Post by c64stuff on Aug 10, 2021 15:29:58 GMT
This past year I was lucky to find 3 PC LCD widescreen monitors roughly ten to twelve years old for $2 a piece at a garage sale. I was looking for a few flat screen monitors to install in a few bar top arcade cabinet homemade builds.
I was intending to throw a raspberry pi in them but upon arrival home I noticed one of the monitors was actually a Asus Surround Sensation all in one windows computer using a Core I3 CPU running windows 7 and expansive sound bar with enhanced audio.
Very cool score for $2! The other two monitors also work. I currently have one, a Hanns-G, plugged into a raspberry pi RetroPie setup using a HDMI to VGA convertor. The video quality is phenomenal.
The third monitor is a Samsung SyncMaster 244T and, while it also is a flat LCD widescreen, it's the oldest, being manufactured in 2005. It features no VGA input. Only component and SVideo, which is very cool because when I get around to it I'll use it with a real commodore 64's SVideo output for best video quality. Not many people know the C64 was I think the first computer on the market to offer enhanced SVideo output if you used the right cable to plug into a monitor, as it's video connector wasn't standard SVideo and many people would just buy a composite cable for it.
The other cool thing about this monitor is I think it being called a SyncMaster probably means it is able to handle the odd video frequencies certain computers had back then for certain special high resolution graphic modes, such as 15khz for the Amiga or whatever Atari was doing with the ST. I also think this is probably one of the last monitors to still feature S video, yet in modern flat widescreen technology. If anybody can tell me more on this please do.
Anyway, back to the original reason for this thread. So the monitor with a built in windows computer... Although I do not like windows PCs, it would be a waste to plug a raspberry pi into it just to use as a monitor in one of the arcade cabinet builds. I hear you can install a Linux based OS and RetroPie-like emulator front end on a USB stick and change the Bios so the PC boots directly off the USB.
Few of my questions are what front end do you recommend? Second would be which key do I hit on bootup to change the bios. Third question is how do I find out the hardware specs of this PC so I know if I need to install a 32 or 64 bit version of the software on the USB? I can't boot into the computer it's self to find out because on power up it says there's no boot device to launch windows or something along those lines, so I'm guessing it's missing a hard drive, DVD disk, or the hard drive was wiped of anything. I'd really like to know what ram, storage, or other hardware it has inside it but how do I see that? I tried looking this pc up online and I can only find specs for other all in one PC monitors they made. About the only thing I do know is it's got a CD or DVD rom drive door on the side, but I haven't even looked to see if there's actually one behind the door.
Btw, not only did I get that sweet deal on three monitors and one having a windows computer built in for a total of $6, but I also got a Logitech flight simulator force feedback wingman joystick for $2 too. It's a flight yoke style joystick and features a crap load of extra buttons for flight controls, trigger fire button, slider control for throttle, etc. It used USB and looking it up online I see this thing is still made today, and is so old the original ones weren't even USB. I can see myself playing not only flight simulator or racing games with it, but also arcade games that used a pistol grip yoke like Satan's Hollow or Gorf, Star Wars, etc. I may even mount it into one of the arcade cabinet builds dead center between player one and player two joysticks and buttons, right above a trackball and spinner I also have plans to install in both arcade cabinet builds so it's not in the way but can be used. Looking online, I see there's even people using this thing to play arcade games like pacman, shootemup, or fighting games. Can't beat it for $2.
I was intending to throw a raspberry pi in them but upon arrival home I noticed one of the monitors was actually a Asus Surround Sensation all in one windows computer using a Core I3 CPU running windows 7 and expansive sound bar with enhanced audio.
Very cool score for $2! The other two monitors also work. I currently have one, a Hanns-G, plugged into a raspberry pi RetroPie setup using a HDMI to VGA convertor. The video quality is phenomenal.
The third monitor is a Samsung SyncMaster 244T and, while it also is a flat LCD widescreen, it's the oldest, being manufactured in 2005. It features no VGA input. Only component and SVideo, which is very cool because when I get around to it I'll use it with a real commodore 64's SVideo output for best video quality. Not many people know the C64 was I think the first computer on the market to offer enhanced SVideo output if you used the right cable to plug into a monitor, as it's video connector wasn't standard SVideo and many people would just buy a composite cable for it.
The other cool thing about this monitor is I think it being called a SyncMaster probably means it is able to handle the odd video frequencies certain computers had back then for certain special high resolution graphic modes, such as 15khz for the Amiga or whatever Atari was doing with the ST. I also think this is probably one of the last monitors to still feature S video, yet in modern flat widescreen technology. If anybody can tell me more on this please do.
Anyway, back to the original reason for this thread. So the monitor with a built in windows computer... Although I do not like windows PCs, it would be a waste to plug a raspberry pi into it just to use as a monitor in one of the arcade cabinet builds. I hear you can install a Linux based OS and RetroPie-like emulator front end on a USB stick and change the Bios so the PC boots directly off the USB.
Few of my questions are what front end do you recommend? Second would be which key do I hit on bootup to change the bios. Third question is how do I find out the hardware specs of this PC so I know if I need to install a 32 or 64 bit version of the software on the USB? I can't boot into the computer it's self to find out because on power up it says there's no boot device to launch windows or something along those lines, so I'm guessing it's missing a hard drive, DVD disk, or the hard drive was wiped of anything. I'd really like to know what ram, storage, or other hardware it has inside it but how do I see that? I tried looking this pc up online and I can only find specs for other all in one PC monitors they made. About the only thing I do know is it's got a CD or DVD rom drive door on the side, but I haven't even looked to see if there's actually one behind the door.
Btw, not only did I get that sweet deal on three monitors and one having a windows computer built in for a total of $6, but I also got a Logitech flight simulator force feedback wingman joystick for $2 too. It's a flight yoke style joystick and features a crap load of extra buttons for flight controls, trigger fire button, slider control for throttle, etc. It used USB and looking it up online I see this thing is still made today, and is so old the original ones weren't even USB. I can see myself playing not only flight simulator or racing games with it, but also arcade games that used a pistol grip yoke like Satan's Hollow or Gorf, Star Wars, etc. I may even mount it into one of the arcade cabinet builds dead center between player one and player two joysticks and buttons, right above a trackball and spinner I also have plans to install in both arcade cabinet builds so it's not in the way but can be used. Looking online, I see there's even people using this thing to play arcade games like pacman, shootemup, or fighting games. Can't beat it for $2.
