The Lure of Retro Computing

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in hardware on (#3K0)
story imageWhat's the best computer you ever owned? Step aside with your Core Duo, son, and make some room for the gentleman who wants to tell you about his Commodore 64 . Or Sinclair ZX . Or DEC Terminal .

Retro computing is hotter than ever, attracting the interest of a whole new generation who takes interest in the machines of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. You may have missed the Retro Computing Fair in East Philadelphia last month, but that doesn't mean you're out of luck. Roswell, Georgia is hosting a Vintage Computing Festival next month, and museums dedicated to classic hardware are springing up everywhere, like this one in Ramsgate, UK. Most of them are the product of their passionate founders who have opened up their personal collections.

Can't make it anywhere? It's still not too late to play some classic Commodore 64 games courtesy of a Raspberry Pi and some clever emulation.

That's the thing about bits. Eight of 'em should've been enough for anybody.

Oldies but Goodies (Score: 1)

by dotdotdot@pipedot.org on 2014-05-06 15:02 (#1E5)

TRS-80 Model III ... I picked up a ton of shareware games and other utilities at a local user group on 5.25" floppies. I probably still have them in a shoe box somewhere if my wife hasn't discovered them yet and thrown them out.
Commodore 64 ... I discovered BASIC and color!
Timex Sinclair 1000 ... Worst keyboard ever! I got the one with 2K of RAM and remember loading a flight simulator from audio tape. The refresh rate was about one frame per second.
TRS-80 Model 4 ... More user groups, more games, more utilities.
TRS-80 Model 100 ... Now this is the machine I wish I still had. I maxed out the RAM/ROM to 32K and got the 3.5" floppy drive. I also got a 300 baud modem and would read SarText as fast as the the text would download.
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