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retro computing

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Show HN: New Parts for Old Computers
2 months ago
- A directory of hardware to make old computers new again, covering upgrades, replacements, and compatible recreations.
- Includes 12 sections, 149 catalog pages, and 762 products, each linking to makers, projects, documentation, or used-market searches.
- Sections cover Apple, Atari, Commodore, PC, RC2014, and other systems, plus a 'Reverse Retro' section for using vintage gear with modern computers.
- Recently added products include adapters, diagnostic cartridges, networking solutions, and audio/video cables for retro platforms.
GE-97 Terminal: The Old Internet
2 months ago
- The site recreates a browser-based Windows 98 environment that boots, dials up, and browses the archived 1990s web with restored functionality (Flash, Java, VRML, MIDI, guestbooks, etc.).
- It also runs a Gopher server serving early internet directories, accessible via native Gopher clients or a proxy.
- The operator, Khalid Alshaikh, uses the site to document his work in archiving recent Saudi history, amateur radio (7Z1FP), and digital preservation.
- The domain has been repurposed multiple times (General Election 97, Growth & Earnings 97) and now serves as a living archive.
- GE-OS 98 is a work in progress, built in the open, with a suggestion box for broken features.
Looking inside a 1970s PROM chip that stores data in microscopic fuses (2019)
2 months ago
- The MMI 5300 is a 1024-bit PROM from the early 1970s, programmed once by blowing fuses.
- Data is stored in a 33×33 array of diodes and fuses; intact fuses represent 1, blown fuses represent 0.
- Address decoding splits into column selection (A3-A7) and output selection (A0-A2) to access 256 4-bit words.
- Programming requires high-voltage pulses to melt Nichrome fuses with precise timing to avoid damage.
- Testing was difficult due to irreversibility; an extra test row and column were included for verification.
- Unused transistors on the die allowed the same layout to be used for different variants (e.g., open-collector vs. tri-state).
- PROMs were replaced by EPROMs and later EEPROMs; modern flash offers billions more storage at lower cost.
Unearthing my 1996 windowed OS in machine code for Am29000 homebrew computer
2 months ago
- The article describes the development of a windowed operating system for a homebrew Am29000 computer, written entirely in 32-bit machine code and bootable from a floppy disk.
- The author, Oscar Toledo G., created the OS between Fall 1996 and Spring 1997, drawing inspiration from OS/2 and X11R5 for window management and cooperative multitasking.
- Key challenges included writing an Am29000 emulator to run the OS, debugging instruction emulation (e.g., MULTIPLU, DIVIDU) and fixing a bug in the EXHWS instruction that caused file system corruption.
- The OS features a windowing system with message pipelines, rectangular clipping using XRegion, and services like video, keyboard, mouse, font, and filesystem management, all invoked via a custom interface.
- The final emulator, built with libSDL2, runs from two floppy disk images and includes programs like a text editor, debugger, color editor, and chess game, with support for printing and drag-and-drop file operations.
Amiga Graphics Archive
2 months ago
- The Commodore Amiga was launched in 1985 with unmatched graphics capabilities for its time.
- It used a complex set of custom chips to achieve feats impossible on other personal computers of the era.
- The site is dedicated to graphics created for or with the Commodore Amiga.
Refurb weekend: Silicon Graphics Indigo² IMPACT 10000
2 months ago
- The author owns three SGI systems, including a problematic SGI Fuel and a favorite SGI Indy used as a Hyper-G server.
- The SGI Indigo2 line evolved from the Indigo, with multiple variants like the POWER Indigo2 (R8000) and Indigo2 IMPACT (R10000), each with distinct graphics options.
- The Indigo2 IMPACT introduced the R10000 CPU, which was a significant out-of-order design but faced production delays and a recall due to faulty NEC-fabricated chips.
- A specific Indigo2 system (IP28) with a 195MHz R10000 and Solid IMPACT graphics was repaired by replacing a dead Dallas DS1286 timekeeper chip and upgrading a faulty SCSI CD-ROM drive.
- The system was restored using a ZuluSCSI solid-state drive and a fresh installation of IRIX 6.5.22, demonstrating the machine's functionality despite graphics sync issues.
