RetroElectroDad
@retroelectrodad.bsky.social
Level 16 husband/father/software developer by trade. Vintage computer/video game console collector by hobby. Live by the coast in the North East of England.
Love this new pickup that arrived this morning. Synapse Software always produced quality titles on the Atari and this is a favourite. Drelbs. Not an easy game to describe, mostly you see it described as a maze chase but that really doesn’t cover it. Ported later to C64 and Apple ][.
This morning I had two Archimedes A3010s, one known working and one unknown. Had a couple of hours so finally got around to battery removal and any necessary cleanup. The working machine had some leakage damage, the other was clean and has an IDE drive. I now have two non-working A3010s. Typical.
A bit of cleaning in the sun on this Spectrum 128. No retrobrighting needed - the benefit of black old computers.
Just arrived - the Programmer’s Reference Manual for RISC OS 3. Just waiting now for the C/C++ compiler set to go with it. Reading the first chapters on the Archimedes really makes me think the Archies should have trounced the Amiga. Seems to beat it on every metric.
Bioshock Collection reduced on the Nintendo eshop to £7.99. Could not resist.
I had a strange feeling that I already had a copy of this when it arrived but brushed it off. Turned out that I did already have it. Deja Vu for the Atari ST by Mindscape.
New arrival - a Mac Performa 400 that came with software and games. Here trying out Another World.
Lucky enough to find a manual for the Compaq 386/20e I bought a while back, even including the tape drive. #retrocomputing
Always good to hear some Atari 8-bit mentions on @thisweekinretro.bsky.social and this week supplied by @savetz.bsky.social. Thoroughly enjoyed the episode.
Completed this issue of C&VG October ‘84 with the flexi-disc that arrived yesterday. Now, if I could find the C64 version that you had to write to them to request it…
This week on The Digital Antiquarian: "Bullfrog in the Dungeon" www.filfre.net/2025/08/bull...
» Bullfrog in the Dungeon The Digital Antiquarian
filfre.net
Once I knew this existed I just had to have it.
I will never again complain that my Atari 800XL took 15 minutes to load Solo Flight from cassette. My PS5 is taking over an hour to set up Assassin’s Creed Shadows from the Blu Ray drive! And they call it progress.
One of my favourite blogs is covering one of my favourite old machines, the TI-99/4a... bumbershootsoft.wordpress.com/2025/02/22/w...
Writing Cartridge Software for the TI-99/4A
Last week’s adventures revolved around TI BASIC and its extensions. Those extensions were shipped as cartridges, or, in TI parlance, “command modules.” This week we’ll trans…
bumbershootsoft.wordpress.com
A Eurogamer article yesterday on Lucasfilm Games told me something I didn’t realise… Star Raiders on the Atari 400/800 directly inspired Rescue on Fractalus! which led to Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (that started out as “Return to Fractalus”).
Choose 20 games that greatly influenced you. One game per day, for 20 days. No particular order. Day 6: Asteroids (Atari) If I could buy one arcade machine this would be the one. #games #gamechallenge
Choose 20 games that greatly influenced you. One game per day, for 20 days. No particular order. Day 5: Tetris (Nintendo Game Boy) This must be at or near the top of the list of games most developers wish they had come up with. Perfect for the Game Boy. I lost days to it. #games #gamechallenge
Choose 20 games that greatly influenced you. One game per day, for 20 days. No particular order. Day 4: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (XBox 360) Skyrim may take the plaudits but for me it's Oblivion. That moment you exit the tutorial prison and emerge into the open world... #games #gamechallenge
Choose 20 games that greatly influence you. One game per day, for 20 days. No particular order. Day 3: Star Raiders (Atari 8-bit) This was a system seller. Take the old Star Trek mainframe game, speed it up, make it loud, fast and pseudo 3D. Do it in 8K of ROM. Astounding. #games #gamechallenge
Choose 20 games that greatly influence you. One game per day, for 20 days. No particular order. Day 2: Kick Off 2 (Amiga) The reason I bought an Amiga. Friends had it and I was desperate to be able to play it any time I wanted. Sensible Soccer didn't really do it for me. #games #gamechallenge
Choose 20 games that greatly influence you. One game per day, for 20 days. No particular order. Day 1: Lunar Rescue I loved this early arcade game so much. The first game I ever wrote was a version of this in Ext. BASIC on my TI-99/4a computer and played surprisingly well. #games #gamechallenge
Jack Tramiel wanted a new 64-kilobyte home computer in time for CES in January '82. He notified his engineers of this in late November, 1981. In their own words, the developers talk about the design sprint that followed created the world's best selling home computer.
Creating the Commodore 64: The Engineers’ Story
IEEE.ORG
spectrum.ieee.org
Old Macs..... When trying to connect an old Mac to WiFi, in my case running 10.6.8 Snow Leopard, if you get a prompt asking for a username and password try turning off the router's "fast roaming" 802.11r support. It took me ages to find a solution for this in an obscure forum post from 2013.
Hot off the podcast press Atari 8-bit goodness ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-episod...
ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast: ANTIC Episode 113 - Feeling Fancy!
ANTIC Episode 113 - Feeling Fancy! In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… The clear case Kickstarter doesn’t make it, lots of FujiNet news, and we end the year 2024 with a bang by ...
ataripodcast.libsyn.com
Just collected a new arrival that I’ve wanted a good while now. Finally found a Roland MT-32 MIDI sound module for a decent price as it has a replacement volume knob.
This week on The Digital Antiquarian: Half-Life This week on The Digital Antiquarian: Half-Life www.filfre.net/2024/12/half...
» Half-Life The Digital Antiquarian
filfre.net
New arrivals today for a bit of bedtime reading. Your Computer magazine was one of my absolute favourites in the mid 80s.
Budget cassette releases were a lifeline for Atari 400/800/XL/XE owners at the time. Many were high quality releases given a new lease of life like these Spy vs Spy games I have.
