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The amiga got eclipsed in most ways I. The mid 90’s but it’s astounding how many amigas with video toasters held on until the death of SD video.
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Oct 14, 2023 15:10
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Took a hell of a lot of tinkering, but finally got the "iGame" WHDLoad launcher working on my enhanced A500! Got a crash course in AmigaOS along the way... volumes, assignments, AmigaShell, library files, datatypes, etc. All new concepts to me, since all I did back in the day was pop in whatever floppy disks my dad bought. But now I can finally reap the benefits of the ACA500plus/ACE2b that I bought a year or so ago. Feels great to just search/filter through a huge list of installed games in a nice UI, and selectively launch games in PAL (which is what motivated me to research this hardware in the first place) via direct Tool Type editing. There's a lot of helpful support on the English Amiga Board forums; some crazy soul provided supplementary image and info files for every game to be used as metadata in the UI (although I ended up installing a fancy Icon Library and having iGame display those instead). If anyone else has been having trouble I may be able to assist while it's fresh in my mind. Much thanks to the goons here who helped me get these mods started a while back! lobsterminator posted:My family jumped from Amiga to PC in 1993 and I feel like that was a very good spot where PC pretty much overcame Amiga in all areas. Minidust fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Oct 17, 2023 |
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Oct 17, 2023 21:42
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Minidust posted:Took a hell of a lot of tinkering, but finally got the "iGame" WHDLoad launcher working on my enhanced A500! Got a crash course in AmigaOS along the way... volumes, assignments, AmigaShell, library files, datatypes, etc. All new concepts to me, since all I did back in the day was pop in whatever floppy disks my dad bought. Any chance you'd be willing do a quick write-up on how you got the iGame/WHDLoad stuff working?
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Oct 19, 2023 16:25
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Well, I asked this in the Retro Chat thread but I guess no one there plays the Atari 800XL.Saoshyant posted:I never explored the Atari 800XL. What are its best games (original or newer releases)? Asking about your opinions if you had (or still have) exposure to the system. Homebrew/demoscene stuff also welcome if it's good fun.
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Oct 20, 2023 00:08
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That was the first computer I ever used, still have one (though my original disappeared from GRANDMA'S HOUSE) and definitely have some immediate thoughts about the best games LucasFilm Games titles probably hold up best in terms of looking and sounding modestly impressive, Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus were my favorites. The games I played the most were undoubtedly Return of Heracles (probably the turn-based RPG with the most simultaneously playable characters ever), Ultima III (probably better systems for it though), Seven Cities of Gold, Mail Order Monsters (see Pokémon 10 years earlier!), Bounty Bob Strikes Back, and Jumpman. If you are looking for games like 7 people in the entire world ever played and that are so unlike modern games to be fascinating, I recommend Journey to the Planets, Boulders & Bombs, and Mercenary: Escape From Targ (more "ahead of its time" than the insanity of the other two really) I also played a lot of Panther, Goonies, Spy Vs. Spy II, Dance Fantasy, and Racing Destruction Set, but I think more for the music than the gameplay in all five cases
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Oct 20, 2023 02:24
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Saoshyant posted:Well, I asked this in the Retro Chat thread but I guess no one there plays the Atari 800XL. I have an 800 and a 130xe. I used to get poo poo on in the Retro Discord for my casual mention of the machine. Its a pretty good system and most of the Crash era Apple 2 and C64 games are on it usually as good and sometimes better. Atarimania has a good couple of Top x lists that might be a fine starting place though it won't obviously have much of the homebrew (usually out of Poland) or some of the nicer mod/hacks (in AtariAge threads until Infogrames decides to really try monetizing the place or just going all Nintendo with their IP rights). Its still a good starting point. But for homebrew Ridiculous Reality and Yoomp! are very good games. In some ways a few arcade games I like better on the A8 over the arcade original. Or as much. And stuff like Fort Apocalypse and Pitfall 2 are excellent on it, the latter even coming with an entire 2nd quest! Lots of 5200 titles were hacked for it so bless Glenn the 5200 man RIP to a real one. Edit: vvvvv These days a Lotharek Sio2sd or a Fujinet are what most folks use. The latter also doing all kinds of silly things. Vvvv Captain Rufus fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Oct 20, 2023 |
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Oct 20, 2023 22:08
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I have an 800XL that I found for $20 at a weird thrift store. I should probably get a flash cart or something
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Oct 20, 2023 22:12
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They're not something I'm familiar with personally, but the Atari's 8bit's Ballblazer is meant to be the best version. Also, they were Paul Woake's favorite machines, so Mercenary and Encounter are probably best played on them.
