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

Topic: Decade

It’s been just days over 10 years since the first episode of this podcast, so we reflect a bit on the podcast, the community, our starts.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Episode 1
• Episode 30, live at KansasFest 2012
• Live streaming video from Mac Plus
• ScuzzyGraph
• Mini-MPI
• NitrOS-9 Ease of Use (EOU) Project

Retro Computing News:

• Usenet archive UTZOO Online
• Tapes to PostgreSQL using Python 3.8
• Volley for Two (new Commodore 128 game)
• Inside stacked RAM modules
• Looking Back on 35 Years as an Amiga User

Vintage Computer-related commercial:

• 1984 BBC Micro Acorn Electron Home PC Advert

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Commodore 64 Patent Print

Auction Picks:

• Blake: Three Cray Research Posters: MPGS, Y-MP EL, Y-MP C90
  • VTech Laser 110
  • VTech Laser 310
  • See also: VTech Laser 200 (Wikipedia)
• Earl: COMPU GLO Neon Dot Matrix Computer Paper
• Paul: Apple Interactive TV Box
  • See also: AITB (Higher Intellect wiki)
  • Better Working (Spinnaker) Power C for C64
  • Sony Magic Link development system
  • Apple III disk drive
  • Mac OS X Snow Leopard install DVD
  • HP 2647A terminal
  • See also: HP 2640A (HP Computer Museum)
  • See also: HP 264x terminals (CuriousMarc)

Closing notes:

• Wind-up Gramophones (Techmoan)

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

Topic: Repurposed Tech

This time we talk about existing technology repurposed for use with computers. Cassette tapes, CDs, TVs. Though it wound up being kind of more tangent than topic this time.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Think-a-Tron review
• Precursor (FPGA phone)
• TEDuino, a Commodore cassette unit replacement

Retro Computing News:

• Sacrifice Zone: IBM’s abandoned country club
• Bill Herd visits former MOS Technologies factory
• VCF East
• VCF East on YouTube
• VCF East schedule
• Crazy Blaster: new Amstrad CPC game
• Joshua Stein live-coding IMAP client on Mac 512Ke in Think C

Vintage Computer-related commercial:

• Clue, Clue II, and Let’s Go To The Races VCR games

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• 10 Print Coffee mug
• COFFEE mug

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Robocom Bitstick for Apple II CAD
  • See also: Bitstick write-up
  • See also: Original Robocom CAD-1 setup
  • MacHandwriter pen gestures for classic Macs
  • Hyper Electronics 91 Function Apple Mouse
  • Apple Resource Directory floppy disks
  • Apple Video News #1 VHS tape
  • Apple lunch bag with AM/FM radio
• Paul: PC Transporter
  • Make your own murder party on the Zinderneuf
  • Sealed Apple brochures
  • Portable 128D
  • iMac DV/SE
  • QuickLink cable organizer
  • Mac DeveloperEd box
  • Old Mac/Lisa disks

Closing notes:

• Algarve Portugal escape rooms
• Galavant

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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Panelists: Paul Hagstrom (hosting), Earl Evans, Quinn Dunki, Jack Nutting, Michael Mulhern, Blake Patterson, and (briefly) Carrington Vanston

Topic: Regrets and unregrets

What’s something you regret buying, doing, selling, dumping, investigating, etc. in the context of the retrocomputing hobby AND what’s something that you bought, did, sold, dumped, investigated, etc. that led to an unexpectedly positive outcome?

Retro Computing News:

• Atari 8 bit bot
• Apple II bot
• Fujinet 1.0
• Fujinet purchase
• Fujinet purchase (from Poland)
• Thomas Cherryhomes demonstrates a cool new disk swapping feature of Fujinet (YouTube)
• Programming for the Colecovision and Adam (forthcoming book)
• F18A
• Peter Neubauer’s Apple-II/F18A thoughts, including KansasFest 2016 talk

Vintage Computer-related commercial:

• Epson 1984 Commercial

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Mini-PET

Auction Picks:

• Blake: (Mostly) TI CC-40 development artifacts:
  • CC-40 Plus prototype
  • TI 64K cartridge development simulator
  • Hexbus 3.5 Microdisk manual
  • CC-40 Hexbus video interface protoype
  • CC-40 Hexbus wafer tape drive prototype
  • Anderson Jacobson acoustic data coupler
• Earl: Epson QX-10
• Michael: CP/M Fortran S-100 MemTech APU 8″ disk disk 1979 vintage programming software
  • Vintage 1980 Heathkit Zenith Complete Microcomputing Course w/ Cassette Tapes
• Paul: CBM 256-80
  • See also: Commodore B128
  • See also: Secret Weapons of Commodore
  • Monitor III manual etc.
  • Ohio Scientific Superboard II batcomputer
  • Novation Apple Cat II
  • “Apple II” Versa EZ Port
  • Teleport manual/folder (Apple II game, Mike Abbott)

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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