Retro Computers - Computer History

Retro Computers - Classic Machines - Retro Computers and many classic games

2040-01-01T08:20:00.000Z

Welcome to Retro Computers.

Here you will find lighthearted reviews of classic computers, classic arcade consoles, technical information and historical information of many of the most popular home computers.

Find out which machines were classic games machines, which had the best arcade games, and which were most popular in schools.

We have lots of machines from the likes of Acorn, Atari, Commodore, Dragon, Sinclair and so on...

Each machine is categorised by company or manufaturer - so clicking on the Acorn category will display each machine produced by Acorn, clicking on the Commodore category will display each machine manufactured by Commodore and so on.

We hope you enjoy our little dedication to these retro machines and the classic arcade games that many of us played.

With emulation very much at the forefront of retro gaming and classic games - you may just be able to emulate any one of the machines in these pages - or even play some of your favourite classic games online.

Last retro game system reviewed: MB Vectrex

Current favourite retro computer: Commodore Amiga 500

So join us here at Retro Computers and help to keep the arcade games, arcade consoles, classic games and retro computing spirit alive.

Thanks all,
Mart and Bri.

Retro Computers, Classic Games and Arcade Games...

Retro Computers - Vectrex - Classic Arcade Machine

2010-01-22T16:21:00.010Z

Vectrex
This classic arcade console is something a little different from most other gaming platforms - especially those of the 8-bit generation.

The Vectrex was an 8-bit video game console that was developed by Western Technologies/Smith Engineering.

It was licensed and distributed first by General Consumer Electric (GCE), and then by Milton Bradley Company (MB) after they bought over GCE. The machine was released in November of 1982 at a retail price of (US) $199.

As MB took over international marketing of the console the price dropped to $150 and then $100 shortly before the famous video game crash of 1983.

The Vectrex basically ended it's run in early 1984 just as home computers (such as the C64) began to take over.

Unlike other non-portable video game consoles which connected to televisions and rendered 'raster' graphics, the Vectrex had an integrated vector monitor which displayed vector graphics (hence the name 'Vectrex').

Just like early Space Invader machines the Vectrex was a monochrome displaye and used plastic screen overlays to generate colour and other static graphics.

At the time many of the most popular arcade games used vector displays, and the Vectrex was looking to set itself apart from the rest of the pack by selling high-quality and playable versions of classic games such as Space Wars and Armor Attack.

Vectrex also had a preloaded arcade game installed which was an Asteroids style shooter called Minestorm.

The Vectrex was also part of the first generation of console game systems to feature a boot screen, along with the Atari 5200 and Colecovision.

The Vectrex was the first gaming system ever to offer a 3D peripheral (the Vectrex 3D Imager).

The 3-D imager spun a disk (which was banded half coloured/black) that radiated between the viewer's eyes and the screen. Spinning the disk at high speeds created the impression of 3-D and colour - I'm not sure exactly how it worked though!

It should be noted that early units had a very audible buzzing noise from the built-in speaker that altered in pitch as graphics were drawn on screen. This was due to a lack of shielding between the CRT and the speaker wiring. This was eventually resolved in later models.

A light pen (remeber those?) was also available for the Vectrex.

Vectrex Games
Some of the Vectrex's games feature unusual qualities or innovations due to the (at the time) advanced graphical nature of the games. New games are still being produced today by homebrew video game programmers - which is brilliant!

The game built into the Vectrex, (Minestorm), would (on some versions - depending on the machine) crash once you reached level 13.

In some cases strange graphics and behaviour would occur on later levels - in any case the the game was bugged to a degree.

MineStorm II was put out which was actually a fixed version of the same video game. Because this game was not advertised it make it one of the rarest cartridges for the Vectrex system.

Nowadays the Vectrex is (rightly) regarded as a pioneering video game system, and good condition units are worth a lot of money. Rare games and units are traded on Ebay - and fully boxed units are extremely valuable.

Retro Computers and Classic Games is what we are all about...

Retro Computers - Tatung Einstein - Retro Computers

2009-11-06T09:51:00.010Z

Tatung Einstein
The Tatung Einstein was an 8-Bit home computer produced by the Taiwanese corporation Tatung. The machine iteslf was designed and manufactured in England (in Telford). It was aimed primarily at the small busines market and was never marketed as a classic gaming machine.

This machine is a lesser known retro computer - but it certainly deserves a mention.

The Einstein was released onto the UK computer market during the summer of 1984. On top of the basic machine a Tatung monitor (which was available in colour or the slightly cheaper monochrome) and printer were also available as optional add-ons.

The machine was physically a large beast (we're talking almost BBC Micro territory here!), with an option for one or two built-in three-inch Hitachi floppy disk drives.

At the time most home computers used ordinary cassette tapes for data storage - so the floppy disk option was quite something.

Another unusual feature of the Einstein was that on start-up the computer entered a simple machine code monitor which was called MOS (standing for Machine Operating System).

Plenty of software could be loaded in from disk, including a CP/M compatible operating system called Xtal DOS and a BASIC interpreter (called Xtal BASIC).

The Tatung Einstein was more expensive than most of its rivals, and really lacked an obvious niche market other than technically advanced home programmers (it was suitable for people fluent in machine code and 'binary load lifters').

Subsequently the Einstein was commercially unsuccessful in the home market and not many units were sold. This is a shame as all in all it was a pretty useful machine - if only there had been a larger library of arcade games developed for it the story might have been a little different.

It should be noted that some developers used the Einstein to write their machine code before porting it to other systems (some games were developed for the ZX Spectrum this way). It was easier to get straight into coding and store your data this way (no need for Microdrives), as well as testing.

A later, revised version (the Tatung Einstein 256) was released but suffered a similar fate to it's predecessor.

A few classic games were released on the machine such as the arcade games Chuckie Egg, Lazy Jones, the seminal space trading game Elite and the beat em up Yie Ar Kung Fu.

The Einstein came and went with little fanfare but has since become a cult classic system in the ranks of retro computers.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

Retro Computers and Classic Games is what we are all about...

Retro Computers - Atari 2600 - Retro Computers

2009-10-02T09:58:00.012+01:00

Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is not a computer as such - but with it being such a classic games system we've got to include it!

So, the Atari 2600 has the honour of being the first games console to appear on our site!

The Atari 2600 is a video game console that was released in October of 1977. It must go down as the console that kick-started the use of microprocessor based hardware and switchable cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games 'built in' to the system.

The Fairchild Channel F was probably the first cart based system (the previous year in 1976) - however the Atari 2600 is credited with making the plug-in and play concept popular among the home gamers.

Originally known as the Atari VCS (which stood for Video Computer System) the machine's name was changed to Atari 2600 (taken from the unit's Atari part number CX2600) in 1982 following the release of the more advanced Atari 5200.

The Atari 2600 was typically bundled with two joysticks (those classic Atari sticks), a conjoined pair of paddle controllers and a cartridge game. The bundled game was initially Combat 4, then later became the classic Pac Man.

The Atari 2600 was massive. During the 1980s, 'Atari' was a synonym for this model in mainstream media and became the name that represented video games in general. In later years 'Nintendo' and 'PlayStation' had the same effect.

The initial price of the console was US$199 including the two joysticks and Combat cartridge. It was up against the aforementioned Channel F (which was known as the VCS)

However, both systems ended up in the midst of a vicious round of price-cutting.

Pong clones made obsolete by these newer and more powerful machines sold off their boxes at budget prices. Many of the clone companies ended up out of business (a shame), and both Fairchild and Atari were selling consoles to a public that was completely fed up with 'Pong' type games.

When Fairchild stopped manufacturing consoles (a poor decision - they had reckoned that video games were a 'passing fad') it left Atari with a clear road to produce hardware and software.

Programmers soon began to push the Atari hardware and more impressive titles were created for the machine. This had a snowball effect and the Atari 2600 became more and more popular.

By 1979, the Atari 2600 was the best-selling Christmas gift (and console), mainly because of its exclusive content. Roughly 1 million units were sold that year!

Atari struck a good deal and licensed the smash arcade game Space Invaders, which increased the unit's popularity - 2 million units were sold the following year! (Space Invaders was mega-popular for a good couple of years)

The cartridge system was behind the success of the Atari 2600. Now the mere fact that you could play hundreds of different games on one console was way advanced to what had been on offer in the recent past.

In 1980 the Atari 2600 was given a minor revision in which the left and right difficulty switches were moved to the back of the console. In 1982 another version of the four-switch console was released without woodgrain (people tend to prefer the original woodgrain version nicknamed 'Woody').

The newer units were nicknamed 'Darth Vader' consoles due to their all-black appearance. These were also the first consoles to be officially called Atari 2600, as the Atari 5200 was released the same year.

As programmers became more proficient with the hardware, more and more games were released. It's vast (for the release time) array of colours (128 in NTSC mode) allowed full colour graphics in games - a far cry from the monochrome days of bat'n ball efforts.

Not only that - the system was capable of producing decent sound effects and musical jingles.

Programmers learned how to maximise the use of the Atari's bitmapped sprites and could even make game characters change colour 'on the fly' - again a superb feature in a video game.

Over the years Atari themselves developed many classic games such as Yars Revenge, Adventure and the seminal Breakout. Other well known developers such as Activison created titles such as Pitfall which sold over 4 million copies. Incredible.

The Atari 2600 cannot be underestimated - it really did usher in the modern era of home console gaming.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

Retro Computers and Classic Games is what we are all about...

Retro Computers - Jupiter Ace - Retro Computer

2009-09-24T12:17:00.008+01:00

Jupiter Ace
The Jupiter Ace was a British home micro of the early 1980s. The machine was produced by a company named Jupiter Cantab.

The Jupiter Ace differed from other computers of the era in that it used FORTH as the built in language instead of the more traditional BASIC.

Incidentally FORTH as a language combines high performance and code compactness with the programming benefits of high-level programming languages.

The Jupiter ACE is and was often compared with ZX81 due to its similar size and low cost - even though internally it was a different design. The ZX81 used 75% of its CPU time (Z80) to drive the video. Not in the ACE though - here the Z80 CPU was fully used for running programs.

The ACE used dedicated video memory of 2 KB, leaving the 1 KB main memory free for user programming.

The Jupiter Ace was new to the market and the designers could not afford to use a ULA (logic array) - which were common in other computers such as the ZX81 to reduce component count.

By clever design the creators of the machine managed to use less chips as a space saving method.

Like the ZX Spectrum, the Ace used black rubber keys (not so good!). Audio capabilities were CPU controlled with programmable frequency and duration. Sound output was through a small built-in speaker - again similar to the Speccy. A television was needed as a display device (no monitor) which was monochromatic only.

As usual for the era data was saved and loaded via standard cassette tape - a portable cassette player could be connected to the machine.

Various add-ons became available for the machine such as a RAM pack, a better keyboard, a printer and an external disk-drive.

The machine was never a huge seller (probably less than 10,000 units sold) either in the home or in schools (it certainly was not robust enough for school life!) and as such is a rarity these days.

It was never widely known as a games machine either - and unfortunately was swept aside as the Spectrum and C64 took hold of the home market.

Any ACE machines that are in good condition are regarded as collectors items - if you see one (and any of the rare computer games for it) try and snap it up.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

Retro Computers and Classic Games is what we are all about...

Retro Computers - MSX Retro Computer

2009-09-18T08:24:00.012+01:00

MSX Retro Computer
Not quite MSXellent, the MSX brand of computers was a novel idea by Microsoft to try and standardise hardware.

The idea was conceived by Microsoft Japan and came to fruition in the mid 1980's. Despite Microsoft's involvement, the MSX series of computers did not really take hold in the UK or the USA - where there were probably already too many machines with a firm foot-hold in the home computer and computer gaming market. They did become very popular in other countries though.

The idea for the MSX brand was inspired by VHS video tapes which had become the industry standard at the time, so it was figured that the same could be done with computer hardware.

A lot of electrical good manufacturers promoted and built MSX machines - anything with the MSX logo was compatible with anything else with the same logo - regardless of who had manufactured it.

Because of standardised 'off the shelf' parts the production costs of the MSX were essentially pretty low. That was until they added a professional keyboard and Microsoft BASIC which drove the price back up again.

The MSX brand became popular in Japan and gaming giants such as Konami and Hudson Soft developed plenty of classic games for the machine (the famous Metal Gear series started life here).

Because the likes of the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 had cornered most of the 8-bit home market in Europe by the time the MSX came along, it's main success was in Brazil, Argentina, Japan and South Korea. In those countries it did become something of an arcade games computer.

Over it's 12 year life-span the MSX spawned four generations:
MSX (in 1983), the MSX2 (in 1986), the MSX2+ (in 1988) and finally the slightly rubbish sounding MSX TurboR (in 1990).

The first three incarnations were 8-bit computers based on the Z80 CPU, while the MSX TurboR was based on an enhanced Zilog Z800. The MSX TurboR was unsuccessful due to a lack of support and the rise in popularity of the by then well established PC market. The popularity of the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST (which were now established as classic games machines) can't have helped either. Production of the TurboR ended in 1995.

All in all the MSX must go down as a classic machine. This platform did spawn several popular gaming franchises such as the classic arcade game Bomberman and Metal Gear Solid and the emulation scene for the machine is alive and kicking. Download an MSX emulator and try out some of those old titles - there really are some classic games on offer.

The MSX was a good idea that just didn't quite come off.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

Retro Computers and Classic Games is what we are all about...

Retro Game Review - Space Harrier - ZX Spectrum

2009-05-07T09:55:00.008+01:00

Space Harrier
Once again we are looking back at an arcade conversion, and once again it was Elite software who won the rights to convert the mighty Space Harrier from amusement arcade to home.

Space Harrier had been a phenomenon in the arcades, the bizarre look and feel of 'The Fantasy Zone' resplendent in fast moving 3D graphics coupled with the cabinet being mounted on hydraulics (in the full motion cockpit version) had given gamers a brilliant gaming experience.

The sound effects, in game speech and in game music had complemented this retro game perfectly too. It was one of the first games to use progressive sprites to create the 3D effect - most other games up to this point had used polygons and wireframe graphics.

Space Harrier was released in 1985 by Sega and it's popularity ensured that it had to be converted to home systems. Converting this piece of software would be an extremely difficult task, and Elites legendary programmer Keith Burkhill stepped up to the plate.

Could the surreal world of 'The Fantasy Zone' (complete with the checkboard ground, alien pods and flying dragons), be crammed into a 48K ZX Spectrum? Well....

Sort of. The arcade version was famous for it's in-game speech, such as 'Welcome to the fantasy zone, get ready!' when you dropped your first coins into it - and this (and the fantastic in game music) failed to make it into the ZX Spectrum version. But onto the gameplay, which thankfully the ZX Spectrum version managed to capture reasonably well.

This retro game involved your character (the Space Harrier) running or flying in a permanently 3D third person view scrolling landscape.

Armed with a powerful gun, you had to blast away the evil nasties that had come to take over the slightly trippy 'Fantasy Zone'. Enemies and obstacles would come hurtling forwards towards you, some of which could be blasted out of the way, some of which were indestructable.

For instance, rocks would be littered across the ground or could be floating in mid air - and you would either have to shoot them out of the way or weave your way around them if they were 'bullet proof'.

Some of your adverseries would shoot projectiles at you which you had to avoid, ranging from egg shaped energy bolts to faster moving fireballs. Collision with any would result in the loss of a life. Big enemies such as flying dragons (which weaved beautifully through the air) or huge floating stone heads would appear and would take multiple hits from your gun before being destroyed.

At the end of each level there would be a boss alien (sometimes more than one) to duel with, and it could take a while to wear them down and dispatch them.

The game was spread over 18 stages (which were all strangely named such as Minia) including some bonus stages. If you made it to a bonus stage then you would get to site astride a friendly floating chinese style dragon and plow your way through the landscape to earn a bucket load of bonus points.

At the end of the bonus stage your harrier would hop off the dragon which would fly off into the distance and disappear. It would be back to normal action again in the next level.

Later stages produced even more strange creatures such as one eyed wooly mammoths, giant robots and large bulbous squids. Having enemies of this scale in a Spectrum game was quite a neat trick, and this is one aspect of the game that was impressive.

Later levels were tough to negotiate with a barrage of enemies and obstacles to avoid, and sometime a 'roof' would come down over the landscape limiting the height at which your harrier could go to forcing you to zip around the screen like a maniac as you dodged trees, rocks, metal poles and huge flowers. Making it to the end of a level could be quite 'thrilling'. Ahem.

If you had quicker reflexes than a hyped up cat then you would make it to the end of the game, which matter of factly informed you that it was indeed 'The End'. But don't worry, as 'many more battle scenes will soon be available'.

On Release:
This classic game was hyped up prior to release due to 99% of the planets population knowing this game from the arcades. Crash magazine gave it a hearty 77% but described it as a 'near miss', which was probably about right. Still, it went on to do well and sold plenty; perhaps because of the name but most people were happy that a playable and enjoyable version had been released for the Spectrum. It was not a classic, but it was good enough.

The test of time:
Space Harrier represents a time when arcade machines were cutting edge in terms of graphics, sound effects, music and sheer scale. The gulf between the home 8-bit systems was growing larger and there was no way they could match the software properly. Unfortunately there was a period when arcade to home tie ins were all the rage, and the trend continued with attempts to release other games such as Out Run and Afterburner on home 8-bit systems. The Spectrum version of Space Harrier is still playable and fun, and Keith Burkhill worked wonders re-creating the levels and creatures accurately - not to mention the fast gameplay, the superb 3D perspective effect and responsiveness of your in game hero. Here in retro review land we reckon that the version we got for the Speccy could not have been any better.

This retro arcade conversion is worth another look after all these years.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download an emulator and download Space Harrier for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online

GENRE: Arcade Game (rail shooter)

RELEASE DATE: End of 1986

RELEASED BY: Elite Software

DEVELOPER(S): Keith Burkhill

PRICE: £7.95 - UK

Our hero flies and takes you on a tour of Moot in this fine retro arcade conversion of Space Harrier:

All ZX Spectrum game information, reviews, screenshots and videos will now be posted on ZX Spectrum Games

Retro computers and classic games

Retro Game Review - Paperboy - ZX Spectrum

2009-05-06T08:57:00.010+01:00

Paperboy ZX Spectrum
Another arcade conversion from Elite Software, who were becoming respected for creating good quality versions of popular arcade games on the ZX Spectrum. Once again this retro biking game Paperboy holds fond memories for many gamers.

Atari released Paperboy back in 1984, and it captured the imagination due to it's different concept and rather cool 'handlebar' controls. Elite software (who had already succesfully converted Ghosts and Goblins and Bombjack) won the license and yet again managed to produce a good conversion from Arcade to home 8-bit micro's. The game was well received and scored a very nice 88% in Crash magazine.

