Topic: 60 years between Bell 103 and today” s InterNet

In 1962, the world gained Spacewar! and the Bell 103 modem.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Spacewar at masswerk.at
• Spacewar!
• History of Spacewar!
• Computer Space
• Bell 103
• NCR CRAM
• NCR CRAM product brochure.
• BBC archive, speaking with Douglas Adams about the HHGTTG game
• A few Apple II clones
• Microsci Havac, review, Creative Computer Oct 1984
• A Computer Called LEO (book, Georgina Ferry)
• NitrOS9 Ease of Use project
• 8 bit Shack
• Linus Akesson 15 years of scene spirit
• Going online in the early 90s part 2, Goto10 substack

Retro Computing News:

• Adrian finds a white ceramic 6502 in his digital basement
• Modular display for retro systems
• NABU (York University)
• NABU retroNET
• Leo Binkowski, games programmer for NABU, on the local news in 1984
• NABU auction
• Adrian’s Digital Basement’s NABU
• DJ Sures’ playlist of NABU hacking
• IBM 5150 Christmas ornament that plays DOOM
• IBM 5150 Christmas ornament that plays DOOM (Hackaday)

Vintage Computer(-related) commercials:

• “Pack up your troubles (pack up your family)” – Seattle World’s Fair 1962
• MS-DOS 5 Upgrade rap
• Bell Data-Phone

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• 4X magnifying glass with stand
• See also: One of these on Paul’s OCC1

Auction Picks:

• Earl:
  • Amiga 500 Keyboard
• Michael:
  • FORTRAN 5
• Paul:
  • Old Apple II with Disk II number 61
  • A very thin book
  • IBM postcard from 1962 Seattle World’s Fair
  • Crayperweight
  • Craysler mug
  • OCC1 for $50 BIN
  • OCC1 glare guard
  • Microsoft muMath 80
  • See also: MuMath 80 in the Microsoft catalog
  • See also: MuMath 80 review in BYTE
  • See also: MuMath 80 review in Creative Computing
  • Suncom Joy Sensor
  • See also: Joy Sensor review in Video and Computer Gaming Illustrated
  • See also: Suncom Aerobic Joystick ad
  • Best keypad layout (Micromodule 85)

A2Stream file:

• a2stream file for this episode: http://yesterbits.com/media/a2s/rcr262.a2stream

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Cause the Commodordian Is Keeping Up With You

1961 was all fine and good, but someone has made an accordion out of two Commodore 64s and a bunch of floppy disks.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Neural net on a C64.
• Minus zero at fourmilab
• OS 2200
• Unisys 2200 Series architecture
• BBC archive on Infocom 1985
• Floppy disk supplier says business is booming. Reuters story. Oct 20, 2022.
• Lotus 1-2-3 for Linux. Tavis Ormandy.
• Lotus 1-2-3 for UNIX ported to Linux (video).
• The Commodordion (video).
• The Commodordion (write-up). Linus Akesson.
• the sixtyforgan
• Compiler Explorer
• Compiler Explorer: ZX Spectrum
• Compiler Explorer: Sega
• Upcoming CHM source code releases
• Previous CHM source code releases
• Kathleen Booth obituary. Inventor of assembly language.
• Assembly language
• Laine Nooney: The Apple II Age (forthcoming book)
• Laine Nooney
• Open Apple podcast #49 (talking with Laine Nooney)
• Teletext on a BBC Micro – Matthew North Music
• Interactive Ceefax Viewer

Retro Computing News:

• Mastodon client for MS-DOS
• DOjS
• Neurons in a dish play Pong (allegedly interesting)
• The Skeptic’s Guide podcast #901 (on whether the Pong-playing neurons are interesting)
• 2FA on a C64
• Turbo Button for modern PCs
• Angry Birds for the Apple II (8-Bit Shack)
• Angry Birds for the Apple II (video)
• Angry Birds for the Apple II (VITNO)
• ISA emulation

Vintage Computer(-related) commercials:

• Lotus 1-2-3 rocks
• Commodordian
• ADAM (legal)

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• HDD Clicker
• See also: HD Clicker write-up

Auction Picks:

• Carrington:
  • Creative Computing binary dice
  • Macintosh Extended Keyboard carrying case
• Paul:
  • COSMAC Super Elf
  • See also: COSMAC Super Elf
  • Decimal skills
  • Newton apps
  • Ventless Apple II case
  • Badgey the card reader
  • Coleco high speed digital data pack C-250
  • See also: Coleco high speed digital data pack C-250
  • Nobody does cool like Microsoft

A2Stream file:

• a2stream file for this episode: http://yesterbits.com/media/a2s/rcr261.a2stream

Feedback/Discussion:

• @rcrpodcast on Twitter
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Topic: Recommended Standard 232 and Programmed Data Processor-1

1960 brought us RS-232 and the PDP-1, more COBOL, and curly braces.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Recommended Standard 232
• A proposal for character code compatibility.
• The great curly brace trace
• Demo of the Digirule 2A
• Digirule 2U
• Legacy OS 2200
• Floppy disk assembly line
• Elephant: The Secrets of Perfect Memory

Retro Computing News:

• Mega 65 first look on Retro Recipes
• Mega 65
• A Lisa 1 starting up

Vintage Computer(-related) commercial:

• PS/2 (it)
• Lisa (alone)
• PS/2 (college)

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Epson LX-350
• See also: Continuous paper

Auction Picks:

• Blake:
  • Discovery Cartridge from Happy Computers For The Atari ST Computer
• Earl:
  • IBM PS/2 Microchannel 77s (9577-BNB)
  • See also: John C. Dvorak (PC Magazine) bested by the PS/2 (Computer Chronicles)
• Paul:
  • MCT Speed Demon
  • Micro Professor II

A2Stream file:

• a2stream file for this episode: http://yesterbits.com/media/a2s/rcr260.a2stream

Feedback/Discussion:

• @rcrpodcast on Twitter
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Topic: Little bit taller, COBOLler

We consider 1959, and mostly come up with COBOL, then spend some time in an engagement-generating excercise, not quite remembering a remarkable number of things.

Topic/Feedback links:

• COBOL at Britannica.com
• COBOL at Smithsonian.
• Grace Hopper on Letterman
• Gorilla Banana, a rebranded Seikosha GP-100 (same as VIC-1525)

Retro Computing News:

• TRS-80 Model I/III diagnostic ROM
• Behind the scenes at Berkeley Softworks
• Open Apple #52
• Hell’s Halls type-in program for TI-99/4A
• Hells’ Halls cassette with game and variant
• How Apple I video memory worked

Vintage Computer(-related) commercial:

• Joust and Moon Patrol (Atari)
• Commodore VIC-20

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Joust board game

Auction Picks:

• Carrington:
  • Playskool Play and Learn Computer
  • Avalon Hill Class Struggle game
  • See also: The Story of Class Struggle, America’s Most Popular Marxist Board Game
• Paul:
  • Bell & Howell II+/-
  • Echo II set
  • Rocketry software
  • Griffin iMate selling for what now?
  • Brand new IBM PC, moldy box

A2Stream file:

• a2stream file for this episode: http://yesterbits.com/media/a2s/rcr259.a2stream

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Tron and Perceptron

In 1958, the Perceptron arrived and Lisp was defined. We talk a bit about things we came across that were associated with 1958.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Setting up Genera in Linux
• Bell Labs 101 modem
• Tennis For Two
• Perceptron
• Open Worm
• Deviant Oliam on opening wristbands and removing tamper-proofing stickers
• LEO: The story of the World’s First Business Computer
• Lyons Electronic Office

Retro Computing News:

• The Lost TRON Documents
• CP/M’s open source status clarified
• The CP/M Email
• CP/M is now freer than it was (Hackaday)
• YouTube on a PET
• system.css
• 98.css

Vintage Computer(-related) commercials:

• Blip
• Tron home video game

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• MYST vinyl soundtrack

Auction Picks:

• Carrington:
  • Remarkable computer auction
  • Steve Jobs’ original Apple 1 prototype
  • Steve Wozniak’s Apple Rainbow Glasses
  • Bill Gates’ Tandy Model 100 with note
  • Atari Video Music (Model C240) still sealed in box
  • Apple IIe prototype with French external keyboard
  • Croix de Apple medal
  • Apple Color Plotter
• Paul:
  • Sirius 1982 retail/dealer price list, displays
  • MacPhone
  • Apple III
  • TRS-80 appliance and light controller
  • E-Z Key 60
  • See also: Different E-Z Key 60
  • See also: E-Z Key 60

Closing notes:

• Where Wizards Stay Up Late
• Proving Ground

A2Stream file:

• a2stream file for this episode: http://yesterbits.com/media/a2s/rcr258.a2stream

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: The dot matrix impact

Spending some time revisiting the calmer, quieter days when our printing was done by forcefully slamming pins through an ink ribbon onto perforated paper, pushed along by rotating spikes.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration. Trailer
• Multimedia HyperGuide: A Windows 3.1 Podcast. Episode 11: The History of After Dark. (29 Sep 2020).
• RetroMagazine 15
• Connecting a 1541 drive to a KIM-1 (Commodore History)
• Unboxing the KIM-1 (Dave’s Garage)

Retro Computing News:

• Celebrating 50 years of Smalltalk
• TRS-80 programming competition

Vintage Computer(-related) commercial:

• Okidata Business Printer (1985)
• Epson (1984)

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• 50 Years of Text Games
• See also: 50 Years of Text Games (Kickstarter)
• See also: 50 Years of Text Games (Substack series)

Auction Picks:

• Carrington:
  • On-Line Systems Thrilogy
  • Checkers by David Slate
  • Karateka for Apple II or maybe Commodore
  • Wasteland with Survival Guide
  • See also: Wasteland Survival Guide PDF
• Earl:
  • Radio Shack CGP115 graphics printer/plotter
• Paul:
  • IBM 5161
  • Apple mouse pad
  • Timex/Sinclair 2068
  • Numeric keyball

Closing notes:

• In Search of Darkness, and In Search of Tomorrow

A2Stream file:

• a2stream file for this episode: http://yesterbits.com/media/a2s/rcr257.a2stream

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Keep calm and carry on

Episode 0 has arrived.

