anyone here into retro computing

It's the latter. Move the cable around enough and the power can be interrupted, resetting the system.
Yep, the socket is shagged. It might be possible to get inside and pull the contacts out enough for them to work, but that's only temporary as the contacts have probably deformed in shape over the years.

If you decide to buy and install a new socket, let us know how you get on.
 
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Actually, looking at some of these, it seems some of their widescreen models can automatically letterbox different aspect ratios, or display "smaller" resolutions unscaled and centered. Isn't that just the sort of thing you're looking for?

I'm very much tempted to pick up an Eizo for myself now, this would be very useful indeed.
I just checked my Dell monitors and both can change the aspect ratio from "fill", "aspect", 16:10, to 1:1(pixel for pixel), 4:3 or 5:4. It's so odd to think that's special because it used to be an annoyance on old Samsung's when it displayed an old game in 1:1 and it was the size of a polaroid in the middle of the screen.

If running on a modern operating system then enabling integer scaling in the graphics options should also help to keep things crisp, it's like a strict point sampling. It used to be a premium feature on Quadros and the likes, for some reason. It should be available on Intel IGPs and everything AMD/Nvidia has released in the last five years.
 
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I'm into the C64. King Terry was right about it.

You can even connect it to the Internet and run a web browser on it, but I've never done that. I think you need some riced out hardware to do it, like have a specific CPU accelerator that was hard to get even when it was made, etc. You can still use it to connect to BBSes with an Ethernet cartridge, even interface it with a radio and connect to packet radio BBSes.

 
Yep, the socket is shagged. It might be possible to get inside and pull the contacts out enough for them to work, but that's only temporary as the contacts have probably deformed in shape over the years.

If you decide to buy and install a new socket, let us know how you get on.
It should be fairly easy to replace the adapter socket, it is fortunately a through-hole mount. Repairing surface mount is much harder. Anyone with minimum soldering skills (or anyone that has known and is willing to learn just the absolute basics) can repair it. It's easy to see why it wore out, it's the shittiest little plug. It wouldn't have taken much at all to wear the socket out. I have no idea why they don't use more robust plugs/sockets.
 
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Seems like I got the one monitor that can't do the aspect thing.

You're thinking of the RGB2HDMI. You can either get a store-bought one or make your own.
Heh, knew it. Also useful for other computers that put out digital RGB, like the C128 and the Amiga. (Amiga's digital RGB output isn't very useful)
. Commodore power supplies (especially the wedge style and beige bricks) are notorious for going bad and sending too much voltage down the 5V rail of C64s and VIC20s. Sinclair power supplies are also dogshit.
I actually like many of these old power supplies because they're incredibly easy to maintain. (If they're not potted in like some of the old C64 supplies, that is) My Amiga 2000 I bought in the 80s still has it's original power supply (albeit with a few maintenance cycles by now) and that's probably not going to change as long as I own it. The only and pretty big downside of these power supplies is their poor power factor. You do have to know what you're doing if you want to keep these old supplies running though. There's also a problem with many more modern supplies being laid out around the +12V rail(s) because modern computers do point of load regulation and the +5V rail turning into some sort of legacy appendix that was quite poorly regulated in some supplies I've seen (especially if the +12V wasn't used much, although the ATX specification says it shouldn't happen) but granted, with DC-DC conversion of the other rails from the +12V this has become less of a problem in recent years, although it sometimes still can end up having the modern supply run under an unfavorable load because lots of these old computers just don't use that much power. For something like the C64, you really just can build a linear power supply yourself, especially if you switch out the linear regulator in the older C64 models with a modern switching mode one that will also have the benefit to remove a huge part of the heat in the case and drop the power consumption of the unit by quite a few notches. (The later more highly integrated C64 doesn't really have that problem) Similar tricks can also work in other classic computers. Electronics have changed quite a bit and sometimes you can improve these old designs by a lot with a modern part.

My favorite for the more low-powered old computers is the PicoPSU. The default model reaches the +12V directly through and does a very clean +5V in the original units I've seen, (not swearing on the chinese knockoffs, you do get what you pay for) it can't supply a whole lot of power though without having to be cooled actively though, for an Amiga, older 386/486 (or lesser) and such it's usually enough tho.

