Panelists: Michael Mulhern (hosting), Paul Hagstrom, Earl Evans, Steven Weyhrich, and Carrington Vanston

Host’s Topic:

How far have you gone to personally pick-up a retro thingie?

Retro Computing News:

• Computer Lib / Dream Machines (1974)
  • Get a reprint
• Halt and Catch Fire
• Bletchley Park vs TNMOC
• Drop /// Inches podcast
• George R. R. Martin: “Why I still use DOS”
• Tezza’s Classic Mac capacitor replacement
  • Further info and photos
  • Dallas DS 1287 battery/real-time-clock fix
• Born With Curiosity: The Grace Hopper Documentary
• MS Gong Ride
  • Michael’s donation page
• Another Apple IIe that still has a day job
• TRS-80 Model 4P
• FreHD disk emulator (works on the 4P and others)
• Radio Shack Disk/Video Interface for Model 100
• Club100 (The Model 100 Users Group)

Vintage Computer Commercial:

• Tandy 1000: “Clearly Superior”

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Voyager Space Probe Golden Record Cover Replica

Auction Picks:

• Earl: Amdahl Corporation Emergency Power Off Button
• Paul: TRS-80 Model 4P
  • Alt: YAPX8
• Michael: 2 original Apple building signs
• Steve: IBM keypunch card printing plate
• Carrington: Heathkit Hero 2000 robot
  • Alt: Myra Burg Apple Wall Art Rug

Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X – link
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Panelists: Paul Hagstrom (hosting), Earl Evans, and Carrington Vanston

Host’s Topic:

Archiving physical media. Is it too late to copy that floppy?

• Floppy Disks: It’s Too Late
• Rescuing Floppy Disks
• Kryoflux
• Software Preservation Society
• KeirF’s Disk-Utilities
• DiscFerret
• EDD+ card
• I’m fEDD Up
• Catweasel
• Supercard Pro

Retro Computing News:

• VCF SE behind-scenes photos
• Celebrate BASIC with a mini OS for Raspberry Pi
• Basic 10-line contest
• Jupiter ACE for sale
• Apple IIe still making player piano rolls
• Can any coding language top a 1950s behemoth?
• Jimmy Maher’s The Digital Antiquarian blog
• Viscious: SID chip audio prototype for Apple-1
• Recreating the Deep Note
• Homebrew IBM System/370
• Time article on finding old computer games
• Oregon Trail nerdery

Vintage Computer Commercial:

• Univac predicts the weather

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Raspberry Pi case shaped like Apple II
  • Melissa Barron’s Oregon Trail glitch art

Auction Picks:

• Earl: Canon CA2000 Japanese Pocket PC
• Paul: Commodore SD2IEC drive
• Carrington: Apple Studio Display M4551

Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X – link
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Panelists: Carrington Vanston (hosting), Earl Evans, Paul Hagstrom, and Michael Mulhern

Host’s Topic:

Happy 50th Birthdays
Both BASIC and the IBM System/360 are turning 50. We discuss the impact and importance of both.

Retro Computing News:

• 50 years of BASIC
  • History/Timeline of programming languages
  • Chipmunk BASIC
  • BASIC variants still popular today
  • Wikibooks: BASIC Programming
• IBM System/360 turns 50
  • Computer History Museum: System/360
  • Why won’t you DIE? IBM’s S/360 and its legacy at 50
  • The mainframe that helped send men to the Moon
  • Previous auction pick: System/360 faceplate — sold for over $1,750!
  • Have your very own mainframe at home with Hercules Emulator
  • How-To Install OS/360 on Hercules
• Fun with 3D printers:
  • Mario Andrioletti: Sinclair ZX80
  • Charles Mangin: Disk II (And video)
  • Charles Mangin: iPod nano dock
• NitrOS-9 v3.3.0: CoCo and Dragon operating system
  • NitrOS-9 Wiki
• British Pathé newsreel clips
  • British Pathé
  • Pathé News
  • Mid-Atlantic English
• Atari dig in Alamogordo
  • Fixing E.T. for the Atari 2600
• Previously Unknown Warhol Works Discovered on Floppy
  • Floppy Disks: It’s Too Late
  • Rescuing Floppy Disks
• Right On The Button: IRS video introducing computers
  • Videos of the US National Archives
• Retro Computer Museum Easter Weekend Walkthrough
• VCF Southeast 2.0: May 3-4, 2014
  • VCF SE Kickstarter
• The Mother of All Demos: Douglas Engelbart, 1968
  • The Mother of All Demos

Vintage Computer Commercial:

• Don’t Copy That Floppy

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Rubber Stamp Floppy

Auction Picks:

• Michael: Where is my mainframe?
• Carrington: Apple IIc battery portability kit
• Earl: Sinclair ZX81 with Kayde keyboard
• Paul: Kaypro II
  • Alt: DuoDock Plus

Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X – link
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Panelists: Earl Evans (hosting), Paul Hagstrom, Michael Mulhern, and Carrington Vanston

Host’s Topic:

What do people actually do with retro computers?
We discuss feedback and ideas from our listeners about how they use (and abuse) their retro computer collections.

