LGR - Massive 7X NEC CD-ROM Changer From 1995!

[@LGR]

Receiving lots of questions and confused comments about how this works, so here goes :) Yes, the drive is working as intended. Each time you press an eject/load button it will eject the disc tray so you can load a disc for that specific drive number. Tech reviewers mentioned this a downside in the '90s too and this functionality is also made clear in the documentation. This means that discs cannot be internally swapped to another drive letter, they will stay in their respective letter/tray until you physically eject and swap them. And each time you navigate to another disc through software, it switches to that drive letter, but the discs themselves will return to the same internal tray when you're done. This also means you cannot access two discs at once, only one at a time with each of them having a designated drive letter at all times. As for Phantasmagoria not being smart enough to look for other drive letters when disc-swapping: yep! As mentioned briefly in the video, there were programs and games that _did_ look for other drive letters (Under A Killing Moon is one example) but Phantasmagoria was just my chosen example of the majority of DOS software that _does not_ look for CD-ROMs elsewhere. Windows 9x software frequently made better use of CD-ROM changers in this respect, but since I wasn't able to get that working due to missing software I wasn't able to demonstrate that.

[@TheRealColBosch]

...deleted my comment on re-reading. Ohhh, DRIVE letter/tray number. Derp. That does seem a bit odd.

[@d2factotum]

It's especially odd considering there's only one drive mechanism, you'd think it would have been easier to have it physically swap the disc into the same drive letter--but I guess they'd have had to include a manual method for switching in that case, because there'd be no way for the drive to know which disc you wanted?

[@romajimamulo]

... that seems like the worst way to do it

[@toastperson8346]

Poor CD's

[@kylemcisaac]

A program should have been included to reassign the drive letter to the different tray with a hotkey. Like, CTRL+ALT+Tray# to reassign the letter.

[@impurfekt]

"I gotta see what's inside this thing." The last thing every piece of electronics hears before it dies.

[@greetedlight]

I have to say, I LOVE how you can change operating systems on the fly with that SD card adapter, so handy!

[@casualseraph709]

Yeah, Im gonna need the tutorial video for that

[@blendpinexus1416]

seeing how quickly he can do that reminds me of the one time i dual booted linux on a laptop. literally less than a minute to boot into a different os. something i wish windows nowadays could do without the need of the highest end hardware.

[@JaredConnell]

​@@blendpinexus1416you don't need high end hardware to dual boot. It's simple and all PCs are capable of it

[@huntert7650]

*slaps roof of CD-ROM changer* This bad boy can hold so many full motion videos

[@CharlesHepburn2]

And even more partial motion videos!!! It can haves all the videos!!! [not sure why I went into lolcats speak there]

[@Rutherford_Inchworm_III]

"PLAY games? Hah. This is nineteen-ninety FIVE baby. I play MOVIES." "No, I mean 'play' in the sense of 'play a game', not 'hit the play button'.... no, I don't think it's an ambiguously worded catch-phrase at all....Roberta Williams IS TOO a genius, you shut up!"

[@NineteenInFrench]

Why didn't I saw this when it was still relevant.

[@tomypower4898]

Hunter T Yes yes yes is adapter(s)

[@ahniandfriends123]

But can it hold *Hol Motion Videos*? That's the important question.

[@rpm773]

@4:30 Poor 1995 rubber band. Did its job faithfully for 23 years...

[@gastonbell108]

"For I am already being poured out like a drink, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." RIP, elderly rubber band. He knew what he was there for, and what he'd been trained to do... hold together all the documentation and driver diskettes so they didn't get messy inside the box. An important task, one he felt honored to receive. And never once over those 23 long, lonely years did he doubt or falter in his sworn oath, even when it became evident that his 7x NEC CD-ROM changer had been forgotten by the March of Human Progress, left behind in the dust... He had seen his moment of greatness flicker, his chance for glory fade... in his dreams he saw the Eternal Boatman (to the e-waste graveyard) gesture at him and snicker.... But.. the rubber band was not afraid. For he still had his mission. The documentation must be kept neat, regardless of whether anyone ever saw it... that's just the kind of rubber band he was, y'know? And now, like the old knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, finally someone has come around to allow him to prove his honor to the last. Someone to appreciate all his hard work over the years. Now... he can finally be at peace. Good night, sweet prince. No, I'm not crying, fuck you.

[@CharlesHepburn2]

A moment of silence for the poor rubber band.... [...]

[@Rutherford_Inchworm_III]

He was a good man.. (•_•) ( •_•)>⌐■-■ What a... rotten... way to go. (⌐■_■) YEAAAAAAAAH!

[@luperteverett1271]

RIP Rubber band 1995 - 2018 Press F to pay respects

[@andrewhamop6665]

f

[@catriona_drummond]

You are doing it wrong! This is designed to play 7 1-CD games at the same time. Multitasking, man! :p

[@keithpetrino]

Nope, since the drive can only read one disc at a time despite having a different letter for each.

