News
A hand-picked, aggregated news feed for fans of retro / 8-bit computers.
Recently added/updated stories:
RGN Gamer's Choice Award 2023
RGN have announced the top ten Favourite Commodore 64 games of 2023
C64 OS Release
Gregorio Nacu has released a more modern OS for the C64.
The set of tools aims to make the C64 feel fast and useful in today's world.
Gregorio is selling the system on a physical card for SD2IEC
4kb 'Craptastic' Game Compo Collection available
Reset64 present the collection of fun games which are the entries to this year's 'Craptastic' game competition.
Entries are no more than 4kb (compressed) and often contain humour and silliness.
You can now download the collection.
Triangular OS for Vic
Triangular OS is a operating system with GUI for the VIC20.
http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10352
The Second AMSCII Art Compo
The competitionwill run throughout the month of June. The submissions can be sent until June 24
As with petscii competitions, this is a competition specifically for artwork using the built-in characters of the Amstrad, one character per cell with background and foreground colour.
ABBUC 2022 software competition is open
The ATARI Bit Byter User Club, ABBUC, have opened their annual software competition.
Entries should be able to run on an Atari 8-Bit computers and will be ranked 0 (very bad) to 10 (very good)
www.vintageisthenewold.com/2022-abbuc-software-contest-it-is-time-for-your-atari-program-to-shine
2022 Basic 10 Liner Contest - winners announced
82 programs were submitted and there are some amazing entries. vintageisthenewold have compiled a list of the winners and provided links to the scores and the downloads.
www.vintageisthenewold.com/2022-basic-10-liners-contest-publishes-the-winners
Checkmate CRT-style monitors for retro computers
Stephen Jones, known for the Checkmate Amiga cases, is starting a Kickstarter campaign for 17" and 19" monitors designed for use with Amiga and other retro computers.
They have the aesthetic of CRT monitors and made to a very high standard.
2022 Reset64 4KB Craptastic Game Competition
ausretrogamer have announced the 2022 Reset C64 4KB game coding competition.
The theme once again is 'Craptastic' which can mean what you want it to mean - terrible but funny is the general idea.
Submit entries to RESET64 (via email) by 30th June, 2022 (23:59:59 GMT)
ausretrogamer.com/2022-reset64-4kb-craptastic-game-competition
BASIC 10-liner competition open
The BASIC 10-liner competition is now open. There are a number of categories but all 8-bit systems are allowed.
It's fun to watch the entries roll in (and to play them). If you're able to program, why not give it a go?
C64 Gamers' Choice Award 2021
RGN has published his final round-up of the year which includes the Retro Gamer Nation Gamers' Choice Awards 2021.
The winners were chosen by a panel of prominent C64 gamers. The winners and nominees are listed in this video.
ABBUC Software Contest winners announced
The Atari Bit Byter User Club (ABBUC) Software Contest 2021 opened in April, closed for entries in August, the voting is done and the winners have been announced.
In a convincing first place was a Bombjack port for Atari XL/XE. Saberman has some footage of the gameplay here.
The top 10 and more details of the other entries are all on this board on the AtariAge forum.
atariage.com/forums/topic/319869-abbuc-software-contest-2021/page/3
RIP Sir Clive Sinclair
Sir Clive Sinclair passed away on 16 September 2021 aged 81.
His achievements were many but his greatest was to build home computers that were affordable for everyone and help put a computer into every home.
I've struggled to find an obituary in the press that doesn't focus on his failed C5, so I'm linking to Cambridge's Centre for Computing History's page.
The Official C64 SEUCK Compo 2021 Results
The results of the 2021 C64 SEUCK (shoot-em-up-construction-kit) have been announced. You can see footage of all 9 entries, ranked in order, here on tnd64's Youtube channel.
Congratulations to winner Alf Yngve and his innovative use of the construction kit.
Demo running on 1541
Matthias Kramm has made a demo that runs on 1541 with the computer removed. The drive generates the video signal itself.
New C64c cases: pre-orders opened
The brand new C64C cases from original moulds, sold through the pixelwizard shop have been unavailable for a while.
Individual Computers will shortly have new stock and are taking pre-orders.
