Retrocomputing Stack Exchange
Retrocomputing Stack Exchange

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1500 questions
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Game Boy DMG to VGA

I have a Game Boy DMG with a broken screen that I want to turn into a small arcade machine, so I need to display the Game Boy screen on a bigger (computer) screen. I tried doing so with an Arduino. I feel the code was alright but the Arduino and the…
likewut007
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Do we know the problems the University of Manchester's Transistor Computer was intended to solve?

We can see that the University of Manchester built a transistor computer in 1952. This appears to have been the first transistor computer. We can see that the design was used in the Metrovick 950. My question is: Do we know the problems the…
hawkeye
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Is it possible to run Linux on a GBA SP?

I have a couple of old Game Boy Advance SP systems around somewhere, and I was wondering if it's possible to get an old version of Linux running on one. I'm just doing it for fun, and thought that it might be cool to do if it is possible.
Jordan M. Baron
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Is the Game Boy Sharp LR35902 object-compatible with the 8080/Z-80?

(Note: by "object-compatible" I mean that the opcodes and their following operands are the same—the assembler produces the same output for equivalant assembler mnemonics. This of course excludes calling conventions, etc., because these are…
cjs
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What is the oldest commercial MS-DOS program that can run on modern versions of Windows without third-party software?

What is the oldest commercial MS-DOS program that can run on modern versions of Windows (such as Windows 8.1 or Windows 10) without third-party emulators?
Anixx
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Was there ever a Kickstart that took advantage of 68020+ instructions that would work on an A2000?

Back in the day with my A2500/30, I always wanted to get the 68030 versions of software if I could because presumably I'd be able to get a few percentage more performance in some cases. However, I get the sense that most non-AGA software was always…
bjb
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What order were files/directories output in dir?

In the version of command.com included with MS-DOS, DIR seems to print files in a random order, but if one runs multiple DIR commands, they all print the files in the same order. This order does not appear to be based on date, size, or…
TSJNachos117
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What is the CoCo "Head Banger bug" and what is the "fix"?

I remember that horrible racket coming from the floppy disk when I first used it after started my CoCo, and that it was called the "Head Banger bug". I remember that it was due to a quick-n-nasty bit of code by the original designers – but what was…
John Burger
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Did Nintendo change its mind about 68000 SNES?

Compared to its main rival from Sega, the Super Nintendo has a weaker CPU but a more powerful graphics chip. According to http://web.archive.org/web/20080505070423/http://www.eidolons-inn.net/tiki-index.php?page=SegaBase+Genesis The system as…
rwallace
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Which communication protocol is used in AdLib sound card?

By "AdLib sound card" I mean AdLib Music Synthesizer Card released in 1987. Wikipedia says that AdLib uses frequency modulation synthesis to produce sound, but does it use MIDI communication protocol or some another way? It's entirely possible that…
john c. j.
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Different escape codes for the same keyboard keys -- where did they come from?

While debugging uart on some microcontroller board, I've made a simple firmware that simply responds on every byte received dumping that byte in HEX like "0x**". Then, using different terminal emulators in linux, I've found that there are many…
lvd
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What are Hollerith machines?

While going through the memoirs of a witness of the Holocaust in Germany, I stumbled upon the passage: there in Rudolfstadt we had a new holorydmachine from the Americans - in the barn of a farmer - to calculate the salaries of the officers. It…
Marco
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Memory sharing mechanism in the Amstrad CPC computer

In the Amstrad CPC464 (and I guess it's the same for CPC664 and 6128), the CRTC and the gate array work together to build the display image: every microsecond, the CRTC puts a memory address and a byte is read, and the gate array receives that byte…
mcleod_ideafix
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Why can't VirtualBox install drivers for Windows 95B?

I can complete the installation of Windows 95 (B version) in VirtualBox, but it has a problem installing some of the drivers (see image below). Even when the installation disk is mounted and I click 'OK', it can't seem to find it, and I have to…
Retro Gamer
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How can MS-DOS be installed on VirtualBox?

As part of the MSDN subscription I just got, I can download MS-DOS 6.22 (wow indeed). I want to install it to a VirtualBox VM so I can try old games and viruses (due to viruses, I can't install it to DOSBox- some viruses would infect my actual…
ave
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