[@FreeStuffPlease]

They should of had an option on the back or in software to switch between 1 and 7 drive letters. And made the buttons in the front switch between CDs and add an eject button.

[@39zack]

Keith Petrino r/woooosh

[@radegojic4862]

Hahaha nice one :)

[@TechTangents]

I have a 4-disc internal version of this, they are _slow_ (well compared to other drives, I was using it to install games at a LAN party and was left in the dust) but you can't beat the satisfaction of watching it change from one CD to another without having to lift a finger. My drive came with drivers that has batch files to change between 1 disc and 4 disc modes. I haven't tried 1 disc mode yet to see how it works because the software I was using could read multiple drives. I'll have to give it a shot.

[@Boemel]

internal cd-rom changer ? make and model ? another thing to add to my ultimate retro setup XD

[@valterc]

That was a nice video from you, LGR commented on some of your videos before, so he most be aware of it.

[@muffenme]

My 4 cd changer is made by NEC and it IDE.

[@123bugness]

Nakamichi MJ-4.8si 8x SCSI 4-disc CD changer

[@LGR]

Yeah I've loved seeing this drive in action on the various videos it's appeared in! Hope to grab a similar drive someday.

[@jameshenry8015]

I ran a large BBS in the '90s when a 1GB hard drive was huge. These CD changers were the holy grail of online storage (for downloads) for a while and I had four of them hooked up to the BBS. I still have them, but they haven't been hooked up to anything for over two decades. While they worked and gave me some bragging rights, they were slow and occasionally didn't get along with the SCSI controllers. I was happy to stop using them!

[@chadhartsees]

As soon as I heard how these things operated in the video I realized this is EXACTLY what these were marketed for - "mass" storage, not for gaming. I thought "I bet this is what my BBS had back in the day!"

[@0311Mushroom]

I also had one for my BBS. Night Owl disks and others.

[@A_Player]

7:03 for the intro to Pink Floyd's Money.

[@BraddahSpliff]

lol. Perfect. Made want to start singing the song when I saw your comment & realized it did sound like the intro.

[@5roundsrapid263]

No silver coins, though..

[@mrwassef]

😂👌🏽 comment made my day.

[@AbolfazlGhorbani]

omg lol

[@superdarly1577]

15:55 I don't remember laptops ever needing THAT much force to close. She looked like she put all her weight into that.

[@ThaBotmon]

Lmao she’s closing it like if it was a briefcase

[@tomypower4898]

SuperDarly Yes! I can do this CD-ROM

[@shawbros]

Maybe she's never touched a laptop before.

[@thegeforce6625]

I typically see tech-illiterate people do this, usually eventually ends up with a broken LCD.

[@EricBowersTrekkie]

I had something like this on my BBS way back when these drives first came out. I had discs full of shareware and since my BBS had 2 phone lines, I had to use software to lock the drive to one user at a time. Oh, and btw, OS/2 was great for running multiple instances of the BBS software with none of the memory hassles of "real" DOS. Thanks for the great videos, they are bringing backs lots of great memories for me.

[@0311Mushroom]

There were other ways. I did it with DeskView. It even had a feature that let me view the second node on a Hercules monitor. That was balling in 1992.

[@BlakeBosin]

Night Owl BBS Cds

[@justchillinout2002]

Oh the days of BBS's. Loved me some good old Legend of the Red Dragon!

[@LonSeidman]

I could see this individual drive letter mapping thing being really useful for BBS systems that hosted shareware CD's for file downloads. It probably saved a ton of physical space!

[@Henk717]

That would go nuts if two are accessed at once. Probably infinite swapping.

[@macabo]

no problem if your BBS only had one line, hehe

[@eckomind]

Just in time with my cup of coffee. Your videos are so entertaining and relaxing to watch. I had an NEC PC with Windows 95 installed. The video brought back memories. Thanks dude!

[@futonrevolution7671]

Don't be coy with me. I asked you _several times_ to change the cd.

[@megamanfan1500]

This legit made me LOL. Great comment.

[@AndreasVictorsson]

I love the personality it gets every time you load a CD, it's like the drive is struck by "disc loading anxiety". O-okay! Storing the CD. W-wait? No! I can do this!

[@Racecar564]

Poor thing ;-; Lol

[@Robocopnik]

The "quotation marks and underlining for emphasis" is a powerful aesthetic choice on the part of whoever wrote that neon notice.

[@Knight79334]

If I remember correctly, Under a Killing Moon has an option for multiple drives in the installer. So, this should work the way you wanted in that game.

[@quantumcaffeine]

Yes, exactly. Pandora Directive is the same.