Through UPS, the parcels can be sent to USA, Australia, New Zealand and other non-EU countries at reasonable prices and with faster delivery times than previously with DHL.
icomp.de/shop-icomp/de/newsreader/items/new-c64c-cases-pre-orders-open.html
Amstrad CPC ASCII Art Competition
Martin Roscher has created the First Amstrad ASCII Compo. starting on 28 May, running through to 30 June.
He has created an add-on for the tool Playscii, a very versatile tool to create not only different kinds of ASCII art but also animations. The compo website also includes a full tutorial on how to use Playscii, specifically for the Amstrad CPC.
vintageisthenewold.com/amstrad-cpc-ascii-art-competition-starts-next-week
The C64 'Cassette 50' Charity Competition : submissions available to play in browser
Cassette 50 was an infamous collection of 'shovelware', games marketed on quantity rather than quality.
This competition aims to create a brand new compilation tape with proceeds to charity, featuring games by developers of all levels of experience, retaining the look and feel of a Cassette 50 game, such as it was!
Submissions are now closed, 50 entries are available for playing in a browser, although not released until the tape is available. There's lots of fun to be had!
The C64 'Cassette 50' Charity Competition
Cassette 50 was an infamous collection of games based on sheer quantity rather than the quality or playability of its games.
This competition is about creating a brand new compilation tape - with any proceeds to be donated to charity - and is open to C64 developers of all levels of experience.
Submissions open from December 8th 2020 at 12:00 AM to March 31st 2021 at 12:00 AM
SEUCK competition 2021 open for submissions
The Shoot Em Up Construction Kit or SEUCK is a menu-driven shoot-em-up game creator.
The official 2021 competition is held by The New Dimension and already has 2 entries, Their Machine and Bee Insect Attacking, which you can download and play.
CSDb "Only Sprites Compo" winners announced
CSDb received games and demos for its sprites-only competition, so it decided to divide entries into the two categories.
Congratulations to Booze Design for Sprite Invaders which is a very playable version of Space Invades.
Full results are at the link below.
Top 11 Amstrad CPC Games of 2020
Novabug has published this video for Indie Retro News showing his top 11 CPC games (with honourable mentions).
www.indieretronews.com/2021/01/top-11-amstrad-cpc-games-of-2020.html
Zeta Wing takes out RGN C64 Gamers' Choice Award
Retro Gamer Nation has announced the winners of the C64 Gamers' Choice 2020 award.
Zeta Wing by Sarah Jane Avory takes first place by public vote with Fix-it-Felix Jr and Millie and Molly close behind.
retrogamernation.com/zeta-wing-takes-out-rgn-c64-gamers-choice-award
C64 Gamers' Choice 2020 Award open for voting
The poll for the 3rd annual RGN Commodore 64 Gamers' Choice 2020 Award is now open.
The 20 finalists have been curated by RGN but the winner of the C64 Gamers Choice is to be determined by popular vote where every C64 gamer is able to select up to 5 games as part of their vote.
Indie Retro News C64 Game Awards 2020
Because there are so many new games, IRN have created categories for their 2020 awards: Best Game, Best Budget Game and C64 Genius of the Year. Here are the nominees and winners.
www.indieretronews.com/2020/12/indie-retro-news-c64-game-awards-2020.html
Winners of CPCRetroDev competition announced
CPCRetroDev is a competition for developers of Amstrad CPC464 games. There were many entries in 2020 and the winners have been announced; The abduction of Oscar Z, Sorcerers and Anima, plus some special prizes.
All entries are available for download.
Port of l'Abbaye des Morts entered ino MSXDev'20 competition
The MSXDev'20 competition entries came in very slowly but as the deadline approaches, the number has risen.
Entry #15 is a port of l'Abbaye des Morts which has been a hit on other platforms.
Entries are listed on this page:
DIY MechBoard64
MtnBuffalo has released the files for the MechBoard64, the brand new C64 keyboard.
SEUCK competition 2020
The SEUK (shoot-em-up construction kit) competition 2020 has closed for entries and is open for voting.
As the name suggests, the SEUK allows developers to easily build Commodore 64 shoot-em-up games.
There are nine entries in the showcase, and they're available for download.
2020 Reset64 4KB Craptastic Game Competition
Again in competition news, the Reset C64 4KB game coding competition for 2020 is open, and the theme this time is 'Craptastic'.
