Retrocomputing Stack Exchange
Retrocomputing Stack Exchange

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1500 questions
21
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1 answer

Logo of a bow tie guy with a spoon

I was in the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley last week, and I saw this badge. I know I've seen that logo somewhere before, but I can't remember where! Does anyone know where it's from?
Allanrbo
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What does it take to recreate microchips like 68000 and 6502 in their original process nodes nowadays?

I am trying to figure out what type of machines could be used to reconstruct these chips nowadays. It doesn't need to use exactly the same machines used to build them, it's just that the product should be very close. I cannot find much about the…
user36088
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What causes the traces to wrinkle like this and should I be worried

I have a Macintosh SE in my collection and I noticed these odd looking traces on the mainboard. Not quite sure what to think of it
yanagibashi
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Did the IBM PC use the 8088's NMI line?

As I understand it, the Intel 8088 CPU used in the original IBM PC had two interrupt lines: INTR and NMI. INTR was fed from the Intel 8259 Programmable Interrupt Controller, which handled the IRQs from the rest of the system (and presented the…
smitelli
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9 answers

Intel 8080-based home computers

I'd like to build an FPGA replica of a home computer based on the Intel 8080. I am not looking to design my own computer, since I would like to tap into an existing software base. Were there any Intel 8080 based home computers? To clarify, I would…
Cactus
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2 answers

Why do NES sprites flicker when there are a lot of them?

Sometimes, NES sprites flicker when there are a lot of them, like at 1:19 in this video of Super Mario Bros. Why did they do this?
NobodyNada
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What LISP compilers and interpreters were available for 8-bit machines?

What LISP or LISP-like language compilers and interpreters were available for 8-bit microcomputers? Criteria for "8-bit" include that it should certainly run and execute non-trivial programs given no more than 64 KB of RAM, and ideally it should run…
cjs
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3 answers

When and what was the first 3D acceleration device ever released?

Plain and simple, we know that consumer level 3D acceleration devices roughly appeared in the middle of the 90s, with brands like Matrox, 3DFX, Nvidia and so on. However, such technology for sure must have been available way before for…
Eric Cartman
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Was there ever any real use for a 6800-based Apple 1?

This is kind of a difficult question to phrase since the Apple 1 wasn't really that well adopted of a platform - under 200 of them made and mostly abandoned by the company within 2 years. That being said, it did have an interesting feature of being…
bjb
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Fate of mystery Motorola RMS graphics chipset (68486 + 68487)

I recently learned that mid 1980s, Motorola was working on a discrete graphics chipset that would be a great leap forward from its 6847 Video Display Generator and 6845 display controller. It was called the RMS (R.M.S. or Raster Management System)…
Fedor Alexander Steeman
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1 answer

Can I hook up an Atari 8-bit computer to a flat-screen tv

I'm interested in getting an Atari 8-bit (like I had 30 years ago), but have only LCD TVs (and computer monitors). Can I hook this Atari to a flat screen TV, or do I need an analog CRT?
George McKinney
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Were there any commercially available graphical interfaces before the apple Lisa?

I just finished the Steve Jobs biography and I thought... Was the apple Lisa really the first commercially available Graphical interface? This is just out of interest but I'll be really interested to know!
Peter Warrington
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What was the first console to have temporary backward compatibility?

The first five generations of game consoles typically had no backward compatibility. New console, new hardware design, new games. (An exception was the Atari 7800, which as far as I know was the first console to have backward compatibility.…
rwallace
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8 answers

Did any laptop computers have a built-in 5¼-inch floppy drive?

In the early era of “portable” or luggable computers, such as the mains powered Osborne 1 and the Compaq Portable, 5¼-inch floppy drives were the standard storage medium. When battery-powered laptops came of age in the late 1980s, 90 mm (“3½-inch”)…
Kaz
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Unknown Apple to VGA adapter

I've got this Apple to VGA adapter. I cannot remember what model this is for: it has got a male DB-15 pin connector at one side, and female DE-15 connector at the other side. As you can see, it has got a row of 10 microswitches also. I lost the…
mcleod_ideafix
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