Panelists: Jack Nutting (hosting), Paul Hagstrom, and Michael Mulhern

Host’s Topic: 35 years since there wasn’t yet an IBM PC

The IBM PC launched into a world of many personal computer brands, types, operating systems, and eventually took the label and became the ubiquitous and standard PC (and PC-compatible), leaving most other systems fallen by the wayside.

Retro Computing News:

• The first IBM PC was released 35 years ago (12/8/1981) (The Telegraph)
• John Draper, speaking from VCF Berlin 2015
  • Secrets of the Little Blue Box
• Vampire Accelerator, now for Amiga 500
• The Rise and Fall of the Gopher protocol
• How did the Cauzin Softstrip encode the programs?
• ANTIC interview 115: Bob Brass and Peter D’Amato, Cauzin Softstrip
• Why the IBM PC used an Intel 8088

Vintage Computer Commercial

• IBM Personal Computer, released 12/8/1981

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Tulip Table replica

Auction Picks:

• Michael: Amiga 500 Main Board serviced and ready to go
  • Amiga 500 dust cover
  • Gotek Floppy Emulator, Amiga-ready
• Paul: Sinclair ZX-8what?
  • Triton Turbo XT
  • See also Info about Triton Turbo XT
  • IBM 5155, not working but cheap
  • IBM 5150, A probably
  • IBM 3270 PC
  • See also Info about IBM 3270 PC
  • PDP 11/34 and more
  • Apollo 11 IBM press kit
  • See also other Apollo 11 things from that seller

Feedback/Discussion:

• @rcrpodcast on Twitter
• Vintage Computer Forum
• RCR Podcast on Facebook
• Throwback Network
  • Throwback Network on Facebook

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Panelists: The regular “How To Retro History of Open Chicken Missile Antics Roundtable” crew.

Host’s Topic: Chicken Missile?

At KansasFest 2016, on July 22, 2016, a crowd of retrocomputing podcasters sat around a table in a room and spoke about KansasFest itself and about our computing histories.

There was one microphone in a big room, so the audio is less refined than it is in our usual episodes, but it should be still comprehensible.

Clockwise, from Ken, the participants were:

• Ken Gagne of Retrocomputing Roundtable, Polygamer, and Indiesider
• Kevin Savetz of Antic: The Atari 8-bit Podcast
• Rob McMullen of Player/Missile
• Michael Mulhern of Retrocomputing Roundtable
• John Leake of RetroMacCast
• Todd George of Chicken Lips Radio
• Charles Mangin of How II
• Jeff Salzman of The History Of Personal Computing
• Quinn Dunki of Open Apple
• Carrington Vanston of Retrocomputing Roundtable and 1MHz
• Paul Hagstrom of Retrocomputing Roundtable and Drop /// Inches

This “megapodcast” recording has appeared at least on the Open Apple feed as well, and might appear in other feeds. Wherever you hear it, it’s the same, so if you’ve heard it before, feel free to skip ahead to RCR Episode 135.

Feedback/Discussion:

• @rcrpodcast on Twitter
• Vintage Computer Forum
• RCR Podcast on Facebook
• Throwback Network
  • Throwback Network on Facebook

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Panelists: Paul Hagstrom (hosting), Ken Gagne, Michael Mulhern, and Carrington Vanston

Host’s Topic: I’ve a feeling we’re not in Missouri anymore

All of us are now back in our respective countries after KansasFest and.

Retro Computing News:

• Margaret Hamilton’s introduction (July 2001, AGC conference 1)
  • Don Eyles walks through AGC source code
  • The Code that Took America to the Moon Was Just Published to GitHub
• Bungie West as documented on the Oni wiki OniGalore
• VCF Midwest 11 September 10-11, 2016, Elk Grove, IL.
• What it was like to work at Xerox PARC
• Seymour Papert passed away
• Michael’s night at the Museum
• Gary Kildall in his own words
• TRS-Box Serial
• M1SE Project
• M3SE Project
• TRS-Box: Dropbox for TRS-80 microcomputers
• TRS-80 Trash Talk Podcast
• Nintendo Power in Internet Archive (actually, not anymore.)
• Apple Orchard on Internet Archive
• Apple Orchard, Paul’s organized page of scans
• Alto Restoration and Emulator
• AtomBusMon 6502 and friends on drop-in FPGA

Vintage Computer Commercial

• Kaypro: The Complete Computer

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Robot Turtles

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Ergotron MacTilt stand
• Ken: Oregon Trail card game
• Michael: Amiga 1200 68040 MacroSystem Accelerator Card Board
• Paul: Altair 8800b set
  • An absurd Sinclair lot
  • AOL person

Feedback/Discussion:

• @rcrpodcast on Twitter
• Vintage Computer Forum
• RCR Podcast on Facebook
• Throwback Network
  • Throwback Network on Facebook

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Panelists: Kevin Savetz (hosting), Mark Pilgrim, Kate Szkotnicki, Lisa Allyn, and Jeff Blakeney (contestants)

Host’s Topic: Kevin Loves Apples

After one too many repetitions of his name, Kevin Savetz materialized at KansasFest 2016 and wrested control of the Retrocomputing Roundtable. A panel of four attendees compete in Apple-II-related games, recorded live at KansasFest.