This doesn't necessarily mean crap, although it can! Ausretrogamer has the announcement.
www.ausretrogamer.com/2020-reset64-4kb-craptastic-game-competition
2020 BASIC 10-Liner Contest is Live and celebrating the 10th anniversary
The tenth edition of the BASIC 10-Liner Contest is open for submissions.
BASIC games can be written for all 8-bit computers, as long they are line-oriented dialects.
The most pure category is the PUR-80 category which allows only built-in BASIC and limited to 80 characters per logical line. There are other categories with higher limitations. This year there is also a category for a demo, tool or application program in 10 lines.
Vintageisthenewold has the story.
vintageisthenewold.com/2020-basic-10-liner-contest-is-live-and-celebrating-the-10th-anniversary
ZX Spectrum Game of the Year 2019
florinthedwarf chooses his top 9 new Spectrum games of 2019 and picks a winner for Indie Retro News.
www.indieretronews.com/2020/01/zx-spectrum-game-of-year-2019-indie.html
2020 C64 SEUCK Competition is open
The Official C64 SEUCK Compo of 2020 has only just begun but there's already an entry called Guillotine - The Doom Machine by Richard Bayliss.
www.indieretronews.com/2020/01/the-official-c64-seuck-compo-of-2020-is.html
New Year Disc 2020 for Atari 8-bit
The 14th annual 6-disk compilation for Atari 8-bit enthusiasts is available. It contains games, several graphics and intros.
vintageisthenewold.com/new-year-disc-2020-with-games-intros-and-graphics-for-the-atari-8-bit
Neutron wins C64 Gamers' Choice 2019 Award
Congratulations to Sarah Jane Avory for winning the Retro Gamer Nation Gamers' Choice award, decided by reader poll. Neutron won by a very clear margin, runner up was L'abbaye Des Morts.
retrogamernation.com/neutron-wins-c64-gamers-choice-2019-award
Top 11 Amstrad CPC Games of 2019
Over 50 new games were released for the CPC in 2019. Novabug presents his top
www.indieretronews.com/2020/01/top-11-amstrad-cpc-games-of-2019.html
Indie Retro News C64 Game of the Year 2019
Congratulations to Antonio Savona and Saul Cross for being awarded the Indie Retro News C64 Game of the Year for L'abbaye Des Morts.
www.indieretronews.com/2020/01/labbaye-des-morts-indie-retro-news-c64.html
The ZedRipper
The ZedRipper is a 16-core Z80 machine running at 83 MHz. Chris Fenton built it 'for fun' and to see how things might have looked how a multicore approach to multitasking might have looked.
Monty on the Run released for the Atari XL/XE
the game is now available for free. It's a conversion from the 16Kb version released for the Commodore Plus/4 by Gremlin Graphics in 1986.
Rebellion acquires The Bitmap Brothers brand and portfolio
Rebellion, creators of the Sniper Elite Series, has acquired The Bitmap Brothers brand and portfolio and plans to bring the classics to the new platforms as well as release brand-new games based on the beloved licenses.
"We'll strive to be vigilant custodians of one of gaming's great names", said Rebellion CEO and co-founder Jason Kingsley OBE.
vintageisthenewold.com/rebellion-acquires-the-bitmap-brothers-brand-and-portfolio
Apple Macintosh prototype for sale
Bonhams has this prototype Macintosh for sale. It's thought to be one of two surviving prototypes with 5.25" drive. It is expected to fetch up to 140,000 pounds ($180,000 US)
hackaday.com/2019/11/27/just-in-time-for-christmas-apple-macintosh-prototype-for-sale
UNIX version 0, running on a PDP-7, in 2019
Hackaday carries this video from Living Computers Museum showing a PDP-7 (of which there are now thought to be five surviving) running UNIX version 0. A disk emulator was connected and a new device driver written for that.
hackaday.com/2019/11/17/unix-version-0-running-on-a-pdp-7-in-2019
David Allen and Steve Lowry - The BBC Micro and Computer Literacy Project
David Allen and Steve Lowry talk about the development of the Acorn BBC Micro computer and the Computer Literacy Project.
