it, but I let my brother take it to be recycled before I got into vintage PCs and Macs and started watching RUclips videos from channels like LGR, The 8-Bit Guy, etc, etc.
What a great way to start the new year! Happy new year! PS you should have used magic smoke as fireworks - or at least blown a tantalum! ;) PS2 I get the impression that at least half of the graphics cards of that era are marginal or broken by now. A firm pressure to cut costs to be competitive sure didn't help for the survivability.
Back in early 1999, I was living with some relatives in Canada (I'm from Australia) and the family computer was one of these. Lots of memories seeing one again!
It's better than the Presario I once had. On the plus side it had some little sockets for expanding VRAM, but on the minus side even expanded it maxxed out at 2MB which was probably plenty in 1996. But it gets worse as it had exactly one PCI slot for chucking in something better
I played the first one. Favorite thing was to build part of the coaster and finish just half the loop, then open it up and watch full roller coaster cars go flying across the park. Hey, I never got arrested by the Roller Coaster Tycoon police! 🤣
The ATI PCI card is probably your best bet between the two. It looks like a couple of cards that I used in some PC builds of mine, which, in my case, they were 8MB VGA cards. The graphical artifacts that appeared on the screen are a telltale sign, imo, that the onboard VGA chipset is probably about to die. If the add-in VGA card won't work, the only solutions are to replace the chipset or, going with the Apple method, replace the logic board.
I had a full-height SCSI hard disk in my Packard Bell 486 once- a 620MB Micropolis. It made the thing very side-heavy- the drive weighed around fifteen pounds, even heavier than my Seagate ST-4096. It ran Windows 95.
As a replacement for old IDE drives, I found the easiest route to buy a dirt cheap SATA to PATA adapter and buy the cheapest SSD you can find. It will be supported natively and outperform any old IDE. Kudos for going down the SCSI path and actually got it working. ❤😊
It is admittedly fun to see Mac guy suffer some authentic PC “fun”. I feel like Macs of this time period at least did what they were supposed to do but with PCs it was like playing roulette or something. 😂
Funny at least the previous owner changed out the quantum slow foot drive. I been working on the p3 500mgz version of that pc for the last 4 weeks trying to recover the diamond sound drivers because it wouldn't work with the official drivers really sucked the quantum Bigfoot was not booting and the system restore for the5695 isn't online I finally got it to work and installed to sd to ide not even going to play with scsi I put a diamond 700 tnt2 in my compaq it's a really good card for that Era voodoo cards are way over priced for casual gaming just my personal opinion and back in 2000s I was using tnt2 anyways so I'm fine with my setup. Wish I had the cd door for the case though looks nice. But hey can't complain I found the pc on the curb and just needed cleaning and software sorted.
When i was younger (so much younger than today) my family got one of these Compaqs. Boy did i have fun running some games on that.. (For instance my Startrek: Armada copy) That ATI Rage GPU did its job fairly well I believe that ours had a PIII at 300mhz or something similar and the Rage LT Pro Embedded GPU
Great video. It would be helpful with a video on how to setup the blue scsi itself for use with dos and Windows. There is a lot of them for Mac, but none for Windows that I can find 😞
I used DiskJockey to create the disk image and used Adaptec EZ-SCSI 5.0 on Windows 98. The program saw the BlueSCSI and made the volume for me. Although the same probably could have been done via Disk Management.
Oh man, I need to get Totally Legit CDs! They are totally legit, what could go wrong? The music on the first CD definitely fits the theme. Make sure you got that desktop ready for Y2K, the end of the internet cyberspace is soon! Great video Steve, cool to see the Compaq in action.
I’ve got some similar late 90s desktops like this but I do need to get some storage upgrades or alternatives. Ideally I’d like to back up the drive and keep the factory install, or at the very least get a proper reinstall CD. The drives still work but without a good alternative/replacement I haven’t used them too much. I have however played RollerCoaster Tycoon with a genuine CD on similar systems. Specifically on XP and the best version ever, ME!