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Oct 21, 2023 00:48
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Thanks for the recommendations, Quarex and Rufus. Spent some time setting up this Altirra emulator and tried a few of your recommendations (and will check more later). Ridiculous Reality and Yoomp are super creative and gorgeous looking, loved them. I tried Ballblazer but had no idea what was going on, will look up for a manual or a LP video to figure it out. Rescue on Fractalus must have been mind blowing in that era with its flying around like you are playing Afterburner. I also found the Atari Mania top 100 and checked out Dropzone from that list. Now this is fun! Pretty hard, but fun.
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Oct 21, 2023 01:26
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Throwing Montezuma's Revenge onto the pile of recommendations. Star Raiders is also pretty neat but it might be better to play it as part of the Atari 50 compilation - they added a modern-UX overlay to allow the thing to be comfortably played with a modern gamepad.
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Oct 21, 2023 02:53
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the atari 8-bit port of donkey kong was the best of its era and one of very, very few home ports to have all 4 stages it was also fhe first video game i ever played and after our 600xl died when i was 6 i did not play that version again for years, only having access to the nes version, and until the late 00's i never saw another version of donkey kong that had all 4 stages so i convinced myself that the cement factory level was a false memory i created and was fuckin floored when i found out it was real
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Oct 21, 2023 03:40
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Saoshyant posted:LI tried Ballblazer but had no idea what was going on, will look up for a manual or a LP video to figure it out. Rescue on Fractalus must have been mind blowing in that era with its flying around like you are playing Afterburner. Rescue on Fractalus really did blow my drat mind as a kid, I was like IT LOOKS JUST LIKE YOU ARE REALLY FLYING ON AN ALIEN PLANET WOW yep, virtually indistinguishable from, say, Mars
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Oct 21, 2023 05:24
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I have a 800XL that I got in a lot that included the tape drive, 4 colour plotter, touch pad, games, manuals and even books covering programming and repairing the 400/800/XL series. While it is a great machine, I can not remember the last time I switched it on. However I find the hardware to be rock stable and a bit more forgiving compared to 8 bit Commodore stuff
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Oct 21, 2023 08:06
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Don't forget to check A8 Fandal.cz. It tends to have some of the fan hacks and homebrew even Atarimania doesn't. Not all of them but a ton. But a couple quick A8 bit info things: There are 4 A8 families: The 5200 which is a derpy console mistake thats also not directly compatible with the rest. (See said Glenn fellow. He brought stuff over because same guts,) The original 800 which is built like a goddamned tank and could have up to 48k ram. Its chicklet kb little 400 sibling could have less ram, only 1 cartridge slot, and no higher end video out. Kept 4 control ports. The XL series which dropped control ports to 2 and had basic built in. (Which is why many titles need to be booted up while holding down Option.) The 1200xl had lots of incompatibilities so is now just a collection piece. The 800xl is probably the gold standard with 64k of ram. The 600xl was similar to the 400 in losing some things like good video out and having a wee tiny amount of ram. However it is cute and wee. (Imagine the Apple 2c but much wimpier instead of most of the major stuff popped in.) The XE line was from the Tramiel era. Mid af kb compared to the 800 but none of them have chicklet hell like the 400 did. The XEGS is basically the 65xe but with a detachable keyboard and huge function buttons. It has Missile Command built in. Its kind of the 2nd machine collectors want after the 1200 except its more useful because its fully compatible and has said keyboard. It also lead to more cart rereleases that work on all the machines. The 65xe is 64k ram and no Missile Command but in normal 80s microcomputer all in one case. The 130xe is honestly the one to get if you wanna play homebrew as its got 128k built in. There are a couple paddle and track ball games for the family but you can pass on those things if you don't care much. Your basic Db9 1 button joystick of choice is all you really need. Proto s video with the whole chroma Luma thing the Commodore monitors had is the normal best easy video output though proper s video is possible though sometimes you need to do solder mods to deal with jailbars. I probably have some images n stuff of this on the first few pages of this thread. Software came on cart, tape, and disk. Most emulation or modern solutions should do disk and cart, or xex files. Given the Atari serial io setup a good SIO2SD type device can run multiple drives though not many games at all used 2 drives. I'd recommend not going with cart only