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2025-11-02 22:50 from Nurb432
I did mess with it a bit. Mostly 'emulation' of Z80 cp/m
however, not the Atari scene, and never was really into
gaming. ( i am one of those who sort of think the line is
blurred here, its sort of emulation of hardware, but its sort of
not.. )
But honestly I got bored quickly as if i really wanted to do
that, it was easier on a 'real' machine, and went back to what
FPGAs are meant to be for us hobbyists: experimentation and
proof of concept, since its hard to justify the cost of taping
out a chip just for a hobby..
Early Atari machines were very meh. If you were a kid you were much better playing with sticks and stones than playing Atari consoles.
Games started getting up to speed with the 3rd generation. And I say the ZX Spectrum looks like a cool platform. You can still find modern frameworks to code for the original Spectrum machines.
I was thinking the AtariST line, which i was a HUGE fan of, even tho this was Amiga territory. Never was a gamer. 8Bit Atari ( again, computers not console ), i thought were competitive, at lest most of the time, they had a few screw ups ( everyone did back then ).
BUT.. the Jaguar from what i remember was pretty impressive for its day. Just poor, nearly non-existent marketing.
Tue Nov 04 2025 19:51:51 UTC from darknetuser2025-11-02 22:50 from Nurb432
I did mess with it a bit. Mostly 'emulation' of Z80 cp/m
however, not the Atari scene, and never was really into
gaming. ( i am one of those who sort of think the line is
blurred here, its sort of emulation of hardware, but its sort of
not.. )
But honestly I got bored quickly as if i really wanted to do
that, it was easier on a 'real' machine, and went back to what
FPGAs are meant to be for us hobbyists: experimentation and
proof of concept, since its hard to justify the cost of taping
out a chip just for a hobby..
Early Atari machines were very meh. If you were a kid you were much better playing with sticks and stones than playing Atari consoles.
Games started getting up to speed with the 3rd generation. And I say the ZX Spectrum looks like a cool platform. You can still find modern frameworks to code for the original Spectrum machines.
BUT.. the Jaguar from what i remember was pretty impressive for
its day. Just poor, nearly non-existent marketing.
The Jaguar is widely regarded as crap these days, and I mean by actual retro fans who think every old piece of technology is fun. I don't think I ever saw good games for it and I don't think many had good performance.
I do agree with the lack of games, ( tho Myst was an option ) but its their fault as due to the nearly non-existent marketing no one wanted to make anything for it. But the hardware, was ahead of its time. I actually had one for perhaps 30 years.. i bought it.. use it about a week. "eh im bored' and shelved it until a few years ago when i gave it to a collector at the office. Sure, trying to compare it to today, its garbage, but not in 'its day'. It just got a bad rap. Sort of like one of my cars that i have, it was just fine but due to FUD marketing by competition it was perceived as trash, when it really wasn't.
Had a few games, CD drive, external memory card.. extra controllers. Original box...
Even today tho i can still see Skylar talking.. lol
Wed Nov 05 2025 14:26:07 UTC from darknetuserBUT.. the Jaguar from what i remember was pretty impressive for
its day. Just poor, nearly non-existent marketing.
The Jaguar is widely regarded as crap these days, and I mean by actual retro fans who think every old piece of technology is fun. I don't think I ever saw good games for it and I don't think many had good performance.
Early Atari machines were very meh. If you were a kid you were much
better playing with sticks and stones than playing Atari consoles.
Atari VCS (2600) games looked like crap ... and yet, years later, now that I know how those games were actually implemented (racing the beam, no frame buffer) I am quite impressed at what they were able to accomplish with such outrageously limited hardware.
Ya, they were some talented folks.
Thu Nov 06 2025 17:57:20 UTC from IGnatius T FoobarEarly Atari machines were very meh. If you were a kid you were much
better playing with sticks and stones than playing Atari consoles.
Atari VCS (2600) games looked like crap ... and yet, years later, now that I know how those games were actually implemented (racing the beam, no frame buffer) I am quite impressed at what they were able to accomplish with such outrageously limited hardware.
Sort of funny.
Cleaning up my old storage drive last weekend, wiped out 1000s of roms for Atari, Commodore.. etc. 'why waste the space'
Sat Nov 08 2025 19:28:39 UTC from darknetuserAlso I have a very complete Atari ROM collection which includes lots of stuff from the Atari 8bit computers.
2025-11-08 22:27 from Nurb432
Sort of funny.
Cleaning up my old storage drive last weekend, wiped out 1000s
of roms for Atari, Commodore.. etc. 'why waste the space'
I am heartbroken.
I keep a lot of stuff. It barely takes any room. It is not like 5th generation and onward sets, which take multiple Tb each.
While true in theory, and tho im not really too involved in the scene now now, im still filling drives with AI model training data before the plug is pulled on us digital-serfs and we go underground. Every TB counts.
A couple id like to have, they are in the PB range, so out of reach for me.