The game involved controlling a paperboy and as you may have guessed, deliver newspapers to houses. Sounds like fun eh? Well, it was a lot more fun than a real paper-round, I can tell you!

This retro game stood out as being different, and the mid-eighties BMX craze helped to increase it's popularity. Anyway, riding your BMX you would pedal up a scrolling street (rendered in a nice isometric view) and throw papers from your bike to the houses that wanted a delivery.

You would do this by throwing the paper into the residents mailbox to score points. If you missed the house then the residents would not want a delivery on the following day - narky b*stards eh? It was possible get your own back on these non-subscribers though.

Pedalling through the diagonally scrolling landscape, points could also be gained by firing a newspaper missile through the window of a house with a darkened door (a non subscriber). Well aimed newspapers could result in broken window panes, chopped up tomb stones and ruffled dustbin lids.

Anyone with a nasty streak would enjoy zapping grannies out of their bath-chairs as they enjoyed the early morning air, riders could be knocked off mopeds and flower beds could be flattened. Sounds a bit like my neighbourhood come to think of it.

The papers (or ammo) in your delivery bag were displayed on a panel to the right of the screen, and extra papers could be collected by cycling over the boxes of newsprint dotted around the pavements. These top-ups were usually in hard to reach places and required some cute cycling to collect them unscathed.

There was more to the game than just hurling papers around the streets though. Careful cycling was needed to negotiate a variety of obstacles including dustbins, rogue rolling tyres, garden ornaments and fire hydrants. Pensioners would seem to walk into your path deliberately and workmen would not hear you approaching because they were wearing ear-plugs.

Skateboarders were tough to avoid as they raced around at high speed, and exploding bombs (it was a particularly rough neighbourhood) would also crop up from time to time. Contact with any of these obstacles resulted in a collision and the loss of one of your five lives. A scrolling message would appear informing you of what a silly Paperboy you had just been.

The game took place over each day of the week and the paper-round had to be completed before you could head up to the BMX track which was located at the end of town. For some reason targets were dotted around the track and bonus points could be collected for hitting them with a well thrown newspaper.

At the end of the day's delivery you would be shown a report on your progress. For every paper wrongly delivered the house would cancel its order and if too many of the houses un-subscribed then you get your marching orders and it was game over. It was possible to claw subscribers back by delivering all papers on a round. The game did get more difficult as each days of the week went by. If you made it through the week then the game was completed - which was no mean feat.

On release:
This classic game was another game that was highly anticipated due to the popularity of the arcade version. The main drawback was the lack of the 'handlebar' controls (which did detract from the game slightly) and the blue/black graphics - the arcade original had been very colourful. Still, the game was playable and fun, and was a pretty good rendition of the original from Atari. The scrolling on the Speccy was nice and smooth too. The name 'Paperboy' ensured that it was a big hit.

The test of time:
This retro game is really a product of it's era. It still has a degree of playability - and you just know it is a mid 80's game. Once again it is amazing to think that a cutting edge title could be roughly converted into a machine with only 48K of RAM. Steve Lamb and Tony Mac did well with this one.

Stick on a bit of BMX Bandits, down a can of Quattro and give it a go. Just make sure you've got your aim straight.

This retro arcade conversion is worth another look after all these years.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download an emulator and download Paperboy for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade game
RELEASE DATE: September of 1986
RELEASED BY: Elite Software
DEVELOPER(S): Steve Lamb and Tony Mac
PRICE: £7.95 - UK

Our boy delivers and takes you on a tour of day one in this fine retro arcade conversion of Paperboy

All ZX Spectrum game information, reviews, screenshots and videos will now be posted on Spectrum Games

Retro Games - Sinclair ZX Spectrum - games

2009-04-02T16:19:00.016+01:00

There were many fine games for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and some of these classic games have stood the test of time well.

A couple of notable arcade games were The Way of the Exploding Fist (by Melbourne House) and Commando (by Elite).

Have yourself a quick blast on both of these games on an emulator, or if you can get hold of the real hardware go for it. Whilst you won't be up until 3am playing these, the playability that was there more than 20 years ago is still apparent.

How the programmers managed to squeeze so much out of only 48K still amazes us to this day. Can you reach the exalted rank of tenth dan? Or can you crack 'Area 8'?

The Way of the Exploding Fist

Commando

See all of our reviews and classic game information at Spectrum Games

Mart and Bri
Retro game and classic game fans.

Retro Computers - Atari ST - Retro computer

2009-03-24T09:09:00.021Z

Atari ST
Let the battle of the 16-bit heavyweights commence!

The Atari ST was a classic home computer that was commercially available from 1985 into the early 1990s. Released by Atari, this 16-bit machine was designed to supercede their 8-bit XL range, and supercede them it did.

The 'ST' officialy stood for 'Sixteen/Thirty two' which referred to the CPU (a Motorola 68000 which had a 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals). But let's not get too technical here, the Atari ST was a fine games machine, and it, along with the Commodore Amiga really pushed the envelope of computer gaming - with both becoming classic games machines (with some good conversions of arcade games).

The machine came installed with 512KB of RAM (more could be installed if you so desired), and 3½" floppy disks as storage. It was similar to other contemporary machines of the era which utilised the Motorola 68000 as the engine, (such as the Apple Mac and the Commodore Amiga). Although the Macintosh was the first widely available computer with a GUI, it was limited to a monochromatic display on a smaller built-in monitor, and people wanted colour and zingy graphics.

The ST preceded the Amiga's commercial release by almost two months, giving it a head start in the 16-bit battle that was to ensue. Atari's machine was the first computer to come with a fully bit-mapped color GUI (Graphical User Interface) using a version of Digital Research's GEM released in February of 1985. It was also the first home computer with integrated MIDI support.

Platform rivalry (between Atari and Commodore) was often reflected by the owners and was most prominent in the Demo Scene. Where the Amiga had custom processors which gave it the edge in the arcade games and video market, the ST was generally cheaper, had a slightly faster CPU, (and had a high-resolution monochrome display mode), which was ideal for business and CAD.

Thanks to its built-in MIDI ports it enjoyed alot of success as a music sequencer and as a controller of musical instruments among amateurs and professionals alike. Bands such as Tangerine Dream and Fatboy Slim used the ST when making music.

In some markets, particularly in Germany the machine gained a strong foothold as a small business machine for CAD and Desktop publishing work.

So, the ST was highly versatile, and was appealing to a broad range of users. At this point alot of home geeks (like yours truly) were leaving behind their beloved 8-bit machines and moving into the more powerful 16-bit market. The ST did well (once the price of one dropped), and became a popular choice for home enthusiasts, musicians, artists and arcade games players. It should be noted that an ST cost an incredible £749 when first released.

A lot of people wandered into their local Dixons, looked at the price, collapsed, stood up, checked the label to make sure their eyes weren't playing tricks on them, then went home sobbing. It would be worth waiting a year for the price to come down into mere mortal territory.

A large library of classic games was available for the ST (many games being improved versions of older 8-bit games such as Elite), and of course loading them in from a floppy disk as opposed to a cassette was a delight. The ZX Spectrum / Commodore 64 rivaly now shifted and became the Atari ST / Commodore Amiga rivaly, with playground arguments breaking out up and down the land.

The rivalry lasted for a few years as both companies released newer versions of their respective machines, such as the ST+ which now came installed with a mighty 1MB of RAM - how could that amount of memory ever be filled eh?

To be honest, it is probably fair to say that Commodores machine had the edge when it came to computer gaming. Most of the time, games were released on both formats, but the Amiga version usually had the edge. But is was a fine edge, a thinly veiled edge that could not be calculated, weighed or measured. The Amigas' graphics were usually better, sometimes the ST had a slight edge with sound. We could go on, but we won't.

Just remember a great machine that helped to usher in the era of powerful machines in the home. All hail Atari's 16-bit beaut - a fine Retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

MACHINE NAME: 520 ST / ST+ / STM
MANUFACTURER: Atari
MACHINE TYPE: Home Computer (classic games machine)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
RELEASE YEAR: 1985
KEYBOARD: Full-stroke keyboard with numeric and editing keypads
CPU: Motorola MC68000
SPEED: 8 mHz
CO-PROCESSOR: 'Shifter' and 'Glue' custom chips
RAM: 512 KB (520 ST/STM), 1 MB (520 ST+)
ROM: 192 KB
TEXT MODES: 40 or 80 columns x 25 lines
GRAPHIC MODES: 320 x 200 / 640 x 200 / 640 x 400 dots
COLORS: 16 among 512 (320 x 200) / 4 among 512 (640 x 200) / monochrome (640 x 400) this last mode required a special monitor for i to be displayed
SOUND: 3 voices over 8 octaves
SIZE / WEIGHT: 47 (W) x 24 (D) x 6 (H) cm
I/O PORTS: RGB, TV modulator (520STm), Cardridge, Midi (in/out), Centronics, RS232c, Hard Disk, Floppy Disk, Joystick, Mouse
BUILT IN MEDIA: External 3.5'' 360 KB disk-drive (option)
OS: TOS / GEM
POWER SUPPLY: External power supply unit
PRICE: £749 (1985 - UK) dropping to a more realistic £399 (1986 - UK)

Retro Computers and Classic Games is what we are all about...

Retro Computers - Atari 800 XL - Retro computer

2009-03-13T15:08:00.018Z

Atari 800XL

AT-AT's were well built

The Atari 800XL was the successor to the Atari 600XL. It was practically the same machine except it now had composite video capability and more RAM in the shape of 64KB - much more like it eh?

We must take a moment to mention the build quality of these Atari machines: They were very robust (almost nearing the indestructable levels of the BBC micro) and solid. They could take a lot of punishment and they would keep on grinnin'. Heck they were even impervious to kryptonite.

They had a responsive keyboard which would give you a nice 'clackity clack' sound as you hammered away at your latest BASIC program, and of course the function keys down the right hand side were solid enough.

The 800XL went on to become a popular choice for the classic games player, and over time an extensive library of games was released for it. It had the graphics and sound capabilites, and it almost reached the level of the legendary ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 in the games playing stakes. Many games were now being released on multi-format, so you would have versions of a game for the Commodore, Sinclair, Amstrad and Atari machines.

One aspect of the XL range made them stand out from the 8-bit crowd of the mid-eighties. This was the cartridge slot - giving you another means of storing and loading those all important games. No waiting around for blocks of data to be loaded in from your trusty tape player and messing around with volume and tone controls. In some ways Atari were ahead of the pack with their technology.

The 800XL was a fine machine, and is worth it's place in the 8-bit hall of fame.

Ok readers, give this machine a hearty handshake. A fine Retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

MACHINE NAME: Atari 800 XL
MANUFACTURER: Atari
MACHINE TYPE: Home 8-Bit micro (classic games machine)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
RELEASE YEAR: 1982
END OF PRODUCTION: January 85
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Atari Basic
KEYBOARD: Mechanical keyboard
CPU: MOS 6502C
SPEED: 1.79 (NTSC) / 1.77 (PAL) MHz
CO-PROCESSOR: GTIA (video), POKEY (sound, I/O), ANTIC (video)
RAM: 16 KB (600 XL up to 64 KB) / 64 KB (800 XL, expandable to 128 KB)
ROM: 24 KB
TEXT MODES: five text modes, max: 40 x 24, min: 20 x 12
GRAPHIC MODES: 16 graphic modes, maximum : 320 x 192
COLORS: 256 (16 colors with 16 intensities)
SOUND: 4 voices over 3.5 octaves
I/O PORTS: Composite video output, cartridge slot, peripheral port (SIO), parallel bus, 2 joystick ports
POWER SUPPLY: External power supply unit
PRICE: ?

Retro Computers and Classic Games is what we are all about...

Retro Computers - Atari 600XL - Retro computer

2009-03-06T16:08:00.012Z

Atari 600 XL
Everyone say ta.

The Atari 600XL was released in 1983. It was Atari's low end replacement for the now discontinued Atari 400 personal computer.

Like other 1983'ers it came with an inbuilt 16KB of memory, it's own version of BASIC and it also had a PBI Parallel Bus Interface on the rear of the unit to acomodate Parallel Bus expansion devices. Devices such as the Atari 1064 64K memory module and the Atari 1090XL Expansion System. You could go upgrade crazy if you wanted to.

The Atari 600XL like it's younger brother the Atari 400 lacked a composite video output port. Atari Home Computer Division engineers revealed that originally the Atari 600XL was going to have composite video, but it was cut from the final design to reduce costs.

A good range of games was released (many by Atari as you might imagine!) for the Atari machines, but developers began to favour the 800XL when it was released as it had more memory in the shape of 64KB. Machines with 16KB never really stood the test of time (look at what happened to the 16KB Spectrum and the 16KB Oric 1), with many users upgrading them where possible or buying a newer model.

The Atari 600XL looked slightly smaller in dimensions than the 800XL. In fact, the 800XL was actually a similar machine, it had more memory (64KB as we have established) and the all important composite video. All peripherals were compatibe with both machines, which is always a smart move. But then Atari always did know what they were doing.

The machine was capable or decent graphics (it had a range of 256 colours each with 16 levels of 'intensity'), and could also produce good sound effects and music. These were always important factors where games developers were concerned. There were plenty of games released on the machine that had that 'Atari feel'. Nice.

The BASIC built in was pretty good, comparable to other 8-bit machines of the era. It had no major issues or problems and users could knock up quick basic programs if they wanted to.

The machine itself looked quite cool, the black case with the white top outline and silver function keys down the right hand side certainly made it more handsome than most other rivals.

Folks, toast Atari and remember the days when they were a major player in the hardware sector. A fine Retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

MACHINE NAME: Atari 600XL
MANUFACTURER: Atari Corporation
MACHINE TYPE: Home 8-Bit micro (classic games machine)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
RELEASE YEAR: 1982
END OF PRODUCTION: January 1985?
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Atari Basic
KEYBOARD: QWERTY mechanical keyboard
CPU: MOS 6502C
SPEED: 1.79 MHz (NTSC) or 1.77 MHz (PAL)
CO-PROCESSOR: GTIA (video), POKEY (sound, I/O), ANTIC (video)
RAM: 16 KB (600 XL expandable up to 64 KB) / 64 KB (800 XL expandable to 128 KB)
ROM: 24 KB
TEXT MODES: five text modes, max: 40 x 24, min: 20 x 12
GRAPHIC MODES: 16 graphic modes, maximum : 320 x 192
COLORS: 256 (16 colors with 16 intensities)
SOUND: 4 voices, 3.5 octaves
I/O PORTS: Composite video output, cartridge slot, peripheral port (SIO), parallel bus, two joystick ports
POWER SUPPLY: External power supply unit
PRICE: ?

Retro Computers and Classic Games is what we are all about...

Retro Computers - Amstrad CPC 6128 - Retro computer

2009-02-27T11:35:00.012Z

Amstrad CPC 6128
What did 6128 mean anyway?

The Amstrad CPC 6128 was designed as the successor to the Amstrad CPC 664, which only had a very short life span, being sold for around a year.

The 6128 had almost all the same features as the 664, except the memory. Like the 664, only 42 Kb could be accessed, the upper 64Kb were used as a RAM disk or to store data. It was sold with a good quality monitor (as with previous machines monochrome green or color) and a built-in 3" floppy disk drive (2 x 180 KB).

In a slight departure from previous Amstrad machines, it ran under AmsDos (the Amstrad Operating System) or under CP/M 2.2 or CP/M 3.0 (CP/M +). The CP/M 2.2 OS was bundled with DR Logo and CP/M+ with GSX (the graphic extension of CP/M). Like the CPC 664, the Amstrad CPC 6128 was almost fully compatible with the CPC 464. This was more of a professional setup than most other home micros - perhaps not totally ideal for the classic games player.

Amstrad's were released across Europe, sometimes under different names (such as Shneider in Germany). The ROM installed in the machine was identical for all brands of Amstrad such as Schneider, Orion etc.

Note that there is a way to find out all the brand names under which Amstrad distributed their CPC range. Go check out the web if you are so inclined. Or if you're an Amstrad nut.

It was a dream machine for those that liked a bit of add-on action, with enough peripherals to fill a small planet available, such as:

• 2nd 3"/3.5"/5.25" FD max 800k
• 20MB Hard disk (4 x 5MB)
• Max 252 x 16K EPROMS
• Max RAM Installed 640k (576k in use - impressive at the time)
• RS-232 Interface, Modem - modems were becoming popular by this point
• 3 key Mouse, Light Pen - light pens were the next 'big thing'. Turns out that they weren't.
• Centronics Dot Matrix Printer
• An MSDOS emulator - impressive stuff. Good if you wanted to 'Dos' around.

On top of all of this, the CPThreeO 6128 was programmed for etiquette and protocol, and was fluent in over 3 million forms of communication. It could even speak Boche. A very adaptable machine.

Due to it's good compatibilty with previous Amstrad machines there were plenty of computer games available, so you could always rely and a fairly sizable back-catolog for entertainment purposes.

It was similar in style to the 664, so was a pretty decent looking machine. If you also had alot of add-ons it looked like you had a rather beastly setup.

The 6128 was never really fully appreciated. Give it some sugar, baby! A fine Retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

MACHINE NAME: CPC 6128
MANUFACTURER: Amstrad
MACHINE TYPE: 8-Bit Home Computer
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
RELEASE YEAR: Summer 1985
END OF PRODUCTION: 1990
KEYBOARD: All grey QWERTY/AZERTY mechanical keyboard plus numeric keypad with arrow keys
CPU: Zilog Z80
SPEED: 4 MHz
RAM: 128KB (2 banks of 64KB)
VRAM: 16KB
ROM: 48KB
TEXT MODES: 20 x 25 with 16 colors 40 x 25 with 4 colors 80 x 25 with 2 colors
GRAPHIC MODES: 160 x 200 with 16 colours 320 x 200 with 4 colours 640 x 200 with 2 colours
COLOURS: 27
SOUND: 3 channels over 7 octaves plus 1 noise channel
I/O PORTS: Printer port, Expansion port, 1 Joystick plug (Atari standard), Floppy Disc Port, DIN plug for Amstrad monitor, Headphone/Sound stereo jack, outputDIN plug for external tape recorder, SuperRecals TX1138 MtoF connector for moisture vaporators
BUILT IN MEDIA: 3'' disk-drive built-in
OS: AMSDOS or CP/M
POWER SUPPLY: Disk drive Power in (5v DC)Computer power in (12v DC)
PRICE: ?

Retro Computers and Classic Games is what we are all about...

Retro Computers - Amstrad CPC 664 - Retro computer

2009-02-26T09:56:00.016Z

Amstrad CPC 664
This one was a bit of an Amstragedy.

