retrocomputing

The Retro Reboot Show Episode Two

Posted on by ajross

Episode two of The Retro Reboot Show is ready for your viewing pleasure! Today I’m talking voxel graphics in Monkey Island and DooM, then we look at an Apple I that sold for an insane amount of moolah but it looks like Pacman took a bite out of it!
Other items on the show include a new Atari 2600 version of the graphic adventure from the 90s “Myst”, two articles from Byte magazine from “Today in 1982”, covering the Osborne 1 computer and No-Code software of the 80s. Not to mention Overclocking a Raspbperri Pi Pico beyond it’s capable limits, captain’, Compuserve RLE graphics from 1987 is back to our screens in 2022 and an interview with Cliff Lawson – Amstrad’s proper apprentice! Lots of fun for everyone! Check it out!

Show links / notes:

Today in 1982:

  • The Osborne-1 for $1795: https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1982-08/page/n31/mode/2up?view=theater
  • Program Generators (They’re not that easy): https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1982-08/page/n37/mode/2up?view=theater

https://lunduke.substack.com/p/linux-alternative-os-and-retro-computing-e27
https://www.rrauction.com/auctions/lot-detail/345735106445006-steve-jobs-39-s-apple-1-computer-prototype/#mz-expanded-view-524610507776
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22247/lot/286/
https://www.moddb.com/mods/doom-voxel-project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-aVt77epQ4
https://zdoom.org/downloads
http://www.brutman.com/mTCP/mTCP.html#Downloads
http://www.brutman.com/mTCP/mTCP_Telnet.html
https://retrocomputingforum.com/t/alan-sugars-first-apprentice-a-chat-with-cliff-lawson-of-amstrad/2804/1
https://hackaday.com/2022/08/25/pi-pico-gives-its-life-for-overclocking/?mc_cid=37a0f8f67e&mc_eid=3495405701

BBS File Distribution Networks & Games Servers

Posted on by ajross

Some BBSes (Bulletin Boards) are members of Game networks that allow gamers from all over to join in and play in leagues, and also there are BBSes that are members of massive file distribution networks which have terabytes of files to share. Want to know how to get in on the action? Just watch this video!

Whilst I’m at it, here are some personal recommendations of some great BBSes to try out, including my own one!:

The Quantum Wormhole bbs.erb.pw
The Bottomless Abyss bbs.bottomlessabyss.net (port 2023)
Al’s Geek Lab BBS bbs.alsgeeklab.com (port 2323)
20 For Beers 20forbeers.com (port 1337)
The Underground theunderground.us (port 10023)
The Agency BBS agency.bbs.nz
Absinthe BBS absinthebbs.net (port 1940)
Wizards Rainbow wizardsrainbow.com (host to Black Country Rock games)
The Vault BBS thevaultbbs.ddns.net (port 2323)

Easily run Windows 3.x/16 bit apps in Windows 10/11 with WineVDM (no VM!)

Posted on by ajross

If you’ve ever tried to use old Windows 3.x (or even 1.0 and 2.x) apps on Windows 8,10 or 11, you’ll find that generally they don’t work. Now, you can install a virtual machine with Windows 3.x on it then install the software, but it’s never integrated with your real operating system. Imagine if I told you you could install and run Windows 16 and 32 bit applications within Win64 without issue? Well, watch and see as I run up a bunch of Windows 2.x applications, followed by a full demo of me running Setup and installing Word 6 for Windows NT 3.5 and have it print using my real Windows 10 printer subsystem.

Back to the BBS Part 5: The Underground (HPAVc/Warez)

Posted on by ajross

In this episode of Back to the BBS, we take a step down memory lane to look at where the darker side of the Internet came from. We examine Warez BBSes and explain what HPAVC boards were all about (Hacking, Phreaking, Anarchy, Virii, Cracking & Carding). We interview Dan Smolders who recalls what life was like for the average underground BBS user, and chat with ‘deathr0w’, who talks about the race to release warez, and how modern day warez is released.

Despite being involved with some illegal activity more than 20 years ago, ‘deathr0w’ still requires anonymity today!

Star Micronics Colour Dot Matrix Printer Unboxing (dot matrix printing)

Posted on by ajross

I picked up this 1989 Star Micronics NX-1000 dot matrix printer from a recent computer warehouse haul in Auckland. There’s a good chance it hasn’t seen much use in 25-ish years, but I was surprised to see that it came in its original box. During the unboxing you’ll see that its manuals and cables all present and correct, so I had hopes that this epson compatible printer might work.This lovely little printer was one I was familiar with from primary school back in the day of the BBC micro, and it was a very nice machine back in its day.

10MHz V20 XT vs. a 6 MHz 286?

Posted on by ajross

Here’s another quicky video! Call me dumb but I had no idea whether an XT-clone PC XT rated at 10MHz NEC V20 CPU with an 8087 co-processor, or an XT machine with a 6MHz Intel 80286 CPU and an 80287 co-processor would be faster. Surely logic would say that because 10 is bigger than 6, that’s better? Surely an 80287 would be better than an 8087? Right??? Well, the results may surprise you. Of course, the results are all 100% scientific. Legit scienciefied. The final benchmark which concludes everything is the old ‘Which one loads up Leisure Suit Larry 3’ test. Y’all know that one, right? 😉

Documentary: How and why IBM made the first PC

Posted on by ajross

IBM released the IBM PC 5150 in 1981. Internally, IBM went through massive hurdles to get a personal computer to the market to compete with the other microcomputers of the time. This documentary shows all of the happenings organisationally as well as the trade-offs and decisions that led up to IBM choosing the sluggish 8088 CPU.

Some of the main reference material: BYTE Magazine, September 1990: https://archive.org/stream/byte-magaz… “Bill Gates, Microsoft and the IBM Personal Computer” – Infoworld Newsweekly, August 23rd 1982: https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=V… “Microsoft Announces 8086 Basic” – The Intelligent Machines Journal, Summer 1979: https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=F… IBM Exhibits: https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhib…

ST506 Drive ‘Find’

Posted on by ajross

I recently took ownership of a banged-up old #IBM PC XT. The motherboard was toast, the case was all banged up, so I decided it wasn’t worth repairing after many hours wasted with a multimeter and desoldering.. I put a new old 10MHz Turbo XT clone board in and it complained about some boot issues. So whilst I was debugging the issue, I thought I’d put the #ST506 hard drive in from the old machine. I didn’t expect it to work, but I thought just having a controller in there might help the issue. What I didn’t expect is that the 25+ year old drive would actually work. To my amazement, it (almost) worked first time. And here’s the treasure trove on it. Always find it amazing just seeing what people leave behind on their computers. It’s like a time capsule. Apologies for the really rough video, I shot it on my phone with no mic or anything, I just recorded it live as it was happening as I didn’t know if the disk was going to crap out on me. Didn’t have time to prep

How to play music modules on an old PC (MOD/S3M/XM)

Posted on by ajross

Up until now, listening to digitised music on a retro PC has been pretty much impossible. In this quick video, I’ll show you how you can play MOD / S3M / XM modules on a PC with as little as a 4.77MHz CPU. This is using brand new software (March 2020), which is still in beta so YMMV!

Links to the material shown in this video: Forum page with link to beta 16 of ModMaster XT: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?… Download MODs etc from here: https://modarchive.org Galaxy Music Player (GLX) (1994) download: http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=7… Original version of ModMaster 2.3 (1997): http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=8…