Leaded Solder - page 2
Posts
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Dick Smith's Wizzard-ry 8 (Bit)
Sure, I’ve cloned TI TMS99xx-based systems before. There’s the ColecoVision and the Sega SG-1000. But those were all Z80s, and it’s important to diversify my interests a little bit. Luckily, VTech released a little 6502-based system called the CreatiVision, and let the schematics get out.
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Mouse in the Artdink House (Travelling to Tokio, Part 3)
With the NEC PC-9801RA2, I’ve fought bad power supplies, battery corrosion, case rust, weird NEC design decisions, and flaky floppy drives. The only thing that’s keeping me from enjoying my quirky Japanese space-simulation game, Artdink’s Tokio, is the lack of a mouse. How can “just go buy a mouse” turn into an entire article? You’re about to find out.
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Breaking out of the Snail Maze
Snail Maze. Either you know what it is, or your video game system didn’t come with a free video game hidden deep within its logic board. Or you bought a later Sega Master System, which didn’t have it. But what if we could bring Snail Maze to those later Master Systems? What if, indeed?
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Mattel's Little Friend
As I’ve gotten deeper into the world of 8-bit computers, one mass-market, North American computer has resisted my attempts to obtain it. That computer is the Mattel Aquarius, and it is at last within my grasp. Or at least it would be, if it would act a little nicer.
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It's All Above Single-Board
When you get a gift, the best thing to do is to put it on your pile of projects for several months, and then slowly assemble it over the course of a year. That gift, of course, is an Office Tetsu MC6809E-based single board computer. It was given to me by blog superfriend CDP, who had ordered a set of them and surely wasn’t going to build five.
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Why, you three-bit machine...
My NEC PC-6601SR “Mr.PC” has been a nearly permanent resident of my desk ever since it was repaired. This beautiful red computer works okay with a regular old VGA LCD monitor. So why did I pay a fortune to import a CRT monitor from Japan? There are two reasons. For one, it is the NEC PC-TV151 monitor that’s supposed to go with this computer. Also, it’s broken.
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Pippin in My Orchard
One of my white whales finally came up for a price that I could justify. Let’s see just how wounded it is, and then welcome it home with a little bit of help from some smart friends.
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Mastering the BASICs
Hitachi made a bunch of computers, none of which seemed to have that much penetration in the Western market. Perhaps their most popular series was the Basic Master. This very late model of BASIC Master has floated into my life.
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How Test Suite It Is
You can always tell when it’s the holidays. The days are getting shorter, I’m always going out to shovel snow off the sidewalk, and I have a hankering to build a Famicom cartridge. Or, more specifically, a blog friend asked me to put one together, so I’m using my Tengen Tetris piracy skills… for good?
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Becoming Mr.PC's Type
Like the Sharp X1turbo, the Mr.PC is also not very usable without a keyboard. It’s yet another way in which NEC copied Sharp.
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