|
In case any of y’all are in Southern California near Claremont tomorrow:
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2023 05:14
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 12, 2024 16:54 |
|
|
Wise Fwom Yo Gwave posted:In case any of y’all are in Southern California near Claremont tomorrow:  My setup: 
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2023 23:35
|
|
|
Wise Fwom Yo Gwave posted:
That is super cool… great setup. I wish I lived somewhere with meetups and such. 4th largest city in the US and I can’t find a single retro computer / tech interest group around here
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2023 23:46
|
|
|
Nice meet there! Good mix of computers there, nice 800 you have there
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2023 06:53
|
|
|
I was in Amiga Ireland 13-14 January. It's an annual Amiga event hosted in a small town called Athlone in the middle of Ireland. Very charming place. It was mainly drinking and gaming, but there was some interesting content too. Ron Nicholson who was an early employee at Apple and later designed the Amiga's chipset had talk/q&a. The main reason I went was to meet a lot of online friends IRL. Our group had people from UK, Ireland, Norway, Finland and Australia. The town itself. It was very small and I pretty much got to know it during my three day visit. Didn't take long to walk from end to end:  The event:     Full Irish breakfast: 
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2023 10:55
|
|
|
Very cool meet  Whenever I heard vintage computer podcasts talking about Amiga Ireland I thought it was some fake island, not the actual country
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2023 08:48
|
|
|
Not sure if there's a more relevant thread, but for anyone looking to get in on the new-old-stock of NABU Z80 hardware, the original seller just put more up yesterday. Snagged one this morning. https://www.ebay.ca/itm/394456877962
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2023 15:01
|
|
|
What can you actually do with that? If I recall it’s not just a regular z80 pc right?
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2023 15:48
|
|
|
It’s a fairly recent development in the retro space IIRC. Originally it was a Canadian set-top-box in the 80s, fairly similar to the MSX. A good amount of the games (my understanding) have now been archived and are available via a “network emulator” you can hook the original hardware into. I was big into following when the stock first dropped on eBay but since I missed out on the first wave I kind of dropped off. Looks like it has a lot of progress behind it, but ultimately it’s a fairly limited use case once you have all the existing games. Expecting some new games will be ported to it, but it seems like one of those things that will be fairly niche going forward. A floppy controller board has now been reverse engineered and is in testing, CP/M boots over the network, games can be served to it from the emulator and from an online adapter IIRC. I jumped on this just because once the original stock is gone there won’t be any more, though presumably it’ll get a MiSTer core or MAME core at some point soon. E: ADB did a pretty good video on it, and there’s a guy who’s constantly uploading little 5-10 min progess videos he’s making on the emulator. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLYjZoShjy0 some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Feb 11, 2023 |
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2023 16:18
|
|
|
The NABU hits a real FOMO note for me. I know I’ll never take the time to really use one, especially compared to other options, but damnit, I want to be in the NABU club!
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2023 21:36
|
|
|
One HUUUUUNDRED percent the reason I am now $200CDN poorer. But rich in
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2023 22:00
|
|
|
I could afford one, and have space for one, and I like the looks, and I could probably even use it for a few things, but... life is short.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2023 22:04
|
|
|
I had fomo for a minute and then I realized I’d never use it and I have no nostalgia for it or any z80 machine
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2023 22:25
|
|
|
Jim Silly-Balls posted:I had fomo for a minute and then I realized I’d never use it and I have no nostalgia for it or any z80 machine Is it better than a nabu? e: I bid on an Amstrad CPC464 (with a cassette emulator and RGB cable, sans original VDU) and a Commodore VIC 20 but lost on both. Actually glad about the first one, as there is like maybe one game (Jack the Nipper 2) that I know I'd like to play on it (that isn't available for something else, usually better). It's a really cool-looking system but over 250€ is way too much without the monitor. A VIC I'd like just to complete the "family" but not paying more than 70€ right now for a possible project. The VIC games I want to play, I'll just play on the The VIC20, if I ever get around to it. ee: That ENTER key, tho   eee: A PPC6128 for under 300€ I'd probably go for. We had them in school and they're great. Too bad about the boring keyboard  
3D Megadoodoo fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Feb 11, 2023 |
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2023 22:28
|
|
|
The only Z80 computer I might have a bit of nostalgia for would be a TI-83+ graphing calculator, I did have a bunch of fun with that one during high school.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2023 22:33
|
|
|
3D Megadoodoo posted:Is it better than a nabu? One of the first computers my family had in the '80s was an Epson Equity whose keyboard had the same Enter key.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2023 01:38
|
|
|
Timby posted:One of the first computers my family had in the '80s was an Epson Equity whose keyboard had the same Enter key. According to GIS it's not the same. It's upside down.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2023 01:46
|
|
|
Well the NABU looks to be sold out. Which is honestly for the best for me. I don’t have the space, and I have a full set of Commodore machines (PET, VIC20, C64, and Amiga 500) that cover the history of early gaming pretty well.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2023 06:38
|
|
|
3D Megadoodoo posted:Is it better than a nabu? €250 for a CPC464? Is it made of gold or something? Shouldn't be more than about €100 to get one from the UK into the EU even after import duty or whatever, if you really want one. (Maybe postage would be quite a bit as it's fairly heavy?)
