That promotional video from 1995 for the Forte VFX1 VR headset that used the ACCESS.bus was 90s nostalgia overload, especially since they showed it playing Descent. It apparently only had two 0.7"...
That promotional video from 1995 for the Forte VFX1 VR headset that used the ACCESS.bus was 90s nostalgia overload, especially since they showed it playing Descent. It apparently only had two 0.7" 263×230 resolution, 256 color LCDs in it though so the viewing experience would have been horrible, and there is no way you could have read any text on that small of a screen. No wonder it didn't take off! :P
Holy shit, you weren't kidding. That video had like everything I remember from my senior year of high school. It's hard to believe that we used to do everything with serial and parallel cables. I...
Holy shit, you weren't kidding. That video had like everything I remember from my senior year of high school. It's hard to believe that we used to do everything with serial and parallel cables. I remember parallel "dongles" for certain insanely expensive software products too.
Heh, speaking of serial and parallel cables; Going back even futher, at LAN parties back in early early days we used to transfer warez with each other over 25-pin parallel port laplink and 9-pin...
Heh, speaking of serial and parallel cables; Going back even futher, at LAN parties back in early early days we used to transfer warez with each other over 25-pin parallel port laplink and 9-pin serial port null modem cables using DOS LapLink and later Windows DCC, since it was often faster than transferring over Ethernet on a saturated router... and not everyone even had a network card in their comp back then either but everyone did have a parallel port. :P
I never really had to deal with parallel data transfer, except my ZIP drive, flatbed scanner, or printer, but I do recall modem-to-modem transfers by dialing up your buddy using ATDT1234567, them...
I never really had to deal with parallel data transfer, except my ZIP drive, flatbed scanner, or printer, but I do recall modem-to-modem transfers by dialing up your buddy using ATDT1234567, them answering with ATA, then using XMODEM, YMODEM, or ZMODEM protocols to transfer files, depending on what terminal emulator program you were running. I remember XMODEM being really flaky. YMODEM you'd need to press a button like CTRL+Y or something to initiate transfer, and ZMODEM being the new kid on the block had all the features, it'd automatically start transferring, had error correction, etc, but few programs supported it at the time. Then when you were done you'd type +++ATH to get your modem to hang up.
I think I recall at one point trying to do a DOOM "lan party" with me and my friend but we didn't have the right serial cable. It needed to be a null-modem cable, with the receive and transmit wires crossed. We didn't know that and instead played DOOM by ourselves together.
Seeing that name brings back memories. I actually kinda miss ZIP disks/drives, they were a great format! Thinking back I don't think I ever actually tried any modem-to-modem connections though....
except my ZIP drive
Seeing that name brings back memories. I actually kinda miss ZIP disks/drives, they were a great format!
Thinking back I don't think I ever actually tried any modem-to-modem connections though. Most modems back then were slow as shit, and parallel was actually surprisingly fast (150-300 kB/s for standard parallel, and 2-2.5 MB/s for EPP/ECP), so that's probably why. And we almost always had access to enterprise grade routers too, which I used to "borrow" from my father's database marketing company. ;)
Fun fact, AT commands are still a thing. Espressif’s wifi chips have firmware for them from the manufacturer that allow you to access WiFi and basic networking through UART which is configured...
Fun fact, AT commands are still a thing. Espressif’s wifi chips have firmware for them from the manufacturer that allow you to access WiFi and basic networking through UART which is configured through an extended AT command set.
They can’t dial phones, however, so that’s a loss.
Yeah they sure are. I'm pretty sure all cellphone baseband chips still actually use the Hayes AT Command Set internally. When you make a call on your cellphone, your phones CPU sends a command to...
Yeah they sure are. I'm pretty sure all cellphone baseband chips still actually use the Hayes AT Command Set internally.
When you make a call on your cellphone, your phones CPU sends a command to its cellphone chip using AT commands over a serial connection of some sort.