[@spacequesthistorian]

I was going to reply this as well but ... someone beat me to it. 😏 Interestingly enough, UAKM came out in 1994 and supported up to 4 drives on different drive letters (to accommodate the 4 discs of the game -- Pandora would have accommodated 6 drives). Phantasmagoria came out in 1995. Honestly, Sierra. Get with the times! 😝

[@MarkTheMorose]

Came here looking for woodgrain, stayed for drain cleaner.

[@thenuking]

Lmao @7:05 and the ominous clicking and zooming in.

[@LGR]

It was rather unnerving at first, to be honest :D

[@benjaminmiddaugh2729]

That silence while that went down was amazing. Definitely a favorite LGR reaction moment.

[@MartinKronstrom]

I like to think that something was cleaning up everything inside and make it presentable before opening the tray.

[@NK-yl3yp]

thenuking yes!! The dramatic zoom had me laughing hard!

[@PixelPipes]

I half expected Bumblebee or Jazz to appear.

[@RetroGamePlayers]

Came here for Phantasmagoria, stayed for the CD Changer

[@rogerw9840]

Cool thing! A little anecdote... In the 90s I ran a warez BBS and when I got Internet (about '94 I think) I was friends with the ISP owners. I logged in via telnet to the server (a Sun Sparc of some kind so I got to learn some Unix commands) and used FTP via the shell to download stuff for the BBS at full speed. I then dropped a mail to them and had them burn it to CD. I then used a CD changer quite similar to this one to provide software for the BBS. :) Think it only held 6 CDs though. The BBS ran on a 486 under DOS, had 1 phone line 24/7 and a second during the night. I could hear that freakin changer switching in the middle of the night and when 2 users tried to access files on different discs it would read from one, switch over and read from the other and then back again over and over. After a while I just disconnected the 2nd phone line completely. Oh, those were the days.... ;)

[@joshuadramsey]

I ran a mostly "above board" BBS in the mid-90s, though I did have "elite" access for friends. (For some reason, there really weren't any dedicated warez boards in my calling area. All the warez were in "hidden" or "elite" [yes, we spelled it out] sections for friends.) I never had a warez CD, but I once had a friend "on the net" send me a massive tape of some of his server's latest "releases." I added the files to my BBS listing, but friends would have to put in requests when they wanted something, and I'd pull it from tape to the hard drive when I would see the requests.

[@AlexanderBogdanow]

Oh man... The Scene back then must have been fucking awesome!

[@Xanderfied]

I used to serve back in the day not as far back as 94, more like 98. I had a 20gb hdd and cable modem. As a result I had first dibs on what I wanted from IRC buddies. Heck, Im not sure I ever bought a pc game or piece of software, till after I got married (2004).

[@josephaltman460]

Miss those BBS days. I ran The Metal Edge BBS on ProBoard, it had 80 door games online.

[@asdfasdfasdfasdeff]

@@josephaltman460 Damn dude you are a legend!!!

[@ground2airnerd]

Why LGR Man, why did you open the case??? YOU voided the warranty!!! Oh the agony!!!

[@philscomputerlab]

We need something like the GOTEK, but for CD-ROM images. How cool would that be. With CD Audio support as well please :) Great video, the SCSI DOS driver installation brought back memories...

[@LGR]

Glad you enjoyed! I crave such a device myself, it'd be much better than relying on iffy optical drives.

[@FloppydriveMaestro]

That would be amazing.

[@JamesPotts]

*adds another project that I'll never finish to list* I really want to make one, now. Please, someone else do this.

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

Yes please!!

[@DanielLopez-up6os]

There is such a thing for hard drives, are enclosures that emulate a CD ROM drive, with a screen that you can pick the ISO.

[@flexmasterize]

heh. "at the time, I didn't even have a CD-ROM." Who knew that would be the case for most new PCs sold 25 years later?

[@mchobbit2951]

This is why I have a custom-built desktop instead of a laptop (and a tablet and a phone, of course, so I don't need a computer to travel with anyway). I still own DVDs and CDs I want to use rather than toss, including stuff I backed up on CD-ROMs myself. I hung on to my old computer that was on its last leg for ages because of this...little problem. I just don't want to fully rely on streaming services with subscription fees that can snatch anything away from me at any moment or make me pay extra to watch something that was part of my subscription last week. After seeing vinyl and cassette having a bit of a mini renaissance and mp3 players becoming available again, I am at least a little hopeful.

[@phodder]

Scary DOS 👻

[@Wilus0]

what.exe

[@tomyyoung2624]

hahahahah!

[@RainFox84]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6PJaaqJf8x_pck

[@thedopplereffect00]

Creative on their part. Fits in the 8.3 character limits!

[@quentinels3698]

Not as scary as a windows 10 update

[@DeadwingDork]

I dunno, I'm getting a real scuzzy vibe from this thing.

[@Rednax35]

I wake up to find a LGR Video in my notifications. My day is already good

[@DoomVideoVault]

12:18 An executable called WHAT.EXE? Perfect for when you see something out of the ordinary and makes you say that..

