Epic! 8-bitguy uses 1 weird trick to detroy rare prototypes!

[Mikoyan]

I've not seen anyone mention Usagi Electric. Not really a cow, but he does wear his hair in a jewfro reminiscent of Terry's final days. He's a minicomputer sperg as well as vacuum tube enthusiast.

He is even fluent in Japanese.

I've warmed to Usagi. I had the same problem with him that I did with Look Mom at first, dude seemed like he was just showcasing work that dudes on his Discord actually did. But they both give credit and do plenty of their own work too, so it's fine. Just set my sensors off at first. Usagi also has a lot of shit you just catch a glimpse of that implies a really interesting life too. Sure, the bunnies, but also the random vintage JDM cars and the A-7 picture on his wall..

I couldn't really stick with RMC, I'll give it another go.

 

[Fcret]

Adrian's Digital Basement doing a more close-up look at the Commander X16.

 

[fartsnstuf]

in other news, 8-Bit guy is apart of a documentary film about the Commodore 64 called: "I Adore My 64"

and did a video about the history of cursor keys:

 

[AmpleApricots]

Anyone seen this 8088 (yes, I shit you not) Notebook that was up on aliexpress for a hot second?

https://aliexpress.com/item/1005005534146618.html

Apparently the chinks did what chinks do best: steal. They stole the BIOS from some open source project and removed all references to the GPL and the creator.

(also apologies if there's actually a live listing, aliexpress search basically doesn't work for me)

 

[Fcret]

Anyone seen this 8088 (yes, I shit you not) Notebook that was up on aliexpress for a hot second?

https://aliexpress.com/item/1005005534146618.html

Apparently the chinks did what chinks do best: steal. They stole the BIOS from some open source project and removed all references to the GPL and the creator.

(also apologies if there's actually a live listing, aliexpress search basically doesn't work for me)

Yeah, I looked at it when it was still up. It was pretty expensive for what it was. You could just buy a MISTer and emulate an IBM PC XT (or comparable clone from the era) and get pretty much the same results for not much more money. Plus you'd have an actual platform with autistic dev support instead of random chink garbage.

in other news, 8-Bit guy is apart of a documentary film about the Commodore 64 called: "I Adore My 64"

and did a video about the history of cursor keys:

The Commodore boomers are cool enough but why does a documentary need to be funded? All of these guys presumably have a web presence I could just go look into, so what does the King of Kong-style docu get me? Is there some kind of epic story being framed in the docu that's going to hook me in or what?

I feel like the people making these don't really understand why King of Kong worked.

Speaking of retrocomputing docus though, I do highly recommend BBS the Documentary because it actually covers shit that doesn't have 10 gorillion youtube channels dedicated to it.

 

[Pee Cola]

Anyone seen this 8088 (yes, I shit you not) Notebook that was up on aliexpress for a hot second?

https://aliexpress.com/item/1005005534146618.html

Apparently the chinks did what chinks do best: steal. They stole the BIOS from some open source project and removed all references to the GPL and the creator.

Yeah, I looked at it when it was still up. It was pretty expensive for what it was. You could just buy a MISTer and emulate an IBM PC XT (or comparable clone from the era)

What a waste of a perfectly good MiSTer, and it still wouldn't be a good as real PC hardware for this use case. That and the MiSTer community is filled with nearly as much toxicity and autism as both the Amiga and ZX Spectrum communities combined. FFS if you're going to emulate an XT-class DOS PC, why not just run DOSBox?

If you really want a true and honest IBM PC XT compatible, build your own NuXT. Works out to around the same price as the Book8088 and it uses the same BIOS, only properly attributed.

The Commodore boomers are cool enough but why does a documentary need to be funded?

Because it's being made by a real film maker, not some Nostalgia Nerd-tier faggot that shits out rehashed Wikipedia articles in YouTube videos made in his spare bedroom.

Speaking of retrocomputing docus though, I do highly recommend BBS the Documentary because it actually covers shit that doesn't have 10 gorillion youtube channels dedicated to it.

It helps that BBS The Documentary slightly pre-dates YouTube and was made by a boomer with a camcorder who lived through the BBS era.

 

[Fcret]

What a waste of a perfectly good MiSTer, and it still wouldn't be a good as real PC hardware for this use case. That and the MiSTer community is filled with nearly as much toxicity and autism as both the Amiga and ZX Spectrum communities combined. FFS if you're going to emulate an XT-class DOS PC, why not just run DOSBox?

I'm assuming the sorts of people who'd buy a knock-off clone 8088 laptop would complain about dosbox emulation not being low-latency enough or some gay shit. But you are right in that using a MISTer to emulate a PC is a waste.

I think at this point even a 10+ year-old laptop for $50 could emulate DOS games better than most PCs from the era could run them, so basically zero reason to buy the chinkshit.