And don't be too sad about my ROM/software purge, i really don't believe i had anything that isn't already 'out there'. Be more sad of the hardware purge i did perhaps 10 years ago. Over 100 retro machines. out the door. Everything from a radio shack micro color, to a Kayroro and osborne, to a TRS80 md2 with printer and disk drives, apple 6100 and original mac laptop, a M100... a C16 and Plus4, a QL and 2 or 3 2068s.. bag of HP calculators and a couple of their pocket computers. Couple 8 bit and 16 bit Ataris.. Oh and a Mattel aquarius, which few people have ever seen in the wild. A sparcstation 10... A few had their original boxes even. Tons more ( im sure literally since some were so big . lol ). All given away to people, none to the trash or sold off. Gifts I did keep the shelves tho, repurposed them for tools.
Only things i kept was a PX-8 and a now dead newton ( i think dead think. i need to try again doing a hard reset sometime ) . And a T1000 in its box. but gave that away a few weeks ago.
Couple years ago guy at work gave me a 1200xl. ( i forget exactly when now, but not too long ago ) I didn't want it, but he was so proud of it and happy to offer it to me, i didn't want to say no. But its gone now too, it left with the T1000.
Sat Nov 08 2025 22:50:49 UTC from darknetuserIt barely takes any room.
Sun Nov 02 2025 22:22:32 UTC from IGnatius T FoobarI seem to recall having said "I wish PD were here, he knows this stuff" more than once.
I wish you could *heart* posts on Citadel still. :) I know you hate that idea, because it is FB/X social media BS.
Anyhow... I'm here. I'm rusty. I'm f'kin around with an Apollo Computers V4 stand alone Amiga clone FPGA device right now - it is toasted. Block read errors and just acting like Jack Nicholson in one flew over the cockoo's nest after he gets fixed. I'll try to log in sober tomorrow and tell more about it - but for now - if you want Amiga emulation in FPGA - get a MiSTer - not a V4. The V4 is far more powerful - but super unstable. I ate $120 in CF cards this week trying to flash and upgrade it to the latest cores. Ouch.
Sadly, after my mother died and my Dad now being in assisted living, I'm spending time cleaning up their house.
It's made me realize that the stuff that I like (and quite frankly, I don't really touch) is meaningless to my kids. They'll either throw most of it away, or donate it if anyone cares. To them, it will look like old junk.
So, I'm thinking of looking for a good home for most of the stuff I've collected over the years. A few machines will remain. But for the most part, it's all going to go.
I don't want my kids to have to worry about it.
Well, there's the Vintage Computer Federation, which is over in Wall, NJ.
donations@vcfed.org to find out if you have anything they're looking out for. It looks like they're also having a swap meet on May 30.
Which machines are you keeping? If I remember correctly, the SuperPET and the KIM-1 were your favorites.
Which machines are you keeping? If I remember correctly, the SuperPET
and the KIM-1 were your favorites.
Those are definite keepers. Hard to say though. I like some of the portables, like the Kaypro and Osborne. Heck even the SX-64 is cool. But if I start thinking that way, I'll wind up keeping everything. So it's time for most of it to go to a good home.
Only things i kept from of my museum after the 'great purge' years ago was a PX8, and my a Newton. I accidentally kept a T/S 1000, in its box, but that was because it was in a closet instead of the garage on the racks with the rest of the stuff, i had forgot it was there. But it was given away last summer.
Even my HP calculators which don't take up much space went bye bye. ( tho i did have several models, so not insignificant space.. )
Sort of miss my old scope, but its not like i used it anymore and was taking up bench space. its not like i'm building radios or something anymore. Did get a small LCD one, about the size of a phone, to use on the cars. Sort of neat really. But will collect dust most of its life here.
I forget whom as its been over a decade, but i tried to donate to some of the more rare stuff to some organization out west, including a bunch of classic computer books/magazines. They never wrote me back. So it all went to friends locally.
Well, there's the Vintage Computer Federation, which is over in Wall, NJ.
donations@vcfed.org to find out if you have anything they're looking out for. It looks like they're also having a swap meet on May 30.
Which machines are you keeping? If I remember correctly, the SuperPET and the KIM-1 were your favorites.
It's made me realize that the stuff that I like (and quite frankly, I
don't really touch) is meaningless to my kids. They'll either throw
most of it away, or donate it if anyone cares. To them, it will look
like old junk.
Life is weird like that. When my grandpa kicked the bucket (causing absolutely nobody to be sad, because he was an absolute bastard) his family pretty much raided his house in search for valuables.
You could tell the morons there don't know the value of things. For example, he had an Uniform from the times when he was a thug for The Party, some trench "tools", and a lot of artisanally crafted pieces of furniture which had been passed to him by his father. His family went straight to grab his computers, phones and shinny things.
Today, the computers, phones and shinny things are obsolete, but I can hang my hat on a perch that has been with my family for more than four generations, and I can show friends and visits Socialist paraphernalia with a traceable History. Not to mention a bunch of it is worth a whole lot of money for collectors these days.
My father is not worried I am going to waste his legacy. Most of his cool stuff are music, comics and watches - I like music and old comics, and I know better than trash working watches. So.
The one with a problem in that regard is me because I cannot pass down any of my things to my horses.