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

Topic: Playing in the MUD

Multi User Dungeons brought a social aspect to computer RPGs, some with opportunities to do creative world building. We talk a bit about our experiences with these, and some about their background.

Topic/Feedback Links:

• LambdaMOO at 50 Years of Text Games
• Out of the MUD: The Origins of the MMORPG
• Text-Based VR: Explore the Pioneering World of MUSHes
• Osborne 3
• Morrow Pivot
• Zenith Z-171
• Osborne Vixen
• Memories of Bob Spencer
• “Computer Games” music video by Mi-Sex
• Rabbit RX83
• NEWPRINT/80
• World Turtle Day

Retro Computing News:

• Past and Future Turtles
• TurtleSpaces
• MITS/Pertec/iCOM FD 3202
• MITS/Pertec/iCOM FD 3712
• MITS/Pertec/iCOM FD 3802
• Teletext preservation by accident

Vintage Computer commercials:

• Austext
• Ceefax demonstration

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Ceefax mug

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: CORE9 universal remote
  • See also: About the CL9 Core controller
• Earl: Osborne 1
• Paul: Jupiter Ace 4000
  • New Micro-Professors I
  • Chatbot
  • Relax
  • See also: Dalek Relaxation Tape
  • Max Machine

Closing notes:

• People’s Republic of Interactive Fiction
• Z80 Playground

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
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Panelists: Paul Hagstrom (hosting), Blake Patterson, and Carrington Vanston

Topic: This sandwich tastes suspiciously like a ZX Spectrum

Another topic-free episode, this one discussing the smuggling of Spectrums, satirical adventure games, BBS simulations, IBM clocks, CoCo paint programs, and various other tangents.

Retro Computing News:

• Full Motion, Double High-Res Video Playback on the Apple IIe
• 1988: P.R.E.S.T.A.V.B.A.
• 50 Years of Text Games
• Gaming the Iron Curtain
• RetroBridgeBBS (GitHub)
• RetroBridgeBBS (Hackaday write-up)

Vintage Computer commercials:

• Hayes modem
• US Robotics 56k modem

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Cryptex USB stick

Auction Picks:

• Blake: Colorware COCO MAX HI-RES PACK input module Tandy TRS-80
  • Capstone Home Alone the Computerized Coloring Book
• Carrington: 600 page 1980s Computer Chip Handbookc
• Paul: Two Sanyo VM 4509s
  • Early IBM real time clock
  • Coleco Adam power supply
  • See also: Making an internal Adam PSU
  • Some Osbornes and some disks you can’t have
  • NEC PC8201a set

Closing notes:

• PunyInform

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
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Panelists: Paul Hagstrom (hosting), Quinn Dunki, and Carrington Vanston

Topic: Retro Development

Writing new software on old computers. How is it different now, would you go back to how it was done then? What did you use then?

Topic/Feedback Links:

• Arcade Machine (Broderbund, Atari & Apple)
• Graphics Magician (Penguin, Apple, C64, Atari)
• Nox Archaist
• SKALD
• PunyInform
• 8bit-Unity
• Amiga Addict magazine
• BBC Micro Live (magnets vs. floppy disks)
• Bits and Bytes
• BBC Computer Literacy Project
• Texture Archaeology
• American Vandal
• Brick

Retro Computing News:

• How to paint a TRS-80 Model III case
• Retro365
• Modern Mac on retro display




• Lost CompuServe, GEnie, and The Source game discovered in Copyright Office
• Castlequest compiles!
• Castlequest source
• Robert Noyce, 60 years ago, granted patent for integrated circuit
• Mockingboard 4c+

Vintage Computer commercial:

• Amstrad 8256 (1985)

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Crackers: The Gold Rush (book)

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Apple “Leading The Way” internal cassette
  • See also: Leading the Way (Apple video)
• Paul: Perfect gift for the Mac enthusiast who you don’t like very much (video adapters)
  • Times Two, more disk space via magic
  • ZX80, ZX81, TS1000 lot
  • TS2068 RGB->HDMI
  • Requires: RGB->HDMI
  • Early CAPTCHA (“HUMAN” pin)
  • Amstrad PCW 8256 sort of
  • Amstrad PCW 8512 potentially
  • John Romero’s shareware pillows

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

Topic: Period Peripherals

When you use retro computers, do you also use retro peripherals? That is, do you stick with appropriately vintage keyboards, monitors, and mice? Does mixing and matching vintage computers with new peripherals ruin the experience or aesthetic? Or do the (supposed) benefits of modern keyboards and displays outweigh the heresy?

Retro Computing News:

• B-Roll footage from inside a 1982 Sears store
• Halt and Catch Fire Syllabus

Vintage Computer commercial:

• Mattel Electronics Baseball

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Throwboy shirts

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: The Chip Shop Basicode tape
  • See also: Example broadcast of The Chip Shop’s “takeaway service”
• Paul: Broken Baseball
  • Mac security brackets
  • Learn WordPerfect VHS tapes
  • New TRS-80 game
  • eMate-inspired RPi case
  • eMate 300

Closing notes:

• TRS-8-Bit

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
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Panelists: Paul Hagstrom (hosting), Jack Nutting, and Blake Patterson

Topic: Something, Something, Retrocompute

No topic this time, really, just various news items and eBay auctions. Accelerators, printers, a new Atari 2600 game, Microsoft history, a strangely familiar host’s gift idea.

