Posted on April 19, 2021
Returning to DAoC… sort of
So when I just started getting my feet wet in the online world I got into an MMO that I’m surprised is still around. Dark Age of Camelot or DAoC. Ultima Online was my first MMO but I moved on to DAoC after that enjoying the massive RvR or Realm vs Realm combat the game offered. It meant you had massive battles going on such as this.
I can’t say any game has matched the sheer scale of the PvP conflicts that took place in this game. Most of the time I spent grinding away at leveling sloooowly to max level (50). Very few quests existed in the game back then and most of the time you just killed monsters a few at a time watching your experience bar crawl across the screen.
So while I miss the friends I made during that time I didn’t exactly yearn to play the game for a long time. More modern titles such as World of Warcraft have overtaken this game and surpassed it in many ways although again that large scale PvP may still be unmatched. Imagine my surprise when I realized that DAoC was still alive and well, now partly as a Free to Play title! I spun up a trial character and was just awe struck how much has changed and still how little has indeed changed.
I don’t have a screenshot handy of my new troll (made of rock because reasons) but I’ll post one when I have a chance to take one. Does this mean I’m going to dive into an MMO again full speed? No of course not but nostalgia as always is one hell of a drug.
Posted on April 16, 2021
Livestream 4/15/2021 – Voodoo 2 on the K6-2
The livestream for the week centered around the recent computer I put together. That being the AMD K6-2 300 MHz rig featuring above all a Creative Voodoo 2 8 MB card. While it’s fun to go all out on overkill builds or dream machines we never could have afforded I think it’s also an interesting thing to explore really period correct computers too. The focus of the machine in general was to stick to 1998 where I could and I think it came together great. Check out my 2 part video series for a much deeper dive of the computer itself.
As far as the livestream last night it was a super fun one. Quite a lot of people showed up allured by 3dfx accelerated games, blurry textures and a squintworthy 640×480 resolution! I kid but the discussion and conversation around hardware, computers and period appropriate games I thought was very entertaining and interesting. We played some good classics such as Quake 2, Battlezone 98 and Forsaken among others. Check out the replay below.
Posted on April 14, 2021
New Video – AMD K6-2 Part 2
The latest video is finally up. This is part 2 of the AMD K6-2 computer build. This time we slap in the remaining parts to make it a real gaming rig and then of course take it for a spin with a bunch of games.
I really enjoy this computer and I think it can be extra fun to try and keep a computer mostly period correct. There are some obvious concessions such as the more modern power supplly as well as the SD card solution instead of a spinning disk but I think those will become more and more common as old components slowly fail.
Anyway feel free to check out the video and watch out for an upcoming livestream featuring this very machine!
Posted on April 13, 2021
New Monitor – Lenovo L24q-30
I have quite a few monitors in my setup mostly to accomodate my normal play/work but then fun ones as well. Besides a 34″ ultrawide one I use for mosts tasks I also have a 17″ Dell CRT for experiencing some of the retro stuff available on modern PCs. On my left hand side I also have (had) an older Asus 1080p monitor that I primarily use for streaming tasks. When I stream I can glance up at it to see the capture window, stream health, chat and so forth. However since I also stream in 1080p that means everything was really crammed in. Lenovo makes some pretty decent 1440p panels and since they specifically have one that’s 24″ I didn’t have to make any setup changes. After running a very long displayport cable it’s now all rigged up and ready to go for the next stream.
But with the MiSTer supporting 1440p output resolutions I just had to try it of course. And I tried it for way longer than planned… either way very happy with it considering what it cost and it’s super vibrant especially coming from the really old Asus I had here before. The mount allows turning the monitor 90 degrees to also accomodate vertical or TATE mode that many shooters utilize (and are plentiful on the MiSTer). The model specifically is the L24q-30 and it can be had right now directly from Lenovo for around $150 including shipping. It’ll get plenty of use in my setup.
Posted on April 12, 2021
Boombox time!
My wife managed to find a really cool boombox in a thrift store this weekend. Interestingly enough as much retro stuff as we have we actually lacked any way to play our old tapes. So this is a welcome find to say the least. But I will say above all the design and style of this is the best part of it. It just screams late 80s early 90s and based on the model, which is a Panasonic RX-CT800, that is about right. It’s nothing crazy but again the style is awesome. We tested the FM radio on it and it comes in loud, clear and quite well. It’s in need of some general servicing and cleaning for sure and I’m definitely not putting any tapes in it until that’s done. Could have done a lot worse for 5 bucks!
Expect an extra video for the channel to cover this as well… it just looks cool!
