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RE: BBS filesystem issues due to power loss Since the hat is stackable, I would suggest getting an RPI UPS. Something like this, or similar. Then your pi can detect that main +5v has stopped supplying, and initiate a graceful shutdown.

Checking--- This thing has a C&T based video that can do 24bit color, up to 1024x768 (on the internal panel). It has an ESS Audiodrive 1878, which I THINK has soundblaster emulation.

I used to own an armada 1530DM back in the day. Used it until it straight up died. It had a NeoMagic Magicgraph based video chipset, which could only do 2D accelleration. It could not do more than 16bit color, but WAS active matrix. I expect that linked item I put the link for above probably has similar hardware inside. As long as you are just doing old DOS games, it should be fine. As I recall, it had an ESS audiodrive based sound chip, which could do SB emulation.

Head to the TI section, and hunt down a finalgrom 99. The pinned threads there will give you all you want and more.

I hear you-- Active Matrix was "new and hip" back then, so getting one of what was rare bitd is going to be tough... I will see if they have any compaq armadas... Just dont expect to do fancy high color. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Compaq-Armada-1592DMT-64mb-Ram-3-2Gb-HDD-Windows-98SE-12-1-Display-CDROM/133473673968?hash=item1f13a6a2f0:g:hYgAAOSwGGNfGzO6 Bam. It has active matrix.

It's missing the power adapter-- but there's this one on ebay right now. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Toshiba-Satellite-305CDS-Laptop-Retro/174347124194?hash=item2897e5fde2:g:yOIAAOSwMnJfC6Ad One of the "Generic laptop power adapter" kits from walmart would probably work.

Here's the deep dive: Remember the WannaCry worm, that was encrypting people's file shares, then demanding ransom? It spread through unauthenticated SMB shares that were foolishly exposed over the internet. When authentication is used, a strong crypto key session is enabled by the handshake using the kerberos protocol. (IIRC)-- With unauthenticated users, which are intended to be only done inside a well insulated local LAN that never touches the internet in any capacity, this is not necessary, and undesirable-- the whole point of an unauthenticated share is for simplicity. The SAMBA server baked into the Pi most certainly *CAN* be set up to use authentication, but that would be more work on the TIPI maintainer's plate to have to maintain. A guest share that is writable is very easy to configure; it just requires the unauthenticated users policy to be disabled on windows 10 to be used, otherwise windows 10 will staunchly refuse to allow a connection to be made. This policy was implemented due to the spread of things like WannaCry. This is one of those "I Know what I am doing, and am aware of the risk" type situations. You can disable the policy, or you can deep-dive into the samba config file on the raspberry pi, create a samba user and password, and configure the share appropriately so that windows is happy with the connection. Otherwise, your computer will just simply refuse the share. Options are: Don't use the SMB share, and use something like sftp (over ssh) to the pi. Pretend you are living in 1990, and are using an FTP client. Turn off the security policy, and use windows explorer. SSH into the pi, alter the samba config files and create a username and password for an authenticated user, then log in with those credentials on the network to map the share. THEN use explorer to manage the files. Use linux, because it does not give a damn about such things, and will just connect to the SMB share without issue.

Using windows 10? Microsoft implemented a security policy that is on by default that prevents you from connecting to peer level shares. You will have to disable that policy first. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4046019/guest-access-in-smb2-disabled-by-default-in-windows-10-and-windows-ser

I keep having radical ideas on how to use this 3D printer... Mehridian Sanders recently made a thread about some Legit Allied IC test clips... Looking at them, they are just "Clothespin" style clamps, that appear to contain Brass Head Pins. (Or just generic .5mm diameter bras rod, cut to length. Should function as IDC male header at the exposed end that way.) Perhaps another design project on the horizon.

I don't have such reactions and never have had. Always been a strange one like that. While that hole is definitely for screwing, it is certainly not for that kind.

(dont make fun of my filthy workbench-- it's where I do painting, and stuff.) @Mehridian Sanders You really should get a proper 3D cad suite. Then you have real sizes in mm or inches, get to model with fantastically more accurate NURBS models, etc. I use Dassault Systemes Catia. The educational student version works fine, but is lacking the sterolithography workbench. (I really only use it to generate .stl files, because it does a much better job than the "save as .stl" converter. The sterolithography workbench has options to set how accurate the .stl is. You can make it absurdly tiny triangle size) Others use SolidWorks (a related product, very similar, but not as powerful.)

Photos? Ok.

I have the bottom part printed in the "Desert Tan" PLA. It feels VERY solid and good in my hands. It should be a VERY durable part. I had the print speed a bit too high in the initial part of the print though, so it's a bit ugly at the beveled bottom.. Been sanding it, and it sands beautifully. The 2mm thick walls give plenty of meat to sand into to get rid of all the layering artifacts. When I have both the top and the bottom printed, I will assemble them, then sand them assembled. That way they match. I am going to test to see if the new hole location is right. Edit: New hole location fits perfectly! (but forgot to enlarge the bay the .5mm all around, so it is way too snug with the RF shield in there. It went in, but it is super tight. I dont know if I can get it back out again.) I think just this enlargement, and the bottom part is golden.

Once I finish with the beige speech enclosure prints, I will set about this additional task. This is somebody else's image-- Mine is bright firehydrant red-- but this is what the Flip N File 10 looks like. The Flip N File 15 looks similar, but with a clear window in the front. The 10 looks easier to replicate, and is fully opaque in its original form. I think I will rebrand it to "RetroFile" instead though, in case there is a trademark on the product line. Edit: Just disassembled the 10. No screws. All injection molded plastic, simple tab construction. I don't see any serious overhangs, or features that would be impossible to clean up. I should be able to do this. Should make for a fun project. With how thin the plastic is, I might need to make modifications to make it thicker (so the printed product is sufficiently sturdy). Otherwise, yeah. Looks totally doable. I will get banished to hall 2 (the memory care unit) tonight, so if I bring the parts and my calipers with me, I should be able to sit and do that.

