The thing that you are staring at right now is the monitor for a Sun Microsystems SPARCstation 2 workstation. It's a 21 year old machine owned by a brony answering to the moniker of Hoagiebot, which he recently displayed at a vintage computer convention in Illinois. You may be wondering what this has to do with ponies. You may be wondering why you should care about what is for all intents and purposes a very (very!) old computer with a Rainbow Dash wallpaper. Well, this machine is older than some of you reading this. Actually, it's older than a lot of you reading this, if I remember my polls correctly. So it functions a heck of a lot differently than any computer you're used to handling - long story short, it is a heck of an accomplishment to have taken these wallpapers and convinced this SPARCstation to display them. And it is awesome. Come on, every so often we're allowed to geek out about this kind of thing!
Below the break, find enclosed some other images and a technical explanation of what went into this as written by the man himself. Enjoy!
As much as I wish that I could say that changing the CDE backdrops on the SPARCstation 2 took only "10-seconds flat," it actually turned out to be a significant challenge and took two hours of work that involved converting the images to the correct resolution and palette-size to display properly on a Sun TurboGX 8-bit frame buffer, converting the images to the now rarely used ".pm" (X PictMap) image format so that they could be used with the X Window System and the CDE, setting up a Network File System share on a Linux server that the SPARCStation 2 could mount to so that the image files could be copied over, and then changing the necessary file-permissions and configuration files to make the images appear as the new backdrops for the "vcfmw" user account-- on a machine has 32MB of RAM, 2.1GB of hard drive capacity, and 1MB of video memory. It was an educational experience to say the least!
In case your readers are interested, here are the specifications for the Rainbow Dash-enhanced Sun SPARCstation 2:
Model: Sun Microsystems SPARCstation 2 (4/75)
Development Codename: Calvin
Release Year: 1990
Original List Price: $14,995
Platform Family: sun4c
Microprocessor: LSI Logic SPARC IU L64811GC-40S, 40MHz, unified 64KB L1 cache, SPARCv7 architecture
RAM: 32MB
Graphics: Sun Microsystems TurboGX 8-bit Frambuffer, 1MB of dedicated video RAM
Hard Disk: Seagate ST32430N Hawk, 5400RPM, Fast SCSI-2, 2.1GB capacity
Operating System: Sun Solaris 7 Entire Software Group
149 comments:
THIS IS IT PEOPLE
ReplyDeleteCHOOSE YOUR SIDE
NEW PHOE REPUBLIC OR SETHISTIAN EMPIRE
(Funny how Seth does all the work and everyone loves Phoe)
amazing! that pc is truly something :)
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I've felt compelled to comment on something. This is just incredible.
ReplyDelete"machine has 32MB of RAM, 2.1GB of hard drive capacity, and 1MB of video memory" *sobs*
ReplyDeleteGreat job! I'm very impressed.
ReplyDeleteI'm only 12, and that means this computer is like... 9 years older than me...wow. (Yeah I'm young, STFU >:U)
ReplyDeleteI really do love fiddling with older computers. Too bad the one from the 80s I liked to play with has been gotten rid of :(
ReplyDeleteSUCCESS! If anyone hate's on this, you have no idea how much geekgasm this is!
ReplyDeleteI, for one, Welcome our new Phoe overlady
ReplyDeletelol the processor on that comp
ReplyDeleteNice! It may run 20% faster after that.
ReplyDelete@Lord Bloomberg Also, New Phoe Republic, I like her style!
ReplyDeleteI remember the days of SunOS 4 and IPC/SS2 workstations.
ReplyDelete'xv -root ' was your friend for setting background pictures quite easily.
@Lord Bloomberg
ReplyDeleteI think Equestrian Innovations is a good side to back.
With their combustable Rainbows, and Equestria Portal they cannot be stopped from total domination.
Wow, it's almost old enough to have a "Turbo" button.
ReplyDeleteWhen RAM was pathetically low. When you would buy a PC Game that was less than 30MB and it would come in about 14 to 20 floppy disks.