 

[fartsnstuf]

8-Bit Guy comes out with the final updates for PETSCII Robots:

 

[Pissmaster]

8-Bit Guy comes out with the final updates for PETSCII Robots:

just now came here to post that, got beaten while I was writing the description:

tl;dw: Footage of a ton of different ports of Attack of the Petscii Robots. Profit margins on his merch are thin, and he's been quietly eating shipping costs overseas, which cause him to lose money on sales. He's phasing out merch now. He also has no more enthusiasm for any more ports of Attack of the Petscii Robots, so the NES and Tandy Color Computer ports are canceled.

 

[Gravemind]

Has literally anyone even remotely cared for his indie games whatsoever? And I'm not talking about the random one-off buyers who decided to give them a shot or how you might occasionally see them shilled on one of his loose associate's channels, I just mean those of us who follow Dave on here.

I usually like seeing when he uploads, but it feels like for the better part of a year now, all he seems to mostly talk about are his games and while it was initially interesting to hear about the process he underwent initially starting this project, overall that's really tended to make me overlook a majority of his videos for a long while now. I really don't fucking care to hear any more about "Attack of the Petscii Robots" or "Planet X3".

 

[Coolio55]

Has literally anyone even remotely cared for his indie games whatsoever? And I'm not talking about the random one-off buyers who decided to give them a shot or how you might occasionally see them shilled on one of his loose associate's channels, I just mean those of us who follow Dave on here.

I usually like seeing when he uploads, but it feels like for the better part of a year now, all he seems to mostly talk about are his games and while it was initially interesting to hear about the process he underwent initially starting this project, overall that's really tended to make me overlook a majority of his videos for a long while now. I really don't fucking care to hear any more about "Attack of the Petscii Robots" or "Planet X3".

I don't really care about his strategy series but PETSCII Robots is definitely a game that made me want to play it from the previews, even if I haven't actually bought a copy.
Shit, I think you can even play the X16 version for free on the site.

 

[SNEED.EXE]

I don't really care about his strategy series but PETSCII Robots is definitely a game that made me want to play it from the previews, even if I haven't actually bought a copy.
Shit, I think you can even play the X16 version for free on the site.

He mentions in the video that there are shareware versions of PETSCII Robots available here.

 

[Pissmaster]

Has literally anyone even remotely cared for his indie games whatsoever? And I'm not talking about the random one-off buyers who decided to give them a shot or how you might occasionally see them shilled on one of his loose associate's channels, I just mean those of us who follow Dave on here.

I usually like seeing when he uploads, but it feels like for the better part of a year now, all he seems to mostly talk about are his games and while it was initially interesting to hear about the process he underwent initially starting this project, overall that's really tended to make me overlook a majority of his videos for a long while now. I really don't fucking care to hear any more about "Attack of the Petscii Robots" or "Planet X3".

I'm not an RTS guy, and the way Petscii Robots scrolls would give me a headache.

 

[Pee Cola]

YouTubers are starting to get their hands on those weird AliExpress laptops/palmtops mentioned earlier. Action Retro made a video about it, including a teardown:

The keyboard looks even shittier than it does in the AliExpress listing and it struggles with running an external VGA monitor, but the internal design is pretty neat.

IMHO if you really want something a bit more than DOSBox on your current year PC, you'd be better off finding a vintage 386/486 machine for similar money, or running Dosbian on a Raspberry Pi 4/400 for way less.

 

[Fcret]

tl;dw: Footage of a ton of different ports of Attack of the Petscii Robots. Profit margins on his merch are thin, and he's been quietly eating shipping costs overseas, which cause him to lose money on sales. He's phasing out merch now. He also has no more enthusiasm for any more ports of Attack of the Petscii Robots, so the NES and Tandy Color Computer ports are canceled.

This shit would not be a problem if:
1) He didn't insist on doing his own packaging/shipping for merch and instead partnered with a company to do this (he's certainly big enough)
2) He set his prices appropriately and
3) He told euros to fuck off and stop expecting US shipping rates to their German village in the Greater DHL Co-Prosperity Sphere

I can't blame him too much for being burned out though. Retrocomputer autists are insufferable and he has to deal with them constantly.

YouTubers are starting to get their hands on those weird AliExpress laptops/palmtops mentioned earlier. Action Retro made a video about it, including a teardown:

The keyboard looks even shittier than it does in the AliExpress listing and it struggles with running an external VGA monitor, but the internal design is pretty neat.

IMHO if you really want something a bit more than DOSBox on your current year PC, you'd be better off finding a vintage 386/486 machine for similar money, or running Dosbian on a Raspberry Pi 4/400 for way less.

I will say - the translucent plastic is pure SOVL. I miss the era when not everything came in some soulless minimalist glass/metal shell.

