Vintage commercial: Sinclair ZX Spectrum +

Here's something for all you Zed fans out there:



Have a great weekend ~ Jim

About that "History of the Internet" video, and something for the Apple II crowd

I have received a couple of emails about how the video in the previous post "Video: History of the Internet" is a little on the inaccurate side, so I would like to invite those of you who are a little more up on their about the history of the internet than I am to comment at that post, and state what you believe the inaccuracies are. (That's a subtle way of encouraging comments to this blog huh? :)

I'll try and do some more research on my own and follow up with another post at a future date, or if someone else want's to submit a more historically accurate article for this blog, I will be happy to post it for them.

Remember that this blog is for members of both the 8-Bit Retro Computing and Vintage Computing & Computers groups on Linkedin.com, so if you are a member of either of those groups you can submit articles for this blog. I am also open to allowing non-members to submit articles and news, so drop me a line if you have something you would like to add to this blog.

Now I haven't done much in the way of adding links or news for the Apple II fans out there, but I do plan to do so in the near future. In the mean time here's a picture I snagged from this site at Flickr that should bring back some memories for you Apple geeks.

Please feel free to comment, and drop me a line if you have any suggestions, concerns, or corrections for anything posted in this blog. And as always, please let me know of any links I should add to the links list in the sidebar. Cheers ~ Jim Cox

Recording audio to a floppy disk

I came across this article at CrunchGear on how to record analog audio on to a floppy disk. It's a pretty good hack, so check out the article: Video: Recording analog audio to a floppy disk

Below is the video that was featured in the article. It was produced by The Fat Man and Circuit Girl which looks like a great site to find some interesting hacks, some using surplus equipment.



The Fat Man and Circuit Girl are George Sanger and Jeri Ellsworth respectively. Jeri is best known for her work on the Commodore 30-in-1 Direct to TV, and she has a YouTube page at: http://www.youtube.com/user/jeriellsworth. I especially like the video: CDROM Tray Cup Warmer / Cooler with Over Clocked 8bit CPU's and Peltier Cooler

Now I know a many of you have lots of surplus stuff lying around, so The Fat Man and Circuit Girl should give you plenty of inspiration to hack away at some of it. Cheers ~ Jim

Video: History of the Internet

A friend pointed me to a video on YouTube titled "History of the Internet", and while it is not directly related to 8-Bit retro computing it is still pretty cool, so I thought I would share it with you. Cheers ~ Jim

Cool CoCo videos!

Allen Huffman put together this great video of the 18th "Last" CoCoFest that took place last weekend. I have never been to a CoCoFest, so for me this is a great treat because I finally get to see some of the people who I have only known via email or chat.

So check out Al's great "CoCoFest 2009 Teaser" video, and be sure to read his "2009 CoCoFest Report"!



Allen also let me know (and the entire CoCo News Group) about this video montage from shubibinman titled "Tandy CoCo Tribute" If you are an CoCoNut or an 8-Bit Retro gamer then you should get a blast out of this!

OS News: 8-Bit Game Creator Now Available for Order

I just caught this posting over at OS News, thought many of you would be interested in it: 8-Bit Game Creator Now Available for Order.

The system is from Playpower.org, is available from MakerShed for $49.99, and comes with:

• 6502 processor,
• Keyboard, and mouse,
• 2 game controllers,
• Operating system cartridge -
• RCA cables (NTSC video and stereo audio)
• 9 volt power supply
  
• You can also get an adapter for your NES cartridges
  

At a glance I couldn't see anything about how much memory comes with the system. I did notice that the OS cartridge comes with a GUI in Mandarin Chinese, but fortunately has an DOS prompt in English. Maybe someone will come up with an Englsih version of the GUI in the near future, but then again for me working with a command line is a blast!

It looks like a great little system, and if I were current working and not worried about saving my pennies I would consider getting one.

Take a look at the Playpower.org site. I like the organization's philosophy of getting low cost systems into the hands of kids that provide them enough resources to encourage them to explore computing.

Feel free to drop me a line or leave a comment if you know more about this system ~ Jim

Amazing video of a large vintage computer collection

Update 05/18/09: Steve just left a comment stating that the Color Computer 1 is not actually black, but it just looks that way due to the lighting ~ Jim

Original Post:

This is just an incredible video of a very large collection of vintage computers and gaming systems. For all you Radio Shack Color Computer collectors take a look at the black Color Computer 1.



Here is the URL for Steve Benway's site: http://www.benwaysworld.co.uk/

If you have any news or links to add for this blog just drop me a line. Thanks! ~ Jim