This brings back memories.
Good job adapting the wallpapers, sir!
"Well, this machine is older than some of you reading this. Actually, it's older than a lot of you reading this, if I remember my polls correctly."
ReplyDeleteWow, thanks for making me feel old Phoe.
Phoe pony is best pony.
ReplyDeleteALL HAIL PHOE
OUR NEW EQUESTRIAN OVERLADY
That is damn impressive. I remember tinkering around with SPARC systems back in high school ('89-'92). These wallpapers are no mean feat at all.
ReplyDelete@Jelfes
ReplyDeleteThat's really a rather impressive set of upgrades for a machine that old... I remember when I bought my first machine with a full gig of hard drive space... never thought I'd fill that up!
@ Lord Bloomberg
FOR PHOEDOM!!!!!! FOR THE FUTURE!!!! FOR THE NEW PHOE REPUBLIC!!!!!
That comps older than me, and I feel old!!
ReplyDeleteWhy does Seth have to be in charge of an Empire?
ReplyDeleteWhy can't he be... President of EQD?
32 MB? really? that must have been a while ago
ReplyDeleteThats pretty good, adding Dash to it has certainly improved it.
ReplyDeleteI do quite like old computers.
@Jelfes Has 16GB of RAM, 2TB of hard drive capacity, and 1GB of video memory. I don't know what I would have done if I lived back then...
ReplyDeleteIt's not older than I unfortunately. Heck, I remember when these things came out. lol
ReplyDeleteJeez, I also remember when those specs were just incredible and blazing fast. And in 20 years from now, we will be looking back at the current technology we have at this moment and go "Yup, I remember when that was cutting edge stuff." Ah, nostalgia. Good times, good times...
2.1GB capacity? Hmm, im pretty sure hard disks weren't that big back then, isn't that removing a little of it's 'vintage' value?
ReplyDeleteAnyways, nice find! Can't believe people would pay 15k for those back in the day.
Phoe Republic and Sethistian Empire be damned. I choose the Velocity Democracy.
ReplyDeleteI find it funny that some of you all look at those specs and can't believe how low they are, yet I look at it and can't believe how much of a monster that thing was back in 1990. 32 MB of ram is just insane for a computer of that time, not to mention the 2 GB SCSI drive.
ReplyDelete@Phoe - good post :)
ReplyDeleteOh wow.
ReplyDeleteI thought I'd never see one of those again! It's awesome to see old PC's still working and being lovingly maintained by caring people. The fact that a brony owns this and has managed to display Dashie Wallpapers on it makes this incredibly awesome. This is wonderful.
Impressive! Good job in keeping that piece of history in working condition too!
ReplyDeleteWell, 2.1gb was probably the smallest he could find still available for that SCSI bus. 1990 probably would have topped out at like 320mb HDD. Is it time for "back in my day" posts? My first box had an 80mb harddrive and a Cyrix 486SX :P Win3.11 & DOS 6.22 baby, all the way!
ReplyDelete@FlutterSwag That was awesome. Velocity Democracy is best leadership choice!
ReplyDeleteThis is one hell of an achivement. The ponification of a 90's computer shows that anything can be improved with ponies.
ReplyDelete...Those specs make me want to hug my old gateway...
ReplyDelete*shudders*
This thing is DELICIOUS!
ReplyDeleteMeh, it's not THAT much older than I am. Still, though, that's impressive the way he got everything to work out on that old of a machine.
ReplyDeleteYou, sir, are a genius. This must have been a bear to slog though. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteMy old computer was literally held together with duct tape.
ReplyDeleteOne of the few things about my childhood I don't miss.
All hail Phoe. Though i still havnt gotten that ice cre-.....