[@FMecha]

Imagine running that and suddenly hearing "WHAT?" chants like a 2001 Stone Cold promo.

[@lionoh]

Coffee,Cheese Cake,And a LGR on the side,Good start to the morning.

[@ozzelot3349]

Mid-afternoon here, but a cheesecake would be nice right now. The coffee stands, though.

[@CreepebrineMC]

4:13 PM here in Germany ;)

[@MisfitOutfit]

@@lasarousi what you popping man? Cause I got what you need

[@RetroGamerVX]

It's strange how when you put the discs in, it twitches as if it's going to reject them lol

[@quackman]

That would have me retapping the button every time.

[@nate_river_]

It’s normal. I have a 2x Nakamichi that looks very similar and does the same thing. I think it’s doing it to make sure the cd is lying properly flat in the tray.

[@deadedd3235]

Clint "I decided to go with Windows95, so, got that.." SD card "Heh, catch me if you can!"

[@TrekzoneMedia]

You know, I genuinely look forward to seeing the notification each Tuesday and Saturday (Australian time...) that LGR has posted a new video. I enjoy your production and presenting style, research and knowledge in each video. I hope others think of my channel in that way, now and into the future.

[@nux3960]

That's really cool

[@joshuawalker7054]

"Under a Killing Moon" supports this drive in the way you are expecting :)

[@briandemodulated]

Yes it does! It also lets you benchmark the performance of up to 4 physical CDROM drives. Great installer!

[@xombieification]

I could watch you review anything. you have the best voice for reviews on this site hands down.

[@AmyraCarter]

I once tested out a dynamic 3-disc changer. Pretty sure it handled disc swapping as you would of wanted, but I do not recall the brand, model, year, connection type, internal/external, or anything. But even still, thanks for yet another nostalgia trip. Always fun.

[@Charlesb88]

I never saw any of these CD-ROM changer in the home but I did I see some public libraries who had one of these in use. At my local public library, back in 90’s, before broadband internet access was as commonplace as it is todays (those where the days of 56k dial-up speeds for most people), they provide access to digital databases of information of various sorts via CD-ROMS. Back in those days, accessing information meant either looking it up in a reference book or looking in up via a CD-ROM database. Nowadays you can often look it up via the library’s online catalog which provides access to many online databases such a periodical indexes, medical databases, law library databases, etc. and in many cases you can also just search the public internet to find what you want (public wifi and public ally accessible internet computers is near universal these days at public libraries). Back then though they had to provide such digital info via CD-ROM and a CD-ROM changers allowed one computer to have access to multiple databases at once. If I remember correctly, you just selected the database you wanted to search via the computer interface and the appropriate CD-ROM was loaded via the changer mechanism. Never really saw a need for one of these in the home since even a multi-disc CD-ROM game like Phantasmagoria (which I own by the way) did not need discs to be change often enough to make it that much of a hassle. This was really more of a use for libraries, government offices, companies, etc. that regularly needed to switch between a limited number of CD-ROM databases of some sort.

[@joshuadramsey]

Oh my! I drooled over this and an earlier Pioneer 6 CD-ROM model back when I was a teenage dial-up BBS SysOp. There was always an arms race to have the most files in your local-calling area, and with 6 or 7 CDs online at once, you could have tens of thousands of files for your users to download. All you needed was to waste your money on horrendously overpriced shareware (shovelware) compilations.

[@JeremyLevi]

Yep. The "cheap" way around it was to get ahold of 3 or 4 old salvaged single speed caddy load CD-ROM drives that ran off their own proprietary controller cards and whack them all into the same PC.

[@rogerw9840]

Didn't see your comment until after I'd written mine. Scroll around and you'll find it. Anyhoo.... a changer with only one reader wasn't that great if you (like me) had more than one line in. ;D

[@joshuadramsey]

Or the worst way possible: list the files from multiple CDs but only have one actually in the drive, making the users request files from "offline" CDs. And, of course, you'd count all the files-online and offline-in the total count you reported in your BBS ads.

[@joshuadramsey]

The closest I ever came to a second line was a local node. I had to use Desqview to multitask, but it was still cool to be able to join users in the few multi-node door games I had.

[@ninjakow]

I think you are me. I did the same thing.

[@nickestes1839]

I love your channel because brings back a bunch of childhood memories... Not because I used this hardware myself (I'm only 25) but my parents both had jobs where they usually had pretty cutting edge computers and peripherals for said computers. I remember watching my mom play Duke Nukem on our bad ass Packard Bell lol

[@MichaelAStanhope]

If you got it working under dos it should work under windows. NEC likely still has drivers online for this because it is scsi. There used to be patches you could get for many multi disc games to use them on a cd changer.