The Amstrad CPC 664 was designed to be the successor to the popular CPC 464.

This machine was similar to the ZX Spectrum +3 (in the same way that the 464 was similar to the Spectrum +2 - both machines produced by Amstrad).

It was released onto the UK market in the spring of 1985 - roughly a year after the CPC 464.

Like it's younger brother, it was sold with a green screen monitor or the far better colour monitor (at an extra cost). It was a very similar machine with the same sound and graphical capabilities - the main difference was instead of a 'Datacorder' it was fitted with a built in disk drive. They couldn't come up with a snazzy name for the disk drive, it was labelled FDD. Imaginative.

The floppy disk format was the Hitachi 3 inch which was not really a very common format - not a smart move by Amstrad. The Hitachi 3 inch was also used by the Tatung Einstein and the Oric Atmos (a home computer that came and fell by the wayside)

Anyway, apart from the disk-drive, the machine did have afew further enhancements over it's predecessor. It still came bundled with Locomotive BASIC, but a few extra commands had been thrown in for the user to dance to delight with.

You could now play around with graphics a bit more, with command such as FILL (unsurprisingly to 'fill' a graphics area) and FRAME to 'smooth over' edges of images that you had spent hours creating. You also recieved AMSDOS and CP/M 2.2 operating systems, which was a bonus for any of you serious users out there.

It was similar in looks to the CPC 464, and was a pretty smart looking machine. Professional and cool at the same time.

Despite selling roughly 10,000 units in the space of just under a year, the CPC 664 was cancelled at the end of 1985 and replaced by the CPC 6128 - which was a bit of shame really. It never got the chance to be a classic games machine.

Like the 464, it was a pretty good machine that gave potential buyers another choice when deciding what to purchase. These days you have either PC or MAC, back then there was a myriad of flavours to choose from...

Another machine that helped to usher in the floppy drive era. Give it a casual wave.
A fine retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

MACHINE NAME: Amstrad CPC 664
MANUFACTURER: Amstrad
MACHINE TYPE: 8-Bit Home Computer
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
RELEASE YEAR: Spring of 1985
END OF PRODUCTION: A short life span - end of 1985 :-(
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Locomotive Basic v1.1
KEYBOARD: QWERTY mechanical keyboard, numeric keypad and edit block with arrow keys
CPU: Zilog Z80
SPEED: 4 MHz
RAM: 64KB - 42KB available to the user
VRAM: 16 kb
ROM: 48 kb (32 kb for the CPC 664 ROM + 16 kb for the AMSDOS ROM)
TEXT MODES: 20 x 25 with 16 colors40 x 25 with 4 colors80 x 25 with 2 colors
GRAPHIC MODES: 160 x 200 with 16 colors320 x 200 with 4 colors640 x 200 with 2 colors
COLORS: 27
SOUND: 3 channels over 7 octaves plus 1 noise channel
I/O PORTS: Printer portBus port1 Joystick plug (Atari standard)Floppy Disc PortDIN plug for Amstrad monitorHeadphone / Sound stereo jack outputDIN plug for external tape recorder
BUILT IN MEDIA: 3" Hitachi floppy drive - not the best choice
OS: AMSDOS or CP/M
POWER SUPPLY: 5v DC (powered by an Amstrad monitor)
PRICE: ?

Retro Computers and Classic Games

Retro Computers - Amstrad CPC 464 - Retro computer

2009-02-25T14:26:00.015Z

Amstrad CPC 464

Sugar sweeten's the 8-Bit pot.

The Amstrad CPC series were 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad during the 1980s and early 1990s. 'CPC' stood for 'Colour Personal Computer', although it was possible to purchase a CPC with a green screen monitor (GT64/65) as well as with the standard colour screen monitor (CTM640/644). The colour screen was obviously more expensive.

The CPC 464 was introduced in 1984, and was designed to be a direct competitor to the Commodore 64. Packaged as 'a complete system' the CPC 464 came with its own monitor and built-in cassette tape deck. Like the CMB 64 it sported a sizeable 64KB of RAM.

The CPC 464 did become a popular machine in the UK, but never managed to break into the upper echelons of brilliance (and arcade gaming) that the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 occupied - no 8-Bit machine ever did.

It was on a par (in popularity stakes for the home user) with the BBC Micro, and was easily seen as a better choice than the likes of the Acorn Electron, Dragon 32 or any of the Oric machines.

Still, with it's responsive keyboard, built in 'Datacorder', 64KB of RAM and sound provided by the General Instrument AY-3-8912 sound chip (popular for arcade gaming in other systems such as the MB Vectrex), it was a formidable entry into the ranks of the 8-Bit generation.

The fact that it came with it's own monitor was quite sexy at the time. Owners felt a certain degree of coolness when compared to those that were using a bog standard portable TV - especially those with enough wonga to get a CPC with a colour screen. The picture was nice and sharp and of course you had no need to fiddle with channels and tuning.

A large number of programs and peripherals were developed for the machine such as AmsDos (Amstrad's Operating System). AmsDos was completely embedded in the Basic using so-called RSX commands starting with , but crazily it could not format disks, you actually needed a special application to peform that simple task! The 464 also could use CP/M 2.2 or 3.0 when used with an external Floppy disk unit (3" Hitachi, 180 KB / face). A lot of great CP/M software was adapted for the Amstrad CPC.

The Locomotive BASIC installed in the machine was decent, and ran at a reasonable speed (but didn't have enough oomph to send you 'loco' down in Acapulco) - but was generally faster than other versions of BASIC out there at the time.

Roughly 42KB RAM was available for the user, and the video memory and the ROM were mapped on the same addresses with a dedicated chip to switch the memory banks automatically.

It was capable of producing decent graphics (required by computer games players - especially when playing arcade games!), but could not quite match the sprites of the C64 or the detail of the ZX Spectrum. Still, with 27 available colours and the video output generated by the Motorola 6845 (which was connected to a pixel generator that supported 4 bpp, 2 bpp and 1 bpp output (bpp = bits per pixel)), decent in game graphics could be produced.

Three built-in display resolutions were available, though increased screen size could be achieved by reprogramming the 6845.

The standard video modes were:

Mode 0: 160×200 pixels with 16 colors (4 bpp)
Mode 1: 320×200 pixels with 4 colors (2 bpp)
Mode 2: 640×200 pixels with 2 colors (1 bpp)

The first Amstrad CPC prototype was called 'Arnold', which gave the name ROLAND (An Arnold acronym) to several CPC classic games (such as Roland On The Ropes). It was built around a 6502 processor before being changed to a Z80 late in the computer’s development. A few months later, the CPC series would be completed with a computer which offered a built-in floppy disk unit, the snappily named CPC 664.

Plenty of games were released for the machine (most of the classic games like Manic Miner, Harrier Attack, Jet Set Willy, Exploding Fist, Elite etc) , and it was popular right up until around 1990. Plenty of arcade games were converted to the Amstrad too. (There would generally be a version of most games for the Spectrum, C64 and Amstrad).

The machine itself was pretty nice looking. The colour of the box and monitor went together nicely, and the keyboard had that 80's colour scheme to it. It had the right look, professional yet 'jazzy'.

Ladies and Gents, toast the CPC 464. It was a decent machine y'know. A fine retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

MACHINE NAME: CPC 464
MANUFACTURER: Amstrad
MACHINE TYPE: 8-Bit Home Computer
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
RELEASE YEAR: 1984
END OF PRODUCTION: 1990
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Locomotive Basic
KEYBOARD: QWERTY mechanical keyboard plus numeric keypad and edit block with arrow keys
CPU: Zilog Z80
SPEED: 4 MHz
RAM: 64KB (42KB available to the user)
VRAM: 16 kb
ROM: 32 kb
TEXT MODES: 20 x 25 with 16 colors40 x 25 with 4 colors80 x 25 with 2 colors
GRAPHIC MODES: 160 x 200 with 16 colors320 x 200 with 4 colors640 x 200 with 2 colors
COLORS: 27
SOUND: 3 channels over 8 octaves plus 1 noise channel
I/O PORTS: Not bad at all. Printer portBus port1 Joystick plug (Atari standard)Floppy Disc PortDIN plug for Amstrad monitor Headphone / Sound stereo jack output
BUILT IN MEDIA: Tape Recorder (1000 or 2000 bauds)
OS: AMSDOS or CP/M
POWER SUPPLY: 5v DC (powered by an Amstrad monitor)
PRICE: £299

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - ZX Spectrum +3 - Retro Computer

2009-02-20T15:20:00.020Z

ZX Spectrum +3
The final lump from Sugar is just not quite sweet enough.

Ahh, the ZX Spectrum plus 3. This was the final incarnation of the famous ZX Spectrum machine manufactured by Amstrad. It was released onto the UK market in 1987 and is generally heralded as the finest of the ZX series. (It is generally noted that after 1987 the ZX Spectrum and it's classic games scene began a slow decline as the new 16-bit machines took over.)

The Sinclair Spectrum +3 was the successor of the ZX Spectrum +2 which had been marketed roughly one year earlier. The Spectrum +3 can be considered as a 'mix' between the Spectrum 128 and the Amstrad CPC 6128. Like this machine it has 3’’ disk-drive built into the right hand side of the case and a 'proper' full-stroke keyboard, just like the CPC 6128.

As on the Spectrum +2, two BASIC versions were implemented:

48K BASIC to remain compatible with the original Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K - which allowed the loading of older software and those all important classic games
128K BASIC which was already introduced with the Spectrum 128.

As with the others 128K models, and due to the limitations of the Z80 CPU (which can only address 65536 bytes), the 128KB of RAM is not directly usable (unless with bank-switching routines) but can be used as a RAM disk (drive M :).

So, now that we've got all of that out of the way, we know that the big change is the built-in 3’’ disk drive, (which was exactly the same as the CPC-6128’s drive). The operating system was imaginatively titled +3DOS and was developed by Locomotive Software Ltd.

Locomotive Software also went full steam ahead and conceived the CPC Basics and OS. We can sense a pattern emerging here, the +3DOS is very close to the CPCs disk operating system. The Amstrad FD-1 external drive can even be used with the Spectrum +3 as a second disk drive by connecting it directly to 'DISK B PORT' at the back of the system.

The Spectrum +3 was (and by many still is) considered the ultimate Spectrum model as it gathered all of the good points of the previous spectrum machines:

128KB
Convenient full-stroke keyboard
3’’ built-in disk drive
RAM disk
More interfaces than R2D2
Existing huge library of computer games (both text adventures and arcade games) - many of them already classic games

Sadly, this machine was launched just a little too late. The Atari ST and the Commodore Amiga, (new, powerful, hooked into EVERYTHING. They decided the Spectrums fate in a microsecond) were becoming more popular and both used disk drives as a storage medium.

The Spectrum + 3 had no advantages over these machines apart from existing software library and price. The C64 and Spectrum rivalry had shifted and the competition was now on between the Atari ST and the Commodore Amiga. Shelf space for the new Spectrum was limited.

The +3 was the last official Sinclair Spectrum model ever made, apart from the +2A and +2B models which were launched a little later, but these were just a revision of the +2 model which was already on the market.

Many people did not want to spend money to buy existing games on disk, and stuck with cassette versions of games (in a smart move a standard tape deck could be connected to the +3).
Many of the classic games were only available on cassette and did not get a disk release either. Also, like the +2, it had that 'Amstrad' feel to it, you just knew it was not one of Uncle Clive's machines. (It was still a decent looking machine though, the built in disk drive was quite snazzy.)

Consequently the +3 never reached the heights of its predecessors. Still, the +3 was a fine machine to bring the Spectrum era (and a certain era of arcade gaming) to a close.

Give it a round of applause for helping to usher in the 'built in disk drive' era. A fine retro computer.

To see further information about games, developers and software houses for this machine, go to Spectrum Games

For more general Speccy info and vids go to Sinclair ZX Spectrum

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

MACHINE NAME: ZX SPECTRUM +3
MANUFACTURER: Sinclair
MACHINE TYPE: Home 8-Bit micro (a premier computer games machine)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
RELEASE YEAR: 1987
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): 48K Spectrum BASIC (compatibility mode) and 128K Spectrum ZX+3 BASIC, integrated with +3 DOS
KEYBOARD: Full-stroke keyboard, QWERTY, 58 keys, arrow keys
CPU: Zilog Z80 A
SPEED: 3.5469 MHz
RAM: 128 kb (8 x 16k pages)
ROM: 64 kb (4 x 16k pages)
TEXT MODES: 32 x 24
GRAPHIC MODES:256 x 192
COLORS: 8 with two tones each (normal and bright except Black which was only in 1 tone)
SOUND: 3 channels over 8 octaves (Yamaha AY-3-8912 chip)
SIZE / WEIGHT: 440 x 174 x 50 mm / 1,65 kg
I/O PORTS: Really great - UHF PAL TV port, Serial interface (RS232) port, Parallel Printer port (8 bit), Auxiliary interface port, RGB Monitor (and PERITEL TV) port, MIDI output port, Two Joystick ports, Audio Out/Cassette port, Second Disk Drive port, Expansion I/O port (full Z80 bus)
BUILT IN MEDIA: 3'' Hitachi Floppy Disk Drive, single sided (40 track, 9 sector, 512 bytes/sector), CP/M compatible structureVolatile RAM Drive
OS: +3DOS
POWER SUPPLY: External PSU (5V @ 2A, +12V @ 700mA, -12V @ 50mA)Same as Spectrum +2A/B PSU
PRICE: £249 (UK 1987)

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - Amiga 500 / Amiga 500 Plus - Retro Computer

2009-02-18T13:11:00.016Z

Commodore Amiga 500
Sweet 16 (bit)

The Commodore Amiga 500, or A500 as it was known, was like the CBM 64's bigger, faster and luckier with the ladies, older brother. It became Commodore's best selling Amiga model and was the main rival to the Atari ST. The 16-bit A500 was launched in April 1987.

The Amiga 500 was powered by a Motorola 68000 CPU which ran at around 7 MHz. The 68000 was actually a 32-bit processor but had a 16-bit external data bus so had to transfer the 32 bits of data in two steps - known as multiplexing. The Amiga sported 512KB of RAM with graphics and sound powered by the OCS (Original Chip Set). The OCS consisted of 4 main chips - the brilliantly named Agnus, Denise, Paula and Gary.

It's hardware capabilities ensured that it would take over the classic games mantle from the trusty C64.

The RAM could easily be upgraded thanks to the trapdoor on the bottom of the machine. This trapdoor slot would allow you to insert a small board with an extra 512KB of RAM and a battery-backed up clock. With this upgrade you could then play all those cool '1 meg only' classic games you wanted - and if you hooked the machine up to a Barbie doll while wearing a bra on your head, Kelly LeBrock would show up in your bedroom*.

Due to its top notch graphics and sound the Amiga 500 was a fantastic machine for gaming with thousands of great titles released for the machine. Some of the classic games that appeared on the machine were: Another World, Sensible Soccer, Lemmings and Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe.

If you owned an Amiga then I'm sure you will have your own personal favourite and if you owned an Atari ST, you'll (probably) be thinking how much better it looked/sounded/played on the ST than the Amiga. Oh that wonderful rivalry!

As well as classic games the Amiga also had a wide number of applications available including the hugely popular Deluxe Paint. I spent many, many hours trying to recreate the image of Tutankhamen's Mask showcased on the front of the Deluxe Paint 2 packaging - to no avail!

As well as its gaming and application running prowess the Amiga was successfully used for video and music production. Also with the huge public domain scene, there were plenty of demo disks around showing what the machine could really do.

Due to the wide commercial success of the Amiga 500, CBM later released the Amiga 500 Plus. The A500+ featured 1MB of RAM as standard, used the new Enhanced Chip Set (ECS) and had a new version of AmigaOS, which wasn't completely compatible with older software (bad move!).
There were a few classic games (I remember Full Contact being one) that just would not work on a 500 plus - to be fair it was only a handful of titles though.

This 'improved' model didn't stick around for long and was replaced after about six months with the Amiga 600.

So there we have the Amiga 500 - a great machine without a doubt. If you owned one, I'm sure, like me, you have countless memories of great times waggling your joystick sat in front of your trusty machine. So track down that emulator you have tucked away somewhere on your PC and relive the good old days of classic games. I'm off to do that now. :o)

The Commodore Amiga 500 - a fine retro computer.

See loads of amiga game info, reviews, screenshots and videos at Amiga Games

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

*not true

MACHINE NAME: Amiga 500 / Amiga 500 Plus
MANUFACTURER: Commodore
MACHINE TYPE: 16 bit Home Computer (classic games machine)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
RELEASE YEAR: April 1987 (A500) / 1991 (A500+)
END OF PRODUCTION: 1991 (A500)/ 1992 (A500+)
KEYBOARD: Built-in keyboard, 95 keys
CPU: Motorola MC68000
SPEED: 7.09379 MHz (PAL) / 7.15909 MHz (NTSC)
CO-PROCESSOR: OCS based chipset: 8370/8372 Fat Agnus (memory controller and blitter), 8362R5/8362R6/8362R8 Denise (video control chip), 8364 Paula (sound & I/O), 5719R2 Gary (I/O) (A500)
ECS based chipset: 8375 Fat Agnus (memory controller and blitter), 8373 ECS Denise (video control chip), 8364 Paula (sound & I/O), 5719R2 Gary (I/O) (A500+)
RAM: 512 KB Chip RAM (A500) / 1 MB Chip RAM (A500+)
ROM: Kickstart 1.3: 256 KB (A500) / Kickstart 2.04: 512 KB (A500+)
GRAPHIC MODES: 320x256, 320x512, 640x256, 640x480, 640x512, 1280x200, 1280x256, 1280x400, 1280x512
COLOURS: Palette: 4096
SOUND: 4 channel 8 bit PCM, stereo output
SIZE / WEIGHT: Unknown
I/O PORTS: RS-232 serial port, Centronics parallel port, external disk interface, 2x RCA audio, cartridge interface, expansion interface, 2x Atari joystick / mouse ports
BUILT IN MEDIA: 3.5'' floppy disk drive
OS: Workbench 1.3 (Later models) (A500) / Workbench 2.04 (A500+)
POWER SUPPLY: External PSU
PRICE: £599 (UK, 1987) (A500) / ?

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - ZX Spectrum +2 - Retro Computer

2009-02-17T16:32:00.018Z

ZX Spectrum +2

Oh Sugar, Alan's trading Spectrums!

The ZX Spectrum +2 was the first Spectrum machine manufactured by Amstrad.
The bearded entrepenuer had acquired the rights to all things Sinclair during 1986. I wonder if he told Uncle Clive he was 'fired'?

Anyway, it is not suprising that the Spectrum +2 is very similar in shape and functionality to the Amstrads own 8-Bit machine, the Amstrad CPC 464.