ReplyDeleteI am impressed, and the fact its my favorite flavor improves my praising by 20%
This is so cool - that PC is a year older than me, and I can remember getting my first desktop around 1997. Even though I've seen technology leap forward with my own eyes, I can't quite fathom how far we've come in such a short space of time... it's a massive achievement and technological showcase to get such an old PC to display such a modern and stylish wallpaper. It's neat enough just to see an old PC functioning in such a way - it's funny, when technology first becomes outclasses, nobody wants it, but after a certain amount of time it takes on a retro charm all of its own... if I still had my old Windows 95 it would be one hell of a nostalgia trip.
ReplyDeleteNow somebody needs to make banners/wallpapers for the Sethistian Empire, Phoe Republic and the Velocity Democracy. Get to it everypony!
ReplyDeleteI feel the need to get that RGB cable on my Amiga working again...
ReplyDeleteHA! I'm still 4 years older than this computer! So take that!
ReplyDeleteAlso....NERDDDDDDD The second I saw this computer I dropped a brick, then when I saw the background I proceeded to drop a cinder block. Very well done fellow geek!
It probably says something about me that all I can think is 'How can TF2 get changed to work on this computer?'
ReplyDeleteI was in high school...
ReplyDeleteMy family had one of those monitors until a couple of years ago. ._.
ReplyDelete@Lord Bloomberg
ReplyDeleteAll hail to the Sethistian Empire!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteit's awesome to see a "vintage" computer put to good use.
ReplyDeletesad to see so many functional computers torn apart for $5 to $12 dollars worth of gold and scrap metal.
@JJboyzdude
ReplyDeleteI know how it feels bro, except I'm just a year older.
@Orpheus I was thinking just about the same thing, but more along the lines of, how much of an overclock would it take to make it even close to being capable of playing modern 2D games on it(not to mention it lacks DirectX and probably wouldn't have enough storage to have a full computer game on it).
ReplyDeletehaha it's the same age as me
ReplyDeleteSeth would never post something like this.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is awesome.
By extension, Phoe is awesome.
tl;dr
ReplyDeleteGlance at the specs.
"$14,995"
ಠ_à²
i have a hard time beliveing its got 2gs of drive space.......
ReplyDeletein all seriousness getting it to display ANY image is just a matter of converting it.....im sure the old 8088 collecting dust in the closet only cause it was "tricked out" for its time could run that same wallpaper in windows 3.1 LOL....for those of you who dont understand..that PRE INTELL chipset
ill put a date on myself...
ReplyDeleteall state of the art for a "home" pc
"lobo" , 12 inch floppy drives, monochrome monitor, twin dot matrix printers and a HD just big enuf for some basic dos functions
the only game was fully text based "adventure"
thank you for making me feel old, Phoe. i remember when i had a 500 MB hard drive. actually, i remember when i had a ... it was in the tens of MB's hard drive and games came on 5 in floppies. floppies were floppy and you had to buy an expensive card to have sound that didn't come from the case speaker. also, Windows 3.11 FTW baby, Program Manager was awesome.
ReplyDeleteThat computer needs about 20% more RAM
ReplyDeleteMay I humbly ask for a wallpaper in the head of post?
ReplyDeletePffft, my Amiga 500 had NO hard drive at all and 512 KB of RAM :D
ReplyDeleteAmiga is best computer.
@Lord BloombergI see what you did there. XD
ReplyDeleteAh vintage electronics, how far we've come in a twenty years is really amazing. then again with how fast tech moves it might not be so much vintage as antique. Now I miss my commodore 64.
ReplyDeleteDamn, that's some epic computer stuff!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, this computer isn't older than me. I was a whole 3 years old when it came out!
a computer 2 years older than me, running ponies. I might just fall in love with this man. - in a idolizing no homo sort of way of course.
ReplyDeleteI remember playing a game called 'The Incredable Machine' on an old Windows 3.11 OS. It was fun and I'm extremely disappointed that no modern computer can work it becuse it's SO OLD. =/
ReplyDeleteAlso, same age as that computer, FTW.
@Sothalic They were that big when you were prepared to sink nearly $15,000 on a computer ;)
ReplyDeleteOnly... 9 years older then that machine... D:
ReplyDeleteFirst computer could only do ascii and the color green. Had to boot up with floppy disks and had to repeatedly swap them to get any programs to load.
