iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Flea Market Friday - saw a Star Trek TNG themed CRT mask thing. The funny part is on the back is an ad to collect all the various desk accessories to just completely nerd out your computer desk. :) Didn't ask price on the mask, just fun to see.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I can't remember my exact age when I got these cards, but I believe I was around 10. I traded some guy that ran a card shop booth at a flea market all my Garbage Pail Kids cards for the set. The guy probably got a way better deal but I was tired of the cards and dinos were cool.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

On the subject of my card collections, Dinosaurs Attack is probably my favorite. I believe it's meant to be a spoof on the Mars Attacks cards and they did not pull punches on the gory art, lol. The backs have neat themes to tell the story. It's a weird and wacky set to be sure.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Of course the set also had a bunch of peel off sticker cards from Zelda, Super Mario Bros, Punchout, and Double Dragon as well with game tips on the backs of the cards. I did scratch off some but these are ones I kept for my collection back in the day.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

You know, 13 years ago @cinemasssacre.bsky.social made a video on the Tiger handheld games as being the bottom of the barrel gaming but I do think there's one step below that. Topps released a set of Nintendo cards in 1989 with scratch-off game cards...

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Flea Market Friday time - saw this pair of iomega external drives. The Apple sticker could be a sign of backups of Macintosh files which was enough to ask, but $20 each with no PSUs, pass. Grabbed four Atari 5200 games, Amidar, & manuals for a total of $10 since I recently picked up a 5200 system.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Tried the monitor out some more. After fiddling with the settings, it’s not bad. For 4:3 you get overscan area which isn’t as nice as having the right ratio. Also a bit of signal artifacts that don’t show well here - need to test with more things. The CRT PVM looks better imho.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

In either case, gave the Sony PVM a quick test at home - maybe not the best device for trying it out but I just wanted to know if it worked at all. Pretty cool so far! I'll have to tinker with it more later and try some consoles on it.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Same guy had some other (what I assume) is audio/video or networking equipment. Maybe bought out an old studio/IT closet or storage cleanout. Even had an Atari and some carts (definitely don't need more of either, lol.)

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Little something for Flea Market Friday - This Sony monitor caught my eye this morning due to not recognizing the model name and all the buttons, then on the back it had BNC connectors. Turns out it is a flat panel PVM. Vendor wanted $10, so why not satisfy curiosity? :) ...

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Neat thing to see at the flea today - old Panasonic Toughbook. Sadly screen had something going on, looked like an inner layer peeling up - not sure if delaminating or just another protective layer. No PSU either. Lady wanted $20 then $15, tempting but not sure about that screen.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Managed to find a weekend community sale and for better or worse, decided to take this Atari 5200 home for $5. It’s in rough shape but at least the later model with the power plug on the console. Came with Q*bert as well.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I did see this @lgr-yt.bsky.social worthy Panasonic VHS player/recorder with the woodgrain. Nothing I personally need but fun to see. -Last- Friday, I also saw this little RCA TV, guy wanted $10, then $5 but no plug. It was tempting.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Flea Market Friday time - still not seeing much lately. Passed on some laptops today. One was an IBM T43, good laptop but $20 with no psu - meh. The other was a Vista era Compaq (that I have one of) and this HP, again no psu with either. Didn't ask prices...

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Flea Market Friday time - just one pickup today. Found this odd Maxis PC title "Unnatural Selection" for $3. I don't think I've typically seen games list a 386 as starting specs. It'll be fun to check out. The Rebel Assault II was also $3 but no game, just box and some papers.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

The CPU was in a plastic holder with foam, no bent pins (yay). It's an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (not the 64 X2 on the box). Decent single core CPU; Similar to an Athlon build I had. Put it all in a case, added a 9400GT, and it booted right up. Can't complain for the price! :)

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Glad I found the cooler before the scrappers. I'm sure some would happily buy it just for the copper. The MSI board looks in great shape, probably due to being stored in the box. Didn't get the proper I/O shield but there were some other little bits along with the manuals..

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Found a little something for Flea Market Friday - this MSI socket 939 mainboard was in a bin with a CPU for $5. Digging around some more, I found the CPU box with the cooler and fan still inside for another $3. It'll be fun to put in a case and tinker with :)

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Funny enough, there was so much junk on the table that I went back thinking there was chance the wacom stylus was somewhere in the junk, dug through some boxes of crap behind the table and found two pens, some Mac software, and a random Jaz disk for $2 more!

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Pretty good day at the flea! Spotted this Apple II keyboard, Mac usb keyboard, and Wacom ADB tablet on a table all for $9. Guy also had a Nikon CoolPix 995 for $15, but I have two already. Another table had a sealed MS Publisher for Win95 ($5) but passed on that as well...

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Slim pickings at the flea lately. I did see this R31 Thinkpad for $10. It was missing a hatch cover and no power brick. Decided to pass since I have one. Did pick up the Blade Runner Directors Cut laser disc for $5, though! I have the criterion version but not this version.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Haven’t seen much at the flea market recently. Today, there was a Mac SE at a table. Vendor did have the original keyboard as well, claimed it powered on but at a price of $80, not something I wanted to pick up.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Saw this thin rack server at a thrift store for a whole $5. So tempted just to tinker with it but held strong, lol. I was able to boot it there - had an AMD Opteron 170 dual core CPU, 2 GB of DDR400 RAM, a CD ROM, four drive bays (SATA), and four PCI slots.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Haven’t seen much lately but did spot this cool little Olympus branded photo printer in box. So tempting but $25 is just too much, especially unknown if working. Still, loved the color and cube shape.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Sadly, I didn't ask. If I see it again, I'll ask.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Here's a look at some of the more interesting things and the rest is mostly just educational stuff and some sports games. Still, it'll be fun to check some of these out - there's titles here I've not heard of before, like Shivers Two.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

I did have one pickup today - guy had a stack of PC CD-ROM games/software. It was $5 for all of it and there was just enough interesting/odd things that I grabbed it. No Ultimate Doom disk, sadly...

