Lmst

🚨 Neste sábado (amanhã) às 20h00, a RTP2 vai passar o primeiro episódio de um documentário sobre o ZX Spectrum. 📺⌨️

https://www.rtp.pt/programa/tv/p48362

É de aproveitar. É raro ver documentários sobre temas de computadores nos canais portugueses, e ainda mais raro centrados em Portugal. 🇵🇹

#retrocomputing #zxspectrum #portugal

It's the second time in a few years that I buy a vintage computer with its CRT monitor, with the monitor described as non-functioning. It's the second time I open the monitor, check the fuse, replace the fuse, and fix it with 5 minutes of work.

Is there an explanation why old Apple monitors would blow fuses and then work perfectly with a new one? I mean usually a blown fuse is an indicator of something else being wrong.

#RetroComputing #appleII

IPX-over-IP with VDE?

So, it's #DOSember. A lot of us are playing our favorite DOS games, or trying some new ones. Most are probably sticking to emulators, though some of us prefer real hardware. This has me thinking about the possibility of getting together to play some old-school classics over the net. Most DOS games only support the IPX protocol, so they're not directly compatible with the TCP/IP-based Internet. In the past we had services like Kali and Kahn, but those are long-gone. DOSbox and many of its derivatives have built-in IPX-IP tunnelling. But what about real machines?

I had an idea: it'd probably be possible to set up a tunnel using VDE. Each player would need a modern Linux machine that's connected to the same LAN as their DOS boxen. Every Linux box would run an instance of vde_switch, while the "host" would additionally run a world-reachable SSH server.

ip link add br0 type bridge         # create a bridge device
ip link set dev br0 up              # mark it "up" without assigning an IP addr
ip tuntap add tap0 mode tap         # create a TAP device
ip link set dev tap0 up             # as before
ip link set tap0 master br0         # tie the TAP device to the bridge
ip link set eth1 master br0         # tie the real NIC for the DOS machines
                                    # to the bridge
vde_switch -s /tmp/vde.ctl -m 666 -M /tmp/vde.mgt -t tap0 -d    # start VDE

The above assumes you're using a separate network adapter to connect to your DOS machine(s), rather than simply hooking the DOS rig up to your main LAN. These commands will work on Debian with the bridge-utils package installed; other distros might require different syntax. It might also work on *BSD but I haven't tried it myself; you'd use your system's TAP and bridge setup tools in that case.

For the host that should be it. Clients will need to run this command to connect:

dpipe -d -P /tmp/vde.pgrp \
/usr/bin/vde_plug /tmp/vde.ctl = \
ssh gameguest@host.example.com vde_plug

This assumes the host has set up an account called "gameguest" for clients to use. The account must be able to write to /tmp/vde.ctl but needs no other permissions.

So, what's everyone think? I use a setup like this for my local "retronet" but I've never actually tried it remotely before, and I don't actually know how well it'd handle non-TCP/IP traffic, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

#RetroComputing #DOSGaming #DOScember #DOS

I just completed "Christmas Tree Farm" - Day 12 of #AdventOfCode in #TurboPascal. Only in #DOSBox for now, until I get back home and run it on the real #Xi8088 hardware.

I can already tell that parsing the input file will take a lot longer than solving!

(No spoiler in the picture)

#Retrocomputing #Pascal #DOScember

Screen capture of DOSBox showing a small section of the Turbo Pascal code I used for the input parsing of today's Advent of Code puzzle.

Back in stock! 16K/48K ZX Spectrum style printed circuit board pin badges! All helps put a couple quid in the development kitty for all the projects I've got on the go for new #retrocomputing stuff!

https://www.samcoupe.com/quickshop.htm

(Badges also available in SAM Coupe and Commodore 64/16/VIC-20 styles too!)