[@HannahFortalezza]

Michael Stanhope yeah surely it's simply a matter of different drivers or a setting to see it as a single drive

[@EANTYcrown]

can we just stop to appreciate all the work put on the subtitles for this videos?

[@CrippleX89]

1:21 “I just never *see these* as much”... I see what you did there!

[@CharlesEBright]

This is pretty neat, I didn't know these CD drives existed. I guess you really do learn new things everyday. Good video man.

[@danieldougan269]

Believe it or not, Sony made a couple of 400-disc Blu-ray changers: the BDP-CX960 and he BDP-CX7000ES. Very niche products and expensive on eBay. Note: These were for home theater and not for computers.

[@allangibson8494]

Kodak made a similar capacity CDR system in 1993. I worked on one on an industrial control system (used for process data storage at a pharmaceutical plant - they needed 20 years of backup storage).

[@kjjorgensen]

You, sir, are the Bob Ross of unboxing. Keep up the good work!

[@AusMasterProductions]

13:14 That squeeky wheeze was just magical.

[@MycroSopht]

I really liked the way this feels like a unboxing, first initial setup, and quick review.

[@QunMang]

To be honest I kind of expected this to act as one drive, but with the ability to swap discs as needed at the press of a button. Or automatically at the end of an audio disc with a special CD player for this drive. It was interesting to see this pop up as 7 different drives. It makes me wonder if software/firmware could be written to add what I expected as a feature. Since there are only limited buttons, perhaps pressing the slot button when another CD is loaded would just switch to that disc, but the same button would eject it if that CD is loaded.

[@jk9554]

Same here. Somehow it seems more logical to me that it would present itself as one drive (because it is one drive that only swaps pre-stored discs out).

[@ramairgto72]

I was hopeful it would switch on it's own via a program, but admittedly I forgot that it sees only 1 of them at a time.

[@RiotAncient]

I don't understand why it couldn't appear as one drive, honestly. It's swapping the internal disk tray, but why would that have to be assigned differently?

[@dawnoftruth1]

I like your genuine enthusiasm and love for what you are doing.

[@dvdbytes4348]

That internal 4 disc changer from akbkuku was a lot more elegant though, didn´t sound as industrial either. ...Certainly a lot smaller. And this thing is radioactive as well. Charming. But its always good to see the lazy green giant, with this thing it may need a radioactive sticker though.

[@Dream0Asylum]

Most electronics have some variety of radioactive material, say germanium for instance, but it's not what we'd consider imminently dangerous. Radiation safety is a combination of many factors, but the most important are time, distance, shielding, and what type of radiation. A long duration, at the source, with no shielding relative to gamma rays is relatively dangerous. A short duration, several feet from the source, with shielding relative to alpha particles is relatively safe. That being said, there's no absolutely "safe" radiation exposure, nor - regardless of absence of devices - will you ever find yourself in a complete absence of exposure. The trick is to reasonably limit exposure, not irrationally seek its total absence (an impossible task.) Strictly speaking, literally everything is a little radioactive as all atoms, through one mechanism or another, tend to decay and emit some portion of their contents. It's just that what we label as radioactive tends to do so with some frequency. Anyways, the short of it is, don't be alarmed by this device (at least relative to any other) and try not to have a knee-jerk reaction when you see such warnings. Though as a pro-tip, wear gloves when doing electronics work and wash hands thoroughly afterwards and before eating.

[@nomadben]

I love your videos man! You're so much fun to listen to because your passion for this stuff really comes through.

[@RodrigoBadin]

The moment I saw the 7 driver letters I thought.. oh oh it's not gonna work as expected.

[@MisterSouji]

I can understand music cd changers, but these multidisk drives always felt like pointless bragging to me. We had a 5 disk dvd changer, and we quickly realized that unless you were watching the special features (which people harldy do) it was pointless. Plus you have something triple the size of a normal drive/player that costs significantly more. Still neat to look back on though.

[@SquareBiscuitProductions]

A Techmoan video *AND* a LGR video in one day? Did I die and go to heaven?

[@LGR]

If your heaven consists of obscure technology coverage, you bet

[@TheChloeRed]

Mine doesn't. That's my house. My idea of heaven is tidier ;)

[@twicethemegapower3995]

Whoa, new Techmoan today?! YT al gore rhythm showing me nothing but 5 year old Louis Rossmann videos in my feed and I have to go seek out new Techmoan😑

[@SquareBiscuitProductions]

OMG Clint replied to my comment!!!!!! Yep, I'm dead. :P

[@jgrimsley2000]

We used one of these on our BBS, (DOS Guys, San Antonio, Texas 1988-1996) back in the day. It was pretty awesome when loaded to the hilt with Walnut Creek shareware CDs. Thanks for the nostalgic flashback, Clint!

[@GameInterest]

Now for a Laserdisc changer!

[@LGR]

That is the dream.