Okay so it was only a word processor... but I could play battleship on it!
Actually I work with some modern SPARCs at my university's laboratory because of their pure UNIX OS. They are really different from PC's.
ReplyDeleteThis computer now boots in 10 seconds flat
ReplyDeleteHAHA! I AM OLDER THAN THE COMPUTER!
ReplyDeleteWoah, that's awesome.
ReplyDeleteWe have these in the computer labs at my university, I didn't realize they were that old. They run really well, even if the graphics are a bit dated. When I was a comp sci major we'd use virtual linux machines to access the school's network and code from home. It was a really nice setup they had going.
ReplyDelete@Sothalic
ReplyDeleteNot quite. Logical Block addressing (assuming that both the BIOS and hard drive were capable of it), allowed drives to work drives up to 8.4 GB. Granted, it was probably only reserved for top of the line machines. That, along with the other specs of this machine, probably explain why it was so freaking expensive for it's time.
This is amazing.
ReplyDeleteYay for being the same age as this computer!
All the information that I've found (at Seagate and elsewhere) seems to indicate the ST32430N Hawk was released in 1993 or 1994 (most sources list 1994), making this a substantial upgrade vs the factory specs. Still, the parts are ancient. There's a lot to be said for the reliability of Seagate drives.
ReplyDeleteAhh, Sun Solaris.
ReplyDeleteGoooood times.
maybe i need to dust off the old TI-99-4a
ReplyDeletei do miss the graphical fun of the old OLD disc only amigas
is it wrong to soooo badly miss the simplisity of win 3.11...best "windows" os ever as you could strip it down and MAKE it do what you wanted not the other way around
wow
ReplyDeleteWOW
I'm geeking over this BD
Man I feel old now, I'm 21 haha
ReplyDeleteFactoid: that sampler keyboard in Ferris Bueller's Day Off would have cost over $200,000 at the time. And he's using it to fake being sick. No wonder the principal hated him so much.
ReplyDeleteAlso in retro, the world's first commercially-available laptop. I bet this thing only had like 1.5GB RAM, Jelfes:
http://edgedesignltd.tumblr.com/post/11574541427/1st-commercially-available-laptop
Awesome stuff! A much better computer than the ones I had at access to at the time; at high school we had some sort of Macintosh II (I can't remember which model), and at home I had a Commodore 64 (still have it stored away somewhere, along with a ton of games on 5.25" floppy disks).
ReplyDeleteAhh, the memories.
And to be a counter-point to everyone else's talk about about how old they feel... No, _I'm_ the one who feels old now, hearing everpony else talk about how young they are =P
I worked with these. What's funny is they felt *really slow* even in 1995. So you can imagine how slow they must feel now!
ReplyDeleteAssuming you ONLY have one of these to work with, and the wallpaper files, you're going to need to download software just to set the wallpaper. JPG wasn't in wide-use back in 1990, and PNG wouldn't be dreamt up until MUCH, MUCH later on. :)
To think my *phone* has 16 times as much RAM as this $15K machine, and about 14 times the storage space...on a solid state medium. We've come a long way. :)
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ReplyDeleteOoo! I might be slightly older than that compy! I was born early that same year. >:3
ReplyDeleteTotal geek-out and I'm proud of it :P
ReplyDeleteThis man is a hero :)
slowview ive been using since win 3.1 so i KNOW it would convert it
ReplyDeleteand tears that may have been "comercial" but thats a suitcase model and NOT a laptop model...ive got one of the first lappy models and all i can say is..it weighs more than my alienware M1 by more than double
And to think that I hauled three SparcStation 20s and an UltraSparc 2 workstation to the electronics recycler a few months ago...
ReplyDeleteFully functional, just no point to keeping them.
The guy at the recycling station just said, "You had ancient Sparc gear in your home for personal use? WHY?!"
I don't really care about the computer. Sorry. For the Phoe Republic!
