Did you work on making these for STC back in the day? Know someone who did? Since 2016 I’ve been the STC repository and I’m looking for help on the Plessey MR9735 Teleview video generator.
Https://binarydinosaurs.co.uk/STC
Retrofest 2026 is taking shape - we now have an exhibitors list and details for most of the exhibitors, including 13 who'll be new to the event! www.retrofest.uk/whowhat.php
We also have a Bluesky list so you can follow them all, past and present, with one easy click - bsky.app/profile/shor...
My new book about Sphere, the forgotten but incredible 1970s computing pioneer is published and available! Curious? Grab a copy here: shop.gocomputernow.com/products/go-...
For the hive mind:
I'm looking for group purchasing or crowd funding sites to support a larger batch of NanoBeasts, VideoBeasts and potentially launch a couple of other projects.
Has anyone experience with Lectronz, Crowd Supply, Kickstarter or others for tech projects? UK based selling worldwide.
Oooh, snap!
I have waited a VERY long time to do this! I first saw an article about connecting a video camera to your Dragon way back in Dec 1985 and it really sparked my imagination. The idea that a camera could be digital and the images stored on a computer were so new and exciting ... 1/4
All the fun you can squeeze into 64k! youtu.be/PM18XTdua8s
We look at the international sensation Jet Set Willy and 1984's explosion of open-world adventure gaming. Plus a full Quake-style FPS in just 64k, and new flow coding and game engines for classic hardware.
If you are looking at buying a cartridge of a homebrew release for a retro system, always check with whoever made the original game to see if the person selling the cart/CDRom has permission to do so.
If they don't, don't buy it. It's that damn simple.
Hot Snot FTW! 👍
This is a picture of the Commodore 900 computer that was Commodore's first attempt at a Unix-like workstation. It used the Coherent Unix work-alike operating system. This computer never made it to production.
Had my #Commodore C900 out today to try something for a friend. More testing is needed (when I get the nerve) but it might have a medium resolution RGBI/VGA port when the stock Hi-Res ECL monitor goes.
#vintagecomputer #retrocomputer
A trio of floppy disks: a big 8" disk, a fairly ordinary 5.25" disk for PCs, and an Apple FileWare (aka Twiggy) disk.
Do you have 5.25" and 8" floppy disks that are spare, low-quality, degrading, or just generally in bad shape?
I'd like to take my floppy disk data recovery game to the next level. I have equipment, but there's no substitute for experience.
Yeah, it was certainly an experience! :)
It was Mission Impossible 8. Sadly the scene never made the final cut but you do see my Teletype in the film for approx 0.5 seconds 😀
One of my favourite TV characters. Was lucky enough to kinda work with Nick Offerman on a film set (I was offscreen, sending messages to a Teletype and he was tearing off & reading the message) Super nice guy in real life!
Happy Birthday Kevin! 🎂
A PDP-8 computer in a new-to-me blue & blue color scheme. I learned to program on one with the more typical red-and-gold scheme, and I’ve seen a hideous two+tome green variant, too.
Went to VCF SoCal today and there was a PDP-8 in a new-to-me color scheme. Learned to program on one of these in 1973.
@adventofcomp.bsky.social gave a hilarious talk about INTERCAL, the Compiler Language With No Pronounceable Acronym
Ahh, the vents on the back tricked me. I've only ever seen the plastic cased version IRL. Nice machines! :)
Commodore 128 - Mmmm
PET II - Sweet
Amiga 3000 ? - Ooooh
youtu.be/DScdsdFIP_A?...
RetroFest 2026 - The Unofficial Advert
AI image of a 'Correctly-wired UK plug' which is anything but correctly wired, with the live wire not going into the fuse, a mystery grey wire, and the neutral being a tiny wire between the fuse and the third pin...
AI intends to kill us all
control panel of the day #HCI
I've always used DSDD disks on the S1/V9k without issue. I think the correct disks are 96tpi quad density (Same as used on 80track BBC drives). Not sure I'd trust HD media.
Oddly enough, I have a sealed box of Victor branded 1.2Mb HD media that was for their later PC compatibles.
I finally got around to putting a video together for the North Star Horizon. youtu.be/gFO5XHTvKG8?...
Yeah, I had trouble with CP/M-86 on my HD equipped Sirius. Seems to really unlike the first partition being drive A.
Also have a Z80 board I haven't tried yet. I believe the software is on archive.org
The future of robotics is here
Customer - "Can you print this on a T-Shirt?"
Me - "Yes.... Did you use AI to create this?"
Customer - "Yeah, ChatGPT is great!"
Me - "Errr, your phoenix appears to have two heads"
Customer - "But it looks good. It'll be fine. AI is great!"
<SIGH> 🤦
Nevermind, here's a Mandelbrot I printed to cheer you up! 😉
Nice! My high score is 32768 on the Apple ][ version of VisiCalc 😉
I picked up this clear Sun SPARCstation LX a couple weeks ago. I was told that it was a special machine used for trade shows. Let's take it apart, back up its hard drive with BlueSCSI initiator mode, and start recapping the power supply. Saturday noon EST. youtube.com/live/W6tjUSo...