sd drives for this reason. Given piracy and xex format proper drive sd devices are the best choice. Maybe cart stuff if you really want to program on real hardware as the various languages and development things were usually on cartridge and go for mad amounts. https://fujinet.online/ I'm not too familiar with this but the Atari community adores this thing and if I didn't already have a Lotharek SIO2SD I would probably buy one. I even think said Lotharek is working on one to release. The main Atari 800 podcast is ANTIC. Its decent but its a bunch of old guys and its not too heavily game focused. There aren't really any other big active ones though there at least were ones covering productivity and every XEGS game. Antic does have a discord but its usually very quiet outside of the odd Fujinet talk. Power wise I think the family of machines is mid range for crash era. Its overall better than the MSX1 and Apple 2e/c, but weaker at least in games than the C64 usually. (Kind of a Snes to Genny situation where its got a faster 6502 family cpu but the graphics and sound chips aren't on the C64s level. It does however have auto booting disks, a proper DOS environment, and much faster disk loads. Doesn't do 80 columns without hacks like the 64 either. Yay the Apple 2s did. How much productivity you actually would want to do on any 80s computer nowadays I dunno.) But one final thing related to graphics. One somewhat frequently used video mode is a composite artifact color type thing similar to the Apple 2 and the Tandy Color Computer and the 16 color composite CGA in look if not practice. Keep this in mind that some online screenshots aren't using it thus it looks like black and white titles. Now most of these are sometimes lazy Apple 2 ports. Usually its better to play the C64 versions if you are a pixel snob or just really don't like the fuzzy and bleedy way such graphics are done.
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Oct 21, 2023 11:12
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Rewatching the TRS-80 Color Computer video LGR did a couple years ago and on a whim decided to do a quick look on eBay and man those are some pretty low prices for a line of computers as old as they are, most of the time I look up old computers they tend to be really expensive, even for ones much newer, guess the "CoCo" must land in a perfect spot in the intersection of "they made a lot of them", "low demand", and "obscure in the modern day" to stay so relatively cheap
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Oct 25, 2023 08:57
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drrockso20 posted:Rewatching the TRS-80 Color Computer video LGR did a couple years ago and on a whim decided to do a quick look on eBay and man those are some pretty low prices for a line of computers as old as they are, most of the time I look up old computers they tend to be really expensive, even for ones much newer, guess the "CoCo" must land in a perfect spot in the intersection of "they made a lot of them", "low demand", and "obscure in the modern day" to stay so relatively cheap CoCo 1s and 2s are pretty easy to get; the real tough one are the CoCo 3s, which tend to go for a lot more when they show up on eBay depending on the condition/extras to be had. I keep thinking I want to buy my childhood computer again (CoCo 2 64k) but I don't have the room for it, not to mention the extra money to spend on stuff to make it usable today.
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Oct 25, 2023 12:03
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I bought my childhood pc, the Colour Genie (vaguely trs 80 compatible), wired it up to the big TV through 17 adapters and it feels like looking at our big 20inch? from so long ago, it rules
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Oct 27, 2023 21:26
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TIL there is a Genesis / Mega Drive port of Snake Rattle and Roll https://youtu.be/Eg9vYOXxh0k Thing is, Snake has always felt like Rare’s attempts to evolve the old school Knight Lore / Solstice style isometric platformer. As much as I want to like them, they all seem to play like 90% the same. What comes off as extremely innovative for its time seemed to be tapped out when consoles took over for home PCs Is there a YouTube video that covers the evolution of these games does an in depth analysis on their design?
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Oct 30, 2023 12:46
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I used to rent snake rattle and roll constantly for my genesis back in the day because I couldnt find a store that sold it near me Loved that game
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Oct 30, 2023 12:52
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Coffee Jones posted:TIL there is a Genesis / Mega Drive port of Snake Rattle and Roll I had not seen or heard of Snake Rattle and Roll until today! I always loved isometric games, probably starting with Head over Heels on the C64. Landstalker on the Mega Drive is the game I loved the most in its time, it was a crazy expensive cart due to its size and battery backup but the number of times I rented it would have paid for it twice over. (Sorry I can't answer your Q, I'd like to know, too. Presume it was an inexpensive way to give a 3D feel.)
