Steve Chamberlin over at Big Mess o’Wires presents the Plus Too, a working hardware replica of the Macintosh Plus and Macintosh 512Ke computers. The original Macs contained a Motorola 68000 CPU and about half a dozen major support chips, with all of the Mac-specific behaviors and OS routines defined in a 128K toolbox ROM. Plus […]
Category Archives: vintage
Hackerspaces – the beginning (the book)
Bre and Astera over at Hackerspace blog have assembled a detailed history of the hackerspace movement. Covering from their inception in 2008 to date, what they initially believed would be a 25 page booklet has turned into a 182 MB zip file containing a comprehensive, richly illustrated, community generated account of every aspect of hackerspace […]
Reference data for radio engineers, circa 1946
If you’re interested in reading about state of the art radio engineering data from way back in the day, then this may be for you.Tubebooks.org has a free download of Federal Telephone and Radio Corporation’s 1946 “Radio Data for Engineers, Second Edition” waiting for you. The 335 page PDF has loads of conversion factors, math, […]
CommodoreFree online magazine
If you are into retrocomputing with the Commodore C64 or clone then you will be interested in reading CommodoreFree. This is a free online magazine which has been published since 2007 and is now in its 53 issue. You can download all issues beginning with number 4 from the CommodoreFree website in PDF, text, Epub […]
1988 TTL logic data book
Daniel Brake writes: I don’t know if you guys have seen this yet, but TI has their 1988 TTL Logic Data Book for only $0.10. I have received 3 copies and the total cost, including shipping (US), was only $0.30! TI describes this book as: Texas Instruments presents pertinent technical information on their broad line […]
Stype typewriter
What do you call a typewriter modded to communicate digital messages over Skype? A Stype, of course! Daniel Huhndt describes it: With the help of “some solenoids, relays, pushbuttons, some parts of a cheap keyboard, an arduino mega and a mac mini” , the typewriter can be used to send messages online. Whatever is typed […]
Steampunk record player
The eccentric thinkers at asciimation have developed a phonograph using the Arduino. In the steampunk tradition, the turntable is steam powered and made from scrap parts. The speed is controlled by the Arduino using six magnets and a coil as a pickup. They use the PID controller library in controlling the servo based on the […]
Arduino driving CGA display
András Veres-Szentkirályi found an old CGA monitor and wondered whether it could be repurposed for use with an Arduino. He noted that CGA monitors use inexpensive DB-9 connectors, the signals are TTL (0-5V digital), the clocks are in the range of cheap microcontrollers (HSYNC is 15,75 kHz, VSYNC is 60 Hz), and yet 640 by […]
ProCoCo cart: Propeller-based Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 cartridge
If you’re into retro computing, this project may be for you. Plainsteve developed this custom cartridge for the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 (CoCo 2) last Fall and released the details recently on his blog. The project is based on the Parallax Propeller and unlike other CoCo cartridges which simply play a program from ROM, […]
Retro style microcomputer on Parallax Propeller
Jeffledger wrote this Instructable detailing his construction of a retro-style microcomputer using a Parallax Propeller Multicore Startup Special dev kit (any Propeller board should work), an RCA Ultimate TV IR keyboard, 38 kHz IR receiver module, resistor and micro SD card with adapter. The result is a mockup of a retro computer on which you […]
CPLD Commodore C64 memory project
The website 64HDD has plenty of information about mods and upgrades for Commodore C64 enthusiasts. They have an article explaining their exploration of using CPLDs in C64 hardware mods. Their first CPLD project, explained in the article, explores the build of a 256kB memory expansion board originally designed using TTL chips. The project uses the […]
A little Atari 810 disk drive
Rossum has a new project out, a little Atari 810 disk drive: My first computer was an Atari 400. My first disk drive was the magnificent Atari 810. Overwhelmed by a recent wave of nostalgia from playing Zork for the first time in 30 years I have built a working model of an Atari 810 […]
8 and 16 bit computer system fonts
How many 8-bit and 16-bit computer system fonts do you remember? These two articles look at who was behind them, and what gives early home computing such a distinct feel: My love of typography originated in the 80′s with the golden years of 8-bit home computing and their 8×8 pixel monospaced fonts on low-resolution displays. […]
Help NIST identify these mysterious scientific objects
The National Institute of Standards and Technology accumulates hundreds of odd scientific and technical items each year, often without knowing their exact name or purpose. They have posted photos of various vintage items, and their tentative title in an effort to identify them. In coming months, NIST will add hundreds more mystery tools to those […]
Commodore announces new Commodore 64, VIC Computer
Anyone who remembers computing “back in the day” might be interested to know that Commodore has opened a Web store where consumers can buy a modernized Commodore 64 and two new versions of the VIC, now redesigned as a “keyboard computer”. The new Commodore 64 costs anywhere from $250 for a “barebones” configuration for modders, […]
Re-animating the PDP-11/70 with CPLD, ethernet
J. Peterson updated a PDP-11/70 console with an ethernet controller and a CPLD to control the blinking LEDs: I’ve always missed that visual and tactile aspect of computers that’s been lost since the advent of microprocessors. When a console for a PDP-11/70 came up for sale on Ebay, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to bring […]
XT IDE disk controller for vintage computers
XTIDE is an open source IDE disk controller for old XT computers that only have 8bit ISA expansion slots. The Vintage Computer Forum designed this controller so their retro gear could keep rolling with modern IDE storage like harddrives and compact flash cards. Most of the ICs are simple 7400 series logic chips. They cut […]