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Saw this DJ turntables set (and I think there were some other related equipment on the table). Some kind of luggable unit with lots of dials - maybe a ham radio? Looked neat, especially with the oscilloscope screen. There was also a whole school chemistry lab, love the old flasks

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

I did see some Mac laptops today, nothing I needed. There was a Macbook Pro I didn't get a photo of (Core 2 vintage) for $50. Saw a woodgrain Sony cassette player that was $30. I was tempted on the Marantz portable mic recorder priced $10 mainly for the 512mb CF card...

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Flea Market Friday time! Not many pickups lately but allow me to share some odds and ends, starting with this painting. I have no idea what a Bull Terrier and IBM have to do with each other, maybe there was an old ad with it? Anyway, this was eye catching...

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Saw this at a different flea market today. Macintosh big box Indiana Jones game - had disks and manual for $40. I was told that’s a good price, however I passed as it wasn’t something I really needed (and a have a PC copy anyway). Cool though.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Scorching day for Flea Market Friday. Saw one interesting item - this Computer City branded RC car was neat with all the other tech brand stickers. Guy wanted $20 for it, which didn't seem bad given it was also working. Didn't need more for the shelves, but cool item!

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

But after all that, success! The sound card output is low for some reason. The dial works, it's at max - maybe some caps are tired. Either way, just happy to have it rocking some Doom 2.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

So I had the PC booting, but the CD-ROM needs a caddy and sadly one wasn't in it. It was also a SCSI drive hooked to the sound card. So, I had to swap in an IDE drive and move around the HDD. Then came getting the sound working - found the drivers online and loaded those...

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

This thing has been a battle. First was getting a HDD solution going. Fished out a working 4gb HDD and used Ontrack Disk Manager to get it setup. Also, needed to replace the CMOS battery - the old one was a non-rechargeable pack, clipped wires and soldered to a CR2032 holder...

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

As you can see, everything is really packed in this small-ish case BUT pretty clean. And moving a few cables around, you can see the good stuff! Overdrive CPU and full of RAM (32megs). I did get it powered on but the HDDs are dead it seems. More tinkering to do.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

The other is just an empty case with a psu but not a spec of rust, so I’ll find something to put in it. Really both cases are super clean looking. Previous owner really took care of these.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Hit the yard sales today and it was mostly nothing of interest, which happens, but one of the later sales had this interesting PC and PC case. Got both for $10. Noticed when taking these pics there’s a label on the one - Pentium Overdrive inside if correct…

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

The option I’m left with is to harvest the parts I can use for other projects and the rest is probably going to the dump/recycling. Can’t save them all and I don’t want to store them longer.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

I knew it was a long shot when I picked these up. These PCs came back home from the swap meet. There just wasn’t interest in these P4/Celeron machines (even cleaned, setup, working) I thought there might at least be interest in the beige cases…

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Pretty good day at the VCF East Swapmeet. Didn’t sell out this time, but sold about half or so of the stuff I brought. Foot traffic seemed low-ish and it was challenging with the windy conditions. Had fun though, always fun chatting with people!

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Well it plays Doom 2 well enough. That LCD would be rough to play on but hook in an external monitor and mouse, you’re golden.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

I did have to test it immediately back home, it's a 200mhz MMX CPU, 32mb of RAM,and 2gb HDD. Plugged in my multi-adapter and it booted right up to Win98! LCD is not great - passive matrix. HDD pops out easily, RAM under a hatch, fun little PC for the price! :)

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

My one pickup today though is pretty cool - Saw this little NEC ultra portable sitting on a table. Guy wanted $7 for it. While I wish it had accessories and a power brick, for that price I took it anyway. Just can't so no to these small machines...

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Flea Market Friday again - interesting finds today! I saw this Power Macintosh 7100/80AV, which is a odd thing to see these days. Guy wanted $60 for it "as-is", but I felt that a bit high with the rusty areas around back. Didn't get it, but neat to see. Also saw this piece of 'art'? ...

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Yeah, it had the old UHF screws and Coax RF plug. Probably just looked at eBay or marketplace listings and decided he had gold.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Flea Market Friday time - didn't see much today. This old woodgrain Samsung 13" tv caught my eye. I had either this same model or one very similar as a kid. It had a great picture for NES games at the time. The vendor wanted $120 for it, so that's a pass.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Decided to go Win98 for this one - it’s so much faster and the sound/video drivers are working great now. Probably fixable in XP, but with the low RAM, better 98 machine…

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

There was a guy that had a few boxes of Famicom and Super Famicom games for $5 each. I picked out some RPG-ish games because it’s been fun playing with the aid of Google translate. Wanted to try some more.

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RetroFox @retrofox8bit.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Nice day at the flea market. Saw this MacBook with a bulging battery the lady confidently wanted $50 for, hard pass. Cool Hearoid robot in box (didn’t ask) and a Smith-Corona Typewriter for $5 in case…

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