It was a kind of hybrid mix of the ZX Spectrum 128 and the CPC 464, which actually resulted in a pretty decent machine - and of course a classic games machine.

Even though it used several features of the CPC 464, such as the built-in tape recorder (snappily named and very eighties sounding the 'Datacorder') and a good full-stroke keyboard, it is above all an improved Spectrum 128.

The sound chip used in it was still the well-known Yamaha AY-3-8912 which was the sound chip of the MSX computers, Oric computers, and the Atari ST series. Many other computers of the 80’s used this well known and decent sound chip. Mr AY Yamaha was a popular piece of silicon.

As on the ZX Spectrum 128, two versions of BASIC were implemented:

48k BASIC to remain compatible with the original Sinclair Spectrum (and many classic games)
128k BASIC which was already introduced with the Spectrum 128

There was still a calculator mode in the start-menu but the 'Tape tester' option of the 128 had been removed since the tape-recorder was built-in.

As with the other 128K models, and due to the limitations of the Z80 CPU which can only address 65536 bytes, the 128KB RAM was not directly usable (unless used with bank-switching routines), but could be used as a RAM disk.

There were several versions of the Spectrum +2:
The Spectrum +2 (grey case) which had a motherboard nearly identical to that of the 128 Spectrum +2A and +2B (replete in a black case - really how it should be) which were simply Spectrum +3 computers with a tape-recorder built in instead of the disk drive. These models motherboards were quite similar to that of the +3, which is not surprising in the least.

The difference between the +2A and +2B was mainly due to a move in production from Hong Kong to Taiwan. The first ROMs developed by Amstrad for the + 2 model caused compatibility problems with the old Spectrum software, so they altered a few things in later ROMs to fix this slightly annoying issue.

The main advantage of this machine over a ZX Spectrum 128 was the built in 'Datacorder'. You had no need for that old tape deck anymore, and you no longer had to fiddle with volume controls and tone settings. Just stick the tape in, choose the load option (or type Load"" if you're in 48 mode) and press play. Even hyperloaders were more reliable with the +2 tape deck (sorry Datacorder). This made it (like all other Spectrums) a classic games machine.

Many folks trader their rubber-keyed models in for one of these, by this time your aged 48K model may have suffered from keyboard problems, as the membrane was known to perish after periods of intensive use. Especially if used it to play Daley Thompsons Decathlon without a joystick. It was good to have a 'proper' keyboard (it also helped with playing games), especially if you were a decent typist.

The only thing that put some people off was (unfairly) the fact that it was an Amstrad machine. The grey ones had lost the 'Spectrummy' feel, and even the +2A and B with the traditional black case failed to recapture that Spectrum charm. Still, you could use it with that large back catalog of software you had, which ensured the Spectrums longevity for another few years.

Gentlemen, trim your beards into a 'Sugar do', and hail the Spectrum +2! A fine retro computer.

To see further information about games, developers and software houses for this machine, go to ZX Spectrum Games

For more general Speccy info and vids go to Sinclair ZX Spectrum

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

MACHINE NAME: ZX SPECTRUM +2
MANUFACTURER: Amstrad (Under the Sinclair name)
MACHINE TYPE: Home 8-Bit micro (classic games machine)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
RELEASE YEAR: 1986
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Sinclair Basic (48K compatibility mode) and Sinclair Basic 128K
KEYBOARD: Full-stroke keyboard with 58 keys (same layout as the ZX Spectrum+)
CPU: Zilog Z80 A
SPEED: 3.5469 MHz
RAM: 128 kb (8 x 16k banks)
ROM: Spectrum +2: 32 KB Spectrum +2A/B: 64k
TEXT MODES: 32 x 24
GRAPHIC MODES: 256 x 192
COLORS: 8 with two tones each (normal and bright apart from Black which was only available in one tone)
SOUND: 3 channels, 8 octaves (Yamaha AY-3-8912)
SIZE / WEIGHT: 44 x 17,5 x 5,5 cm / 1,525 kg
I/O PORTS: Plenty. UHF PAL TV port, Serial interface (RS232) port, Parallel Printer port (8 bit), Auxiliary interface port, RGB Monitor (and PERITEL TV) port, MIDI output port, Two Joystick ports, Tape/Audio Out, Expansion I/O port (full Z80 bus)
BUILT IN MEDIA: Tape Recorder (Datacorder)
POWER SUPPLY: External PSU Spectrum +2 = 9v DC, 2.1A (centre polarity = -ve), Spectrum +2A/B = 5V @ 2A, +12V @ 200mA, -12V @ 50mA (Spectrum+3 PSU can be used)
PRICE: £200 (UK 1986)

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - ZX Spectrum 128 - Retro computer

2009-02-17T10:03:00.018Z

ZX Spectrum 128
Now we got more memory and decent sound. Bring on the arcade games!

The ZX Spectrum 128 was an 8-Bit personal home computer released by Sinclair Research Ltd in 1986 (in conjunction with their Spanish distributor Investrónica). It had been referred to during development as the 'Derby' before it was finally given the 'ZX Spectrum 128' moniker. Apt I suppose since it had a (then) massive 128KB of RAM installed.

Modelled on the ZX Spectrum + , it was a similar machine with a few important enhancements. The keyboard was slightly better, having a crisper touch and a higher level of responsiveness. It had more RAM - now sporting a large 128KB compared to it's 48KB younger brother.

But perhaps most importantly - the machine had been blessed with a decent sound chip - the AY-3-8912 (which was also present in Amstrad CPC machines). At last, programmers had something decent to work with on the sound front - and those all important arcade games could be blessed with true three channel music and sound effects!

Spectrums were already extremely popular, and this machine was cleverly designed to take full advantage of the Spectrums existing software (which already had 1000's of arcade games, platform games and text adventures) and hardware base. (Are you listening Commodore Plus 4 designers?)

Anyway, when the machine was switched on it would greet the user with a menu.

The options were displayed as:

"Greetings Professor Falken"
"Tape Loader" - in case you can't guess this was to run programs from tape
"Calculator" - to enter numerical operations without having to type PRINT. This was a very handy feature
"Tape Tester" - to test the input level of the tape recorder. Another handy feature
"BASIC 48" and "BASIC 128" - this allowed you to run it in '48 mode' for ZX Spectrum 48 compatiblity, or to use the new features of '128 mode'.

These new features in the 'Basic 128 mode' had a full screen editor and the user could enter Basic commands letter by letter instead of pressing key combinations. You had no need for Mister Miyagi to train you in Speccy keyboard kata anymore now that this mode of programming was available. The up side to this was that it made Mister Larusso very happy.

It also had new keywords to use the extended memory as a RAM disk (unless bank-switching routines were utilized), and to handle the new sound chip and the MIDI out socket. This was an exciting change when coming from classic Speccy programming.

It managed to be popular due to being competitively priced, retailling at £179.95 on release. This was good value for a machine with 128KB and full MIDI capability - not to mention an already large library of classic games, utilities and hardware.

Many existing games were re-released as a '128' version, usually featuring new menu music and better sound effects. The main advantage was being able to load larger computer games (such as Combat School) into memory in one go - no need for loading each portion of the game in section by section. This was a real boon.

Sinclair had also managed to increase the CPU speed slightly, with the Zilog Z80 A running at 3.54690 MHz, but the speed difference was only marginal.

The machine did have the same graphical 'limitations' as the 48K version (the famous attribute clash), and was technically identical in this respect.

Still a cool looking piece of kit, the new design was as nice to look at as the previous models. Sinclair machines always did look good.

Still, it was a good 8-Bit machine, and was the last of the real 'Sinclair' Spectrums. Sigh.

Kneel before it and acknowledge your thanks to the last of the 'Sir Clive' machines. A fine retro computer.

To see further information about games, developers and software houses for this machine, go to ZX Spectrum Games

For more general Speccy info and vids go to Sinclair ZX Spectrum

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

COMPUTER NAME: ZX Spectrum 128
MANUFACTURER: Sinclair
MACHINE TYPE: Home Computer (classic games machine)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
RELEASE YEAR: January 1986
END OF PRODUCTION: December 1986
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Sinclair Basic
KEYBOARD: QWERTY keyboard
CPU: Zilog Z80 A
SPEED: Slightly quicker than the 48KB model running at 3.54690 MHz
RAM: 128KB
ROM: 32KB (16k 48k Basic + 16k 128k Basic)
TEXT MODES: 32 x 24
GRAPHIC MODES: 256 x 192
COLORS: 8 with 2 tones each (normal and bright except for Black which only had one tone)
SOUND: 3 channels over 7 octaves provided by Yamaha AY-3-8912 chip
SIZE / WEIGHT: 320 x 150 x 45 mm
I/O PORTS: Expansion bus, Numeric Keypad, RS232 / Midi Out, Video RGB, Tape (1200 baud)
POWER SUPPLY: External PSU 9v DC, 1.85A
PERIPHERALS: ZX printer, ZX microdrives, Joystick Interfaces
PRICE: £179.95 (UK 1986)

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - Original ZX Spectrum - Retro computer

2009-02-12T15:07:00.025Z

Original ZX Spectrum

An 8-Bit rainbow worth more than any pot of gold.

The ZX Spectrum was an 8-Bit personal home computer released by Sinclair Research Ltd in 1982. It had been referred to during development as the ZX81 Colour and ZX82, before it was finally given the 'ZX Spectrum' moniker.

This was an apt name as it highlighted it's colour display, compared to the black and white of its predecessors, the Sinclair ZX80 and ZX81. The Spectrum was initially released in three different models, ranging from the entry level model with 16KB of RAM, to the more popular 48KB model and the ZX Spectrum + (which also had 48KB of RAM).

The Spectrum was among the first 'mainstream audience' home computers in the UK, similar in significance to the Commodore 64 in the USA (Although the Commodore 64 was also a very popular machine in the UK).

The introduction of the ZX Spectrum led to a boom in companies producing software and hardware for the machine (computer games really took off on it), the effects of which still resonate on and on throughout the 21st Century. Even now classic games and retro arcade games are popular, partly down to this machine.

It managed to reach this mainstream audience through clever pricing. The cost of the machine was attractive to potential buyers, by 1984 the 16K model was retailing at £99, whilst the 48K was going for £125. A snip when compared to many other machines of that era.

The Spectrum was a far superior machine than the ZX81. Most people opted for the 48K model, so you already had alot more RAM to play with. It also had 8 colours (with a 'brightness' level so you effectively had 15 colours plus black) and finally for Sinclair, a sound generator! Okay, so the sound was nothing special (a one channel beeper) - but something is better than nothing right?

Games developers actually managed to make it produce interesting sounds effects and music over the years, with covertape arcade game Hyperactive being a good example of what could be acheived.

The machine did have some graphical 'limitations' however. The image resolution was 256 X 192. Now, to conserve memory, the colour was stored separate from the pixel bitmap in a low resolution 32×24 grid overlay, corresponding to the character cells. An 'attribute' consisted of a foreground and a background colour, a brightness level (as mentioned above) and a flashing 'flag' which when set, caused the two colours of a graphic to swap at regular intervals.

Unfortunately this method of displaying characters etc led to what was dubbed colour clash or 'attribute clash'. Some truly bizarre effects in the animated graphics of arcade games would be seen over the next few years.

This problem became a distinctive feature of the machine and an in-joke among Spectrum users and advocates of other systems would laugh and point at it. Other machines which were available around the same time did not suffer from this graphical problem.

The machine's Sinclair BASIC interpreter was stored in the ROM (along with some fundamental system-routines) and was once again written by Steve Vickers on contract from Nine Tiles Ltd. It was a decent version of BASIC, with simple routines and commands allowing amatuer users to draw shapes and create graphical images with relative ease. Good old Steve must have had a sense of humour with the debugger informing you that the line of code you had just entered was 'Nonsense in BASIC'. Great stuff.

Apart from the attribute clash problem, the Spectrum also had another feature which was laughed at by all of those un-cool non Spectrum users. It was the chiclet keyboard which was mounted on top of a membrane in a similar fashion to calculator keys. Because the keys were made of rubber it was dubbed the 'dead flesh keyboard'.

When each key was pressed an audible 'click' would be heard through the beeper, which was actually pretty cool when you were on a programming roll. Each key was also marked with BASIC keywords (in a similar vein the the ZX81) - so pressing 'G' would insert the BASIC command GO TO. You would use shift, symbol shift etc to switch modes and program BASIC commands.

It was difficult at first, but once you had mastered this method of 'typing', you're hands would be magestically flying over the keyboard with so much grace and flair any onlookers would have though that you'd been trained by Mister Miyagi.

One Step Beyond:
Despite the machines slight flaws, it went on to be more popular than me on a night out. Games developers churned out titles for the Speccy (as it was now fondly known), with many quality titles available. It is now known as one of THE classic games machines of the 1980's.

There were also plenty of peripherals to be had:

A printer
Joysticks (Kempston joysticks being the most popualr)
Micro Drives (Despite being reliable and capable of storing a massive 80KB worth of data they never took off)
Fuller Box (Improved sound and music - very useful in arcade games)
Interface 2
Speech synthesisers (Does anyone remember Currah Micro-speech?)

As the years rolled by, developers really started to push the machine further than the theory of relativity should allow. Music that sounded like 'two channel' sound was appearing in arcade games (Check out the Ping Pong menu music by Joffa Smiff). Highly detailled colour graphics moved smoothly across your screen - better than anything Commodore or Amstrad could muster. Clever developers even managed to write games without any attribute clash. True genious.

Of course the arrival of the Spectrum + in October of 1984 gave users a 'proper' typewriter keyboard. But people will fondly remember names such as Joffa Smith, DK Marshal, Mike Singleton, Keith Burkhill, Mike Follin, the always uber-cool sounding Bo Jangeborg and of course, Matthew Smith. Hold these names in reverance folks.

By 1986, developers were really becoming accomplished at writing arcade games and text adventures for the Speccy. It was good timing for an improved model to be released. Uncle Clive and his Spanish buddies at Investrónica treated us to the ZX Spectrum 128 in January of that year. Based loosly on the Spectrum +, it had a proper keyboard (it was nice to have a Space bar), and three-channel audio via the trustty AY-3-8912 chip.

Due to this it also had MIDI compatibility, an RS-232 serial port, an RGB monitor port, 32KB of ROM including an improved BASIC editor, and an external keypad. On top of this you now had a whopping 128KB of RAM.

The extra memory was handy as some larger computer games required to be loaded in from tape in 'portions' - as you completed one part of the game, you would load the next part in. If you had one of these new machines, the whole game could be loaded in one go. Marvellous!

The Spectrum 128 was the last of the 'Sinclair Spectrums' as Amstrad bought the rights to the machine and would produce them for the next few years.

The Spectrum 128 (and it's later models produced by Amstrad) gave the machine longevity which allowed it to live on into the early 1990's. Only the C64 had a similar life span. It is unlikely that any other machine will live as long again.

Despite there being other machines that were in some ways superior, none had the charm of the Spectrum. Looks wise it was probably best of the bunch. The original 'rubber key' models were compact and very stylish. The black plastic case with the greyish blue keys and rainbow stripe along the bottom right corner was a right looker. The Sinclair logo was printed in a nice font too.

Whereas other machines perhaps seemed a bit more 'professional' (- look at the Beeb), character oozed from the Speccy in spades. The machines character led to one of the infamous machine v machine debates of the 1980's.

An intense rivaly developed between the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum which has gone down in the annals of geekdom. It truly is the stuff of legends. Arguments would run into the wee small hours covering which latest arcade game was the best, smooth yet blocky sprites against detailled single coloured characters. Scrolling speed, keyboard responsiveness, playablility etc etc.

These sort of things made computing real fun back in the 80's. I'm wiping a tear from my eye just thinking about it. The BBC and Amstrad CPC models were also close rivals, but nothing could divide the 'spice' between Sinclair and Commodore.

Over the earlier part of the 1980's Clive Sinclair oversaw licensing deals allowing other companies to clone the machine. Uncle Clive was eventuallyawarded a knighthood for his 'services to British industry' - and rightly so.

The ZX Spectrum, in all of its incarnations was a great machine. The way it was pushed way beyond it's limitations by clever developers is testament to the machines popularity and it's versatility. The fact that many classic arcade games were converted (and converted well) marks the Spectrum as an all time classic computer.

Remove your hat, bow, then raise a glass of champers and toast the Speccy. A fine retro computer.

To see further information about games, developers and software houses for this machine, go to ZX Spectrum Games

For more general Speccy info and vids go to Sinclair ZX Spectrum

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and
download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

COMPUTER NAME: ZX Spectrum
MANUFACTURER: Sinclair
MACHINE TYPE: Home 8-bit Computer (classic games machine)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
RELEASE YEAR: April 1982
END OF PRODUCTION: Standard 48K - 1984. Spectrum 128 - 1986
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Sinclair Basic
KEYBOARD: QWERTY rubber keyboard (40 keys) with up to rather crazy 6 functions by keys
CPU: Zilog Z80 A
SPEED: 3.5 MHz
RAM: 16KB or 48KB (42KB available for programming)
ROM: 16k (Basic & OS)
TEXT MODES: 32 x 24
GRAPHIC MODES: 256 x 192
COLORS: 8 with 2 tones each (normal and bright except for Black which only had one tone)
SOUND: Basic beeper capable of 1 voice over 10 octaves
SIZE / WEIGHT: 16K - 48K - A nice and compact 23 x 14,4 x 3 cm / 550g
I/O PORTS: Expansion port, tape-recorder (1200 bauds), RF video out
POWER SUPPLY: External PSU, 9v DC, 1.4A
PERIPHERALS: ZX printer, ZX microdrives, Joystick Interfaces
PRICE: 16K model retailed at £99 (UK 1984) 48K retailed at £125 (UK 1984)

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - Sinclair ZX81 - Retro Computer

2009-02-10T12:37:00.016Z

ZX 81
Peolpe really warm up to Uncle Clive.

The Sinclair ZX81 was the follow up to the ZX80 and was released by Sinclair Research Ltd in 1981. Once again, the machine was named after it's year of release. Like it's predecessor, it became a popular machine in homes the length and breadth of the UK.

As with the ZX80 the processor was a NEC Zilog Z80-compatible, running at a clock rate of 3.25 MHz. The system ROM had grown to 8192 bytes in size and the built in BASIC now supported floating point arithmetic. It was an adaptation of the ZX80 ROM by Steve Vickers, who was one of the authors of Sinclair BASIC. The new ROM also worked in the ZX80 and Sinclair offered it as an upgrade for the older ZX80 for a time.