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Oct 31, 2023 03:47
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There's a point in the early 90's where the MegaDrive saw NES sequels / ports of British designs - Micromachines, RC Pro Am, and now Snake. And it's like "Oh, you loved this game as kid? Here's a better version you've never seen before that was only released a few years after the NES original." Head Over Heels* was also my first isometric platformer. Friend of mine had a C64 and I kinda pissed him off only wanting to play games, lol.. Anyway - you see games like Knightlore from RARE/Ultimate and compare it to HOH's design. There are two independent characters that can combine like Mario and Yoshi. There are puzzles where you're required to combine them. Puzzles where they're required to split apart, all this over multiple worlds on a sprawling map**. Knightlore is a 1984 game and HOH is 1987 and clearly there's clearly several rounds of evolution that have occurred across all fronts. I'm going to have to play Landstalker - the move off of 8 bit micros let them do scrolling and more sword slashy combat . The same designer and artist worked on a game for the gameboy called Monster Max in 1994 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4EVqKSPrcs And earlier there was 'Altered Space' on GB from the developers of Solstice - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x8ewelaOEU But after Monster Max this type of game (AFAIK) has fallen off the face of the earth. 3d isometric blocks are used everywhere in games like Tactics Ogre, but that's about it. I'm guessing the move to polygons the fact that this type of game was already ancient had already killed it off. * https://gamesfromtheblackhole.wordpress.com/2021/11/07/head-over-heels/ ** https://maps.speccy.cz/map.php?id=HeadoverHeels Head Over Heels also had a remake (available on steam! or Archive.org  ) in the 2000's where people have redrawn the sprites and added music and sound effects, but largely playing the same (Spectrum / C64 chugging with too many sprites on screen notwithstanding.)E: I put this conversation under PC because 3d platformer is very much an 8bit micro style of game Coffee Jones fucked around with this message at 12:50 on Nov 1, 2023 |
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Oct 31, 2023 19:38
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Great info, thanks! re: Landstalker, the combat is bland, the dungeon music is repetitive, and some of the sound effects are repetitive and annoying. Some of the platforming is difficult because there are no shadows under the player. But overall I have always loved it. Some people hate it because it uses the diagonals on the dpad for walking (I don't - I got so used to it that any other iso is annoying for me) but there are romhacks that change it to use cardinal directions. An isometric platformer name Lumo came in 2016. It looks great, and I enjoyed it for a bit but got annoyed with something after a while and stopped. I can't remember what, I should check it out again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCuS-X1Mtsc
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Nov 1, 2023 03:26
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Anyone have any idea what this computer in the background of Ghostwatch is? I just noticed it last night and didn't recognize it 
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Nov 1, 2023 17:00
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Null of Undefined posted:Anyone have any idea what this computer in the background of Ghostwatch is? I just noticed it last night and didn't recognize it Well it's a Commodore but gently caress if I remember all the models. Something like a CBM II or B 128 or whatever.
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Nov 1, 2023 17:10
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I believe it's one of these bad boys: https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/4861/Commodore-P500/
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Nov 1, 2023 17:23
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Fil5000 posted:I believe it's one of these bad boys: That looks right! I had a hard time stopping on a clear shot but in the video itself it looks exactly like that. Thanks! This wasn't for any reason or anything I just noticed it for the first time and was curious.
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Nov 1, 2023 19:08
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Reminds me that I should see if anyone has done any analysis on the computers from Control and if there's any real world computers that are reasonably similar in design
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Nov 1, 2023 23:10
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drrockso20 posted:Reminds me that I should see if anyone has done any analysis on the computers from Control and if there's any real world computers that are reasonably similar in design I don't remember them very well, but googling turned up this picture:  The desktop machine looks to be very strongly based on the IBM 5110, with an IBM monitor set on top of it.  The rack in the right appears to be a PDP-12 on top and a PDP-8/e underneath.  
Pham Nuwen fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Nov 3, 2023 |
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Nov 3, 2023 22:11
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Pham Nuwen posted:I don't remember them very well, but googling turned up this picture: Neat, also on a whim decided to look up the C64 Maxi cause I kind of want to mess around with that kind of thing and did they not make very many of these things or something because they are being scalped like crazy everywhere I'm looking, like they're selling for prices where I'd be better off just buying an actual Commodore 64 Like yeah sure I could just emulate on my regular computer or buy the mini version but I hear the mini version is kind of crappy and also for something like the 64 I want a keyboard already in the same layout(particularly with the PETSCII graphics characters included) and surprisingly no one seems to make a USB keyboard that follows that format(or at least one that is available at a price that is remotely sane)
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Nov 6, 2023 09:33
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drrockso20 posted:Reminds me that I should see if anyone has done any analysis on the computers from Control and if there's any real world computers that are reasonably similar in design See also the Hewlett-Packard 80-series computers.
