Nice! I see a couple of Model-Ms lurking back there. I’m curious about that chicken salad; is it an Apple or IBM? What year? 
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Ha, the pizza place next door was running a meal special! That box on the floor has several more Ms in it, and one PC/XT model F, but those all arrived smashed up from ebay. 
Right now I’m wrestling with the Macintosh Plus’s floppy drive.
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Hi !
Wasn’t aware that this forum existed !
.
Im actually an RF engineer by trade, but I guess computing (or rather, building computer hardware) has been a hobby since the 80s
Started with a bit of BASIC coding at school, then got an Ohio Superboard II, then (when it’s intermittent faults became a bit too much to deal with) cloned it onto veroboard (in “mess of wires style”) … several times
Decades later I’m still coding in assembler (low end PICs) in my job, and building TTL retro computers for the hell of it
Currently working on a fairly compact (stack of 10cm square boards) 16 bit machine, and a very minimal (16 chips) 8 bit unit as a design exercise
.
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Welcome, Fred, Michael, and Michael! We’re glad to have you all here. Please jump into any threads that interest you, and feel free to share what you’re working on!
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Hi Guys,
I’m Augusto Baffa from Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and I’m first contact with computers was a ZX81 and after an Apple][+. Since, I grew up with x86 computers (beginning on a PC XT - ok 8088 but almost same thing).
My interest in retro is in DIY and homebrew projects. It’s an excelent playground for learning about architectures and flipflop level coding 
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I have tinkered with all sorts of computers over the years including Apple, Macintosh, and various DOS/Windows PC’s. I have enjoyed Geos/New Deal/Ensemble. Since I retired i deleted the virus known as Windows 10 from my laptop and now use Linux Mint. My current project and the one that brings me here is an Epson ActionNote 4SLC2-50 running MS-DOS 7.10 (adapted from Win98). My present task is to get it communicating with my home network and the Internet.
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Welcome aboard! Enjoy the site, lots of great info!
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Hi guys.
My name’s Martin, but I usually go by ceptimus on forums and YouTube, etc.
Been programming now for over 45 years. Started with BASIC on PETs, then moved to 6502 machine code. I’ve done various Assembler: Z80, 6502, 6809, H8, 68000, 8051, etc. I still own a ZX Spectrum and an Amiga. Enjoy tinkering with Arduinos and other microcontrollers, in lots of languages. Recently I’ve implemented a (mostly ANS compliant) Forth for the MSP430, all written using Alfred Arnold’s great (and free) macro assembler ASL.
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Fenny, does the Epson ActionNote have any sort of networking hardware? All I see on it are two serial ports and a parallel port.
Ethernet can be added using a Xircom PE3 type device. These attach to the parallel port and they provide real Ethernet, but the performance is limited due the parallel port. The other option is to use SLIP connects through the serial ports. SLIP requires another computer to serve as a router unless you use something like one of the ESP8266 “WiFi” modems with a SLIP firmware on them. (The SLIP firmware handles the routing.)
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I am looking for a Xircom PE3 but the ones I see online are very expensive, far more than my little project is worth.
I just ordered a 16550 UART to replace one of the 8250’s to speed up a COM port.
I’ll look into the ESP8266.
Thanks.
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Hello,
I’m Giovanni.
I have an interest in resurrecting/porting some old OSes. I’m from the United States, and I’ve tinkered on PCs and game consoles since I was 5. I had an Atari, NES, SNES, N64, and I’ve used Apple IIs, Macintosh, IBM 286s w/DOS, 3.1, Windows 95, and countless other PCs and OSes.
Recently I’ve been interested in OSes like the PC/GEOS (and the 8 bit one too), Contiki, Psions, EPOC, Symbian. My webpage is The Libre Autarkic Laptop | Hackaday.io
One day I’d like to develop something like a portable, solar-powered 1984 Macintosh OS or GEOS on a laptop.
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Hi
I like programming in werid languages,both assembly-like and lambda-like
I also like making digital circuits in Logisim-evolution.I have designed a lot of CPUs.
I don’t have a soldering iron,and don’t work with pointers in high-level languages,and don’t understand interrupts,but I did have lots of accidents involving making a goes on and on recursion like (\x.xx)(\x.xx)
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Greetings, and thank you for having me! I am a rather old feller, who once built an old RCA 1802 MP, and used programmable calculators instead of his old university’s main frame for engineering problem sets. For IBM, I was a system engineer for the big iron. Now, I work with the little kids, as a teacher. Very happy, man, indeed, these days. My interests are many—hardware, software, UI’s, and teaching kids. I look forward to exploring and maybe doing some building, once again. 
&
︎ ~Bob
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Teaching children is the most meaningful thing you can do.
Wow…where to start, what to say?
My name is Bryan Smith.
I have always been a PC collector from the very early days of personal computers.
My first exposure to computers was in High School with a Healthkit H8/H9.
