Gammitin (Ben) 💾

@gammitin.bsky.social

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Obsessed with Vintage / Retro tech - I collect, repair, upgrade retro Laptops, Desktop Computers, Consoles, unusual tech. Also love Gaming and Cats 😸

https://linktr.ee/gammitin

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Epson PC-386 Note A update: I've sorted the HDD issue out, I've used a very old IDE drive, the laptop maxes out at 40MB, but using a HDD I get the authentic sounds. More on that at a later date! I've decided I want to make a custom Gotek, to make sure to keep the aesthetic.

Epson PC-386 Note A Update: - The original 40MB hard drive is dead. - The capacitor for the HDD power was way out of spec, I've swapped it. -I've removed and tested all other caps and they're all good. Not sure if the HDD died and it affected the power cap 🤔 Now I need a HDD!

I found out today, that my lovely little Philips workhorse monitor supports: - Separate sync - Composite sync - Sync on green Kind of explains why it seems to just work with whatever I throw at it!

Microsoft Flight Simulator (1982 to 2024)

Prince of Persia (1989) developed and published by Broderbund, designed and implemented by Jordan Mechner. Which platform did you first play it on?

8-Bit Sega Game Gear - Sonic the Hedgehog Games

Any Dizzy fans out there?

Temporary break on the Epson refurb, I think I figured out where the dry joint on the Bondwell Model 8 laptop is, I love that blue Electroluminescence (EL) backlight.

Missed out on two new sealed boxes of 100 DD floppy disks (200 total), actually gutted! 😞

Compaq SLT/286 from 1988. I've already refurbished this machine and installed and SD to IDE and got the original floppy drive to work. I also installed a modern laptop power jack, the original is an unusual proprietary connector. I'm planning on doing a dual floppy Gotek mod.

Two very different 386SX-16 'laptops', both from 1990. Left: A Taiwanese Acer Anyware 1100LX Right: Japanese Epson PC-386 Note A 💾 Have a great Friday evening and weekend folks, it's time for my retro fun to begin. 💾

How awesome is this! The Zeal 8-bit Computer is an all-in-one retrocomputing platform based on a real Zilog Z80 microprocessor. 😍 Links: zeal8bit.com www.tindie.com/products/zea...

How far we've come! Sealed Lead Acid batteries, this is in a 1985 8088 Bondwell Model 8 'laptop'

I've started a blog post dedicated to the Epson PC-386 Note A laptop, I'll be sharing a lot more information on the restoration and modifications to the system here, for anyone who wants more details. I will edit it and add more as time permits: gammitin.blogspot.com/2024/07/epso...

Epson PC-386 Note A - A Japanese PC-98 Compatible Laptop from 1990gammitin.blogspot.com *WIP* My first experience of PC-9800 ( PC-9800シリーズ ) hardware, I won this on a popular auction site. After watching it for literally months,...

Epson PC-386 Note A update: I got the original hard drive working, whoop! It has an original install of MS-DOS 3.3, so I'll be preserving that. I've switched out the drive for a CF card, currently installing the Japanese PC-9800 version of MS-DOS 6.20.....

The Broken Sword series, by Revolution Software (1996 to 2013)

There's absolutely no way I'm giving up on the Epson PC-386 Note A laptop, it's too much of a rare gem. It turns out it's one of the VERY few laptops that uses a 1.2mb/640k 3.5" floppy, there's only one model made with the hardware specs and mine is ☠️ It's Gotek or Notek! 😂 💾

Star Trek: The Rebel Universe [1987] (Atari ST, MS-DOS, Commodore 64)

I'm attempting to repair a rare (certainly in the UK) Japanese 3-mode (hardware) 3.5" floppy drive. I'm starting with cleaning the main board and recapping.

Sorry for the lack of posts, I'm having a retro reading & research day, mainly about Japanese 3 mode 3.5" floppy drives and PC-98. I'm determined to get my Epson PC-386 Note A working with floppies, or fingers crossed a Gotek (I've not seen anyone get one to work on this machine)

Epson PC-386 Note A refurb update: I've sorted the crazy speed time issue, it seems it was strangely related to the CMOS battery, I've contact cleaned the battery header and it's now both keeping time and running at the correct speed (I'm going to replace this soon, but working)!

Carmageddon [1997]

Today I've been trying to get the HDD to work on my Epson PC-386 Note A, PC-98 compatible laptop, but I've discovered I have bigger issues that I need to resolve 😞 *Can't upload the video on here, but the time is spinning around, an hour a second.*

Epson PC-386NOTE A laptop [1990] this has MS-DOS on a ROM chip and it is also fully PC-98 compatible! 386SX-16 switchable between 16/10/6Mhz 8.8MB RAM 40MB HDD 720k floppy To use PC-98 software I need to repair the 1.25mm pitch floppy drive, looking for solutions at the moment.

If anyone knows where I can get one of these video cards, outside of Japan I'd really appreciate any tips. It's a Trident ProVidia9685, but for NEC PC-9821 (notice the NEC chip on here too).

Some more retro 'fun' for the weekend, test all these drives! Fun fact, the chonky one on the far left is found in the Sega TeraDrive, it's XTA (XT Attachment) – an unusual implementation of IDE with an integrated 8 bit XT controller.

Have another THICC one, why not:

Happy Friday folks, have an awesome weekend! I'm kicking mine off by doing a little 8085 Assembly Language programming on my 1976 Intel MCS-85 (SDK-85) System Design Kit. Whatever you're doing this weekend, have fun! 💾😊👍

I like my laptops THICC!

My Thursday night vibe: open.spotify.com/track/7I5eQZ...