Retro Computing News:

• A2turbo Card
• Mockingboard-T (Mockingboard clone with tube amp)
• Audacity Games (Circus Convoy, for Atari 2600)
• Circus Convoy trailer
• Plex launches Arcade with Atari games
• Yellowstone 3.5 Inch Drive Support!

Vintage Computer commercial:

• IBM AS/400

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Atari 130XE spiral notebook

Auction Picks:

• Blake: Practical Peripherals SwitchPort //c
  • iMac Timex alarm clock
  • Video: iMac Timex alarm clock
• Paul: GTE XT300 (link now dead)
  • See also: Computerworld Ad for GTE XT300
  • See also: Retro scan of the week, Feb 25 2007
  • See also: The DAK Catalog
  • Forethought PowerPoint manual
  • See also: Version Museum
  • See also: GUIdebook Gallery

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
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Panelists: Paul Hagstrom (hosting), Earl Evans, and Blake Patterson

Topic: Video Out, Volume One: A-Ap

Techniques for getting video out of an old computer. Particularly, it turns out, if it is an Amiga. Part one of several, no doubt.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Testing, cleaning and tuning up a small IBM VGA monitor
• CoCoVGA
• RetroTINK
• ZX-HD
• PLAdvanced+ PLA replacement
• JCM III encoder
• LEGO NES
• Retro Rewind
• 99% Invisible episode on the last moments of The Sims Online
• Atari monitor with a disk drive in it
• The Amiga Show

Retro Computing News:

• Amiga A1100
• Build A Brand New ZX Spectrum From New Parts
• Building a new C64 in 2020
• Altair 8800 Built from New Equipment in 2018
• BMC64 and family, VICE on bare metal RasPi

Vintage Computer commercial:

• Commodore 128 1985 commercial

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Retrocomputing masks

Auction Picks:

• Blake: Old Apple Macintosh Lot And IBM
  • TI Hexbus PCM Prototype Card
• Earl: California Computer Systems (CCS) S-100 Computer
• Paul: SuperPET
  • Apple II circuit board making kit
  • Brøderbund Arcade Machine
  • Homemade IIe Card cable
  • Flip N File

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
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Panelists: Paul Hagstrom (hosting), Quinn Dunki, Jack Nutting, Blake Patterson, and Carrington Vanston

Topic: Catching Up

It’s 2021! There are many of us this time, so we just talk about some stuff.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Micro Phobia (Martin Honeysett)
• Apricot F1
• Thomas Cherryhomes and Kay Savetz bounce a ball across the internet using FujiNet
• Reviewing the Omega Home Computer, homebrew MSX2
• Sergey Kiselev’s projects (including the Omega Home Computer)

Retro Computing News:

• Amiga Parceiro
• Blake’s Parceiro
• MISE
• M3SE
• Cricket!
• Once Upon Atari (book by Howard Scott Warshaw)
• Nibble-magazine dot com
• Classic AmigaOS Programming: An Introduction (E. Th. van den Oosterkamp) (Amazon)
• Action Amiga : Computer Graphics Animation and Video Production Manual (John Warren Oakes) (AbeBooks)
• AmigaDOS (Mark Burgess) (AbeBooks)
• Amiga ROM Kernel Reference Manual (AbeBooks)
• Atari VCS (The Younger)
• So the Atari VCS is Finally Here (Spawn Wave, YouTube)
• You can sideload an OS, does that make the Atari VCS worth buying? (Spawn Wave, YouTube)
• Activision, Atari, Absolute: How Video Game Companies Once Gamed the Alphabet for Publicity
• NYTimes “Impractical rise” article

“Upcoming” shows

• WozFest 18. Sat Mar 20. Noon, Sydney.

Vintage Computer commercial:

• Atari 1200XL “The Convincer””

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Hyperkin Ranger gamepad for Atari 2600 etc.

Auction Picks:

• Blake: Macintosh II RISC 88000 Processor board
  • Exatron Stringy Floppy Disk Drive Wafer – Lot of 40
  • DIMENSION 68000 disks
• Carrington: Keycap remover
  • MJI Hobbi-Stick Joystick
• Paul: Apple II keyboard repeaterrr
  • Apple //c with C-Vue and LaserWriter
  • Seiko UC-2200
  • See also: Seiko UC-2000 The Dawn of Wearable Computers
  • Apple II reference manual (red book)
  • IBM 5161 Expansion Unit
• Quinn: Commodore Amiga Book for Beginners
  • Compute!’s Beginner Guide to the Amiga

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
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Panelists: Paul Hagstrom (hosting), Quinn Dunki, Earl Evans, Blake Patterson, and Carrington Vanston

Topic: Preserving the Fleeting Now

Things people post, preserving the past, themselves vanish. eBay images, images in blogs that eventually go offline. Respositories like Pinterest morph into something less useful for preservation and searching. Are the things we find and post now going to be there in the future? (And, since no, they’re not, what should we be doing?)