[@BraddahSpliff]

My grandma used to own a Karaoke Laser Disc double sided reader, so you didn't have to take the disc out & flip it over. That's the closest I ever got to a Laser Disc changer.

[@GameInterest]

@@BraddahSpliff some of them had a turtle on it's back to signal the user to flip it over.

[@bitrot-sf5vh]

Humongous! 8P

[@AncientElectronics]

I far as I know there was only one model of LD player that accepted multiple Laserdiscs, which was 2 Laserdiscs at once. Now there were a few models that acted as a multi CD changer and could also player LD's but I'm talking about taking 2 LD's.

[@noname_atall]

impressive rubber band. here where i live, rubber bands stored stretched (ie in use) generally hold for three years max, them they turn to liquid, then to crumbly resinous solid.

[@Dex99SS]

That box flap warning, lol... 90's and lasers made for some warnings akin to something you'd see today on the door of a hospitals radiology department.... lol. also Pop an old SCSI card into a win 10 machine.... either a compatible new card in a PCIe slot, or on a mobo with some actual PCI slots left over, something like a socket 771-775 ... those would fit the bill..... Then lets see if this drive can just pop up and work in Windows 10... It's now a curiosity that needs fulfilled for me... badly. If you don't do it, I'm gonna have to get one of these 7x NEC drives and do it myself.... I NEED TO KNOW

[@raabm5292]

@@Kamil-DIY you can get around the signed drivers by messing with win10 Dev mode settings

[@KuraIthys]

Yeah, if you switch windows to test mode you can install unsigned drivers. You can do it on a one-off basis by using the boot menu, but that's tedious if you are using unsigned drivers regularly. I got into the habit initially because of some game controller drivers, and the fact that I had a laptop and the manufacturer refused to provide graphics driver updates. As a result I used something called the 'omega' drivers, and while later versions of it were signed, the early releases were not. I forget the process for turning test mode on or off permanently - it's a bit involved ( a bunch of command line instructions and other hard to remember stuff) But it's amusing in it's own way. Of course, the 32/64 bit driver issue still remains. (or even the 16 bit driver issue depending on the hardware - though I can't remember the last windows version that supported 16 bit code...)

[@amritlohia8240]

32-bit Windows 10 will happily run 16-bit applications. It's only 64-bit versions of Windows (starting with Windows XP x64) that won't run 16-bit code, because 64-bit Windows uses emulation (known as WOW64) to run 32-bit applications, and then to run 16-bit applications, you would need to combine WOW64 with another layer of emulation, known as NTVDM, which is the subsystem used on 32-bit Windows to run 16-bit code. Microsoft realised that trying to run emulation within emulation would be way too much work to support and maintain, so they just decided not to allow 16-bit programs on their 64-bit Windows OSes.

[@awilfox]

Brett Prior just going off my knowledge of SCSI: the reason this drive is so easy to set up is because it exposes each tray as a separate LUN, so all the computer sees is literally 7 SCSI CD-ROM drives daisy chained off each other. It should "just work" on anything from Windows NT to 10 to Solaris to Linux to macOS, if you could get the suitable adapter and a modern card.

[@jamegumb7298]

Just get the port multiplier (FIS switching not host switching, Addonics has 1 that also does usb, I have the 2 port version) and put 5 of the cheapest bdxl drives (I just have 2) into an external case. Works great and no ducking beneath the desk.

[@jimzcoi]

Hi man, just random comment on the thing unrelated to the cd rom changer - THAT OS ON SD CARD just makes my eyes wide open! This is so simple solution that I'm actually stunned. Never knew that there were pci card readers! That makes using of retro pc a breeze! Thank you for this small camera glimpse on putting the sd card ;)

[@fista1331]

God, I loved Phantasmagoria. Made an impact on me in my teenage life. That and internet porn.

[@daturave]

Oh young padawan. I grew up in a time when are our first contact with porn was going through the paper waste bin (yeah gross xD ) and later on downloading random images / image packs from BBS.

[@manonthedollar]

I think I know what's going on here. It used to be, with multi-disc games, that you could edit an .ini file to make this work the way you wanted to. The config file was usually something like Disc1=D:\ Disc2=E:\ Disc3=F:\; etc. Of course that was never standardized across all games, but there was usually support for it.

[@GameInterest]

Does it smell like the mid-nineties?

[@peterj1979]

It smells like teen spirit.

[@azhash3]

buying a 7cd changer and using phantasmagoria in it *-* you'r a one in a million type of dude and i'll bow down to you

[@nilp0inter2]

Maybe you could use subst.exe to create a virtual unit from which run the game and hot swap to the appropriate cd drive when needed.

[@vink6163]

How would you change the subst mapping to one of the other drive letters without exiting the game?

[@jbfarley]

wouldn't work. the drive won't read multiple discs until one is ejected

[@jamesdpayton83]

Can't believe you don't have a million yet! Best channel on KZbin!