Object of the Year award for Centre for Computing History
Congratulations to the Centre for Computing History. They were awarded Museums in Cambridgeshire's Object of the Year award for the ZX Spectrum prototype.
https://twitter.com/computermuseum/status/1191395032881868802
Alex van Someren - Acorn World Talk
The Centre for Computing History have published this video of Alex van Someren giving a talk about his time at Acorn, helping to develop the BBC and Electron, and also his own company making add-ons.
John Grant talks the Evolution of Communication Technologies
John Grant is a founder of Nine Tiles and a pioneer in early microprocessor operating software, having written the OS for the Sinclair ZX80. After working on the ZX80 and other microcomputers, Mr Grant turned to designing digital networks and "AV-friendly" networking technology.
On 10 October at the Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, UK, he will be giving an insightful talk on the development of communications technologies and the ideas behind them, followed by a Q&A session.
Netflix won an Emmy for Bandersnatch
Winner of Outstanding Television Movie in the 2019 Emmy awards was the Netflix Black Mirror interactive episode Bandersnatch.
The episode's story revolves around a young programmer who takes his idea for a new type of game to a software house. His game is a 'choose your own adventure' and the Black Mirror episode mirrors this by forcing the viewer to make decisions which steer the plot.
There are many 80s references and easter eggs for fans of the computer games of the time.
www.emmys.com/awards/nominees-winners/2019/outstanding-made-for-television-movie
World record performance of The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy using 10 SID chips
David Youd, David Knapp and Joeri van Haren worked together to join ten computers, nine C64s and a C128, to play a world-record rendition of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy at this year's Commodore Retro eXpo.
Hackaday carries the story with a link to the video of the performance.
hackaday.com/2019/09/07/how-many-commodores-does-it-take-to-crack-a-nut
Clube MSX Magazine starts a crowdfunding campaign for reprint of its first issue
Clube MSX is a quarterly printed Brazilian magazine dedicated to the MSX line of computers. The first issue was released on June 2018 at RetroRio. It ships to a number of countries
Clube MSX are currently working on the sixth issue which will be released at the end of September.
Backers will receive other collectors' items such as mug, t-shirt and poster.
vintageisthenewold has the story.
CPCRetroDev 2019
CPCRetroDev 2019 is the 7th edition of the retro videogames creation contest of the University of Alicante. The contest rewards the best and most creative developers of the retro scene, capable of making the best video games for Amstrad CPC 464.
The prize pool is 1650 Euro, split between many prizes in three categories.
Deadline is 30 October, award ceremony 8 November.
Maybe the oldest computer, probably the oddest
the FACOM128 takes up 70 square meters and weighs about 3 tons.
It's a relay-based computer which makes it reliable and fast compared to its tube-based contemporaries.
Tadao Hamada's job at Fujitsu is to keep this machine running. It's thought to be the oldest computer in operation.
It uses a biquinary system which codes decimal digits in 7 bits. It has general purpose memory, specialised memory and read-only memory. Even a floating-point unit. There are more fascinating technical details in this Hackaday article.
hackaday.com/2019/08/03/maybe-the-oldest-computer-probably-the-oddest
8-bit Symphony goes to Prague
Following the huge success of the 8-bit Symphony performance in Hull earlier this year, Chris Abbott has announced plans to take the music to a Prague studio with a huge Hollywood-grade orchestra to record a CD set of the concert tracks. There will be extras; an extended versions of The Last Ninja, the full version of the Green Beret orchestration and a brand new Zoids from Rob himself.
Rob Hubbard says, "Recording with the professional musicians of the Czech Studio Orchestra will be another special event for everyone who loved the originals. The high quality recordings will open up broadcasting, TV, Radio, more arrangements and further live orchestral performances. I'm very excited about the possibilities!"
The project has now launched on Kickstarter at the link below.
Centre for Computing History receives 1m funding boost
Cambridge-based Centre for Computing History (CCH) has received a 1m pound donation from Mike Muller, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and one of the founders of Arm, also based in Cambridge.
The donation enables the museum to purchase its premises, and concentrate efforts on developing what they can offer to visitors and students.
CCH recently received accredited museum status from Arts Council England and was awarded a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant to preserve items and documentation relating to the story of the LEO computer.
www.computinghistory.org.uk/news/54138/The-Centre-for-Computing-History-receives-1m-funding-boost
Retro Computer Festival 2019
7 and 8 September, Centre for Computing History, Cambridge.