A couple of generations ago any phones with MediaTek chips would present themselves as serial ports over USB and you could send them AT commands. This was less than ten years ago.
LOL. Ah, the days, indeed. One thing I don't miss is lugging around ridiculously heavy desktops and CRTs though. Or having to manually configure every single network card, and make sure nothing...
LOL. Ah, the days, indeed. One thing I don't miss is lugging around ridiculously heavy desktops and CRTs though. Or having to manually configure every single network card, and make sure nothing (like IRQs) conflicted. Setting shit up is so much easier, quick, and convenient today. :P
But we were wizards back then. I remember vividly getting free candy from a friend because I could rewrite his config.sys and autoexec.bat to squeeze out just enough conventional memory to run...
But we were wizards back then. I remember vividly getting free candy from a friend because I could rewrite his config.sys and autoexec.bat to squeeze out just enough conventional memory to run Wing Commander and his Sound Blaster card.
JFC, listen to me... I think I just aged 5 years in one post.
I was a config.sys, himem.sys and autoexec.bat master back in them thar days too. And I didn't have no stinkin' interwebs to looks anything up on either! I just had to brute-force tweak shit...
I was a config.sys, himem.sys and autoexec.bat master back in them thar days too. And I didn't have no stinkin' interwebs to looks anything up on either! I just had to brute-force tweak shit repeatedly until it finally worked! :P
Hell yeah. I have a feeling we would have been buddies back in the old times. Now if you tell me you played DnD, skateboarded, and loved you some 'tendo. I'd have to start to question whether or...
Hell yeah. I have a feeling we would have been buddies back in the old times. Now if you tell me you played DnD, skateboarded, and loved you some 'tendo. I'd have to start to question whether or not I have a clone...
I did indeed play (and GM) D&D and still do! :P But I've never skateboarded. I'm Canadian so skiing, and later snowboarding, was more my thing. And I've also always been way more of a PC gamer...
I did indeed play (and GM) D&D and still do! :P
But I've never skateboarded. I'm Canadian so skiing, and later snowboarding, was more my thing. And I've also always been way more of a PC gamer than console gamer, even going back to the Datasette and 8-inch floppy days. But I did own a Genesis way back when. ;)
Hah, ironically it was only about a month or so that I was trying to do that with https://86box.net/ to get Ultima Underworld working. Those early years of extended memory on PC were anything but...
Hah, ironically it was only about a month or so that I was trying to do that with https://86box.net/ to get Ultima Underworld working. Those early years of extended memory on PC were anything but smooth.
Heh, yours maybe, but my DOS and Win9x skills have pretty much rusted to oblivion. It would probably be like learning it all over from scratch again for me at this point.
Heh, yours maybe, but my DOS and Win9x skills have pretty much rusted to oblivion. It would probably be like learning it all over from scratch again for me at this point.
Calling their proprietary accessory the CyberPuck and featuring a "man tries installing overcomplicated competitor product with comedy music in background" was peak 90s. Or even older - it could...
Calling their proprietary accessory the CyberPuck and featuring a "man tries installing overcomplicated competitor product with comedy music in background" was peak 90s. Or even older - it could easily have been from the 80s.
That promotional video from 1995 for the Forte VFX1 VR headset that used the ACCESS.bus was 90s nostalgia overload, especially since they showed it playing Descent. It apparently only had two 0.7" 263×230 resolution, 256 color LCDs in it though so the viewing experience would have been horrible, and there is no way you could have read any text on that small of a screen. No wonder it didn't take off! :P
Holy shit, you weren't kidding. That video had like everything I remember from my senior year of high school. It's hard to believe that we used to do everything with serial and parallel cables. I remember parallel "dongles" for certain insanely expensive software products too.
