I've got an iPad, and it's a lovely device. Elegant and otherworldly (I can push icons around with my finger!) it's a great way to do a lot of things... as long as what you want to do is exactly what Apple wants you to do. I must have been naive, but when I got the thing, I was surprised at how limited my access is to this very expensive thing I bought. I can't just copy files onto the iPad without getting iTunes' okay, and I can't really run any of my favorite classic game & computer emulators even though the hardware is more than powerful enough.
You can get some classic game pre-packs for iPad, but nothing with the freedom that makes emulation fun. it goes without saying that there are no Nintendo emulators for iPad, and all of the other ones just feel like me paying again for the same games I've owned for 20 years. So if you're a retro gamer on the go, and in the know, you go Android. Plenty of emulators there, and no "walled garden" attitude about what you can put on your Android hardware.
I'm excited about the new release of Amiga Forever Essentials for Android from Cloanto. Cloanto are the creators of the justifiably famous "Amiga Forever" and "C64 Forever" emulation suites that make running these retro platforms on modern computers very easy. Now they bring their Amiga knowhow to the Android market. While there have been a couple of Amiga emulators for Android, Amiga Forever Essentials provides the crucial (and legal!) ROM files that emulators need in order to work. So for a measly 99 cents you can ensure that your Amiga emus have the proper ROM files to get the best emulated performance of my favorite computer from the 80s and 90s. Cloanto worked with the creators of popular Amiga emulators like UAE4Droid and AnUAE4All to ensure that they will auto-detect Amiga Forever's ROM install.
Amiga Forever Essentials includes ROMs for every major revision of the Amiga OS up to version 3.1, and also includes a virtual demo disk with some of the Amiga's famous graphical demos that dazzled us all back in those colorless days of the early mac and MS Windows (shiver). Below is a link to the Android store so that you can become a legal Amiga fan for just 99 cents.
links:
Amiga Forever Essentials at the Android Market
Cloanto homepage for Amiga Forever Essentials
This peaceful full color Parisian street scene was shot on July 19, 1914 - only a few days before the outbreak of WWI.
May 06, 2013
April 09, 2013
Rare Commodore 65 Hits eBay, Bidding Mayhem Ensues. Again.
Selling to a good (and wealthy) home: One fairly rare working prototype Commodore home computer.
It's not even fully functional because the company never finished the software, deeming the machine too expensive to sell well in the early 1990s. The price? Already an astounding € 5,686 with five days to go in the auction. This will be a fun one to watch.
Retro Thing's Bohus had a chance to play with a C-65 several years ago, here's what he had to say:
After the spectacular success of the Commodore 64, the company barely knew what to do with themselves. They created the Commodore 128 that combined C64 functionality with unique high powered modes of its own, but it didn't really work out. Of course there was the mighty series of Amiga computers from the mid 80's onwards, but Commodore was convinced they could still make good use of the popular C64 technology.
Enter the Commodore 65; in many ways like a C64 that went to "11". It
featured a sleek new design, two SID audio chips, a built in 3.5" floppy
drive, better graphics abilities, expansion to 8 megs of RAM, and a
flat bit to rest your coffee on. Some working prototypes were made in
1990-91, and when Commodore was liquidated after their bankruptcy in
'94, some of these machines got out. No one knows exactly how many are
out there; estimates range from 50 to several hundred.
This particular unit is owned by Jason Compton, well known Amiga fan, editor of Amiga Report (a hyperlinked online magazine pre-HTML... wow!), and all around super talent. After speaking with Jason about the C65 it seems clear that while the machine had a lot of things going for it, it was simply too late to market. By 1991 Nintendo & the PC were leading gaming and computing away from the standards that the original C64 had set.
With millions of Commodore 64's sold in the world, it seems like there
could have been interest in an improved version like the 65. The C65
went unreleased not because ol' "chicken lips" (the unfortunate nickname
for Commodore's logo) was too chicken to offer new products, but
because the C65 simply would not have sold in the early 90's. Especially
not at the $300-400 projected price. Sadly the evolutionary C65 will go
down in computing history as another unfortunate casualty of
Commodore's legendary lack of insight.
Want to find out how much it sells for? You can watch the auction here [eBay].
February 19, 2013
The Smallest Analog Computer Ever Made?!
