Last weekend I attended the second annual Boatfest gathering, which again took place in Hurricane, West Virginia. Despite its name, the event has nothing to do with boats — it’s a gathering of retrocomputing and retrogaming enthusiasts named after the organizer, John “Boat of Car” Shawler.
Boatfest is difficult to summarize because it’s different things to different people. Some people… read entire post
Today I am repairing a Commodore 64 keyboard. Not just any keyboard, but the one I grew up using back in the 1980s.
The original Commodore 64 came with brown keys. For a brief period of time, Commodore made a similar computer, the Commodore 16, which came in a black case with grey keys. A few years after the C16… read entire post
Late last week my newest computer, THEC64, arrived. I’m not in the business of buying things for myself this close to Christmas, but this was a computer I pre-ordered back in August. After multiple production and shipping delays, the machine finally found its way to me the first week of December.
Most people know I’ve been a fan of Commodore… read entire post
After an extroidinarily long period of procrastination, I got my Ultimate 64 up and running over the weekend.
The Ultimate 64 is a drop-in motherboard replacement for the original Commodore 64. Not only does it retain most of the original’s ports (joystick, cartridge, video, and serial) but it adds USB, ethernet, and HDMI output to a nearly 40-year-old computer. The… read entire post
I can’t remember if I mentioned this or not — I can’t remember anything, anymore — but my 3D printer wasn’t working properly for a while. It was working okay, but not great. Everything I printed was coming out with a weird, rough finish. For the longest time I thought there was something wrong with my printer, but after doing… read entire post
In the world of computers and video games, “killer apps” are defined as programs or games so useful or desirable that it actually drives hardware sales. In other words, people want the application or game so bad that they will buy a computer or video game console just to play it. Two of the earliest examples of killer apps were… read entire post
The old saying “you get what you pay for” is usually true.
Recently I had a brilliant idea. Instead of hooking up my old computers and video game consoles to a large television, wouldn’t it be nice if I could hook them up to a small flat screen monitor? I have a couple of 4:3 ratio flat screen monitors out… read entire post
Although I used a Commodore 64 as my primary computer for several years in the 1980s, I didn’t own all that much hardware for it. Two floppy drives, a printer, a modem and a joystick were just about all needed to keep myself entertained for more than half a decade.
People occasionally ask me if I ever owned a hard… read entire post
Many years ago when I began collecting vintage computer hardware, every acquisition got me excited. Each new computer, floppy drive, and box of assorted peripherals that came into the house made me absolutely giddy. But after you’ve tested, cleaned, and aligned your hundredth floppy drive, and installed additional shelving in your garage to hold all those old CRT monitors you… read entire post
A friend of mine recently asked me to name five games I would recommend playing all the way through from beginning to end. There are tons of modern games (The Last of Us, Halo, Portal) that have great story lines, but I wanted to go somewhat old school with my list. I also couldn’t possibly limit myself to just five,… read entire post
The Adventures of Rob, Susan, Mason and Morgan O'Hara