I love BlueSCSI. I use them all the time on my retro PCs even though they're primarily made for Macs. They can be a little finicky if you're not that familiar with PC SCSI, but they work just fine once they're up and running. I absolutely love the CD emulation feature. I even made a HP DB-50 to IDC 50 adapter so I can use them externally. As far as performance, I use a V2 as a primary (and only) hard drive on a Dell Dimension 4600 running Windows XP, and it still works great.
Oh boy… waving two hammers dangerously close to your screen, a *totally legit* CD label, and a smooth jazz SCSI installer! This video has it all!
I swear I was watching the @ActionRetro channel, waiting for BeOS to be installed on that Compaq. 🤣
Haha thank you, I may need to channel my inner Sean and try it!
I've been playing RCT and RCT2 using OpenRCT2 for the last few months. They both hold up exceptionally well.
And on Mac and Linux too!
The sheer amount of modems I replaced in those damn Compaq's when working for RadioShack computer repair in the late 90's early 2000's is STAGGERING.
IDE-to-SD adapters are usually the easier way to go on PC's, but I can see the utility (especially for CD-ROM images) of using a BlueSCSI. I had several laughs watching along as you wrestled with this one. Great video. Happy New Year!
Yes but the easy way is never fun 😂 Glad you enjoyed it!
Happy New Year Steve! Late in 1998, I got a Compaq Presario in this form factor, from a wealthy uncle. It had had a Pentium II, and and an ATI graphics card and it came with the game Moto Racer. It was great, and I wish I still had it, but I let my brother take it to be recycled before I got into vintage PCs and Macs and started watching RUclips videos from channels like LGR, The 8-Bit Guy, etc, etc.
What a great way to start the new year! Happy new year!
PS you should have used magic smoke as fireworks - or at least blown a tantalum! ;)
PS2 I get the impression that at least half of the graphics cards of that era are marginal or broken by now. A firm pressure to cut costs to be competitive sure didn't help for the survivability.
Back in early 1999, I was living with some relatives in Canada (I'm from Australia) and the family computer was one of these. Lots of memories seeing one again!
1:30 Oh yeah, I like my computer having a huge sticker on the side of the case on it explaining another marketing sticker on the front of case 🙃
The legal department demands more stickers to explain the other stickers! 😂
Gotta love these weird quirky Compaq systems. Surprisingly capable little machines!
I had a fleet of about 50 of them in 97, man are they crap.
It's better than the Presario I once had. On the plus side it had some little sockets for expanding VRAM, but on the minus side even expanded it maxxed out at 2MB which was probably plenty in 1996. But it gets worse as it had exactly one PCI slot for chucking in something better
Ouch! Yeah this one I think maxes out at 6MB, but I think a newer PCI card would be better, I’ll be trying that next.
I played the first one. Favorite thing was to build part of the coaster and finish just half the loop, then open it up and watch full roller coaster cars go flying across the park. Hey, I never got arrested by the Roller Coaster Tycoon police! 🤣
I LAUGHED so hard when it happened
The ATI PCI card is probably your best bet between the two. It looks like a couple of cards that I used in some PC builds of mine, which, in my case, they were 8MB VGA cards.
The graphical artifacts that appeared on the screen are a telltale sign, imo, that the onboard VGA chipset is probably about to die. If the add-in VGA card won't work, the only solutions are to replace the chipset or, going with the Apple method, replace the logic board.
actually, you might get better UT performance with the onboard video...if you select software rendering
Yes, I’ll be showing this in the next part.
I had a full-height SCSI hard disk in my Packard Bell 486 once- a 620MB Micropolis. It made the thing very side-heavy- the drive weighed around fifteen pounds, even heavier than my Seagate ST-4096. It ran Windows 95.
I have one of those Presario's, but it's a 5220. Mine doesn't have all the cool factory stickers anymore like yours does tho!