Topic/Feedback links:

• The 6502 overflow flag explained
• The 6502 overflow flag explained mathematically
• The 6502 overflow flag explained at the silicon level
• ZX80 8K BASIC ROM upgrade
• Floppy Days 114: Howell Ivy, Exidy
• The Gaming Chronicles (Kickstarter)
• Robert Henke, CBM 8032 AV

Retro Computing News:

• How to use an Apple II as a dumb terminal for a modern Mac
• Reverse-engineered AOL
• International Research Conference on the History of Computing. 1976
• DOOM ported to A/UX
• Encyclopedia Britannica picks an odd Apple
• Apple museum tour by Woz from 1984

Vintage Computer(-related) commercial:

• AOL commercial (1997)

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• MOS 6502 poster
• See also: MthreeL (etsy store)

Auction Picks:

• Carrington:
  • Screenies monitor frame
  • Q3 Monitor Mobile
  • 1965 Shazam System Reference Manual
• Earl:
  • Osborne 1
• Paul:
  • MicroProfessor II
  • Cray catalog
  • Novation modems
  • ELF II
  • ELF II (continued)
  • See also: ELF II
  • ZX microdrive
  • See also: ZX Microdrive (Wikipedia)

Closing notes:

• Dotti

A2Stream file:

• a2stream file for this episode: http://yesterbits.com/media/a2s/rcr256.a2stream

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: The One With All The Ones

The Retrocomputing Roundtable has reached the end of its 8-bit run.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Byte
• 8-bit computing
• Nibble
• Big boxes history video
• Traveler (Wikipedia)
• Traveler (Imperial Encyclopedia)
• Traveler (Mongoose Publishing)
• Mayday 2022
• Manhunt
• Wonderful Things (story about Manhunt)
• Open Apple 41 (November 2014). Seek to 2:03.
• Identify II v2.01

Retro Computing News:

• Tweeting from the Teletype, April 2020
• Tweeted from the Teletype
• FASTRAND (Powerhouse Collecttion)
• FASTRAND (Univac memories)
• FASTRAND (Computer History Archives Project)
• FASTRAND (Wikipedia)
• Kenbak-1 Emulator
• HP9830a Repair
• The Apple Boogie

Vintage Computer(-related) commercials etc.:

• Elephant Memory Systems mini micro floppy disk (Italian)
• Laser Computer (Katja Schuurman, Dutch)

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• 8 bit game cartridge cutting board

Auction Picks:

• Blake:
  • Laser 386SX/3
  • Y2K Bug
• Earl:
  • Altair 8800
  • Ventana World Wide Web Kit
  • See also: Ventana (PC Magazine review)
• Paul:
  • Elephant mug
  • Intel inside
  • MPF-1P
  • MPF-Ib
  • See also: MPF-I (Wikipedia)
  • See also: Flite interview (Elektor)
  • Tomy Tutor
  • ZX-80
  • HHC set

A2Stream file:

• a2stream file for this episode: http://yesterbits.com/media/a2s/rcr255.a2stream

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Fortran, for better or for worse

The year 1954 brought us Fortran (not named after the year though) to help us with our math, and development of SAGE to scan the skies for threats.

Topic/Feedback links:

• IBM 650
• Drum memory
• Wurlizter SideMan (not 1954, but related via tangent)
• SAGE (Gizmodo)
• SAGE (Wikipedia)
• Fortran
• Fortran 2018, 202x

Retro Computing News:

• system7.app
• macos8.app
• Tech details for system7.app, macos8.app
• Return to Monkey Island
• ACM opens first-50-years backfile
• Game of pong in a single sprite
• Sprite pong video
• SWTPC 6800 rescue
• SWTPC 6800 fan site
• ADB makes fun of the IIGS manual
• University of Saskatchewan self guided computer history tour
• A2stream, audio server
• A2stream demo
• AppleWin with Uthernet II
• a2stream file for this very episode: http://yesterbits.com/media/a2s/rcr254.a2stream

Vintage Computer(-related) commercials etc.:

• IBM SAGE (1960)

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Atari sneakers
• See also: Atari NFT sneakers

Auction Picks:

• Carrington:
  • Apple Credit salesperson’s kit
  • Apple branded radio lunchbag
• Earl:
  • MMD-1 8080A Trainer
  • See also: MMD-1 (Oldcomputermuseum)
• Paul:
  • Funniest CD of the century
  • The drive of a new generation
  • USB evangelism mouse
  • Companion diskette
  • Astra 1620 dual drive for Atari
  • VM 4209

A2Stream file:

• a2stream file for this episode: http://yesterbits.com/media/a2s/rcr254.a2stream

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Prebricked drives

Episode 253 relates to 1953. Core memory begins its long dominance of the RAM space, the IBM 701 is introduced. A year that was kind of between things, so as one might expect the conversation keeps sliding into a discussion of beverages.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Magnetic core memory
• Advent of Computing, episode 77
• The Thinking Machine (1961)
• IBM 701
• Williams tube
• Jeffries tube
• Exploring the Amiga series, assembly language programming
• Brief tour of the PDP-11
• Top 20 C64 games from 2011-2021
• Commodore 64 turns 40

Retro Computing News:

• SystemSix desk calendar
• SWTPC 6800 rescued (Adrian’s Digital Basement)
• Jobs for the boys?
• The ultimate multics project
• A quarter century of Unix. Peter Sallas. 1994 Addison-Wesley
• The evolution of the Unix time sharing system
• Compatible time sharing system
• Incompatible time sharing system
• Easter Egg found in Windows 1.0.
• Mariupol Computer Museum in Ukraine
• Club it8bit
• A Brick for Some Bytes: My First Hard Drive (Byte Cellar)
• One of the Biggest Frauds in Tech History – The Miniscribe Brick Fiasco (Tech Time Traveler)

Vintage Computer(-related) commercials etc.:

• Tab

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• The Art of Point and Click Adventure Games

Auction Picks:

• Carrington:
  • MCM/70
  • About the MCM/70
• Earl:
  • IBM Core Memory
  • See also: Core memory shield for Arduino
• Michael:
  • RCA Selectron 256bit
  • See also: Selectron tube
• Paul:
  • QuickLetter
  • Murder Party
  • CA Simply Tax 1993
  • eMate pin

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: UNIVAC liked Ike

Episode 252 relates to 1952. The year when UNIVAC correctly called the election early and nobody believed it. The year the paper introducing the Huffman code compression algorithm was published. And the 50th anniversary of all the things that happened in 1902.

Topic/Feedback links:

• UNIVAC predicts the 1952 election
• CBS news election coverage, 1952
• A method for the constructions of minimum-redundancy codes (Sep 1952, Proceedings of the I.R.E.)
• The Huffman algorithm, and family
• Stuffit end of life announcement
• Mac Folklore Radio, Raymond Lau (Stuffit) interviews
• RetroMagazine World, issue 13 (EN)
• David Ahl’s magazine auctions, some signed
• The Capacitor Plague
• The Lost Sectors, playthrough of Deathlord

Retro Computing News:

• Monmouth College typewriter class
• TubeTime’s QuadLink repair and reverse engineering project
• Apple patenting the home computer?
• The Amiga Show
• Apple II video to HDMI using Raspberry Pi Zero/Pico
• Teardown of a Minitel terminal

Vintage Computer(-related) commercials etc.:

• Remington Quiet-riter

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• The Colouring Book of Retro Computers
• Highlighters for reproducing yellowing

Auction Picks:

• Carrington:
  • Computer Bug
  • 1990s Tech Stock Bubble in a can
• Paul:
  • Woz near Steve Jobs
  • Tim Cook near Steve Jobs
  • Steve Jobs Rare
  • Just Stuffit World Tour shirt
  • AutoDoubler
  • PKZIP 2.70
  • Multiputer

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Memories of Whirlwind I

It’s been 71 years since 1951. So, we talk about some things kind of loosely related to 1951, including computer music, the Whirlwind I, and memory technology.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Whirlwind I
• Jim Butterfield C64 training tape
• David Ahl’s BASIC Computer Games, ANIMAL
• 3D construction kit (Spectrum, Sam Coupé)

Retro Computing News:

• BASIC Computer Games book programs updated to modern languages
• Laurie Spiegel, Music Mouse
• See also: AlphaSyntauri
• Million Perfect Letters
• Hello World collection
• The Hobbit (IF50)
• The Hobbit (Digital Antiquarian)
• The Hobbit (Internet Archive)
• The Hobbit (eBay)
• The Hobbit (eBay)
• Deathlord Relorded
• Deathlord Relorded (GitHub)

Vintage Computer(-related) commercials etc.:

• Pac-Man cereal
• Whirlwind interview
• Corncob

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Floppy disk coasters
• And storage box

Auction Picks:

• Carrington:
  • Remington Rand UNIVAC sales brochure
  • Codewriter for Apple II
  • See also: Codewriter in COMPUTE’s Gazette, Sept 1985
• Charles:
  • Pac-man rug
  • Pac-Man lunchbox
  • Pac-Teacher pin
  • See also: Museum Character Hall of Fame induction for Pac-Man
• Paul:
  • MEK6800D2
  • See also: MEK6800D2 (Wikipedia)
  • See also: photos of unbuilt MEK6800D2 kit
  • See also: Apple-1 motherboard
  • See also: 6800 running on an Apple-1
  • See also: 74154
  • Tractor feed option kit
  • See also: Hardware Wars
  • Computer Shopper July 1988
  • See also: Computer Shopper on Internet Archive
  • See also: Computer Shopper debut
  • Gigabyte me
  • Softsel product encyclopedia 1985
  • See also: Everything project spreadsheet
  • Commodore 64 reset switch

Feedback/Discussion:

• @rcrpodcast on Twitter
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Topic: Computing Machinery and Intelligence

It’s been 72 years since the year Turing published the paper that outlined the Turing test. So: Let’s talk about interactions we’ve had relating to artificial intelligence in some form or another.

Topic/Feedback links:

• RetroMagazine issue 12, English version
• Total Replay booting from the DigitalOcean cloud on an Apple II with FujiNet
• Commodore Computer Museum Kickstarter (NZ)
• Aroma Disc
• Sounds and Scents of the Holiday season
• Aroma Disc player, unopened
• Aroma Disc player, unpacked

Retro Computing News:

• How The US Census Led to the First Data Processing Company
• Leonard Tramiel recalls Bill Gates at a trade show
• See also: WAIT 6502, 10 and other easter eggs
• Nostalgic Computing Center
• JavaScript version of Prince of Persia runs on Apple Watch
• PrinceJS
• Junk in the PC DOS 1.1 boot sector (Michal Necasek)
• Junk in the PC DOS 1.1 boot sector (The Starman)

Vintage Computer(-related) commercials:

• Atari 65xe
• Aroma Disc
• DEC laptop

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• MeowToast 1/2AA battery replacements

Auction Picks:

• Carrington:
  • 1988 West Coast Computer Faire program
  • Make friends with: West Coast Computer Faire button
• Earl:
  • Digital Rainbow PC100-B2
• Paul:
  • Versawriter
  • A-1 with or without Bernie’s mods
  • See also: UncleBernie on applefritter
  • QX-10/16 SemiDisk RAM card with battery backup
  • QX-10/16 ComFiler hard drive
  • QX-10/16 hard drive card PCB to build
  • What you call your game when all the good game names are already taken
  • See also: Metal band name generator
  • Roguelike to perhaps the greatest degree
  • Atari 65xe painted black, with two AtariMax cartridges (originally listed at $250)

Closing discussion links:

• Like a DOS podcast
• Meat stylus
• DOS Nostalgia Podcast

Feedback/Discussion:

• @rcrpodcast on Twitter
• Vintage Computer Forum
• RCR Podcast on Facebook
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Topic: 2020 also

We enter the third year of 2020. Yet another New Year’s, yet another opportunity to make the New Year’s resolution joke.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Mega II project (single chip Apple II)
• Mega II project progress
• Acorn – a world in pixels (extended edition)
• HP 9845 part 2 (Beige-o-Vision)
• See also: HP 9845 part 1 (Beige-o-Vision)
• Nichrome project

