Building a DOS/ROM Box (aka Crap parts + Crap case = New Toy!)

It looks like Hank had a close call on Thursday, nearly getting himself disqualified from the IMBC! Since I'll have a long day ahead of me later today, I might as well get a blog entry in for today right now.

- Quick rant: I cannot believe how much Baskin Robbins has raised their prices. My local store no longer offers two pre-packed quarts for $8 (and this was 2 for $7 not long ago). A regular ice cream shake is now $4.39! A banana split is $4.99 by comparison! Also, my local Baskin Robbins charges for whipped cream! My sister ordered a milkshake, and the girl who helped us asked if she wanted whipped cream. My sister answered affirmatively, and the girl mentioned that there would be an extra charge. My sister quickly decided against the whipped cream, and the girl had a "what a cheapskate!" look on her face.

What's next? Is Subway going to charge extra for salt and pepper? Will Starbucks start charging for cream and sugar? When will El Pollo Loco start charging for salsa? Look, Baskin Robbins, you guys are getting $4.39 for a couple of scoops of ice cream, some milk, and the right to have that mix blended in your cool hand-blender thingy. You can't spare a few cents for some whipped cream?

(Damn, that might have been one of the weakest rants I've ever made!)

So a couple weeks ago, tfinch from the Anandtech forums offered a bunch of spare computer parts--an Athlon T-Bird 1.2GHz, an MSI K7T266 Pro, and 512MB of PC2100 DDR RAM--for the cost of shipping. I couldn't resist, so I PayPal'ed $10 to him, and got the parts. I was thinking about making this computer a Linux box, but I decided to use it as a DOS/ROM box instead (think "older games"). I had most of the other parts for a computer at the ready: an old ATX case, a 300W power supply, an old CD burner, and a NIC, the last of which was necessary because the board didn't have one on board.

(Tangent #1: I really don't have a need for this system. I already have two desktops, and there are a pair of laptops in this house as well. I understand a 5:2 computer:person ratio is unhealthy.)
(Tangent #2: the last time I ever installed a NIC on a computer was back in 2000 :P)

All I needed was a hard drive, and I acquired that in a trade for a leather wallet worth $12. It was some junky wallet I had, and I was pretty happy to get a 20GB Maxtor HDD out of the deal. 20GB isn't much, but I didn't need a really big hard drive; as long as the drive comfortably held Windows XP and the games I was going to install--(S)NES ROMs, mostly--I would be fine with a smallish drive.

For some reason, the board will only detect 384MB of the 512MB of RAM. That's not a big deal, as far as I'm concerned, although I will probably try to figure out the problem eventually. Installation of Windows XP took a while, and once that finished, I began the process of transferring a bunch of stuff from my other desktops onto this box. I used a USB 2.0 external hard drive to get the files I wanted, and that's when I ran into my first problem: the DOSBox had USB 1.1 (read = S L O W) ports. I decided that a network transfer was the best idea, so I put all the files I needed on my desktop hooked up via Ethernet. That made the transfer go about 50 times faster than if I tried the transfer via USB.

Once the transfer was done, I moved the DOSBox into my room, and hooked it up to my Sceptre 32" HDTV. After making all the necessary connections, I fired up Tecmo Super Bowl (NES) and began running amok with Lawrence Taylor and the New York Giants. I have an itch to play some Chrono Trigger (I LOVE that game!)

By the way, for those of you keeping score at home, DOSBox + NES emulation + 32" HDTV = semi-geek. As Krunk pointed out, had I installed some flavor of Linux on the DOSBox, I would have earned tons more geek points.

Gosh it's hot here! I may never fall asleep!