Old Computers

metalman

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IBM 5 MB hard drive being loaded on a plane 1956


5Mb-IBM-drive.jpg
 

metalman

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WannaCry is spreading fast!


C__fwIcUMAEJLEk.jpg



"Please, insert the next disk so that encryption can continue."

That will teach you a lesson for not keeping up with the latest security updates from Commodore
 
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redrumloa

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I guess I should take more photos of my personal collection.
 

redrumloa

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Since this is the most active retro thread, here's a quick-n-dirty video I made of my weekend software haul. Keep watching to the end for a bonus :cool:

 
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redrumloa

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Small addition to my personal collection. Sorry about the pic orientation, the free image hosting is doing it.

28ix37a.jpg


Closest thing to a video card for the Commodore 64. It gives a proper 80 column display with an 80 column chip. It will help get my C64 closer to my 128 :-p
 

ilwrath

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Closest thing to a video card for the Commodore 64. It gives a proper 80 column display with an 80 column chip. It will help get my C64 closer to my 128 :-p

Yup. I remember those. Fun piece of strange computer history.

Didn't NovaTerm do a fancy emulated 80 columns on a stock C64, though? Don't know why you'd want 80 columns except to call a BBS, anyhow. :p
 

redrumloa

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Yup. I remember those. Fun piece of strange computer history.

Didn't NovaTerm do a fancy emulated 80 columns on a stock C64, though? Don't know why you'd want 80 columns except to call a BBS, anyhow. :p

Yeah software support for it was razor thin. Without Googling I think you could count on 1 hand how many commercial software packages supported it, IIRC all from Batteries Included. Considering I already have a dedicated 128 setup, this is a novelty among novelties.

Novaterm did indeed offer a soft-80 mode. It was handy for those on a 64 and not a 128. The soft-80 was limited to the 320x200 resolution. The BI-80 does not provide gfx modes, but is based on 640x200. Much easier to read characters. As a side note, Novaterm on a 128 ran in 64 mode, but allowed the use of the 80 column (VDC) chip and extra RAM.

As for what need for 80 column? Any productivity software requires 80 column in my opinion. Also the internet is brutal on 40 column. Nowadays even 80 column is pretty rough, but night and day compared to 40 column.
 

Robert

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NASA and Amiga history meet in an eBay listing
The holidays are coming, so if you want to gift anything to the Ars Orbital HQ...

If our 11-part series on the history of the Amiga and our (in-progress) seven-part series on the history of the Apollo program don't give it away, we happen to be unabashed fans of a certain computing platform and a certain space program around the Ars Orbital HQ. So this week, a small post at HotHardware inevitably caught our eye: an old NASA-used Amiga evidently ended up for sale on eBay.
 
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