Digging through a box of old floppies and reformatting them (because they have sat so long that the sector markings have degraded!!), I realized something. I have in my possession 2 original "Flip'N'File" boxes. A Flip'N'File 10, and a Flip'N'File 15, which hold 10 disks, and 15 disks respectively. (Specifically, 5.25" disks) Looking at the construction, I think I can reverse engineer these, and make printable models of them. They would be 4 printed parts, since they are made of 4 parts already. They are suitably sized to fit on most print beds already. There's verbiage inside that says "Patent Pending" though, so I should check to see if they have expired first probably. Ok, Found the patent. Google says it is expired. I can replicate to my heart's content. https://patents.google.com/patent/US4496050A/en?oq=4496050

Well-- Since I bought and received a replacement board for this project, and had the same exact randomly icky colored snow, I decided to order a new (period Appropriate!) PCI video card, just to rule out the TNT2 having compatibility issues with older PCI bus versions. Lo and behold, this presumed dead board (and the new replacement) both work JUUUUUUUSST FINE. It was that TNT2 board not wanting to work in old vintage PCI slots! Fancy that!

*finds a youtube video with every version all in one* So far, I rather like the SNES version, but that's kinda cheating. the SNES's SPU is basically a digital sampler. (an 8 channel, 16bit @ 32khz digital sampler.) The win95 version is pretty similar to the SNES version. Of the actual true bona-fide chiptune renditions, I like the Adlib and Amiga versions. Some of the other 8bit systems' versions have the tempo all wrong, others have subdued instruments, or over the top/plinky treble.

I am holding off on releasing my updated models until I am happy with them... They do not currently implement the door, but implementing it would not be that difficult. I think it could be done as a "Print in place", especially if the original type design were followed. Door actuation might be a little rough at first, but I think it could work.

The (significantly less expensive, often simply better machines overall) clones made it happen. IBM made a computer out of COTS parts, it had a big name behind it to placate businesses (since most home computers were considered "not serious for business" for completely absurd reasons), and the 3rd party clone market took that combination and cashed in on it big time. IBM lost most of the market control, but Intel rose to prominence as the big league chip maker. Basically every PC since the 90s has been heavily engineered by Intel. (PCI bus? Yup. USB? Yup--- etc.) The early clones were often more aesthetically appealing, had more features, and were cheaper than IBM's offers-- After Phoenix managed to reverse engineer the PC BIOS with a fully clean-room reimplementation, the cow left the barn, so to speak. That cloned bios found its way everywhere, and was adapted many times over.

In the PC world, the boot rom socket in many old ISA network interface cards could do the same. It is exploited in the modern era to get the XT IDE bios on ancient systems.

Options: RamPAT AT Ram 3000 DELUXE (no picture, but data here) (Pricey, but worth it! You can max out that system with this!) Longshine LCS-8661N Above board --- Sound cards Generic 8bit SB clone Legit 8bit SB Pro Another generic 8bit SB clone (with cdrom interfaces!) Yet another 8bit SB clone If you want better graphics (while retaining internal monitor!) ATI EGA Wonder 800 Another one, more expensive (It has the video header strip along the top there.)

PCjr version of Kings Quest 1. (with Tandy graphics and 3 voice sound)

Desert tan arrived.. It looks kinda.. pale. Oh well. I am in the middle of printing out parts for that puzzle box, (which so far fit together a treat!), but once that completes, I will try out this fancy filament.

*shrug* Some of the "consumer appliance" sized NAS boxes are rather inexpensive. I have a mycloud EX2 Ultra, which I got for a song off ebay some years back. (I think I paid 80$.) It only does raid 1, (volume mirror)-- but still. It does the job, and when plugged into a wireless AC router, I get close to gigabit speeds wirelessly with it. It does both SMB and NFS shares, and can even make iSCSI LUNs. (though with only one gigabit interface, iSCSI is more of a joke than anything... but I digress.) For the purposes of holding onto (and remotely managing in real time) the TI's software library in a more modern manner, it suffices just fine. The only downside is that you need to have some kind of sanity check in case the network is down when you start up the TI. (The really robust solution would add a script in /etc/init.d that executes after fstab gets processed, to make sure that the NAS mounted, and if it did not, to mount some other folder as a backup at that mountpoint [probably using the -o bind option], that way it would still run as expected) I used to work for NetApp, once long ago-- providing support for their FAS series high availability commercial storage products, so playing with network toys is kinda second nature to me. What I have at home is a toy. What I gave support for was not. However, many of the same tools apply. One of the perks of using a NAS like that, is that you can have a virtual TI (say, classic 99) running TIFiles mode ON THE VERY SAME VOLUME that your physical TI is having presented by the TIPI. As long as you arent writing all over files behind each device's back while they still have them open, you can even have both running at the same time. (Useful if you are abusing classic99 as a compiler, and then immediately testing the generated code on the real iron using the tipi) I mostly just use my NAS to store all the various digital detritus I have collected over the years though.

I did some research by the way. The internal monitor is basically just a composite video monitor that has very limited multisync capabilities. (a TV has better sync capability!) That said, Yeah, EGA wonder is a potential upgrade path for you if you can find one.