Trying to organize my modern retro systems. From left to right - the #mega65, #zxspectrum Next, Foenix F256K and Amiga 1200. Still have to find places for the Commander X16 and a few others. Maybe clean off the top shelf! I wish I had a huge room that I could keep them all hooked up at once.

Whenever one of my middle school students calls me over to look at their code that isn't working I always get a bit nervous because you never know what kind of non-Euclidian, Cthulhuian, spaghetti mess you are walking into. #stem #coding #stemeducation

Finally, got my video on a Hunt the Wumpus on the #Mega65 @mega65.bsky.social uploaded! Lots of issues caused me to have to shoot it about 547 times....the D81 is now uploaded. Have fun, improve it, it has been a long time since I did anything in BASIC so I was rusty!! youtu.be/Pip6d3JzjLk?...

IT WORKS!!! I saw this #TRS-80 on eBay, new seller w/ 0 feedback, asking too much for starting bid, dropped it to $150, I went for it. I was expecting it to arrive in pieces. It's covered in grunge. The screen is bright with no burn in, drives work!!!! I'm looking forward to this restore job.

Commodore and their mice in the 80's - they all looked alike! I thought this was a broken 1351 mouse as it would not work. Turns out it's a 1350 which is not a mouse as it reports directions like a joystick. I wrote a short program on my Mega65, and it showed it was reporting joystick dir.

My Hunt the Wumpus on the @mega65.bsky.social #mega65 is coming along! It should be 100% playable tomorrow evening, I'm not saying it will be done, just saying it will be playable. It would be done tonight, but I have a football game to watch. #retrocomputing www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/i6yh0...

SNOW DAY THE NEXT TWO DAYS! I have been threatening to write a graphical Hunt the Wumpus on the #Mega65 from @mega65.bsky.social! I get so little time with my retro machines, but I think tomorrow is the day for it! Cold, snowy days with a cup of hot cocoa really gets my creativity flowing!

40 years ago today in #retrocomputing history the #Commodore 128 was released at the 1985 CES show in Las Vegas, Nevada. From then on, most C128 users just typed "GO 64" from the boot screen. C64 compatibility might have been the thing that held the C128 back.

I take a look at the new #Raspberrypi 500 and the new Raspberry Pi monitor and stress test and overclock the Pi 500 and look at its thermals. Can I get it to 3.1GHz on stock cooling? youtu.be/tnEbT9CnpkI?...

I finally got to open my Christmas present from my mother-in-law today. The 2021 #Atari VCS. When it was released at $400, I said no way. But the recent Black Friday sale was $99 and that was good enough for me to buy or ask for it for Christmas. #RETROGAMING

Apparently someone is still manufacturing new ribbons for the #commodore64 MPS-801 printer. I bought these from Ribbons Unlimited, hopefully I can try them out soon. May decorate my classroom with Print Shop prints..... Note - I assume they are new reproductions.

I accidentally came across this series of #retrocomputing books on eBay when one came up in my recommendations so I bought a few, now I need to collect the whole series..... I haven't done anything with FORTRAN since.....1988.... #vintagecomputing

About 2-3 days b4 Christmas I decided to make a Xmas themed space invaders game in #python and #pygame. I did not make the deadline of Christmas due to being super busy! I made a video, and you can find the GitHub link in the video description: #coding #programming youtu.be/MfiGlsJxUaw?...

Picked up some reading material over the last couple of days. That's right, I've never actually read "Ready Player One". Looking forward to reading them all.

Going to be trying both of these out in the next couple of days A FujiNet for my #Atari800XL and TeensyRom for my #commodore64.

I wonder what's in the box... #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing

Santavaders is done!!! It's about 1,000 lines of poorly written #python code! I will clean it up and do a video on it and stick it on GitHub! I need to start next years Christmas game way earlier!

I'm about to put on my "back in my day" hat... We got Caroline a new laptop for XMas and I'm setting it up. I've been at this for almost an hr, setting up accounts, downloading updates, restoring from her PC, rebooting 18 times... I miss the "take it out of the box and use it immediately" days.

Two days ago I got a wild hair to write a #Christmas  themed game called "Santavaders" in #Python essentially a space invaders clone and do a video. Dont think I'm gonna be done by XMas, 90% there, but I'm out of time, it's Christmas Eve, time to watch A Christmas Story and play Letters to Santa.

ITS FINALLY HERE!!! My Roguecraft Zero Clucks Edition from @badgerpunch.com ! It went across the pond to the US, and then USPS immediately sent it back to GB then turned around and finally got to me on Christmas Eve! Roguecraft is the best game released for the #Amiga in 2024! Beware the Chickens.

Here is a Tom's Hardware article about that bakery that still uses Commodore 64's to run their point of sale cash registers. It makes me wonder how many of the old machines are still behind the scenes doing work. #commodore64 #retrocomputing www.tomshardware.com/desktops/ind...

Let's learn us some Fortran 77. I thought this was my Fortran 77 textbook from college but it was published in 1990, I learned Fortran 77 in 1988.

Well how about that...the #commodore64 was a quantum computer.... www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...

I have been grading my students text adventure games they made in Adventuron @adventuron.bsky.social I was blown away, they were really creative. They are middle school and many of them have never coded before, it was a struggle for them. No, they're not perfect, but I find them amazing! #STEM

I have been grading my students text adventure games they made in Adventuron @adventuron.bsky.social I was blown away, they were really creative. They are middle school and many of them have never coded before, it was a struggle for them. No, they're not perfect, but I find them amazing! #STEM

I gave not really done a "coding" video in a really long time, but if you are participating in the Vex robotics contest this year, I have made a short (20 min) video on how to get the Swish bot example code up and operational. youtu.be/srpVehTzHJM

Tonight's project! I've owned this kit for awhile, I actually have the PiDP-11 and the PiDP-10 figure I should complete the trio! #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing

Just watched The Rubber Keyed Wonder about the ZX Spectrum, it was SO GOOD! Received the link to watch it a year ago but just got to it. I grew up in the US w/a Commodore 64 so I did not know much about the Spectrum. I had a 2068 + TS1000. You can pry my ZX Spectrum Next from my cold, dead hands!

Thanksgiving break you say? Nah, time for the DeWitt Perry robotics club to work on robots! While the kids work on robots I brought a couple projects to work on, a VT-100 terminal emulator, a pico 6502 computer to build and a terminal and VGA board for my Altair 8800 replica. #retrocomputing

Happy #FibonacciDay ! Today's date 11/23 matches the first four digits of the Fibonacci sequence! Here's a poem in which the numbers of words on each line match the Fibonacci sequence.