From the early 1960s brochure: "Donner's Model 3500 is a full-fledged analog computer weighing just 28 lbs. Designed for engineers, educators and scientists, it can be used to study almost any physical system that can be described by differential equations. It can be operated on desk tops and benches by anyone who can run a slide rule. The standard 3500 contains 10 amplifiers, stabilized or unstabilized as the user chooses. The computer performs accurately with 1% or 0.1% computing components, and is furnished ready-to-work for $1850, depending upon specific equipment desired."
Fast forward 50 years, and I'd much rather have a Macbook. It's astounding to realize just how far we've come in the past half century; the Donner 3500 used vacuum tubes and was anything but simple to use. These days, you could create a comparable analog function generator using a variety of solid-state op amps and buffers that cost only a few cents each.
February 18, 2013
1984: Finally, An East German Home Computer
In most of the world, the era of 8-bit computing was winding down in 1984, even though computers like the Commodore 64, Radio Shack CoCo and Apple IIe still dominated the home market. Things would change dramatically in the next year, with the introduction of machines such as the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga with their powerful Motorola processors, custom chipsets and svelte 3.5" floppy disk drives.
Things were much different in the German Democratic Republic. It would be another 5 years before the Berlin Wall crumbled, and the struggle to appear modern in a world of microprocessors and accelerating technology was getting harder with each passing month. The GDR has a burgeoning electronics industry, but the primary focus was the production of desktop machines destined for business use. Home computers were unheard of.
That's where the Robotron Z1013 comes in. Once you got past the rustic presentation, it was a reasonably powerful home or educational machine. The processor was initially a Z80 clone running at 1MHz, with a 2K ROM bootloader, 16K RAM, monochrome video output and a cassette tape interface for program storage.
There were a couple of gotchas, of course. Available as a DIY kit, this single board computer didn't include a real case and the horrific membrane keyboard was arranged alphabetically. Worse, a chronic shortage of microchips meant that the system used chips that had been rejected for use in commercial machines -- the Z80-compatible processor and memory were de-clocked from 2MHz to 1MHz, simply because they didn't function reliably at full speed.
The Z1013 was on the market for five years, but sales dried up with the collapse of the communist regime and the sudden availability of much more sophisticated machines from the west. Still, many brilliant German programmers learned to code on this machine before stepping to the forefront of software design in the early 1990s.
January 10, 2013
A Desktop Computer For The Ages
Yeah, I know. Everyone who's cool these days carries a Macbook Air or an Ultrabook. The thing is, this machine is far cooler than anything I could lug around in a messenger bag.
The Clacker is an all-in-one computing environment that includes an ergonomically hostile keyboard that clacks (of course), stereo horn speakers, a retro kitsch landline phone and what appears to be the top third of an old grandfather clock that houses an LCD screen with a few surprises:
"The LCD also features an antique video projector built into the back which is powered and spins custom brass film reels while LED lighting flickers in a custom projection box, to give the impression that the image is being projected onto the LCD through the back. The projector and light box are visible through bevelled glass in the side of the LCD housing."
There are a few kinks to iron out (I suspect the Difference Engine gears have a nasty habit of chewing up neckties) before Datamancer Enterprises can mass produce this system, but you can order a handmade one right now for an unspecified price.
For more steampunkesque delights, visit the Datamancer site.
January 09, 2013
Portable Commodore 64 Turns 30, And You're Invited To The Party!
Commodore wanted to attract business types to their blazingly successful Commodore 64 home computer by creating a portable version. Sort of. January 2013 is the "luggable" version of the C64's birthday. Sort of. But we're going to party anyway. Definitely.
The Commodore 64 still stands as the best selling personal computer ever, with something like 30 million units sold. It was THE gaming machine. If a title was available on multiple platforms, the magazine screenshots and TV commercials would unfailingly feature the C64 as the best of the best. With Commodore building 400,000 units a month at its peak, they thought about boosting sales with a "serious" version of the Commodore 64 for business.
We've written about the SX-64 before here on Retro Thing. The SX-64 was what we could begrudgingly call "portable" (sort of like taking a sewing machine to the beach) with a built in 5" color display. Significantly, the SX-64 was the world's first color portable. The built-in floppy (expandable to two) and the keyboard doubling as the lid made for a nice looking portable package.
