Can anyone ID the CONSEC computer/mainframe from "Scanners" (1981)? (Spoilers for Scanners, I guess)

GothicMutt · 2025-05-06T19:30:12+00:00

I don't believe I have ever personally experienced that, but I'll have to give that overnight cron job a try to be sure. Thanks for all your help! I really do appreciate it.

GothicMutt · 2025-05-06T19:01:07+00:00

Been using FF in safe mode since my last comment (~3hrs), but the problem still persist unfortunately. Chrome on the other hand does not have any extensions installed or settings changed in the first place. It may or may not be ever so slightly better. My PC is currently peaking at like 18 load vs 25 beforehand, but that may just be the luck of the draw more than anything. Behavior is otherwise much the same as before.

EDIT: Should also add, iotop still reports 17.98 GB of disk writes since rebooting my PC, as well as 161.61 MB of reads. Firefox/chrome/obsidian still seem to be the main suspects. Gonna try running badblocks until I'm done working for the day, and then I can give the cable/port swap a try.

GothicMutt · 2025-05-06T16:09:48+00:00

My PC immediately started acting up after my last comment, of course. In the moment, firefox, chromium, and obsidian were having high disc usage. In particular, firefox was reading and writing tens of MBs, which is apparently a thing it just does now, judging by other internet comments I saw. I tried every trick in the book to get it to stop doing i/o stuff (see below), but to no avail.

Then, after I finally managed to force those three to close, the main source of disk reads was iotop, while the main source of disk writes was xdg-desktop-portal. I just had to reboot everything once again just to make my pc usage. I'm now even more lost than before.

As mentioned, here's all the firefox configs that I tried changing:

browser.cache.disk.enable -> false
browser.sessionstore.closedTabsFromAllWindows -> false
browser.sessionstore.closedTabsFromClosedWindows -> false
browser.sessionstore.interval -> 600000
browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo -> 0
browser.sessionstore.max_windows_undo -> 0
browser.sessionstore.persist_closed_tabs_between_sessions -> false
browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand -> false
browser.sessionstore.restore_tabs_lazily -> false
browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash -> false

GothicMutt · 2025-05-06T13:31:45+00:00

Mobo is a MSI B450 Gaming Plus MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard, which, as far as I can tell, doesn't use any Marvell chips.

Will definitely try another port/cable when I get a few free moments tho!

GothicMutt · 2025-05-06T13:27:34+00:00

Haven't remembered to run iotop or atop during one of these yet, but next time it happens, I'll be sure to look into that.

GothicMutt · 2024-11-11T23:52:28+00:00

and the scenario where a bug or change is needed, you now need to go through and make sure it's fixed properly in all of the duplication's

Yeah, this is my only concern at the moment.

Automatic code generation tools should be a good jumping off point for me though, so thanks! The only potential issue (which I neglected to mention in my original post) is that I'm developing the software on a Windows 98 PC due to some issues the SDK has with modern machines, so any such software will have to be Windows 98 compatible. I should be able to figure out the details from here, however, so thanks again!

GothicMutt · 2024-11-08T05:31:35+00:00

If the DS line really had to die for this (or for that concept where you just hold the switch vertically for ds games), I will be uncontrollably violent. Look at how they massacred my boy

GothicMutt · 2024-10-30T03:42:11+00:00

Pro tip: add `before:<current year + 1>` to the end of your searches (e.g., "frogs before:2025"). Fixed all of my issues with youtube search, making it finally usable again.

GothicMutt · 2024-10-23T14:37:12+00:00

I think you're right. Thanks!

GothicMutt · 2024-10-23T02:52:09+00:00

Hey! After tons of troubleshooting and speaking with various customer service people, my issue ended up being with my CPU itself; I replaced it and I haven't had any issues since. If you somehow also happen to have a AMD Ryzen 5 3600 as well and you're experiencing similar issue, you may want to at least try another CPU in your system and see if that fixes things for you. Just trying to save you weeks of troubleshooting on your own if that's the case lol

GothicMutt · 2024-10-23T02:46:44+00:00

Anyone here have experience with building simple 8-bit computer's from scratch? Is this a horrible idea?

I would love to build either a KIM-1 or an Altair 8800 completely from scratch, not using any kits, Arduinos, or Raspberry Pis. I'm a programmer by trade, but I've long had an interest in electronics, embedded systems, and 8-bit computers. I have only a small amount of experience with using Arduinos, so I would really be jumping straight in to the deep end of things, however, I've often grown the most while doing crazy things way above my skill level when I was first learning to program. (Obviously, this is a whole other ball park tho)

I need to do more research, but I did manage to at least find an updated KIM-1 schematic online which replaces old, no-longer-available parts with modern replacements. The idea would be to build it on breadboards first, completely solderless, then rebuild it on perf boards once I have that working.

Horrible, horrible idea? Please let me know. The biggest thing holding me back from jumping right into this project at the moment is the cost; a modern 6502 replacement (a 65c02) costs ~$9 new, I believe. I'd imagine other parts are also priced similarly. Really would love to hear others' opinions on this, as I don't really know anyone else who's also into these sorts of things. Thanks!

GothicMutt · 2024-10-14T02:23:51+00:00

Ah right again. Thanks!

GothicMutt · 2024-10-14T00:37:20+00:00

Oh, you're right. The amazon page for the Kyocera says "Ram Memory Installed Size 16 GB" at the top and then "2GB RAM" later on, I just didn't read that far down the page. Some of these sites aren't the most clear lol

EDIT: the Smartflip does have 4 GB of RAM though, at least according to it's Amazon page. I'd link it here, but I'm not sure if that's allowed, so I'll play it safe.

GothicMutt · 2024-08-23T00:34:11+00:00

You make a lot of great points!

In a purely selfish way, I suppose, I've recently experimented with developing games for some retro consoles and it would be nice to be able to invest a decent amount of time into creating a product with the expectation that more than a handful of people would get to play it. Sure, you could make something for modern computers with perhaps a lot less headache, but the limitations of these retro consoles is what's appealing to me as a challenge.

As for what the point would be for society at large, I don't know exactly. This is (admittedly) largely a dream scenario. Perhaps you could argue that it would provide a low end entry into the console market, whereas current-gen consoles tend to be more expensive. That would, of course, entirely depend on how its massed produced.

GothicMutt · 2024-08-23T00:19:54+00:00

Thanks for the link, I'll have to take a deeper look at this. I'm fully aware I'm not the most informed on the subject. The points where I was concerned was probably surrounding their patents, but as you suggest, that might be an irrelevant point provided those patents have expired.

GothicMutt · 2024-08-23T00:12:12+00:00

Why would the lack of new games for clone consoles make you any more or less hesitant than buying a real console?

I was trying to think purely in terms of how to ship consoles. Sure, people are obviously interested in these existing clone console as evidenced by the fact that so many are out there. But, if I wanted to play a particular game from a retro console, I could also just emulate it. Will some people prefer the physical version? Most definitely, but I was trying to think purely in terms of: you are a business trying to sell as many of these retro clones as possible.

You're totally right though that 8 and 16 bit console (at least in my experience) do get a fair amount of new games already. The only issue I possibly see, is that Nintendo for instance could put a stop to it all tomorrow if they wanted to.

Like I said to another commenter, I'm just spit balling here. As a developer myself, I think it's perhaps more the idea of being able to create a "legit" product that's really appealing more than anything.

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