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2023 10:49
|
|
|
3D Megadoodoo posted:Is it better than a nabu? Pretty sure Jack 2 is on the C64 and exactly as playable there as on the CPC if that helps any.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2023 11:26
|
|
|
Fil5000 posted:Pretty sure Jack 2 is on the C64 and exactly as playable there as on the CPC if that helps any. Yeah I just took a look at the Amstrad version in colour and it looks loving hideous. I think I've only played it on the green CRTs. Also all three versions seem to be coming to Steam so... (Anyway I played a bit on VICE just now and I guess games seem a lot better when you're like 8 I still play the first game every year at least. Love the music.)legooolas posted:€250 for a CPC464? Is it made of gold or something? Shouldn't be more than about €100 to get one from the UK into the EU even after import duty or whatever, if you really want one. I'm not selling it, I just bid on it until it got too expensive for my blood.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2023 11:31
|
|
|
TheMadMilkman posted:Well the NABU looks to be sold out. Which is honestly for the best for me. I don’t have the space, and I have a full set of Commodore machines (PET, VIC20, C64, and Amiga 500) that cover the history of early gaming pretty well. The good news is that the seller is batching these out, apparently has 800-something, so there’s definitely more to come. They’re just pacing the sales to have a realistic chance of shipping these in a sensible manner. The bad news is that the seller is batching these out, apparently has 800-something, so there’s definitely more to come  I pretty much agree with folks, the NABU is probably inconsequential in the retro scene, pretty niche, but I’m now justifying it by preserving my national computing heritage  — that sounds much better than “I want it because FOMO”
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2023 15:43
|
|
|
I’ll be honest. If I catch one of the next batches, I’ll probably buy one.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2023 19:20
|
|
|
3D Megadoodoo posted:I'm not selling it, I just bid on it until it got too expensive for my blood. Yeah I got that, just saying that that seems bonkers for a sale price on it There have certainly been ones which have gone for a lot cheaper recently on eBay in the UK. There probably aren't *that* many about as it was (in the circles I frequented at least!) a distant third place in popularity here after the Speccy and C64 originally.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2023 23:35
|
|
|
"Hey man, almost finished with the chassis layout? Found a good place for the arrow keys, yeah?" "yeah, yeah don't worry about it"
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2023 00:37
|
|
|
an actual frog posted:"Hey man, almost finished with the chassis layout? Found a good place for the arrow keys, yeah?" What do you expect from a guy called Lord Sugar.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2023 00:44
|
|
|
an actual frog posted:"Hey man, almost finished with the chassis layout? Found a good place for the arrow keys, yeah?" Hey, at least it actually has four of them! 
