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@trezzer@social.linux.pizza
2026-08-31 21:02:44

Anyone know of a source for A1078 Powerbook batteries? All links I've followed have been dead/OOS and my G4 won't power on at all any more. It's a NoPowerbook :( #retrocomputing

@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk
2026-08-25 17:53:21

Found him! The master mouse was hiding at the back of a shelf and still works in GEM (which is pretty grim running off floppies here). This mouse plugs into the Master's User port.
#retrocomputing

A BBC Master mouse; a small beige mouse with two  long brown/black eyes.
A GEM Write window with a line of text.
@jamie@boothcomputing.social
2026-09-24 00:08:37

Finally got Zork working for my wife on my IBM 5150. Now she can waste away her hours playing it the way it was intended.
#retrocomputing

@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk
2026-09-22 16:02:58

TIL that 'EAMX5' is a PCB material, and '94V-0' is a UL94 fire/flame class; so if you find them on a PCB they're useless for searching for information about that particular problem:
#retrocomputing

A small daughter PCB that has various through hole components, and is marked EAMX5 94V-0  L51A4.  It's from a Sun3 PSU
@debellum@ludosphere.fr
2026-09-19 10:57:15

Pour les amateurs de minitel, je wargames et de jeux de rôles
#retrocomputing

@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk
2026-08-24 12:47:42

Good; my Master is now a Master 512 again - it can see the copro OK, now I just need to find where I put the boot floppies last century. (Hmm and I wonder if we still have the mouse?)
Bonus: Interword running from the cartridge slot.
#retrocomputing

A screen shot showing 'Acorn TUBE 80186 512K' 'BASIC' and then a Disc error
A screenshot showing the working screen of 'Interword' - it's a black and white screen with a line at the top, then a ruler marking out text columns, then text ''This is Interword!' which I typed and then a fill at the bottom.
@thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io
2026-07-27 02:45:17

Did you know? IBM stands for “Itty Bitty Machines”
#retrocomputing

@stsquad@mastodon.org.uk
2026-07-01 19:58:25

You know it's serious #history when you get a blue plaque. #edsac #retrocomputing
BBC News - Blue plaque awarded for Cambridge computer creation:

Blue plaque celebrating EDSAC on the 6th May 1949
@jamie@boothcomputing.social
2026-08-15 23:38:03

Today my CAD digitizer arrived. I'm going to pair that with my 486 running Microstation 5.0.
Then, unexpectedly, I went to my #retrocomputing meetup and somebody just dropped a gift for my PS/2 model 30 286 in my lap - a 386 upgrade RAM expansion card. I had no idea what it was, but it was like new and had all the manuals and disks.
[edit: actually add the pictures…

a SummaGraphics SummaSketch II Professional Plus with 4-button pointer, serial cable and power adapter sit on a black rolling chair.
an Intel PowerPack i386sx upgrade for 286 machines.  this one is for a PS/2 Model 30 286.
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk
2026-08-21 17:13:02

Oh hello there, you're going to be forcefully replaced:
#retrocomputing

A cracked dodgy looking RIFA capacitor on a BBC Master PSU surrounded by some other components.  You can tell it's worried about it's future.
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk
2026-08-22 13:17:00

With the RIFAs replaced, next is the Master 512's battery pack; hmmmm - luckily the battery pack kept it away from the PCB
#retrocomputing

A 3 cell battery pack sits on a bench attached to a bracket with some yellow tape.  There's white furry deposits around it, one of the contacts is very green. They were Duracell batteries.
@losttourist@social.chatty.monster
2026-09-24 13:10:03

I sometimes think that The Register crafts its headlines specifically to snare Fediverse users.
A 1980s PDP-11 is still running Unix – and now you can watch
Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you?
#TheRegister #PDP11 #Retrocomputing

@jamie@boothcomputing.social
2026-09-06 22:25:37

Got my digitizer setup on my 486 and it's working in Microstation. Lot of nostalgia for this particular config.
#retrocomputing
#microstation
#cad

picture of an LCD with a black screen and the  handmade words "Hi, Mastodon".  below that is a 1990's gateway 2000 keyboard and a large Summagraphics II digitizer board.  a hand is holding the 4-button pointer.  some other retro systems are visible to each side.
@thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io
2026-07-25 03:32:04

I’d pour one out for VARTA today, but they’re doing that by themselves
#iykyk #retrocomputing

@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk
2026-09-13 17:37:21

The sun3/60 makes a pretty useful bench when debugging a 3/60. The chassis is built like a tank.
(On there we have a home built ESR meter, a capacitance meter, a general volt meter, a random fan and the PSU sitting on a erm...wallet folder).
#retrocomputing

The 3/60 is a big flat solid metal pizza box, on top of it are the tools and PSU I'm debugging - with the PSU insulated by a standard wallet folder.  The wallet folder is bright pink and held together with parcel tape; it must be safe.
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk
2026-09-12 14:45:20

Hmm, replaced 5 caps in one of my Sun3's PSU (all on the input side), although most read as within spec (one of the chunky 680uF was down at 618); but...now it trips a breaker (non-spectacularly). Hmph.
(If anyone has a schematic of a Matsushita ETX-593C10M or ETC-593C101M I'd appreciate it)
#retrocomputing

@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk
2026-08-11 14:12:37

Ooh, found my dad's slide rule; I guess I have to learn how to use it now!
#retrocomputing

A slide rule, with my dads name written on the inside of the slide.
It's got various scales on (including x^2 and 1/x) and has a nice red box for it to go in.
@kcase@mastodon.social
2026-09-08 18:30:53