Topic/Feedback links:

• Pinry, locally hosted Pinterest-alike

Retro Computing News:

• The Digital Antiquarian: Lode Runner
• Working From Home At 25MHz
• DeRamp.com vintage computing
• Altair 8800 clone
• WorldWideWeb web app
• Love Notes To Newton
• Nox Archaist
• Sprite Castle plays Karateka
• MacFolklore Radio
• Have a Helping of 8-bit Holiday Cheer! (2020 Edition)
• ZX Spectrum NEXT demo
• IEEE article on computer dealer demos
• Apple 1984 Christmas Demo

Vintage Computer-related commercials:

• Macintosh Quadra
• HesWare

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Intel Outside sticker

Auction Picks:

• Blake: Atari 1200XL set
  • HxC Floppy Emulator in enclosure
• Carrington: Mimio Digital Whiteboard
  • See also: Hands on: Mimio for the Macintosh
• Earl: HesWare Microsoft Multiplan For Commodore 64
• Paul: Apple beige touch-up paint
  • Excalibur Savvy The Robot Programmer
  • See also: Savvy ad in Byte
  • See also: Investigative thread (Nate Cull, Mastodon, Jan 2018)
  • Quicktake 150, cheap?

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
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Panelists: Paul Hagstrom (hosting), Quinn Dunki, Blake Patterson, and Carrington Vanston

Topic: Not cassettes, not floppies

Software distributed in some way other than on cassette or floppy.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Database 1984 (BBC Micro broadcast software)
• 4 Computer Buffs 1985 (Soldering an optical sensor)
• An example of the annoying blob (4 Computer Buffs)
• Author of the decoding software for optical TV transmitter
• Epson PX-8 Geneva’s software-on-a-chip, carrier
• The Lucksmiths “The Cassingle Revival”
• Techmoan on vinyl video
• The History of BASICODE
• Secret C64 program hidden on Christian rock album
• Pete Shelly “ZX Spectrum Code”
• The Thompson Twins Adventure Game
• Information Society “300bps N, 8, 1”

Retro Computing News:

• Booting a 5150 from a vinyl record
• ReStuff
• Alkemstone
• VidHD and “Total Replay”: Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together!

Upcoming shows

• World of Commodore. Sat Dec 5. Virtual.

Vintage Computer-related commercials:

• TIMEX DataLink watch
• Amiga 500 commercial

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Susan Kare prints

Auction Picks:

• Blake: Workstation cards
  • See also: ivanx.com
  • Mac/Lisa Wizardry
• Carrington: Hellcats Over The Pacific
  • Star Fighter by 3DO
  • Sinistaar for Color Computer III
• Paul: Lisa 2
  • Sankyo computer music
  • Interface Age 1978
  • Timex Data Link 150. Fixer-upper
  • See also: Download software from Timex
  • A different Timex Data Link 150, working
  • Metal Univac ad sign
  • Univac ad poster
  • Cauzin Apple sampler library
  • See also: ANTIC 115 (Jan 11, 2016), Bob Brass and Peter D’Amato (Cauzin Softstrip)
  • See also: Reverse Engineering the Cauzin Softstrip
  • See also: Cauzin Softstrip media kit
• Quinn: Amiga 500 in box, it go boom?
  • Amiga 500, tastefully upgraded
  • Amiga 1200 complete, but so spendy
  • Amiga 1200 US, aggressively retrobrited
  • See also: The Future Was Here (Jimmy Maher)

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

Topic: RCR Episode 2

Episode 2 of the Retro[ ]computing Roundtable is a decade old.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Episode 2
• Windows 1 Turns 25
• Target Haunted Computer (eBay)
• Target Haunted Computer (YouTube)

Retro Computing News:

• Atari announces list of games included with upcoming Atari VCS
• Official site not working, naturally
• List can also be found here
• The C64
• Procedurally generated retrocomputer emulators (Hackaday)
• Procedurally generated emulators, list
• CocoTalk 185 discussion of the procedurally generated emulators
• 8-bit Unity new release
• 8-bit Hub
• Joeylib

Upcoming shows

• World of Commodore. Sat Dec 5. Virtual.

Vintage Computer-related commercials:

• Commodore MAX machine (Japanese)
• Pioneer PL-518 turntable commercial 1979

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Floppy shaped battery

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Vintage Atari 410 Cassette Program Recorder
  • Heart of China for Mac by Dynamix
  • Serpentine for Apple II, sealed
• Michael: PDP 11/45 front panel
• Paul: Apple II+ jigsaw puzzle (missing a piece)
  • Apple IIe set (A cautionary tale about buying things for collectors)
  • Apple II Workstation card
  • Apple II Sprite Logo card
  • See also: LCSI Sprite Card (Peter Neubauer’s blog)
  • Bunker-Ramo Telequote III terminal
  • See also: Discussion of a Telequote on VCFed forum
  • See also: Bunker-Ramo ad
  • DEC H-500 logic trainer

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
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