Instead of catching the COVID virus, it appears instead that I have been bitten by the retro-computing bug. I owe this in part to discovering videos and podcasts by Brian Lunduke.
A blog post by Andrew Roach also caught my fancy
So from there, I started thinking about 8-bit computers and how I wanted to interact with them. Why 8-bit? I have David Murray partly to blame:
David is the 8-Bit Guy and his videos explore many aspects of the 8-bit computer world, including restoration of old hardware.
The 8-bit computer of my teen years was the Commodore 64. I've been reluctant to buy an actual Commodore 64 because of stories of boards needing to be "recapped" to replace failing capacitors and needing new power supplies. Plus, a working Commodore 64 requires peripherals like the 1541 drive, modem, floppy disks and expansion cards to be useful. So instead, I ended up with one of these:
The "Maxi" is not currently available in the USA so I bought my from the UK from this site:
The C64 runs on a single board computer like a Raspberry Pi and uses a Commodore 64 emulator called VICE instead of the original C64 hardware. Still, The C64 offers a very realistic user experience that plugs into modern HDMI monitors and runs programs off a USB memory stick. I love the C64!
Yet, still I wanted an actual vintage machine. I decided that I would go with the Apple IIc. I liked the design element of the Apple IIc and the fact that its compact case included most of the expansion options that people tended to add to earlier models of the Apple II. I found a reasonably priced Apple IIc on EBay after much watching and I am now in the process of setting it up and defining how I will use it in 2020. I will be writing more about that in future posts so stay safe and stay tuned!
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