Retro Computing News:

• Appreciating the physicality of floppies
• How many Commodore 64s were sold, really?
• The Forgotten History of the Blinking Cursor
• See also: Blinking cursor turns 54, hardly anyone notices
• See also: Retrocomputing forum thread re: blinking cursor
• Yellowstone is a go
• Virtual BBC Micro
• Virtual BBC Micro description
• See also: Zero Page

Vintage Computer(-related) commercials:

• Are you keeping up with the Commodore
• Prime Computer

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Beagle Bros floppy warnings mug
• See also: Penguin’s version
• “ours were better” reddit thread

Auction Picks:

• Blake:
  • Philips Videopac G7400 Game Console
  • See also: Philips Videopac G7400
  • See also: Magnavox Odyssey 2
  • See also: Magnavox Odyssey
  • See also: National Museum of American History Exhibit – Places of Invention
  • Matra Alice 8000 PROTOTYPE ULTRA RARE Number 24
  • See also: Matra Alice 8000 (Rare and Old Computers)
  • See also: Matra Alice 8000 (AtariAge thread)
• Earl:
  • 6 Vintage BASIC Coding Form Pads 40 plus pages each
  • Digital DEC STARION 960 Intel Pentium 166MHz 16MB RAM Vintage Computer
• Michael:
  • ADB Black Vintage Rare Macintosh TV M2706 computer
• Paul:
  • PR1ME Computer ashtray
  • Pumpkin spice Silent 700
  • See also: Regular Silent 700
  • ImageWriter II with sheet feeder

Closing discussion links:

• Pits of Death
• ScanTailor Advanced OS X

Feedback/Discussion:

• @rcrpodcast on Twitter
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• RCR Podcast on Facebook
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Topic: So long, 2021

At the tail end of 2021, we talk about our retrocomputing-based adventures during the year, with a little bit of a look ahead at what might come after.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Drop /// Inches, episode #11 (re: visiting Stanford archives)
• Mac networks game spreadsheet

Retro Computing News:

• The Mac Game of the Year was… Myst
• The RMC Cave soft open
• Overclocking the Tandy 102
• “I made my partner learn DOS in 2021”
• Building a new Commodore 1581 disk drive in 2021

Vintage Computer(-related) commercials:

• BurgerTime (Intellivision)
• Myst (Japanese, Sunsoft)

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Piper Computer Kit 3

Auction Picks:

• Carrington:
  • Power Macintosh 8200/120 in original box
  • TRS-80 CoCo Videotext
  • Radio Shack tone dialer
• Earl:
  • Heathkit computer (looks like an H89?)
• Paul:
  • Ethernet microdock
  • PET modem
  • Jewelled mouse
  • 1977 British Airways Compute-a-Tour
  • See also: Dick Clark, New Year’s Eve 1977

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Computing 24/7

In honor of episode 247, we talk about stuff vaguely related to “all the time.” Mostly we wound up talking about whether we turned our computers off or not.

Topic/Feedback links:

• RetroMagazineWorld #11
• The World of Commodore 2021 event information
• The World of Commodore 2021 video
• Python C64 emulator, sort of

Retro Computing News:

• Reverse-engineering the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer’s sound chip
• TRS-80 PC-1 / Sharp PC-1211 LCD replacement
• Beginner’s Guide to the Amiga – Workbench
• Beginner’s Guide to the Amiga – Amiga OS tutorial
• Crash course to Amiga assembly programming
• Santa’s Workout – new C64 Christmas game, from Vector5games (Indie Retro News)
• The Pudding Strikes Back (2021 Christmas game, Apple II)
• DOLORES double LORES library
• Flapple Bird
• The Register article on the BBC Micro and Elite
• BBC Micro Elite source code deep dive

Vintage Computer(-related) commercials:

• Enterprise 128
• DX100 synthesizer

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• THINKING cap
• See also: NeitherNet adapter

Auction Picks:

• Blake:
  • Enterprise 128
  • Apple IIgs Computer
• Paul:
  • TK 2000
  • COVOX
  • How to use the C64
  • See also: Blue Commodore 64
  • Echo+

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Data hoards and privacy

Retrocomputing collectors often collect retrocomputers, which often have disks or hard drives, which might contain private data. Particularly as computers get recent enough to have hard drives. Particularly particularly in the future when retrocomputers might contain SSD drives.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Retro Collectors are Uncovering Hoards of Old Data

Retro Computing News:

• Tandy Computer Cassette Recorder models
• Fujinet is slowly eating the world. Adaptations for Coleco Adam, C64, and Apple ][ are underway!
• Fujinet on Facebook
• Intel 4004 turns 50
• Intel’s official anniversary page
• 4004.com

Vintage Computer(-related) commercials:

• BASF (1991)
• TRS-80 model 100

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Circuit Board Coaster – from AQuarterPastEight (Etsy)

Auction Picks:

• Carrington:
  • Factory sealed Apple IIc and peripherals
  • See also: Sold on eBay: New-in-box Apple II, never opened
• Paul:
  • Intel 4004 commemorative clock (turns 25 this year)
  • BASF keychain
  • Joystick with a face

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: End of line

To the extent that you have physical objects, intellectual properties, accounts that host archives, what kind of plans do you have for when you are (possibly unexpectedly) no longer around? Or, what kind of plans do you plan to have? What kind of considerations are there? Does anyone but you in your local real-life circle know what the stuff is, who to talk to, how to access things?

Topic/Feedback links:

• Open Apple #81: Remembering Tony Diaz
• Atari 8-bit port of Prince of Persia
• Prince of Persia Source Code: Saved (Tony Diaz, KansasFest 2012)

Retro Computing News:

• Call For Yellowstone Beta Testers
• Apple VideoPad 2 prototype sells at auction
• TNMOC, 40th anniversary of the BBC Micro. Nov 30
• 217: THE VERTICAL PLANE PART 1 (Astonishing Legends podcast)
• The 100MHz 6502
• MCLFast : Apple II as a shield
• ’80s software was expensive

Vintage Computer(-related) commercials:

• Polaroid Swinger (1965)
• Sinclair calculators at DG Leisure Centre

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Floppy Disk costume

Auction Picks:

• Blake:
  • Dynex Exerciser DE-5020
  • See also: Dynex series 600 disk drive manual
  • CSC Hard Drive Bible 7th edition
  • See also: Hard Drive Bible 8th edition on archive.org
• Carrington:
  • Commodore 64 on MaxSold
  • Big Swinger camera
• Michael:
  • NatGeo on CD
• Paul:
  • Multicolored C64 keyboard
  • See also: Darth Skalmar’s Retro Garage
  • Apple II series WillMaker
  • Sinclair Cambridge calculator kit

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Lacking future relevance

Sunk time – times you’ve spent learning (or learning how to do) something that has no future relevance. What did you do, what were you THINKING?

Topic/Feedback links:

• Foone Turing explores the updated Twitter image posting/processing rules, for a very good reason
• The reason

Retro Computing News:

• Corecursive: The Original Remove Developer, Paul Lutus
• Mountain Hermit Makes ‘Apples’ Sing In Simple English
• The Ultimate Commodore 1541 Drive Talk (Hackaday)
• The Ultimate Commodore 1541 Drive Talk (YouTube)
• The Ultimate Apollo Guidance Computer Talk
• The 100 MHz 6502
• The 100 MHz 6502 (Hackaday)
• Swatch 1984 Revisited
• The Source (GitHub, historical source)

Vintage Computer(-related) commercials:

• IBM 5100 (First Portable Computer) commercial 1977

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Lovelace and Babbage board game

Auction Picks:

• Carrington:
  • Apple Super Bowl cushion
  • Memphis Design mouse pad
• Earl:
  • Atari 400 computer keyboard
• Paul:
  • Edison Voicewriter
  • Wax cylinders
  • See also: Edison Voicewriter
  • Mystery House
  • Laser 50
  • Laser 50
  • Spaceball
  • ADAM power supply

Topic/Feedback links:

• A People’s History of Computing in the United States
• The Soul of a New Machine
• ?Next Without For 006 – SNOBOL

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Networking keeps us all connec

We continue to talk about networking in the context of old computers, in the days before everything was TCP/IP, when certain things were case-sensitive.

Retro Computing News:

• A SAM Coupé spotted in the wild
• SAM Coupé on eBay
• RMC – The Cave, building a classic software/games store
• MCE2VGA
• StrangeCart dual core coprocessor for TI-99/4A
• In Depth: Dragon’s Lair for TI-99/4A
• NanoPEB
• Applesauce Floppy Disk Controller updates software and hardware

Vintage Computer(-related) commercials:

• Where is Newton?
• Big Trak

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Commodore socks

Auction Picks:

• Earl:
  • Franklin ACE 500 Computer
• Ian:
  • Scooter computer flash cards
  • See also: Photos from prior auction of the flash cards
  • PAL Microsoft Premium Softcard
  • Gravis Advanced Gamepad for Macintosh
• Paul:
  • Newton faxmodem
  • Axlon Andy
  • Farallon AirDock

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Retro networking, episode 1

We talk about things the word “networking” evokes in the context of old computers. Transferring files between computers, reaching (sort of) the modern internet, networking socially, etc.

Retro Computing News:

• Sir Clive Sinclair (Guardian)
• Arctic Adventure
• Captain 80 Book of BASIC Adventures
• Disk imaging with an oscilloscope (VCF Midwest)
• PAL-1, a KIM-1 clone kit
• Yellowstone: Ready for Takeoff
• Apple drive compatibility chart
• BlueSCSI
• RaSCSI
• Defender for the CoCo 3
• Glen Hewlett’s video of Defender on the CoCo 3

Vintage Computer commercial:

• MCI Mail
• Sinclair QL

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• BackBit chip tester

Auction Picks:

• Blake:
  • Time Bandit for the Sanyo MBC-550/555 by MichTron
  • See also: Bytecellar post about Time Bandit on the MBC 550
  • Tandy 10 Business Computer System
  • See also: Tandy 10 Business Computer System (Wikipedia)
  • See also: Tandy 10 Business Computer System (trs-80.org)
• Carrington:
  • Apple ethernet NB card
  • Vintage computer logo edge-lit signs: Acorn
  • Vintage computer logo edge-lit signs: Apple II
• Ian:
  • 3.5 Floppy Drive Cleaner
  • TRS-80 Model III and IV equipment, including newly designed power supplies
  • SWTP tapes
  • See also: Look Mum No Computer (this particular video features SWTP)
  • San Diego user group zines
• Paul:
  • G4 Cube power supply
  • Copy IIPC Option Board
  • Sidereal Corp. Micronet 12 message terminal
  • See also: Review of Micronet 12 in Data Communications, Dec 1983

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Every Septandy is Like the First Septandy

We rediscover the Tandy enthusiasts event, talk about simulators and emulators, wind-up computers, and board games.