• KansasFest

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Panelists: Earl Evans and Randy Kindig (hosting), and Evan Koblentz (expert witness)

Host’s Topic: Vintage Computer Festival West

Randy and Earl wonder about VCF West, and Evan comes to the rescue, in this Very Special Episode of the Retrocomputing Roundtable (recorded jointly with Floppy Days). Also, the first of two consecutive episodes crossing over with ANTIC.

Sharing is caring! Alert everyone you know who might be interested in going to VCF West XI that it’s happening, soon. Always better to learn about these things before they happen, rather than after they’re over.

• Vintage Computer Federation
• Vintage Computer Festival West XI
  • August 6-7, 2016, at the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA.
• Floppy Days podcast
• ANTIC podcast

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Panelists: Paul Hagstrom (hosting), Earl Evans, Jack Nutting, and Carrington Vanston

Host’s Topic: What good is source code?

As more original source code becomes available (we’ll talk about a couple [Apollo Guidance Computer and LucasArts’ Habitat] later this episode—but before that fairly high profile source code from Apple II DOS, Xerox Alto, Microsoft BASIC, CP/M, Prince of Persia, Glider, Wander, Star Raiders, and more), what kinds of things do we hope to learn, or have we learned, or can we do with these? Are they just historical artifacts, or can they be used in the future as learning tools, or in new software, or…?

Retro Computing News:

• Vintage Computer Festival Zurich, November 19-20, 2016
• Inverse ATASCII (S1EB1 Atari Portfolio)
• Easy to Learn, Hard to Master—The Fate of Atari (documentary Kickstarter)
• The Code that Took America to the Moon Was Just Published to GitHub
• Don Eyles walks through AGC source code
• AGC source (Apollo 11) on Github
• “Computer for Apollo” video
• Digital Apollo (book)
• CommVEX 12.0, Saturday July 30, and Sunday July 31
  • Bill Seiler (VIC-20) will be there
• 7 Classic Home PC Follow-Ups That Were Never Released
• Source code to LucasArts’ Habitat posted
  • Habitat on Github
• How To Write a History of Writing Software
• PocketCHIP
• Blake Patterson (Byte Cellar) finds old photos of his TI 99/4a
• Retrohistories: The Prehistory of Bungie
• Megaprocessor makes mainstream news as Tetris machine
• Brianna Wu asks Millennials to identify a modem
• Tetris on the Green building

Vintage Computer Commercial

• Quantum Link/Habitat

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• AGC DSKY model

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Mac Performa 475 with Apple IIe card
  • AppleVision 750AV Display
• Earl: Apple Graphics Tablet
• Paul: Radio Controlled Flight Simulator for PC
  • UNIVAC ashtray
  • Lisa pile, pickup only
• Jack: Jet TV Electromagnetica HC-85 Computer
  • See also: Electromagnetica Jet on old-computers.com

Feedback/Discussion:

• @rcrpodcast on Twitter
• Vintage Computer Forum
• RCR Podcast on Facebook
• Throwback Network
  • Throwback Network on Facebook

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Panelists: Michael Mulhern (hosting), Paul Hagstrom, Jack Nutting, and Carrington Vanston

Host’s Topic: Was the tech in the 80’s better than today?

Was the 80’s tech better, or do you prefer today’s offerings? What did you love about the 80’s tech, and what do you miss?

Retro Computing News:

• Dean Yergens’ collection, including Microsoft disks
• CoCo~123 newsletter, v36n1
• Megaprocessor video tour
  • Main megaprocessor site
• MOnSter 6502
• Kickstarter for the Dreamcade Replay
• Dream Arcades
• OpenEmu
• iCade
• Y Combinator’s Xerox Alto restoration (Ken Shirriff’s blog)
• Xerox Alto on eBay
• Fixing Kermit, compiling LASM for TRS-80 Model II
• Ancient Code: handwritten Apple II assembly code
• Codeless Code
• The Complete BBC Games Archive
  • Forum topic relating to archive
• Every Game Going archive
• TI99/4A Databar OSCAR Barcode Software
• PoC||GTFO
• The Doubleclicks

Vintage Computer Commercials (sort of)

• Xerox Alto ad

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Silver dalek with bowtie, pink, on its head

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Apple II Business Graphics Package
  • Apple II Enhancement Kit
• Michael: Acorn BBC Micro Model-B
  • Disk drive
  • RGB to HDMI adapter
• Paul: NRI 832
  • See also: CHM’s NRI 832
  • And also: Old Computer Museum’s write-up of NRI 832
  • Commodore MAX
  • Computerize game
  • Osborne OCC-2 Executive
• Jack: Atari Portfolio (with French keyboard layout)

Feedback/Discussion:

• @rcrpodcast on Twitter
• Vintage Computer Forum
• RCR Podcast on Facebook
• Throwback Network
  • Throwback Network on Facebook

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Panelists: Michael Mulhern (hosting), Earl Evans, Paul Hagstrom, Jack Nutting, and Carrington Vanston

Host’s Topic: Surprises

A volunteer at TNMOC found a Lorenz cipher machine keyboard on eBay for £9.50. What has been your most unexpected find on eBay, at garage sale, or even at a flea market?