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2023 07:19
|
|
|
some kinda jackal posted:I pretty much agree with folks, the NABU is probably inconsequential in the retro scene, pretty niche, but I’m now justifying it by preserving my national computing heritage FOMO won. A new batch went up tonight and I ordered one. That people are now porting MSX games over to this somewhat helped my rationalization.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2023 06:14
|
|
|
 Mine just shipped, so I grabbed that RS422 USB adapter until I can figure out a way to elegantly shove a RasPi with some kind of RS422 hat inside the thing to negate extra cables/etc.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2023 14:43
|
|
|
h_double posted:Also good choice on Jumpman, that is still a legit good platformer. Jumpman (on the C64) was my favorite game growing up. 20 years ago I did up a new Jumpman game for PC (and Palm Pilot, if you have one of those floating around). Looks like you can still find it on the Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20120209114833/http://www.jumpmanzero.com/ ...and it still runs OK on a modern PC (I just checked.. first time playing it in some time), though the graphics don't translate well to a big monitor in 2023.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2023 20:02
|
|
|
jmzero posted:Jumpman (on the C64) was my favorite game growing up. 20 years ago I did up a new Jumpman game for PC (and Palm Pilot, if you have one of those floating around). lmao I distinctly remember playing this on my handspring visor, this rules
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2023 20:46
|
|
|
Those graphics for some reason made me think of Elastomania Man I played the poo poo out of that game
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2023 21:24
|
|
|
Elasto Mania rules. You can buy it, and its predecessor Action Supercross, on steam now.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2023 22:49
|
|
|
Who needs a NABU when you have a fujinet-equipped Coleco Adam?
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2023 07:47
|
|
|
Jehde posted:Elasto Mania rules. You can buy it, and its predecessor Action Supercross, on steam now. Really? If they work on the steam deck I’m all over that
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2023 15:04
|
|
|
I won't have time to play with it for a while, but fomo won and I bought a NABU too.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2023 16:45
|
|
|
Retrocomputer Gaming Thread: NABU FOMO
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2023 19:36
|
|
|
  I'm officially a Japanese PC owning weirdo (well I have an MSX2, but that was a much smaller investment). It's CX20 model FM Towns, a 386DX 16 MHz with 2MB of RAM, although I have some SIMMs on the way to upgrade it. The floppy drives might be bad (either that, or all of the refurbed disks I bought on ebay are bad...or both!). The mouse is definitely bad, the cursor jumps everywhere even after a thorough cleaning. I have an adapter coming that will let me use a PS/2 mouse. It's theoretically possible to use a GoTek for a floppy, but I will need to build my own adapter as it doesn't use a standard floppy cable connector. I found someone that designed a PCB adapter that I could try building. Most games just boot off the CD, which is why it was able to be consolized into the FM Towns Marty. Most games will use a floppy disk to save, but some games like Wing Commander 2 require a hard drive install like a typical MS-DOS game. Most importantly the CD-ROM works. The GDEMU guy makes an ODE called The Wizard that I apparently just missed pre-orders for. Hopefully this drive lasts long enough until the next batch of orders he does. It is possible to use a SCSI CD-ROM (or ZuluSCSI/BlueSCSI/SCSI2SD/etc) for games with the proper driver/boot disk. But an ODE would probably have the best compatibility. I successfully installed TownsOS 2.1 L10 (I think the latest version is L50) to the ZuluSCSI. But in order to boot off it you need to boot off the TownsOS CD-ROM and run the setup utility to enable booting from SCSI. I have to do that every time right now because the TWO CMOS batteries are dead, which I will replace shortly. One is a CR2430 and the other is an NC468, which I cannot find any information on. It's apparently 3V rechargeable, like the Dreamcast. Someone on nfg.forums suggested replacing it with a non-rechargable and add a diode. Right now I have the ZuluSCSI connected externally, but there is an internal hard-drive bay I could install it into once I get things settled. There's a very mysterious hole on the side of the case which leads to a potentiometer on the motherboard. I'm very curious what that's for. The very well illustrated documentation didn't seem to mention it at all. I don't actually think the FM Towns games library is very good or interesting. The X68000 or PC88/98 are much better for that. But I think it's interesting that this is a souped-up 386. I think after I upgrade the RAM I could install Windows 3.1. TownsOS is kinda interesting. It's a GUI that runs on top of MS-DOS 3 and has a nice simple aesthetic. I think Fujitsu was highly inspired by the Mac (see the FM Towns all-in-ones). It seems there's a fair number of games and software for it, they use the extension .EXP instead of .EXE. But I think later software is DOS or Windows based. Here's bonus pics of the A-Train III big box I got with it.   
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2023 19:50
|
|
|
NyetscapeNavigator posted:
Retro computing summed up in a nutshell. I also absolutely love that case. Even if you never use it, just seeing it in your collection is worth it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2023 20:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 12, 2024 16:54 |
|
|
drat I can FEEL how cool I would have thought A-Train III was from that box, both as I had not yet figured out I did not like simulation games AND because JUST LOOK AT HOW COOL IT STILL IS
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2023 21:14
|
|
