Retro PC Builds in 2024 - Part 3

Moving onto Part 3 of my series, look at the next build I did this year, a Compaq Deskpro Pentium 3 1Ghz PC. You can go back and check out the previous Part 1 and Part 2 if you missed them.

I built this computer with Windows XP Professional, with a IDE to CF adapter, similarly to what I did in Part 2 with the IBM Aptiva system running Windows 98SE.

I also found a Soundblaster Live 5.25 inch module sold with the original premium version of the card. It adds MIDI ports, digital optical in/out and RCA input options, with a remote control, and is very period correct for this system.

Actually, I had a Soundblaster Extigy with the external module around this time, but I couldn't get one for a reasonable price, so I settled for this, which I found in a local Op shop for $10 as the sound card was not included - luckily I still had one, so it was great for me :-)

I installed a PCI AMD Radeon 9250 graphics card.

 

This machine exists to capture the period of games and demos that are beyond 3dfx capability but don't work on the Windows 7 PC I bought in 2011 and still have today.

In this era of PC ownership, I still used PDA's for work, and I had migrated from Palm Tungsten T to a PocketPC based PDA for work use, connecting Outlook email app connected to an Exchange 2003 server front end/back end I built for work. 

Actually, it was an O2 XDA as I needed a mobile phone in it also for global travel. It ran Windows Mobile 2003 and later device running Windows Mobile 5. I used the vpn, remote desktop and vnc applications to control and manage servers remotely.

This PocketPC device was a quantum leap over the functionality of the Palm Tungsten T. I no longer have the O2 XDA since it was a work device. These days, these devices are mostly useless due to the de-activation of the 2G and 3G mobile networks. So I decided to pick up a Wifi only device to connect to this PC, as it is the correct era for it - I ran Windows XP then also.

I found this hp iPAQ Pocket PC h4100 series, lightly used in it's original box locally on Ebay for a very cheap price.

Originally, the iPAQ was made by Compaq, but was rebranded to hp after they took over Compaq in the early 2000's.

Opening the box, the original HP iPad slip in cover, stylus, usb cradle and power for the cradle. 

The iPAQ charges on the cradle. There is a space behind the iPAQ when on the cradle to connect an extra battery pack. In these days you could still swap out batteries. I wish we could still do that.

There is a SD-Card slot at the top to add storage - something you will definitely need in this.

You can remove the battery by popping off the case cover on the back - you can see the stylus is stored inside the iPAQ to the left side of the battery:

After I charged it up, I powered on and I see the previous owner has already wiped the device, so it is starting the normal out of box experience to setup the device.

I installed the iPAQ CD that came with it - kind of nice I didn't have to locate the cd iso online..

This software installs Outlook XP if you don't already have it installed for email sync, and also the all important ActiveSync application to sync data and applications to the iPAQ.

You then connect the iPAQ to the PC via the usb cradle to do the initial sync, that associates the device to the PC.

Very nostalgic to see this Today screen again on a PDA in 2024!

As mentioned, you have to setup a partnership (associate) between the PocketPC device and the host PC used for installing applications and syncing data. This is basically the way Microsoft ensures license compliance for software installed on the device.

ActiveSync completes it's first sync with the iPAQ:

With that housekeeping done, let's take a look at the iPAQ itself. The applications included by default cover the usual Games, calculator, file explorer, internet explorer, pictures, media player, MSN Messenger (RIP sadly), Word, Excel and a few others.

Some sample images are on the device, and look very good, with thumbnail preview:

The iPAQ also has a Start button with shortcuts to applications on the iPAQ, similar to Windows XP start menu. Very familiar interface for people using Windows XP of the same era.

The included games are only two - and I was keen to try out the games for PocketPC as it is something I didn't do back in the day and I know the games were actually pretty good since the speed and performance of the iPAQ enabled some good games to be released on it.

Jawbreaker is a colour match game:

Solitaire is, well, solitaire. It works well, but the iPAQ can do much more than that.

So I got some PocketPC commercial games and applications - these are pretty cheap as most people don't care about PDA's from this era - they are not "retro" or "nostalgic" as retro computers and consoles are viewed.

A number of these titles were still shrink wrapped and had never been opened or used before. 

What a waste - time to open them all up in 2024.

Run the install CD on the PC, it installs the software on the PC and activates the ActiveSync process to transfer the software installer across to the iPAQ.

Once the ActiveSync completed, the installer starts automatically on the iPAQ:

The game now appears on the iPAQ games folder.

This first games are Pop's pipes and Slurp.

It is nice to be able to play videos and mp3's on the iPAQ using Windows Media player:

It is much better than the PalmOS for this, and with the larger SD card capacity, much more usable too.

