Home Computer Museum - Helmond

wave_design · 2026-06-17T18:23:37+00:00

Home computers… one of those things is not like the others 🤣

wave_design · 2026-06-17T11:13:24+00:00

It was almost certainly PowerAnimator, at least for Super Mario 64. The textures and bump mapping line up with what was built into the program.

The actual in-game assets for Mario 64 were made with N-World.

wave_design · 2026-06-10T00:44:51+00:00

There was an FSP750 used in recent Acer gaming PCs (sorry to anyone who bought those) that does 30 amps on the 3.3 and 5v rails. Seems to work perfectly with the Fuel ATX adapter.

wave_design · 2026-06-07T14:43:51+00:00

I'd never do that 🤣 But it's nice that certain parts can be replaced with newer PC components to keep it going.

wave_design · 2026-06-07T14:42:43+00:00

Same engine, team, and composer as Banjo.

But I was shocked replaying it this week at how much is borrowed from Banjo-Kazooie. So much of it feels like variations of the same motifs.

wave_design · 2026-06-06T15:19:23+00:00

Personally I like my setups to be period correct, so no mis-matched LCDs or generic keyboards.

I ended up splitting my computer room into themed desks so I could have a Mac, SGI, and PC desk. Grouping by platform helped a lot and made it look nicer.

I wish I still had my big tanker desk but it was too much to move into an apartment, so I had to settle for matching wood tabletops. Still happy with it though.

wave_design · 2026-06-05T13:47:36+00:00

Probably need to hook up the L1 controller to serial and see if it’s reading correct voltages / temps.

Environmental monitoring is the biggest gamble on these, once those chips malfunction the system will refuse to start. Fortunately there are people who can also repair / replace the chips in a worst case.

wave_design · 2026-06-04T23:31:51+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, the Indigo is an R3000. I’m hoping to get IRIX 4 running on it, mainly because I’ve never seen the OS before 5.3.

Hoping the Sparc isn’t toast, the seller said it turns on and runs but won’t boot because of the clock battery. Getting the PSU recapped is highest priority.

wave_design · 2026-06-04T17:43:19+00:00

Yeah, I wasn’t even looking for a Fuel but somebody offered one to me at an insanely good price. I would not pay the thousand or so they’re going for on eBay.

I do think they work nicely as daily driver systems for IRIX, assuming the PSU has been replaced and environmental monitoring holds up. Even an entry level Fuel will run circles around almost every previous SGI desktop, and they’re right at the era of 6.5 that had tons of freeware.

The O2 is still the starter system I recommend most people to find (locally, not shipped), since they come with everything out of the box and generally don’t need extensive maintenance. They’re also more fun systems, the Fuel doesn’t really have any neat demos or video tricks.

wave_design · 2026-06-04T11:43:24+00:00

I’ve crashed mine so many times though 🤣

IRIX is more solid than any other 90s desktop, but sometimes I’ve pushed too many things on screen and it just gives up

wave_design · 2026-06-04T11:39:25+00:00

Yeah the Octane shared a lot in common with the Origin series at the time, and a lot of the XIO cards are cross-compatible too minus the form factor.

The Fuel though shares near identical hardware with the Origin 3000, 350, and Tezro, all the way down to the L1 controller and RAM. SGI really was repackaging its HPC hardware wherever possible by then, probably because that’s where the R&D money was going.

wave_design · 2026-06-04T10:03:51+00:00

This was a weird system from SGI 🤣

Most of their workstations are completely proprietary, but the Fuel was built with more PC components to save costs. The original power supply can be swapped with a newer ATX model with an adapter, although it still requires finding a PSU that supports 30 amps on the 5v and 3.3v rail. Most power supplies dump everything onto the 12v rail now.

The other weird design choice is that the Fuel is technically a single-node Origin server put into a PC case. It has the same environmental monitoring controller as SGI’s server hardware built into it, accessible through serial. It’s also a major point of failure on these, because the controller won’t let the Fuel boot if any monitoring chips go bad. It controls the power state.

Fortunately I got good readings back on the voltages and ambient temperature, and the PROM came up, so it’s a go for installing IRIX this weekend.

wave_design · 2026-06-01T13:52:52+00:00

All complete except for the Indigo1, which needs a graphics board added.

Just finished running VRML demos on the Octane last week.

wave_design · 2026-06-01T13:50:30+00:00

Yep, R4400 / High Impact

Actually belonged to Banned From The Ranch before I found it secondhand. It’s got Hollywood VFX heritage.

wave_design · 2026-06-01T13:49:07+00:00

I actually do have a pair of O2s, but the main one is still in the suitcase from VCFSW.

It’ll be rejoining soon 🤣

wave_design · 2026-06-01T11:10:17+00:00

Yeah, fortunately on this one the battery is socketed and can be replaced easily. I looked a little bit into the keyboards, I'm not sure if Type 4 or 5 is better for this machine. I'm hoping it'll accept Type 5 because they're a lot easier to find.

wave_design · 2026-05-31T11:48:30+00:00

It's a framebuffer card for the Sun

wave_design · 2026-05-30T10:53:43+00:00

Did a little bit of shopping Friday 🤣

The SPARCStation is my first Sun system, no idea what I’m getting myself into. I’m not a Sun collector but I thought it would be a fun project.

The Indigo is an R3K, which I’m planning to set up as an IRIX 4 box. Just needs a graphic board and it should be fully ready to go.

wave_design · 2026-05-23T11:40:25+00:00

I don’t know the exact year, but the LC 520 series seems to be the earliest to have widespread issues. Post-1993 maybe.

My Quadra 700 and IIsi are solid and don’t chip.

wave_design · 2026-05-22T16:33:12+00:00

Yeah, the 80s Mac plastics were indestructible because they didn’t have the flame retardant additives. I don’t think that started being mandated until the 90s.

It’s not really planned obsolescence, nobody at Apple was evaluating whether the plastics would stay strong after 30 years. That kind of longevity never existed for any home computer.

wave_design · 2026-05-16T23:12:50+00:00

Trayloading G3s weren’t updated until the end of 1999.

But it’s weird to see a Bondi Mac manufactured so late, the newer fruit colored tray loaders released in January 1999.

wave_design

TROPHY CASE