Like the ZX80, the ZX81 was quite a basic piece of kit. The base system had only 1KB of RAM on board. This RAM was used to hold the computer's system variables, the screen image, and any programs and data. The screen was text only, 32 characters wide by 24 high. Blocky graphics with a resolution of 64 by 48 pixels were possible (created in BASIC using the PLOT command), which made a selection among a set of 16 graphics characters.

The ZX81 used a resizable screen buffer meaning that it could be expanded or shrunk (depending on the amount of installed memory and the amount of free space at any given time). No colours were available and the machine once again had no sound generator. The 'keyboard' as such was not a proper keyboard, with Sinclair once again going with the membrane pad similar to the ZX80.

Once again, sticking to a tried and tested formula, the ZX81 was originally sold via mail order in kit form which requiried soldering (priced at an incredibly cheap £49.95) or assembled (a still more than reasonable £69.95). The USA was treated to the same deal, with a ready made ZX81 costing roughly $100.

A deal struck with high street retailer W.H.Smith saw the ZX81 and all accessories being sold on the high street. The ZX81 retailled at £69.99, ZX 16K RAM pack went for £49.99 and the ZX Printer was available for £49.99.

Apart from having more BASIC commands than it's predecessor, it also had two modes of operation. Fast mode (the same as a ZX80) and slooooow mode. Slow mode made it like all other computers as in it refreshed the display all of the time. No Boney M home discos here.

The ZX81 was a simple affair and contained only four main chips. The ROM, Z80A CPU, 1KB RAM and the Ferranti custom-made chip. The ready made machines were assembled by Timex Corporation.

A vast range of peripherals were developed for the machine such as: 3.5" floppy disk units proper keyboards high resolution graphic cards RS232 or Centronics interfacesRAM expansions, etc...

In fact, it was possible to make a pretty powerful computer by upgrading the ZX81

The range of expansion options was really quite marvellous! For instance, a company called Memotech created a whole range of modules which would 'chain link' together one after another. The hardware pieces used velcro pads to secure to each other as there were no mechanical locking on the edge connectors.

So, all in all you could have additional memory (up to 128KB!), high resolution graphics, disc controllers, joystick controllers, serial ports etc etc. Holy smoke, with all of this kit you'd be the talk of the town. If you lived in GeekTown anyway.

A Popular add-on naturally was a replacement keyboard. Proper mechanical keys could be stuck over the membrane keyboard. Others involved re-housing the ZX81 inside a new, larger case with a 'proper' keyboard on it.

The options were almost endless. Sadly the power supply wasn't particularly stable making glitches commonplace which could result in system resets, usually just as you were entering the last line of a 2000 line program which would make you shout out 'Oh Shoot!'. Why did you never bother saving to tape until the whole thing had been completed?

'Ram Pack Wobble' was another expansion 'feature'. If you were lucky enough to have the 16KB RAM pack attached, sometimes moving the machine would cause the RAM pack to wobble in it's edge connector and cause the ZX81 to re-set. Again, this could break your day. A bit of blu-tac to secure the pack and you'd be back in proper business though. Those were the days of user tinkering.

The ZX81 was sold in the USA by Sinclair Research (from its facility in Nashua, New Hampshire). Timex Sinclair (a joint venture with Timex - as if you couldn't guess), also produced an enhanced ZX81 for the US market as the Timex Sinclair 1000 (or TS1000). This shipped with twice as much RAM (2kB) and featured mimetic-polly-alloy. It also had detailled files. A further enhanced model (the TS1500) expanded the RAM to 16KB.

Like the ZX80, the ZX81 was also cloned around the world. Microdigital produced two ZX81 clones (the TK 82C and the TK 83), and a TS1500 clone (the TK 85). Prológica produced the NEZ-8000 and the enhanced CP-200 and CP-200S models. Other clone models cropped up in various countries around the globe.

Looks wise, the ZX81 was a sleek and stylish machine. Far cooler looking than it's predecessor, the black case and Sinclair logo coupled with the almost 'silvery' membrane keyboard was ahead of it's time.

The ZX81 built up a reasonable software library. Quite a few computer games were available to play, most of them featuring very basic monochrome graphics. There was even a version of chess squeezed into 1K! Even basic 3D games were released, such as 3D Monster Maze. Someone even ported Manic Miner to it! Developers managed to get alot out of one of these machines.

More games sells more machines, and the ZX81 went on to sell roughly 1.5 million units. Not bad eh?

Turn around, look over your shoulder and give the machine more than a passing glance. A fine retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and
download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

COMPUTER NAME: ZX81
MANUFACTURER: Sinclair
MACHINE TYPE: Home Computer
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
RELEASE YEAR: March of 1981
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Sinclair Basic
KEYBOARD: Touch-sensitive keyboard, 40 keys
CPU: Zilog Z80A
SPEED: 3.5 MHz
RAM: 1KB (901 bytes available, up to 128KB with expansion)
ROM: 8KB
TEXT MODES: 32 x 24 (2 lines are reserved for system messages and commands)
GRAPHIC MODES: 64 x 44
COLORS: Black and white only
SOUND: Nada
SIZE / WEIGHT: 167 x 175 x 40 mm / 350
I/O PORTS: Z80 Bus, tape, video
POWER SUPPLY: 9V DC
PRICE: Kit £50 (UK June 1981). Ready made £70 (UK June 1981)

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - Sinclair ZX80 - Retro Computer

2009-02-10T10:14:00.016Z

Sinclair ZX80

Getting a 'ZedEx' delivery

The Sinclair ZX80 was a home computer manufactured by Sinclair (formaly known as Science of Cambridge Ltd). The computer was released onto the UK market in 1980 - hence the name 'ZX80'.

The ZX80 was notable for being the first computer available in the United Kingdom for under a hundred pounds as it retailled at £79.95. For technophiles it was available in kit form where the buyer could assemble and solder it together - MacGyver still wasn't around to do this for you.

For mere mortals a ready built version (at a slightly higher cost of £99.95) was available for purchase. The ZX80 was a very popular machine straight away, and for some time there was a waiting list of several months of buyers for the machine.

The machine was designed by Jim Westwood and was based around a Z80 CPU with a pretty impressive clock speed of 3.25 MHz. It was equipped with 1KB of static RAM and 4KB of read only memory which held the Sinclair BASIC programming language, the editor and the operating system.

BASIC commands were not entered by typing them out (as Sinclair machine users would come to know over the next few years) but were instead selected somewhat similarly to on a scientific calculator. Each key had a few different functions selected by both context and modes as well as by use of the shift key.

Display was over an RF connection (connected to a household television), and program storage was possible using a generic cassette recorder. The video display generator of the ZX80 used minimal hardware plus a combination of software to generate a video signal. This was an idea that was popularised by Don Lancaster in his 1978 book The TV Cheap Video Cookbook and his 'TV Typewriter'.

As a result of this approach the ZX80 could only generate a picture when it was idle, yes only when it was sitting doing nothing - as in waiting for a key to be pressed. When running a BASIC program, or even when simply pressing any key on the keyboard, the display would black out momentarily while the processor was busy.

This made moving graphics difficult since the program had to introduce a pause for input to display the next change in graphical output. I did make creating your own indoor monochrome disco easy though by repeatedly hitting the space button whilst listening to Bony M.

A year later as the ZX81 was released, the 8KB ROM was also usable with the ZX80 which allowed those MacGyver types to upgrade their machine to 'almost' be a ZX81. It came supplied with a thin keyboard overlay and a ZX81 manual.

To Upgrade:

Take off the top cover of the ZX80
Pry the old ROM from its socket and carefully insert the new ROM
Add the keyboard overlay
Spin round three times at precicesly 15:03 GMT and pray to Lord Clive with the 'I love Sinclair mantra'

The upgrade would now be complete. This was quite a cool feature - showing intercompatibily between machine models.

It was also possible to reverse this process to remove the upgrade. Sinclair also produced RAM expansion packs for the ZX80. The original ZX80 RAM Pack held either 1BK, 2KB or 3KB of static RAM. Later on a model that held 16KB of RAM was released which used dynamic RAM chips (yes DRAM!)

The ZX80 was never a technical marvel. It had no sound whatsoever and no colours to speak of (monochrome display only). It was also never a cool looker - the tiny white plastic case with the one piece blue membrane keyboard on the front always looked ordinary.

On top of this it was not the most durable of micros and was also prone to bouts of overheating. BUT - it did bring computing into the homes of the UK at a reasonable price, and made computing available to those that were not techno-geeks or hobbysists.

It also provided the platform for Sinclair, who would go on to release more succesful machines over the next few years. Sales of the ZX80 reached somewhere in the region of 50,000 which was an unheard of number for the day. This contributed significantly to the UK leading the world in home computer ownership through the 1980s. Due to it's success the machine was also cloned quite alot, machines such as the MicroAce and the TK82 being two.

Owing to the unsophisticated design and the tendency for the units to overheat, surviving machines in good condition are sparse. If you want one be prepared to pay a few quid.

Give this machine a nod, it deserves it for what it did for home computing - a fine retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and
download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

COMPUTER NAME: ZX 80
MANUFACTURER: Sinclair
MACHINE TYPE: Home 8-Bit Micro
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
RELEASE YEAR: February 1980
END OF PRODUCTION: 1981
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Sinclair Basic
KEYBOARD: Membrane keyboard, 40 keys, 1 SHIFT key
CPU: NEC 780C-1 (Z80 compatible)
SPEED: 3.25 MHz
RAM: 1 KB, 901 bytes available (upgradable to a then massive 64 KB)
ROM: 4 KB. Can be expended to 8 KB making it 'almost' a ZX81
TEXT MODES: 32 characters x 22 lines
GRAPHIC MODES: 64 x 44 dots
COLORS: Monochrome only
SOUND: Zilch
SIZE / WEIGHT: 21,9 (W) x 17,5 (D) x 4 (H) cm / 375 gr
I/O PORTS: Z80 Bus, tape, TV/RF video
POWER SUPPLY: 9v DC external PSU
PERIPHERALS: 16 KB RAM extension
PRICE: Kit model: £79.95 (UK, 1980) Assembled model: £99.95 (UK, 1980)

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - Commodore PET - Retro Computer

2009-02-06T12:30:00.014Z

Commodore PET
Were you a teachers PET?

The Commodore PET (or Personal Electronic Transactor) was a home computer produced by CBM way back when huge sideys were king, purple flares reigned and chinzano bianco was considered acceptable. The year was 1977. It was CBM's first full featured computer and would form the basis for their future success.

If found a niche for itself in the Canadian and US markets, and was also put to use within the UK educational sector.

The first model was the PET 2001, including either 4KB (the 2001-4 model) or 8KB (2001-8 model) of 8-Bit RAM. It was essentially a single-board computer with discrete logic driving a small built in monochrome monitor with 40×25 character graphics. The machine also included a built-in Datasette for data storage located on the front of the case, which left little room for the keyboard.

The 2001 was announced at the 1977 Winter Consumer Electronics Show in January 1977. The first 100 units were shipped in mid October 1977. However they remained back-ordered for months, and to ease deliveries they eventually cancelled the 4 kB version early in the next year.

Although the machine was fairly successful, there were complaints about the tiny calculator style keyboard. This was addressed in upgraded 'dash N' and 'dash B' versions of the 2001.

The designers placed the cassette outside the case and included a larger keyboard with a full stroke non-click motion. Internally a newer and simpler motherboard was installed along with an upgrade in memory to 8KB, 16KB, or 32KB. These were known as the 2001-N-8, 2001-N-16 or 2001-N-32 respectively.

Sales of the newer machines were strong which prompted CBM to introduce the models into the European market. However there was already a machine called PET for sale in Europe from the huge Dutch company name Philips and the name had to be changed.

The result was the ominously titled CBM 3000 series ('CBM' standing for Commodore Business Machines), which included the 3008, 3016 and 3032 models. Like the 2001-N-8, the 3008 was quickly dropped in favour of the newer versions.

As time marched on, more and more people wanted a computer in their home. Machines soon became available that included bitmapped color graphics and sound (such as the Apple II which had been introduced later on in 1977). These features set the scene for development of arcade games on home computers.

As the power of Cinzano faded in 1979 Atari released the 400/800 and then in 1981 Commodore unleashed their bestselling VIC-20.

The mainstream business computer market of the time considered colors and graphics somewhat less of an issue, but the home user (an arcade gamer!) was intruiged by this sort of thing.

Due to the PET having no sound capability and only a monochrome display it never became known as a classic games machine and it was superceded by the glut of 8-bit machines that were released in the early 1980's.

Still, the Commodore PET is worth a look for what it acheived way back when we were all watching Star Wars. A fine retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and
download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

COMPUTER NAME: PET 2001
MANUFACTURER: Commodore (CBM)
MACHINE TYPE: Professional Computer (no classic games here!)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
RELEASE YEAR: 1977
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Commodore Basic 1.0
KEYBOARD: 73 key 'chicklet' keyboard with a numeric keypad
CPU: 6502
SPEED: 1 mHz
RAM: 4KB in early version, then 8KB
VRAM: 1KB
ROM: 14KB
TEXT MODES: 40 x 25
GRAPHIC MODES: None
COLORS: Monochrome
I/O PORTS: IEEE 488, Parallel port, second 'user port' for 8-bit I/O, cassette port inside the case, rarely used
BUILT IN MEDIA: Tape recorder
POWER SUPPLY: Built-in power supply unit
PRICE: £700 (8KB RAM model in 1978. No wonder mainly schools bought them!)

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - Commodore Plus/4 - Retro Computer

2009-02-06T10:50:00.014Z

Commodore Plus 4
No-one looks good in Plus 4's.

The Commodore Plus/4 was an 8-bit home computer which was sold by Commodore Business Machines (CBM) and was released in 1984.

The 'Plus/4' name refers to the four application ROM resident office suite including a word processor, a spreadsheet, a database, and a graphing package.

Billed as 'the productivity computer with software built in', this snippet was soon laughed at as the shortcomings of the machine became apparent.

The Plus/4 was a total flop in the United States and it was jokingly labelled as the 'Minus/60', a pun on the difference between the Plus/4 and the dominant Commodore 64. The machine did gain some level of popularity in some parts of Europe though, but it never really took off in the UK.

Blessed with a decent amount of RAM (64KB with 60KB available to the user) and a 7501 CPU running at a 0.89 MHz (or 1.76 MHz depending on mode of use), the machine was not exactly total rubbish, it was just a strange piece of hardware for Commodore to put out there.

It was not meant to replace the C64, and in some ways it was an inferior machine (even though it was released two years later). It was just another machine out on the market, and there was nothing about it to really make it stand out from the crowd. It would never effectively compete against the likes of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum either.

It did not have the fantastic SID sound chip and was only capable of producing 2 channel sound over 4 octaves plus white noise. This did not go down well with fans of Commodore machines, especially C64 fanboys. None of the C64 hardware sprite generation was present either, so it lost yet more appeal because of this. Oh - and no-one could play the existing library of C64 classic games!

The software that was in-built was not worth memory it was stored in:
The 'word processor' only had 40 columns and could manage documents with only 99 lines of 77 columns. Not even enough to do your homework.

A miniscule spreadsheet with only 17 columns and 50 lines - you'd have been better off with one of those calculator watches.

A completely ridiculous graph generator program, which could graphically display data from the sheets. Only in text mode though.

A microscopic database that could hold a whopping 999 records with 17 fields each. 38 characters was the maximum amount you could put into a field too.
Sounds like something your local council would use.

If all of this wasn't bad enough, most of these programs could only be used with a floppy drive. All in all, it made about as much sense as sensless thing from planet flim-flam.

It wasn't all bad though. The keyboard was okay. The colour palette offered was very good providing 15 colors with 8 luminance levels plus a standard shade of black. Only Atari Computers offered similar colour choices at the time.

The 320×200 video resolution was competent enough and was standard for computers intended to be connected to a television. Also the Plus/4 could use some of the peripherals of the C64 or the VIC-20, such as the well known MPS-801 dot-matrix printer and the 1541 Disk Drive.

Mind you, in another moment of genious, it was not compatible for use with C64 programs (the hardware was too different), so any existing library that you may have had was of no use to you. C64 joysticks were not compatible and existing C64 classic games could not be played on it.

This was a bad move as the C64 already had a huge library of classic arcade games and text adventures.

One further 'Plus' point, was that it had an improved BASIC (version 3.5) when compared to the C64’s. This version featured graphic and sound instructions and a built-in assembler, but many home user's were not THAT interested in these features. Computer games is where it's at eh?
To top it all off, it never even had that 'Commodore look' to it. The grey brown case and cream coloured keys with the banded logo across the top looked kind of cheap and tacky - yet another slip up.

Due to the hardware deficiencies (poor graphics capabilities, average sound generation) games developers in the main, stayed away from the Plus/4. There were a few arcade games and text adventures released for the machine - but nowhere near enough.

The machine was not fancied by many people, and it disappeared off into the giant computer junkyard in the sky.

If you owned one, you really did not want to admit it. Unless you drove a Lada.

Not one of Commodores better offerings. A not so fine retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and
download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

COMPUTER NAME: PLUS 4 - C232/264/364
MANUFACTURER: Commodore
MACHINE TYPE: Home Computer or door stop
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
RELEASE YEAR: 1984
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Commodore BASIC 3.5. Built-in machine code monitor with 12 commands
KEYBOARD: Full stroke 67 keys with 4 function keys and 4 'arrow design' cursor keys
CPU: 7501
SPEED: 0.89 MHz or 1.76 MHz
RAM: 64KB with 60KB free for user and 48KB free when used in high resolution mode
ROM: 64KB
TEXT MODES: 40 chars x 25 lines
GRAPHIC MODES: Several modes. The maximum was 320 x 200 dots
COLORS: 121 (15 colours x 8 luminances plus black)
SOUND: 2 channels over 4 octaves plus white noise
SIZE / WEIGHT: 42.3 (W) x 23.9 (D) x 6.7 (H) cm
I/O PORTS: Not bad. Tape, Cardridge, 2 Joystick ports, Floppy Disk, Printer, User port, RGB, expansion bus port, serial bus
BUILT IN MEDIA: Cassette unit. Provision for 170 KB 5.25'' floppy disc unit
PRICE: £249 - They should have paid you!

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - Commodore 128 - Retro Computer

2009-02-05T14:37:00.016Z

Commodore 128

The wedge between the C64 and the Amiga.

The last of Commodore's 8-bit machines (the C128) was launched at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronic Show in 1985. It was presented as a competitor to the Apple Macintosh and the IBM PC, but things never really panned out this way.

Now marketed as the successor to the Commodore 64, it could use all the software (including those classic games!) and a lot of the hardware of the C64, being in the main compatible (unlike the Plus 4) .The MOS 8502 CPU that powered the machine could be clocked down from 2MHz to 1MHz for true C64 compatibility - impressive.

