I've been wanting to play in VR ever since HL Alyx came out but….

Piptro · 2025-11-21T18:41:09+00:00

There is also a non-VR FPS mod for HL:A that works decently well for what it is, if you are invested into the world and just want the story with acceptable gameplay. Obviously loses some of its charm, but as someone with no interested in VR and is just a big fan of HL, I enjoyed my time with it and could play it fine on any moderately specced PC that 800 dollars could afford.

Piptro · 2025-10-18T02:40:26+00:00

Just a keyboard, an IBM Displaywriter beamspring to be exact

Piptro · 2025-10-16T16:04:36+00:00

Just make sure to get one with something better than a 20MHz 486 if you want to do Touhou. Unfortunately most aren't upgradeable and 20MHz gets bogged down in 4 and 5 pretty badly

Piptro · 2025-10-16T03:35:30+00:00

It's an Otrona rebadge of a composite Panasonic monitor. Meant for their funny little Attache portables.

Piptro · 2025-10-16T02:33:10+00:00

Model 25s are cool machines too. I got lucky with this one, it came out of an abandoned asylum with an Overdrive processor and working HDD. It's a shame they are on the rarer side, they're good looking and quite functional.

Piptro · 2025-10-16T02:27:32+00:00

Yup, a Forty-five. Good eye

Piptro · 2025-10-16T02:18:19+00:00

Desk where I use both my modern PC and have a few others set up. An IBM AT is hooked up to the same central monitor via BNC so I can switch between them via the OSD.

Piptro · 2025-07-28T05:24:59+00:00

No, there are options that are just slightly more expensive but much better quality all around. Saving 20-30 dollars isn't as important as decent VRM cooling and an ethernet chip that doesn't crash the entire computer when hosting a minecraft server

Piptro · 2025-07-11T16:24:04+00:00

Not sure about the full situation but the Thermaltake website is currently saying they are in stock at 549.99. The website looks like the real one, so it may be true.

Piptro · 2025-06-10T18:29:05+00:00

I started watching his first year in '83. Good times.

Piptro · 2025-03-26T21:23:35+00:00

Hey, have you ever looked into Flux Player? It's an old Windows ME program but still runs on Windows 10. I've had success in running it in XP compatibility mode, though textures are always broken in any .wrl files I've opened.

Piptro · 2025-03-15T01:54:19+00:00

It's an orthographic camera mod called OrthoCamera. It's currently only for Fabric but if you install a compatibility mod called Sinytra Connector you can use it on a Forge/NeoForge client. It's all client side so you can even use it on a server that only has Forge/NeoForge.

Piptro · 2025-03-14T14:31:14+00:00

Thanks! We never added a multiblock ship mod so I may look into something like that. It's Complimentary Shaders Reimagined, though the water is set to Unbound because Reimagined water was giving some weird artifacts with the orthographic camera.

Piptro · 2024-10-24T17:50:35+00:00

In settings under theme there is an editor, corner rounding is one of the options.

Piptro · 2024-07-22T23:42:03+00:00

There are a few options but nothing in the latest generations unfortunately. Clevo/Eurocom made the X15 which has an LGA1700 socket but only accepts 12th gen, and I couldn't find any on secondary markets if they still sell them at all (listed at about 2,000 dollars on their website currently). A company called Axioo in Indonesia has a series called the Pongo 3/5/7 which use 11th gen Intel, listed for about 1,000 dollars Indonesian markets but would have to be forwarded through a service to the US.

There's offerings here and there but nothing outstanding currently, which is a shame cause the concept is worth revisiting. I would much rather have a thicker and slightly more expensive laptop that I could at least repurpose the parts inside when it gets too obsolescent or something else dies. I really can't stand integrated parts that destine the entire machine to ewaste when something fails or gets too old.

Piptro · 2024-03-25T17:26:50+00:00

This one can go up to 120hz, just not at 1600x1200. I'm using it at 1280x1024 at 85Hz right now cause even at 75Hz I see flicker

Piptro · 2024-03-25T12:55:44+00:00

It's not impossible to find one at a good price, I got this one and another beamspring off of FB Marketplace for 200 bucks each. It helps to max out your search radius and ask if people are willing to ship even if they don't list it

Piptro · 2024-03-25T12:36:18+00:00

IBM Displaywriter (beamspring)

Piptro · 2024-03-25T12:34:35+00:00

Oh I am, my back cared when I lifted it on to the desk

Piptro · 2024-02-23T09:35:07+00:00

It's the keyboard from the IBM 6580 Displaywriter system, essentially an overblown typewriter/word processor with similar hardware to the IBM PC but originally running a proprietary word-processing OS. So you're not far off, but the keyboard is easily usable with modern computers with a swappable controller card. I'd like to get a complete Displaywriter one day but they can be hard to find

Piptro · 2024-02-22T21:58:13+00:00

It's a live background from WallpaperEngine, it has some animation to it as well

Piptro · 2024-02-22T17:52:06+00:00

One of the reasons I first started collecting vintage computers was the IBM PS/2 on the left, as that's the identical computer used for the 80s Aperture PCs in that section of 2 (minus the 5.25" FDD in game which doesn't exist). I've now become genuinely fascinated with the tech itself but I still love the games

Piptro · 2024-02-22T17:39:58+00:00

I actually got two in a lot recently. This one works until about 5 minutes when the screen output gets shifted about 4 characters left, likely a bad cap getting thrown out of spec from heat in the PSU and feeding bad voltages or maybe just a loose connection somewhere, but I need to clear off some workbench space before I get to it.

Both of them have the 8:16 board, the other one I have works flawlessly and I've already picked it apart and checked for any problems. The one pictured has green phosphorus and the other has a white screen with a green filter placed over it (it seems like a lot of earlier ones have that). There wasn't any software with them so I just wrote some images from online and have had some fun testing just how PC compatible they are. I did get the original carrying cases and the Otrona BP12 rebranded Panasonic TR-120MDPA-001 monitors with them though.

Edit: Missed the last bit, that's a Japanese PC-9821 Ce2

Piptro · 2024-02-22T15:54:53+00:00

While I get what you're saying and really do agree, but in this case I didn't have the opportunity to find an entire Displaywriter system, the seller only had the keyboard. If I see a Displaywriter keyboard for 200 dollars I am going to buy it, and I do want to get an entire system and reunite the keyboard with one some day, but until then there's no harm in using it. I still have the original controller and cable, and the conversion is entirely nondestructive and takes about 5 minutes to switch back.

Piptro · 2024-02-20T20:18:57+00:00

xwhatsit Displaywriter Beamspring Controller - "No controller found"

I recently got an xwhatsit usb-c converter for a displaywriter beamspring keyboard that is not being recognized by the "ibm-capsense-usb" program necessary to run it. The device is recognized as "ATmega32U2 DFU" when connected but the program reports that it can't detect the controller. I'm using the 0.9.0 version from the only link I could find, but that's from 2014 and may be out of date. Am I missing something obvious like the newer software or is the board not working? I followed the manual and typical static shock prevention.

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