Posts tagged "Magic Smoke"
In these entries, a component of the system failed dramatically, usually because of me.
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The BBC Tetris Companion
Ever done dumb stunts for your friends on a dare? I was hanging out with a bunch of fellow old-computer ne’er-do-wells when the topic of the BBC Bridge Companion came up. It was a useless thing to own, they said, although many of the assembled group had already owned one at some time or another. If you don’t know how to play bridge, then why even bother? Well, I know how to play Tetris, and I know how to write Z80 assembly, or at least I thought I did.
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A SPARC makes a little fire
Way back in May of 2018, I was unable to get the SparcStation 1+ to stop returning “Illegal Instruction” errors for any attempt at booting. This made absolutely no sense to anyone I asked about it, and they suggested replacing the PROM battery, because at least then we’d have fewer known-broken parts in the computer. I ignored this advice, and just stuck the computer in a corner with the other broken machines for awhile so it could think about what it did.
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Tandy 1000SX power supply has an oops
I picked up a Tandy 1000SX recently. My plan is to use it for experimenting with Tandy graphics and sound, and maybe even port a few hobbyist games to the platform. As per usual with my pick-ups, this one needs a little bit of work before it can be usable.
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The Magic Smoke SE
Fresh off the success of the trace-repaired Genesis, I decided that I was an electronics god and could fix anything. That’s why I ordered this untested Mac SE from a place in Texas, where it was listed as being good to make a movie prop out of.
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Super Famicom Repair-O-Rama!
I bought a large lot of Super Famicoms off of Japanese auction for cheap, and set about trying to repair them. Almost all of them had problems.