r/vintagecomputing • • 19d ago

Clarifying "No AI Slop"

117 Upvotes

Our policy is "tech demos on vintage hardware are always allowed." That can include emulated demos provided it's running on an obsolete computing architecture. The tech demo should be the main content of the post, not AI generated code.

The point of this rule is not to remove every post where someone may have used AI to create something cool. We do remove a lot of AI slop and we appreciate your reports.


r/vintagecomputing • • 2h ago

Computer control panel

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78 Upvotes

Bought this used several decades ago. Would like to know if anyone can identify it. There are no manufacturer identification markings anywhere.


r/vintagecomputing • • 7h ago

Need help identifying this ISA card

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54 Upvotes

Has 25 pin parallel and 9 pin monitor ports on the rear


r/vintagecomputing • • 3h ago

The Good Old Days...

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9 Upvotes

r/vintagecomputing • • 1d ago

I love matrix printers

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290 Upvotes

I got a KX-P1081 and an LX-800 from ebay.

I hook them up to a raspberry using a centronics to USB cable.
I made a Go program to manage the printers (without AI, cuz it was more fun)

They're surprisingly robust and low cost for printing just about anything.


r/vintagecomputing • • 5h ago

Much Ado About Seven Bytes

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0 Upvotes

An exploration of seven bytes that fooled Peter Norton.


r/vintagecomputing • • 1d ago

daily driving this, havent got networking

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118 Upvotes

praying to jean louis gassee that networking starts working rn


r/vintagecomputing • • 1d ago

Kevin Moonlight has this revolutionary Card which I believe will change the landscape of vintage portable devices.

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38 Upvotes

r/vintagecomputing • • 1d ago

DEC VAX VMS V5.4-2 Installation 9-track tape

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141 Upvotes

I was just searching around a bit in my basement. I knew I still had a VMS 9-track installation tape somewhere. And here it is.

Back then, DEC would send these tapes as part of a “distribution set.” It consisted of three tapes:

  1. Boot medium and required system files
  2. Libraries and optional VMS components
  3. DECwindows software

This tape here is reserved for user u/hildenborg and his MicroVAX II with TS05 tape drive.


r/vintagecomputing • • 1d ago

Acquired all of this from my tech course at a career center

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43 Upvotes

r/vintagecomputing • • 1d ago

Toshiba DynaBook 386/20 J-3100SX021P

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24 Upvotes

I came across this Toshiba DynaBook 386/20 (J-3100SX021P) at a second-hand shop in Japan. It looks almost like old stock, and the condition caught my attention.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to start.

Does anyone know what could cause this? Could it be a power supply issue, failed capacitors, or something else?

I'd love to hear from anyone who has experience repairing these vintage Toshiba laptops!


r/vintagecomputing • • 1d ago

Donate ti99-4a with cartridges?

13 Upvotes

Hello! My father left me his old ti99-4a with a bunch of game cartridges. I believe it still works fine. He loved this little computer! Is anyone interested? I am happy to ship within the US.


r/vintagecomputing • • 1d ago

Help identifying the connector on a vintage Wang 2200 Ergo II keyboard

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24 Upvotes

Hi all,

I've recently acquired this beauty, and based on the information in this Wang Ergo II Workstation datasheet, I believe it's a keyboard from the Wang 2200 Ergo II workstation family, possibly the 2886DE model.

I'm trying to identify the rather unusual connector (see attached pic). It appears to have 24 contacts arranged in two rows of 12, with an estimated contact pitch of around 2.5 mm.

My eventual goal is to build a small RP2040-based USB adapter so I can use the keyboard with a modern computer, ideally without modifying any of the original hardware.

Before attempting that, I'd like to identify the connector and, if possible, find a compatible mating socket. I'm also looking for any documentation covering the keyboard's pinout, power requirements or communication protocol.

Has anyone come across this type of connector before?

