PowerPC Challenge - COVID-19 2020

[VanneDC]

the video chip in those early core solo and Core duo minis are absolutely CRAP!!! due to the Intel GMA video that was used in these. If your going to use it headless, then go for it. i used to have a G4 mini maxed out as a media player (with Wii remote) and that looked great, then ..upgraded first to a core solo mini.. sold that ****** thing in a week, and then to the core 2 duo... very very rubbish piece of equipment. .. is it worth 50 bucks? , only you can know that, but that Intel GMA, i wouldn't piss on that if it was on fire.

just landed , coming back from PVG.. here we go again... stuck in the room again.. 14 days more...

 

[Alexis Trinquet]

I gave up mostly, simply, I ran into many, many, many issues, notably my G4 starting to act up yet again..... This time in a very unpredictable way.

Right now, I found an interesting game, "Souls in the System", I might try it on my G3 since it's a fairly ancient game (and Classic is hammering my poor 1GHz G4 into the ground).

But don't worry, I've set a new goal: Mostly-PPC gaming. Yeah, I'll be gaming on PPC for the time being. Most of the heavylifting will be done by Intel machines.

So I'm still 50% participating... Oh this is going to sound really fun, my G4 now boots ¼ of the time and my G3 has no PRAM battery... Foul it, I may as well get a quad-core G5 at this point!

Oh and, the reason I went suddenly AWOL (and forgetting to take the screenshots I promised... Duh!), if you're wondering... I went in some sort of pseudo-depressive state... The lockdown really is taking its toll on me... Never felt so useless in my entire life.

Right now I'm recovering from that half-depression, been discovering a boatload of old games... Though I'm thinking lugging Limey over to my house and use it (since it has a CRT and runs native OS 9) but she's quite the heavyweight G3 champpy gal, I mean, I've lifted heavier than it (such as a 9" Sony Trinitron PVM-9042QM monitor that bears a impressive size-to-weight ratio, or alternatively, read: small, but weights as much as a sack of bricks) but that G3.... I'm afraid of the handle snapping like a twig.

And ofc Sultana, my G4, ugh, it feels like it's made of stone given how heavy it is too... So moving either of my iMacs is entirely not in the cards.

 

[Amethyst1]

Oh and, the reason I went suddenly AWOL (and forgetting to take the screenshots I promised... Duh!), if you're wondering... I went in some sort of pseudo-depressive state... The lockdown really is taking its toll on me... Never felt so useless in my entire life.

It might not help much, but you are not alone with these feelings.

 

[RogerWilco6502]

I gave up mostly, simply, I ran into many, many, many issues, notably my G4 starting to act up yet again..... This time in a very unpredictable way.

You did well! That's too bad about your G4, hopefully you can get your issues with it resolved.

But don't worry, I've set a new goal: Mostly-PPC gaming. Yeah, I'll be gaming on PPC for the time being. Most of the heavylifting will be done by Intel machines.

That sounds like an awesome and fun way to continue the challenge!

Oh and, the reason I went suddenly AWOL (and forgetting to take the screenshots I promised... Duh!), if you're wondering... I went in some sort of pseudo-depressive state... The lockdown really is taking its toll on me... Never felt so useless in my entire life.

i'm sorry to hear that. Like @Amethyst1 said, you're not alone in feeling that way. I wish you the best with your mental health and with your PPC machines.

 

[repairedCheese]

I gave up mostly, simply, I ran into many, many, many issues, notably my G4 starting to act up yet again..... This time in a very unpredictable way.

Well, my eMac decided it didn't want to use its screen right as my job was shut down by state order, so I've very lucky I have a crt that can handle all the display modes it uses, but that doesn't mean I trust it. This thing probably isn't long for this world, which is a shame because it's absolutely my favorite mac, without question.

What I'm trying to say is that things have gone wrong, big and small, and you're not alone.

 

[Alexis Trinquet]

Thanks for the support guys, I appreciate it. I just hope that this lockdown stuff finally ends (in my country the government stated that they will be "gradually lifting it per area" on the 11th of May... So I guess that's a glitter of hope?)

Anyways, yeha, about that issue with the G4, it's a issue I never had before, and I think it's something rather "dumb", sometimes it refuses to flat out start, I can [faintly] hear the fan spin but that's all. No chime, nothing, not a peep.

And sometimes if I power-cycle it (unplug and hold the power button for 20 seconds, then plug it in again), it (or rather as I call it, Sultana) starts up again, and makes a not-so-oddly worrying (ha!) grinding noise, I don't think this is the hard drive but I could be wrong.

If I could describe the noise, it sounds like the same "Bzzt!" that some older Conner (another defunct hard drive manufacturer) HDDs make before spinning up.

Something like that:

Right now it's the least of my concerns, but the power cycle issue however, I think I have my idea... I recall that some Macs need a good PRAM battery to start (iirc some of the old 68K Macintoshes in the Mac II line), since the one in Sultana is still original (from 2004 iirc, but I have not yet checked!), I'll replace it in both my G3 and my G4, we'll see how it'll go... Either way this is going to be a wild goose hunt.

Anyways right now I'm also fighting to get "Souls in The System" working... I do have a serial but the game requires a CD to be in the drive... And it seems that not even mounting the image with Roxio cuts it.

I'd be damned to have to burn another CD 😤

I take it for granted, one day I might attempt this with a fairly beefy PowerMac (such as a MDD G4, I love that thing to bits) or a QuadG5... Maayybe that would have eased it for me.

One day I might as well do a 68K challenge provided I find a Quadra or a IIfx

 

[iluvmacs99]

I am still doing the PowerPC challenge mainly because I have integrated my PowerMac G5 into my network infrastructure to provide file and print serving to an old laser printer for my Macs and Linux machine, so it is chugging along perfectly and since it doesn't suck power as bad; @ 165W with 2 dual drives as opposed to my Mac Mini main server with my Raid 5 drives all running together @ 185W, it actually is cheaper to run the G5 as it is an all in 1 unit. LOL I also use it play my Nintendo Wii from time to time as the G5 has a video capture card that allows me to see the video from the Wii. File, print and game machine using old tech -- I love it. My G4 Powerbook is in hibernation unless I need to use it to fax something.