tingo
Veteran Member
Neat! Next: someone will find a way to interface (via OBD?) to the car computer and write the software to display that on a vintage computer.
- VCF South West - June 14 - 16, Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas at Dallas
- VCF West - Aug 2 - 3, Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA
- VCF Midwest - Sept 7 - 8 2024, Schaumburg, IL
- VCF SoCal - Mid February 2025, Location TBD, Southern CA
- VCF East - April 2025, Infoage Museum, Wall NJ
-
Please review our updated Terms and Rules here
archive of 80s computers performing 21st Century tasks
- Thread starter capt balbo
- Start date
Neat! Next: someone will find a way to interface (via OBD?) to the car computer and write the software to display that on a vintage computer.
creepingnet
Veteran Member
Neat! Next: someone will find a way to interface (via OBD?) to the car computer and write the software to display that on a vintage computer.
Shoot, I still want to do a Car-Puter for my 93' Explorer Sport using the period correct DOS 6.21 and Windows 3.1....but I know there are some limitations as to what I'd want in a Car-Puter, and what an old 486 crammed under the dashboard could handle. Would be cool to build one of my old PC-TRAC trackballs into the center console and change parameters in the truck's computer in real time though, I'm sure Ford had a program for that.
Now, back to the subject....
I'm sure I'm on a few stat counters for sites as one of the "other" machines as I have the following all surfing the Web.....
Tandy 1000A - Minuet/Lynx under DOS 6.22
IBM Franken-XT - Minuet/Lync under DOS 6.22
GEM 286/12 - Arachne 0.73 under DOS 6.22, as well as LeetIRC 1.1, and I'll probably be tacking on more stuff while my current work schedule persists
CAT Computers 486 DX4 - This is the box that does a good bit of everything modern.....
- Runs DOS 6.22 & Windows For Workgroups 3.11
- Does a lot of web surfing using Netscape 4.08, IE 5.1, Opera, and Arachne 0.93, I need that many browsers because some sites get along with some browsers better than others, Arachne is more compatible as it's newer, but the other three run Within Windows making them more convenient to use at times. My connection is through Comcast Broadband...really funny to download things and watch the counter say 4 hours when it means 4 seconds :D.
- Internet Relay Chat via LeetIRC AND mIRC depending upon if I'm wanting to go from DOS or Windows Respectively
- Burn CDs from DOS CD Roast
- Play MP3's through WinPlay3
- Play videos and movies through Windows Media Player and WinMX
- Word Processing through WP51, WP6, Lotus 1-2-3, Harvard Graphics 3.0, and I've been looking into programming using some IDE's I have handy on the hard disk as well...
It's about as modern as one can get on Pre-Pentium, Pre-Windows 95 hardware in 2012.
I am actually using an 10 year old Toshiba laptop running XP and diagnostics software with a Mercedes-Benz diagnosis interface for the slightly younger cars (1989-2003). Requirements were an XP-platform for the software and a 9-pin serial port with a decent 12v power supply (which ruled out all Compaq laptops).
RickNel
Veteran Member
Sweet!
I'm putting a 486 back together, too.
My Opera browser of that era was slick, but still ad-sponsored. Do you get vintage ads
circa 1993 thrown in when you browse?
creepingnet
Veteran Member
All the vintage ads must be broken because I don't see them, LOL. Either that or it's because my version is far more recent and has the "limited to 30 "days" trial" thing going on with it which does not work correctly in Windows 3.1x. Instead I can only use it 30 times.
The one that gets the most exercise for web surfing is Netscape, but it has a tendancy to bring Dr. Watson back from his Lunch Break at the corner of the screen :D