You know you're a sad old geek when.....

[tech_guy]

You get all nostalgic over recalling:

 

• DOS 6.22
  
• DEGAUSSING MONITORS
  
• TINKERING WITH CONFIG.SYS & AUTOEXEC.BAT FILES
  
• SOUNDBLASTER SOUNDCARDS
  
• DOOM
  

[mattx]

You get all nostalgic over recalling:

 

• DOS 6.22
  
• DEGAUSSING MONITORS
  
• TINKERING WITH CONFIG.SYS & AUTOEXEC.BAT FILES
  
• SOUNDBLASTER SOUNDCARDS
  
• DOOM
  

 

My Fav was IBMDOS.

I still use a 21 inch monitor for my photo work with a degauss button. Some of the youngsters on here won't even know what we are talking about.

Oh yes, make up a special disk just to pull in that extra amount of memory you need for a game.

Still remember the IRQ [ 5 ] for a SB card + DMA settings etc....

Doom - wasted so much of my life playing that.

[BKGarry]

and that was all when I was still in primary school, by the time I got to year 6 (sept 95 to aug 96) windows 95 was there, :-)

 

but then, when I got to "big school" my parents saved up lots of money and got me a 96 edition IBM aptiva, complete with the following items:

• 14 inch CRT auto degaussing monitor
  
• 12 mb EDO RAM
  
• 1.4gb HDD
  
• 16bit soundblaster pro soundcard (plugged into one of those big black ISA??? slots)
  
• 
  

 

but then again, when I go to a primary school and see a BBC basic hiding in a cupboard, I can't help but to want to boot it up and see if they have the Smile suite of software :-)

[Jawloms]

I remember having to either change the IRQ for the printer port from 7 to 5, or turning the speakers off when you print otherwise you get a load of noise whilst printing.

[sparkeh]

Ahhh Degaussing, I remember the satisfying "Bonnnnng!" sound the old RM monitors used to make when you hit the button

 

Also, I remember having to run Mo'Slo for DOS games that ran too fast

[Danp]

Not that long ago I had a large plug in magnet that we used to degauss the monitors.

[Guest salan]

I still do all those things! lol

Well the degaussing not so much.

Still play Doom and Quake and Heretic etc.

I keep one Compaq deskpro 486 dx2 66 for game playing(but it uses CF cards for a hard disk now).

The rest (including an IBM mainframe) are virtual machines/ emulators. Having said that the loft and garage are still full of Dragons etc. lol

Alan

[chazzy2501]

I remember getting a soundcard so I could install a CDROM drive! I remember playing magic carpet from floppy disk on my diamond graphics card. I remember my first voodoo2! (the best PC purchase I ever made)

[HaleStorm]

I remember the first proper upgrade i bought for my PC, saved up all my pocket money for weeks and weeks to buy a 3DFX Voodoo3 PCI card....to play the original version of Thief...worth every penny

[mattx]

When I get home this evening I will video degaussing my monitor. I can't wait........

[6Foot2]

Ahhh Degaussing, I remember the satisfying "Bonnnnng!" sound the old RM monitors used to make when you hit the button

 

You forgot to mention the, also strangely satisfying, "wobble" that degaussing caused to the image. Perhaps there is a gif of it somewhere...

[JJonas]

You know you're a sad old geek when.....

 

You can remember entering code into debug to low level format an RLL hard drive.

 

 

I can also remember killing the first IDE drive we had with the same bit of code.

Edited March 12, 2013 by JJonas

[DMcCoy]

Press play on tape

[sparkeh]

Press play on tape

And if its a ZX 48k Spectrum, get the volume control at *exactly* the right level so the game loads

[jinnantonnixx]

...

 

Also, I remember having to run Mo'Slo for DOS games that ran too fast

 

Remember the 'Turbo' buttons?

[jinnantonnixx]

And if its a ZX 48k Spectrum, get the volume control at *exactly* the right level so the game loads

 

Oh that takes me back. Chrtistmas 1982. Black & white portable TV, a Spectrum (16K in my case), the Horizons cassette. Best Christmas ever.

 

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be, you know.

Edited March 12, 2013 by jinnantonnixx

[JJonas]

Spectrum, I started on a ZX80 Edited March 12, 2013 by JJonas

[Dos_Box]

Ah yes, the Voodoo 2. The first thing I brought that made me go 'wow' at my computer then running out next day to buy Quake 2

 

 

• My first CD burner. I could only get about one in six discs to burn because of buffer underruns.
  
• Having to manually arrange IRQ's when you fitted new hardware.
  
• Looking at a 14" monitor and being amazed at the amount of space you have to work on.
  
• Getting your first home colour printer and printing out EVERYTHING!
  
• Installing games and having to select which sound/graphics cards you had
  
• Thinking CD based encyclopaedias were amazing
  

 

I stop now because I'll regress to talking about my ZX81!

[ben604]

Setup.exe - Soundblaster 16 Compatible!

Direct dialing your mates house phone number to play C&C (at midnight, so no-one picked up the phone)! Then getting cut off as you were a within striking distance of his base with your army of 48 Mammoth Tanks!

Phoning BT to turn call-waiting off.

Using the couch cushions to kill the sound of the modem dialing when you should really be asleep young man!

Buying the Creative "multi-media kit" - Dual-speed CD-ROM and a SB16...

[Dos_Box]

5ppm Internet costs!

Freeserve!

The dial up noise

 

[caffrey]

parking heads on hard drives before moving the computer...

[ben604]

LAN Parties with 3 mates, your 19" CRT's and Coax network cables!

 

"Have you got any terminators?", "I thought you had them from last time?!"

[JJonas]

Demon Internet was the only dial up ISP

[6Foot2]

5ppm Internet costs!

Freeserve!

The dial up noise

 

 

Link: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/jokes-interweb-things/108098-dial-up-networking-dial-up-handshaking-illustrated.html

[CESIL]

Ah yes, typing code onto punched tape and then making a mistake right near the end several feet of tape later...happy days...NOT!