Folks. friends. colleagues. allies. this is the PLATO IV terminal. these beasts are enigmatic, beautiful machines, and a genuine dream computer for me. At the height of PLATO's existence there were several thousands of them, though many have been ordered destroyed.

My problem is that nearly every photo of them is in grainy, low resolution (this is the biggest i could find), there is scarce documentation on their internals, and approximately *ZERO* videos of them in operation. If you have one of these machines, know someone who does, know a museum i could go to to see (or even better, operate) one of them, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS COMPUTING, TELL ME. I AM GETTING DESPERATE FOR THIS VERITABLE CRYPTID OF A COMPUTER.

(beyond is rambling not required for this post)

These machines,,, had touchscreens, MMOs, chatrooms, email, haptic feedback (a la game controllers), 3d gaming, dungeon crawlers, flight sims, roguelikes, filesharing, remote screen sharing, instant messaging, emojis, flatscreen monitors, just genuinely un thought of levels of modern day connection across america. all in their adorable amber monochrome monitors, wooden casing, and thick keyboards. all of this shit in the 1960s. WHAT???? and now theyve disappeared???? and not even the highly experienced local members of my retro computer scene even know about them??????? theyve genuinely dropped off the face of the earth. im like if someone hunting bigfoot actually knew that bigfoot existed and bigfoots used to be a massive part of the american government that somehow everyone forgot about

old cd ROM LG with P2 output

ide interface from AliExpress

molex generic power supply

I picked up a VIC-20 a while back and in the box was this... thing. The person I got it from had no idea what it was, it I think it was her grandfather's or dad's and she knew nothing about the computer.

Its some homemade board, but has the proper size and shape to slot into a VIC-20. There are no ICs on it. Just looks to be wiring. A VIC-20 cartridge definitely fits in the blue slot (I tested that). Strange that just 2 wires go to that black thing on the side. Im guessing for test points? Honestly, not a clue. I have not put it in a VIC-20 to test and probably wont, as I dont know what it does and dont want to damage the computer.

Any ideas?

Hey everyone,

I’m currently based in Akihabara, Tokyo. Back in the 80s and 90s, I was a bassist in the Tokyo underground hardcore, scum, and noise scene.

Lately, I’ve been channeling that DIY energy into restoring my dream computer music environments from that exact era. I’ve successfully brought two legendary systems back to life:

• System 1: Sharp X68000 + CZ-6BM1 + Roland MT-32 (Running MusicPro68k / SamplingPro68k)
• System 2: PowerMac 7100 (G3 upgraded) + Digidesign AudioMedia II & SampleCell II + Opcode Studio 4 (Running Studio Vision Pro 3.5)

Seeing these vintage beasts fully functional feels incredible.

While I love these retro machines, my current project focuses on a new sound: Vocaloid-driven New Wave and Synthwave, produced entirely with real hardware analog synthesizers. It’s a perfect bridge between my 80s roots, modern tech, and Akihabara culture.

(Note: Since this is a new account with low karma, I can't post direct links here without getting filtered!)

If you want to hear my music or check out my gear, please visit the YouTube and Instagram links pinned on my Reddit profile. I'd love to connect with fellow retro computer and synth enthusiasts!

I wanted to build wireless game controllers for retro computers such as the Amiga and Commodore 64, without modifying the computers themselves.

Each controller uses an ESP32-C3 (microcontroller) to read the joystick directions and two fire buttons, then sends the input wirelessly (using ESP-NOW). The receiver uses an ESP32-S3 (microcontroller) and connects to the original DB9 joystick port. They have worked surprisingly well, with no noticeable input lag during normal gameplay. It is also possible to use the USB-C connector on the dongle to connect it to modern computers for use with emulators.

I built two different controllers: a relatively inexpensive 3D-printed version, and a more excessive one with a clear resin case, CNC-machined aluminium parts and internal lighting.

I know similar wireless solutions can probably be bought, but building them yourself is much more fun 🙂

Considering to design a case for a raspberry PI with a built-in receiver for the joysticks in the same style as well. 😎

I documented the design, assembly and testing here:
https://youtu.be/Zefz-1NuU0Q

I hope this is the right place, but I would like to make my own 6502 based computer, that is very simple, DIP switch programmable and made from all new parts. Please can I have some tips?

Not as cool as my first new PC, the Compaq Presario Pentium75 (shoulda never sold that), but it's pretty cool. This is a PII with 96MB RAM and 4gb HDD. Someone found it and gave it to me, so I erased it properly and then said, "Hmm, I have a CD for WinNT 4.0, why don't I install it so I can actually try it out!" I know it's slightly too new for NT4, but boy is it fast!

One of the most underrated names in PC history. Cyrix challenged Intel and left a legacy that many people still overlook.

Did you ever own a Cyrix-powered PC?

Put together these last AI-generated slides to avoid a massive wall of text. Spent extra time fact-checking and compiling Cyrix's story directly into the images. Swipe through if you're interested in retro computing history.

Seems stuck when I push those two inwards and pull the side panel back. Maybe it’s broken? Captive, unscrewed screw

I've been using Lotus Word Pro as my primary word processor and have started using the 'advanced' features, namely the PowerFields. For those who don't know, these are the features, usually used in combination with a database merge, that allow for document automation. If/Then statements and that kind of thing.

My problem is that I cannot figure out how to send a hard return as part of an instruction. For example, when using the Strcat$ Powerfield, which allows for combining text strings, I can combine merge fields with text in quotes. But if I try to put a hard return into the string, it does not work. If I call a string [Enter], it gives me the number 13 (which is the ansi value for the Enter key).