You can even connect it to the Internet and run a web browser on it, but I've never done that. I think you need some riced out hardware to do it, like have a specific CPU accelerator that was hard to get even when it was made, etc. You can still use it to connect to BBSes with an Ethernet cartridge, even interface it with a radio and connect to packet radio BBSes.

I like the thought experiment on "how to live with a classical computer in the modern age" and always felt the c64 is a bit too low-tech. For a while a fun past time of me was picking up defective C16/64/128 for next to nothing and finding out what's wrong with them and I have a whole big shelf full of them now. They're nice computers and have some fun games but seriously using one for something? Eh not sure. The C128 has a Z80 CPU additionally that comes with a few useful programs, let's you run CP/M and is basically two computers in one but it's also still pretty slow. I even have one desktop version of this with the exotic floppy drive that even still works but I'm basically afraid of touching it. The C16 is IMO in quite a few ways superior to the C64 but never took off. if I wanted to go for the most minimal classical computer I'd go with an unexpanded A600, (for the PCMCIA slot you can use to mount cf-cards as harddrives and the internal IDE controller) a later gen, more highly integrated 286 or Mac 020-something. Everything below that is just too slow IMO or has too many reliability problems. (although often still easy to fix) You can hook them up to a small ARM-something and use them like you'd traditonally use a unix shell account. The A600 is at a disadvantage here, it's serial port is not a proper UART and can't go as fast as the ones of the other ones in my line-up.

If it absolutely had to be an 8-bitter, I'd go with a modern DIY design and a Z180. You can get them pretty fast and they're very easy to interface with external hardware to expand.

Repairing surface mount is much harder. Anyone with minimum soldering skills (or anyone that has known and is willing to learn just the absolute basics) can repair it.
I wonder why so many people keep saying this. I always preferred SMD soldering. It's different (and granted, below a certain size or with certain components pretty impossible with hobby equipment) but generally I wouldn't say it's more difficult. SMD sockets suck though. I have resurrected so many electronic gadgets of extended family and friends by just replacing some broken off SMD USB port, I lost count.
 
@AmpleApricots

GEOS, nigga. Fully featured contemporary OS for Commodore machines. If you have a C128 and a way to load floppy images you can leap into the 1980s and run a word processor on your machine. (Was available for both C64 and 128, but if you have a 128 use that version)

Freezer carts advertised that you could "freeze" a GEOS instance, save that to floppy, then run that everytime instead of waiting for it to load. I'm not sure how well that would work since I've just used carts via emulator to freeze tapes, then output those to .WAV and from there to a C64.


I presume if you had JiffyDOS the floppy loading would be a lot less slow. There *is* a GEOS web browser which was what I was talking about.
 
AmpleApricots said:
if I wanted to go for the most minimal classical computer I'd go with an unexpanded A600, (for the PCMCIA slot you can use to mount cf-cards as harddrives and the internal IDE controller) a later gen, more highly integrated 286 or Mac 020-something. Everything below that is just too slow IMO or has too many reliability problems. (although often still easy to fix) You can hook them up to a small ARM-something and use them like you'd traditonally use a unix shell account.
Back as late as 2010 or so, you could still just about use iCab on a faster 68k Mac for many websites. With CSS and even some reasonable Javascript support. You could even boot into Linux (in a dodgy way from a loader that actually ran under MacOS). Debian doesn't have official 68k support anymore, but it looks like NetBSD is still keeping whatever the base NetBSD system is up to date for 68k Mac.
 
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I wonder why so many people keep saying this. I always preferred SMD soldering. It's different (and granted, below a certain size or with certain components pretty impossible with hobby equipment) but generally I wouldn't say it's more difficult. SMD sockets suck though. I have resurrected so many electronic gadgets of extended family and friends by just replacing some broken off SMD USB port, I lost count.
An SMD capacitor is a good example of why people hate working with SMD components. It sits directly on top of the pads it connects to, so you have to heat up the entire area of the circuit board it is attached to in order to get it off, which is generally a dicey deal when it comes to old boards. Then, even if you have done everything right, you run risk of the pad for the SMD connection lifting. If you want to take something off that is SMD with minimal heat, you have to destroy it, then carefully remove it, and you still have the pad lifting problem. With through-hole, you can easily desolder a joint with precision. There is also very minimal risk, if one is careful, of damaging the holes. Through-hole is just so much easier.