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Nov 6, 2023 09:39
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drrockso20 posted:Like yeah sure I could just emulate on my regular computer or buy the mini version but I hear the mini version is kind of crappy and also for something like the 64 I want a keyboard already in the same layout(particularly with the PETSCII graphics characters included) and surprisingly no one seems to make a USB keyboard that follows that format(or at least one that is available at a price that is remotely sane) Maybe the Commander X16 keyboard can fulfill that role? I'm not sure if they sell it stand-alone from the computer itself.
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Nov 6, 2023 09:46
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nielsm posted:Maybe the Commander X16 keyboard can fulfill that role? I'm not sure if they sell it stand-alone from the computer itself. They do but it falls firmly in the "insane price range" for me
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Nov 6, 2023 09:59
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Since we’re talking fiction computers, are the macro data refinement computers from Severance based on anything?
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Nov 6, 2023 14:11
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Beve Stuscemi posted:Since we’re talking fiction computers, are the macro data refinement computers from Severance based on anything? They look very much like Data General Dasher terminals.
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Nov 6, 2023 17:12
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Pham Nuwen posted:They look very much like Data General Dasher terminals. Yup: https://blog.adafruit.com/2022/03/28/severance-prop-terminals-appletv-severance/ With a customized keyboard that includes a trackball that never existed in the original. It also has no escape key 
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Nov 6, 2023 17:28
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drrockso20 posted:Neat, also on a whim decided to look up the C64 Maxi cause I kind of want to mess around with that kind of thing and did they not make very many of these things or something because they are being scalped like crazy everywhere I'm looking, like they're selling for prices where I'd be better off just buying an actual Commodore 64 I got a Maxi (from Amazon UK, wasn't too bad to ship to me in Canada). It's OK? The joystick it comes with is trash, and it's surprisingly hard to get other joysticks to work with it. The little SoC it runs the emulator off is pretty sad, so it's not really viable to improve it that way. quote:...no one seems to make a USB keyboard that follows that format(or at least one that is available at a price that is remotely sane) I ended up turning my Maxi into a USB keyboard/hub, and hooking it up to a regular PC (which isn't a terribly hard operation, just required editing some cables). I also added a USB/DB9-joystick connector and a 3.5" floppy drive to make for an amusing-enough fake C64: 
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Nov 6, 2023 18:31
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Trabant posted:Yup: https://blog.adafruit.com/2022/03/28/severance-prop-terminals-appletv-severance/ Nice, of course they are all $$$$$ on eBay. Oh well, I have a Data General 8086 luggable with an inbuilt oscilloscope that satisfies my 80’s corporate aesthetic needs.
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Nov 7, 2023 03:25
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Is there any news on getting a working Workbench with the Amiga A500 Mini? Everything I found says to go to https://www.aminimiga.com/ which says Downloads are down until an issue with AmigaKit regarding PPaint is solved! which seems a tiny issue to remove the entire program  Huh- turns out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMghQvo2bWQ reports that they'll be A FULL SIZED AMIGA CONSOLE in Q4 2024. Still a yearish away. Comstar fucked around with this message at 14:27 on Nov 19, 2023 |
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Nov 19, 2023 14:11
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Beve Stuscemi posted:
Gonna need a pic of this… sounds incredible
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Nov 19, 2023 20:43
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namlosh posted:Gonna need a pic of this… sounds incredible It’s amazing, honestly and I’m super disappointed in myself that I haven’t properly written it up yet. I bought it from a tech that used to work for Data General, it was his field diagnosis and repair machine, used to repair Data General mainframes and minicomputers. I have a full set of blueprints with it and a ton of internal Data General documentation on it, and given the dearth of information available online I strongly suspect I may have some of the only copies of this info in existence. The first thing I did upon verifying it boots was back the software up onto 720k floppies, so at least I have that if the hard drive in it dies. Here’s my artsy fartsy shots of it, but I’ll get some better documentation of it soon  
Beve Stuscemi fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Nov 19, 2023 |
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Nov 19, 2023 21:35
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