ScuzzBlog: 1st March 2008

Subject 01: Home Computing Weekly - There's More
Subject 02: ATonce - Amiga 500 - PC Emulator
Subject 03: MCC Pascal - Those boys at Metacomco
Subject 04: Computer Museums - Useful links to all things retro
Subject 05: The Transputer - Strange beast for the Atari and Amiga
Subject 06: Look Sharp - Arrival of the MZ-80K
Subject 07: Games Games Games - ..being swamped here in Amiga Games and Disks
Subject 08: And Finally - ... What else has been happening

Entry 0804: Blogs: 08


Home Computing Weekly

Entry 0804: Blog: 1


Tidal wave of retro...


Hi

Back in the dull distant past, at a time when
there really was only the ZX-81 I was scratching
around for publications to help me and amongst the
Sinclair magazines there was this paper style mag
called Popular Computing. Sadly a few years ago I
was clearing out the old shed and I determined that
I would chuck all my copies away. I kinda regret
that now and so when I see copies of this publication
come onto the Bay I do go have a sniff. It really
was computing reporting in it's infancy, but still
very entertaining and informative. The size was also
a blessing as I tended to read it on the way to work
on the old bus. Anyway, a few of the publication
plus a load of others arrived today, as listed below.

Popular Computing

3-9 March 1983 Vol 2 No 9
10-16 March 1983 Vol 2 No 10
17-23 March 1983 Vol 2 No 11
24-30 March 1983 Vol 2 No 12
15-21 March 1984 Vol 3 No 11


Home Computing Weekly

No 1 March 8-14 1983
2 copies of No 1
No 3 March 22-28 1983
No 4 March 29-April 4 1983
No 5 April 5-11 1983
No 6 April 12-18 1983
No 11 May 17-23 1983
No 14 June 7-13 1983
No 16 June 21-27 1983
No 19 July 12-18 1983
No 20 July 19-25 1983
No 24 Aug 16-22 1983
No 26 Aug 30-Sept 5 1983
No 28 Sept 13-19 1983
No 29 Sept 20-26 1983
No 30 Sept 27-Oct 3 1983
No 31 Oct 4-10 1983
No 32 Oct 11-17 1983
No 34 Oct 25-31 1983
No 35 Nov 1-7 1983
No 38 Nov 22-28 1983
No 41 Dec 13-19 1983
No 42 Dec 20/83-Jan 2 1984
No 45 Jan 17-23 1984
No 48 Feb 7-13 1984
No 49 Feb 14-20 1984


Compute

Issue 33 Feb 1983 Vol 5 No 2
Issue 34 March 1983 Vol 5 No 3
Issue 35 April 1983 Vol 5 No 4
Issue 37 June 1983 Vol 5 No 6
Issue 38 July 1983 Vol 5 No 7
Issue 39 Aug 1983 Vol 5 No 8
Issue 40 Sept 1983 Vol 5 No 9
Issue 42 Nov 1983 Vol 5 No 11


Personal Computing Today

October 1982
January 1983
April 1983
June 1983
December 1983
January 1984


Personal Computer World

March 1982
October 1982


Computing Today

November 1983

older mags older mags older mags


ATonce

Entry 0804: Blog: 2


Amiga 500 - PC Emulator


Hi

Just won a very strange emulator card for the A500
called an ATonce...

http://amiga.resource.cx/photos/atonce


ATonce
Company - Vortex, Germany   Date 1990   
Amiga A500 A2000
Interface 68000 socket Zorro II

[ Stuff from the Big Book ]

IBM AT emulation
80286 @ 7.2 MHz
Plugs into 68000 socket - the board 
Contains a 68000 already
Installing into an A2000 requires an adaptor 
card which plugs into the CPU slot
No RAM on board, it uses the Amiga RAM
video emulation
CGA (non-interlaced)
Hercules (720*348 interlaced) - too wide, scrolls horizontally
T3100 (640*400 interlaced)
Olivetti (640*400 interlaced)
supports virtual drives (PC hardfiles on Amiga hard disk)
uses Amiga floppy drives
uses Amiga serial and parallel ports
the Amiga mouse is emulated as Microsoft compatible mouse

[ end blurb ]

Interesting that... Looking forward to having a play.


[ update]


Hi

The ATonce arrived today all wonderfully boxed.
And yes it includes the high quality low power
Motorola 68000 CPU 7.2 MHz clock speed.

[ quote ]

ATonce is the ultimatePC/AT emulator for your
Amiga 500 computer. ATonce transforms your
Amiga 500 into a powerful PC/AT compatible
system.

80286/16 Bit CPU
Custom made gate array
Norton SI 6.1 MIPS Test 70%
AT Compatibility
Includes 68000 CPU ...

[ end quote ]

Mine is the Revision 2 version as below

Thanks to Amiga Resource - ATonce rev2 - by Martin Schneider


Fascinating.