Back as late as 2010 or so, you could still just about use iCab on a faster 68k Mac for many websites. With CSS and even some reasonable Javascript support. You could even boot into Linux (in a dodgy way from a loader that actually ran under MacOS). Debian doesn't have official 68k support anymore, but it looks like NetBSD is still keeping whatever the base NetBSD system is up to date for 68k Mac.
iCab is exactly what I used with my 540c and the 802.11b wifi card. Then HTTPS became the default and ruined it.
 
It should be fairly easy to replace the adapter socket, it is fortunately a through-hole mount. Repairing surface mount is much harder. Anyone with minimum soldering skills (or anyone that has known and is willing to learn just the absolute basics) can repair it.
Definitely. Replacing a through-hole mounted power socket is one of the easiest first projects a soldering noob could possibly attempt. It's low-risk high-reward.

@AmpleApricots (quote is broken again)
Re: RGB2HDMI. The fun fact about this is that it was originally developed on (and for) the BBC Micro's RGB TTL output. Porting it to other systems of the era was always going to be inevitable (and easy for those with the skills to do so).

Re: Old-timey PSUs. They really vary in quality, often commensurate with original purchase price. Apple and Acorn put decent power supplies in their machines, even if the X2 (Rifa) caps self-destruct after a while. On the plus side, even when a Rifa cap goes bad, the worst it'll do is stink up the room for a while. The computer will still work fine, only it'll generate a hell of a lot more RF noise.

Re: C64 PSUs. Commodore sourced a number of these in different markets, and a couple are actually pretty good. There's a black one with a fully vented PSU that's repairable and 100% epoxy-free, but I think it may have been for a few 220-240VAC 50Hz markets only. Kinda useless if you're in the States.

c641psu.jpg


Re: Using an 8-bit machine in current year. It's challenging but not impossible. I suspect that machines with 80 column mode and a decent amount of RAM (say 128K) have a fighting chance, as long as you don't mind using a Raspberry Pi over a serial connection to talk to the outside world. I'm thinking Apple IIe/IIc, C128 or BBC Master 128, though there are probably a few others. TBH I've had a harder time connecting my Mac Plus to the outside world than I have my Master 128, although it helps that the latter has a Terminal emulator built into ROM.
 
@AmpleApricots

GEOS, nigga. Fully featured contemporary OS for Commodore machines. If you have a C128 and a way to load floppy images you can leap into the 1980s and run a word processor on your machine. (Was available for both C64 and 128, but if you have a 128 use that version)

Freezer carts advertised that you could "freeze" a GEOS instance, save that to floppy, then run that everytime instead of waiting for it to load. I'm not sure how well that would work since I've just used carts via emulator to freeze tapes, then output those to .WAV and from there to a C64.


I presume if you had JiffyDOS the floppy loading would be a lot less slow. There *is* a GEOS web browser which was what I was talking about.
In the C64 you have complete DMA via expansion port. You can basically instantly dump programs/an memory "image" into the memory of the unit, doesn't even take a hot second, yes on real hardware, or also read it. This is what these freezer modules basically did. I'm not really up on what's new with the c64 on the hobbyist front but I bet such modules exist new too and would be easier to make nowadays than ever before. The SuperCPU wasn't ever redone? I still have an 1541 Ultimate II, which also doubles as RAM expansion and could do such dumps. A default C64 is a bit slow for GEOS IMHO. Word processing barely could keep up with the speed of my typing.