- The R10000 microarchitecture was SGI's last major CPU design, leading to the R12000 and beyond, but SGI's shift to Itanium and Nvidia GPUs eventually ended MIPS product lines in 2006.
The Apple Network Server MacOS ROMs have resurfaced
2 months ago
- The Apple Network Server (ANS) was heavily based on the Power Macintosh 9500 and initially ran MacOS, but production units shipped with AIX due to customer preference for Unix.
- At Comdex 1996, Apple CTO Ellen Hancock announced that the ANS could be made to run MacOS or Windows NT via a ROM swap, but the line was cancelled by Steve Jobs in 1997.
- A former Apple employee recently revealed that development ROMs for both MacOS and Windows NT exist; the MacOS ROM has been dumped and works, while the NT ROMs are confirmed but not yet available.
- The MacOS ROM allows the ANS to boot Mac OS up to version 9, and there is potential to run the long-lost Cyberpunk OS on early prototypes.
- The discovery has sparked hope for future exploration of the ANS, including possibly developing custom NT drivers or porting ARC firmware to run Windows NT without the special ROM.
Downtown Doug Brown
2 months ago
- An obscure Apple Performa 550 recovery partition was rescued from an old Conner hard drive with a stuck head.
- The hidden partition, running System 7.1P6, booted automatically when the main system was corrupted, offering recovery options.
- The author used techniques like nudging the head and Kapton tape to recover data from the failing drive.
- The recovery partition contained a 'Mini System Folder' and a 'recovery' app, enabling manual restoration of system files.
- The feature was documented in Apple's tech notes and the book Macworld Mac Secrets, but data was missing until this find.
- The partition was confirmed to be functional in emulators and real hardware, though its exact creation method remains unclear.
Downtown Doug Brown
2 months ago
- Discovered a 27-year-old easter egg in Power Mac G3 ROM: a hidden JPEG image of the development team called 'The Team'.
- The egg is triggered by naming a RAM disk 'secret ROM image' and then erasing it in the Finder, which extracts the image automatically.
- The mechanism was found by reverse-engineering the SCSI Manager code in the ROM using Ghidra, revealing Pascal strings like 'secret ROM image' and 'The Team'.
- The trick works on Mac OS 8.1 through 9.0.4 but stops working in 9.1.
- The egg was created by the G3 team (led by Bill, who commented) as a secret tribute after Apple banned easter eggs in 1997; the team was a small skunkworks group that developed the G3 line.
- The post credits ^alex for discovering the erase-disk trick and includes instructions to reproduce the egg in Infinite Mac emulator.
Downtown Doug Brown
2 months ago
- A second Performa 550 hard drive with an intact recovery partition was discovered, confirming the partition was not a fluke and providing more data for analysis.
- The recovery partition's files were identical across two drives, except for different creation/modification dates, suggesting it was factory-created rather than user-generated.
- Evidence points to the partition being added by Apple at the factory, not by Apple Backup, as a script likely ran during testing to create it.
- The Dinosaur Safari CD bug causing recovery mode was traced to an unauthorized InitResources() call, which re-initializes system resources and triggers the partition.
- Patching the Dinosaur Safari CD to skip InitResources() prevented the recovery mode error, supporting the explanation.
Downtown Doug Brown
2 months ago
- The author attempted to power on a Macintosh Performa 450 after a year but it failed with the startup sound followed by the 'Chimes of Death'.
- Using Apple's Serial Test Manager via a serial connection, the author diagnosed the issue as a RAM Bank A failure, specifically bit 11.
- The problem was traced to a broken trace caused by residual capacitor leakage, and a bodge wire was used to bypass the damaged connection.
- The author successfully repaired the machine and noted that the same diagnostic tool had helped fix another Performa model earlier.
- The process can be replicated in an emulator using MAME with a custom patch to simulate the RAM fault.
A tricky Commodore PET repair: tracking down 6 1/2 bad chips
2 months ago
- The Commodore PET was one of the 1977 Trinity home computers, along with the Apple II and TRS-80.