The SX-64 was announced in January of 1983, and finally released in 1984. After a string of successes, it would have looked like Commodore had another potential winner with the SX-64, but sadly there were problems. Rejigging the motherboard and ports meant that certain accessories and cartridges didn't work correctly. At $995 it was quite an expensive proposition. Still less than the $1200 an Apple II would set you back, but Commodore made its mark with computers "for the masses, not the classes" (according to Jack Tramiel). The regular "breadbox" C64 cost only $595.
The main problem was that there just weren't as many popular business programs on the C64 as on other platforms. The C64 made it's bones as the best home computer and awesome game machine. A business user probably wouldn't take the SX-64 seriously, when for a bit more of his boss' money he could get an Apple II (or splash out $2500 for a sexy new Mac, or $4000 for a PC, etc. etc.)
So the SX-64 became more of a curiosity than anything. Another expensive (but really, really effective) doorstop on the way to discovering what portable computing was really going to look like. Today they are a cherished collectible in the Commodore crowd, hence a multinational effort to party on January 20th to celebrate what could have been...
Here's the idea. You visit THIS website and register your location. Then on January 20th, bring your SX-64 and meet up at the specified time at your local coffe hangout and set up shop. Play some games, show off some music demos, you can even update us all via Twitter using your C64. Let's show those hipsters with their 2.2 ounce laptops see what it meant to bang the iron back when "portable computer" meant the same thing as "blunt force trauma".
So far, only three cities are registered, and I'd love it if we could give this event the Retro Thing boost it deserves and get a couple more meet-ups organized. I don't have an SX-64, but there has got to be someone in Chicago who does? What about in your neck of the woods? If you do get together with some C64 guys on January 20th, and can pull yourself away from Lode Runner for like five friggin' minutes, take a couple of pictures and we'll post them right here on Retro Thing.
LOAD "PARTY",8,1:
links
November 15, 2012
June 22, 2012
Only A Few Dozen Clear Classic USB Joysticks Left!
If you've been thinking about picking up one of our limited edition USB Joysticks, act fast. There are only a few dozen of the blue version left out of a production run of only 500.
Huge thanks to everyone who has already ordered one -- your enthusiasm made us grin from ear to ear.
Feedback from the AtariAge forums:
"I got mine. Even when not in use, it makes an awesome nightlight"
"I received mine today. Very kick ass."
"Got mine today as well. Looks pretty awesome and works perfectly right out of the box."
Visit the Clear Classic USB Joystick page on Amazon to order yours
June 05, 2012
Restoring A 30-Year-Old Apple II Plus
There is a modern trend of gutting vintage computers and replacing their internals with Mac Minis, aquariums or even iPads. While these Frankenputers tend to be great conversation pieces, they make retrocomputing purists cringe because the number of fully-functional classic machines is dwindling rapidly.
Todd Harrison chose a different path by carefully restoring an old Apple II Plus purchased on eBay. Best of all, he documented the process. Take a look!
Apple II Plus from 1982 teardown, repair, cleanup and demonstration
May 16, 2012
Stone Age Commodore KIM-1 On eBay
Lawrence Bezuska emailed me the other day, wondering if I would be interested in buying his early Commodore computer. My first instinct was to eagerly purchase it, but common sense (and a lack of closet space) prevailed and he listed it on eBay. I told him it would probably fetch around $400.
The KIM-1 was the first computer made by MOS Technologies (Commodore). It came as a fully assembled bare board, with a six-digit LED display and a hexadecimal keypad (with 1152 bytes of RAM and 2K of ROM). They were produced until 1981, enjoying considerable success as low-cost hobbyist and educational machines. The incredibly successful Commodore PET-2001 was based on the KIM-1 architecture but included niceties such as a case, power supply, monitor, keyboard, and cassette drive.
I first encountered a KIM-1 in Heaven, a dusty computer graveyard that occupied storage space on the top floor of a University building while I was a teaching assistant. Heaven was filled with stacks of old KIM-1 boards that must have been removed from a computing lab, along with old Northstars, Decwriters, VT-100 terminals, and all manner of unidentifiable minicomputer hardware. Part of me likes to think that all that history is still there, waiting to be rediscovered, although it was probably scrapped years ago.
Lawrence's Rev E board appears to be in excellent condition (although untested) and the auction closes in just over a day.
May 10, 2012
Copper Sprites
According to my handy but hopelessly outdated dictionary, a sprite is "a small or elusive supernatural being." In the digital world, a sprite is a graphical image -- often found in a computer game -- that moves around the screen. Pac-Man, for example.