My idea of actually using such an old computer in current year is based on the assumption that I don't want to only have a terminal for some ARM linux box because if I did that I might as well just connect the keyboard and screen directly to it and skip the middleman, so to speak. It's more about actually using software existing for the system and potentially writing new one for it while sometimes making use of the more powerful unix shell system. I personally don't think I could go much lower than an beefy 8-bitter like the Z180 or 16 bit and that's what I wanted to express. I think my preference would be the Amiga because the 68k is a reasonably powerful CPU, both the chipset and the OS were way ahead of their time and are still pleasant enough for modern sensibilities (silky smooth multitasking, especially if you put in enough FastRAM which is easy these days, lots of development tools) and there's also a lot of good application software for this system that'd still be comfortable to use today and as a killer feature many of these applications are very scriptable via AREXX and could be directly intertwined with the linux system. Same to a lesser degree (from my personal perspective) would go for the Mac. The 286 would just have it's raw power (although not much better than the 68k, really depends on the rating) and hardware extensibility and big software library going for it, DOS can be simple enough and has lots of software and good games but is also kind of a PITA if you want to develop. For terminal emulation you can get software for the Amiga which can even emulate TEK graphical terminals and for the internet you'd probably have to rely on console based stuff like lynx ran on the linux box, which works good enough with some mostly text-based websites, or you could go explore the Gopherspace which had a bit of a resurgence while still enjoying all the security and speed benefits a modern ARM linux system with recent kernel brings. I have such an A600 and to give an example, Cataclysm: DDA (dwarf fortress of zombie survival games) is kinda playable via serial, although the A600 is taxed when redrawing the screen because it's basically all the weaknesses of that system at once. As said earlier the serial port kinda sucks and the bandwidth for graphics isn't amazing in original/enhanced chipset Amigas and there's no special text modes.

An AGA based Amiga with fitting font, color depth and custom resolution would fare very well with everything text and graphics if you're into making pixel art or something and also has a few nice to use "office" like programs. This would already be a 32-bit system though. Such a system if a little expanded could also emulate every 68k Mac very well and run 68k Mac software. My A2000 has an 060 Accelerator and a graphics card and runs System 7 and some Mac software faster and better than the 040 Mac I have, you can also switch back and forth between AmigaOS and System 7 and both run concurrently, bit like a VM feel-wise. Even without graphics card with the AGA chipset and fast enough CPU you'd get a pretty decent emulated 68k Mac computer which would expand your software palette by quite a bit.

So yeah, I think the Amiga would be most versatile in such a scenario. It's just a thought experiment of course and you'd have to be a very dedicated autist to really live like this. There's also a lot of more exotic hardware for the old chipset Amiga like 24 bit framebuffers for true color picture editing (using the Amigas video capabilities to overlay a picture) or PC-emulation hardware (286s that get stuck into the 68k socket, 8088 as Trapdoor expansion) and while I have such hardware (even have some video toasters and an mpeg decoder card for VideoCDs) and like to play around with it, that stuff was mostly from a weird experimental time or for long forgotten usage scenarios and isn't all that practical or useful today.

Re: Old-timey PSUs.

Most of them (if their internals are accessible) are fine and easy enough to keep running even if kinda outdated technology wise, the only power supplies I wouldn't use anymore today are some PC ones from the 90s where everyone tried to build them as cheaply as possible, a few of them I'd even consider dangerous.

Then eventually they all decided to rip off that one layout with the two heatsinks and all the cabling in the lower right corner and that one is ok if the manufacturer didn't cheap out too much on the components, that is. My A2000's supply is a rare treat as it was manufactured in W. Germany (the W. was still important then) and still has a nice, heavy, fat iron core transformer wrapped in oil-impregnated paper which gives all those 1s and 0s a nice, warm nostalgic sound and deep bassy feeling. I'm kidding of course but you don't see that stuff anymore these days (or really after 1990) and there's no way I'm gonna rip that out as long as it's working fine and frankly if well maintained it should outlive me. The X2 cap was directly integrated into the power plug and not easy to find the proper replacement for but all that stuff was already overhauled by me a while ago. The power supply in an Amiga 2000 also supplies a highly stable and reliable 50 Hz tick signal derived from the frequency of the power net which gives a more accurate vsync and makes the timers of the CIAs more accurate too. The system can also generate these timings internally, it's just not as accurate. (nowadays you don't need this and this was mostly helpful if you needed to genlock for video stuff, the Amiga 2000 was fundementally built around analog video signal stuff and it shows a lot)

I'm not sure what the story for these power supplies is. Commodore Braunschweig here in Germany had it's own Amiga 2000 board design that was a bit fancier (4 layers instead of 2) and derived from the A1000 contrary to the common A2000 board you see around these days which is closer to the A500. I have two of these boards but I'm actually not sure if they were ever actually sold.