[@SykeusOne]

I can recall that the old multi CD disk installer to Diablo 2 could see your drive other than the one you installed on, i recall i used 3 CD-roms and the installer just swapped to the one where disk 2 and 3 was, when needed ^^

[@retrogamerdad9621]

Beautiful. Found one of these about 2005 I think, just sitting around in a corner of a university building, ready for the dumpster. Didn't keep it, or ever use it. Lovely to see again.

[@trmblingblustar]

I remember around the time I got my first computer (a Packard Bell 75Mhz Pentium), there were models with two, or even three CD-ROM drives installed! That was insane, considering at the time a new drive cost you $300 or more.

[@thewassock]

I used to work for a network systems supplier - among the products we sold was a network redirector that made a CD-ROM drive shareable across the network. One customer wanted to use one of these very drives to allow documentation CD-ROMs to be shared across the network. Once I explained the utter chaos that would occur if two users tried to access two different CD-ROMs simultaneously, they decided not to bother!

[@AirborneSurfer]

DRAIN CLEANER?!?

[@willierants5880]

LGR Suggestion Box: You should've popped the cover on the unit so we could see the insides in operation. Love the vids.

[@h.m.8068]

Just got back from the first day of school.This is a pleasant suprise!Now wheres my tea?

[@SiliconBong]

It's behind the apostrophe you omitted !

[@AlexTenThousand]

I have a sort of weird passion for these old, weird pieces of tech, from an era where everyone was so damn excited about the possibilities of optical media storage, and it's also one of the many reasons I love this channel.

[@Intelwinsbigly]

Bdxl disks are still amazing.

[@Waynimations]

Yay this is already a good morning

[@themegaman91965]

The 90's was sure a magical time for computing! Excellent games such as Doom and Wolfenstein 3D with all of this neat hardware hitting the table. So cool to see what ideas computing companies had back then. And love that Win 95 boot up sound effect, just nostalgic!!

[@MichcioPL]

Phantasmagoria - 7 CDs GTA V on PC - 7 DVDs Technology... Technology never changes... even when it does :P

[@TheFormHater]

Is it really on 7 DVDs when you buy it?

[@moloch5801]

@@TheFormHater Yep, took about 2 hours to install. Thought it would be a better option than downloading from Steam over my shitty internet... turns out there was a 4GB day one patch I had to download after install. Can't imagine how long it'd take to do now after all the updates and DLC.

[@TheFormHater]

@@moloch5801 innocent times now i can suck down 4gb in a minute

[@axelfiedel3793]

​@@moloch5801 and the thing is BD-ROMs with their 25GB-50GB could have reduced the need to put more discs to install after the 8.5 GB disc is full because the whole game would be contained in a Single Layer or Dual Layer BD-ROM disc. Sadly they never went with it and any game that pushed over the 8.5 GB Limit needed another DVD-ROM.

[@lemagreengreen]

You really do have the best stuff LGR Just makes me think how much of the 90s I wasted changing CD's! life could have been so different.

[@jamesesw]

Me: Hey Wario, there's a new LGR video! Wario: 6:51

[@Phenom98]

_W A A H !_

[@lascaris23]

Thank you for always playing the old Win startup sounds

[@SilverSpoon_]

7:00 breathtaking moments of youtube...

[@WhatsOnTheOtherEnd]

Hey, that's super cool! I just snagged a Nakamichi MJ-5.16si from a disposed computer at my work. It's incredible to watch the mechanism working inside! Very fun CDROM drive to have.

[@MyurrDurr]

Woah 600kb/s transfer speed Reminds me of my Wifi when downloading (only on a good day)

[@vipervidsgamingplus5723]

Lesnite Neko I don’t usually get that upload or download because I have to use mobile hotspot to connect my computer to, living in the middle of nowhere sucks

[@johngaltline9933]

I have a 4 disk version, and it's one of the few CD Rom drives I've ever had that still works. I think the use case for these drives was not meant for multi-disk programs, but rather for folks running several titles that required a CD to run. No fumbling around for a disk every time you switch programs. For the folks confused on how the drive works, it is like having 7 separate cd drives, where you can only use 1 at a time. The computer sees each slot as a separate drive.

[@holgerstallbaum1866]

Like Dave Jones on EEvblog says: Don´t turn it on, take it apart 😂

[@ggklncnoifewAsdarp]

the not taking it apart bit was a bit disappointing

[@singeslayer8367]

That sound on startup is like an orchestra of disk drives, it's beautiful! I need one of those drives!

[@FFSinit]

Dont turn it on, take it apart!

[@philipguisinger4502]

The use of Phantasmagoria is what really got me. Should do a retrospective on FMV games from the 90s. Gotta love the "acting"!

[@Blasterxp]

Ey lgr, could you put 7 audio cd's in, push play, and have for 1 workday have music in a store? Could you test this for us? 7x74 minutes... Should work out! Even without a computer connected.

