1st annual Vintage Computer Festival Southwest

The notice below was recently posted to the Yahoo ColorComputer Group, and I thought I would repost it here for the benefit of others:

"The 1st annual Vintage Computer Festival Southwest will be held August 7th and 8th, in the Rio Grande Ballroom, in the E.H. Hereford University Center, University of Texas, Arlington. The event is sponsored by the Museum of Information Technology at Arlington, the UTA College of Engineering, the UTA Office of Information Technology and Vintage Tech. The VCF is an international event that celebrates the history of computing. There have been VCFs at several locations since 1997."

Below are the pertinent URLs:

• The Museum of Information Technology at Arlington: http://mit-a.com/
• Vintage Computer Festival: http://www.vintage.org/

Drop me a line if you have any other vintage computing news or announcements that you would like posted to this blog, and feel free to join the 8-Bit Retro Computing Group on Linkedin.com

Video: IBM 5100 First Portable Computer commercial 1977

Well it has been a while since I posted to this blog, so I thought that this classic commercial from MrClassicAds would be a great way for me to get the ball rolling again:



I love the line "It weighs about 50 pounds". Now that's a portable, or at least that was the standard back when I graduated from high school.

Feel free to comment and if you have any suggestions for links drop me a line, and if you are on Linkedin.com you are welcome to join the 8-BIT RETRO COMPUTING Group.

Cheers ~ Jim

FORA.tv - Steve Wozniak: How I Invented the Personal Computer

FORA.tv has an excellent video featuring Steve Wozniak.

I tried to embedded a 5 minute segment where Woz was talking specifically about the Apple I and II, but for some reason the embedded code kept going the wrong section of the video.

So instead I am just going to point you to the 5 minute section here at FORA.tv

Enjoy ~ Jim Cox

Video: FPGA Tuning C64 SID Jeri Ellsworth

Here's a video for all you Commodore 64 and Jeri Ellsworth fans out there:



I need to do some digging around to see what other classic systems and chips are emulated with FPGAs.

Color Computer Manuals And Books AvailableColor Computer Manuals And Books Available

Update 10/18/09: All manuals have now been given away.

I have been doing a little house cleaning, and I have gone through all my Color Computer manuals and books and sorted out all the duplicates. All the manuals and books below are available for the cost of shipping (USPS or UPS, your choice).

I want to give back to the CoCo Community, so I would prefer to give these only to those I know from the CoCo list hosted by Maltedmedia, and not to speculators who will just sell the stuff on eBay.

If you are not a member of the list, but are in need of these manuals feel free to contact me via the email link in the "Welcome" section, and will can discuss your needs.

This list will be updated as items are given away, so check back often to see what is still available ~ Jim

Color Computer Manuals And Books:

1. Getting Started With Color Basic. Radio Shack Catalog Number 26-3191 3 Copies - 1 spoke for
   
2. Going Ahead With Extended Color Basic. (No Radio Shack Catalog number listed.) Spoken for
   
3. Color Computer 3 Basic Quick Reference Guide Spoken for
   
4. TRS-80 Color Computer Operation Manual. Radio Shack Catalog Number 26-3001/3002 Spoken for
   
5. Color Computer Disk System - Owners Manual & Programming Guide. (No Radio Shack Catalog number listed.) 3 Copies - 1 spoken for
6. Color Computer 3 Extended Basic. (No Radio Shack Catalog number listed.) Spoken for
7. Introducing Your Color Computer 3. (No Radio Shack Catalog number listed.) 3 Copies - 1 spoken for
8. Tandy Service Manual - Color Computer 3 NTSC/PAL Version with 512K Exansion RAM Card. Radio Shack Catalog Number 26-3334 - Spoken for
   
9. TRS-80 Color Computer Technical Reference Manual Spoken for
10. Direct Connect Modem Pak Operation Manual 26-2228 Spoken for
11. Deluxe RS-232 Program Pak Operation Manual. Radio Shack Catalog Number 26-2226 4 copies - 1 spoken for
    
12. DMP-100 Printer Manual. Radio Shack Catalog Number 26-1253
13. TRS-80 Color Computer Assembly Language Programming - William Barden Jr. Radio Shack Catalog Number 62-2077 - Spoken for
14. Instructions for Presto Painter for the CoCo

OS-9 Specific Manuals And Books:

1. The Complete Rainbow Guide To OS-9 ISBN: 0-932471-00-5 2 Copies - 1 spoken for
   
2. The Official Basic 09 Tour Guide ISBN: 0-918035-00-7 Spoken for

The following is a collection of Radio Shack OS-9 Manuals that have been hole punched and placed in a three ring binder, and will only be offered as a complete set:

• Getting Started With OS-9
• OS-9 Commands
• OS-9 Program Development
• OS-9 Technical Information
• This set has been spoken for.
  

Miscellaneous Manuals and Books:

1. 6809 Microcomputer Programming & Interfacing With Experiments ISBN: 0-672-21798-8 Tentatively spoken for.
   
2. Circuit Design Programs For The TRS-80 ISBN: 0-672-21741-4
3. Color Computer Graphics - William Barden Jr. Radio Shack Catalog Number 62-2076
4. How To Use Your Radio Shack Printer - William Barden Jr. Radio Shack Catalog Number 26-1242
5. Motorola MC6809-MC6809E Microprocessor Programming Manual Motorola Catalog Number: M6809PM(AD)
6. Technical Manual for the Star Mitronics Gemini-10X Dot Matrix Printer
7. C. Itoh Dot Matrix Printer Model 8510A Users Manual

WIRED: Homebrewed CPU Is a Beautiful Mess of Wires

If you ever wondered what it would be like to spin you own 8-Bit CPU then check out "Homebrewed CPU Is a Beautiful Mess of Wires" from WIRED.com.

The article details how Steve Chamberlin of Belmont California designed, and wire wrapped his own 8-Bit CPU called the "Big Mess of Wires" or BMOW. The design is similar to the 6502 and the completed project will be on display at the fourth annual Maker Faire this weekend (May 30 - 31, 2009)

Take a look at Steves site for more details: http://www.stevechamberlin.com/cpu/about/

Vintage commercial: Sinclair ZX Spectrum +

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



Have a great weekend ~ Jim