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    Help! I've Fallen Down a Rabbit Hole and Can't Get up!

    You might be interested in ordering the reproduction kit: piDP-10 I have the other kits - piDP-8/11, and they are well made. Having the front panel might make learning about the system that much more interesting! My 2 cents is that DEC assembly is more complex/varied compared to some other...
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    Which Was Better: Punch Cards, Paper Tape, or Audio Tapes?

    ...how much information could be stored on a ... paper tape? The Data General Nova was a popular minicomputer in the '70s that could use a paper tape reader and paper tape punch. The paper tape was 1" wide, 8 bits across to make up a frame, and 10 frames to the inch. The writer operated at max...
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    homebrew Z180

    Great design! I own the SC-131 from Cousins and it runs using only power from the usb port (it's listed to use 100mA without the SD card and up to 300mA with SD). It's a really nifty little computer. I feel the Z180 may be underappreciated for these retro-computing designs when compared the the...
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    14:03 / 16:50 The Rise of Unix. The Seeds of its Fall.

    I would argue that, for non-GUI systems, OpenBSD is actually very simple and elegant compared to modern Linux distros. The installer may be text based, but just asks a few simple questions and generally provides working defaults. The boot process is simple to understand with a few rc scripts...
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    Retro LAN Party game suggestions

    I would recommend trying the original Unreal Tournament (UT99). Totally my opinion - but the game play was a lot better than UT2004. Used to have a blast playing that game!
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    Good 8-bit kit for beginner?

    I would highly recommend the RC-2014 if you are looking for a self-contained, simple kit to get started with. You can build it in an afternoon or so. It uses a z80 processor and is sold on Tindie. There is a large support group, and many enthusiasts have created their own add-in cards for the...
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    Other US Areas Looking for RCA Cosmac 1802 devices

    Seems to be a Cosmac Microtutor on ebay right now: https://www.ebay.com/itm/314760473927
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    One IBM PC/clone gaming machine or two for covering 1980's and 1990's games?

    Gaming on a PC compatible in the 90's was so much different from gaming in the 80's, my advice would be to just get the 90's machine or get two: For a decent 90's period-accurate experience I'd recommend a 486 DX2-66 w/8mb ram. The CPU came out in '92, so fits your timeline. Doom in '93, Doom...
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    Oldest games you know

    First computer game was Gorf on the Vic 20... Classic! For console, it was Combat (Tank Game) for the Atari 2600. I think missile command was possibly the first arcade game. First online game was Trade Wars.
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    Child of NABU Founders Working on Network Emulation

    I believe he took down the original post for the unit with the keyboard and then relisted it. He may have adjusted the shipping cost. It shows available today with a shipping cost of $31US from MA to GA, so my original post should have included the shipping I suppose - $91 was the total for my...
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    Child of NABU Founders Working on Network Emulation

    Very interesting! Once they get the network working, perhaps someone will get one of these NOS units connected to it! For those that are interested in the NABU hardware - someone is selling "one thousand" of these NOS systems and network adapters right now on ebay... For those that build z80...
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    SC131 Z180 CP/M Computer Questions

    Using minicom with settings 115200 8N1 connect to the tty port. Mine shows up at /dev/ttyUSB0 Type 'c' at the boot prompt to enter CP/M. The CP/M on SC131 boots with two drives: RAM drive 'A', and ROM drive 'B'. ROM drive 'B' is the main drive with all the boot files, and may be write-protected...
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    What is this? Post Photos of Mystery Items Here (vintage computers only)

    Great looking find! My guess is that it is (in part) a hobbyist built morse code keyer, like this modern one. It has the same options for speed, tone, weight, volume, and input jack for the key. It has a switch for selecting the external morse code key as input or the keyboard. I would assume...
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    Tandy 6000 destroyed in shipping - keep it or refund?

    This happened to me with a PDP-11 computer I had ordered. It wasn't one of the super expensive ones - but they are all irreplaceable now. It made me sick that the unit was damaged so badly in transit. From that point on, I've thought if I find something that I really care about on one of these...
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    XT Clone Turbo button doing nothing

    From my recollection of the era, the turbo button when I first encountered it worked swell. However, eventually generic cases persisted in maintaining the 'turbo' button long after the turbo button ceased to be directly relevant to the included hardware. So I recall many cases would just have a...
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    My Vintage/Retro room

    That is a sweet TV - and a proper homage to the c64. Not sure if you played Bard's Tale or Ultima IV - those stand out as my two favorites from the era, with Lode Runner of course, and Karateka and Summer Games (and nice shout-out to pitfall in the corner..). Great times - epic machine. I like...
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    Hello from Michigan

    I have a c64 keyboad I can send you if you send me a shipping label. It looks OK - though it is from a system that I never personally tested, so ymmv. It is currently attached to an empty 64 case, so if you are interested let me know if you want the whole case or just the keyboard. It's...
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    They used CGI to fake the moon landing.

    Bringing the conversation here full circle - anyone willing to help user reinhardtjh get his equipment shipped from Brunswick, GA can go ahead and pick up two lightly used Symbolics 3640's from the same seller. The Symbolics 3640 Lisp "L-machine" computer has a fascinating architecture worthy of...
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    IBM XT Power Supply

    I understand the desire to keep these old computers completely original. Unfortunately, in the case of power supplies, it is tricky because of the improvements in switching power supplies since that era, and the safety issues surrounding dealing with mains voltages for the typical hobbyist. (I...
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    Data General Nova and Eclipse Software Hobbyist License

    Thank you for making these files available! Hopefully having the software and documentation available will promote more DG hobbyist projects.
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