#zxspectrum #samcoupe #commodore #c64 #retrogaming

Little printed circuit board pin badges styled like a 16K or 48K ZX Spectrum

nOw PLaYiNG oN qUAntUm RaDio!: Stu Level3 bY Mindfuck! tUnE iN NoW: https://radio.erb.pw #retrocomputing #demoscene #chiptunes #trackermusic #sceneradio

Ordnung im LagerErleichtern Sie sich die Jahresinventur.Behalten Sie den Überblick über Ihren Lagerbestand. | 64'er Magazin
https://www.64er-magazin.de/SH8507/artikel.html
#c64 #retrocomputing #64er
Verschaffen Sie sich einen ständigen Durch- und Überblick über Ihren Lagerbestand und erleichtern Sie sich gleichzeitig die Jahresinventur.

About the Commodore PET startup sound

#retrocomputing #commodore #pet #mildlyinteresting @retrocomputing

https://scruss.com/blog/2025/12/11/commodore-pet-startup-sound-again/

I'm 11 days late, but I finally got the @mistfunk ADVENT calendar running on bbs.decafbad.com :blobcheer: (It's under Games & Apps (X), Favorites (1), MiSTiGRis Advent (6)) #bbs #retrocomputing #ansi #xmas #advent

Yep, it runs MacOS 7.5 really wide 🙃

#typeframe #RetroComputing #cyberdeck #writerdeck #FlyingToasters #VintageApple #VintageMac

A small computer in beige plastic that resembles a slabtop from the mid 1980s. A rainbow backlit keyboard with beige, dark gray, and orange keycaps is in the front with a small LCD screen on the upper left tilted up toward the viewer. On the screen is the MacOS boot screen with icons of control panels and extensions loading.

When I pull my phone out of my pocket and turn on the screen, it takes a few seconds for the screen to reach full brightness.

Reminds me of a #CRT warming up.

Although in this case it's because the automatic brightness control is taking a moment to sense and react to the change in ambient light level, and not anything to do with the screen itself (which can change brightness instantly).

But still. It reminds me of my childhood.

#retrocomputing

Computer für Behinderte | 64'er Magazin
https://www.64er-magazin.de/8512/bliss.html
#c64 #retrocomputing #64er
Der Computer Club Graz schreibt für den C 64 Programme, die Behinderten das Leben erleichtern. Mit der Symbolsprache Bliss ist für Behinderte sogar ein Schreiben von Briefen möglich.

#retrocomputing The via on the right appears to tie into the ground plane, so in theory, if you bridge these two pads, you can see the hidden thin font.

Attempt to impress your significant other with that.

To see the thin font, we need to pull A11 low. Let's see where A11 goes. Aha, it winds up right here right below the CRTC.

I hear early revisions of the CGA card had a jumper here, so you could switch between the fonts fairly easily.

IBM apparently changed their minds about that because the jumper is missing on all the cards I've seen.

#retrocomputing

a photo of the CGA card showing where the A11 line from the font rom winds up - an unpopulated jumper near the CRTC chip.

#retrocomputing

The CGA had an alternate thin font.

Here it is on top compared to the normal font beneath it.

a bitmap showing the hidden "Thin" font of the CGA , with the normal "thick" font below it.

nOw PLaYiNG oN qUAntUm RaDio!: The Believer! bY Hazel! tUnE iN NoW: https://radio.erb.pw #retrocomputing #demoscene #chiptunes #trackermusic #sceneradio

#retrocomputing #emulation

The ISA slot is implemented in Verilog. What I'm thinking of doing is implementing a few Verilog programs that set up various graphics modes and write something into video memory.
Almost like a game cartridge! You could just connect the one you want in the simulation and then run it, and you'll see the card do something different.

#retrocomputing #emulation

as you can see I'm dividing the functional areas of the CGA and putting a little description of what they do. When this is done I'll throw it up on GitHub and anyone can download the simulator and run it and explore how the CGA operates.

#retrocomputing #emulation

So if you're curious what chips you can tear off your CGA card because who needs attributes or graphics anyway, here's the minimal viable text mode:

a schematic in the Digital logic simulator showing the basic chips implemented to get a simple text mode (without attribute support).

Okay, this might be one of the coolest things I've ever done. Top 10, easily.

This freaking CGA card works!
It reads DRAM via CAS and RAS addressing, it reads the character font ROM, it serializes it out at the dot clock.

I poked the message manually into VRAM, because I don't have the PC-side interface at all.

But hell. IT WORKS

#retrocomputing #emulation

#retroComputing

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