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vswitchzero.com
Retro PC and gaming enthusiast. On YouTube at http://youtube.com/c/vswitchzero πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦
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New #FastDoom release! This version adds support for VESA HiColor and TrueColor modes! πŸ˜ƒ github.com/viti95/FastD...

New Video! Today I enhance a pair of 3dfx Voodoo 3 1000 cards. They get poly-modded, volt-modded and an upgraded cooling system. Was I able to get these to 166MHz Voodoo 3 3000 performance levels? Join me to find out! ⚑😎 youtu.be/OSuszTQ21Mk

A project I need to get around to at some point is this HP Star Wars Special Edition laptop. It was my daughter's 18th birthday present and it... hasn't worn the years well (she's now 24 and has 2 kids). Hopefully I can restore it back to its former glory.

1/ These two boards are remarkably similar and yet somewhat different. ECS above, TMC below. The TMC uses resistor networks and jumpers to configure options on the board, while the ECS uses only jumpers (and not many of them). Resistor networks are an absolute pain to work with.

Pro tip: The 3dfx Voodoo 3 3500 TV uses a massive, awkward dongle. If you just need VGA, get the "Dell C4403 P&D to VGA adapter" instead. So much easier to deal with!

Got this 6800 Ultra AGP last year for a great price. I honestly have no idea if it works or not. If it does, it'll be going into a high-end NF2 based AXP system. Gotta love the aesthetic of the 6800s πŸ™‚

This is Compaq's "Business Wavetable Sound Card" that just so happens to be a great card for DOS gaming 😜 It doesn't look like much, but it has the ES692S wavetable chip on it (1MB of samples) and the very capable ES1869F chip for digital audio and FM synthesis. Great all-around card.

Custom Pentium Overdrive (POD) finally meets OEM POD 😁

This 3Dfx Voodoo Banshee with aftermarket fan is looking much more legit now thanks to @geekenspiel.bsky.social 😎 50mm fan hole spacing lines up perfectly with the holes in the heatsink and PCB. [Repost from the other place Nov 2022]

1/2 Finally got around to repairing my Roland SC-55ST. It had a flaky audio channel that would randomly cut-out when using the RCA output. Wiggling the cable would usually get it going again. [Repost from the other place Dec 2022]

You can keep resisting all you want 3dfx flash utility. We have ways of making you embrace your new vbios bits πŸ”¨πŸ”₯⚑️

Behold the "Sierra Screamin' 3D" Rendition Verite V1000-E. The card is made by Canopus and even included the original CD. Hoping to explore some of 3dfx' early competition in the coming months from Rendition and PowerVR πŸ‘ [Repost from the other place Sept 2023]

Nothing to see here, just your typical ESD protection and low-pass filter bypass mod 😬 Sadly this GeForce 256’s display output signal problems are originating from the GPU itself. Oh well, was worth a shot! [Repost from the other place - Sept 2023]

Was digging through some old pics and found a screenshot of my socket 939 Opteron 148 overclocking results on a Vapochill LS. Could do 3.3GHz with Samsung TCCD at 300MHz. I was majorly into overclocking in mid 2005 or so 😁

Titan Quest! One of my all-time favourite games. Sank countless hours in over the years and played all the expansions. Already own it on Steam but couldn’t resist picking up a physical copy for $12 😁

In my broken pile awaiting repair. Bought this dead Sega Game Gear for $36 CAD including shipping. Hopefully a recap will revive it but would love to give it some enhancement. Let me know if anyone has some tips πŸ‘

In contrast to the TI SXL, the UMC Green is the fastest "true" 486 processor by a long-shot (clock-for-clock). It does integer division in 7 clock cycles vs 20+ on Intel/AMD 486s and has other improvements too. Sadly, it was swiftly crushed due to legal disputes with Intel. youtu.be/1Rj1B4M6yXM

Behold the TI SXL-40. Most of TI's 486s were Cyrix based, but this is one is their own design. Apparently, it's one of the slowest 486s clock-for-clock. None of my dozen or so 486 boards seem to support it so I've never been able to try it out. I have the clock-doubled SXL2-50 as well.

Good news, I didn’t win the auction! Or is that bad news… 🫠

Well, the fact that this VLB video card is completely breaking the system POST might actually help me diagnose the fault with it. Also in this photo, my makeshift heatsink 😁 This is one of four CL-GD5429 VLB cards I'm working on for @gammitin.bsky.social

today I learned that Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego Enhanced (DOS, 1990) shows a different ACME Detective Agency scene based on your system's date.

Reading the datasheet for the AVGA2 chip used on the ACUMOS VGA card reveals a "Performance" mode and faster memory timing. Turns out R16, R17 and R18 control these config bits. Running the card in 0WS mode in "high performance" mode @ 50mhz nets a 32% boost. (This card was already set to max speed)

Quake 2 on MS-DOS using Q2DOS, a fan backport of the original game from Windows source code. #DOSGaming dk.toastednet.org/Q2DOS/ Software mode is shown here, but Q2DOS has these cool features: Internet play, HTTP downloading, SB Pro and GUS support, PCI audio, OGG/WAV music, & 3Dfx Voodoo rendering

Did you know that you can make a post analyzer card report any arbitrary hex value with a simple qbasic script in DOS? Thanks to @manawyrm.de for sharing this tip πŸ‘

I told myself I wouldn't do it again.. but yeah.. I'm bidding on another lot of 50+ vintage video cards and other parts on eBay🫠 Not sure if I should ask for help or encouragement at this point πŸ˜‚

You've heard of exploding/leaking caps before, but how about the imploding variety? I recapped the board but all of these Hitano brand caps tested within spec - even the imploded one!

Well, that's one way to remove the NC pin on a floppy connector. Can't imagine that felt quite right when the previous owner plugged that in πŸ˜‚

You’d think if they were going to go to the trouble of putting fake cache chips on a motherboard that they’d at least do a better soldering job πŸ˜‚ .. and check out the patented β€œtraces to nowhere”. Two versions of the infamous PC Chips M919.

1/2 Who says Doom can't run smoothly on a 386? πŸ˜πŸ‡