My brother had a Commodore 64 about the same time.
My collection began with a $1800 purchase of one of the first Commodore Amiga 1000 sold in West Virginia.
In college I used Apple IIe for some course work.
It was in college I saw my first CAD system and was hooked!
I began collecting IBM compatable PC parts (some that did not understand would say I was a hoarder)
I quickly grew in knowledge and experience with PCs.
In 1995, I worked for a short time at a End User Training Facility.
During that time, I passed my Certification exams for Windows NT 3.51 Workstation and Server.
I became a CompTIA A+ certificated trainer.
Later that same year, I was invited to take the NT 4.0 beta exam.
In 1999, I passed enough exams to earn my Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer for NT 4.0
Back in those days, certifications carried some weight.
While I do not think certs are that important today, am studing for my Cisco Certified Network Professional exam. (one of two exams to earn the coveted CCNP)
I was able to work with some nice hardware, that now I wish I owned.
I am now a Senior Cisco Network Engineer and only mess with PCs in my spare time as a hobby.
In my collection, I have:
Commodore 64 with its 1541 disk drive
Commodore Amiga 1000
2 and 1/2 Commodore Amiga 2000
Atari 520ST
Tandy 1000TL/3
HP Kayak XM600 Workstation (dual Pentium III with RAMBUS memory)
HP Vectra VL800 (first gen 486, socket 423 with RAMBUS memory)
Miscellaneous other Pentium CORE 2 DUO and early Core i5 machines.
My current daily PC is a HP Z400 workstation (32 gigs of RAM, 6 core Xeon)
…various rack mount servers. of which one is a NAS and aother is running the free version of VMWare ESXi.
I collect an embrassing number of moderately elderly machines and parts.
I am often presented with the opportunity to build a basic machine and give to someone in need.
Core2Duo and early iCore based machines witha few upgraded (Ram and SSD) runs Windows 10 just fine for browsing and light Office work.
Bryan Smith
Fort Wayne, Indiana
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Hello everyone!
I was very glad to learn that there is quite a community of people interested in retrocomputing. I think I first became interested in the hobby after watching an episode of Computerphile. I downloaded a could of Commodore 64 manuals and started playing around.
Unfortunately I have so many other hobbies that I haven’t gotten very far in my exploration of retro computing, but I am also working through a book called The Elements of Computing Systems, in which you implement an 8-bit computer from the ground up using a hardware simulator and later, a virtual machine, and this has the same retro computing vibe I got from working with the Commodore 64.
I’m currently working on writing an assembler implementation for the simple assembly language in that book, and decided that I wanted to write it in C. So then I got another taste of “retro” computing by taking a deep dive into C. Windows isn’t the most friendly platform for C development, so I just installed WSL and I’m going to give it another go using the GNU tool chain.
I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone else is working on!
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I also remember the same book and same circuit.
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How cool ! Amazing stuff
Hi all,
after a years of silently lurking around the forum I decided to create an account. From what I have read here, I am quite late in the computers, but that at least make me feel younger then I am!
I am originally from (Czecho) Slovakia and my first contact with a computer was in the middle of the 80’s. I was attending a basic school and my neighbour had problems with mathematics, so I was around few days a week after school to help him. He had an Atari 130XE and we played games on it. Later there was a paper computer in a magazine so I was able to learn some BASIC and land on the Moon (I don’t think I’ve ever managed to do that) and play some other games on it. At the end of the 80’s I was attending a local computer club to play some games but also to learn BASIC on the PMD85. We’ve got a computer for the X-mass '92. It was Didaktik Gama, a slovak clone of ZX Spectrum with 80kB of RAM and a parallel port. It came with a disk drive, so I never really get used to the tapes. Besides the games there was suddenly also a world of the demoscene and I’ve got hooked. It is since then I am actively using the Spectrum without a break till today.
My first own PC came in about 2005, it was refurbished secondhand Compaq laptop (some PIII, 12" screen) which I used also at my work. I was already familiar with Linux and was slowly heading that direction. At the end of 2009 I replaced the laptop with a Dell Vostro 1320 which I still own and use today. My last Windows experience ended in March 2010 and since then I am the usual Linux syadmin/sre/devops/how ever it is called today.
Because the ZX Spectrum, I am focusing on the Z80 CPU. I do some assembly programming, so although I do own a working Atari 130XE, that one is for games and demos only. Other computers in my possession are MGT Sam Coupé, Grundy NewBrain, Cambridge Z88 and V6Z80P. NewBrain is probably my most favourite one. I am not a collector and all computers are working. I am not really looking for any more platforms (well, maybe Amstrad CPC 664, but as I do have access to the 6128, I am no way in hurry to buy one).
I am learning a C nearly whole my computer life. I do some LUA programming, I can do Python, but I don’t like that one much. An Emacs manual is on my way now (but I am actually a VIM user) and I hope to take a look on the Lisp. But I have to admit that I am a crap programmer.
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