 

[Pee Cola]

This shit would not be a problem if:
1) He didn't insist on doing his own packaging/shipping for merch and instead partnered with a company to do this (he's certainly big enough)
2) He set his prices appropriately and
3) He told euros to fuck off and stop expecting US shipping rates to their German village in the Greater DHL Co-Prosperity Sphere

It doesn't help that David comes across as a control freak. The Commander X16 is a case in point. I suspect the only reason there is more than one person in the CX16 dev team is because there has to be, not because he wants there to be.

I can't blame him too much for being burned out though. Retrocomputer autists are insufferable and he has to deal with them constantly.

Some platforms are worse than others. Mainly the ones that were huge with kids in the '80s and '90s and are now full of manchildren in their 40s and 50s i.e. C64, Amiga, ZX Spectrum etc. The computers that appealed to people who were in their 20s and 30s at the time and are now in their 60s and 70s are kinda comfy tbh.

Even if '80s kids used these machines, it was usually in the context of school. That would explain why a 50 year old manchild will jump into an Amiga vs Atari ST flamewar on any day ending in a "y", but 68k Mac users will just sit around singing Kumbaya whilst grieving the loss of so many SE/30s due to battery explosions and leaky caps.

 

[Fcret]

Even if '80s kids used these machines, it was usually in the context of school. That would explain why a 50 year old manchild will jump into an Amiga vs Atari ST flamewar on any day ending in a "y", but 68k Mac users will just sit around singing Kumbaya whilst grieving the loss of so many SE/30s due to battery explosions and leaky caps.

The retro mac guys are probably the coolest ones in the space tbh (go figure). You tell a C64 autist that Commodore was shit or a Speccy autist that Sinclair was shit and they'll fall into pure sperg rage.

You tell a retro mac guy that Apple is/was shit and they'll be like, "haha yeah"

 

[ditto]

You tell a retro mac guy that Apple is/was shit and they'll be like, "haha yeah"

65scribe does retro Mac videos and my favorite retro youtuber. Mac stuff was always very limited and expensive.

But even during its darkest years Mac stuff was always way more interesting and novel.

I wish the retro scene would resurrect something like the eMate with NewtonOS instead of yet another shitty 8-bit micro built from recovered e-waste.

 

[AmpleApricots]

IMHO if you really want something a bit more than DOSBox on your current year PC, you'd be better off finding a vintage 386/486 machine for similar money, or running Dosbian on a Raspberry Pi 4/400 for way less.

I wouldn't even bother with a Pi. Get an old Skylake era or later (for the improved power consumption) laptop, convertible or thin client style system. They're basically being given away. They also have the upside of still being fast enough to also be able to browse the internet and watch some movies on them if you're not emulating currently. Contrary to most ARM based systems they'll also be able to run early 00s stuff easily, like e.g. Deus Ex or Morrowind. x86 works with everything, period.

I've often advertised x86 convertibles and tablets here. As actual tablets they suck, (this cannot be overstated, enjoy your ten minutes of battery life) as small, stationary screens that happen to have a computer built in, they rock. Doesn't get much more space saving than that if you want to use a proper keyboard. Also putting a somewhat classically designed mechanical keyboard in front of such a tablet on a small but elegant stand makes it look like a prop of an 80s scifi movie of how people thought computers in 2050 would look like.

The keyboard looks even shittier than it does in the AliExpress listing and it struggles with running an external VGA monitor, but the internal design is pretty neat.

being utterly useless in practice is very in-character and hits the zeitgeist of mobile machines of that time well. I could see myself buying that goofy thing for a good price tbh., then again I'm astonishingly bad with money. A lot of chipsets/CPUs of that time had barely any power consumption to speak of, (especially when made for mobile designs already) they probably last forever too with a good battery and modern power infrastructure and also static RAM. The reason many of the old portables had such poor battery life were the screens, the abysmal loss of conversion, hungry RAM and the rather early-gen NiCd/NiMh power cells. LiPo/LiIon and other efficiency gains were a game changer, of course if you just HAVE TO make your device something ridiculous like 3-4mm thick, don't expect to fit a good battery in there. That is just common sense. Or should be?

Mac

I never had contact to Macs back then and a 68040 Performa 475 is easily one of my most favorite retro machines. Thing is just really comfortable to sit at with a cup of coffee. BTW., you can buy a USB mechanical keyboard (QMK compatible) replica of the M0110 keyboard in that video you linked for relatively cheap (for a mechanical keyboard anyways) on aliexpress. It comes in HHKB layout and has all the modern luxuries like hotswap. Seems like the chinese are on a retro trip.

 

[Fcret]

Cathode Ray Dude has quit his day job to do Youtube full-time. He mentions that he supports the entire household of two financially so one must wonder what the tranny gf is doing.