Retro Computing News:

• Septandy
• Virtual Data Center, IBM 1401
• Tiny load card assembler in Virtual IBM 1401
• Upgrade Board Adds GPIO Pins To Your Replica PDP-11
• CRISS CP/M Provides Modern Hardware For A Classic OS
• RMC MiSTer Multisystem
• Spacewar-1 and the beginnings of video game aesthetics
• Motorola 68000 SBC Runs Again With A Raspberry Pi On Top
• Baking old magenetic scrolls
• VCF East. Fri-Sun Oct 8-10. Wall, NJ.
• RetroChallenge 2021/10

Vintage Computer commercial:

• Radio Shack Model 100 1984 TV commercial

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• 1600X USB Digital Microscope

Auction Picks:

• Carrington:
  • King Chip 1986 computer trivia game
  • Computer Rage 1977 board game by Creative Computing
• Earl:
  • Intel C1702A memory chips
• Paul:
  • Telecompaq
  • See also: Mention of Telecompaq in InfoWorld, Apr 8, 1985
  • Switched power
  • Computer Cars, Weinermobile edition
  • See also: LGR reviews Computer Cars
  • Catch-a-call
  • Barbie Wind-up PC

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Screensavers

Avoid burn-in, and sometimes end relationships, with the help of flying toasters, fireworks, and 3D pipes.

Topic/Feedback Links:

• MiniPET 40/80 kit build and review
• MiniPET 40/80 kit
• Strange Commodore replacement keyboard?
• Emulating IBM PC on an ESP32

Retro Computing News:

• Applecorn: run Acorn BBC language ROMs on Apple IIe
• 576NUC+ – AtariProjects
• 576NUC+ – new computer compatible with Atari 800/XL/XE (Brewing Academy)
• 576NUC+ – reference guide thread
• Atari64
• 8-bit Show and Tell showing Atari64 going on Atari 1200XL
• Tech Interactive Museum
• Tech Interactive Museum doesn’t feature old tech, isn’t a museum

Vintage Computer commercial:

• iOMEGA Zip drive
• INPUT magazine

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Back into the Storm: A Design Engineer’s Story of Commodore Computers in the 1980s

Auction Picks:

• Carrington:
  • MSI Source 2001 portable data terminal with Source 2300 telephone interface
  • See also: Apple II Manual for $787,484
  • See also: MSI Source in The Tennessean article, Nov 1971
  • See also: Computerworld, Feb 1976, mentions MSI Source 2001 and 2300 used by Holiday Drugs for Electronic Ordering System
• Earl:
  • DEC F-11 USSR Soviet Russian Clone 46-pin MCM MultyChip Module Family 1811 SET
• Paul:
  • PDP-12, take 1
  • PDP-12, take 2
  • Voice Chess
  • Twister/Spectrum for 2068
  • Timex-Sinclair 2068
  • iOMEGA rearview mirror
  • Vic Forth
  • Asante Ethernet to localtalk bridge
  • TOP SECRET CIA document. Multi-Function Switching Matrix Operator’s Manual Volume 1

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: The BYTE Shop

We chat with Tim Colegrove, who has just opened The BYTE Shop, a computer history museum and electronics repair shop in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston. We discuss his collection, his journey, plans, and hopes for bringing history and inspiration to those who visit.

Topic/Feedback Links:

• The BYTE Shop Jamaica Plain [Boston], MA
• The original Defender source code (Eugene Jarvis) (GitHub)

Retro Computing News:

• BuGS v2.0.1 (Apple IIgs game) Released
• Use the Print Shop online
• Alternative History: what if Apple had partnered with Xerox in the 1980s

Vintage Computer commercial:

• Defender (Atari)
• Atari 1040ST: Myth

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Classic Apple Hardware calendar

Auction Picks:

• Blake:
  • COMMODORE 64 / 128 Wifi Modem
  • NEC PC M580 teletex terminal
  • See also: @foone’s discussion of the NEC PC M580
• Carrington:
  • Fortran board game
  • See also: Fortran board game at Computer History Museum
  • See also: Fortran board game at Board Game Geek
• Paul:
  • Maccessories swivel
  • Apple DuoDisk
  • Taxan TV tuner

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Commodore 1541GS

We continue yet again a conversation about computers as they arrived in schools, but also spend some time marveling at a Commodore 1541 drive that also produces music and video.

Topic/Feedback Links:

• Handheld 64 (Gameboy-sized C64, Hackaday)
• PCBs to build your Handheld 64
• Color covers for your Handheld 64
• Mattias’ Patreon (creator of Handheld 64, Tube64, etc.)
• Tube64
• Modular64

Retro Computing News:

• Over 40 Years Ago, It Was Possible To Download Video Games Over The Radio
• Freespin: A C64 demo without the C64 (YouTube)
• Freespin project page
• Fresspin video explanation
• Bradley the Parts Seller (Vice)
• Interview: Brad Koda of Best Electronics (ANTIC: The Atari 8-bit Podcast)
• The Wild Spread of Drug Wars
• KansasFest 2021 schedule

Vintage Computer commercial:

• Commodore mouse

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Floppytable

Auction Picks:

• Carrington:
  • Famous red powerbook
  • Beehive B100 terminal
• Earl:
  • Ashton Tate MultiMate Word Processing
• Paul:
  • Happy Forth of July (Handic Forth cartridge, C64)
  • After Dark for Windows
  • Amiga 500 RGB to HDMI adapter
  • General Magic DataRover 840
  • Another General Magic DataRover 840
  • See also: What Magic Cap should have been all along (DataRover 840 review)
  • See also: Data Rover 840 at Buxton connection
  • See also: General Magic (The Movie)
  • Blue SCSI
  • See also: Places to get Blue SCSI
  • See also: Blue SCSI on GitHub
• Quinn:
  • Amiga 3000 prototype
  • Amiga PC XT Sidecar

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: 18-bit Space Computers

We continue a conversation about computers in school, but also mention an 18-bit space computer along the way.

Topic/Feedback Links:

• Crosscountry Canada
• Quazar’s history of the Sam Coupé
• ICON computer (old-computers.com)
• ICON computer (wikipedia)
• Reddit thread about ICON
• Growin’ Up 80s, talking about ICON (podcast)

Retro Computing News:

• NASA struggles to fix Hubble Space Telescope’s 1980s computer
• Multi-platform floppy
• A2IO
• Reactive Micro announces licensed CFFA3000
• ASCIIdent
• Mockingboard 4c+
• List of Mockingboard software
• Vince Weaver’s ZX Spectrum (PT3) tracker for Mockingboard

Vintage Computer commercial:

• IBM PS/2

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Sam Coupé shirt

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Entex MAC from 1980
  • See also: Entex at Electronic Plastic
  • Bungie for charity
  • RIP PCjr button
• Paul: TI 99/4a in box
  • See also: TI 99/4a turns 40
  • Tapuino in case for C64/VIC20/PET
  • Quadram Quadlink
  • IXO telecomputing system TC-102

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Lasers Smoking in the PET Room

We start a conversation about computers in school. For many of us, computers were only just becoming available in our school years, so we consider the access this provided (limited though it often was).

Topic/Feedback Links:

• My earliest memories of microcomputing
• Remembering an Atari lab in Hampton, VA
• BBC Archive: Infocom feature (1986)
• P.R.E.S.T.A.B.A. ported to the MC-10
• MC-10 emulator (pick PRESTAVB cassette and type RUN)

Retro Computing News:

• AmigaOS 3.2 for all Classic Amigas released
• Creating Chinese computer fonts
• The Little Book of Sound Chips (Volume 1)
• Hibernated 1. The Director’s Cut.
• #ponyinformation
• Hibernated 1 (physical, SAM Coupé version)
• SAM Coupé on eBay
• SAM Coupé overview (YouTube, Re:Enthused)
• SD card and Ethernet adapter for the SAM Coupé
• Quazar (home of SAM Revival magazine )
• Review of SAM Revival magazines (YouTube, TJ Ferreira)
• Sim Coupé
• World of SAM
• SAM Coupé Champion Collection
• No Quarter, episode 78: Sorry Charlie.

Vintage Computer commercials:

• Miracle Workers, season 3 trailer
• PRIME Computer

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Radio Shack shirt

Auction Picks:

• Blake: Mac 128K, probably
• Carrington: iCEBOX
  • See also: Hybrid Net Appliance Hits Market
• Michael: Guns of Fort Defiance
• Paul: Prince of Persia for the SAM Coupé

Closing notes:

• Roberta and Ken Williams making first game together in over 20 years
• People’s Republic of Interactive Fiction
• Michael’s scans at archive.org
• Scan Tailor Advanced

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Topic: Second computers

What was your second computer? How did lessons learned with your first affect your choice of second?

Topic/Feedback links:

• Cool-Retro-Term
• C64 mini monitor 3D printed
• Building a 3270 terminal controller
• Intel MDS development system (Centre for Computing History)
• Joe’s Intel MDS-800 development system

Retro Computing News:

• Retrocomputing Spray Paints
• OpenFlops USB floppy drive emulator (GoTek alternative)
• 8086 Microcode Disassembled
• Ken Shirriff’s 8086 transistor photograph

Vintage Computer-related commercial:

• IBM 3279 color terminal

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• M.U.L.E. The Board Game

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Ultimate 80s desk accessories:
  • 1985 Hallmark computer desk plaque plus tie
  • Computer pencil holder with ‘dirty’ jokes
  • 1980s computer programmer tchotchke
  • 1980s business card holder by same tchotchke maker
  • See also: Adele’s II in Encino, CA (Los Angeles Daily News)
• Michael: Wifi car backup camera
• Paul: Brimstone and the terribleness of the world
  • Apple Aristotle menu software
  • Novation CAT
  • Mac 128K bag
  • Alternative Mac 128K bag
  • Mac Portable bag
  • Evolution of Apple iconography
• Quinn: //c Carrying bags
  • Example 1 missing inside cover
  • Example 2 missing strap

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Unexpected Bonuses

Along the way as we collect things, strange things turn up in what we get. We talk a bit about unexpected bonuses in amongst our finds.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Charles finds whimsical characters on chips
• TRS-80 Model I (article, Nuts and Volts, May 2002)
• Adding Color to the Commodore PET (preview, Nuts and Volts, Sep 2015)

Retro Computing News:

• Total Replay v4.0-alpha 3
• Septandy
• Ample MAME launcher
• Crash and Burn: The Amiga ST Story
• The Augmentation of Douglas Englebart (YouTube)
• The Augmentation of Douglas Englebart (Amazon)
• Curt Vendel (VintageIsTheNewOld)
• Curt Vendel (Jason Scott, Twitter thread)

Vintage Computer-related commercial:

• Tandy PC from 1988

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Making Games for the Atari 2600
• See also: 8bitworkshop.com

Auction Picks:

• Blake: Olympia EX 100 Typewriter Extension CP/M Computer Word Processor
  • Atari PC4
  • IBM 9331-011 8″ External Floppy Drive
  • See also: IBM 9331-012 5.25 External Floppy Disk Drive – AS/400 (Walmart)
• Earl: Osborne 1 with monitor
• Paul: IBM PC/AT
  • Mac LC 475, with ethernet
  • DCA IRMAprint
  • See also: AppleLine and Apple Cluster Controller sales reference guide (on bitsavers.org)
  • See also: AppleLine (on vintagecomputing.com)

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Terminals

For episode 220 (Think: VT-220), we talk about our various experiences with terminals.