The Centre for Computing History promises that the festival will be the largest ever, with more exhibitors and more computers than ever before.
There will be computers coming from all over the world as well as many classic British computers.
Follow the link below for the exhibitor list and some worthwhile videos made at last year's festival.
www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/53612/retro-computer-festival-2019...
Results announced for SEUCK competition 2019
Congratulations to Stefano Canali, Eleanor Burns and Alf Yngve who won first, second and third place in this year's competition.
All entries use the Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit, which allows you to create a game by designing sprites and choosing options.
All entries are available for download higher up the page. The winners were Pagoda Warrior 2, Legion of the Damned and Fulgur.
Apple 1 manual for sale
A manual for the 6502-based Apple-1 has come up for sale. It is expected to fetch $10,000
Is that a ring from a coffee cup?
Apple made 200, of which 20 are thought to survive.
iDownloadBlog has the story.
RGCD C64 16KB Cartridge Competition, entries in and available to play
The competition closed for submissions on 1 July. Entries must be new, original work and be in a 16k cartridge.
There are 20 entries in the 2019 competition, including Sarah Jane Avory's Neutron which has received some attention this year. They're all available for download at the link below.
New pictures of the Mega65
New pictures have been released of the forthcoming Mega65, a new 8-bit computer, "highly compatible" with the C64 and C65.
Memorial in New Hampshire marks the birthplace of BASIC
The birthplace of BASIC has been honoured with a roadside memorial marker in New Hampshire, USA.
The programming language was invented at Dartmouth College in 1964.
www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/17/plaque_for_basic_birthplace_new_hampshire
Sophie Wilson honoured with a CBE
I join the Centre for Computing History in congratulating Sophie Wilson on being awarded a CBE for her services to computing.
Sophie played an important role in designing Acorn's computers including the BBC models and designed the instruction set for one of the first RISC processors, the Acorn RISC Machine (ARM) which has become one of the most successful and important processors today.
She has been named one of the 15 most important women in tech history.
Entries in and voting open for the SEUCK competition 2019
The Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit or SEUCK is a long-established piece of software that allows game designers to create games without coding. Instead there's a series of editors and options.
The object of the Official SEUCK Compo 2019 is to design, plan and develop a Commodore 64 SEUCK game. This year's compo has no particular category or theme
The entries are now available in the 'Showcase' section of this page, for you to download and vote.
TI-99 10 liner competition open
AtariAge have opened a competition for games written in 10 lines of TI BASIC or any version of Extended Basic.
It's always surprising to see what great ideas developers have and what they can do in ten lines.
Whether you're interested in entering or trying the entries, below is the link to the thread for posting entries.
atariage.com/forums/topic/291836-official-10-liner-program-competition-thread
Apple I fetches 371,000 pounds
An Apple I has been sold by Christie's for 371,000 pounds, towards the lower end of the expected range 300,000 to 500,000 pounds ($378,000 to $630,000 US)
the auction also included various other hardware, manuals and schematics.
appleinsider.com/articles/19/05/26/rare-apple-i-fetches-471000-at-christies-auction
8-Bit Symphony - Live at Hull City Hall 15 June 2019
As I write there are still tickets for the live performance of the 8-Bit Symphony, Presented by Hull College Group, Hull Philharmonic Orchestra, Rob Hubbard and C64Audio.com.
A world premiere of epic, sweeping arrangements of 8-bit game music played by a live orchestra with immersive 8-bit visuals and game footage!
With Rob Hubbard as musical director and a stellar guest list including Paul Norman.
Bandersnatch nomintated for BAFTA
Sadly, Netflix's Black Mirror : Bandersnatch didn't win a BAFTA award this week.
It was nominated in three categories; Single Drama, Editing: Fiction, Special Visual and Graphic Effects.
Books and games have allowed you to make choices which affect the outcome, but this may be the first streamed film with such a feature. You have just a few seconds to make each decision. the segues are impressively slick. These branches lead to one of half a dozen different endings.
The film is set in the eighties around the boom in home computing. The lead character, responsible for writing a computer game, which itself is a 'choose your own adventure' game, feels that he's being controlled and forced to make decisions that he may not have chosen himself. There are many references to games and game development of the time. The great Jeff Minter (Llamasoft) makes a cameo appearance.
www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-05-13/bafta-tv-awards-2019-winners-in-full
Commodore 65 prototype for sale
As I write this (12 May) the prototype machine has 10 bids and stands at 17,000 EUR. There's a video showing the machine working and some shots of the inside.