- The author attempted to repair a non-working PET for nostalgic reasons, but found it challenging due to notorious chip failures.
- Initial diagnostics showed random characters on screen, indicating the monitor, video RAM, character ROM, system clock, and power supply were working.
- Using an oscilloscope and logic analyzer, the author traced problems to bad ROM and RAM chips, which are now unobtainable.
- Two ROM chips failed and were replaced with adapter boards using 2716 EPROMs; however, one EPROM had a flaky byte due to under-powered programming.
- The logic analyzer revealed address errors caused by the flaky ROM byte, leading to wrong boot messages and a checkerboard character.
- After finding and replacing three bad RAM chips, the system booted but with reduced 6K memory; another RAM later failed.
- Reprogramming the faulty EPROM with a more powerful programmer finally fixed the boot message and checkerboard issues.
- In total, the repair required replacing 2 ROMs, 4 RAMs, and re-programming one flaky EPROM; the 6502 CPU was fine.
- Lessons learned: test all chips early, and while a logic analyzer is helpful, analog faults can mislead readings.
Build your own Dial-up ISP with a Raspberry Pi
2 months ago
- Recreated a local dial-up ISP using a Raspberry Pi, phone line simulator, and USB modem to emulate late-90s internet access.
- Connected an iBook G3 via the phone line simulator, achieving speeds up to 33.6 kbps over POTS.
- Configured Linux tools mgetty and PPP on the Pi to handle modem calls and network bridging.
- Used Macproxy Classic to translate modern websites into barebones HTML for old browsers like Internet Explorer 5.
- Integrated the setup with an AirPort base station to provide dial-up speeds over 802.11b Wi-Fi.
- Refurbished the iBook's battery to experience untethered wireless dial-up, similar to 1999 usage.
- Explored the Wayback Machine extension in Macproxy to browse historical versions of websites.
- Learned about modem handshakes, PPP, QAM, and how vintage tech informs modern networking.
It's an Apple Lisa, on a FPGA
2 months ago
- Apple Lisa was the precursor to the Macintosh, but was expensive and a commercial failure, with few surviving units.
- A new FPGA-based replica by [AlexElectronics] supports both original Lisa peripherals (keyboard, mouse) and modern interfaces (USB, HDMI, SD card).
- The project includes a 40-pin DIP UART chip due to lack of a pre-built UART for the FPGA, and will be open-sourced on GitHub.
- Comments note that the Lisa's serial number DRM protected software, but the FPGA can be programmed to bypass it, preserving old I/O like CRT monitors.
- The Lisa was essential for early Mac development as it ran the Mac SDK, and later could run Mac software via MacWorks; the Macintosh XL was a modified Lisa 2.
- Copy protection often harms legitimate users, and the Lisa's DRM is seen as a minor issue since the machine was a commercial flop.
10 REM"_(C2SLFF4
2 months ago
- The REM statement in The Wizard's Castle contains hidden Z80 machine code for seeding the random number generator.
- The code uses the Z80 R register, stores a random value to screen memory, and BASIC reads it via PEEK.
- The listing displays non-ASCII characters due to tokenization and high-bit mapping.
- Typing the REM as shown in the magazine would not work; the author likely POKEd the bytes directly.
- The article demonstrates reverse engineering and hacker curiosity about retro computing.
Now You Can Work in C with Only BASIC Knowledge
2 months ago
- C Source, Inc. was founded in 1983 and dissolved in 1996, with Gene W. Brown as president and Tom Hogan as a senior programmer and marketing VP.
- BASIC_C was a library for C compilers (Lattice, DeSmet, Computer Innovations) that implemented over 80 BASIC-like functions to help BASIC programmers learn C.
- The library included familiar BASIC commands like INPUT, LPRINT, LOCATE, and INKEY, and came with a well-written manual comparing BASIC and C.
- A 1984 review by Ernest Tello noted that BASIC_C eased the transition to C but warned that line-by-line translations from BASIC might not produce optimal C code.
- The library had some bugs (e.g., the COLOR function did not match IBM BASIC behavior) and lacked math functions, but offered unique functions like BLOAD, BSAVE, and SWAP.
- The product required some C knowledge and was not a full automatic converter; it was a learning aid and conversion tool for BASIC programmers.
PCjs Machines
