10 Cool LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Invention System 2 Projects: Amazing Projects You Can Build in Under an Hour Elliott, Jeff, Hystad, Dean, Ma, Luke, Soh, C. S., Stehlik, Rob, Witherspoon, Tonya L. on Amazon.com.FREE. shipping on qualifying offers. 10 Cool LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Invention System 2 Projects: Amazing Projects You Can Build in Under an Hour.
While getting my old LegoMindstorms (an RCX 2.0 setup) set up for my little brother to play with, I learned some thigns about using it with newer versions of Windows (Windows 7 in my case). I found out here that there is a patch needed for the USB IR tower, which resolves the problem of the system locking up when the tower is plugged in. You can download it here: http://cache.lego.com/downloads/education/tower164.zip.
%PROGRAMFILES(X86)%LEGO MINDSTORMSlaunchRis.bat (or %PROGRAMFILES%LEGO MINDSTORMSlaunchRis.bat on a 32 bit system), but you can easily edit the script to change the location.

Nice article! I am one of the owners of Lego Mindstorms with RCX 2.0 version. Since I am using Linux (Ubuntu 18.04), I didn't find any issue while using RCX 2.0 on my machine. However, the most severe problem which would be ending the use of this excellent tool are the cables. The rubber coating on the cables of connector wires and sensors are becoming rigid and coming off baring the wires inside. I have somehow managed to apply new coat but that is not going to last long. The actual connector bricks are difficult to open (often time injuring my fingers), hence I don't think I will be able to keep my set running for long.
Have you faced similar issue? Do you or anybody else using RCX 2.0 have any suggestions or solution?
Thanks again for your article!