Thrift Log: Microsoft 1381 Webcam (LifeCam VX-2000)
Hey! I’ve been trying to figure out what to do for pictures in these thrift store posts. I’m one of those weirdos who doesn’t have a smartphone — nothing wrong with them, but I’ve never been able…
Thrift Log: Intellivision TV Play Power
Paid six bucks. Disappointing unit for a variety of reasons. Controller The Intellivision had a crazy dial-and-keypad controller with side buttons. It supported plastic overlays for game-specific control instructions, and the dial could detect 16 directions of…
Thrift Log – Microsoft SideWinder Plug & Play Game Pad (X04-97702)
This USB controller works out of the box with Windows 10, which is nice, considering that the box says “Designed for Windows 98”. Wikipedia says the release year was 2000. The grip feels pretty decent, but I…
Thrift Log – Microsoft Sidewinder X6 Keyboard
Found for about $6 CAD. I ended up grabbing it out of curiosity for the weird dials, numerous macro keys, and the Microsoft Sidewinder branding. Sidewinder was Microsoft’s pre-XBox, “extreme” gaming-oriented peripheral brand, and they slapped the name…
Thrift Log – Cicero Pentium 4 PC
(This is too big for me to photograph in a convenient manner, but here is the Cicero badge on the front for posterity.) Cicero is an old Future Shop / Best Buy brand, used to sell PCs…
Cave Noire
Konami’s 1991 Cave Noire is a bite-sized dungeon crawler for the original Game Boy. Released in Japan only, it seems to have come and gone without much notice, outside of a small following on the…
XMPlay
XMPlay is a free and lightweight media player for Windows, with support for a wealth of custom audio formats and Winamp-compatible plugins. One of XMPlay’s best interface features is configurable global-focus shortcut keys. You can configure volume up/down,…
Vintage PC Notes
These are some scattered notes about vintage PC configuration and maintenance, mostly related to a Dell OptiPlex GX1 (Pentium III CPU) that I adopted from work. Subject to change, no warranty, etc, etc. Windows 98SE:…
ZZT
ZZT is a sort of action-puzzle-adventure mashup for MS-DOS, the debut title from Tim Sweeney’s Epic MegaGames in 1991. Technically obsolete before it was even released, it uses Code Page 437 for graphics, the PC speaker for…
VirtualBox Administration Notes
(Note: This post probably won’t be touched again due to my switching to KVM.) This is a placeholder for some notes about command-line installation and administration of VirtualBox, Oracle’s free virtualization suite. Most tasks can be handled…