Any information, part numbers or pointers to relevant documentation would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!


r/vintagecomputing • • 1d ago

VCF Swap Meet - Sat. Oct. 17 - Wall, NJ

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394 Upvotes

It will be SUNny at the VCF Swap Meet: Sat. Oct. 17 - Wall, NJ

https://vcfed.org/vcf-swap-meet/


r/vintagecomputing • • 1d ago

Found this in an bin today looks cool :)

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104 Upvotes

r/vintagecomputing • • 1d ago

i got a old Sony vaio PCG-FXA36 from a thrift store today

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71 Upvotes

It was $10 at the thrift store and I'm not sure much information about it and I have no clue where the hard drive might be located

the laptop came with 256MB of ram and it has a dvd drive and a floppy drive and a network card


r/vintagecomputing • • 1d ago

Yellowing at or near the seems

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3 Upvotes

I have two PC keyboards of different makes/eras as well as an early 90s PC monitor, and while they haven't yellowed all over the item... There is targeted yellowing concentrated only at the seems where two large pieces of the plastic cover of the item would meet. In the case of the monitor, I'm thinking it's whiteness is a factory paint layer and the plastic beneath has yellowed, so areas that may have never received paint, such as the seems, would show yellow, however I don't have a good theory for the keyboards. What do you think?


r/vintagecomputing • • 1d ago

What kind of HDD ribbon is this?

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6 Upvotes

It came from a Sony VAIO VGN-T140P. What type of HDD does it use?


r/vintagecomputing • • 1d ago

ATT 3b1

6 Upvotes

I woke up to a 3am text from a friend who entered the hobby in the middle of the night after I dragged them to the Midwest VCF a month or so ago.

“I blame you for this. Being loath to accept responsibility for my own executive function and all... https://hackaday.io/page/400178 (links to https://hackaday.io/page/400177)”


r/vintagecomputing • • 1d ago

Little thrift pick up! $1 for both!!

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22 Upvotes

Cool mech warrior 3 demo disk can’t place where it would’ve come from ? Magazine most likely but still a interesting find and slice n’ hook was interesting since I’ve never heard of it


r/vintagecomputing • • 18h ago

What are those and what to do with them?

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0 Upvotes

Those were found in a box, which had not been touched for about 20 years i think. i did some research and found that they belong to 1997-2001 era, but do they have a use in today's world or are these just a pile of trash. For some reason a few people had that last card, "soundplaster awe64 gold" listen on ebay for a lot more than other things. anyways, here's a list of things what i have:

Sound Blaster AWE64 gold

ATI A5PT

ATI Rage 128 Pro 16 MB

Matrox MGA-G100

3Com 3C905-TX

SpecTek 256 MB PC133 SDRAM

128 MB PC133 SDRAM

Compaq 323012-001

PQI MS3812UPS

Micron 64 Mbit

Hyundai 16 MB EDO RAM

ANY information about what these could be actually worth or what to do with them is very much appreciated! For me, these are useless and i would throw them away except for the sound card. that i might list on ebay, underbidding all other's just to get rid of it.


r/vintagecomputing • • 2d ago

A low-Poly 3D Renderer for MSDOS

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114 Upvotes

I’ve been working on a small project called 3Dos — a low-poly 3D renderer targeting MS-DOS and VGA Mode 13h (320×200, 256 colors).

The renderer currently supports:
● Triangle rasterization with backface culling
● Ordered dithering using a 4×4 Bayer matrix
● Double buffering
● Simple low-poly models

Going back to DOS-era graphics has been relaxing after spending quite a bit of time with Vulkan. No boilerplate or abstractions, just putting a pixel at 0xA000.

Github: https://github.com/xms0g/3Dos


r/vintagecomputing • • 1d ago

What can I turn this into

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20 Upvotes

I picked this up from my music class in my school since the teacher said he had no use for it because it was burnt out (which i see bc of the burn). I'm pretty sure I can't repair this because I have zero experience with a computer this old. I don't want to salvage it, maybe I can try to replace the monitor if possible and yes,I discharged it.


r/vintagecomputing • • 2d ago

I found a bag tucked behind a few books in my basement.

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172 Upvotes

A colleague gave it to me 25 years ago. He thought he was doing me a favor. It actually made me a little sad. I kept it anyway.

The VAXes were completely scrapped. He wasn't allowed to pull the modules for me, so he took the badges with him.


r/vintagecomputing • • 1d ago

Replaced thermal paste and can't get laptop to turn on now?

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0 Upvotes

I tried to replace the thermal paste on this Toshiba A15, but I can't get it to power on now. When I plug it in, the fan spins, but I can't get the laptop to turn on. I noticed the CPU was the same socket as a broken gateway I had, so I swapped the athlon in the Toshiba with a Turion, but I had to swap it back. Did I accidentally fry it? The pins look okay.