Category: IBM PC

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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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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ZoomFloppy (First Impressions)

Today I will be giving my first impressions of the ZoomFloppy, a new PCB that allows people to connect old Commodore floppy disk drives to modern PCs via USB. (I’ll pause a minute while most of you leave the room. You are excused. See you tomorrow.) I have, on several occasions, talked about the process (and difficulties) of converting physical Commodore 1541 diskettes into D64 disk images, the format used by most Commodore 64 emulators (including WinVice). Most recently, I talked about it here, here, and here. To save you an hour of back-digging, here’s the gist of those posts:… (read more)

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FC5025: The Review, Part I

I am, as the kids like to say, “old school”. I like old technology, I like old video games, I like old arcade games, and I particularly like old computers. When I say “old computers”, I am mostly referring to 8-bit machines from the 1980s: the Commodore 64, the Apple II, the TRS-80, and so on. In the spirit of Jeopardy, if the preceding paragraph was the answer, the question would be, “What kind of person would be interested in purchasing (or would even have a use for) an FC5025?” The FC5025 is a custom USB drive controller for 5… (read more)

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Monitor Memories

In honor of yesterday’s departure of a few monitors, here are a few other monitor memories. The first color computer monitor my family ever owned was an Amdek, which was actually the third computer monitor we ever owned. Our first was the TRS-80 Model III’s internal black and white monitor; our second was an amber-tinted one for our Apple clone. Amdek monitors last forever and come with a built-in handle which makes toting them around a breeze. When my Dad graduated from the Apple II to the PC XT, I inherited the Amdek monitor and used it with my Commodore… (read more)

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See. Seagate. Seagate Drop.

Last week a thread on Seagate’s public forum started getting some attention within tech circles. Apparently, a few customers began complaining that their Seagate 1tb (Terabyle) hard drives were dying. Like, a lot of drives. Like, people are estimating somewhere around 30%-40% of the drives are dying. Fortunately for me I don’t OH WAIT I BOUGHT FIVE OF THESE DRIVES LAST MONTH AAAAAAHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRGHGHGHHGHGHGHHHH123!@#!@#!@#!%#&!&! Ahem. Sorry. Once Seagate realized there was a problem, they said, “Don’t worry! Your drive’s not really dead! It’s just that it has a bad firmware and your computer won’t see it!” This is akin to telling… (read more)

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The Obstinate 80 Gigs

For as long as I can remember I have associated specific songs with specific memories, and for me, an arcade wouldn’t be an arcade without the music. All of my old arcade memories including a backing soundtrack of 80s music. Different arcades had different playlists: family friendly arcades like Le Mans and Tilt pumped in 80s pop music, while seedier arcades like Cactus Jack’s and the Bowling Alley delivered a constant stream of 70s arena rock and 80s hair metal. When my backyard shed begin to make the transition from “collection of arcade machines in a shed” to “backyard arcade”,… (read more)

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Pivo Fragged

Just to get everybody up to speed — I have a PC-based PVR in my entertainment center. It runs GB-PVR for Windows. I call it Pivo (PC Tivo). And, currently, the hard drive is fragged to hell. As everyone reading this blog already knows, fragmentation occurs when files on a computer are deleted, and overwritten by other files which don’t fit exactly in the space left by the first file. This causes files to become split up on your hard drive, which in turn can cause longer loading times and decreased performance. It’s pretty easy to see how this can… (read more)

RobOHara