Retro Computing News:

• Commodore 64: a visual Compendium by Bitmap Books
• TNMOC digitally recreates Bletchley Park Maze for Easter Bytes Festival
  • Video: Bletchley Park Turing Quiz Maze in Minecraft
• Books by “that” Chris Crawford
• Vassal: the open source board game engine
  • Tanktics on Vassal
  • Erasmatazz: Chris Crawford videos
• Michael J. Mahon’s donation to the Apple II community
• RESET Magazine
• Gallery of Graphical User Interfaces
• VCF Southeast 2.0: May 3-4, 2014
• The 23rd Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST
  • Get a booth
  • Photos
  • Newsletters
• KansasFest 2014 opens for registration
• Clear Light Superstar appears on eBay
  • Eric Anderson’s bio page
  • Japanese collector’s page
  • Translated
• Coursera

Vintage Computer Commercial:

• Oric Atmos 48K Computer

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Commodore 64 socks

Auction Picks:

• Earl: Coleco Adam Family Computer
• Paul: Heathkit festival with ETA-3400
• Michael: Battlestar Galactica Box Set
• Carrington: Ballyhoo (sealed) for Apple II

Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X – link
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Panelists: Michael Mulhern (hosting), Paul Hagstrom, Earl Evans, and Carrington Vanston

Host’s Topic: When is “Retro” Retro?

After 12 years, Windows XP is about to go out of support; is XP now retro, or is retrocity in the eye of the nostalgic beholder?

Retro Computing News:

• Microsoft have releases source for MS-DOS and Word for Windows
  • Computer History Museum press release
• Arniga project: ARM-based Amiga 500
• Minimig
• The Next “Briel Thing” prototype board S/N #1
  • OldComputers.net: Ohio Scientific
  • Wikipedia: Ohio Scientific
• Raspberry Pi built into Ultratec teletype machine
• Stick a Beaglebone inside your VT100!
• Lord British’s Apple II running Akalabeth
• James Tauber detokenizes the Akalabeth source
• Nano Vic20
• Internet Archive to digitize 40,000 VHS & Betamax tapes
• 30th anniversary edition of Hitchhiker’s Guide text adventure game released

Vintage Computer Commercial:

• Arthur C. Clarke: One day, a computer will fit on a desk (1974)

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Star Trek Pyjamas

Auction Picks:

• Earl: BNIB Atari CX85 keypad
• Paul: Many new TI 99/4a things
  • Nanopeb
  • Photo of highly expanded TI 99/4a
• Michael: Star Trek: The Kobayashi Alternative
• Carrington: Maxx flight control yolk for Apple II

Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X – link
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Panelists: Paul Hagstrom (hosting), Michael Mulhern, and Mike Whalen

Host’s Topic: Stock or Tricked-Out?
What’s your view of expanding vintage machines? Is it better, and is it worth it?

Retro Computing News:

• 64tass
  • 64tass manual
• Geoff Edwards (final host of Starcade) passes away
  • Starcade
  • Interview with Geoff Edwards, part 1
  • Interview with Geoff Edwards, part 2
  • No Quarter podcast #64: Starcade special
• Vintage Computer Festival East 9.1
• C64: A Visual Compendium
  • Related video
• PC Jr. History by Michael Brutman
  • The PC Jr. server
• Who stole the graphics? Board Games meet the computer:
  • Tanktics
  • Virtual Apple: Tanktics disk image
  • Dneiper River Line
  • Virtual Apple: Dneiper River Line disk image
• Aquarius runs Portal? (Not quite)
• 1 BIT Sigma Delta Modulator:
  • Chris Martin’s YouTube channel
  • Atari Age post
• Michael’s ‘new’ Dick Smith VZ200: It’s not an Apple II, it doesn’t even run on a 6502

Vintage Computer Commercial:

• Hawkeye predicts that the Atari may make the typewriter obsolete

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Fortran Coloring Book:
  • Amazon
  • Roger Kaufman’s own retrospective page

Auction Picks:

• Paul: Fortran Coloring Book
• Michael: SSG (Amiga) “Reach for the Stars”
• Mike: Casio Databank DBC 600
  • Timex Data Link watch demo

Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X – link
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Panelists: Carrington Vanston (hosting), Paul Hagstrom, and Earl Evans

Host’s Topic: Good Old Golden Rule Days

What was your first exposure to a computer in school? Did you take computer classes in grade school?

Retro Computing News:

• Dear Educator, we live in exciting times!
• Apple /// emulation in MESS leaps forward
• Flappy Bird for C64
• Meet the Unitron: the first Mac clone
• Archive.org: The Business Case
• Almost Perfect: How a Bunch of Regular Guys Built WordPerfect Corporation
• Gary Kildall and the Birth of the PC Operating System
• Computer Chronicles: Gary Kildall Special
• BBC to launch refreshed Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy Game
• Margot Comstock to keynote KansasFest 2014
• The return of Humongous games
• A question for listeners: What do you do with your vintage computers?