2 months ago
- PCjs is a browser-based emulator of the original IBM PC, built with JavaScript.
- It emulates 1970s and 1980s hardware and software, replicating slow CPUs, low-resolution displays, and primitive sound.
- Emulations have expanded to include IBM PC compatibles, minicomputers, calculators, terminals, and arcade games.
- The project is open-source and hosted on GitHub for preservation efforts.
- Users can explore public domain software and interact with historical hardware via the PCjs Explorer.
Classic Amiga titles, free to download
2 months ago
- Thousands of classic Amiga titles are available for free download and exploration.
- The Amiga Freeware Archive includes games, applications, demos, graphics, music, and tools from the golden age of 32-bit home computing.
- It features 14 PD libraries, scene groups, disk magazines, and user group compilations with over 10,142 MiB of downloads.
- Popular libraries include 17 Bit Software with 3,722 entries and Fred Fish with 1,000 entries, both widely trusted in the pre-Internet era.
- PD libraries such as Scope, Slipped Disk, and Amigan Apprentice & Journeyman offer curated collections of software, tools, and source code.
- Scene groups like The Assassins and LSD are known for prolific game compilations and demo collections spanning thousands of files.
- User groups, including Miami Amigos, T.B.A.G., and NZ Amiga Users Group, produced monthly disk series that were early and widespread in the Amiga community.
- Specialist groups like Amiga Amateur Radio User Group (ARUG) focused on niche applications such as amateur radio.
- Disk magazines such as Just Amiga Monthly (JAM) provided subscription-based content from 1991 to 1995.
The Zilog Z80 has turned 50
2 months ago
- The Zilog Z80 processor was officially launched in July 1976, marking 50 years since its introduction.
- It was binary compatible with the Intel 8080 and 8085, helping establish de facto hardware and software standards like CP/M and Microsoft BASIC for 8-bit microcomputers.
- The Z80 was used in many early personal computers, home/hobby computers, and industrial applications, with clones like the Sharp LR35902 powering the original GameBoy.
- Development of the Z80 was inspired by the 8008 and 8080, with improvements including more registers, new addressing modes, simplified electrical interfacing, and higher speed.
- Key features of the Z80 include bank-switched registers, multiple interrupt handling modes, single 5V supply, and built-in DRAM refresh capability.
- Zilog's ties with Exxon influenced its market direction, but IBM chose Intel's 8088 for the PC due to these connections.
- The Z80 remained in use for decades in embedded systems and was only discontinued in June 2024.
- Personal anecdotes highlight the author's DIY Z80 computer project and lessons learned in systems engineering.
Pong Wars on the Commodore 64
2 months ago
- The post details the author's project to recreate Pong Wars, a mesmerizing animation of two balls battling to flip colors on a 20x20 grid, on a Commodore 64 using 6502 assembly language.
- Key implementation steps include setting up the screen and color RAM, using sprites for the balls, managing movement with fixed-point math and sine lookup tables, implementing edge and block collision detection with randomized bounce angles, and rendering the blockfield and scores.
- The game loop utilizes raster interrupts to run within the vertical blanking period, though performance is limited by copying the blockfield to color RAM each frame; potential optimizations are suggested, such as direct color RAM access and incremental score updates.

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retro computing

Show HN: New Parts for Old Computers

GE-97 Terminal: The Old Internet

Looking inside a 1970s PROM chip that stores data in microscopic fuses (2019)

Unearthing my 1996 windowed OS in machine code for Am29000 homebrew computer

Amiga Graphics Archive

Refurb weekend: Silicon Graphics Indigo² IMPACT 10000

The Apple Network Server MacOS ROMs have resurfaced

Downtown Doug Brown

Downtown Doug Brown

Downtown Doug Brown

Downtown Doug Brown

A tricky Commodore PET repair: tracking down 6 1/2 bad chips

Build your own Dial-up ISP with a Raspberry Pi

It's an Apple Lisa, on a FPGA

10 REM"_(C2SLFF4

Now You Can Work in C with Only BASIC Knowledge

PCjs Machines

Classic Amiga titles, free to download

The Zilog Z80 has turned 50

Pong Wars on the Commodore 64