I couldn't find anything to replace them with. This was around 1998 (when I was 14... no financial resources) and I had a really hard time finding anything about it. I did once get it to load some early startup screen with the help of someone on Usenet, using something to weigh down the RAM so it stayed in place. But I never got it to boot to the OS.

Actually, now that I think about it the whole reason I took out the VT board was that I was trying to narrow down why it wasn't booting anymore. I had installed Debian on it, and when trying to reboot one time it just never came back.

I kept it for a few years, but--I hate to say it--I threw it out when I went to college. Today there's no way I would have done that.