Topic/Feedback links:

• VirtualColussus is working on a 3D simulation
• Intel 8080 ICE development system
• ZX Spectrum Next 2nd kickstarter

Retro Computing News:

• Game Controller – H.A.L. Labs Gizmo – Cloning the Cloner
• Super Taxman 2 video
• Taxman video
• The Infinity Modules Player: Never Turn Off Your Amiga Again
• Russell Kirsch, inventor of the pixel, dies in his Portland home at age 91
• High Score (Netflix)
• ESP32 Altair Emulator improvement
• C74 project

Vintage Computer-related commercial:

• BBC Tomorrow’s World Home Computer Terminal 20 Sep 1967

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• C-Jump Computer Programming Board Game

Auction Picks:

• Blake: Fairchild Video Entertainment System
  • NEC PC M580 teletex terminal 1986
  • Maxed out Apple IIGS computer
• Paul: Apple BASIC Programming manual (printed in Korea)
  • See also: Apple BASIC Programming manual (on archive.org)
  • See also: Apple IIe User Interface Guidelines
  • Where in North Dakota is Carmen Sandiego?
  • See also: WINDICS (on archive.org)
  • See also: Article about WINDICS from gamehistory.org
  • Apple Computer Inc. faux friendmaking bag
  • Dithertizer II PCB only
  • VT-220 fixer-upper
  • Atari Portfolio with all the extras
  • IBM Think Pad

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Databases

For episode 0xdb, we talk about our experiences with dedicated database programs, what some of us learned and didn’t learn while studying computer science, employment as consultants, and other marginally related things.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Self-contained tape loader for the ZX Spectrum
• Mini-PET update
• Myst documentary kickstarter
• Portable CP/M
• iz-cpm on Github
• Unicomp keyboards
• The ubiquitous little plotter (e.g., CGP-115)
• Fixing the plotter gears

Retro Computing News:

• Worms Armageddon updated after 21 years
• Apple II Augmented Reality Chess Board
• Windows Task Manager Runs Doom
• This Week in Retro podcast
• Durgod Fusion, retro-inspired keyboards
• Mac OS 8 in Javascript
• oldweb.today, historical browsery
• Making a modern TRS-80 Model I clone
• Write-up on the TRS-80 model I clone (Hackaday)
• FujiNet

Vintage Computer-related commercial:

• Lotus 123 and Symphony Commercial 1984

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• The Altair-duino
• See also: Demo build of the Altairduino

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: PowerBook 140-180c Car Adapter
  • Soviet BYTE ZX-Spectrum clone
  • BBC Acorn Computer Kit
• Earl: TRS-80 Model 4P
  • See also: FreHD
  • See also: M3SE
• Paul: Micromodem II
  • Newton Fax Modem
  • Newton 2100 and many extras
  • Epson PX-8 replacement keyboard
  • Very complete Epson HX-20 set
  • Shopping bag for encouraging social distancing (WordPerfect 8)
  • MPF IP
  • “VisiCalc III”, which requires VisiCalc III
  • See instead: VisiCalc III and training pak
  • Arfon Micro VIC-20 expander
  • See also: Arfon Micro expander announcement (Compute! magazine)
  • See also: Commodore VIC-1020 expansion box
  • Microsoft binder

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Welcome to Retro Open Poly Roundtable Chicken Missile Lines Drop Museum Gruecast.
The annual “megapodcast” from KansasFest, this time conducted virtually. Note: Reading the links below could be “spoilers” for the game.

Participants:

• Quinn Dunki (Blondihacks,
  Open Apple,
  Retrocomputing Roundtable)
• Earl Evans (Retrocomputing Roundtable,
  Next Without For,
  Retrobits)
• Ken Gagne (Polygamer,
  Transporter Lock,
  Retrocomputing Roundtable)
• Paul Hagstrom (Retrocomputing Roundtable,
  Drop III Inches)
• John Leake (RetroMacCast)
• Charles Mangin (How II)
• Rob McMullen (Player/Missile)
• Blake Patterson (Retrocomputing Roundtable)
• Kay Savetz (ANTIC: The Atari 8-Bit Podcast,
  Eaten By A Grue)
• Kate Szkotnicki (RetroMetal: Old Games on Old Machines)
• Carrington Vanston (Retrocomputing Roundtable,
  Eaten By A Grue)

Game-related links:

• KansasFest
• KansasFest (YouTube channel)
• National Dairy Council Grab A Byte
• Ancient Tarot
• Canadian Tire Complimentary Cassette
• The Missing Ring
• Softline Mar/Apr 1984
• Magic Knight Rayearth
• Gertrude’s Secrets
• Conan: Hall of Volta
• Apple Cider Spider
• Firebug
• Old Timers: MUSE Software (KansasFest 1992)
• Three Mile Island
• Senseless Violence 1 and 2

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Architecture shifts

Apple announced that it will be shifting its processor architecture from Intel to ARM. This has happened before, not just at Apple, but, well, mostly Apple or Apple-adjacent. We try to think of some other examples as well.

Topic/Feedback links:

• New Golden Age for Computer Architecture
• Communications of the ACM
• John Cocke (Wikipedia)
• Dimension 68000 ad (auction)
• Dimension 68000 review (Creative Computing)
• InfoWorld: “Jack of All Trades, But Master Of None” (Dimension 68000)
• Dimension 68000 review (YouTube)
• Altair 8800 in Unity
• Swipecard retro game loader
• RetroSwiper (GitHub)
• 68K coprocessor for Apple II being revived
• 68K coprocessor design for Apple II

Retro Computing News:

• TI Silent 700 Model 703
• Miniature IBM 1401 Datacentre
• 6502b (@miniatua) on Instagram
• Virtual Colossus
• Mini PET
• Finding an Old Friend

Vintage Computer-related commercials (or, well, chunk of audio):

• IBM promotional film (from about 1970)

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Colour Maximite 2
• See also: 8-bit Guy demo of Colour Maximite 2

Auction Picks:

• Blake: Apple-1
  • Targa graphics card
  • Olympus America DS-1 / 300-01 Floppy Disc Computing Device Video
  • Inside NeXT book
  • See also: Blake’s NeXT photo (in book)
• Carrington: MacWeek cloth bag
  • The Gutenberg for Apple II and III
  • Cyborg for Apple II (NOS)
• Paul: Popular Electronics, Jan 1975
  • SX-64s and a reminder of our mortality
  • Assembled Altair-duino
  • ERE I AM JH. Macnifier
  • See also: Macnifier ad
  • xu1541 nano
  • See also: Applesauce
  • PX-8, MU64
  • Personal Portable Computer, model 16BC
  • Apple II+ in its box
  • See also: A Labor of Labels (blog post about Apple II serial numbers)

Feedback/Discussion:

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

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Topic: Home v. Hobby

How have you kept the home/hobby balance? What has allowed you to remain friends/married/peaceful? Boundaries? Shared interest?

Topic/Feedback links:

• Byte Cellar panorama
• Stitching together with QuickTime VR Studio 1.0
• QTVR file of the panorama
• Collapse OS
• Basic mechanisms in gun control computers (US Navy, part 1)
• Basic mechanisms in gun control computers (US Navy, part 2)
• Analog Computation in a Digital World (lecture, Dr. Corey Malay)
• Mythbusters Big Rig episode
• Riptide pilot
• Captain Kirk’s PET
• Applefritter’s eWorld reboot

Retro Computing News:

• Geekring webring
• It’s now safe to turn off your computer
• Imagine That (Ed Smith, autobiography)
• Ed Smith and the Imagination Machine: The Untold Story of a Black Video Game Pioneer (Fast Company, interview)
• Mini PET
• The mysterious origins of an uncrackable video game
• Entombed: An archaeological examination of an Atari 2600 game (academic paper)
• Retrogame Archaeology (John Aycock, academic monograph)
• Retrogame Archaeology (John Aycock, lecture)
• Double Low Res amper-library for enhanced Apple II

Vintage Computer-related commercials (or, well, chunk of audio):

• Bill Gates talks about Microsoft and the Altair 8800

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• KansasFest 2020

Auction Picks:

• Blake: Timex FDD3000 computer
  • See also: Timex FDD3000 (Wikipedia)
  • Medical Graphics Microloop 1100 Spirometer
  • Lotus JAZZ Pin Badge
  • See also: Memphis Group design examples
• Carrington: The Works by First Star Software
  • See also: First Star Software
  • See also: Kay Savetz interview with Fenando Herrera
• Earl: Altair MITS 8800 CPU Parts Kit
  • Epson PX-4
• Paul: IIc bag in nice shape
  • Another IIc bag
  • Light pen new in box, rescued from the Titanic
  • TRS-80 Model III in its box
  • Microsoft… Office…
  • Red Book Blue Book
• Tobias: RCA COSMAC VIP

Closing words links:

• Smart Enough To Know Better
• Next Without For

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
Show audio files hosted by CyberEars

Listen/Download:

Topic: On whether RealPlayer suuuuuuux

Computer video: What have been the most striking impacts computer video has had on you?

Topic/Feedback links:

• My first taste of CGA composite color
• 1K colors on CGA: How it’s done
• Full Motion Video World
• Steve Gibson’s page on subpixel rendering
• The mysterious orange vertical line (Apple Orchard v1n2 Fall 1980)
• Cornica.org

Retro Computing News:

• Triton – The Forgotten 1970’s Home Computer – Part 1
• An Absurd Number of People Still Play Microsoft Solitaire
• Play MS Solitaire Online
• Living Computer Museum + Labs is closed at least for now
• Microsoft Open-Sources GW-BASIC
• Github: Microsoft GW-BASIC Interpreter Source Code

Upcoming shows

• VCF Southeast 8.0. July 10-12. Atlanta, GA.
• KansasFest. July 24-25. Online.
• WozFest SWEET 16. Sat Jul 25. Online.
• VCF West. August 1-2. Mountain View, CA (Computer History Museum).
• VCF East. October 10-12, 2020 (rescheduled). InfoAge. Wall, NJ.

Vintage Computer-related Commercials:

• Windows 95
• TRS-80 Model 4

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Bitsbox subscription for kids

Auction Picks:

• Blake: CBC-7000 Model No. Dialer VI
  • See also: Discusson of the CBC-7000 (@Foone)
  • Apple IIc in original pacakaging
  • Vintage 61414 Monochrome Display Monitor Conrac Corporation
  • See also: Discussion of the monitor
• Carrington: Alice Through The Looking Glass for Lisa and Mac
  • See also: Chess.app on Mac OS X and OpenStep
  • See also: Screens: Mac Plus
  • See also: Alice (Folklore.org)
  • See also: AliceX online
  • Legacy graphical text adventure for 128K Mac
• Paul: Cheat code for Apple hardware completist
  • Very white Apple II joystick
  • Model 4P in its box
  • Another nice 4P set
  • Hyperportable CP/M machine
  • NEC PC-8001A and peripherals
  • TAM

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
Includes: “Corncob” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) which is
licensed under
Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Show audio files hosted by CyberEars

Listen/Download:

Topic: As Seen on TV

Retro computers, as featured in TV and movies. What shows at the time had computers in them? What shows of today has yesterday’s computers in them?

