Jamesfmackenzie

Choosing a macOS version, a GPU, and an upgrade path for the classic Mac Pro 5,1 - there's no single perfect configuration, just tradeoffs.

Turning a CompactFlash card into hard drive storage for an Amstrad PC1640 - the failed attempts, the Serial Drive detour, and the recipe that finally worked.

A cheap used Radeon X800 XL turned up with a seized, screaming fan. Quieting it took three goes - new bearings, then a new fan, then a whole aftermarket cooler.

I don't have PCI slots on my Z97 motherboard anymore - so I used a cheap PCIe-to-PCI adapter to bring a 3dfx Voodoo 2 back to life inside a modern Windows 10 PC. It took a full-height mounting workaround, an unsigned x64 driver from the 3dfxzone forums, d

Namco built an arcade cabinet that stitches three screens into one race. Nobody had properly emulated the chip that makes it possible. This is the full story - two other people's abandoned attempts, a ROM dump that can't be released, a canonical chip emul

A case-study post on why the Dell Dimension E520 looked promising for Windows 98, but turned into a more mixed DOS, Win98, and XP experiment.

A case study on why the Dell OptiPlex 760 looked promising for Windows 98, but turned out to be much happier as an XP and DOS machine.

I hadn't played Minecraft for a while - tried it again recently and the Vibrant Visuals really struck me. It looks great!

TIL you can remote play your own Xbox, in your own home, from any PC and browser. Was I the only one who didn't know!? Thoughts after 30 minutes of gameplay: It's pretty good! Controls are responsive and latency is low. Video quality is high, with very fe

You don't need a RetroTINK or Framemeister to get sharp, native-resolution capture of a classic computer - with a good capture card and deliberate post-processing, you can reconstruct the original pixel grid yourself.