One of the main specialities of this machine was the additional Z80 CPU and Video chip, which means that you could attach two monitors. You felt like a world dominator if you used TWO monitors back in 1985! One screen for playing games, the other for your homework!

As you may have guessed, the machine was blessed with 128KB of RAM, which was becoming the norm by the mid-eighties. The RAM could be upgraded too, with up to a massive 640KB achievable with expansion. RAM size was important by now, the bigger, the better. People were starting suffer from 'RAM' envy.

Thanks to the Z80 chip, not only could you run 2 monitors, you could also select which mode to run the C128 under during boot up. The downside was that the 2 processors could not run concurrently, so it was not a true multiprocessing system.

But let us not focus on any downside, the inclusion of BASIC 2.0 and the C64 KERNELS made C64 compatible mode possible, and it was almost 100% reliable. A multi-mode machine. Clever stuff from CBM.

Modes of operation:

C128 Mode:

While the C64's graphics and sound capabilities were generally considered excellent, the popular home computer was subject to a number of criticisms. The 40-column VIC-II video display while excellent for use with computer games, was often considered inadequate for 'office' applications such as word processing. The lack of a numeric keypad was also an issue with some office suite software.

Commodore BASIC 2.0 that had been incorporated into the C64 was quite limited to serious programmers as it lacked keywords to handle the system's graphical and sound capabilities. These features had to be accessed via cumbersome PEEK and POKE commands or by machine language routines. Also criticized was the lack of a hardware reset button, which was an essential device when developing assembly language routines. The C64's 1541 disk drive was almost universally labelled as unreliable and slower than a Cliff Thorburn 147.

The designers of the C128 managed to rectify most of these 'downsides'. A new chip (the VDC) provided the C128 with an 80 column colour CGA compatible display (also snappily called RGBI for RGB plus Intensity).

The new 8502 CPU was completely backward compatible with the C64's 6510, but could run at double the speed if you so desired. However, the VIC-II chip which controlled the 40-column display could not operate at the faster clock rate, so the 40 column display was not available in 'Fast Mode'. A numeric keypad was also added to the keyboard to placate the officy types.

The C64's rudimentary BASIC 2.0 was replaced with the far more powerful BASIC 7.0, which included keywords designed specifically to take advantage of the machine's capabilities. It also incorporated a sprite editor (very useful when developing arcade games) and machine language monitor. The screen editor was further improved and an all important reset button was added to the system.

Three new disk drives were introduced in conjunction with the C128, the 1570, 1571, and 3.5 inch 1581 drives promising far faster transfer speeds via a new 'burst mode'. Gotta love those technical terms.

The 128KB RAM allowed a higher proportion to be available for BASIC programming. This was due to the new MMU bankswitching chip. This feature made it possible for BASIC program code to be stored separately from variables which greatly enhanced the machine's ability to handle more complex programs.

CP/M Mode:

The second CPU (the Zilog Z80), allowed the C128 to run CP/M. The machine came bundled with CP/M 3.0 also known as CP/M Plus which was backwards compatible with CP/M 2.2 and ADM31/3A terminal emulation. To allow a large application software library instantly available at launch, the CBM 128 CP/M and accompanying 1571 floppy disk drive was designed to run almost all Kaypro specific CP/M software without modification.

Unfortunately, the C128 ran CP/M slower than most dedicated CP/M systems, as the Z80 processor could only run at an effective speed of 2 MHz instead of the more common 4–6 MHz. Because it used CP/M 3.0 this versions complexity made it inherently slower than the earlier and more widespread, CP/M 2.2 system. CP/M never mode fully worked on the C128 - which was a bit of a bummer really.

C64 Mode:

By incorporating the original C64 BASIC and KERNAL ROMs in their entirety (16 KB total) the C128 achieved almost 100% compatibility with C64 software (since it was known as a games machine with a large library of arcade games this was a good move.)

The C64 mode was accessed in a number of ways:

Holding down the Commodore logo key when the system was booting up
Like a superhero's mantra, enter the 'GO 64' command in BASIC 7.0 immediate mode
Boot it with a C64 cartridge plugged in
By going right through Falkens Maze

Some of the few C64 programs that failed on a C128 ran correctly when the CAPS LOCK key was pressed (or the ASCII/National key on international C128 models). This has to do with the larger built-in I/O port of the C128's CPU. Interesting yet boring at the same time.

The 128D model:
The 128D was the direct successor of the Commodore 128. It had exactly the same characteristics as the C128 apart from its external case which contained the Commodore 1571 floppy disk unit. It did have a more professional look to it, akin to a desktop PC, but also lost some of that well known Commodore appeal.

The C128 sold reasonably well, but never reached anywhere near the popularity of it's predecessor. It was also hampered by the release of 16-Bit machines such as the Amiga and the Atari ST which quicky built a large library of text adventures and classic games.

A very good machine and a worthy one to close out the 8-Bit era. A fine retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and
download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

NAME: C128 - C128D
MANUFACTURER: Commodore (CBM)
MACHINE TYPE: Home Computer
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
RELEASE YEAR: 1985
END OF PRODUCTION: Unknown (possibly 1989)
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Basic
KEYBOARD: Complete full stroke keyboard and numeric keypad
CPU: 8502 + Zilog Z80
SPEED: 1/2 mHz (for the 8510), 1.022 MHz (for C64 mode), 2.5 MHz (Z80)
CO-PROCESSOR: SID (sound), VDC & VIC-II (video)
RAM: 128 KB
VRAM: 16 KB
ROM: 48 KB
TEXT MODES: 40 or 80 chars x 25 lines
GRAPHIC MODES: Several although most popular were: 160x200, 320x200, 640x200 COLORS: 16
SOUND: 3 voices / 6 octaves
I/O PORTS: RGB, Video Composite, Joystick (2), Cardridge, Tape, User Port (RS232 compatible), TV, serial
BUILT IN MEDIA: C128D had a 1571 disk-drive OS: C128 mode, C64 mode or CP/M
POWER SUPPLY: C128 had an External PSU, the C128D had a Built-in PSU
PRICE: ?

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - Commodore 64 - Retro Computer

2009-02-04T16:38:00.028Z

Commodore 64
The flagship of Commodores 8-bit fleet.

Who would have believed that the Commodore 64 (or C64) had originally been developed as a video game engine to be utilised in amusement arcades? The machine could be constantly re-programmed with newer and more exciting games without the need to change the cabinet. Change the software, keep the hardware.

This 'idea' goes some way to explain how this 8-bit micro had such good sprite capabilities coupled with fantastic music and sound. No wonder it would go on to be one of the premier classic games machines of the 1980's.

Released in August of 1982 with it's 'Arcade plans' cancelled, it was marketed to supercede the Commodore Vic 20 - and supercede the VIC it did.

At a glance, the C64 (as it became affectionately known) resembled the VIC 20. However; compared to it's ancestor, apart from the built in BASIC, it was far, far superior. It sported a large (at the time) 64KB of RAM allowing 38KB to be available to the built in BASIC V 2.0, and sound and graphics capabilities that were better than even any IBM compatible machine of the day.

The machine itself was powered by a MOS 6510 CPU running at just under 1MHZ (In the UK anyway). But let's get onto the sounds and graphics, which really set it apart from any of it's contempories.

The graphics chip the VIC-II featured 16 colors and eight hardware sprites per scanline, which could allow up to 112 sprites per PAL screen. Unprecedented! It also had in-built scrolling capabilities, and two bitmap graphics modes. Now these sort of features were the kind that turned developers on, especially games developers.

These hardware capabilities led to the smooth scrolling achieved by arcade games such as Uridium, which were to become a benchmark in home video gaming. 8 layers of graphics could also be created with the chip, which led to many classic games with interesting visual effects.

Perhaps the only down side to the sprite generation was that sometimes games characters (generated as sprites) would have a 'blocky' look to them. The sprites could not effectively generate smoothe edges, which could lead to sort of 'building block' little men on your TV screen.

Despite this shortcoming, the VIC-II graphics chip allowed the C64 to be a highly capable platform for playing arcade games in the comfort of your own home.

Character display was fine. The standard text mode featured 40 columns and like most Commodore PET models the built in font is not standard ASCII but PETSCII, an extended form of ASCII-1963.

Has anyone seen SID?
Ahh, the C64 sound. Orchestral. Soaring.

The sound chip known as 'SID' had three channels, each with its own ADSR envelope generator. With several different waveforms, ring modulation and filter capabilities, this piece of hardware was also very advanced for the time.

The SID was designed by Bob Yannes, who would later co-found synthesizer company Ensoniq. As more and more software titles were released, the music capabilities were really showcased. Quite often the game music became a hit of its own among C64 users.

Composers and programmers of game music on the C64 reached almost legendary status for their superb games soundtracks and menu music. C64'ers will hold in reverence names such as Rob Hubbard, David Whittaker, Martin Galway, Ben Daglish, Chris Hülsbeck and David Dunn.

Some of the music in the C64's classic games library is as well remembered as the game itself!

Due to the SID chip having 'only' three channel output, chords were generally played as arpeggios which let do the C64's characteristic lively sound.

There were two versions of the SID chip, the first version being the MOS Technology 6581 which was found in all of the original 'breadbox' C64s and early versions of the C64C, and the Commodore 128.

It was later replaced with the MOS Technology 8580 in 1987. The sound quality produced by the original chip is actually a little more crisp and many C64 fans still prefer its sound. The main difference between the 6581 and the 8580 was the voltage supply: the 6581 used a 12 volt supply, while the 8580 required only 9 volts. A voltage modification can be made to use a 6581 in a C64C board (which uses 9V), but that's a job for all you hardware nuts out there.

Event to this day, the SID chip has a distinctive sound which has retained a following of SID devotees. In 1999, Swedish company Elektron produced a SidStation synth module, built around the 6581 model SID chip (not using the newer 8580).

This was achieved by using remaining stocks of the chip. Several bands use these devices in their music. Now THAT is real longevity.

Apart from the technical sound and graphic capabilities, the machine was also relatively easy to program using the built in BASIC. It had the usual commands and was on a par with other 8-bit machines of the era, apart from the BBC Micro which led the way in BASIC programming.

The keyboard was also very good, typewriter style keys which were responsive to your commands.

On a visual level, the machine did look pretty cool. Nicknamed 'breadbox' and 'bullnose' in it's first incarnation (due to the shape of the case), the light brown box with the CBM logo emblazoned across the top was appealing.

The darker greyish brown keys finished the look off nicely, with the4 function keys down the right hand side of the machine giving it an air of professionalism. The design certainly evoked the right image.

As the years rolled by, more and more software titles (plenty of computer games) were released for use with the C64, and more and more C64's were sold. It became a prime buy for computer users due to it's expanding software library, and also it's compatibilty with VIC 20 hardware. Many VIC users made the step up to the C64.

All in all, it is estimated that roughly 10,000 titles were released for the C64, including development tools, office applications and many, many computer games (a lot of which are regarded as classic games).

To further make it a sound choice to the potential buyer, the hardware available to it was also very good. A C64 specific tape deck was available, which would cut any fiddling with volume and tone levels of a generic tape player when loading programs in from cassette.

Also available were peripherals including digital joysticks, analog paddles, light pens, the CBM 1351 mouse, and the C64 was could also be used with the KoalaPad, which was a graphics tablet.

Parallel printers and modems could also be attached to it - making the C64 a very good all rounder. In fact, you could probably have ran a small country with nothing more than one of these, a coffee percolator and an endless supply of garibaldis.

Due to it's large games base (with many classic arcade games and text adventures) and versatility, the C64 went on to become more popular than beer in a brewery. It had a producation run of around 11 years, from release in 1982 right through to 1993.

The popularity of this machine was only ever rivalled and equalled by one other: The ZX Spectrum. Playground arguments would regularly ensue over the merits of each machine, its games, in fact, everything. It was a classic rivalry akin to that of Borg and MacEnroe, Coe and Ovett. This was one factor that made computing in the 1980's such fun.

Will we ever have a home computer produced again that has a production run of eleven years? Nah - your modern day PC is obsolete 36 seconds after it has been released.

Along with the Apple II and the Atari XL computers, the C64 has a level of fame amongst home computer users. It has been argued that the C64 was the most prolific computing device ever manufactured. During its production run, about 30 million units were sold. To put this number in real terms, that is more than all of the Macintoshes in the world.

Everyone stand in front of the C64 altar, take a bow, and declare yourself not worthy. A fine retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and
download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

COMPUTER NAME: Commodore 64
MANUFACTURER: Commodore (CBM)
MACHINE TYPE: Home 8-Bit Micro (classic games machine)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
RELEASE YEAR: 1982
END OF PRODUCTION: 1993
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Basic
KEYBOARD: QWERTY Full stroke 66 keys with 4 function keys
CPU: 6510
SPEED: 0.985 MHz (In PAL Mode as in UK display) 1.023 MHz (In NTSC Mode as in US display)
CO-PROCESSOR: VIC II (For Video), SID (For Sound)
RAM: 64 KB
ROM: 20 KB
TEXT MODES: 40 columns x 25 lines
GRAPHIC MODES: Several but the most popular was 320 x 200
COLORS: 16 + 16 border colours
SOUND: 3 voices over 9 octaves plus 4 waveforms. The sound was output through the TV
SIZE / WEIGHT: 40.4 (W) x 21.6 (D) x 7.5 (H) cm / 1820 g
I/O PORTS: RGB (composite, chroma/luma and sound in/out), 2 Joystick ports, 1 cardridge slot, Tape interfarce (300 bps), serial, user Port, TV RF output
BUILT IN MEDIA: Cassette unit. Provision for 170 KB 5.25'' floppy disc unit (1541)
POWER SUPPLY: External power supply unit
PRICE: £229 (UK 1984)

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - Commodore 16 - Retro Computer

2009-02-04T09:52:00.009Z

Commodore 16

Coming along, Commodore.

The Commodore 16 was a home computer manufacured by Commodore (or CBM) which was released onto the market in 1984.

It was intended to be an entry-level computer to replace the VIC-20. A cost-reduced version, the Commodore 116 was also released but was only available in Europe.

The Commodore 16 (Or C16 as it would become known) was intended to compete with other computers at the 'budget' end of the market, such as those releasedby Timex Corporation, Mattel and Texas Instruments.

Timex's and Mattel's computers were cheaper than the VIC 20, and although the VIC offered better expandability, a full-travel keyboard and in some cases more memory, the C16 offered a chance to further enhance these advantages.

Machines by Mattel and Texas Instruments were not overly popular in the UK, so the C16 ended up competing against the ZX Spectrum (by now only 48k versions and the Speccy + being sold) and it's brother the Commodore 64. You may as well have put an Austin Metro against a Porsche 911.

As the name would suggest, the C16 had 16KB of RAM, with 12KB available to use through the built in BASIC interpreter. The video palette was superior to that of the VIC 20 (as would be expected by 1984) which offerred an eye popping 128 colours (mixed from 16 base colours and 8 shades - but still pretty good and useful for developing arcade games.)

The sound chip was an improvement over the VIC, giving two full channels over 4 octaves and a white noise generator (again useful for developing arcade games). It was still inferior to the SID chip that would be powering the C64's sound though.

Bizzarely, the BASIC installed in the ROM (3.5) was more powerful than the version (2.0) installed in the C64. BASIC version 3.5 actually had commands for bitmapped graphics and sounds. It also had simple tracing and debugging features. Many popular 8-bit machines at this point in time still did not have features such as these (BBC Micro and Master excluded).

Now, some bad points. Come 1984 - 16KB of RAM was nowhere near acceptable. Why would you have a machine with less memory than a goldfish? We needed more RAM for those classic games! There was no port to connect a modem, and no generic game ports to speak of whatsoever - about as much use as a swimming pool on the moon.

Commodore did provide a 'C16 specific' cassette player and joystick, but people wanted to use their existing and much cheaper peripherals that were available for the VIC 20 and the C64. Third party converters were released to allow users to do this very thing.

Outwardly the C16 resembled the VIC-20 and the C64, but with a reverse colour scheme of a black case and a white or light gray keyboard. Certainly not the best looking of the 8-bit machines, and it never really had the visual appeal of it's brothers and sisters.

The lack of commercial software and the problem with peripherals for the machine caused the C16 to sell poorly in it's country of origin, the USA. It was quickly discontinued over the pond, where the C64 (which already had a good library of computer games) was dropped down a notch to become Commodores entry level machine.

The C-16 did enjoy some popularity in Europe however, as a cheap games machine with an array of arcade games and text adventures released in 1531 cassette format. In a few Eastern Bloc countries such as Hungary, (which was still lacking a home computer industry of its own) remaining C16, C116 and Plus/4 stock was released onto the market at cheap prices in the late 1980s.

This created a fan base of its own for the computer that contributed among others, several unofficial ports of popular Commodore 64 programs to the line. I suppose this adds to the character and charm of the C16.

A machine that came and went without much of a bang. Anyone who had one of these generally kept quiet about it. A decent retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and
download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

MACHINE NAME: C16

MANUFACTURER: Commodore

MACHINE TYPE: Home 8-Bit Micro (including classic games)

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

RELEASE YEAR: 1984

END OF PRODUCTION: ?

BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Commodore BASIC 3.5 and a built in machine code monitor (12 commands)

KEYBOARD: 66 keys with 4 function keys and 4 cursor keys

CPU: 7501

SPEED: 0.89 MHz or 1.76 MHz

CO-PROCESSOR: TED (For video & sound)

RAM: 16KB (12KB free for the user - certainly not enough by 1984)

ROM: 32KB

TEXT MODES: 40 chars x 25 lines

GRAPHIC MODES: 320 x 200 / 320 x 160 (with 5 lines of text) / 160 x 200 / 160 x 160 (with 5 lines of text)

COLORS: 121 (15 colours x 8 luminances + black)

SOUND: Two channels over 4 octaves plus white noise

SIZE / WEIGHT: 40.7 (W) x 20.4 (D) x 7.7 (H) cm I/O PORTS: Tape, Cardridge, Joystick (2), serial, Composite Video, TV

BUILT IN MEDIA: Cassette unit. Provision for 5.25

OS: ROM Based

PRICE: The C16 starter pack retailed at £129.99

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - Commodore VIC 20 - Retro Computer

2009-02-03T16:36:00.012Z

Commodore VIC 20

Is Vic there?

The Commodore VIC-20 was an 8-bit home computer which was sold by Commodore Business Machines (CBM). The VIC-20 was first announced around three years after Commodores first personal computer the PET in 1980.

Interestingly it became the first microcomputer to sell one million units - that's right, one million VIC-20's were sold. Commodore really hit the bulls-eye with this one. Many people did not even know why it was named 'The VIC' - it actually stood for Video Interface Chip.

