RetroTech Chris Profile picture
Nov 18, 2024 11 tweets 6 min read Read on X
Let's have a look at some pictures I took at today's Washington DC Area retro meetup. I'll make a thread!

First, a Packard Bell Legend 100CD with some nice expansion, and an IBM PS/1. Also, a Compaq Portable 286, an IBM NetVista and Compaq Deskpro! Image
Image
Image
Image
Next, we have @retrobitstv who brought an EVO64 with TONS of cool sound options! Image
Next, we have a Replay 68060 from FPGAArcade. Yep, that's a real CPU in there. Very cool device. Image
Image
Image
Next, we have some Amigas, featuring some reproduction hardware. Commodore was very well represented today! Image
Image
Apple II was in the house. We have a IIGS connected up via FujiNet and a very nice IIc Image
Image
Were there Macs? Oh you know it! Color Classics are awesome, as are Macintosh TVs. And there was a Macintosh Portable as well! Image
Image
Image
Believe it or not, this Compaq LTE 5300 is not mine 😂 Image
An Acorn A4000. Paging @NoodlesTech 😂 Image
Image
@NoodlesTech An Apple Pippin running System 7.5.2, I believe! That's pretty cool. Image
Image
Image
@NoodlesTech This MZ-700 is looking pretty Sharp 😂. And, look, an Atari STacy. No, it was not powered on. Image
Image
@NoodlesTech And finally we'll wrap with a TI99/4A, a Commodore VIC-20 and 64, and.. .a Vectrex!!

Lots to see at this regional meetup of ours. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

@threadreaderapp unroll Image
Image
Image

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with RetroTech Chris

RetroTech Chris Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @RetroTechChris

Jan 3
The challenges and solutions in retro computing never cease to amaze me, and today's project is no different. Today's goal was getting working storage in this AST Premium Exec 386 laptop. And fortunately, somewhat against the odds, I found one! Let's talk about it in a 🧵 here! Image
Image
So, anyway, the issue I had with this laptop is that the original 20MB 3.5" IDE hard drive had died. I thought "no problem, I'll pop on eBay and get one." Except they are scarce and expensive. I picked up two 120MB drives and one 40MB drive. None of them worked. Image
Image
In the past, I had also tried a CF card. I could get the CF cards to a point where they were accessible, but when I go to boot, I get a blinking cursor.. and sometimes a "non system disk or disk error" a few minutes later. Tried multiple CF cards, same result. Image
Image
Read 9 tweets
Dec 28, 2025
Has anyone ever worked with GEOS, GeoWorks, New Deal Office, or Breadbox Ensemble on a PC? Well, I decided to load it up on one of my 486 systems today and take it for a spin... including getting online! Let's talk about what I discovered in a 🧵 here! Image
Image
I decided to install Breadbox Ensemble 4.1.3, which was originally released in 2009. Keep in mind that this would be late in the cycle for, say, a 486 PC, that does give some perspective! Install was text based an a cinch! Image
Image
After installation, we get to configure a bit. I bumped up the video to 800x600x256, configured use of a DOS mouse driver, and set up my Panasonic dot matrix printer. Image
Image
Image
Read 14 tweets
Dec 26, 2025
Yesterday, I talked about a few systems I had that were not Intel/AMD/Cyrix based. Well, here's another one: my Gateway 2000 tower has a UMC processor in it! I haven't powered it on in a hot minute, so let's talk about it briefly in a 🧵 here! Image
Image
As we saw from the intro photo, this system has a UMC Green CPU US5-SUPER33 in it. And, indeed, it is super! It's almost as fast as a 486 DX2/50! These CPUs were subject to a legal dispute, and thus were not sold in the USA Image
Image
Image
On power up, we can see that this processor is detected as a U486SX by AMI BIOS. Not all motherboards supported this CPU. But my Shuttle-HOT-433 board does! Image
Image
Image
Read 5 tweets
Dec 26, 2025
I thought I'd power up and inventory my systems that don't have CPUs made by Intel/AMD/Cyrix, but are x86 compatible. I do have a few! Let's have a quick look at them in a 🧵 here! Image
Let's start with the system on the far left, the tower. It happens to be an ITX Llama system, built around the Vortex86EX CPU. It's similar in performance to a 486 or Pentium system. I did make a custom BIOS build to play the Nokia tune 😂 Image
Image
Oh, I should give some specs. 128MB RAM, ATI Rage Pro 128 AGP card, 120 GB SD card for storage, Crystal audio, and an RDC Ethernet card as you will see from my Windows screenshot here. This is a quirky system.. a bit buggy... and I HAD to use QEMM for memory management Image
Image
Image
Read 9 tweets
Dec 21, 2025
I thought I'd take some time today and "assemble" the new additions to my Compaq LTE 5000 series fleet! Each machine got a battery, hard drive, and either a floppy or CD-ROM drive. Let's talk about it briefly in a 🧵 here! Image
Image
Image
First, I started with the batteries. The cells have been removed, so we just have plastic shells. They all needed a cleaning, but this one was THE WORST. Some Goo Gone took care of it, and some elbow grease. Also, I was one battery short, so I pulled one from my spares! Image
Image
Image
One of the laptops had a screw that wasn't tight and blocked the battery, so I had to take it apart and tighten it. I also replaced the CPU cover on this laptop since it was in bad shape.. this is the laptop where we discovered previously that Goof Off is bad for plastics. Image
Image
Read 10 tweets
Dec 16, 2025
I just made a 10 cent improvement to this Compaq LTE Elite 4/75 laptop. Anyone want to guess what it is? Let's talk about it in a brief 🧵 here! Image
Did you make your guess? Yep! It was the screen latches! For 10 cents, my local library's makerspace printed these for me today! Image
Image
Image
Here are the prints. Apparently they have a TA26 and a Prusa printer. The lady at the makerspace said "use the Prusa ones!" And so I did! Image
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(