ReplyDeleteI remember working with those in college, trying to get homework done in the computer lab (which was buried in the basement of a building). It would have been 20% cooler if I had had that background.
ReplyDelete2.1 GB? 32 MB?
ReplyDeleteImpressive for 1990.
Also ZOMG X window system? Linux? If we ever met, this brony and I would be best friends.
printf("we could talk in computer terms, and no one else could understand our jokes. lol."\n);
Wow, I remember when we UPGRADED to those. Remember Sun 2's with SunOS before Solaris? But I'm an old gray pony, who knows how to boot an Interdata 70 (paper tape boot loader, 1Mb of magnetic core memory) and thought PDP 11's were a neat 'new' computer.
ReplyDeleteSeth may be right that this computer is in fact two years older than me. But I've seen and used my fair share of old tech, Sun tech included. I can definitely appreciate the amount of crunching that went into making that backdrop; my hat goes off to you, Hoagiebot.
ReplyDeleteI got the same age as the computer. o.O
ReplyDeleteAnd it's pretty impressive that you got a working ancient computer, let alone a functional one AND able to modify it to display our current generation craze antics.
Talk about teaching an old horse new tricks.
/shot multiple times
Great now I feel old that computer is younger then me.
ReplyDelete@Pele2048
ReplyDeleteYou could have sold them for a lot of money, you idiot.
Applejack is my desktop background on my Amiga 4000.
I was born in 87, I remember computers that were a pain in the ass like that that I would not recommend using to surf the net with.
ReplyDeleteWhat caught my attention to go on this thread was the Title, anyways I admire the brony who owns the SPARCstation 2 computer and went through 2 hours of enhancing it and the Rainbow Dash wallpapers in order to view it on the Sun monitor.
ReplyDeleteI too am a vintage computer enthusiast and it inspired me to do something pony-related on my vintage 1980 TRS-80 Model III Micro-computer. The only thing preventing me to do it, is that I lost my LSDOS floppy for the computer.
I'm a whole year older than that computer :D
ReplyDeleteThink my first computer was in 1995, not sure what mode or specs it had though. I do remember using floppies a few times, especially in elementary school.
I actually still have the old Hover! computer game on my current machine simply for nostalgia purposes.
My laptops CPU is 10000 times more powerfull that thats one. Holy sheet.
ReplyDeleteWow. I learned to 'internet' on one of these. Ah, the memories... Now they are labeled with ponies.
ReplyDelete32mb or RAM? In 1991? That was AWESOME in 1991... My old 486 in 1992 had 4mb, and was considered flash :) 1mb of VRAM was a luxury then, too... I believe I had 128kb, which was just enough to display the grainy, 640x480 BMP of Elle MacPherson hat came with it to "show off" the awesome graphical capabilities of the hardware...
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I tried thinking of ways to do this using *just* the technology that was available back then, and failed miserably - the biggest challenge would have been the fact that JPG and PNG were still years away... You'd have to reverse engineer the files on a system that had insufficient RAM to hold them in their uncompressed form, using media that was too small to house the files themselves... Very, very challenging :)
That is an amazing machine. I am glad I am not the only one who has an apreciation for old hardware. Though my use of old tech tends to be getting everything possible on the internet. I should work on ponifying all my old hardware
ReplyDelete@Minouris
ReplyDeletePfft, easy. Assuming you weren't dumb enough to use a PC compatible.
I find it odd that no one ever gets Lyra's magic color correct.
ReplyDeleteIt's [b]Yellow[/b]
It's not the SPARCstation that makes me feel old, it's the comments here! It does seem to have drawn the older bronies out too though.
ReplyDeleteI like seeing people preserving the older machines. I have a few workstations of similar age put away.
If I had the time for a challenge, I'd figure out a way to get something pony related onto my Vic-20, my first computer. I still have that in it's original box!
@Doritos
ReplyDeleteAt 14 years of age, I used whatever my parents were willing to pay for, and did what I could with it whenever they weren't watching like a hawk to make sure it didn't "catch viruses" :P
You guys are tempting me to put pony pix onto the oldest computer I can muster...