MCC Pascal

Entry 0804: Blog: 3


Those boys at Metacomco


Another interesting book on the way...

MCC PASCAL - SOFTWARE FOR THE AMIGA
Published 1988 by Metacomco

1 pass ISO Pascal language Compiler & Linker

Mcc says: Pascal is basically C

Pascal was originally intended as a teaching language, 
whereas C started life as a better assembler for OS hackers, 
so there will be differences due to design objectives as well. 


Some useful book listings here

Amiga Nostalgia List One

Amiga Book Gallery

Metacomco also find their way into the world of Sinclair...

http://www.clive.nl/cgi-bin/search/search.pl?Terms=metacomco



scuzz


Computer Museums

Entry 0804: Blog: 4


Useful links to all things retro


Great fun....

York University Computer Museum

Rob Krtens Museum

Commodore CA

DigiBarn Computer Museum

Classic Computing

Links pages from DigiBarn
Links to other useful resources


scuzz


The Transputer

Entry 0804: Blog: 5


Strange beast for the Atari and Amiga


Now this is fascinating... The Atari Transputer

The Atari Transputer


Model # ATW800

The Atari ATW800 Transputer workstation was a high end, 
high powered system which combined the power of the ABAQ 
Transputer system with the front end power of the Atari 
Mega ST. Used together, they formed an amazingly
powerful and versital computer.   The Transputer system 
allowed the use of "Farm Cards" with multiple parallel 
processors to form a powerful Parallel Processing computer 
system. These power-house workstations could then be
linked to one another to form parallel processing networks 
where each workstation then formed a piece of the whole 
and the entire network could then work together.

[ going deeper down the rabbit hole again ]

You can see the whole beast here...

http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/atw800/index.htm


[ quote ]

Daves Old Computers - Atari Transputer Workstation

In the early 1980s, many people were of the opinion that 
we had "hit the wall" in terms of the performance that 
could be obtained from a single cpu. To address this problem, 
a company by the name of INMOS developed a radical new CPU 
design they called the "transputer". The concept was to use 
many simple and fast CPUs working in parallel. The transputer 
has four high-speed serial busses allowing direct connection 
to up to four other units, and these can be cascaded into 
larger networks. The instruction set is also optimized for 
parallel operation.

[ end quote ]

Obviously we all remember the Amiga Transputer.

[ quote ]

The Amiga Transputer was proposed by Tim King (who had 
previously ported TripOS to the 68k) and several others at 
Metacomco. The company had developed the custom OS, Helios 
to interact with the host operating system. The project was 
demonstrated at several Commodore Amiga shows, but the company 
never bought the technology. It was later sold as the Atari
Transputer.

http://www.classiccmp.org/transputer/metacomco.htm


Dave Haynie gave the following thoughts in a posting to 
the TeamONE mailing list:

Subject: Re[2]: Amiga Transputer query
Date: Wed, 8 Jul 1998 23:25:33 -0400 (EDT)

The Transputer was certainly interesting. INMOS (the parent 
company at the time, the same guys making the original RAMDAC 
used for the IBM VGA card) seemed to want to make Transputers 
work essentially as front ends to every piece of your system. 
Rather than talk talk to a hard disc, you'd talk to a Transputer 
fronting the hard disc. Same with video and
other I/O.

Copyright GARETH KNIGHT.... Now where have we
heard that name before.... Hello Gareth.

scuzz


Look Sharp

Entry 0804: Blog: 6


The MZ 80K


This big brute of a machine landed on my lap this
week. The Sharp MX-80K which not only was the base
size of an Apple II but had the Monitor and cassette
unit built in. This is quite an ancient computer from
1979, though is still in first class condition

Thanks to Old Computers for the image


NAME   MZ 80K 
MANUFACTURER   Sharp 
TYPE   Home Computer 
ORIGIN   Japan 
YEAR   1979 
BUILT IN LANGUAGE   Sharp Basic available on tape 
KEYBOARD   Strange transparent square keys. 78 keys. Numeric keypad 
CPU   Sharp LH-0080 (Zilog Z80 A compatible) 
SPEED   2 MHz 
RAM   20 KB (up to 48 KB)
MZ-80K2 & K2e: 32 KB 
ROM   4 KB 
TEXT MODES   40 x 25 (8 x 8 character matrix) 
GRAPHIC MODES   80 x 50 
COLORS   built-in 10'' black & white monochrome monitor 
SOUND   one channel 
SIZE / WEIGHT   410 (W) x 470 (D) x 270 (H) mm / 13 kg 
I/O PORTS   Expansion bus 
BUILT IN MEDIA   Tape recorder 
POWER SUPPLY   Built-in PSU 
PERIPHERALS   RAM expansions, printer, Floppy drives unit, color display 
PRICE   MZ-80K: 198,000 yen (1978, japan)
MZ-80K2: 198,000 yen (1980, japan)
MZ-80K2e: 148,000 yen (1981, japan) 