It's estimated that there were between 50-200 of these made. It's an enhanced version of the C64, with "advanced features close to those of the Amiga". It has a chipset including 65CE02 processor and 'Vic-III', compatible with the Vic-II and capable of 256 colours on screen at 320x200 through to 1280x400 with four colours.
www.ebay.nl/itm/Ultra-rare-Commodore-65-prototype/223509001295
Joe Decuir at VCF East 2019
This is Joe Decuir's presentation from VCF East 2019 is available. He talks about designing the early Atari computers, a little on conceptualising the Amiga and some modern developments, all very much from a technical point of view. It's a very interesting and engaging watch.
Story via vintageisthenewold
Duncan Smeed in conversation and Dragon prototype
In this new video from the Centre for Computing History, Jason speaks to Duncan Smeed from Dragon Data, they discuss the history of the Dragon computers and look together at a 16k prototype board for the Dragon 32, and a board for the Dragon Alpha, a stab at a more business-like machine.
Spectrum Next demonstrated at Play Expo
This is Jim Bagley showing off the Spectrum Next at Play Expo, Manchester, 4-5 May.
The Next has a beautiful design by Rick Dickinson. It is compatible with the Spectrum, made with FPGA technology and has all the hardware add-ons and connectivity that you'd expect today. The board even fits inside an original Speccy case.
This isn't the final model but it is a fully-functional version for demonstration at the show.
Impressive upgraded ZX81
This ZX81 was donated to the Computing History Museum. It has a mechanical keyboard and natty case.
After opening it up they saw this.
Somewhere within those homebrewed electronics is a ZX81 board. Around it are power supply components, veroboard, wiring and even (possibly) a home-made PCB.
I'm dying to find out more about what all of this does.
Super Mario Bros for C64 released, then removed
"After 7 years of development..." announced ZeroPaige the developer, along with links to download the port of the 80s platform game.
Shortly afterwards, a tweet announced that Nintendo had issued an instruction for links to be removed. There is some doubt about the truth of this, as Paulo says in the story I'm linking to.
At time of writing, I was able to download from one of the links in that forum post. Of course once something has been released, it can be shared forever.
www.vintageisthenewold.com/is-nintendo-really-taking-down-super-mario-bros-64
BASIC 10Liners 2019
You can view the results and download all of the entries from the BASIC 10Liners competition 2019. This is me having a go at the people's choice, Mines20. It's amazing what can be done in ten lines and it highlights that great gameplay doesn't correlate with great graphics and sound.
The competition covers all 8-bit computer systems. There are several classes. In each you have to write a game in ten lines of BASIC. In PUR-80 each line has a max of 80 characters, in PUR-120 and EXTREME-256 lines are limited to 120 and 256 characters.
Vintageisthenewold carried the story, follow the links to the winners and downloads.
ZX Spectrum Prototype
We've seen one 'unboxing' video from the Centre for Computing History of the Spectrum prototype that has recently come to light.
In this follow-up, Jason Fitzpatrick talks some more about the machine. He talks about the development of the design, first as an improved ZX81 and then to this version. He also talks about 'firing it up' and the precautions that they must take before they do that.
The Embroidered Computer
But is it art? This work by Irene Posch is a functional 8-bit computer made from metallic threads, glass and metal beads, with no traditional electronic components at all.
The computer is comprised of relays, harking back to days before semiconductors. A textile-based computer reminds us that Jacquard looms, which used crude electromechanical systems to weave complex patterns, inspired Babbage and Lovelace when they were designing the analytical engine.
Follow the link below for a number of pictures, animations and a schematic of the device.
Antstream: Retro Gaming Reborn
As the big companies are falling over each other to open a streaming gaming service, how does the idea of a retro game streaming service grab you?
Antstream claim to have hundreds of licensed titles with the promise of thousands. Once you have their app on your pc, mac, tablet or console then you have access to any of the available games with no download time or the hit-and-miss of whether it'll run in your emulator.