ReplyDelete@Woof Hooves
ReplyDeleteHaha, I thought it looked a little light for an early portable computer, got any pictures of your oldschool laptop?
I love old technology, at my last office, I found a bunch of really old blackberries and palm pilots hidden in a storage cupboard, and they all ended up making their way back to my desk over time.
Awww now I feel all nostalgic for a time when sun was still awesome. Still an amazing piece of work, props to the brony that did this.
ReplyDeleteUnix: It STILL works, bitches! :)
That't they type of computer I used when I was in college! Oh, the memories; those were so sweet...
ReplyDeleteDang, I'm old.
God, I think I've got a couple of those monitors floating around somewhere...and a monochrome Tandy...
ReplyDelete@Minouris
ReplyDeleteWell price obviously wasn't an issue, as other, better computers cost less money than a PC ever did.
This was true until like 1997.
holy shit thats incredible. great work!
ReplyDeleteI was going to ask if this man is a wizard, but I think that question has been answered.
ReplyDeleteNice job dude. Great taste in wallpapers and, well, decent taste in architectures. ;)
ReplyDeleteThis makes me miss my Quadra so badly!
@Doritos
ReplyDeleteSuffice to say, my parents weren't geeks, had no interest in using anything other than what my father was using at the office, and weren't about to listen to their son telling them he knew better... Even if other systems (besides the Amiga) were domestically available in NZ at the time, which they weren't.
And frankly, I'm glad they made the decision they did, now - if I'd had another system then nothing I had would have been compatible with anything that anybody else around me had. I STILL don't have any use for any other type of system, except when I have to deploy my work to the servers, and since my work is largely platform agnostic it doesn't really matter what I write it on. PC compatibles do what I require them to do, and no less - I had no incentive then, and have no incentive now to use anything else.
(In case it wasn't clear, I do commend the OP for performing the nifty task of getting this to work, in spite of all the gnarly compatibility issues. That was a pretty awesome thing to do :))
ReplyDelete@Doritos
ReplyDeleteThey were up on CraigsList for free for a month, reposted every two days.
Nobody wanted em.
This is by far the coolest thing ever! I remember when I had an old windows 3.1 comp and wanted to listen to music. I was tired of CDs and had downloaded a bunch of Mp3s on my parent's more advanced computer. Sad thing was when my computer could not figure out what "Mp3" was, so I had to convert small Mp3 files into big WAV files. Needless to say I could only have 12 songs before the whole hard drive was full. Taking something new and converting into an old format is challenge but the rewards are sweet. Those were the times...
ReplyDeleteP.S: 2.1 GBs in 1990? that was kind of unheard of at the time when most computers only had between 200 to 450 MBs of HD space. This comp must have been used for business purposes...
Oldest computer I own probably wont be able to get ponies on it :( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Portable
ReplyDeletewow man 32 mb of ram and 2.1 gb hard drive
ReplyDeletethat's super fancy for 1990
>sees $15,000 for price tag
>dies
@Steve
ReplyDelete"2.1 GBs in 1990? that was kind of unheard of at the time when most computers only had between 200 to 450 MBs of HD space. This comp must have been used for business purposes..."
See my post above.
this guy's my hero
ReplyDeleteGEEKY BRONIES FTW!! Simply awsume!
ReplyDeleteit's fairly awesome ... old computers is kind of my thing, ripping them all apart then putting them back together :D ... the oldest i've handled though was a 1995-1994 model, i forget most of the details but i remember when we got ME (yes, windows ME, what a brilliant innovation that was -.- on our second computer and getting that email with the car ad and the ghost thingy screams at you xD ... good days, good days.
ReplyDeleteMy first computer was a Commodore 64. I don't have it anymore, though I wish I did.
ReplyDeleteProbably the oldest machine I could wrangle together ATM is an original Pentium.