More, obviously, when I get round to updating the gallery


Games Games Games

Entry 0804: Blog: 7


...being swamped here in Amiga Games and Disks


Hi

I have been filling in the gaps [ as ever ] on the old
games front for the Amiga and have received pretty
well every day, boxed games, along with disk boxes full 
of official and not so official games [ see later ]

Here is what arrived this week.. [ boxed first ]

Menace - Psynosis
Video Kid - Gremlin Graphics Software
Lotus III - Gremlin
Bush Buck - PC Globe
Lure of the Temptress - Virgin
Super Hang-On - The Hit Squad
Flip-it and Magnose - Image Works

Had a large batch of small boxes filled with
Vulcanology, 5 specific games from the house of Vulcan... 

Burned Out ... on seven disks
Tiny Troops.. Where war is fantastic.. on five disks
Hillsea Lido .. The seaside management simulator .. on 2 disks
Bograts.. The puzzling misadventure ..on 2 disks
TimeKeepers.. The simplistically complex puzzle game.. on 3 disks

Thats 19 disks from the land of Vulcan. Pure Amiga pleasure.

[ Unboxed ]

I am kinda sinking in a sea of Amiga disks
here. Another two hundred arrived today and
far too much to play with all at once.. A quick
summary of the official disks in the pack..

Knights of the Crystallion - US Gold
1K+ - The Hit Squad
Sly Spy Secret Agent - Ocean
Chronoquest 1 - Psygnosis
Space Harrier - Elite
Darkmere - Core
Street Fighter 2 - US Gold
Rules of Engagement - Impressions
ShadowLands - Domark
The Pawn - Rainbird
Uninvited - Mindscape
Turrican II - Rainbow Arts
Wizkid - Ocean
PGA Tour Golf - Electronic Arts
SuperFrog - Team 17
Lemmings - Psygnosis
Z- Out - Rainbow Arts
Licence to Kill - Domark
Bloodwych - iMage Works
Hudson Hawk - Ocean
Leisure Suit Larry - Kixx
Operation Thunderbolt - Ocean
Hoyle Book of Games - Kixx
A320 Airbus - Thalion
Paranoid 90 - Hewson
X-Out - Rainbow Arts
IvanHoe - Hit Squad
Sporting Gold - US Gold
MouseTrap - Prism
Premiere - Core
F/A-18 Interceptor - Electronic Arts
WrestleMania - Ocean
RType II - Activision
Lure of the Temptress - Virgin
Xenon 2 - MegaBlast
PowerMonger - Bullfrog
Welltris - Infogrames
Super Off Road - Virgin
Robin Hood - Kixx
Rocket Ranger - Mirror Soft
Another World - 
Brutal Football - Millennium
Indy - US Gold

The Very First - Commodore Amiga
Amiga Extras 1.2 Amiga BASIC 1.2
Amiga 500/2000 Extras 1.3 BASIC 1.2
Workbench 1.3.2
Workbench 2.05 A600 HD Install Disk Fonts Extras
WorkBench 3.1 Workbench Fonts Install Storage Extras Locale
Deluxe Paint III
PageSetter II - Gold Disk

Then loads of cover disks from...

Amiga Action
Amiga Computing
Amiga Format
Amiga Power
Amiga User International
CU Amiga
One Amiga

And not a bogus disk amongst them... CU Amiga disk
number 89 brings back loads of memories with the
demo of Ishar 3 on it... I remember rushin out and
getting the game that day... Magic.

Great wealth of Amiga history amongst a batch of disks
like this. Traversing Workbench 1.3 to 3.1 and cool
having the black disks of 2.05 including the A600HD
Install Disk which puts into balance the earlier disk
I got this month for the A600 SCSI Install disk.

I just love Amiga DDs... Makes you glad your still able
to run the real thing :-)

I also had a disk box full of disks today though mostly
bogus, but with half a dozen PD disks in there.

scuzz

PS: Check this out from YouTube

Cannon Fodder

R E M O V E D


And Finally..

Entry 0804: Blog: 8


... What else has been happening


Hi

This week I have mostly been digging around in
A500 stuff [ more on that later ]. As to other
goodies arriving this week, I received a magic 
very early Commodore Customer Care Pack all wonderfully
hard bound and mint. I also received another bound
folder from ' The Music Librarian ' by Applied Research
Kernel...

[ quote ]

The Music Librarian is an information management system
comprising programs, forms, databases and external files
all for the Amiga. 

[ end quote ]

Included to the rear is an envelope filled with disks.

On the C64 front I received a bumper bundle of 5.25"
disks, all lovingly labelled and documented.

And finally, two replacement A500 motherboards which
I have plans for the future for....

Thinks thats about it for this week.... Now going to
have a play... As ever.

scuzz



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Last updated 1st March 2008

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