Category: Computers/Tech/Games

Happy 30th Birthday, IBM PC!

On August 12th, 1981, IBM entered the world of personal computers with its 5150 personal computer. It wasn’t the first home computer to go on sale (by 1981 we already owned a TRS-80 Model III and Apple II computers were beginning to show up in schools) but the name “IBM” lent a certain amount of prestige and credibility to a market that hasn’t been the same ever since. Prior to IBM’s arrival in the home computer market, home computers were mostly viewed as expensive toys for tech-minded hobbyists. But with an IBM brand computer, consumers were given the opportunity to… (read more)

RobOHara

Happy 30th Birthday, MS-DOS!

On July 27th, 1981, Microsoft took their modified/rebranded version of QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) and released it as MS-DOS — Microsoft’s Disk Operating System. (If you have not seen Triumph of the Nerds yet, do so.) In 1980 we had a TRS-80 III that used TR-DOS. We moved to an Apple compatible machine in 1982, and picked up an IBM XT a year or two after that. I learned my way around DOS at a pretty early age, as being able to change drives, navigate through directory structures and launch executables were all skills needed to play and… (read more)

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Review: Cryptozookeeper

Disclaimer: I passed on the opportunity to have dinner with Robb Sherwin back in 2007 when the two of us were (separately) attending the Classic Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. “He’s funny, you’re funny, come have dinner with us,” said a mutual friend of ours. Unfortunately I already had plans to visit the Pinball Hall of Fame with other friends of mine that evening, so I had to decline the offer. Their pack of nerds went one way, my pack of nerds went another, and fate was postponed for a couple of years. Since then, Sherwin and I became mutual… (read more)

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For Release: Commodore Users of Norman PD Collection (C64/D64)

I don’t really know “how” to release this. I don’t even know if anyone will be interested. I hope somebody is. In March of 2007, via Craigslist, I purchased a large lot of Commodore hardware and software. For the grand total of $39 I ended up with six Commodore 64s, six 1541 disk drives, a couple of 128s, one Commodore 16, a bunch of monitors, and boxes and boxes of software. A few of the floppies were original games; most of them weren’t. While recently digging through the boxes of disks, I found several disks labeled “CUON.” These disks came… (read more)

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Random C64 Disks

Just a few random disks I scanned in tonight. Once I got up to around 30 or so disks of software, I decided it would be a good idea to number them. This probably isn’t the twelfth disk of software I downloaded, but I’m sure it was pretty early on. Raid Over Moscow and Beachhead II on the same disk? Fun. “Levi Jam” was a Levi’s “Button Fly” commercial someone digitized. It probably took me half an hour to download that 20 second music clip of questionable quality. The “MT44” and “LALALA” written on the sleeve were my user ID… (read more)

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A Bushel of Apple (Computers)

While killing time during the two-hour drive to Tulsa for the Oklahoma Video Game Expo (OVGE) last weekend, I reminisced to the passengers in my car (Jeff and Robb) about the time I “accidentally” bought 300 computer keyboards. I just searched robohara.com and can’t find a post dedicated to that story, so later this week I’ll correct that omission. The gist of the story is, while not paying attention at an auction one time, I bought 300 (mostly useless and broken) computer keyboards for $10.50. As I often say, I told you that story to tell you this one. One… (read more)

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Oklahoma Video Game Expo 2011: GET TEXT

I can think of three reasons why anybody would rent table space at a video game convention. The first is, you own a video game store. Those guys are there to sell games and promote their stores. The second reason is, you’re a video game collector looking to (a) sell video games (often duplicate titles from your own collection) and (b) trade video games with other vendors. And then there are people like me — people who rent table space for the sole purpose of showing off things. At OVGE 2004 I displayed my collection of vintage console copiers (old… (read more)

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Oklahoma Video Game Expo: June 18, 2011

The 8th (!) annual Oklahoma Video Game Expo (OVGE) will take place this Saturday at the Spirit Bank Event Center in Tulsa, OK. Out of the seven OVGE shows (there was no show in 2007) I’ve had a table at five of them, each year with a different theme. So far I’ve done Console Copiers (2004), Star Wars games (2005), Commodork (2006), Invading Spaces (2008), and “Stuff For Sale!” (2009). This year I’ll be doing GET TEXT, a tribute to text adventures. GET TEXT will consist of several retro computers (Commodore 64, Apple II, Amiga 1200, DOS) running classic text… (read more)

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Last Call for Hangar 22 Beta Testers!!

Hangar 22, my first text adventure, is essentially done! Thanks to everybody who has helped me test thus far. The final release will probably be Friday. If you’d like to play it now (and help me by testing things out), here are two ways to play it. 01. Play the game online. For some reason, the people hosting Parchment (the online IF engine) are disallowing Internet Explorer. If you run IE, this link won’t work for you. If you run Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or IE9, then this should work. (UPDATED: Link currently does not work with versions of Internet Explorer… (read more)

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