I'm still jelly; old non-x86 architectures are my fetish, and I've never really indulged. Consumer "routers" running and cell phones running ARM or MIPS don't count. I'd love to get my hands on a cheap SPARC, POWER, m86k, or Alpha box. As long as there's some way to network it (it doesn't even have to be Ethernet: SLIP or PLIP would be just fine—assuming I ever figure out how to actually make that work), and as long as the price is right (I'm not blowing the bank over this).
After two semesters spend using SPARC assembler because it's lack of 8086's weird register sign extensions... I never thought to do anything like this! Well, we just had simulated SPARC machines- but now my RedyNAS server runs on it...
ReplyDeleteIt's okay though, I'm soo close to figuring out how to push self extracted java Ponies through Telnet to all the terminals in one of my classes... then I'll truly be technological...
My college undergraduate senior project involved making a SPARCstation 2 do graphics tricks that, at the time, it usually took a high-end SGI to do.
ReplyDeleteAugh I feel old. Ponies aren't supposed to make me feel old!
@Sothalic
ReplyDeleteHi! It's Hoagiebot, the brony who setup the SPARCstation 2 in the article! To answer your question Sothalic, according to the Sun System Handbook, the 2.1GB Seagate hard drive was the highest-capacity hard drive that was originally available for the SPARCstation 2. I don't think that you could get a 2.1GB hard drive for it when the system was first released, but you could definitely purchase it as an option later on in the SPARCstation 2's production run. So the 2.1GB hard drive is an authentic part for the system.
With that said, the only part currently installed in this Sun SPARCstation 2 that was not an original option for it is its Sun TurboGX framebuffer card. The Sun TurboGX is a faster version of the Sun GX framebuffer card that was originally offered for the system, but otherwise the color depth, amount of dedicated video memory, and screen resolutions offered by both cards are the same. This SPARCstation 2 did not have any kind of graphics card installed in it at all when I first bought it, and the TurboGX card was the only spare Sun SBus graphics card that I had on hand at the time that I was fixing this machine up, so in it went. I'm not too bothered by the fact that there is a couple-year newer graphics card that is installed in this system because as you can see, the SPARCstation 2 likes it just fine!
Holy crap, that's waaay better than the computer I learned computing on in the same time frame. Great job, all the same.
ReplyDeleteI want to say thank you to everyone for posting all of those very kind comments about my Rainbow Dash-enhanced Sun SPARCstation 2! Your overwhelming response to my computer really means a lot to me!
ReplyDeleteThe photos in this article are of the system on display at the 2011 Vintage Computer Fair Midwest. That convention usually attracts computer systems that are far older and more exotic than my SPARCstation-- for example, this year there was a real original hand-built Apple I from 1976 that was also put on display by a different collector. Because of that, for my own system to be able to stand out amongst such true museum pieces I had to find a way to make it look at least 20% cooler, and as you know the only way to do that was to customize the system with Rainbow Dash! She is the perfect match for the SPARCstation, because both her and the SPARCstation have little lightning bolts in their logos! Well, that and because Rainbow Dash is just awesome and so sharp looking! :)
While the vast majority of the convention's attendees weren't familiar with Rainbow Dash or MLP:FiM, I did have someone there see my computer and then walk up to me and ask me if I was a brony because they were one too! As you can see, Bronies are truly everywhere!
@Pele2048
ReplyDelete"I threw out these lobsters because I put leaflets on a lamp post and nobody called".
Craigslist is where you buy primered camaros with mystery condition 305s swapped into them.
Vintage computers go on real computer trading posts like amibay.
21 year old machine??
ReplyDeleteI'm 22 years old....
but if this is really old...does that mean that I'm really old too? ; A ;
Still, this is really impressive! Even if it displays a wallpaper as though it was supposed to do that...I still find it amazing! I think..not much of a computer person xD
I'm surprised it's still working well. I'm 25 years old and remember these computers (Also anyone else remember the Acorn BBC Micro?). A neighbour of mine use to work for Sun Computers, still does but I moved out from my family's house so no longer my neighbour.