Those sort of names really did sound cool back in the early 80's. Apparently the '20' part was conjured up as it was a 'friendly' number. The VIC was known as 'The Friendly Computer' mind.

Blessed with a whopping 5KB of RAM and a 6502A CPU running at approximately 1MHZ, the machine had around an average specification when compared to its competitors. The RAM was expandable, the machine could be upgraded to give an ample (at the time) 32KB to play with. It also had a co-processor under the hood (The VIC-I 6560) to help out when processing sound and graphics - which helped in the growing niche of computer games.

The sound chip, as in most Commodore machines was a decent one and was capable of producing three voices of sound over three octaves. This was pretty good for a home micro in 1981 and enhanced some of the earlier arcade games on Commodore machines.

It could generate very plain graphics and simple animations, but if you wanted detailed images and varying colours on your screen, you did not buy a VIC 20. Mind you, eight colours were available to use as character colours. The background and border area of the screen (many computers at thetime had the display setup this way), could be varied with up to 16 colours - similar to the classic games machine the ZX Spectrum.

It certainly had that 'Commodore look' to it, the off-white machine housing the darker brown keyboard, which became synonymous with Commodore 8-bit machines throughout the 1980's. Not a bad looker by any means.

With it being a popular machine, a good range of peripherals and software was available for it, including joysticks and the all important computer games (arcade games and text adventures). How in the name of Poseidon's Trident did they squeeze games with colour and sound into 5KB or RAM? A remarkable feat, whichever way you slice it. Some classic arcade games found their way onto the VIC 20.

Even good old Bill Shatner got in on the act, advertising the the machine and describing it as 'The wonder machine... of the 1980's!'. Good on ya Bill.

As the eighties rolled along, so did Commodore who became a major player in the 8-bit and 16-bit marketplace. The VIC 20 deserves a sideways glance at least. A decent retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and
download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

NAME: Commodore VIC 20

MANUFACTURER: Commodore (CBM)

MACHINE TYPE: Home 8 bit micro (even some classic games!)

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States (Gained reasonable popularity in the United Kingdom)

RELEASE YEAR: (1980 production) (May 1981 release)

END OF PRODUCTION: 1985

BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): CBM Basic V2

KEYBOARD: QWERTY full stroke keyboard with 4 function keys, 66 keys overall

CPU: Commodore Semiconductor Group 6502A

SPEED: 1.0227 mHz

CO-PROCESSOR: VIC-I (6560) used for graphics and sound

RAM: 5KB (3583 bytes free) which was expandable up to 32 KB

VRAM: The screen memory was shared with the regular RAM

ROM: 16KB

TEXT MODES: 23 rows x 22 columns

GRAPHIC MODES: 184 x 176

COLORS: 8 character colors and 16 background or border colors

SOUND: 3 voices over 3 octaves.

SIZE / WEIGHT: 40.3 x 20.4 x 7.2 cm / 1,8 Kg

I/O PORTS: Pretty good. 1 joystick port, 1 user port, 1 cartridge port, 1 serial port, composite video output and a tape interface

POWER SUPPLY: External 18 Watt power supply unit
PRICE: ?

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - Dragon 32 / Dragon 64

2009-02-03T13:06:00.008Z

Dragon 32
Enter The Dragon!

The Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 were home computers that were built in the early 1980's. The Dragons were a similar machine to the TRS-80 Color Computer (The CoCo), and were produced for the European market by Dragon Data Ltd who were based in Port Talbot in Wales.

The model numbers reflect the primary difference between the two machines. The 32 had 32KB of RAM, the 64, well I'll leave you to work that one out for yourself.

As we have established, in the early 1980s the British home computer market was booming. New machines were being released almost monthly. In August 1982, Dragon Data joined the fray with the Dragon 32 (the Dragon 64 would be released a year later).

The computers sold quite well initially and attracted the interest of several independent software developers such as Microdeal. 'Dragon User' - a magazine publication was launched shortly after the machine had been released.

In technical terms, the machine hardly breathed fire and brimstone, even though it was powered by a Motorola MC6809E CPU, which was actually the most advanced 8-bit central processor design of the time. It is rumoured that this very CPU had been used to power Steve Austin's bionic eye. Anyway, it was an advanced chip but it only ran at (even then) a creaky 0.89 MHZ.

Despite the advanced CPU architecture, the Dragon could not live up to it's rivals (the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64) due to it's far inferior graphics capabilities. The sound it could produce was nothing to write home about either, 1 voice over 5 octaves (in BASIC) but better sound could be produced with machine code.

Due to the poor graphics and associated glitches very few arcade games were developed for the Dragon. Quite a few text adventures made it onto the machine though.

It even had difficulty in displaying lower case letters, which could make typing in Basic code listings as pleasurable as a daytrip to Southend pier in January. It also prevented it from being considered by anyone in the educational sector (which was also booming at the time). Way to go, Dragon.

The QWERTY typewriter keyboard was decent and responsive and the BASIC that was built into the ROM was actually a decent version (a version of Microsoft extended Basic), which made the lower case display problem even more infurating (and baffling).

A broad range of peripherals were released for the Dragon 32 and 64. Add-ons such as the nicely named Dragon's Claw were highly innovative. It gave the Dragons access to the BBC Micro's large range of accessories which was an important factor in the UK home market.

Although neither machine had a built-in disk operating system (cassette tapes were the default data-storage mechanism in the home computer market), DragonDOS was supplied as part of the disk controller interface from Dragon Data Ltd.

The numerous external ports which were excellent for the era, including the standard RS-232 on the 64, allowed uber-geeks to attach a diverse range of equipment. Heck, you could even attach a light-pen to the joystick port.

An unusual feature was a monitor port for connection of a computer monitor, as an alternative to the TV output, so you could really see the crappiness of the lower case letters! This was rarely used though due to the cost of dedicated monitors at that time.

The port is actually a Composite Video port and can be used to connect the Dragon 32 to most modern TVs to deliver a much better picture.

There was also a port on the machine to link up a Centronics printer which was a bonus.

The machine itself looked never looked special, the large white case and black keyboard was duller than it's black on green display.

As was the market driving force, computer games (and arcade games) were a major driver in selling machines. Due to the machines limited graphics, let's just say that the software library in this area was... limited.

As a result of all of these issues, the Dragon (both 32 and 64) was not a commercial success. Poor Dragon Data collapsed in June of 1984.

Despite the demise of the parent company, Dragons still proved to be quite popular (which is unsurprising as they were very customisable). They had a robust motherboard held within a spacious case, and were much more tolerant to home-modification than many of their contemporaries (many machines had the memory expanded to 64K, 128KB, 256KB and even 512KB!)

Other machines at that time did not have the inner space for such modification. Techno-geek heaven! If only they had given the machine decent graphics (perhaps more arcade games would have been created for it), the story could have been far far different.

It has a place in our hearts, and hardware hobbyists will have fond memories of Dragons, gaffer tape and a soldering iron. All in all and despite the lack of computer games this machine is a fine retro computer

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and
download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

COMPUTER NAME: Dragon 32 / Dragon 64

MANUFACTURER: Dragon Data Ltd

MACHINE TYPE: Home 8-bit micro

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom

RELEASE YEAR: January 1982

BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Microsoft Extended BASIC, Basic Interpreter 1.0 (1982)

KEYBOARD: QWERTY Mechanical keyboard holding 53 keys

CPU: Motorola MC6809EP

SPEED: 0.89 Mhz

CO-PROCESSOR: Motorola MC-6847 Video Display Generator

RAM: 32 KB / 64KB

ROM: 2x8KBor 16KB EPROM comprising Microsoft Extended BASIC

TEXT MODES: 32 x 16

GRAPHIC MODES: Several graphic modes, max : 256 x 192 (with 2 colors)

COLORS: 8

SOUND: 1 voice over 5 octaves with the BASIC (4 voices over 7 octaves achievable with machine code)

SIZE / WEIGHT: 38 (W) x 32.5 (D) x 9.7 (H) cm / 2.1 kg

I/O PORTS: A TV connector, 2 analogue joystick ports, A cassette port, A Centronics parallel printer port, A cartridge slot and a composite monitor port

PRICE: Dragon 32 - £199

Retro Computers

Retro Computers - Oric Atmos - Retro Computer

2009-02-02T13:31:00.013Z

Oric Atmos
Oh what an 'Atmos'phere, I love a party with a happy Atmosphere!

The Oric Atmos was a British computer that superceded the Oric 1. Like it's predecessor, it gained some level of popularity in Europe during the early to mid eighties.

Still manufactured as a direct competitor to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, it had a better keyboard than the Oric 1 and the pesky problems in the ROM had been ironed out. It was by far less cool looking though, the black and orange combo keyboard just didn't cut the mustard aesthetically and always reminded me of Texas Instruments Speak 'n Spell. (I'm sure many of you remember those.)

The problems loading programs (ok, mainly computer games!) from cassette were still present though, which could really put a crimp on your day. There was nowt more annoying than not being able to load your favourite arcade game.

As was becoming the norm, the machine came in both a 16K and 48K version, although the 16k version was not upgradeable, which in hindsight was a blunder of monumental proportions. It goes without saying that not many of the 16K models were sold. This small amount of memory could not support many computer games by 1984 and by this time your average punter demanded more memory. 16K? Pah!

Tangerine basic was installed on the machine, which was actually created by Microsoft and was an upgrade to the Basic used on the Oric 1. The peripherals that had been promised for it's predecessor (including a Modem, 3.5" floppy disk drive and printer) were also released for the Atmos late in 1984.

The machine was popular in France - the French models incorporated a scart power supply which tidied up the Oric cable problemthat I am sure some of you will remember (a cable for the machine, one for the cassette deck, one for the TV and one for anyother attached peripherals!) The national grid nearly went into meltdown when you powered up one of these baby's.

The Oric Atmos was a decent machine that never really managed to take off in the UK. It lived through 1984 and 1985 before fading into obscurity as it gave way to the popular (and classic games machines) ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64.

It's worth a sideways glance. A decent retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and
download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

COMPUTER NAME: Oric Atmos

MANUFACTURER: Oric / Tangerine

MACHINE TYPE: 8-bit Home Micro

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UK

RELEASE YEAR: February 1984

BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Tangerine BASIC (created by Microsoft)

KEYBOARD: QWERTY mechanical keyboard with 58 keys

CPU: 6502A

SPEED: 1 mHz

RAM: 16 KB or 48 KB

ROM: 16 KB

TEXT MODES: 40 chars x 28 lines

GRAPHIC MODES: 240 x 200 (+ 3 text lines)

COLORS: 8

SOUND: Programmable Sound Generator AY-3-8912 (from General Instruments) 3 voices, 8 octaves + white noise

SIZE / WEIGHT: 28 (W) x 17,5 (D) x 5,5 (H) cm

I/O PORTS: Decent enough. Power supply, Expansion port, Printer/Centronics port, Tape-recorder DIN plug, RGB video out, RF TV out

POWER SUPPLY: External PSU 9V 600 mA

PERIPHERALS: 3'' floppy disc unit, 4 colour printer-plotter

PRICE: £170

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - Oric 1 - Retro Computer

2009-02-02T13:07:00.013Z

Oric 1
Tangerine dream?

The Oric 1 was a British computer that gained reasonable popularity in Europe during the early eighties. It could be described as a direct competitor to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, but never did it gain the intense rivalry that ensued between Sir Clive's baby and Commodore's prime 8-Bit machine.

However, the Oric 1 was a notable addition to eight-bit ranks that were being manufactured at that time.

Like the ZX Spectrum, the machine came in both a 16K and 48K version. A small plotter-printer was also available, as well as a micro drive. The sound chip incorporated in the machine was the same one that was installed within Amstrad CPC, MSX Computers and the Atari ST.

The chicklet keyboard had a total of fifty seven keys, including stand alone cursor keys and a large spacebar, which did give it a further advantage over the ZX Spectrum (mind you, the calculator style keys only offered a marginal increase in typing speedcompared to the Sinclair and it's soft rubber buttons). Having said all of that, every other computer at that time had a better keyboard than the Spectrum, so it never really gained any wow factor on that front.

The machine was powered by the 6502a processor running at a g-force inducing 1Mhz, although it did have a co-processor to help things along. It could display text at 40X28 and graphics at 240X200 which was a high resolution mode. Again in matching the Spectrum eight colours were available to the user. As mentioned above it was blessed with a decent sound generator, which was the AY-3-8912 chip which gave commendable service to many other machines (and games consoles)during the 1980's.

The Oric 1 was a rather cool looking machine back in 1983, but this cool exterior masked a less than cool ROM, which was more buggy than Mr buggy from planet bug. This certainly hastened the Oric 1's demise. Many users had problems when loading programs in from cassette too, the process could be very unreliable. Not to mention annoying.

Due to these issues the machine never became a machine known for classic arcade games. The amount of computer games available for it was paltry when compared to the ZX Spectrum or the Commodore 64.

The Oric 1 came and went without much of a fanfare, and gave way to the increasing popularity of the Sinclair and Commodore machines. It did however pave the way for the improved (but not as cool looking) Oric Atmos.

Give the machine a wave anyway. A decent retro computer

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and
download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

COMPUTER NAME: ORIC 1
MANUFACTURER: Oric / Tangerine
MACHINE TYPE: 8-bit Home Micro
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UK
RELEASE YEAR: 1983
END OF PRODUCTION: January 16th 1984
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Retro Computers - v1.0
KEYBOARD: Chicklet keyboard (57 keys) - similar to calculator keys
CPU: 6502A
SPEED: 1 MHz
CO-PROCESSOR: Custom gate array chip
RAM: 16 KB or 48 KB
ROM: 16 KB
TEXT MODES: 40 x 28
GRAPHIC MODES: 240 x 200 (high resolution)
COLORS: 8
SOUND: Programmable Sound Generator AY-3-8912 (from General Instruments) 3 voices, 8 octaves + white noise
SIZE / WEIGHT: 28 (W) x 17.8 (D) x 1.5 (H) cm / 848 g
I/O PORTS: Bus, Printer, Tape, RGB
POWER SUPPLY: External power supply unit
PERIPHERALS: 4-pen plotter printer, 3'' floppy disk drive unit
PRICE: £129.95 for 16K model with starter pack (UK 1983)

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - Acorn Archimedes - Retro Computer

2009-02-02T12:51:00.009Z

Acorn Archimedes
A true 'arch' de Triomphe!

In 1987 Acorn released a machine with a non-scientific sounding name, the Archimedes.
It was Acorn Computers Ltd's first general purpose home computer based on their own 32-bit ARM RISC CPU.

The name is also commonly used to describe computers which were based on the same architecture, even where Acorn did not include 'Archimedes' in the official name. Many versions of the Archimedes were released over the next couple of years.

This retro computer was one of the most powerful home computers available during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Comparable to the one invented by Gus Gorman in Superman III.

Its' main central processing unit was faster than the 68000 microprocessors found in the more popular 16 bit Commodore Amiga and Atari ST machines ofthat era.

So Acorns latest machine, bouyed by the popularity of the BBC Micro and Master, managed to win a significant market share in the education markets of the UK, Ireland and Australia. Many students and pupils in these countries during the early 90s were exposed to an Archimedes or an A-series computer.Many students at that time had the opportunity to use the machine to learn BASIC, Fortran, Pascal, LISP and even C.

Despite having the technical edge over other machines, (the 8-Bit market while still being stong, was on the wane by this point) the Archimedes only ever met with moderate success beyond the education sector. It did have some popularity in niche markets including professional work such as radio, medical and railway station management and also music publishing.

Another reason why schools chose the Acorn Archimedes over the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST was that students may have taken games into school from their Amiga or ST games collection and would have distracted them from their school work. They got that one right eh?

The machine itself looked more like a PC and less like a home micro, which may have put off many potential buyers. The price of one was also astumbling block for many people, the first incarnation of the archimedes with 512KB of RAM retailed at an incredible £899. You're talking Rockerfeller territory here, especially in 1987.

Computer games were also few and far between on the machine, although Zarch developed by David Braben really showcased the machines capabilities, and gave many teenagers fantasies of patch-work three dimensional rolling landscapes. A BBC emulator was also available for it to load up those classic games from the BBC micro, but was still not enough as games players could access a vast and growing library for the cheaper priced Amiga and ST.

Despite having a superior OS to it's 16-bit counterparts, and sporting eight channel sound it never managed to compete as a home machine. By the early 1990s, the UK educational market began to turn away from the Archimedes, and began to veer towards Apple Macintosh computers or IBM compatible PCs. Perhaps if it had been cheaper and more computer games had been developed for it then who knows?

These machines began to eclipse the Archimedes in multimedia capabilities, which signalled the beginning of the end for the archimedes, and indeed Acorn (which was to break up in 1998 - a real shame).

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Those guys at Acorn really did innovate during the 1980's.

Raise your glasses, doff your caps and raise a toast to Acorn and their achievments! A fine retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and
download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

COMPUTER NAME: Archimedes
MANUFACTURER: Acorn Computer
MACHINE TYPE: Home Computer - but never gained a strong foothold in this sector
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
RELEASE YEAR: 1987
END OF PRODUCTION: 1989
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): BBC BASIC V
KEYBOARD: Complete 102 keys full-stroke keyboard with PC/AT layout
CPU: ARM-2 32 bit RISC (ARM-3 in the A500 series)
SPEED: 4/8 mHz
CO-PROCESSOR: IOC (I/O), MEMC (memory), VIDC (Video and Sound)
RAM: 512 KB (up to 16 MB could be installed)
ROM: 512 KB
TEXT MODES: 132 chars x 32 lines maximum
GRAPHIC MODES: 21 screen modes, including: 640x480 (256 colours), 640 x 512 (256 colours), 800x600 (16 colours), 896x352 (256 colours), 1280x960 (monochrome)
COLORS: 256 maximum
SOUND: 8 voices (very impressive)
I/O PORTS: Top Notch. Centronics, RS423, Video composite, RGB, Econet (network 250 KBits). Optional 4 expansion slots (podule slots), the 400/500 series came with 4 slots.
BUILT IN MEDIA: 800 KB 3.5'' floppy drive, 3.5'' disk-drive, from 20 to 53 MB
OS: ARTHUR (and RISC OS later)
POWER SUPPLY: Built-in switching power supply unit
PERIPHERALS: Various expansion cards
PRICE: A300: from £899 to £1200 - A400: up to £3150, depending on the monitor supplied. Feel free to collapse in awe

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - Acorn BBC Master - Retro Computer

2009-02-02T11:52:00.011Z

BBC Master
Once but the learner, now the master.

The BBC Master. More serious computing from those boffins that gave us the good old Beeb.

Acorns BBC Model B was a heavyweight computer, and it's superior and modernised sibling was a super heavy weight!

