Once upon a Time in HWZ

[Viper0402]

1) You started with HWZ, or those registered back in 1999 but gotten dated year 2000 instead.

2) Before Sim Lim Square, there was ONLY Fortune Center where you hang out often to get diskettes clipped for double the capacity, and shopping for games and hardware.

3) You play games like Lemonade Stand, Rescue Raiders on your desktops. And you are definitely ADDICTED to SSI (strategy) games like Close Combat series, North Atlantic '86, Bomb Alley, Steel Panthers series, etc.

4) You are addicted to games on the "green screen" monitors.

5) You switch to Pentium 386 or 486 desktop PCs, and are amazed at how fast and multimedia it is, and D.I.Y. your first desktop with Creative SoundBlaster package consisting of the 1st generation soundcard bundled with CD-Rom drive. You are also amazed by how good the Yamaha desktop YST series speakers and MSW series subwoofers are.

6) You stare UNBELIEVABLY at the Sony 19" Trinitron or Mitsubishi "Diamondtron" CRT monitors priced at S$3,000+ in which later years you bought it off 2nd hand from someone at only S$50.

to be continued...

 

[elmariachi]

1) You started with HWZ, or those registered back in 1999 but gotten dated year 2000 instead.

2) Before Sim Lim Square, there was ONLY Fortune Center where you hang out often to get diskettes clipped for double the capacity, and shopping for games and hardware.

3) You play games like Lemonade Stand, Rescue Raiders on your desktops. And you are definitely ADDICTED to SSI (strategy) games like Close Combat series, North Atlantic '86, Bomb Alley, Steel Panthers series, etc.

4) You are addicted to games on the "green screen" monitors.

5) You switch to Pentium 386 or 486 desktop PCs, and are amazed at how fast and multimedia it is, and D.I.Y. your first desktop with Creative SoundBlaster package consisting of the 1st generation soundcard bundled with CD-Rom drive. You are also amazed by how good the Yamaha desktop YST series speakers and MSW series subwoofers are.

6) You stare UNBELIEVABLY at the Sony 19" Trinitron or Mitsubishi "Diamondtron" CRT monitors priced at S$3,000+ in which later years you bought it off 2nd hand from someone at only S$50.

to be continued...

Memories! I think Katong Shopping Centre was the place I used to get all my game fix in diskettes. Wow how time have passed!

 

[Viper0402]

Memories! I think Katong Shopping Centre was the place I used to get all my game fix in diskettes. Wow how time have passed!

Missed out my days in Fortune Center during Apple IIe+ computer.
When Fortune Center is NOT a massage center...

 

[commach]

Before SLS is People Park Center, Creative Mr. Sim's shop reside in PPC too.

 

[elmariachi]

5.25 Floppy! I remembered how I was so hooked to this game playing on my Digitek PC eons ago. That was a 486 DXII or something and at that time we all used to have that special "TURBO"button on the PC with a small LED readout of 66Mhz CPU Frequency. When 66Mhz was considered OP. 80's babies will most definitely remember this!

 

[Viper0402]

Before SLS is People Park Center, Creative Mr. Sim's shop reside in PPC too.

And later I work in the very 1st Creative showroom "Zone A" located inside Funan Center.
And people were amazed by the Cambridge speakers set, mainly PC Works , Microworks, the launch of world 1st PC-DVD Rom drive, Creative products were beautifully boxed up in bundle packages.

 

[commach]

And later I work in the very 1st Creative showroom "Zone A" located inside Funan Center.
And people were amazed by the Cambridge speakers set, mainly PC Works 2.1 and 5.1, Microworks 5.1, the launch of world 1st PC-DVD Rom drive, Creative products were beautifully boxed up in bundle packages.

I still kept the Creative 2X CDROM, speaker and Sound Blaster card bundled packing box with me. Maybe tonight take picture and post it here.

 

[Viper0402]

5.25 Floppy! I remembered how I was so hooked to this game playing on my Digitek PC eons ago. That was a 486 DXII or something and at that time we all used to have that special "TURBO"button on the PC with a small LED readout of 66Mhz CPU Frequency. When 66Mhz was considered OP. 80's babies will most definitely remember this!

I still have APPLEWIN emulator running on Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, playing games like "North Atlantic '86", "Bomb Alley", "Lemonade Stand", full screen "green" display.

 

[Viper0402]

I still kept the Creative 2X CDROM, speaker and Sound Blaster card bundled packing box with me. Maybe tonight take picture and post it here.

I still keep all the T-shirts printed with these packages.
Worn by staff and given out to public back then.

 

[commach]

5.25 Floppy! I remembered how I was so hooked to this game playing on my Digitek PC eons ago. That was a 486 DXII or something and at that time we all used to have that special "TURBO"button on the PC with a small LED readout of 66Mhz CPU Frequency. When 66Mhz was considered OP. 80's babies will most definitely remember this!