Heh, speaking of serial and parallel cables; Going back even futher, at LAN parties back in early early days we used to transfer warez with each other over 25-pin parallel port laplink and 9-pin serial port null modem cables using DOS LapLink and later Windows DCC, since it was often faster than transferring over Ethernet on a saturated router... and not everyone even had a network card in their comp back then either but everyone did have a parallel port. :P
I never really had to deal with parallel data transfer, except my ZIP drive, flatbed scanner, or printer, but I do recall modem-to-modem transfers by dialing up your buddy using ATDT1234567, them answering with ATA, then using XMODEM, YMODEM, or ZMODEM protocols to transfer files, depending on what terminal emulator program you were running. I remember XMODEM being really flaky. YMODEM you'd need to press a button like CTRL+Y or something to initiate transfer, and ZMODEM being the new kid on the block had all the features, it'd automatically start transferring, had error correction, etc, but few programs supported it at the time. Then when you were done you'd type +++ATH to get your modem to hang up.
I think I recall at one point trying to do a DOOM "lan party" with me and my friend but we didn't have the right serial cable. It needed to be a null-modem cable, with the receive and transmit wires crossed. We didn't know that and instead played DOOM by ourselves together.
Seeing that name brings back memories. I actually kinda miss ZIP disks/drives, they were a great format!
Thinking back I don't think I ever actually tried any modem-to-modem connections though. Most modems back then were slow as shit, and parallel was actually surprisingly fast (150-300 kB/s for standard parallel, and 2-2.5 MB/s for EPP/ECP), so that's probably why. And we almost always had access to enterprise grade routers too, which I used to "borrow" from my father's database marketing company. ;)
Fun fact, AT commands are still a thing. Espressif’s wifi chips have firmware for them from the manufacturer that allow you to access WiFi and basic networking through UART which is configured through an extended AT command set.
They can’t dial phones, however, so that’s a loss.
Yeah they sure are. I'm pretty sure all cellphone baseband chips still actually use the Hayes AT Command Set internally.
When you make a call on your cellphone, your phones CPU sends a command to its cellphone chip using AT commands over a serial connection of some sort.
A couple of generations ago any phones with MediaTek chips would present themselves as serial ports over USB and you could send them AT commands. This was less than ten years ago.
Yup, yup, and YUP! Ah, the days.
LOL. Ah, the days, indeed. One thing I don't miss is lugging around ridiculously heavy desktops and CRTs though. Or having to manually configure every single network card, and make sure nothing (like IRQs) conflicted. Setting shit up is so much easier, quick, and convenient today. :P
But we were wizards back then. I remember vividly getting free candy from a friend because I could rewrite his config.sys and autoexec.bat to squeeze out just enough conventional memory to run Wing Commander and his Sound Blaster card.
JFC, listen to me... I think I just aged 5 years in one post.
I was a config.sys, himem.sys and autoexec.bat master back in them thar days too. And I didn't have no stinkin' interwebs to looks anything up on either! I just had to brute-force tweak shit repeatedly until it finally worked! :P
Hell yeah. I have a feeling we would have been buddies back in the old times. Now if you tell me you played DnD, skateboarded, and loved you some 'tendo. I'd have to start to question whether or not I have a clone...
I did indeed play (and GM) D&D and still do! :P
But I've never skateboarded. I'm Canadian so skiing, and later snowboarding, was more my thing. And I've also always been way more of a PC gamer than console gamer, even going back to the Datasette and 8-inch floppy days. But I did own a Genesis way back when. ;)
Hah, ironically it was only about a month or so that I was trying to do that with https://86box.net/ to get Ultima Underworld working. Those early years of extended memory on PC were anything but smooth.
@cfabbro, our skills are needed!
Heh, yours maybe, but my DOS and Win9x skills have pretty much rusted to oblivion. It would probably be like learning it all over from scratch again for me at this point.
Calling their proprietary accessory the CyberPuck and featuring a "man tries installing overcomplicated competitor product with comedy music in background" was peak 90s. Or even older - it could easily have been from the 80s.