Topic/Feedback links:

• Rebuilding James Bond’s Apple IIc – A Software Forgery
• Blake mentions: War Games, The Fantastic World of D.C. Collins, Whiz Kids, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, Electric Dreams, Cloak and Dagger, Weird Science, Knight Rider, Kindergarden Cop, City Slickers, Wayne’s World
• The War Games IMSAI 8080
• Earl mentions: Terminator – Rise Of The Machines, Star Wreck – In The Pirkinning, UFO, Colossus: The Forbin Project
• Jack mentions: Manhunt: Unabomber
• Carrington mentions: Desk Set, Alphaville, World on a Wire, Crosstalk, The Rachel Papers, Evilspeak, Takeover, The KGB, The Computer, and Me, Triumph of the Nerds, Pirates of Silicon Valley, Computer Chess, John Wick series, Magic 2.0: Off to Be the Wizard (Scott Meyer).
• Paul mentions: Halt & Catch Fire, Stranger Things, The Americans, The Goldbergs, Young Sheldon, Schooled, Blindspot, Devs, The IT Crowd, Lost, Preacher, Timeless, Mr. Robot
• Spectrum Next unboxing video
• New C64 printed circuit boards
• Camelot dungeon game, on Cyber1 (PLATO)

Retro Computing News:

• Bill Metcalfe, BBS game developer, passed away
• Apple and Steve Jobs’ Biggest Mistakes Ep 1 – The Macintosh
• GraphicConverter now opens Apple II formats
• ATR Image Explorer
• The Long View – Macintosh Y2020
• Moritz & Alexander (2019). Vintage electronics for trusted radiation measurements and verified dismantlement of nuclear weapons. PLOS ONE.
• Bubbles Whiting—Using Punch Cards
• 1970s Unbuilt Kit Computers
• Sylvain Lefebvre made a DooM-chip
• Brief Engadget write-up of DooM-chip

Upcoming shows

• VCF Southeast 8.0. July 10-12. Atlanta, GA.
• KansasFest. July 24-25. Online.
• WozFest SWEET 16. Sat Jul 25. Online.
• VCF West. August 1-2. Mountain View, CA (Computer History Museum).
• VCF East. October 10-12, 2020 (rescheduled). InfoAge. Wall, NJ.

Vintage Computer-related Commercials:

• Are you keeping up with the Commodore?

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• UpCart Plus for C64

Auction Picks:

• Blake: Mindset Computer System
  • See also: Mindset Computer (Bytecellar)
  • Exatron Stringy Floppy Disk Drive Wafer media
• Carrington: AOL t-shirt
  • My Other Computer Is An Apple II (sticker)
  • My Other Computer Is A Commodore 64 (sticker)
  • My Other Tablet Is A Newton (sticker)
  • Radio Shack CGP-115 4-pen printer
  • Spare paper rolls for CGP-115
• Earl: MAINDEC-11-DZMMC-A-PB (PDP-8 paper tape)
  • Commodore Computer Gold Rim Shot Glass
  • NeXT shot glass
• Paul: Applesurance diagnostic disk controller
  • See also: Apple II The Review, Spring 1986 (p. 18)
  • See also: Stephen Buggie presentation (KansasFest 1996)
  • Personal Software VisiStuff
  • Tandy 1000 EX
  • DEC PDP etc. stuff
  • Martek Electronics Apple II external keyboard
  • See also: Compute! (Feb 1989)
  • See also: Computist (#74)

Closing words links:

• Clipper Summer 87 unboxing
• Home Computers: 100 Icons that Defined a Digital Generation (book, CNN Style)

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
Show audio files hosted by CyberEars

Listen/Download:

Topic: Things we (came to/no longer) hate

Things we used to hate, but maybe no longer do. Or maybe still do. Or maybe didn’t used to hate, but now do.

Topic/Feedback links:

• RetroMacCast interviews Rocky Bergen about papercraft creations
• Mimic Spartan

Retro Computing News:

• Mini vMac for Nintendo 3DS
• MacRumors write-up of 3DS Mini vMac
• ComputerLand and the BC88
• Al Alcorn explains early color graphics
• Retrofair 2020
• Mar Hicks: Scapegoating COBOL
• Why I Still Use A 34-Year-Old IBM Model M Keyboard
• Tweeting from the Teletype
• Volkseigener Betrieb (VEB) Robotron PC 1715 on parade, East Berlin, 1987.
• 10 pfennig 1987 stamp featuring the Robotron PC 1715
• Primary Optics, Robert Henke’s Commodore CBM 8032 Based Audio-Visual Art
• Robert Henke Loop 2015 Keynote: Failure = Success

Upcoming shows

• VCF Southeast 8.0. July 10-12. Atlanta, GA.
• KansasFest. July 24-25. Online.
• WozFest SWEET 16. Sat Jul 25. Online.
• VCF West. August 1-2. Mountain View, CA (Computer History Museum).
• VCF East. October 10-12, 2020 (rescheduled). InfoAge. Wall, NJ.

Vintage Computer-related Commercials:

• Computerland commercial

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Floppy Disk iron-on patches

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: PS/2 Googly Eyed Duck Mouse
  • TRS-80 Model I Briefcase
• Earl: Pi 1541
• Paul: TRS-80 Model 16B
  • Bunch of Apple II era manuals of no particular rarity
  • Black Hole Colorforms
  • Power Mac power button replacement
  • Atari Lynx kit case

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
Show audio files hosted by CyberEars

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Topic: Virtual Retro-gatherings

Given that retrocomputing gatherings are going virtual, what aer ways that we can make this experience a good one?

Topic/Feedback links:

• C64 guitar
• Compressorhead: Ace of Spades
• Computer Sport Athlete
• nMigen tutorial

Retro Computing News:

• Atgtha in Absurdia Roguelike game
• VCF T-Shirts
• FujiNet, reading data over https
• What is FujiNet?
• John Conway obituary (Princeton)
• John Conway obituary (New York Times)
• John Conway obituary (xkcd)
• John Conway on Numberphile
• Doomsday Rule
• Atari Lynx 2020 programming contest write-up
• Atari Lynx 2020 programming contest entry
• Project SPHINX: When the USSR tried to change the computer forever
• Meet Sphinx: The 30-Year-Old Soviet Smart Home Concept

Vintage Computer-related Commercials:

• The Game of Life
• Atari Lynx
• Motorola pager
• Fidelity Chess Challenger

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Home Computers: 100 Icons That Defined a Digital Generation (MIT Press)
• Home Computers: 100 Icons That Defined a Digital Generation (Thames & Hudson)
• See also: Guardian write-up
• See also: Publisher’s Weekly write-up

Auction Picks:

• Blake: Darth NeXTER Mask
  • 3D Connexion SpaceBall 5000
  • Qantel Model 4150
• Carrington: Macintosh SE/30 new(-ish) in box
  • Apple II dust cover with maybe-red logo
  • TauonPC-1
  • See also: TauonPC-1 site
• Paul: Pin featuring Apple logo
  • Vintage Apple Macintosh 6500
  • See also: Garfield minus Garfield
  • Apple //c video+audio cable adapter
  • World’s slowest PC
  • Cal-Kit dongle
  • Cal-Kit that doesn’t need a dongle (sold)
  • Cal-Kit on Kijiji
  • NeXT mug/shot-cup
  • Mouse phone

Closing words links:

• Panic podcast

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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Topic: Coprocessors (Part 1)

We all love coprocessors, but does anyone use them? Did you have any, did you use them? Do you have any, do you use them? What would you use them for now?

Topic/Feedback links:

• Jif peanut butter labels
• Unofficial Retrochallenge
• Retrochallenge (canonizing the unofficial one, happened after we recorded)

Retro Computing News:

• Swift on Mac OS 9
• More progress on Prince of Persia for Atari 8-bit computers
• ZX Spectrum prototype ROM available for download
• New Jersey urgently needs COBOL programmers

Vintage Computer-related Commercial:

• Power Macintosh (Windows/DOS compatibility)
• Grace Hopper at MIT (MIT Lincoln Laboratory, 25 April 1985)
• New Jersey and You

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Developers Developers Developers Developers shirt

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Intacorp Button And Badge Maker for Apple II
  • Apple HD concept prototype
• Paul: Whistler TRS-80 X-10
  • Norton Utilities 3
  • Apple logo stuff
  • Super Elf
  • Digi-Comp I
  • See also: 3D-printable Digi-Comp I on Thingiverse
  • DOS compatibility card
  • Applied Concepts The Mate chess game
  • APMSX card
  • See also: apple2.net
  • See also: Review of APMSX on Finapple
  • TRS-80 Program pak file

Closing words links:

• Apple IIc Plus Accelerator Control
• Quinn Dunki: Spelunking the IIc Plus KansasFest 2016

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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Topic: Computer viruses

What experiences did you have in the “retrocomputer era” with computer viruses or related malware? Which ones do you remember? Any that caused a memorable headache? Any that you wrote? Any that had interesting technology? Do you remember antivirus software causing memorable headaches? Did you write any antivirus software? Did you write any antivirus software to eliminate a virus that you also happened to have written?

Topic/Feedback links:

• Someone had a Destructivity disk
• PLA20V8, a cheap PLA replacement for C64
• PLA20V8 video on YouTube
• Interact with Atari’s 6502 in BASIC

Retro Computing News:

• ASCII art + permadeath: The history of roguelike games
• Cult of Mac iOS / Mac Brogue article
• Brogue homepage
• Beneath Beneath Apple Manor (KansasFest 2019 talk)
• Relax, It’s On Us: free music from 8 Bit Weapon
• How Prince of Persia Defeated Apple II’s Memory Limitations
• How Prince of Persia Defeated Apple II’s Memory Limitations (video)
• Command Line Heroes – Floppies: The Disks That Changed the World
• The 80×25 terminal size
• Commodore Los Angeles Super Show postponed
• Where in North Dakota is Carmen Sandiego

Vintage Computer-related Commercials:

• Mac: Viruses
• Norton: Chicken vs. Dokken

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• The Making of Prince of Persia (Jordan Mechner)

Auction Picks:

• Blake: Original Commodore Big Eyed Mouse
  • GGLABS 2MB MACSIMM
  • Super Boulder Dash (Atari)
• Carrington: Serpentine for Apple II
  • Rescue On Fractalus for Tandy Co-Co
  • Apple II with DuoDisk and Color Monitor 100
• Earl: ORCA/Integer BASIC compiler for Apple IIGS
  • See also: Opus II from Juiced.GS
• Paul: Duodisk 3.5” prototype
  • See also: A rare glimpse of a memorial Apple prototype display at Frog
  • Apple II/e dual 6522 GPIO PCB kit
  • Clear case //c
  • Lisa 2 bezel with box
  • “Fully Operational Apple I Computer”
  • SCRG Extend-a-slot

Closing words links:

• Make It With Punched Cards (1971 book)
• Going back to EDASM
• Retro Computing forum

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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Topic: Work-study credit and a satisfying kerchunk

We continue to survey our panelists’ first computer jobs, this time focusing on first jobs in which we used a network wiring tool that made a satisfying kerchunk and/or got work-study credit.