Retro Computing News:

• Writing a Game in Assembly for an Old Computer Taught Me Lessons Relevant Today
• CP/M forever!
  • 8 bit computer from scratch (blog)
  • Microbee “Classic Plus Kit Computer”
  • RC 2014 Z80 computer on Google Groups
  • RC 2014 Z80 computer on Tindie
• A new retro computing stackexchange site
• Hacking Archive at TNMOC
• Beginning of “Apple II first ships” week?
• Chuck Moore’s FORTH processor designs (CPUShack Museum)
  • Part two
  • GreenArrays chips for sale
• Factor
• First digital computer, by country
• Ferut
• LEGO models from Chris McVeigh/PowerPig:
  • My Old Desktop (Pre-order)
  • IBM PC
  • Rotary phone
• DB-19: Resurrecting an obsolete connector
• Canada b-boy cypher

Vintage Computer Commercials (sort of)

• What’s all this?
• 1985 Car of the Year
• They’re waggling

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• K.I.T.T. USB Car Charger
  • Instructables write-up on LED scanner for your car

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Full Throttle for Macintosh
  • ScummVM
• Earl: Digital Server 5000 AlphaServer 1200
• Michael: Commodore themed mouse pads:
  • Datasette
  • C64
  • READY
• Jack: Atari Falcon
• Paul: Apple-1
  • Apple II
  • IBM 360 faceplate
  • Acorn Electron Plus 1 complete in box
  • Footmouse
  • Thumbs Up Music Modem keyboard

Feedback/Discussion:

• @rcrpodcast on Twitter
• Vintage Computer Forum
• RCR Podcast on Facebook
• Throwback Network
  • Throwback Network on Facebook

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Panelists: Earl Evans (hosting), Ken Gagne, Paul Hagstrom, and Jack Nutting

Host’s Topic: Tragic: The Gathering of dust

Most of us have vintage computers that we have purchased, used, but then ignored. In the early days, they were so easy to get, often for free, or cheap. Of your collection, which system do you most regret leaving in the closet, and why?

Retro Computing News:

• Joe’s Computer Museum (YouTube channel)
• The 64 (Indiegogo)
• Jumpman hacking (AtariAge)
• ANTIC podcast 171, Randy Glover (Jumpman) interview
• Index of ANTIC podcast interviews
• Apple II version of Jumpman (eBay)
• Tekserve of NYC
• MOnSter 6502 project page
  • MOnSter 6502 blog entry
• Making Amiga 2000 GPU with an FPGA (Hackaday)
  • Github project and writeup
• Artcade
• TPDD tools (access a TPDD from modern PC)

Vintage Computer Commercial

• NEC Computers Australian TV Commercial

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Mini Pocket Drone

Auction Picks:

• Ken: Lode Runner board game
• Earl: NEC PC-6001A
• Paul: Convergent WorkSlate, extraordinarily complete
  • Zorba GC-200
  • ITT 2020 paddles
• Jack: Jumpman for Atari 8-bit

Feedback/Discussion:

• @rcrpodcast on Twitter
• Vintage Computer Forum
• RCR Podcast on Facebook
• Throwback Network
  • Throwback Network on Facebook

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Panelists: Jack Nutting (hosting), Paul Hagstrom, and Michael Mulhern

Host’s Topic: Absence makes the heart grow fonder

What retrocomputers were actually less cool than you remember once you got your hands on one again? What were the annoyances you’d forgotten about?

Retro Computing News:

• Chocolatchips Etsy store (Pocket Pokey and more)
• Let Chris Crawford teach you to program the Atari 8-bit computers
• 4play new Apple II joystick card.
• 4soniq new Apple IIGS 4-channel sound card
• KABOOM! v1.02 (for Apple IIGS)
• Open Apple 58 (Huibert Aalbers, author of Soundsmith)
• UltimateMicro announces universal power supply.
• Structris for iOS
• Omnivore Atari 8-bit binary editor
  • Omnivore on Github
• The Megaprocessor
• DOS-based Compaq LTE 5280 laptops still used to maintain McLaren supercars
• “Purple Rain” chiptune remix
• MIT’s Digi-Comp II on EvilMadScientist blog

Vintage Computer Commercial

• How to spell Compaq
• Video Visits with Chris Crawford, part 1

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Motherboard nightlight

Auction Picks:

• Jack: Hanimex SD 070 Colour Clone
  • More info: Hanimex SD 070 Colour on old-computers.com
• Michael: VisiCalc for Atari 800
  • VisiCalc audio course
• Paul: Tatung Einstein TC-01
  • Eureka A4
  • More info on Eureka A4
  • MyTec PLAtinum C64 PLA U17 replacement
  • See also: U17 PLAnkton
  • See also: History of Personal Computing eBay episode 12

Feedback/Discussion:

• @rcrpodcast on Twitter
• Vintage Computer Forum
• RCR Podcast on Facebook
• Throwback Network
  • Throwback Network on Facebook

Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X – link
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