The design is from 86 too, this example just happened to be from 89. :-)

Windows 3.1 built-in printer drivers

A friend just shared this with me.

They were installing Windows 3.1 and noticed a particular printer listed as part of the built-in printer driver set.

Amazing!

VCF PNW flyer

Reminder! VCF PNW in Seattle is coming up. I'll be one of the exhibitors, so if you're in the area, please come and say hi and stay for the retro goodness.

Heh -- funny. This was the MS-DOS that comes with Windows 98. (Is that Version 7.0?)

The 80s computer you've never heard of: The NABU PC YouTube video by Adrian's Digital Basement

Heh yep, I have a video I made on mine from Nov 2022 :-) At the time, there was not yet a way to make it do anything.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLYj...

Once the Archimedes has its original CPU I'll need to see how fast it runs this. The 2MHz BBC Model B was already super fast for the time.

NICE trying to leave off the 40 col stuff.... but that's funny it's faster, I guess that's the graphics subsystem stealing cycles from the CPU for the higher resolution mode.

What a cool looking machine!! Thanks for the run, it's been added to the list

Indeed! The 6502 is extremely efficient clock for clock, but beyond that BBC Basic is super fast for an interpreted basic. The 2Mhz Beeb is just slightly faster than a 4.77Mhz IBM PC 5150 running also BBC Basic. I should run this on my Electron to see how terribly slow that is. 😂

Quick Basic uncompiled 12 seconds on a 8mhz computer sounds hard to believe. Quick Basic 1.1 on my 5170 (286 @ 8.8mhz) took 61 seconds -- so I have to think later versions like that do insane optimizations. Ok yes reading up on version 4 and up, it always compiles it, even running in the editor.

Modern stuff isn't really comparable because who knows what it's doing -- turning the basic into super optimized microcode etc

That's ok all of these are hand-timed. It's just generally to get an idea for things

This version needs floating point basic. It is possible to alter it to run on integer basic, but that would need to be a different leaderboard, as floating point emulation is slow and part of the benchmark.

Fractal Benchmark looks like this.

I have a Basic Fractal Benchmark on this Google Sheet:

If anyone has cool computers with 80-columns and BASIC, try running this little program while timing it.

Report back so I can add it to the leaderboard.

docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Jumper installed on the Agfa Compugraphic 9000PS

I've been doing more "stuff" with the Agfa Compugraphic 9000PS main processor board. It's really fun playing with this relic that no one cares about.

Yes, totally agree. I use "this past Friday" if I'm referring to one that has just passed. Otherwise "this Friday" is the upcoming one and "Friday after next" is the one after that.

We just had record rain in Portland and it resulted in some water in the basement. 😢

Luckily I have water sensors, so I was alerted right away. It just means I need to reinforce the water proofing system for this one specific spot (which was around my water main.)

And try to dry the moisture...

DOS format results

This floppy is like the TARDIS. It might look like a normal 1.2mb floppy, but apparently it has 4 gigs of bad sectors on it!

The $69 PicoIDE Is A Game Changer For Vintage Computing YouTube video by ctrl-alt-rees

As the #PicoIDE campaign on Crowd Supply enters its final hours (www.crowdsupply.com/polpotronics...), @ctrl-alt-rees.com has come out with a fantastic video all about the PicoIDE! And wow it looks good in that baby AT case. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG_t...

Magic smoke released (IBM PC XT)

"There's your problem!"

Magic smoke released.

Of course, it happened right after I screwed the cover on.

Indeed! Faulty since new, or nearly new.

Quick fix: An unusual Commodore VIC-20 fault YouTube video by Adrian's Digital Basement Extras

I just released another video on my extras channel.

This time. a mint Commodore VIC-20 with an unusual video fault:

youtu.be/YuxpjbKaHwI

Use Apple TechStep without TechSteap hardware: Mac's built in diagnostics YouTube video by Adrian's Digital Basement

My original video:
youtu.be/W1biFIdQZDw

And the information required to run the diags: (Manually)
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Reconnaissance Software Reveals Every Problem With This Apple Macintosh SE30 YouTube video by Rudy's Retro Intel

A while back I made a video where I figured out how to run the built in ROM diags on a Mac SE/30 over its serial port. I documented the work and some smart folks have turned that work into an easy to use program that anyone can use:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K48v...

Great resource to fix a bad Mac!

That is freaking cool! What a neat hidden gem.

Screen saver patterns on an Apple Lisa

I tried backspace during the screensaver and it's really awesome!

How many different modes are there?

I know myself and in six months I'll have forgotten the change and then think my Mac Plus keyboard is broken. Hahaha!!

Keyboards without arrow keys also have no keypad. LOL Good find though, unfortunately this could be helpful if this was the only keyboard I used. It seems to only use 1 and 2 to scroll. I bet it would seriously confuse me if I went to use a keyboard with arrow keys and found they didn't work.

Franklin Ace 1000/1200 Keyboard Repair (Keytronics Foam and Foil) YouTube video by Adrian's Digital Basement Extras

I don't normally post about my own videos on the socials, but I thought I'd share a video I just made live on my extras channel.

I'm starting to do more small/quick things over on the extras channel, so just trying to spread the word a bit.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0SJ...

Ah cool! My one request for this bootloader would be to allow selection of images using something other than arrow keys. It's really awesome though!