Topic/Feedback links:

• Minesweeper
• ABB keyboard from a more modern setup

Retro Computing News:

• Canon object.station 41
• HP Color Recovery
• Larger demo of Blake’s NeXTSTEP HP
• WINGINE Graphics Subsystem
• VCF Pacific Northwest cancelled due to COVID-19
• Atari hotels
• Atari hotels news article
• 6800 CPU with nMigen
• Spotify for Atari 8-bits
• Spotify for Atari 8-bits (Github)

Vintage Computer-related Commercial:

• Compuserve

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Meggy Jr RGB Soldering Kit from Evil Mad Scientist

Auction Picks:

• Blake: APPLE 1 Original 1976 Computer System 1st Steve Wozniak designed computer and L@@K!!
  • Lisa 1 Mouse and poster
  • Microsoft Office Pro 97 CD from 1997
  • Apple II Quantum Leap SmartChip Card
• Earl: Radio Shack TRS-80 II Software Lot of 18
• Paul: Metrowerks art shirt
  • Metrowerks BSC shirt
  • Base Two flashcards
  • Epyx 500XJ joystick
  • IIe Card Y-cable
  • FoxPro 2.5 upgrade
  • ET-3400, ETA-3400

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
Show audio files hosted by CyberEars

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Topic: Why BBS?

Why would anybody BBS now that we have the internet?

Topic/Feedback links:

• Telnet BBS guide
• Syncterm
• ZOC
• BBSing Resource Page (Bytecellar)
• Original Think-A-Dot prototype
• The Unofficial Apple Archive article (9to5mac)
• Liber809
• Cloud-9
• Bytecellar article on Liber809
• Article on DTACK Grounded
• Techmoan on the Wikireader

Retro Computing News:

• Larry Tesler has passed away
• RC2014 Z-80 homebrew kit
• TIPI
• Raspple II
• MIDI 2.0: An update to a 37-year-old protocol
• BBC Microbot on Twitter
• Tiny Emulators: play vintage 8-bit computer games online
• KansasFest 2020 Keynote speaker: Robert Woodhead

Upcoming Shows/Gatherings:

• CANCELED: VCF Pacific Northwest. March 21-22, Seattle. Living Computer Museum + Labs
• The 29th Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFest. April 18-19, 2020. Elk Grove Village, IL
• VCF East. April 24-26, 2020. InfoAge. Wall, NJ
• KansasFest. July 21-26, 2020. Kansas City, MO

Vintage Computer-related Commercial:

• Atari XEGS

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Computer Lib t-shirt

Auction Picks:

• Blake: Insane ABB keyboard with keys aplenty
  • See also: Keyboard data sheet
  • TeleRay terminal
  • See also: Teleray 10 on Terminals wiki
  • Brady Writer II Industrial Printing System
  • See also: NEC PC-8201
  • See also: Okidata Microline 182
  • TI Model 707
  • See also: TI Silent-700 series
• Carrington: Mac Paint Mate
  • Apple Credit Plan Calculator
• Paul: Marathon Infinity
  • See also: Aleph One
  • Microscopic space fleet (bag only)
  • Apple II Extended 80 column card supplement
  • Arrow 1000
  • Softalk magazine issues
  • Mac Portable bag
  • A Personal Guide to Personal Computers
  • See also: The making of the APGtPC book
  • See also: Raw footage from the making of the AGPtPC book
  • Joyboard for Atari
  • See also: Joyboard on Wikipedia

Closing notes:

• CodeWarrior

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
Show audio files hosted by CyberEars

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Topic: First computer job

When was the first time you got paid for doing something computer-related?

Retro Computing News:

• The (Unofficial) Apple Archive (offline already at time of episode posting)
• Cabel notices a thread on IE 5 for Mac
• Jimmy Grewel reflects on developing IE 5 for Mac on its 20th anniversary
• Royal Mail Classic UK Video Game Stamps
• TMRC on Omnibus
• Frank Gehry No Longer Allowed To Make Sandwiches For Grandkids

Upcoming Shows/Gatherings:

• VCF Pacific Northwest. March 21-22, Seattle. Living Computer Museum + Labs.
• The 29th Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFest. April 18-19, 2020. Elk Grove Village, IL
• VCF East. April 24-26, 2020. InfoAge. Wall, NJ..

Vintage Computer-related Commercials:

• Royal Mail
• Commodore 64
• Password Plus (Sep 18, 1979)

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Royal Mail Video Games Postcards

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Apple II “worked with Steve Jobs”
  • Infocom Without Infocom: Sherlock Holmes
  • Steve Woz Bobblehead
  • 1972 Computer Sports Games
  • Lot of 5 AppleLink pins
• Paul: Commodore 64 breadbin model
  • ZX Spectrum toastrack
  • Muppet learning keys
  • Disk holders
  • Cheap NeXTstation, expensive to ship

Closing notes:

• Password Plus videos with Margot Comstock (Tommervik)
• Softalk for the IBM PC
• ST. Mac

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
Show audio files hosted by CyberEars

Listen/Download:

Topic: 2020, thumb-by-thumb

Retro New Years Resolutions (retro plans for the new year, and old resolutions you never kept)

Topic and Feedback links:

• Captain’s Quarters BBS and AE line
• mTCP page (with, perhaps, some pages still being served by a PCjr)

Retro Computing News:

• Chuck Peddle
• The Legendary Chuck Peddle
• Hackaday honors Chuck Peddle
• Retrobits: An Interview With Chuck Peddle, Part I
• Retrobits: An Interview With Chuck Peddle, Part II
• Retrobits: An Interview With Chuck Peddle, Part III
• Retrobits: An Interview With Chuck Peddle, Part IV
• Silas Warner, the man who made Wolfenstein
• Silas Warner at KansasFest 1992
• Silas Warner and Muse Software, The Digital Antiquarian
• Silas Warner memorial site
• Silas Warner memorial site (at Internet Archive)
• MUSE and ABM (at yesterbits.com)
• Adam Rosen’s vintage Macs find new home at American Computer Robotics Museum
• Tech Luminaries We Lost in 2019
• Bushfire Charity eBay Auction (Mr. Lurch’s Things)
• Mike Harvey of Nibble magazine passed away
• John Leake and Brian Wiser interview Mike Harvey
• Nibblemagazine.com
• Y2.02K Bug in Classic Mac OS Date & Time Control Panel
• SetDate utility
• History of the TI-MBX expansion system
• Atariage thread containing specs for TI-MBX in message 5
• Borland/Turbo C++ flavor ui for VIM

Upcoming Shows/Gatherings:

• VCF Pacific Northwest. March 21-22, Seattle. Living Computer Museum + Labs.
• The 29th Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFest. April 18-19, 2020. Elk Grove Village, IL
• VCF East. April 24-26, 2020. InfoAge. Wall, NJ..

Vintage Computer-related Commercial:

• Radio Shack TRS-80 Computer Commercial (1978)

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Tiny 3D-printed TRS-80s

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Steve Wozniak life-size standee
  • Hartley Courseware cassette control device
  • See also: Description of Hartley CCD in Resources in Education Vol 18 No 12
  • Spot On advanced formatting utility for Mac
  • Apple IIe with Cascade Graphics Development thingy
• Earl: Titan III plus IIe
• Michael: Heathkit EE-3101 DC Electronics Educational Systems Course
• Paul: DTACK Grounded board
  • See also: Discussion with Don Burtis on Drop III Inches. 1:28 in
  • See also: DTACK Grounded newsletter issue #1
  • TI MicroExplorer
  • See also: MicroExplorer brochure
  • Sealed Apple II disks
  • Exidy Sorceror
  • HP Integral Personal Computer
  • See also: Inforworld article on the HP Integral Personal Computer
  • Think-a-Dot computer game from 1965
  • Wheels for the G3/G4
  • Cassette programs for the Apple II written by Silas Warner, Ed Zaron, and Bob Bishop

Closing notes:

• Blake Patterson’s NMSspot (No Man’s Sky)

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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Topic: Nostalgia, Inc.

Some brands/companies generate nostalgia and warm fuzzy feelings even
apart from any specific products they created.
Things you see on eBay, and always pause over.
Or things for which you just have a benevolent attitude.
Who were the good companies?

Topic and Feedback links:

• NewerTech
• Gorilla Banana Printer ad
• Centech
• FlashFloppy
• External adapter for Amiga and Gotek drive
• Kit version of external adapter for Amiga and Gotek drive
• Lot of 5,694 PC CD DVD Computer games
• Age of Gaming YouTube channel
• CB2 micro kit

Retro Computing News:

• The ZedRipper: a 16-core, 83 MHz Z80 computer
• Ben Heck’s new Atari 2600 Junior Single Chip Portable
• Retro Recipes: Amiga movie magic
• Titanic Amiga hard disk images
• Auction for the physical Titanic Amiga items
• Macintosh System Tools disk with Steve Jobs signature sells for $84,000
• Was expected to sell for $7,500
• SillyVenture 2019 on YouTube
• Sillyventure 2K19 official site
• Timex-Sinclair 2068 complete but for the manual
• TS2068 Yahoo group disintegrates
• Archiveteam page
• Will damage the ability to transfer UK phone numbers.
• Verizon blocking archivists from preserving Yahoo Groups content

Upcoming Shows/Gatherings:

• VCF Pacific Northwest. March 21-22, Seattle. Living Computer Museum + Labs.
• The 29th Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFest. April 18-19, 2020. Elk Grove Village, IL
• VCF East. April 24-26, 2020. InfoAge. Wall, NJ..

Vintage Computer-related Commercials:

• TI Professional computer
• Atari XL setup

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego handheld game

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Computer Lib
  • The Electric Pencil for TRS-80
  • The L.E.A.D. 2.5 Word Processor
• Paul: Apple graphics tablet complete
  • Direct 825 terminal
  • See also: RCR Episode 20, featuring the Direct 831 terminal
  • See also: Computerworld Dec 13 1982 about 831 and 800 line
  • VCR Companion
  • See also: VCR Companion manual
  • See also: VCR Companion 4am crack
  • MacPlay board games gift box
  • TI Portable Professional Computer
  • See also: TI Professional computers
  • Kenbak-1 replica
  • Xetec Expander 4
  • Grounded anti-radiation filter

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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Topic: Which old games are truly timeless?

What might a kid of today (truly) enjoy? What games hold up?

Topic and Feedback links:

• Apl2bits: Which Apple II Games are Timeless?
• Zylon Defenders
• RetroManCave: Software on Vinyl
• Bytecellar post: How I got started in vintage computing
• Octojam 6
• Making a new Adam power supply
• Turbo Rascal Syntax error, “;” expected but “BEGIN”. C64 development environment.

Retro Computing News:

• Co Co Co! Merry Christmas!
• FujiNet
• FujiNet code on Github
• Strange origin of a 1990s computer game font
• Prince of Persia on A8
• Non-HTTPS sites for testing vintage computer connections

Upcoming Shows/Gatherings:

• VCF Pacific Northwest. March 21-22, Seattle. Living Computer Museum + Labs.
• The 29th Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFest. April 18-19, 2020. Elk Grove Village, IL
• VCF East. April 24-26, 2020. InfoAge. Wall, NJ..