Vintage Computer Commercial:

• The Enterprise 128

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• It’s Behind You: the making of a computer game by Bob Pape

Auction Picks:

• Earl: Vintage Radio Shack TRS-80 FP-215 Plotter
  • Alt: Core memory
• Paul: Enterprise 128
• Carrington: Modern power adaptor for Apple IIc
  • Related: iFixit guide: Apple IIc device repair

Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X – link
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Panelists: Earl Evans (hosting), Paul Hagstrom, Michael Mulhern, Steven Weyhrich, and Carrington Vanston

Host’s Topic:

What items, tools, techniques and resources are good for repairing vintage computers?

• The Retr0bright Project
• iFixit Store

Retro Computing News:

• Maximite BasicBoxX (BBX) Kickstarter
• CGCOLORMAX2: Colour Maximite
• Geoff Graham
• March 2011 Silicon Chip Magazine
• Firmware update for GoTek Floppy Emulator
• The Lost Ancestors of ASCII Art
• Compuserve PDP-10 SC-40 Boot Up
• ICE/ISEE-3
• Sarcastic Rover
• Colossus Needs You!
• Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park’s Code-breaking Computers
• Reconditioning a Model M keyboard
• VTech Laser VZ200 computer:
  • VTech Laser VZ200 on Wikipedia
  • VZ200.org
  • Dick Smith VZ200 Personal Colour Computer
• Beginnings of PowerPoint by Dennis Austin

Vintage Computer Commercial:

• Xerox 1970s Experimental Office

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Something Geeky women programmer tshirt

Auction Picks:

• Earl: AT&T 2503 Exclusion Set telephone
• Paul: Capitol BBS S-100 machine
• Michael: Dick Smith VZ200 and VZ300
• Steve: Pravetz 82 Bulgarian Apple II clone

Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X – link
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Panelists: Earl Evans (hosting), Paul Hagstrom, Michael Mulhern and David Greelish

Host’s Topic:

Does programming 8-bit computers make you a better programmer of modern systems?

Retro Computing News:

• A.P.P.L.E. Posts First Year of Australian Apple Review
• The Australian Apple Review
• The Mac Turns 30:
  • Apple’s Macintosh Turns 30: Did You Know It Almost Failed?
  • Mac 30: Thirty Years of Innovation
  • Macintosh originals celebrate the Mac’s 30th anniversary
  • Macintosh 30th Celebration Kickstarter
  • First “Stevenote”: BCS Mac intro video with team Q&A
  • Scans of Softalk.Mac
  • Softalk Forever!!! Facebook group
• PDP-12 sells for over USD$16K on eBay
• Steve Chamberlin updates Mac Floppy Emulator
• VCFSE 2.0
• RetroChallenge 2014 Winter Warmup ends
• The Complete Historically Brewed PDF

Vintage Computer Commercials:

• Macintosh: The Computer for the Rest of Us

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Hakko FX-888D soldering station

Auction Picks:

• Paul: PQ the Party Quiz game for Apple II
  • Alt: Mimic Spartan
• Michael: Always Postpone Meetings With Time-Wasting Morons
• David: Mac Plus and accessories, in boxes
• Earl: 1802 Membership Cards: Cosmac Elf Replicas
  • Lee Hart’s 1802 “Membership Card”

Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X – link
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Panelists: Carrington Vanston (hosting), Paul Hagstrom, Earl Evans, Michael Mulhern, and Myles Wakeham

Host’s Topic: The Way We Weren’t

Things didn’t have to be the way they are. We pick a handful of turning points (hardware, software, business decision, etc.) and imagine they did not happen, or happened differently. What kind of alternative computing future could we have found ourselves in instead?

Retro Computing News:

• The search for the lost Cray supercomputer OS
  • Chris Fenton
  • Andras Tantos
• FreHD: TRS-80 virtual hard drive
  • Ian Mavric’s YouTube videos
  • Ian Mavric’s Site (where to order)
  • Mark Blair’s Model 4 ROM adapter for auto boot ROMs
  • Tezza’s collection of TRS-80 disk images
• Apple II vs. Commodore 64 chess match
• Retro UK cinema fest:
  • Micro Men (BBC 2009)
  • Computerphile on BBC Micro
  • Computerphile on Elite
  • Podfather (BBC 2009)
  • From Bedrooms to Billions
• Complete Historically Brewed ebook discounted
• Steve Jobs: “OpenDoc is Dead”
• Mac30th Celebration
• Sinclair’s 1984 big shot at business
• 8-bit harmonica
• Michael’s 2014 Winter Warmup

Vintage Computer Commercial:

• Sega SC3000

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Retro computer wrapping paper

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Apple II cables from Digi4D
• Paul: TRS-80 pocket computer
  • Alt: IMSAI 8080
• Earl: MiST: Amiga/Atari ST FPGA clone
• Myles: Huge Apple/Mac computer collection
• Michael: iMac clock (You can never have too many clocks)

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