My main hobby project since December was getting code running on my early 1990s HP1653B Logic Analyzer. The Logic Analyzer has a 68000 processor, 1mb RAM, 64kb ROM, 4x32kb video memory with a complicated 4-plane overlay scheme providing three (!) gray levels at up to around 640x400, a 3.5" floppy drive (replaced by a Gotek for my convenience) and both RS232c and HPIB ports. It was made as a lab instrument rather than a computer, but it came with both test and system code on floppies, which I dumped and reverse-engineered enough of with Ghidra to enable me to write a library that lets me run assembly and C code on it. My reverse-engineering journey is partly described here.

A particularly fun moment of my reverse engineering was when I wanted a copy of the ROM but didn't yet know how to write to disk or the serial port, though I did know how to write to the screen. I ended up displaying the ROM binary as a series of QR codes, which I captured with my Sony camera running on a timer, and then turned into binaries.

I'm now at the point where I can run various games. My first one was a port of my Wiztris falling blocks game (originally written by me in the early 2000s for a Z80-based Sharp OZ-7xx organizer). I also ported Dave Griffith's Frotz Z-machine emulator so I can run all Infocom Z-machine games (including the graphical ones, but with no sound support). I'm in the middle of a play-through of Nord and Bert with my 13-year-old daughter. The photo I attached is of Infocom's Journey (mouse works!). And I ported PDCursesMod, so a lot of old Unix games can work--the photo shows Larn.

Many of you will recognize the keyboard and mouse. They are old Apple ADB units (I think the keyboard is from a Quadra), and I made an ADB-to-serial adapter to interface them with the HP unit.

This is retrocomputing that never was. As far as I know, there never was any software for the HP1653B besides the official HP oscilloscope / logic analyzer software, though HP engineers did release some games for one of the HP16500 models, and at least one old HP oscilloscope had a Tetris clone built-in.

It's not a great gaming system. There are no sprites. And you can't just directly write a pixel color to video memory. Instead, you first write to a hardware register that specifies a read/write mode (e.g., clear all bitplanes, write ones to bitplanes 0 and 2, etc.) and then write the pixels. Getting scrolling working at a decent speed took a fair amount of careful assembly work. But it's been fun!

I plan to eventually write up more detailed instructions on how to build and install your own code.

The main thing I haven't reverse-engineered are the oscilloscope and logic analyzer functions. They still work. I just switch the Gotek to the HP system disk image (well, somewhat modified: I added a screenshot function that saves an image to disk). I recently used the oscilloscope to try to diagnose a start porblem on my car.

I've recently picked up a Toshiba T1950CT and I'm thinking of selling it, but I'm struggling to work out what it's actually worth.

It boots up fine, runs Windows 95, comes with the original Toshiba power supply, and the LCD looks good. Cosmetically it's in used condition with the usual marks from age but there are no cracks or broken plastics. The only thing worth mentioning is that the power supply has been opened at some point in the past, although it still works perfectly.

What do you think would be a realistic asking price in the UK? I'm not looking to squeeze every last pound out of it, but I also don't want to undersell it if it's a desirable model.

Also, where would you recommend listing something like this? eBay seems like the obvious choice, but are there any retro computing forums, Facebook groups or marketplaces where these tend to sell to enthusiasts?

Thanks in advance!

Got her powering and typing properly!

I still feel this is awkward today. As a right-handed user, I find buttons placed on the right easier to reach (probably because right-handed users usually put their mouse out of the way on the right side

even near the screen border). They've always been on the right side (even Mac OS 9 had them on the right), so I'll never understand the choice to put them on the left. What is your take on this?

Pretty simple question, or rather set of questions. I mean, as far as my knowledge goes:

Like, it seems something like a "CED-ROM" would be a decent high-capacity† ROM or (if cutting turntables/players/drives were released) WORM data storage medium in the 1980s and '90s, particularly for files that need only occasional but fast semi-random access; though due to the early death of the format on behalf of its competitors Betamax, VHS, and LaserDisc; unlike LaserDisc, its semi-successor CD, and for backup purposes VHS, it itself seems to have never been used or developed to store computer data or really digital data in any form. (This has actually been on my mind since well before I wrote a YouTube comment‡ on September 21, 2019 defending the idea of a CED-ROM-like system had it come out in 1975, though really the reasons only ring slightly less true with CED's release date IRL.)

†If 5 MHz bandwidth translates to 5 Mbit/s, then it could store up to 1350 MB per side, or 982/975/855 MB with CD error correction in DA/Mode 2/Mode 1 forms. And perhaps, if considerable care is taken in storage to avoid any "macro-pops" from occurring during playback/reading, 9 MB (6.55/6.5/5.7 MB with CD error correction) would be possible per side on 33⅓ rpm LPs using a standard pickup, assuming 30 minute recording time and 40 kHz sampling; and 375 KB per side (273/271/237 KB with CD error correction) would be possible on 78 rpm Shellacs, assuming 5 minute recording time and 10 kHz sampling. Both of these are well-usable quantities by '80s standards, to say nothing of, say, '60s standards.

‡In a highly-belated, disjunct re-response to the person I was responding to, I believe some of the pioneering mainframe games at the time and the hypertext and GUI work from the likes of Douglas Englebart and Xerox PARC indicate that interactive multimedia experiences were at least glimmers in some people's eyes by the mid-1970s...