Vintage Computer-related Commercials:

• Scrooge meets PCjr
• Apple IIc vs. IBM PCjr
• IBM PCjr response

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Dust cover for C64

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Sperry-Univac technician’s case
  • EnBASIC Authoring System
  • “Wood Grain” Apple II
• Earl: IBM 3476 Infowindow Monitor,1395660 keyboard
• Paul: IBM PCjr
  • Stumpy //c monitor
  • Apple //c MultiPack
  • IBM printer stand
  • 17 minutes of the Empire Strikes Back on Super 8
  • TS-2068 update
  • See also: TS-2068 update on the Internet Archive
  • Urgent C64 case
  • Amiga DCTV
  • See also (Carrington’s contribution, thanks Carrington): Canadian Version
  • Sinclair ZX-81 kit
  • See also: Zebra Systems Timex-Sinclair page
  • Minstrel Issue 3

Closing comments:

• Atari: A Visual History

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
Show audio files hosted by CyberEars

Listen/Download:

Topic: Jack, the Wimpy Time Travel Genie

You get to command a wimpy time travel genie, who can be sent back in time, once, to advise your former self about something (retrocomputing related) to buy or not buy. What do you instruct this genie to do?

Topic and Feedback links:

• John Romero interviewed on Dev Game Club podcast

Retro Computing News:

• A Love Letter to My Website
• CoCo port of The Oregon Trail
• TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo) Facebook page
• RetroGameDev
• RetroGameDev Patreon
• Canonical list of vintage and obsolete Apple computers
• TRS-80 Model III Papercraft
• Lisa 1 Papercraft
• Zaxxon for the TRS-80 Model I

Upcoming Shows/Gatherings:

• WOzFest 14.25045 MHz. Sat Nov 23, 2019. Sydney.
• VCF Pacific Northwest. March 21-22, Seattle. Living Computer Museum + Labs.
• VCF East. April 24-26, 2020. InfoAge. Wall, NJ..

Vintage Computer-related Commercials:

• Oregon Trail parody trailer
• US Robotics 56K modem commercial

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Space Invaders board game
• Space Invaders board game Kickstarter details

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Apple 1
  • Mountain Computer Expansion Chassis for Apple II
  • Worst SE/30 ad ever
• Earl: Black Case Atari 800 Computer
  • Atari Joytyper 400
• Paul: Amiga 500/1200 Gotek Extension board
  • TG Select-A-Port
  • Sharp PC-1250A and CE-125
  • IIc bag
  • Potentially cheap Audrey
  • Potentially cheap Adam
  • US Robotics Visual Nostalgia Trigger

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
Show audio files hosted by CyberEars

Listen/Download:

Topic: To mod or not to mod

To mod, or not to mod, vintage hardware. People downvote videos where people do a non-reversible mods. Should you care? Should you do such mods? How about Retrobrite? Video hacks? Etc.

Topic and Feedback links:

• Pro(c) Atari Magazine
• AtariAge 8-bit high score club
• T2point1 Sega Menacer light gun replacement

Retro Computing News:

• SpellWielder, new game for Apple II
• Team 6502
• Acorn DOOM
• NuType mechanical keyboard for MacBook
• 35-year-old C64 program hidden on a vinyl LP as an easter egg
• XKCD Emulation
• KansasFest 2014 – Mark Pilgrim – Emulator detection

Upcoming Shows/Gatherings:

• WOzFest 14.25045 MHz. Sat Nov 23, 2019. Sydney.
• VCF Pacific Northwest. March 21-22, Seattle. Living Computer Museum + Labs.
• VCF East. April 24-26, 2020. InfoAge. Wall, NJ.

Vintage Computer-related Commercials:

• Radio Shack CueCat
• BBC Micro Electron

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• MOS 6502 tote bag

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Macintosh SE with stand
  • New (maybe) Macintosh Quadra 650
  • Original CueCat Reader (from WIRED)
  • MITS Altair 680 case
  • MITS Altair 680 case with switches and lights
  • Museum Graphic: Gavilan Computer
  • Gavilan Computer ML5
  • See also: What Ever Happened to the Gavilan Computer?
  • IBM Mainframe Control Panel
• Earl: Commodore 64 keyboard (colored GREEN) from DS Retro Garage
• Paul: Four Apple-related magazines
  • Apple II system specification
  • See also: Pascal Spoke Here shirt ad
  • Contact 5 sample
  • Apple II Business Graphics
  • Instant infestation (many mice)
  • LogoWriter, probably for the IBM PC
  • Apple MIDI interface
  • DEC Pro 350
  • A large lot of yellow things

Closing comments:

• Calamityware
• The RetoReads podcast
• Downcast
• Plex

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
Show audio files hosted by CyberEars

Listen/Download:

Topic: Computer store memories

What memories do you have of computers stores of the past? Places to browse, to hang out, to get new information? How has all of this changed?

Topic and feedback notes:

• Paul’s TV database about page

Retro Computing News:

• Video Games Then and Now
• The Air Force has finally stopped using 8-inch floppies to store the nuclear launch codes
• Paul’s tweet about 8″ disks
• The Earliest Unix code: An Anniversary Source Code Release
• Apple II machines are still ticking at the heart of the Lenin Museum in Russia

Upcoming Shows/Gatherings:

• WOzFest 14.25045 MHz. Sat Nov 23, 2019. Sydney.
• VCF Pacific Northwest. March 21-22, Seattle. Living Computer Museum + Labs.
• VCF East. April 24-26, 2020. InfoAge. Wall, NJ..

Vintage Computer-related Commercial:

• ThinkPad 701
• Doom II

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Vintage Computer Cufflinks

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Sharp MZ-811
  • Silhouette Trackball in box
  • Kodak Displaymaker
  • Could’ve had it for $10
  • LGR of Kodak Displaymaker
• Paul: VIC-1211M super expander
  • Quadport IEC bus
  • Apple Network Server
  • Cassette A-Letter
  • Atari Portfolio
  • Epson HX-20 in case
  • ThinkPad 701C
  • See also: Video of ThinkPad 701C keyboard

Closing comments:

• Obscure Atari 8-bit Halloween games

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
Show audio files hosted by CyberEars

Listen/Download:

Topic: Bicentepisodial review

This is episode 200 of a podcast whose first episode was almost exactly 9 years ago (October 23, 2010). A lot has changed since then, but also not much has changed since then. But we are now almost a decade wiser (and, yes, maybe we’ll do another milestone episode in a year, when the podcast itself becomes, by some definitions, “retro”). So, this might be an opportune time to look back on what has happened in the past nine years in the retrocomputing endeavor. How has your own relationship to it changed personally? What advances have had the most impact? What does it portend for the future?

Topic and feedback notes:

• RCR epiosde 001

Retro Computing News:

• Big Mess O Wires – Floppy Emu
• Retro Innovations, Glitchworks, XT-IDE
• What was the first computer?
• Atanasoff–Berry Computer
• Adam Rosen obituary
• Cult of Mac remembers Adam Rosen
• Still talking about the ABC vs ENIAC, 199 episodes later
• 8-Bit Guy and Commander X16: (Part 1)
• 8-Bit Guy and Commander X16: (Part 2)
• RetroChallenge RC2019/10
• CHIP-8

Vintage Computer-related Commercials:

• Honey Nut Cheerios / TI 99/4a
• Apple Lisa (1983)

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• AdaBox subscription

Auction Picks:

• Bill: CFFA3000 for Apple II computer
• David: Apple Lisa 2/10
• Earl: Commodore Bildschirmtext BTX Decoder Cartridge
• Michael: MOS KIM-1
• Paul: Exatron stringy floppy for TRS-80
  • MBX expansion system from TI 99/4a

Closing comments:

• Kennett Classic
• Before Macintosh – The Apple Lisa documentary

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
Show audio files hosted by CyberEars

Listen/Download:

Topic: Vintage Computer Upgrades

What upgrades have you have done to vintage computers, then or recently?

Topic and feedback notes:

• ITAPPMONROBOT
• Atari Projects book
• Atari Projects
• Epic Apple II versus Commodore 64 Chess Match
• Colossus 4 Chess Tournament results (Dec. 2000)

Retro Computing News:

• Back To Borregas Ave: Finding Atari’s Lost World Headquarters
• Paged-out, new online magazine
• Clear Apple II plus Kickstarter
• Wombat ADB-to-USB adapter
• Cases for the Atari SDrive-Max
• Hidden messages in Amiga games
• 33-year-old easter egg in Gumball
• Darklord (Apple II) developer messages

Upcoming Shows/Gatherings:

• Fujiama 2019, Lengenfeld, Germany, Aug 26-Sep 4, 2019
• Tandy Assembly 2019. Springfield, OH. Sept 27-29, 2019
• Retrogathering. Västerås, Sweden. Sept 28, 2019

Vintage Computer-related Commercials:

• TRS-80 Computer 1978
• ZX Spectrum +2 James Bond edition

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Atari joystick controller pendant

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: Hot Wheels Apple VW Bus
  • Radio Shack Introduces the World of Computing
  • Radio Shack Executive Decision Maker
  • 1977 Radio Shack Managers’ Catalog
  • Radio Shack Electronic TV Scoreboard Game
• Paul: Commodore calculator
  • SOL-10?
  • See also: SOL-20 on oldcomputers.net
  • Osborne 1 with external screen
  • Net board
  • Spectrum emulator for TS 2068
  • ZX Spectrum James Bond action pack

Closing comments:

• Computer Stupidities

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
Show audio files hosted by CyberEars

Listen/Download:

Topic: Older but better?

What obsolete technology or device do you wish was actually still in use today?

Topic and feedback notes:

• IBM 5150 Papercraft design
• The Amen Break

Retro Computing News:

• A Conversation with my 35-year-old Chatbot
• RetroManCave – Exploring the MiSTer & DE-10 Nano FPGA
• MOnSter 6502
• Writing a Lunar Lander Game For An Actual Lunar Lander
• Atari Computer Camp documentary
• Atari Computer Camp documentary (trailer)
• Easter Egg found in 1977 Channel F game
• An Illustrated History of Easter Eggs

Upcoming Shows/Gatherings:

• Fujiama 2019, Lengenfeld, Germany, Aug 26-Sep 4, 2019
• Tandy Assembly 2019. Springfield, OH. Sept 27-29, 2019
• Retrogathering. Västerås, Sweden. Sept 28, 2019

Vintage Computer-adjacent Commercials:

• Tunnel Runner
• Atari camp on Today show, July 1982

Retro Computing Gift Idea:

• Karateka Enamel Pins

Auction Picks:

• Carrington: dBASE WristWatch
  • Macintosh Performa LC476
  • “Radio Shack Turns Me Off” boycott button
  • See also: Radio Shack 1979 female-lead strike in Barrie, Ontario
• Earl: Motorola Micro Systems CDM 1000
  • Exorset 100
• Paul: Equitrac AlphaCopy
  • See also: Ad for Equitrac AlphaCopy
  • Kevin’s BeBox
  • Crystal Quest had a box
  • NEC PC-8300. Maybe I won’t buy this one