What parts are currently inside? Let’s have a peek!

This IntelDX4 OverDrive is running at 100 MHz, with the ISA development cards and Gravis UltraSound making it the PC side of my Sega Mega-CD setup.

The problem with putting together a computer like this is deciding what deserves the limited expansion space. Do I compromise on sound to get better graphics, or sacrifice a little video performance to fit the sound card I really want? Decisions, decisions!

This tower is home to my Mega-CD development hardware, and it’s becoming quite a collection of enormous ISA cards. The front of the case has two 1.44 MB floppy drives and a pair of CD-ROM drives, but it’s the hardware inside that’s really fighting for space. The CD emulation board is particularly impressive. It’s taller than most of the other cards, longer than the Gravis UltraSound and has already refused to fit properly in a couple of cases I’ve tried.

The Gravis UltraSound is staying, though. I had originally considered an ordinary 8-bit Sound Blaster because it would have been easier to accommodate, but I really do like the UltraSound. If that means compromising a little on the video card, so be it!

For graphics I’ve got a smaller Trident card with 512 KB of memory. There was a more capable card in here previously, but with all these development boards fighting for space, something had to give. It should still be quite sufficient for running games like Monkey Island, which is considerably more important than having the fastest possible VGA card.

There’s also a Winbond-based hard-drive controller, complete with a flash-based storage module, along with the usual floppy, serial and other connections. I’ve managed to fit 64 MB of RAM into the machine as well, which is rather generous for a 486.

The CPU itself is the IntelDX4 OverDrive running at 100 MHz, kindly provided by Jackhead from ASSEMbler Games. It’s a lovely little upgrade and certainly gives the machine a bit more enthusiasm than an ordinary early 486.

One of my other concerns is keeping the enormous development cards from touching things they shouldn’t. The CD emulation board sits rather close to the metalwork, so I’ve fitted a little rubber foot to prevent an accidental short. Not exactly glamorous engineering, but it gets the job done!

There’s still some work to do before the whole system is ready for serious development use. At the moment I’m mostly trying to get everything installed sensibly, keep the important cards working together and avoid running out of space inside the case.

So that’s the current state of my 486 Mega-CD development tower. A decent amount of memory, a lovely Gravis UltraSound, some enormous development hardware and a video card that’s doing its best under the circumstances.

Who needs a sensible computer anyway?