[@KuraIthys]

Interesting concept. I mean, it's probably plausible. We currently have an old (2003) era car with a 6 (audio) CD changer, and it appears to support playing all 6 in sequence, as well as having 'track shuffle' (presumably play a random track from all 6 disks, though I'd have to check the manual) and 'disk shuffle'. (play one of the 6 disks at random). This however is a drive that may not work without a computer attached, since it's a data drive, and most likely relies on the computer to do some of the work. could be wrong though.

[@vink6163]

Computer CD drives have firmware support for playing audio CDs, but unless the unit has a play button on the front, you need a command to come from the computer to start playing. Once it's playing you can disconnect the drive and it will keep playing. For it to switch to the next CD once it gets to the end of the current one it would require firmware support, which I guess it probably doesn't have (otherwise if you were playing a game with CD audio, when it got to the end of the disc it might continue on and play something unrelated to the game, which would be unwanted behaviour back in the day.) However it wouldn't surprise me if the drive came with CD audio playing software that was able to switch between drives. I guess this software would also let you play across multiple discs if you have more than one normal CD drive in your computer too, since the changer appears to the PC the same as having multiple CD drives.

[@brickviking667]

I actually have had one of these changers. The main reason I had to retire it was that my "modern (2003)" hardware couldn't talk to it (no PCI-Express SCSI-II cards to speak of), so it stuck around as a monitor mount for a while before I moved and binned it. I loved it for the access to the drives, but it was slow, only being a 4-speeeeeeeed. A nice review.

[@richardhead8264]

*_CLINT GOES GANSTA AT _**_2:08_**_!!_*

[@duneharv]

Hi Clint. Yeah, I own a similar NEC cd-changer. Sadly I don´t get to use it much these days, what with the huge capacity on hard-drives now. Nice video though! I´d be happy to see more SCSI-related reviews as I have a certain fond-ness for all things SCSI-related. I may be the only guy in town still using it on a daily basis (Try installing a SCSI-adapter on a modern Windows 10-running computer ;-). Anyway, have a good day and an even better tomorrow!

[@rockbottomfarming9936]

hi from australia

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

MAN! My buddies step dad had one of these! I don't think more than one CD EVER touched that thing! I saw all those buttons and I was like, "What are we doing with all these drives!?" - Great memories.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Now I know why, disc 1 was all that mattered. Of course.

[@Sneedboy]

8:10 change the world... my final message. Goodbye

[@koghs]

Ironic that this is startup sound, not power off

[@RayRayIsCoolio]

holy crap! You're getting close to 1 million subs! keep up the retro awesomeness bb

[@KyoshoLP]

I feel like with either a firmware hack or maybe even just a driver hack, you could get that thing to work like you'd want (and how I thought it would work, but doesn't) as one drive. Unfortunately I'm just talking out of my ass here and have no idea how that could be accomplished. Actually, another route would be a hardware hack where you use the internals of a normal CD-ROM drive, but the disc-switching mechanism of this thing. Seems like a Benheck kind of project. He did make a disc changer for his Xbox 360 back in the day. That was kinda cool. Look it up on youtube.

[@vink6163]

I thought the same thing. You'd think there would already be software available to do this though - according to some of the other comments there are for other drives, to switch them into single-drive mode.

[@jimi-w]

I don't remember seeing the OEM logo and data before in your W95 properties, but of course you have done it! Awesome.

[@btarrh]

When I saw this video the nostalgia rolled in. Back in the mid 90's I purchased an external CD-ROM drive from creative labs out of a Denmark catalog. It was for a Packard Bell 486SX 25 MHz running Windows 3.11. The whole kitten caboodle included a Sound Blaster 16 card equipped with a parallel interface on the back side where the CD-ROM drive plugged in. Prior to this we produced sounds from the PC speaker only so this was a big deal. I loved that thing. It also shipped with a bundled shareware CD with Descent, Doom, Heretic, and WarCraft. I saved up all summer and used money from mowing laws and odd jobs, in 95 I was 14 years old. I believe the package was $199.

[@GDkitty]

Oooh! This brings back memories Clint! While I didnt have the external NEC one, i had the internal 4 bay NEC one.

[@KitelessRex]

Clint, back in like 1998 I had a trayless Panasonic 3 disc internal drive with an IDE interface. In Windows (Can't remember if 95 or 98) some games would see the other play discs and some wouldn't. I never tried using it in DOS. If it could see it the changer would change the disc when the game needed it and auto switch. Worked great till the drive died with 3 disc's stuck inside. I eventually had to dismantle the drive to extract my disc's. Good times! haha. Another great video as always.

[@juliagoober1048]

i love the way the tray wiggles when it goes back in... its like its nervous... lil guy u dont have anything to worry about dnt b shy...