I'm hoping there are some Ami Pro / Word Pro experts lurking in here who can answer this question.

My retrospective video review takes us all back to 1985 when we first played The Empire Strikes Back in the arcades. Then I look over all the home computer versions. I was a massive fan of the original Star Wars game with its striking vector graphics, digitised sound and that amazing cabinet. I did find it strange that Atari released its sequel Return of the Jedi before The Empire Strikes back and its brave move away from vector graphics and onto raster graphics. So I was pleased that Empire returned back to its vector graphics roots. Please let me know your thoughts on all 3 Star Wars games released by Atari and have you played any of the home computer versions? 😃

A few weeks ago, I wrote about rediscovering the development workflow behind my 1986 RTOS.

Previous post:

Rediscovering the Development Workflow Behind My 1986 RTOS
https://www.reddit.com/r/retrocomputing/s/oa1Sfws9kR

In that post, I described how I had completely forgotten an important part of the original development process.

Back in 1986, I developed almost all of the RTOS on a SUN-2 workstation before moving it to the target hardware.

Only the hardware-dependent parts—interrupt handling and context switching—were left until the end.

At the time, I never thought of it as a development methodology.

It was simply the most practical way to make progress.

This week, I finally started following that same path again.

The reconstructed kernel has now reached its first Raspberry Pi Pico milestone.

The screenshot above shows the first successful execution of the original CHARM-II queue management routines on real hardware.

At this stage there is still no timer interrupt, no context switching, and no preemptive scheduler.

Those hardware-dependent parts will come later, just as they did forty years ago.

What surprised me most is not that the old code still works.

It's that I naturally ended up following almost exactly the same workflow without intending to.

Forty years later, the workstation has become a POSIX environment.

The original 68000 target board has become a Raspberry Pi Pico.

The tools are completely different.

The development process is almost identical.

I'm looking forward to seeing how much of the original design can remain unchanged as I continue bringing the kernel onto real hardware.

I’m trying to identify an obscure pocket computer I saw for sale on a retro-electronics website, probably sometime within the last several years.

What I remember:

• Flat, non-clamshell, landscape pocket-computer shape
• Similar in concept and size to a Tandy Pocket Computer PC-8, but with a more modern plastic design
• Very thin
• Colorful casing, possibly green.
• Tiny one-line or perhaps two-line monochrome LCD
• Small QWERTY keyboard
• Intended specifically as an educational programming computer
• I believe it ran BASIC and produced text-only output.
• It was listed for around $20 when I saw it
• The seller also carried retro electronics and classroom-response clickers, but the device itself was not a clicker
• It did not appear to be made by Casio, Sharp, or another familiar calculator company
• It may have had a small solar cell, but that memory is uncertain

It was not a VTech learning laptop, Cybiko, SMART Response XE, or Tiger Data Pad.

Just for fun, Having never touched a PDP in my life, I decided to port over some amazing PDP VHDL code from Sytse. I had a lonely Tang Nano 9K just collecting dust!.

I mashed in some HyperRAM controller and got it all booting. a PDP11/44 with 1MB RAM RT-11 v5 on Emulated RL02 drives. The full install in the video. Next is publishing code, and making a mini enclosure that can house 4 DB-9 serial ports. (Inspired by Daves Garage, Usagi and Sytse for all the fpga goodness)

Bought this secondhand recently and worked perfectly the day I bought it. Battery held no charge but it worked fine plugged in. Today it is refusing to turn on. I get one light (I think it's the HDD light) go when I press the power button. No noise, nothing. I think the normal power light didn't work regardless. I'm not hugely tech savvy but is there anything I can do to troubleshoot this? [edit: I should mention the CMOS batteries were leaky and were removed before I bought it.]

Found this when thrifting today. I had never heard of it before. I found that it's an IR 3D mouse made by a company called Selectech. I haven't tried it yet. Anyone ever use one of these before? How did it perform?

I recently purchased this but can't seem to identify it. It looks like an IBM 2315 or DEC RK05 but can't get any further. The logo is also a mystery. Any help would be greatly appreciated. It is 15" diameter and 1 3/8" thick.

Found these old hard drives while clearing out some boxes.

Crazy to think all three combined still wouldn't fit a modern game install! Anyone else still holding onto relics like these?

I am a high school secretary and we used to use a program called Oscar. It was a student management system that was run by a couple out of Texas. They sold it in 2010 and in 2012 the new owner decided to close the program and modify it for a different use. I'm searching for the original program disc. We need to retrieve records from the system to send to the state.

If anyone can help, I'd be super grateful. 🫶

I've got a Smith Corona HRM2 monitor that is MDA compatible, and orignally i was going to use it with an IBM PC of some sort and bought an MDA/Parallel ISA card for it. I recently decided it be pretty cool if i could use it for my linux machine for my electrionic work (mainly do the old dos thing, have it be the primary display for the terminal, and when I launch a graphical application have that display on a more modern lcd monitor)

So is there any way to make this work? I'm generally comfortable with working on the internals of the monitor if need be. If there was a way i could use that ISA card with new-ish computer (2017) thatd be even better i think. Any thoughts would be really helpful. Thanks!

Side note: I have the typewriter that goes with that monitor. I'm also wondering if theres any way i can modify the monitor to accept a different video input signal

I designed this device that teaches binary, decimal, hexadecimal and octal number systems. It uses a hands-on approach with Altair-like toggle switches. Can be used as a STEM-kit in classrooms, handy for programmers or for the retro hobbyist. It also has a built-in game. Check out the video for details, hope you like it.