ReplyDeleteAlso anyone else remember the HUGE floppy discs that really were rather floppy? Oh dear I feel old now...
Back in 1994, I was amazed when I had to update my PC's RAM to the absurd amount of 4MB in order to run the DOS version of Mortal Kombat (and RAM prices were thru the roof back then!)... a machine with 32MB in 1990 was a thing only rocket scientists and evil geniuses got to work on (at least in my mind).
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm old.
@Helen
ReplyDeleteAre you talking about the 5.25-inch floppy disks, or the even older 8-inch floppy disks? 8-inch floppy disks were introduced in the early 1970's, and were largely supplanted by the 5.25-inch "mini" floppy disks by the late 1970's/early 1980's. The 3.5-inch "micro" floppy (which had a hard plastic shell despite still being called a "floppy") started to gain in popularity during the mid-to-late 1980's, and you can still buy drives for them to install into your PC today! :)
@lamebunny
ReplyDeleteYou are probably incorrect on that one. Here's just one suggestion:
http://www.pictview.com/
@Mike
ReplyDeleteMy bad - Pictview requires 1MB of ram. Show.jpg should work though:
http://www.pictview.com/showjpg.zip
Speaking of odd machines with pony wallpapers [ and CDE] : http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14556313/hpuxpony.png , http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14556313/myHPUXscreenshot.ihavenoideawhysomuchred.png , and http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14556313/SAM_0340.JPG on http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhadmor/sets/72157627575244171/ . I have a SparcStation 5 with TurboGX too, but I did not ever booted it yet since I don't have the keyboard and mosue yet.
ReplyDelete@Ciroton Gravekeeper loves the hell out of that game. Also, virtual machines are your friend! Run a virtual instance of Windows 3.1 and you're golden. Although I'm fairly sure there was a version for Windows 98.
ReplyDeleteWell TBH that spark computer has pretty "up-to-date" hardware :S my old E-machines computer had like 1mb video and my processor didn't even had L1 cache!!! xD!
ReplyDeleteWell played, I know setting up permissions and also a file server it's difficult.
As a computer lover, I have to say that this was one of the most impressive things I've seen someone do with a computer.
ReplyDeleteI'm also impressed with how many people still recall the old machines! I grew up playing with Windows 95-98 and I still fondly remember those days... anyone remember Chip's Challenge? Best game EVAR!!
And 2.1 GB of harddrive?? Respect. He couldn'tve had much more than the OS running when he did this.
@Jelfes
ReplyDeleteI once got Win95 to run smoothly on a 486 with 4MB RAM and a 130MB hard drive expanded to 250MB with DBLSPACE loaded. I would've killed for it to have had 32MB RAM and a 2GB drive.
Heh... The most of my computer "collection" is only a year or so younger than me.. my 14 year old Toughbook CF-27Mk.I (266mhz, 4gb HD, 2mb vidya' card, 64mb RAM) Actually runs 98, 2000, and XP smoothly. Amazing, I know.
ReplyDeleteBut a 40mhz processor? Time to crack out my old Mechwarrior CD's... :D
I still can't believe that someone would go through all that hassle for a wallpaper for such an old PC...
@Reaver21
ReplyDeleteProbably because it's not a pc.
I cut my teeth on this thing called the Internet at my university... and they were running SPARCStations. They were just big CRT monitors with all the computer guts inside, and they were sporting some of the first optical mice (which needed their own special grid pad). Someone mentioned xv -root ... yessss. OpenWindows was the common default, but if you were a *cool* kid, you switched it up and used fvwm or something. This post has the sweet scent of nostalgia :3
ReplyDelete@The Derpy One
ReplyDeleteyes I know the nostalgia... I keep my win 98 pc and it can still be used to surf (crawl) the web I even once have an amiga computer (amiga 500) ah good old times
Impressive work, there. I knew SPARCStations were finicky, but not on that level. Vintage computers? And ponies? Never thought I would see the day. Now I feel compelled to bust out the C64 and make some pixel art!
ReplyDelete