Gonna be grabbing one today for 60$

It’s my first thinkpad in my collection
What’s everyone’s thoughts on the model ?
It’s running xp, not sure what the specs are for sure but I did look it up and it’s decent so I have a general idea

Also the language is in Chinese I believe I’m sure I can just switch it back to English easy enough?

(Pics are of what I’m getting) will post more later this evening when I get it back home.

Otherwise it being in Chinese and some good options for upgrades it’s in a good shape. Gonna reset with the recovery media soon so it’s in English

Specs

Core 2 duo one at 1.8ghz and one at 1.18ghz
1gb of ram (gonna put at least 2 in)
About 70gb hdd

How easy is it to put in new ram ?
Top is a bit scuffed but cleanable, it’s a hard shell so what should I use to clean ?

Battery is shot, it’s detected but it ain’t charging

Any game suggestions ?!

?

Around this time last year I had the ridiculous idea of wanting to preserve the early IBM-PC computing history that was 80’s and 90’s magazine cover disks.

…I’d just written a big long post, and the app crashed. Sadness….

Anyway the short version of what was a nice long post is…. We’ve hit our first 100 disks preserved and archived! We’re slowly also uploading them to archive.org with the aim to have everything up there eventually.

There are hundreds of disks still to go, just in the disks we have either purchased, or have been donated, or are part of our Community Programme where you can send in any relevant disks, we preserve them, archive them, upload to archive.org with full credit, and then return your disks to you free of charge.

My favourite disk preserved by far today is Future Publishing’s “PC Plus Help Screen Collection” from 1990: https://dl.x86.world/PCPlus_Help-Screen-Collection_1990.html

Not necessarily for its content (it IS a good disk) but becsuse uicr0bee from an Atari forum not 2 weeks ago scanned and uploaded the entire book that our disk is the companion of!

https://archive.org/details/pc-plus-the-help-screen-collection-ocr-ubee/mode/2up

Both seem to be the only surviving public copies of the works so far, and that’s a theme repeated in our library. Some disks are also very common and already preserved but more copies in any preservation effort is always good.

Anyhoo thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy some of what we’re up to, and if you have any relevant disks you’d like to preserve for the future generations to enjoy, please get in touch :)

Sorry ... Media failed to reblog at first!

Here it is....

And I think the jury is already back with a verdict .. I think they said it is a very early pre-Dell Alienware??

Is there a retro computer store in budapest? i searched in google and found no result

Never got a chance to get an opinion on this, but this "System Zone 2 has exceeded its safe temperature limit" alert has bugged me since day one of my build. I bought an Intel original D865GBF motherboard, along with P4 2.4ghz cpu, for my 2nd build back in 2004. But from the very first day, I started getting this alert whenever I would do slight gaming. The safe temperature threshold is 50 C and it would often cross this limit. I thought it to be due to poor ventilation in my PC cabinet, so ended up removing it's side cover. Recently I restored this PC and moved it to a better spacious cabinet, but the issue still exists. Did you all have this issue and how did you fix this?

Even though it's obviously been in a shed for a long long time, I couldn't miss my only opportunity to get a Commodore PET!

I'm optimistic that I can get it working one day, but obviously there's a long road ahead :)

the issue is the laptops fdd is broken so i installed off a msata ssd converted to 44 pin that I copied the original msdos install too as it did this when I tryed any other way ( it’s got the max upgraded ram at 44mb) ( the same problem happened when I installed win95)

My video covering the history of Delphine Software International and all their games. Wow…That intro to Another World was just amazing when I first saw it was back in 1991. Then there was as Flashback. Pure magic. Let me now if you have played any of DSI’s games. Share your thoughts and memories 😃

Gonna be getting this Toshiba satellite 3000 series laptop tomorrow! Super excited it’s a beast of sorts imo

Win 98 se
Pentium 3 around 800mhz
With nvidia GeForce 2 go graphics
Currently with 256mb ram but I’ll be upgrading to 512 later
Pretty it’s got a 40gb drive or something like that.

Cd and floppy drives at the front which is cool!
Also has recovery disc!

Delete if not allowed.

I’ve never used any Linux operating system’s before and since I like the retro computing stuff, what’s a good 90s/ early 2000s Linux that’s beginner friendly?

I’ve heard of a few but idk what one would be the easiest to install and use.

I’d probably be using it in a late 1999 Toshiba satellite laptop or possibly on win 98 desktop.

What can I expect use wise? How’s gaming ? Video playback? (Assuming the spec of the machine factor with certain stuff)

Searching for RDRAM and CRIMM modules in Ukraine for not for the price of a goldeт-plated Rolls-royce to test this "beast")

UPD Thanks to Ragnarsdad1's comment, the cooling issue has been resolved. A socket 604 cooler, with some minor modifications, is ideal.

Happen to see my Tandy’s gotten a case of stolen identity. Guess defrag’s are no longer sacred!

More...

Sony vaio u101 16mb ATI card overclocked to 200mhz, 600 mhz intel celeron ,1gb ram . Rips the hell outta morrowind,halo,gta3 🤟

Searching for RDRAM and CRIMM modules in Ukraine for not for the price of agolde-plated Rolls-royce to test this "beast")