As I write this there's a month to go and they have around a third of their target.
www.kickstarter.com/projects/234135283/antstream-retro-gaming-reborn
Happy Mac / Sad Mac
Although the computers featured are a little later than we usually target here, I couldn't resist featuring this amazing project.
Fabienne "fbz" Serriere's 'generative knitwear' features many mathematical or biological patterns. She crowdfunded an industrial knitting machine to help produce these scarves.
In this case she's used the ROMs of early Macs and among the binary digit patterns you can see the familiar smiley mac faces, other icons and characters. Models she's made scarves from include Power Mac 5200, Macintosh IIsi and Power Mac 5200.
The scarves have been remarkably popular, most of these are sold out.
Apple co-founder Woz will talk at free event
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (aka Woz) is to talk about his career and the future of computing at Purdue University, Indianna, USA on April 17.
No word on whether the talk is to be streamed or recorded for future broadcast. The event is free, but ticket-only. Follow the links to book.
Story via Cult of Mac.
www.cultofmac.com/617150/apple-co-founder-woz-will-talk-techs-future-at-free-event
Unveiling Heath Robinson
The Heath Robinson was an early attempt to automate codebreaking in the second world war.
The machine has been reconstructed and will be on display at the The National Museum of Computing, Milton Keynes, UK. It was the inspiration for Colossus, which already has a reconstruction on display at the museum.
Unveiling will take place on Saturday 6 April 2019 with Irene Dixon, a wartime Wren who operated Heath Robinson and Colossus, and Peter Higginson, a great nephew of W Heath Robinson after whom the machine was named. The event is ticket-only, a few tickets are still available as I write this.
More information is at the museum's website, link below.
www.tnmoc.org/news/news-releases/unveiling-heath-robinson-codebreaking-machine
Amstrad Gamers' Choice Award 2018 Results Announced
RetroGamerNation have announced the winners of its Amstrad Gamers' Choice Award for games released in 2018. Gamers voted on their favourites from a shortlist of 13.
Vintageisthenewold has the story with a worthwhile video showing footage from the nominees and winners.
www.vintageisthenewold.com/amstrad-gamers-choice-award-2018-results-announced
For Ember: Chiptune album created using an Atari 8-bit
Adam Sporka has released an album of 18 tunes rendered using an Atari 800XL
He used the Raster Music Tracker on PC and transferred the files to the AVGCart -equipped Atari for recording.
Most of the songs are original compositions with a couple of covers. it's available for streaming or purchase in all of the usual places.
vintageisthenewold has the story with embedded Soundcloud player and all the links you'll need.
www.vintageisthenewold.com/for-ember-new-chiptune-album-totally-created-using-an-atari-8-bits
377-byte chess game for Spectrum
Is there a call for such optimisation and efficiency in today's world? Nevertheless, this is as astonishing as the fact that we used to be able to play chess on an unexpanded ZX81 which used a whopping 672 bytes.
Alex Garcia has released "probably the smallest chess program ever made". If you're interested in how he's done it, he's written a description and released the source code on his site.
If you just want to pit your wits against it, he has a page with an embedded emulator.
Vintage is the New Old have the story containing the links:
First C64 entirely from new commercially-available parts
It's a bold claim but Perifractic believes that he has made the world's first C64 using new parts. His criteria were that the parts must be new and commercially-available, non-Conmmodore, and that the result should be fully-compatible with all media (tape port, cartridge port and so on).
Almost all parts have been available already; case, keyboard, motherboard. The only sticking point has been keycaps which no-one has produced so far. Perifractic noticed that certain lego parts fit the standard posts and this has led to a project to make available the kit of lego bricks required, with the top tiles custom printed with the letters and symbols.
Sinclair ZX Spectrum Prototype
This prototype of the original ZX Spectrum has been in the possession of Nine Tiles, the subcontract company responsible for the Spectrum's ROM. It has now been donated to the Centre for Computing History.
The prototype uses project board with hand-wrap wiring, a full-travel keyboard with handwritten labels. It is very similar to the first production spectrum but the layout is different.
There's more information at the page I'm linking to. It also has a worthwhile video with Adrian and Phil taking a good look at the prototype's board and keyboard.
www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/51620/Sinclair-ZX-Spectrum-Prototype
Contact for this site: shirley@newstuffforoldstuff.com
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