#retrocomputing
DEC Mini – computer inspired by one of the loveliest retro computers of the 80s
There are now 3 #FujiNet Game lobby games, for #TRS80CoCo:
Fujitzee, 5 Card Stud, and Battleship!
TNFS://EC.TNFS.IO/COCO/LOBBY.DSK
Cross Platform Networked Gameplay!
Okay so…I couldn’t resist this one.
Did I? No. But I really thought hard about it.
Yeah you know they are a couple, but you prefer...
#retrocomputing #msdos #dos
Finally I can decide on EGA vs VGA
I added an external floppy drive cable to my modern-ish PC some time ago. I was asked whether it is compatible with IBM external floppy drives. (I have accidentally chosen the same connector.)
Well… After some research on the web, I know that it _should_ (not tested) be IBM 4869-compatible cable, even when I didn't need any compatibility with 3rd-party stuff.
It's funny how simple is to make similar design decisions when using off-the-shelf parts.
A question in a Discord drove me down the rabbit hole of MS-DOS TXT2COM and TXT2EXE utilities.
Nice selection here:
http://annex.retroarchive.org/cdrom/psl-v2n10//UTILS/DOS/FILEVIEW/index.html
For #TRS80CoCo #FujiNet users running 1.5.1 Firmware
TO ACCESS THE GAME LOBBY:
1. Edit EC.TNFS.IO into a host slot
2. mount /coco/lobby.dsk
3. RUNM"LOBBY"
The next firmware release will integrate it into CONFIG like all other platforms.
Enjoy!
New BASIC game, Stronghold of the Dwarven Lords, converted to BASIC Anywhere and refactored. Code list provided along with browser-playable version.
Originally listed in 1983's Tim Hartnel's "Giant Book of Computer Games"
#gameDev #devLog #retroComputing #retroGaming
https://basic-code.bearblog.dev/stronghold-of-the-dwarven-lords/
If we add random jitter around our target flux period, we can make our "fluxels" thicker.
This, I think, is a new form of steganography. The data is meaningless and unreadable. But it would appear in a visualization tool, like HxC, Applesauce, or FluxFox.
With eight different flux transition times, we can start to draw with what are essentially "flux pixels". Fluxels? Flixcels?
We can't actually fit one pixel immediately above another - x always advances, but the perceptual density is high enough on the x-axis that it appears as if we have a raster display.
But we can improve this.
This is a flux track timing diagram. It is basically a chart where the x-axis is time, and the y axis is the distance between each flux transition. An MFM-encoded disk produces three horizontal bars, representing what we call Short, Medium, and Long transitions. These encode the bit patterns 10, 100, and 1000, respectively.
But what if instead of three different flux transition times, we used 8?
Data on a floppy disk is encoded via a series of flux transitions. You're familiar with magnets having a north and south pole. We can encode data efficiently on a disk by encoding a '1' bit as a flip in the orientation of the magnetic field.
A lack of a '1' within a given time window encodes a 0. I'm glossing over some details here, but that's basically what you need to know for what I want to show you.
I’m once again asking the #retrocomputing community to please back this Kickstarter! Really want to read this story! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bzotto/go-computer-now-the-story-of-sphere
Thalia Archibald has been transcribing old issues of #UNIX News from @internetarchive and John Gilmore's scans, and has the text up on github:
And the next part from the machine: another SCSI controller, because one on-board and another one was apparently not enough for whoever owned the system back in the day.
This is a caching RAID controller powered by an i960 RISC chip running at 25 MHz. It was an optional add-on for this machine as well.
Sadly, it's the gelded version with only one of the three possible channels assembled.
What's stopping you from coding like this?