[plug] Recycled machines

[Peter Taekema]

On Thu, 2008-05-29 at 00:30 +0800, Gavin Chester wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 2008-05-28 at 21:29 +0800, Kai wrote:
> > Mike Holland wrote:
> > > Chris Caston wrote:
> > > 
> > >> Well I remember playing Doom, Star Wars Rebel Assault, Return to Zork, 
> > >> various Sierra games, using Grolliers Encylopedia, doing home work  
> > >> and browsing the web and newsgroups on a 386.
> > > 
> > > Ah, the good old days.
> > > Remember when PCs had a "turbo" button and a 7-segment LED MHz display?
> > 
> > Hahahaa, yep.
> > 
> > I remember wondering if that button ever actually did anything or if it 
> > was just a gimmick...
> 
> No, it did. I remember toggling it just to see how _slow_ dos3 apps
> could be made to run, for example ;-) Can't remember the exact detail,
> but I think it was something to do with some programs that were still in
> use into the early desktop PC days that needed the processor to be
> clocked down to 8bit, or below a certain MHz threshold so that they
> could run. Something like that. But then we're talking new fangled 286
> PCs, not the glorious old 8086s that existed before hard drives! 
> 
> Gavin
> 

Does anyone remember ever seeing a little program that was going around
on Floppies (yes, I am talking 'real' 360k floppy disks) that was a bit
of a joke (early 'virus'?) that came up with a message on your screen
about finding water in the disk drive and needing to turn on the
"centrifuge" in order to drain the water?  

If you put the disk in anything faster than a 4Mhz 286, it kinda just
made a strange sound and 'blinked' briefly on the screen before
vanishing....     not quite the same effect!

Ah,  those were the days!

LOL.

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