Summer Cleanup

So, as a result of me trying to clear out a bunch of my junk (getting out of RC planes, throwing out a bunch of stuff that is 25+ years old, etc.) I dug through a bunch of my old game boxes. I still had boxes for LOMAC (with an unused $30 off TrackIR 2 coupon!), IL2, IL2FB, IL2PF, IL2 Ace Expansion, Operation Flashpoint (the old big box!), the Resistance expansion, EECH (still had a warranty card and an advert for Battle of Britain), and a few other boxes (Diablo II, Mechwarrior 4!). I still have the discs for a lot of these though they sit on a shelf, gathering dust. I still have my manuals for Red Storm Rising and F-15 Strike Eagle II on my desk!

For comparison, I have about 200 games on Steam and 300 on GoG. And I haven’t even played them all!

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Some other things I found:

  • Floppy disk drive marked Toshiba – Made in Japan (think this is from '91)
  • Two burnt out DVD drives, eaten by StarForce back in '08
  • Voodoo2 pairing cable (ran from your AGP card to the Voodoo2 PCI card)
  • 40pin IDE cables
  • 80pin IDE cables
  • Gravis Gamepad (how many of you remember that?!)
  • Some other clunky gamepad for 15pin gameport joystick
  • Microsoft Sidewinder joystick (with 15pin to USB adapter – and yes, still works)
  • Null-modem cable (for 25pin parallel port)
  • 9pin Serial to PS/2 for mouse/keyboard
  • DVI to VGA adapter (several)
  • DVI to HDMI adapter
  • GeForce 2 Ultra card
  • GeForce 3 card
  • 3xPCI Ethernet cards
  • GeForce 6200 card (laughs at your GeForce 1080s – that’s a whole 5120 in numbers above it, and it only needs an AGP interface, no extra power cables!)
  • ATi Radeon X1950 card
  • Assorted cables
  • A bunch of empty CD jewel cases, cept for one which had some rap music disc from '97 in it; think that must’ve been my sister’s
  • Boeing aircraft placard, not sure for what, but marked “USAF property”
  • A manual/book titled “Certain Victory: The US Army in Desert Storm”
  • Wood kit for an “AH-64 Apache”
  • Cat hair
  • More cat hair
  • Old cat puke
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I dont think I could ever part with these -

If you toss any of that stuff you will need it next week.

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Wow, that’s a good cleanup!

One of my prized possessions that I couldn’t make myself throw away when I moved countries and pretty much threw out all my belongings bar one suitcase of clothes was the Su-27 Flanker game manual. I think it’s still in a storage box at my parents’ place.

I don’t know of anyone who’d take it. The boxes are going to recycle, however.

I’ve got way too much stuff and some hard choices will have to be made. I don’t like it, but at the end of the day, it’s just stuff. Some things I can’t easily just get rid of, but other things I can. I have a huge collection of Legos and I’ll probably ask my sister if my nieces might want them; other things like old plastic models I’m not sure what to do with. Some larger items, like an old Commodore 128D, can probably go to some old computer enthusiast.

I played Tie Fighter and started Air Warrior career with a Gravis Gamepad (with optional thumb-stick) then moved to the MS 3D Pro Sidewinder (which I loved, and is still one of my all time favorites. Good times :+1:t2:

Whoa whoa whoa…let’s not get CRAZY here…RC airplanes/helicopters are fun!

They are, but they’re also a lot of time and money. The local flying club is a complete bag of jackwagons and my brother in law is getting out of it too, which is one of the key reasons I was doing it. With club fed sticking their nose in the business and rising prices of AMA membership, there aren’t a whole lot of reasons for me to keep at it.

Completely understand. I’ve been flying RC for 15 years now and this is probably the worst I’ve ever seen the hobby in terms of participation. Frankly, I think members of my generation (I’m in my middle 40’s) are probably going to be the last of the breed.

Sadly, the local club is more of a private club for a select few old guys. There’s a very nasty story behind it for me but it’s probably another example of why the AMA and traditional RC is dying. The club that my brother in law was part of was a lot nicer and a lot more fun, but it’s also a 70+mile drive, one way.

70 miles one way is definitely too far for RC flying. I wouldn’t be into that either. Luckily for me, my local AMA field is only about 15 min away.

Can’t you just grab an RC plane (I was thinking about getting an electric one) and just go fly it in a field somewhere? I live in the Greater Toronto Area BTW.

Small electric ones yeah. It’s when you get into larger fuel powered that you really want a designated field.

Ah yes … I’ve seen some of those prop and jet powered behemoths. :slight_smile: So what’s the largest wingspan you think I can go with on the small electric side? :slight_smile:

Really depends on the size of the field in which you are talking. Look for models that are designated as “park flyers” and you’d be on the safe side.

My brother in law liked the big gassers, so that’s the direction I went as well – just electric. I have an 80" electric Tigercat, a 72" electric Super Stearman, 70" electric Bristol F2B, 65" Edge 520, and was working on a 80" SBD-5 Dauntless. These all need a decent field and some fair flying space, and while my family owns land in my AO, I can’t really just claim a an acre or two for a strip, not to mention maintaining it. I do fly an 80" E-Flite Carbon Cub out there, but that’s a STOL aircraft with good rough field performance anyways (tundra tires). All of these are run off of 6 cell LiPos and those batteries aren’t cheap.

I have a few smaller ones that run on 4S and 3S (Tigermoth, Nieuport 17, P-51, Fw-190), but I rarely fly them since getting the big ones – they’re also more sensitive to runway conditions.

Also have a 80" Taylorcraft gasser that I bought cheap, but never flew it. I would like to have but I have little experience with gas and I’d need to fly with someone who does.

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I use a 5 ÂĽ " Floppy for MicroProse F-119 Stealth Fighter as a coaster.

Re RC flying…I was a control line guy…any football or baseball field will do (if a game isn’t in progress)…fairly cheap plane models…as much fun to build as they were to fly…no expensive controllers or servos…and believe-it-or-not, after the first few dozen flights, you stopped getting dizzy!

They are gone now but I had a pretty nice P-51, a store bought F-4U Corsair, and a “flat” P-47 that all used .049 engines, and a O-1 Bird Dog that use a 0.10 engine. I also had a couple of stunt planes where you had to set up air pressure to the fuel tank or they would “flame out” when inverted…as I said, as much fun building–and post flight repairing–as flying.

I’ve found a bunch of old manuals for sims I haven’t flown in 15 years or more - I’m wondering what an original MiG Alley manual would go for on eBay (and I think I know where the original CD and jewel case are).

Talk about dead hobbies, that’s control line! At my brother in law’s club, we had two guys that still did it. Noisy things, since they ran without mufflers.

I have a hard time finding what some of the old game stuff is worth. I don’t imagine the boxes are worth anything without the discs and other materials, and I’m reluctant to give up my discs and manuals.

Another issue with RC flying, is time and weather. It’s maybe once a month that a decent flying day comes along (not raining, and minimal wind), and then I need to make sure there aren’t prior obligations that pull me away from flying. That’s whats been seeing my fleet sit idle. It’s just not worth spending money on planes when I fly them once or twice a summer if I’m lucky.

I have really been enjoying RC rock crawling lately though, a lot less weather dependent, and a crash generally doesn’t total a $500 vehicle. It’s funny, SpinTires is actually what started the kick for me :slight_smile: