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Please note also - THIS BLOG ENDS HERE WITH THE LAST ENTRY FROM NOVEMBER 9th 2021.

I have prepared a new blog with wordpress at https://vintagecomputing.info !!!

Thank you.
16 Bit but already extincted: ATARI ST - Amiga competitor, not PC killer 
Saturday, September 17, 2011, 02:00 PM
Posted by Administrator
A long time ago, I developed a BBS software for Atari ST...

This computer was ahead of the times, he offered a powerful CPU, a GUI (like the Macintosh), and was affordable !
Unfortunately marketing and also product development was chaotic.

I remembered it again and buyed one again. Here is my new (old) Atari Mega STE:

It comes with a TT-alike case but only with a 16MHz 68000 CPU, 4MB RAM, a build in harddisk, an additional floppy drive, a Lacom/Syquest 44MB removable (hard)disk and an obligatory monochrome monitor (SM124).

At the moment, it runs without problems (boots from harddisk), but I did not get a Lacom driver/utility disk also.
Also amazing, that keyboard is really usable, compared to earlier ST models, this was really a progress.

I started to look for Atari ST software and I was a bit surprised - you can't find so many sites with software ... may be some with games, but applications and utilities ? Nope. I even convinced you can find CP/M software more easily than ST software :-(

Update: Meanwhile I changed the TOS version from 2.05 to 2.06, when powering up, now I got an Atari Logo and a boot progress bar :-) Thx to "Gaga" (he sold me these 2 TOS EPROM Chips, discussion about it can be found at http://forum.atari-home.de) again ...
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ZX81 Kits still available. A MS-DOS 1.x and 2.x version assembler source. 
Sunday, August 21, 2011, 10:00 PM
Posted by Administrator
A few mixed news here:

Found a web site which still offers ZX81 kits.
Like in the "Good old days", you can create your own, brand new ZX81.

Just visit http://www.zx81kit.com/zx81_kits.htm
The costs ? A bit expensive... £199.99

Very interesting, too:
A (self made) ZX80 replica board, looks very similar compared to the original: > 8bity.cz <

If you need a keyboard, you can get it from > sellmyretro.com <...


Also revisited again and still available... MS-DOS 1.x/2.x sources almost finished on a czech web page. It's name is MICRODOS and LT-DOS.
Here is the "google" translated page link:
http://translate.google.de/translate?js ... mp;act=url

Compared to FreeDOS it's much smaller. So it's very interesting as a base for an embedded PC, but also interesting to port it to a vintage PC back ;-)

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A(nother) great blog moved to a new address 
Monday, July 18, 2011, 10:00 PM
Posted by Administrator
A great blog with tons of tipps using emulators for using vintage computer software moved:

http://virtuallyfun.blogspot.com/
becomes
http://virtuallyfun.superglobalmegacorp.com/

This site is still a rich source even for re-compiled programs e.g. to run software on DEC Alpha machines (like my PWS433a) with Windows NT for Alpha (you know, there was also an almost finished Windows 2000 for Alpha which runs great!).

I discovered also this blog described the usage of "Stacker" for OS/2.
I didn't know this "Stacker" was also available for OS/2, I thought it was only included or created for MS-DOS 6.20 ;-)

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IMSAI 8080 info page + new z80pack link + ebook 8080/Z80 
Saturday, June 4, 2011, 09:00 PM
Posted by Administrator
Lucky guy - he got a full equipped IMSAI 8080:
http://www.nekochan.net/weblog/archives ... -8080.html
And the sequel: http://www.nekochan.net/weblog/archives ... entor.html
This blog has many other retrocomputer entries, too.

The former Z80PACK site "unix4fun" will not be recovered.
But there is another backup now:
http://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/z80pack/index.html

I also found an ebook / PDF about 8080/Z80 assembler programming.
EDITED LATER. THE FORMER LINK TO A BLOG WAS CHANGED TO A VIRUS SPREADING WEBSITE.
REMOVED. BUT I'VE FOUND ANOTHER INTERESTING PDF ABOUT Z80 PROGRAMMING:
http://www.msxarchive.nl/pub/msx/mirror ... nthal1.pdf
http://www.msxarchive.nl/pub/msx/mirror ... nthal2.pdf
http://www.msxarchive.nl/pub/msx/mirror ... nthal3.pdf

And btw... if you're a german, you have to visit a vintage computer enthusiast meeting named "Z-Fest".
Infos can be found here: http://www.z-fest.de/ ... it's celebrated at the end of June...

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This is the first "Personal Computer" (not Altair, not Scelbi, not Micral) ? 
Saturday, April 9, 2011, 03:30 PM
Posted by Administrator
This development system was created from Intel in 1972, and its CPU is an Intel 8008.

I didn't found so much infos about it yet, but it seems to be the oldest computer with a 8 bit CPU in one desktop case.

Some additional pictures can be found here:
http://online.sfsu.edu/~hl/c.Intellec8.html
or here
http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/I ... o-1972.htm
or even here
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/3366/Intellec-8/

A larger list of these earlier machines can be found here:
http://www.dvq.com/oldcomp/micros.htm

There is a Youtube video about a working Intellec 8 system:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq93EPmCNwM
(this was in fact the Intellec-8 mod 80)

In german, but still interesting:
http://computermuseum.informatik.uni-st ... intellec8/

I know there was an OS named ISIS for the Intellec-8 mod 80 (which had an Intel 8080 inside).
If someone have more information about an OS for the 8008 version, please tell me or comment it - thanks.

The R2E Micral was mentioned in a blog entry already:
http://www.z80.eu/blog/index.php?entry= ... 219-210000

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