This was my NeXT Mail avatar at that time, back in 1992. (64x64 pixels with 4 bits of each color channel per pixel (444 RGB) felt like a pretty high quality image in that era!)
The self-photo was taken in NeXT's sales office at Carillon Point in Kirkland, where Omni's founders were working as consultants (across the lake from Seattle), by hooking up a camcorder's video output to the video input on a NeXTdimension board.
#NeXTSTEP #retrocomputing

@thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io
2026-08-22 14:39:07

Does anyone (in US) have a spare SCSI HDI-30 (male) to DB-25 (female) adapter or cable lying around? I'd be happy to pay postage.
It's to connect a BlueSCSI to 1990s-era PowerBooks.
(eBay sellers want fantasy prices.)
#retrocomputing #powerbook

@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk
2026-07-12 13:38:47

My beeb series 7 was having heat problems, so I bodged some heatsinks onto the CPU and onto the infamous 245 next to it (which was getting well over 50c in a few mins)
The series 7 case has the back vent mostly covered to stop junk going in.
Hmm the wire ties aren't really satisfactory.
#retrocomputing

A photo of the CPU socket in a BBC B - a 40 pin DIP, under which is the easter-egg 'Bob's board'
A picture of my Beeb now with bodged bent mettle heatsinks on the 6502 and neighbouring 245.  Held on vaguely by wireties.
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk
2026-08-08 14:23:20

Added a heatsink to my Beeb's video ULA as well as the CPU and 245. And here's Frenzy running from Replica now that I sorted that double stepper out.
#retrocomputing

A BBC B motherboard showing various chips; on top of the CPU, the 74LS245 and Video ULA are bodged heatsinks held on by a wiretie, some glue and a dab of compound.
A blurry screen shot of the game 'frenzy' on a modern LCD monitor; it's blurry because the monitor doesn't like interlace. The play area is a rectangle and you draw boxes to try and trap a moving line;  it's basically a clone of QIX.
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk
2026-09-06 13:34:41

Got one of my Sun3's open - no life yet - but they don't look too bad; look at that BBC Engineering sticker; and they're neighbouring serial numbers on the machines - these are siblings! Few fun board bodges.
#retrocomputing #suntember

A Sun3 mainboard - at the back there are 24 SIMM slots, 20 of them are filled with 1MB simms  It's big - it drawfs the 68020 in the middle.  To the bottom right is the graphics card.
A PAL with one of it's pins obviously cut
The back showing the serial numbers
The other side of hte back showing the video sockets an unusual huge (68pin?) D scsi, and a 'BBC Engineering chiswick - Audio section' sticker.
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk
2026-08-20 13:47:40

My Acorn BBC Master 512; that's a BBC Master with an added 80186 copro (which is the board in the middle).
Hmm first time I've had the top off in ages, I guess I should check it's batteries and PSU; there doesn't seem to be any crud around the batteries.
It's got a little board from CJE which I think lets you switch in the extra EPROM sockets vs extra RAM.
#retrocomputing

A BBC Master 512 computer - beige case, BBC keyboard with the Red function keys, (but with the arrow keys in a different orientation to a Model B) and a numeric keypad.  Two cartridge slots on the right are empty.   It has two small added switches on the back right.  On top are the 'Welcome Guide' (for a base Master 128) and 'Master 512 user guide'
The top off the BBC Master 512 - in addition to the dust, we have the Master PSU, the CMOS battery pack, the Master 512 copro in the middle, fly leads going off to the switches, the speaker and cartridge slots, and some EPROMs.
@losttourist@social.chatty.monster
2026-07-27 08:02:18

I also lust after the Commodore-64 version of the keyboard. Absolutely identical to the others, but that colour scheme and font!
#8bit #RetroComputing #C64 #Commodore64

@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk
2026-09-05 13:01:45

I've just extracted my #suntember projects from the bottom of the pile. A pair of Sun 3/60's. They weigh 12kg each - I guess the case was designed to withstand the weight of the monitors.
#retrocomputing

A stack of old Unix workstations on a trolly.  From top to bottom; an SGI Indy, a Sun Ultra 1, an HP 9000/735 and two Sun 3/60's.  In front is the corner of a Sun3 optical mouse mat and keyboard.  They're sitting on a black dolly.
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk
2026-07-15 14:02:17

Just typed in a RAM test program on my Series 7 BBC Model B - it passes clean; hmm - doesn't explain the instability then.
Also, I don't seem to be able to (reliably?) write to a floppy - hmm. save file, *. and find it's nto there. Hmm. Tried formatting and it's verifying bad. So some more debug todo.
(Also, hth did I type so much on a Model B keyboard, the keys are HARD)

@losttourist@social.chatty.monster
2026-07-27 08:00:57

I've just learned that #8bitdo have released an #IBM #ModelM edition of their fabulous range of retro keyboards and I am definitely here for it!
#RetroComputing

@stiefkind@mastodon.social
2026-09-15 14:43:18

Relikte von damals, als ich noch viel Hardware-Support (Sun, Cisco, Storage) in Rechenzentren machte, und Terminal Concentrator noch Teufelszeug für Eingeweihte war. #rs232 #vintagecomputing #retrocomputing #seriell #lebenaufräumen

@enriquericos@mastoart.social
2026-08-06 19:44:36

I had forgotten I had The Oldschool PC Font Resource installed and now I want to use every single font:
#typography #fonts #retrocomputing #graphicDesign

@losttourist@social.chatty.monster
2026-09-14 08:45:54

As is to be expected for an article written by @… , there is a well-researched and fascinating article about ZX Spectrum sound capabilities in The Register: #Sinclair #ZXSpectrum #Retrogaming #Retrocomputing #8bit #Z80 #TheRegister