I'm sure when our school took delivery of it's one and only Master (the head machine in the computer room) it was dropped off by a fork lift truck and carried in to the building by a large green bloke wearing ripped purple trousers. But maybe my memory is not all that it was...

Even larger than it's predecessor, it had more memory than most model B's in the shape of 128k. The processor had also been improved, the slightly faster 65SC12 cpu. Sitting above the numberical keypad were two cartridge slots, for using with.... cartridges maufactured by Acorn.

Unfortunately very little software (very few classic games!) was released on this format so the slots ended up handy enough for storing biro's and a slimline calculator.

The sound chip had also been improved, the Model B's three channels had been upgraded to four by use of the Texas Instruments SN76489 sound chip.

The graphics modes available could be utilised to great effect due to the machine having it's own video memory, which had been a limitation of the Model A and Model B.

The master was also backwards compatible, but many user's found that older software (and especially older classic games) would not run on their new mega behemoth, so compatibilty was not 100%.

Several ROM software packages were built into the machine such as View (a word processor), ViewSheet (a spreadsheet), ADFS (Advanced Filing System), a text editor and even terminal utilities. Touches like this made the Master and ideal choice for schools, college and universities.
The Master also came in different versions:

The standard 128 (named for it's massive 128k of RAM)
The Master Turbo - this jet powered baby sported duel processor technology, doubling it's speed from 2mhz to 4mhz. An existing master 128 could also be upgraded to match a turbo - once you had hired the A-Team to dismantle the bullet proof casing and install the second processor for you
The Master AIV (which was an abbreivation for Advanced Interactive Videodisc) was a Master Turbo model which also had a SCSI interface and a video filing system. A monitor and trackerball were also included in the package, making for a very professional setup.

It was also possible to modify a standard Master and turn it into one of these systems by adding all of the extra peripherals to it.

The Master AIV was basically the platform used to run the ominously titled BBC Domesday Project - what a fantastic title though to be thought up during the cold war era. But that is a topic for a different discussion.

The Master was produced right the way through to 1993, which is some achievment considering the foothold the 16-bit machines had taken, and the rise of Apple and PC machines.

Throw a salute to the BBC Master! A fine retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and
download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

NAME: BBC Master
MANUFACTURER: Acorn Computer
MACHINE TYPE: 8-Bit Home Micro (educational software and classic games)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
RELEASE YEAR: February 1986
END OF PRODUCTION: 1993
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): BBC BASIC IV interpreter
KEYBOARD: Full stroke 93 key with numeric keypad and 10 function keys
CPU: 65C102 (which was an evolution of the 6502 cpu)
SPEED: 2 MHz
RAM: 128 KB
ROM: 128 KB (Which was also expandable)
TEXT MODES: 40/80 x 25 lines, 20/40/80 x 32, Teletex mode (40 x 25 x 8 colours)
GRAPHIC MODES: 160/320/640 x 256 dots in 2 to 8 colours
COLORS: 8 among 16
SOUND: 4 chanels, 8 octaves - SN76489 sound generator
SIZE / WEIGHT: 46.7 (W) x 34.5 (D) x 7.5 (H) cm.
I/O PORTS: Top Quality. Tube expansion, BBC High Speed Bus, FDD interface, User interface, RS423 serial, Analog, Econet network, Parallel, tape recorder, TV/RF, RGB & Composite outputs,
BUILT IN MEDIA: Cassette & FDD interfaces
OS: MOS
POWER SUPPLY: Built-in switching power supply unit
PERIPHERALS: External FDD unit, processor card, and lots more
PRICE: £499

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - Acorn Electron - Retro Computer

2009-01-29T14:29:00.012Z

Acorn Electron
Not quite an elec-tion winner.

The Acorn Electron was an 8-bit Micro manufactured by Acorn and released in 1983. It was basically a budget version of the Beeb, or 'The poor man's Beeb' as it was known down our way.

Realising that the BBC Model B could not really compete with the ZX Spectrum or Commodore 64 due to the high price, Acorn decided to manufacture a budget Model B to compete against those machines. They were hoping to compete in the same price bracket and to hopefully grab a corner of the computer games market.

Acorn did not manage to meet the demand of the new system, and the majority of purchasers decided to go with either Sinclair or CBM's micro's rather than wait around for Electrons to become available.

By the turn of 1984, Acorn really ramped up production of the machine and attempted to meet public demand. Sadly, interest by this point had fallen quicker than UK house prices, and it had to gracefully admit defeat against the rolling juggernauts of the ZX Spectrum and C64 - now the premier machines for arcade gaming and text adventures.

Many Electrons never even made it into the shops, who knows what happened to the stockpiles? (Perhaps they are stored in a large warehouse somewhere being studied by top men, Top Men...)

Compared to it's daddy (The BBC Micro), the Electron was quite basic with only one expansion port to play around with. Fortunately, Acorn quickly released the Plus 1 expansion offering two ROM cartridge slots, a parallel / centronics interface and a joystick connector for those all important arcade games.

The built in Acorn Electron BASIC was largely derived from the famous BBC BASIC, and was equally impressive with innovative features such as the ability to define real procedures with DEF PROC and ENDPROC, and it too included the handling of error events. There was even an OLD statement which would recover a program erased by NEW. A complete assembler language was also stored in the 32K ROM. Impressive. Most impressive.

The graphics capabilities were also very good for a computer in this category. A text mode of up to 80 columns and a high resolution of up to 640 x 256 pixels with 2 colors was available. The custom ULA developed especially for the Electron handled the video display, the sound, and also the I/O communications. Features such as this were the real meat and potatoes of the Electron.

The sound generator inside the machine was pretty good, but not as good as the BBC's. It was capable of one channel output, but three channel sound could be mapped to it and output through the speaker, giving a rough approximation to true three channel sound. Not quite as good as the AY sound chip but not bad overall.

The mechanical keyboard was overall very good, and very responsive. BASIC statements were printed on most of the keys, allowing users to type them in one go (a la Speccy).

A small amber LED placed on the left part of the keyboard indicated if you were in lowercase or uppercase mode, which did look rather cool. Despite being more powerful in many areas than (Dare I say it?) the ZX Spectrum (better keyboard, better sound, better built in BASIC) the Electron did not go on to sell well and suffered from a lack of certain software. The 32KB of memory was also stumbling block.

The machine itself was better looking than the BBC, and did not need a hydraulic lift to move it around whenever you re-arranged your room. The beige coloured box and keys coupled with the grid pattern and Acorn logo across the top of the box had a certain visual appeal. It was certainly less serious looking than the Beeb.

Another decent machine from Acorn Computers that deserves a cursory nod at least. With better marketing it could have been great as a home computer and games machine. Still - a fine retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and
download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

COMPUTER NAME: Electron
MANUFACTURER: Acorn Computers
MACHINE TYPE: Home 8-Bit micro (with some classic games)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
RELEASE YEAR: July 1983
END OF PRODUCTION: 1985?
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Acorn Electron Basic + 6502 assembler
KEYBOARD: QWERTY full-stroke keyboard (56 keys), basic statements accessible through keys and 10 function keys (0...9 keys + FUNC)
CPU: MOS 6502A
SPEED: 1 MHz
CO-PROCESSOR: custom ULA
RAM: 32 KB
ROM: 32 KB
TEXT MODES: 20 x 32, 40 x 25, 40 x 32, 80 x 25, 80 x 32
GRAPHIC MODES: 160 x 256 (4 or 16 colors), 320 x 256 (2 or 4 colors), 640 x 256 (2 colors)
COLORS: 8 colors + 8 flashing versions of the same colours
SOUND: 1 channel of sound + 1 channel of white sound, 7 octaves. Three virtual sound channels mapped to the single available physical channel
SIZE / WEIGHT: 16 x 34 x 6.5 cm
I/O PORTS: Expansion port, Tape-recorder connector (1200 baud), aerial TV connector (RF modulator), RGB video output
POWER SUPPLY: External PSU, 18v
PRICE: £199 (UK- August 1983)

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - Acorn BBC Micro - Retro Computer

2009-01-29T09:05:00.012Z

BBC Micro
British Broadcasting Computing.

Ahhh the BBC, effectively known as the BBC micro. Acorns chunky 8-bit heavyweight computer carved out a unique niche for itself during the 80's.

Back in the early 80's, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) launched what was known as the BBC Computer Literacy Project, which was launched after ITV had shown a documentary series called 'The Mighty Micro'.

This was compelling viewing for the likes of us computer whizz-kids at the time. In the programme Dr Christopher Evans from the National Physical Laboratory predicted the coming computer revolution and its impact on industry, the economy, and even people's lifestyle within the United Kingdom.

This prompted the corporation into action and they decided to base a project on a microcomputer capable of performing various tasks which could then be demonstrated on their 1981 TV series called The Computer Programme. The list of topics included graphics, sound and music, Teletext, controlling external hardware and even artificial intelligence! Truly revolutionary back then.

To go ahead with this the BBC decided to badge a micro computer and drew up plans for what was at the time, an ambitious specification and asked for takers.

Sir Clive Sinclair held discussions with the BBC over the matter, and offered the NewBrain micro to them, but the lovable 'Uncle Clive' and his bid were rejected. The BBC also made appointments to see several other British computer manufacturers of the era such as the Dragon and Acorn.

The Acorn team had already been working on an upgrade to their existing Atom microcomputer. Known as the Proton, the new machine had better graphics and a faster CPU (The 2 MHz MOS Technology 6502).

The machine was only in prototype form at the time, but the Acorn team which was mainly made up of students (including Steve Furber and Sophie Wilson) worked all hours to get a working Proton together to show to the BBC. The Dragon's flame was extinguished, and the mighty Acorn was, erm picked. On demonstration the Acorn Proton actually exceeded the expectations set by the BBC, and was subsequently snapped up. An 8-bit legend had been born.

Now renamed as the BBC Microcomputer, it was unleashed into the marketplace late 1981. It came in various models over the next four years, the A, the B (which were released at much the same time) and finally the B+.

The machine became very popular in educational circles, with many schools from Lands End to John O'Groats using them as teaching tools. Despite being the equal (and in many ways superior) to the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64, it never had the same level of cool as those two machines.

Perhaps part due to the name and part due to the fact that your school most likely had them, they almost had an image of 'serious computing' - for learning, for programming, wordprocessing and little else. You didn't want a school computer at home in your bedroom did you? On top of all of this, they were expensive when compared to other home computers of the era - the average cost was a wallet busting £399.

Despite this, the Beeb as it effectionately became known, had an impressive range of software titles, including games (the range of computer games really built up over the years).

Certainly not the best looking of machines, the off-white case and black keyboard gained nil-points from the style police, and the machine itselfwas a hefty beast - I used to use one of these things to prop open the doors to Major Flying Ace Sir Lawrence Bartle Frerre's aircraft hangar.

It had a decent sound chip with three channels and a range of seven octaves which could be output through a built in speaker.The model A had 16k or Ram, the Model B sported 32k or RAM, and the Model B+ released in 1985 sported a whopping 64k of RAM. In it's later life there were even B+ models with a humoungous 128k of RAM.

The model B would probably have gained more popularity if it had had more RAM than it's not quite sufficient 32k.

It was possible to change text modes and graphics modes and the machine also had 16 colours to play with, so on this front it was in line with many other computers of the era. In one aspect is was certainly ahead of it's time - the built in BASIC language was very impressive.

It was possible to create code procedures with BBC Basic using PROC and ENDPROC, case statements were available and even error handling functions were also built in. All of this back in 1981 on a home micro!

Typing code listing was easy enough on the 64 key QWERTY typewriter style keyboard, which also had ten function keys and cursor keys, and was nicely responsive to your commands. There were plenty of peripherals to be had - if you could afford them: disk drives, tape recorders printers and so on.

All in all, the Beeb enjoyed a good lifespan right through the decade as both an educational and home computer, due it's excellent built in BASIC, it's range of peripherals and it's ruggedness.. It was superceded by the BBC master in 1986, but many model B's were still being put to good use in schools in the early 1990's.

All hail the mighty beige and black monolith! A fine retro computer.

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and
download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

MANUFACTURER: Acorn Computers
MACHINE TYPE: 8-bit Home Micro (educational machine and classic games)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
RELEASE YEAR: 1981
END OF PRODUCTION: Unknown
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): BBC Basic
KEYBOARD: Full-stroke QWERTY keyboard, 64 keys, 10 function keys, arrow keys
CPU: MOS 6502
SPEED: 1.8 MHz
RAM: Model 1 (or A) : 16 kbModel B : 32 kbModel B+ : 64 kb ROM: 32 kb
TEXT MODES: 80 x 32/25 (2 colors) / 40 x 32/25 (2 or 4 colors) / 20 x 32 (16 colors) / 40 x 25 (Teletext display)
GRAPHIC MODES: 640 x 256 (2 colors) / 320 x 256 (4 colors) / 160 x 256 (16 colors) COLORS 16 (8 colors + flashing option)
SOUND: 3 channels plus 1 noise channel over 7 octaves
SIZE / WEIGHT: 1 Tonne ;-) 41 (W) x 34.5 (D) x 6.5 (H) cm / 3700 g (or was it 1 ton?)
I/O PORTS: Superb. UHF TV out, BNC video out, RGB vide out, RS423, Cassette, Analogue In (DB15), Econet port, TUBE interface, 1Mhz BUS, User port, Printer port, Disk-drive connector
POWER SUPPLY: Built-in switching PSU
PERIPHERALS: Controler card for 1 to 4 5''1/4 F.D. drives, Floppy disk unit 5''1/4 250 Ko. Numerical cassette recorder 100 Ko, Second 6502 microprocessor with card
PRICE: (Model A £299) (Model B £399) (UK 1983)

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Computers - Acorn Atom - Retro Computer

2009-01-28T16:23:00.010Z

Acorn Atom
The mighty Atom.

The Acorn Atom was the ancestor to the BBC series of computers manufactured by, you guessed it, Acorn.They seemed to like to name their machines with scientific names (Atom, Electron) - if they were still going today would be have the Acorn Proton? Or Nucleus? Anyway, like the ZX80 and ZX81 (which were both soon to follow) it was sold in kit form or ready-assembled versions (at an extra cost).

The great advantage of the Atom compared to its competitors (The TRS-80 & Commodore PET), was its high resolution display capabilities (256 x 192 was achievable) which was quite unusual way back in the bell-bottomed and hanglider collar ridden era of 1979. Especially for the price (Kit form: £120 ready assembled: £170).

The built in BASIC did have some limitations, such as only being able to use integer variables. An optional 4K ROM could be added to the machine and gave the programmer the ability to use floating point numbers, trigonometric functions to convert degrees/radians and also to draw graphics in color.

Being able to see graphics in colour during the era of disco was truly a sight to behold. More add-ons were also available to enable autonumbering, a faster cassette interface (running at an incredible 1200 bauds), and functions such as INKEY$, MID$, READ, DATA, FILL and so on. There was even a BBC BASIC board available.

Speed, as of other machines during the era was pretty standard at 1Mhz, courtesy of a 6502 processing unit.

A lot of applications were available on sideways ROMs that plugged into the spiffily named "utility ROM socket", such as the "Atom Word Pack ROM" which could be used for word processing or Atom-Calc, which was a 4K ROM spreadsheet. It doesn't sound quite as cool as Excel does it?

A colour card could be connected to the BUS connector, to give the system eight colors, 4 simultaneously at the 64 x 192 resolution or 2 at 128 x 192 for example. Mind you, you needed asbestos gloves if you went anywhere near one of these baby's as they tended to overheat dramatically.

The sound generator was a simple beeper, similar to the beeper that would be installed inside the ZX Spectrum a couple of years down the line. Still, any sound on a home micro at this point in time was a Brucey bonus! It was possible to expand the sound generated by directly accessing the sound I/O port and manipulating it at a certain frequency - the first ever home computer fart was generated this way.

The machine itself does resemble it's later offerings (such as the BBC Micro) in appearance, using a similar colour scheme and style. None of them ever stood out to the eye when sitting on the shelf. What was packed away inside really counted.

A lot of other peripherals were developed for the machine including:

A 5.25 inch floppy disk drive which was capable of storing 100K of data. This held the DOS in a 3K ROM but actually cost about twice as much as a new Atom. Did they use an integer based program to work out the price?
A digital-tape recorder, yes that is correct, a DIGITAL TAPE RECORDER!
A printer interface.
A network card known as 'EcoNet' which could enable the linking of up to 250 Atoms running at 210 K/Bauds transfer rate. A network without windows! RAM expansions were also available.

Whilst it was never a classic games machine, this machine really got the company moving.

Those guys at Acorn were really ahead of their time in many ways eh?

We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.

If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.

NAME: ATOM
MANUFACTURER: Acorn Computers
MACHINE TYPE: Home Computer
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
RELEASE YEAR: (1979 production) 1980
END OF PRODUCTION: 1983
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Basic and machine code
KEYBOARD: QWERTY full-stroke keyboard containing 60 keys
CPU: 6502
SPEED: 1 mHz
CO-PROCESSOR: 6847 Video Display Generator, PIA 8255 (keyboard and tape)
RAM: 2 KB (but up to 12 KB was availbale, or 32 KB using an external RAM expansion kit) VRAM 6 KB
ROM: 8 KB (Atom BASIC and COS), up to 16 KB
TEXT MODES: 32 x 24 / 16 x 12
GRAPHICS MODES: 64x64 (4 cols), 64x96 (4 cols), 128x96 (monochrome), 64x192 (4 cols), 128x92
COLORS: 8
SOUND: Built-in beeper
SIZE / WEIGHT: 15'' long x 9.5'' deep x 2.5'' high
I/O PORTS: Tape interface, UHF Modulated TV output, Acorn Bus Extension
POWER SUPPLY: External PSU - 8v 2A
PRICE: Kit form retailed at £120 Ready made retailed at £170 (UK, 1983)

Retro Computers and classic games

Retro Gaming and Computing fond memories - Retro Gaming

2009-01-26T14:00:00.011Z

Old school micro and retro gaming and retro computing - what's all this about you ask? Well....

There are many of us that have fond memories of our first computer, or even our first actual 'go' on a computer (my first proper go on a computer was my friends Sinclair ZX81). We aim to take a lighthearted look back over the years at a myriad of machines, consoles and games, and recount experiences from those magical days. Retro gaming is enjoyed by many, and some of us have a real passion for it.

We will cover many machines from bygone era's, ranging from well known machines such as the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Atari ST, to lesser known models (though no less important) such as the Oric 1, Dragon 32 and Acorn Atom.

So please, dig out an old can of Quatro and let Mart and Bri regaile you and re-live those distant memories of a time when computing was diverse, your options were plenty, and programmers pushed machines to and beyond their limitations.

Regards,
Mart and Bri - The Uber Retro gaming geeks.