Here’s a quick shot of the “experimental” and original machine that’s supposed to span two eras in computing; the Millenium project.

A ghost of a husk of the old family computer, I was never able to get this computer to work for various reasons. First I got a hard drive in 2002 but I had no OS to make it work; then in 2006 I was given an official opinion that the motherboard was broken on it. It was a custom build, with no brand name or manufacturer that had a birth in 1999.

I have cannibalized and gotten a lot of parts, including buying a duplication Biostar motherboard to bring it to life again. It now thankfully powers on again, but I have to get it to work with the hard drive installed, which is hard since I have no OS.

But I have dry-tested startup on some additional parts; two CD-ROM drives (one being the fabled Creative 52X drive), a tape drive from a 386 that broke down, and dual 3.25″ floppy disk drives. I can’t get the digital display to work on the front, but everything seems to fire up right.

And while I don’t have a picture on the back, I have a SoundBlaster32 for internals (kicking out the ES1868 AudioDrive), an IDE expander and gotten connectors to have some additional serial and parallel ports on the back.

As for now, it’s a half-baked PC with no heart or brain, but a working body. Sitting in the corner like some neglected test aircraft down at Northdrop with a bunch of tarps draped over it. When I can get enough cash to get an OS for it, I’ll hopefully bring this system to the life it deserves. It’s a matter of when, as the frame has sentimental value to me.