I was helping my eldest brother in PPC assembling computer, copying in-house floppy disc before the piracy act. Tony Tan was one of our customer in PPC, during that time, one day can easily sell thousands of games in 5.25" floppy disc and my favorite game was a pinball game called Midnight Magic in Green monochrome display. He is one of the pioneer batch of PC seller/distributor in Singapore, Acer was called Multitech at that time.

Mr. Sim was building his CubicCT in PPC and dove deep into Chinese computer and sound card way before SLS.

 

[darkarn]

I recall the days when most user-to-user deals are done via forums and PMs instead of Carousell today, but this was more like 2008 like that.

Were things like this too in the 2000s era?

 

[elmariachi]

I recall the days when most user-to-user deals are done via forums and PMs instead of Carousell today, but this was more like 2008 like that.

Were things like this too in the 2000s era?

1990s-2000 were golden years for PC.
There were Wearnes CD-ROM drives, Sound Blaster sounds cards and graphic cards, etc. Before even Windows 3.11, most of us were on MS-DOS playing diskette games. Bloody computer was a pain to configure IRQ for sound cards, etc. But once the game started, it was heaven. I am sure many would be familiar with the "SET BLASTER A220 I7 D10" in DOS! Today, everything is so seamless and automated many would forget how much time and effort goes into configuring a DOS game to run.

At that time, alot of PCs were sold via computer shows. Like I remembered Digitek and a few local brands were very popular. Social media was virtually in-existent. Alot of sales of DIY was via word of mouth and Sim Lim Square was HOT for PC parts at that time. And at that time 4gb of RAM used to cost like a grand.

So yup so even 2008 considered very different from late 90s and early 2000.

 

[muddle]

Autoexec.bat and config.sys used to be my frens

 

[elmariachi]

Autoexec.bat and config.sys used to be my frens

Exactly. Used to run batch files upon DOS startup to get stuff running at defaults. The pain of the 80s but well worth it.

 

[commach]

I am sure many would be familiar with the "SET BLASTER A220 I7 D10" in DOS! Today, everything is so seamless and automated many would forget how much time and effort goes into configuring a DOS game to run.

You for sure don't use printer with the "SET BLASTER A220 I7 D10" variable.

Low IRQ7 is the default IRQ for LTP1 port which is the must have for nearly every PC. Creative sound cards are using IRQ5 (share with LTP2/LPT3) as default via jumper or set variable in the autoexec.bat (non-jumper newer version). Due to this particular reason, user of AZTECH sound card are commonly using IRQ7 (default) thus result in IRQ conflict with the LPT1 port "problem", either no sound or the printer won't work due to IRQ conflict.

 

[fi5hbone]

Anyone here used a Creative Blaster PC?

 

[darkarn]

1990s-2000 were golden years for PC.
There were Wearnes CD-ROM drives, Sound Blaster sounds cards and graphic cards, etc. Before even Windows 3.11, most of us were on MS-DOS playing diskette games. Bloody computer was a pain to configure IRQ for sound cards, etc. But once the game started, it was heaven. I am sure many would be familiar with the "SET BLASTER A220 I7 D10" in DOS! Today, everything is so seamless and automated many would forget how much time and effort goes into configuring a DOS game to run.

At that time, alot of PCs were sold via computer shows. Like I remembered Digitek and a few local brands were very popular. Social media was virtually in-existent. Alot of sales of DIY was via word of mouth and Sim Lim Square was HOT for PC parts at that time. And at that time 4gb of RAM used to cost like a grand.

So yup so even 2008 considered very different from late 90s and early 2000.

Yeah, I do recall how I bugged my mum repeatedly for one of those Acer computers during an IT show in like, 2003?

It was about 2006 when I first heard about DIY PC and SLS though

 

[elmariachi]

You for sure don't use printer with the "SET BLASTER A220 I7 D10" variable.

Low IRQ7 is the default IRQ for LTP1 port which is the must have for nearly every PC. Creative sound cards are using IRQ5 (share with LTP2/LPT3) as default via jumper or set variable in the autoexec.bat (non-jumper newer version). Due to this particular reason, user of AZTECH sound card are commonly using IRQ7 (default) thus result in IRQ conflict with the LPT1 port "problem", either no sound or the printer won't work due to IRQ conflict.

Yeah that was just an example. IRQ7 is usually for printer port.
It is just the command that most of us would have used to set for the cards. I was using Zoltrix Sound Card at that time. Can't recall how I set it but I had to to find out a free interrupt that worked.

 

[schlep]

Dot matrix printer was the in thing too.

 

[Dr.Vijay]

Epson LX-86 user here

Dot matrix printer was the in thing too.