Pictures from Seattle's Classic Gaming Weekend 73
Cyberroach has pictures from last week's Classic Gaming Weekend in Seattle. The pictures include an "Obsolete Media Festival" with a guy who makes music with an Atari 2600, Commodore C64, and a dot-matrix printer; old hardware from the NorthWest Classic Gaming Enthusiasts' Meeting; and the 6th Annual Atari Championship.
403.9 (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft IIS: official server platform of Slashdotted sites.
All that Security... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:403.9 (Score:2, Insightful)
They likely don't have the bandwidth or the server sized appropriately for the number of similtaneous connections that slashdot refers.
Would you rather they left it open to "unlimited" connections on a undersized network connection, then have 75% of the connections time out?
Microsoft sucks. They got a crappy security track record (so did *nix, many years ago)... They overcha
You think... (Score:1, Funny)
DIY Vectrex TV Set (Score:4, Interesting)
You'd think they'd realize not to put sites with pictures on slashdot.
Yeah, but how about those pictures of the Vectrex TV set?
That's a cool idea.
You can find Vectrex schematics in about 100 places on the 'Net, so I could even build my own Vectrex motherboard... (that way, I wouldn't have to take mine apart!)
I think that I have worries about the use of the color CRT, however.
Color tube means three beams of electrons to focus and accelerate instead of only one, which means a higher second anode voltage. Higher second anode voltage means more X-Ray production. Color TV sets and monitors are full of circuitry to keep this voltage very carefully regulated; lots of components in the power supply, horizontal deflection and cathode drives are very carefully specified for this reason - in fact, lots of TV schematics put a big border around those areas of the schematic, with "SAFETY CRITICAL - X-RAY" warnings all over them to make sure that technicians don't try to sub in a 47 ohm resistor when the schematic calls for a 42 ohm resistor, etc.
This Vectrex TV must have had some huge mods made to the deflection systems, and, as a direct consequence, the flyback supply which produces the high voltage for the second anode.
I hope he was careful...
Otherwise, it's a pretty simple hack. Build a Vectrex (rather than gutting an original). Find a large black and white monitor - Electrohome used to make 25" closed circuit and broadcast monitors - or an old large Sun monochrome display. Disconnect the deflection yoke, yank out the monitor's chassis, and put in the Vectrex. A larger tube will require more deflection current, so you'll need to beef up the output stage, and make any adjustments to the output stages to match the impedance of the monitor's yoke. CRT filaments can usually be lit from a 6VAC power supply - just a transformer from the power line. And, as for the high voltage, I'd throw a couple of 2N3055s onto a flyback (just a small solid state Tesla coil), rectify the output, and toss it at the CRT's high voltage ultor. Though the Vectrex flyback might even do it reasonably well... Adjust the voltage on the CRT's grids for best focus.
Commodore 64 (Score:3, Insightful)
But it was this very machinery that led me to experiment with basic on my own PC, back in the day. Ah, the memories...
Re:Commodore 64 (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, yeah, I know, you had a disk drive which was somewhat more esoteric. It didn't have a DIR command so you had to LOAD the directory as a Basic program and LIST it, with the line numbers indicating file size. Pretty ingenious if you ask me, but then I have a soft spot for that Seattle-based corporation who made the Basic.
Re:Commodore 64 (Score:1, Informative)
I wouldn't agree. The Commodore 1541 disk drive set a record for wretched engineering that remained unchallenged until the first IBM PC display adapters appeared with more chips on them than the motherboard they plugged into.
You basically had a drive that cost as much as the computer, ran at the same speed as the Apple ]['s cassette port, and, as you say, didn't even have a proper DOS. Next to Woz's clean, fast, and elegantly-simple implementation of 5.25" floppy support
Re:Commodore 64 (Score:2)
Re:Commodore 64 (Score:1)
Also on a C128, some programs will auto boot if you have the disk in the drive and turn the machine on.
Always unnnerving to see that Microsoft copyright message on a Commodore machine. But since Microsoft did the original job for a flat fee and Commodore kept the right to alter the original code at will, Billy never made additional dime from all those C64's sold.
Re:Commodore 64 (Score:3, Informative)
*sigh*
Re:Commodore 64 (Score:3, Informative)
LIST
To get a directory listing.
Formatting a disc was a pain though as the drives weren't dumb mechanisms connected to a controller in the computer, they were computers themselves. The 1541 was basically a file serving computer that sent filles over the serial bus. Problem was the software in the 1541 was really bad, very slow.
Re:Commodore 64 (Score:1)
I remember seeing a C64 + 1541 drive with a FastDrive cartridge installed -- 5-10x speed increase (from something 100x too slow to begin with though
What, those were 170kB (170!) disks right? You could clip out the "unusuable side" write notch on most floppies and make 'em double-sided, for a w
Re:Commodore 64 (Score:2, Informative)
That was the Epyx FastLoad cartridge. They worked by replacing the drive's firmware and basically bypassing the extensive error-checking that was normally done, basically by telling the drive, "Just give me the damn file".