This era up to 2011 with the Compaq Pentium 3 1GHz PC basically covered the last period that you could still buy PC games as CD/DVD in retail boxes without activation on Steam or other online service.

I spent some time collecting some of the older game boxes on Ebay, which are quite cheap as no one wants them, unless of course it is titled "Doom", "Quake", "Commander Keen", or "Rise of the Triad", in which case the prices are absolutely insane.

Sadly retail boxed games released after this period from 2011 generally require activation on Steam to use them, and once activated the CD/DVD is useless and not transferrable to another owner. 

This making buying the boxed games on Ebay an exercise in frustration having to check the box photos to see if it is steam activated or not.

I got some game boxes from my late Dad, but sadly a lot of those are also steam activated and I can't transfer them to my Steam account, making them totally useless.

Kinda sad, but that is modern PC gaming - no box, no manual, no soundtrack cd, no extra goodies in the box, and now no box either. Games today are no cheaper for not including those things, and that is a sad thing for us all.

Your steam library is not exactly something you can display on a shelf...anyway.

I still buy full size game boxes for newly released games for my Amiga, Gameboy, Lynx and other platforms in 2024. It is a shame that very few game makers do this on PC in 2024 - that being said, I noticed Balder's Gate 3 is being released in a small run as a physical boxed game in 2024, which is good to see.

I am aware you can get a few (rare) limited run boxed games for PC in 2024, but they almost all include a steam key in the box, no manual and a handful of goodies for a very expensive collectors price. 

Since we are caught up to the modern era on the PC front, I decided to move onto the next build, which is not actually a PC.

Last build to look at here is a Mac Classic II.

This was an impulse buy at the Adelaide Retro computer yearly sale event. I wanted a color classic mac as I liked the design of the last mac released in this form factor, but sadly the price of them these days is just ridiculous.

I opted for this standard Macintosh Classic II system instead, which has a 68030 CPU in it and cost AUD$200. 

The original hard disk is inside, and I was assured by the seller the system had been recapped and battery changed. I'll take their word for it - it works, and runs System 7.1 with 10MB memory onboard.

I picked up some original Apple Macintosh games for the system, which naturally needed to be on floppy disk since I didn't have a spare SCSI CD-ROM drive to use on it.

As I didn't have any Mac software of this vintage, it was fun to look for it:

One thing to be careful of here though, is the Macintosh has a greyscale screen and not colour. A lot of games don't support greyscale screens for games, so I needed to check that first before buying them.

Lemmings for MAC works great on this system:

Naturally, I think the Amiga version is superior in every way, but the Mac version runs well on this system:

Shufflepuck Cafe is another Amiga favourite that works well on Mac Classic II:

I picked up some productivity software like Personal Press from a local garage sale for $5 and was quit happy about it:

I pulled out my Apple Macintosh Powerbook 165c laptop, which has a lot of software I can also run on this Mac Classic II.

I copied software and cd/zip drivers using floppy disks initially. I plan to add a zip drive to it later to make this much less painful.

I also put on a mod player and cd player. The CD Player looks cool. I'll need to take the AppleCD 600 SCSI drive from one of my Amiga systems to try out with this system later on.

I bought and prepared a bluescsi external drive on MicroSD card, which I downloaded a System 7.1 hard disk image online to speed things up since I didn't have the original System 7 floppy disks for this system..

The system still boots from the internal physical hard disk, so I need to fix that.

In the control panel is the startup disk icon which I launched:

In Startup Disk control panel application, I can then choose the BlueScsi hard disk image.

 

With the System disk changed over, I now have 3x 500MB hard disks on this system, all running on the BlueSCSI MicroSD externally. Lots of free space for games, applications, demos and music.

With that done, I settled back and enjoyed some music mod files on the Mac Classic:

I do have plans to add MIDI to this as well, but for Mac that is more complex as you need a ADB to MIDI converter. I tried to buy one when it came up on Ebay but I missed it unfortunately. I will keep an eye for another one!

I also plan to add a lot more applications and games to this system as I track down interesting titles on Ebay to try out. I know I can install quite a few from places from Macintosh Garden website, and I am doing that, but tracking down the original software with the manuals is much better as applications without manuals in this era are hard to use.

I had planned to do so much more in these build series, but work commitments this year have made it too hard, and with the year almost over, I wanted to make sure I captured the work I did on these various builds in 2024 while it was still this year!

So for now, that concludes my Retro PC build series. I hope you enjoyed it!

I have been doing plenty on the Amiga systems too, with so many new games and demos released in 2024. I hope to have some more time to blog about these as well soon!