Jim Harris of 'This is Obsolete' recently whipped up a collection of etched copper plates with aluminium and brass inserts that depict classic video game sprites. So far, he's created five images including a couple of Pac-Man ghosts and a satisfyingly weathered aluminum space invader. He's got plans to continue the series with Mario and others.
I'd love one of these on the wall of my Evil Mad Scientist Lair. Not just because it's cool, but because this sort of stuff captures the ephemeral characters from video games in a concrete, physical way. And that's a good thing, because it serves as a constant reminder that sometimes simple games from the past are every bit as satisfying as modern multi-million dollar epic adventures.
Jim reports that the collection is currently being exhibited at The Rock Inn, Kemptown as part of The Brighton Five Pound Fringe.
Sprites (2012) Preview
A flickr set of the first five pieces in the collection
March 21, 2012
February 28, 2012
The Wide Screen Rip-Off
I love my widescreen TV. Modern movies fit better, and I love the almost-cinematic aspect ratio. It makes sense when viewing films and HD TV programs.
That said, widescreen displays don't make any sense at all on portable computers.
Few of us write wide but short emails or view web pages that are wider than they are tall. Online newspapers are still presented in columnar format because its easier to read that way. Blogs like this one are presented vertically. Even computer code is rarely written as a long line of horizontal text, unless you're entering an obfuscation contest.
Computer companies justify their new 16:9 widescreen displays with marketing buzzwords such as "HD" or "cinema ready." It's as if they imagine a world in which we gormlessly watch endless widescreen movies on our notebooks. I don't know about you, but streaming video isn't the main reason I own a computer. It isn't even in the top ten. I'm more likely to write code or edit a book -- stuff that works best on a taller monitor.
So why are companies constantly trying to push skinny screens on us? It's all about profit. Notebook screens are measured diagonally and a 16:9 screen has less surface area than a traditional 4:3 display. Twelve percent less, in fact. And twelve percent less surface area translates into significantly lower manufacturing costs, since less raw material is required.
The unfortunate side effect is that many modern screens offer much the same vertical resolution as machines sold 5 years ago -- around 768 pixels or so. Our quest for the latest fashion is to blame as well. When standing in the computer aisle of our local electronics and white goods purveyor we're going to choose a computer or tablet with a wide aspect screen because "it's HD." It'll probably have an impractically glossy finish, too.
It doesn't have to be this way. The iPad is a very successful case in point, with a 1024x768 display that retains the classic 4:3 aspect ratio. The traditional shape gives it an advantage over many skinnier tablets that feel a cramped when you flip the screen horizontally, and you get 12% more screen real estate for your hard earned dollar.
So there you have it - my tech peve of the week. What's yours?
November 15, 2011
40 Years of Intel Microprocessors
It's been 40 years since Intel shipped the world's first single chip microprocessor.
Intel was formed by a handful of ex-Fairchild employees in the late 1960s. Japanese electronics manufacturer Busicom approached them in 1969 to develop a chipset for their new 141-PF electronic printing calculator, leading to the release of the Intel 4004 in late 1971. Busicom went on to sell over 100,000 Intel-based calculators, but they eventually found themselves in financial trouble. Intel used this to their advantage and was able to buy back the rights to the chip for non-calculator applications.
The 4004 was a tiny 4-bit processor with an 8-bit wide instruction set. It was capable of running at speeds up to 740 kHz and could address up to 4K of ROM and 1280 x 4bits of RAM, although the accompanying MCS-4 chipset included a tiny 256 byte mask-programmable ROM and 340 byte RAM chip. It seems laughable by todays standards, but those meager specifications were enough to open up a brand new world of programmable logic capable of replacing extremely complicated and expensive electromechanical systems.
Intel followed the success of this little 16 pin chip with the 8008, a 3,300 transistor 8-bit chip that was introduced in late 1972. The company went on the have a string of successes throughout the 1970s, but it was the incorporation of their processors into the IBM-PC lineup in the 1980s that enabled them to become the largest processor manufacturer in the world.
Incidentally, original 4004 chips are now highly collectible and a rare gold-white-grey chip like the one shown here can change hands for well over $1000. That said, I'd much rather have been given $1000 of Intel stock in the early 1970s - it'd be worth over $500,000 today -- enough for a massive stack of vintage chips.
October 19, 2011
Classic Retro Thing |