There were also
Re:Commodore 64 (Score:2, Informative)
I don't think the problem was the drive's firmware, as much as the design decisions that went into making the device in the first place. It was the fact that it was a 9600bps serial device that had substantial error-checking and so on going on all the time. It could be made several times faster using something like the Epyx FastLoad cartridge which bypassed most of the error checking and just loaded the damn file.
In other words, a decisio
Re:Commodore 64 (Score:2)
Turbo loaders were pretty reliable on tape, saved waiting 20 minutes for a game to load.
I never had many problems with discs, although I had an accelerator drive as 1541s were becoming scarce.
Re:Commodore 64 (Score:2)
LOAD "*",8,1 ranks just above up up down down left right left right b a select/start, I think.
~Berj
Re:Commodore 64 (Score:1)
When I got my C64, I couldn't even afford a tape drive so I had to type in my program every time I turned on the machine. Eventually I saved up enough for the tape and remember telling my wife "This is great! I can just put in the tape, type "LOAD", come back in ten minutes and it's ready to RUN."
Re:Commodore 64 (Score:2, Interesting)
...then a poke 709,0... (Score:1)
Well, at least get some details on what it was.... (Score:5, Informative)
This [cyberroach.com] page seems to be working well, occasionally, even under the slashdotting.
Here [qotile.net] is an attendee's web page with some details of the work he did.
And, of course, you should be aware of how many great people and groups there are out there keeping the memory alive with humor and aplomb, like these good friends [gis.net].
Music? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Music? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Music? (Score:1)
MP3's of music made with a C64 (Score:2, Informative)
Minimalistic techno played with a C64 (so really not for everyones ears ;-). The guy also does live gigs.
Re:MP3's of music made with a C64 (Score:1)
Slashdotted... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Slashdotted... (Score:2)
Maybe its because a lot of people actually READ before they POST. Or maybe not.
My Classic game (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:My Classic game (Score:1)
Looks like something I did in an EE lab.
Mirror (Score:5, Informative)
http://snotwad.dyndns.org:8000/cyberroach_mirror/ [dyndns.org]
The music. (Score:4, Funny)
Retro? These seem like the latest techniques in avant-garde electronic music. Maybe this guy should adorn himself in Marc Jacobs clothing and send off a demo to Warp Records.
Well-chosen venue (Score:1, Funny)
I recognize that musical printer! (Score:5, Interesting)
but listening to one for more than 5 minutes would probably drive me insane once the nostalgia wore off.. I certainly don't miss the jammed paper, the noise, the low dot-pitch which screamed "Done on a computer"..
actually, I think it would have been more interesting if he sampled a lot of different printers.. like an old VAX line printer.. chunga-chunga-chunga..
Obsolete? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Obsolete? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Obsolete? (Score:1)
--RJ
Re:Obsolete? (Score:2)
One on the east coast next weekend (Score:5, Informative)
~Philly
Music from unusual hardware (Score:4, Interesting)
A dot-matrix printer? Interesting. I remember a program for the C64 that played the Blue Danube - through the floppy disk drive. It downloaded the code into the drive and you could actually turn off the computer and it still kept playing.
It worked by rapidly moving the head back and forth. I guess it wasn't too healthy for the drive.
Old music tech: The Sisters of Mercy (Score:2)
(actually, they're up to a custom 486 rig, these days) [the-sisters-of-mercy.com]
From the page:
DOS 3.3 is the world's best operating system for running sequencers - as long as those sequencers aren't necessarily expecting to find something more "advanced". DOS 3.3 won't let its timing or its very stability get confused by peripheral distractions that nobody actually needs (like Graphic User Interfaces). Our friend Mike who works with Erasure says that the tutu boys are still using
Music with Floppy Disk drives (Score:1)
I was only a kid and decided not to take it further since breaking a drive I thought possible.
Any other mad ideas other than printer music we've heard of?
If you guys like this stuff, check out Assembly (Score:3, Informative)
They show demos by demogroups using new PC's with 3d accelerators to old school demos on the C64's or VIC20's. Yea, people still code for the VIC20.
It's not about Money, it's all about bragging rights. These guys can code some amazing stuff. Last year they even had a guy do a live music set with a C64.
Assembly is the name of the competition because all these guys used to code in Assembly. It's not so much so anymore; now they have all sorts of events.
I think it's awesome, and I'd love to go to Assembly '03. Last year they had 4500+ people. The level of talent that some of these guys show is outstanding.
You can download all the Assembly (and other party) demos, music, animations, and art at scene.org. Be sure to check out Project Kerosene, and 32 degrees in the shade.