ilike8bits

The CPC 464 Arrives

Much to my surprise, on Sunday I received an SMS stating that the Amstrad CPC 464 I was expecting to be delivered on Tuesday, was actually being delivered between 10am and 2pm. As it was already 12:30pm, I figured I wouldn’t have long to wait, and no, I didn’t. The courier rang on the doorbell,Continue reading “The CPC 464 Arrives”

I declare 2021 the “Year of the Peripheral”

With a CPC 464 wending it’s way to me, and (hopefully) in the new year, my BBC Master and Atari 800xl arriving, I find myself in the strange position of having “enough” retro computers for now. No, I don’t have a TRS/80, a CoCo or a Ti 99/4a. I can live without for now. IContinue reading “I declare 2021 the “Year of the Peripheral””

Not much going on…

So with the run up to Christmas, my repairs and projects have slowed right down.I have: Got my BMOW Floppy Emu. Now I can easily put apps and disk images onto my Apple II systems. With a change of firmware I can also use it with my Macintosh SE/30 Won an Auction! I have anContinue reading “Not much going on…”

How wrong we were

I recently put a call out to the three Macintosh collectors I knew to see if any of them had accidently ended up with an Apple II 3½ Drive in their collection by accident. They’re easy enough to identify as they have an eject button, whereas the Mac version did not. Greg (Who is prettyContinue reading “How wrong we were”

So you want to play Ultima II Macintosh…

This took me a while to work out, so here is how I managed to get Ultima II Mac running under Windows emulation. Get an image of Ultima II. Un stuff it. This is not as easy as it sounds. I needed to use BasiliskII under Linux to build a system 7.5 system, with UnstuffitContinue reading “So you want to play Ultima II Macintosh…”

Carpet Hacking

I love my wife. She has a background in ICT too, and thus she “gets” things. We have a small Home Theatre PC in the front room, and during the recent “Plague Events”, I plugged in a webcam and stuck it on top of our Telly in there. This is absolutely brilliant for video-conferencing withContinue reading “Carpet Hacking”

Building the Desk

So I have been on holidays for a few days, and my holiday project this break has been to build a desk for my study. Previously I used an old school table and a big chest full of LEGO. Neither of these were exactly comfortable or practical. Furthermore, a LOT of the desk was takenContinue reading “Building the Desk”

Cleaning my ADB Keyboard

I’m still waiting on bits-n-pieces for my Macintosh and my Apple IIs. That hasn’t stopped me doing minor works. The other day, for instance, I finally got around to cleaning my ADB keyboard. This keyboard is used with both my Apple IIgs and my Mac SE/30 and it was filthy. Time for a quick cleanContinue reading “Cleaning my ADB Keyboard”

While I wait for parts…

So the bits and pieces I need to work on my next piece of retrocomputing are stuck on a (very) slow boat from China, I have been doing a lot less retro stuff recently. So for now, I have a plan to spend my upcoming holidays working on a new desk for my retro room.Continue reading “While I wait for parts…”

Things I have learned

So, while not a whole lot of retrocomputing has been going on, I have still been pottering along. I have identified that one of my three SCSI HDDs is bad. As it was given to me in a “Unknown, most likely dead” state, I didn’t shed too many tears. I have discovered it’s really hardContinue reading “Things I have learned”