As a replacement for old IDE drives, I found the easiest route to buy a dirt cheap SATA to PATA adapter and buy the cheapest SSD you can find. It will be supported natively and outperform any old IDE. Kudos for going down the SCSI path and actually got it working. ❤😊
It is admittedly fun to see Mac guy suffer some authentic PC “fun”. I feel like Macs of this time period at least did what they were supposed to do but with PCs it was like playing roulette or something. 😂
Funny at least the previous owner changed out the quantum slow foot drive. I been working on the p3 500mgz version of that pc for the last 4 weeks trying to recover the diamond sound drivers because it wouldn't work with the official drivers really sucked the quantum Bigfoot was not booting and the system restore for the5695 isn't online I finally got it to work and installed to sd to ide not even going to play with scsi I put a diamond 700 tnt2 in my compaq it's a really good card for that Era voodoo cards are way over priced for casual gaming just my personal opinion and back in 2000s I was using tnt2 anyways so I'm fine with my setup. Wish I had the cd door for the case though looks nice. But hey can't complain I found the pc on the curb and just needed cleaning and software sorted.
A Dell lcd monitor attached to a Compaq desktop. "Dude, you're gettin' a Compaq!"
I spent too many hours of my life playing RCT on early Pentium machines in and around the turn of the millennium and Im not even a gamer.
I knew I felt a weird disturbance in the force.
Rollercoaster Tycoon is amazing, and it still holds up well to this day.
So much fun! Glad it is up and running. Happy New Year!!
7:27 Starting Windows 90 or the top the 8 in 98 is chopped off.
When i was younger (so much younger than today) my family got one of these Compaqs. Boy did i have fun running some games on that.. (For instance my Startrek: Armada copy) That ATI Rage GPU did its job fairly well
I believe that ours had a PIII at 300mhz or something similar and the Rage LT Pro Embedded GPU
Great video! There were a lot of laugh out loud moments!
Quien lo diría. El señor barriga sabe de computadoras.
Great video. It would be helpful with a video on how to setup the blue scsi itself for use with dos and Windows. There is a lot of them for Mac, but none for Windows that I can find 😞
I used DiskJockey to create the disk image and used Adaptec EZ-SCSI 5.0 on Windows 98. The program saw the BlueSCSI and made the volume for me. Although the same probably could have been done via Disk Management.
Shoving SCSI!
Loved it!
👍👍
Oh man, I need to get Totally Legit CDs! They are totally legit, what could go wrong? The music on the first CD definitely fits the theme. Make sure you got that desktop ready for Y2K, the end of the internet cyberspace is soon! Great video Steve, cool to see the Compaq in action.
Haha, yep! This PC certainly needs a Y2K sticker on it 👍
I’ve got some similar late 90s desktops like this but I do need to get some storage upgrades or alternatives. Ideally I’d like to back up the drive and keep the factory install, or at the very least get a proper reinstall CD. The drives still work but without a good alternative/replacement I haven’t used them too much. I have however played RollerCoaster Tycoon with a genuine CD on similar systems. Specifically on XP and the best version ever, ME!
Where the heck did you get a LS-240 drive? 😮
The 240MB drive I got off a Japan auction site. The rest I got from local computer swap meet events.
I love BlueSCSI. I use them all the time on my retro PCs even though they're primarily made for Macs. They can be a little finicky if you're not that familiar with PC SCSI, but they work just fine once they're up and running.
I absolutely love the CD emulation feature. I even made a HP DB-50 to IDC 50 adapter so I can use them externally.
As far as performance, I use a V2 as a primary (and only) hard drive on a Dell Dimension 4600 running Windows XP, and it still works great.
The struggle is real with these old pcs I’ve been trying to get a good gaming rig of that era work forever now still haven’t got one working right
Oh ya played that game so much on an old system very similar to it
The HAMMER! Threaten that thing!
CRAM IT! CRAM IT GOOD!
Rage XL will be slower due to PCI. The G400 will be good possibly
I'll certainly give the G400 series card a go! Too bad this thing doesn't have an AGP slot, but I do have newer PCs that do.