EDIT: tl;dr, old man writes lots of text about old electronics. I actually cut down the text a bit.
 
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@AmpleApricots

I believe the Ultimate 64 has a SuperCPU simulator but I don't see myself buying one of those anytime soon, mostly because I'm a lazy sod who doesn't want to build a kit. I don't know if GEOS if loaded from a freezer image would load stuff like the word processing program - I haven't messed around with trying to freeze multiload floppies, just single load tapes. I can understand why you'd rather use an Amiga than a C64, but maybe in the near future we'll all have to shitpost on BBSes via our C64s. I just hope Chrischan is left in prison when the apocalypse hits...
 
I bet we have someone here who remembers this stuff: is it possible to put a "too-big" hard drive into an old PC with BIOS (and/or OS) limitations and have it work at reduced capacity? Or is it just a nonsensical idea?
 
I have an old Apple IIe I got when a local school was selling them off a couple decades back. I still run it once in a while.
 
How old? PATA or older?
PATA.
I did a bit more looking around and it seems the done thing these days is actually to use a CompactFlash-to-IDE adapter with a suitably small CF card. That's clever, I didn't know adapters like that existed.
It seems like you really do need to pick a drive small enough for your BIOS limitations, or at least that's how everyone on the internet is acting.
 
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PATA.
I did a bit more looking around and it seems the done thing these days is actually to use a CompactFlash-to-IDE adapter with a suitably small CF card. That's clever, I didn't know adapters like that existed.
It seems like you really do need to pick a drive small enough for your BIOS limitations, or at least that's how everyone on the internet is acting.
That's a much better solution than my idea. I saw on Wikipedia that WD made a bootloader to allow larger disks to work, apparently the disk size limits were part of the bios even though those limits weren't necessary at all, they just arbitrarily capped what PATA could support. I have hazy memories of this because I know I got unsupported disks to work back in the late 90's.

Some info on the WD software.

The Compactflash solution is still infinitely more convenient than going down that route.
 
I'd like some old hardware but collectors have really shit up the market buying things they'll never tinker with. All I've got now is an Amstrad CPC and an Amiga 500. Like to fiddle around with emulators though. Right now those weird Non-IBM PCs the japs used to have are pretty interesting
 
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Total sucker for the OG Macs here.
1-bit graphics are charming as hell, imo.
F732569A-218C-49DA-81A9-EB460563EE97.jpeg
If you keep checking eBay, you'll eventually come across a pretty good deal on this stuff. Broken machines with easily fixable issues can be had dirt cheap sometimes.
 
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British retro YouTuber Mark Fixes Stuff just lost his entire vintage computer and retrogaming collection in a fire, along with all his tools, cameras, sound gear etc. I feel sorry for him, as he makes decent videos and seems like a good guy.

 
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Always a shame when some old antiques find their end that way. Didn't another youtuber lose his stuff in a flood? I don't really follow them.

Housefires are scary. People seriously underestimate how quickly they can go completely out of control. Install smoke detectors into your every room, they save lives.

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I also remember watching that guys videos when he reviewed the different-colored Spectrum ZX clone cases as I somehow bought an Harlequin PCB off eBay. It's one of the older revisions without many of the additional features of newer clones (e.g. no RGB output) and the price of the replica cases kinda put me off the whole thing but maybe I should finish it as long as you can still get the cases. Not really interested in the additional features of the newer clone boards to be honest. With modern electronics you can do a lot more and it's easy to improve on these old designs and I feel people quickly fall down a rabbithole and build an over-engineered abomination with WLAN and what-have-you which kinda kills that whole simple retro charm.
 
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