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Archive for the ‘Retro Computers and other stuff…’ Category

ZX Spectrum +3 / RGB with DivIDE Interface

July 19th, 2009 1 comment

Divide 57c / 1GB CompactFlash for Sinclair Spectrum (all models)

July 17th, 2009 No comments

Divide 57c

Autopsy:

from Divide homepage:

divIDE is an ATA (IDE) interface which takes your ZX Spectrum computing to a whole new level. As the time takes its toll on ageing media such as audio tapes or diskettes, many ZX Spectrum enthusiasts simply stick to emulation for better reliability and comfort.

With divIDE you can put your software collection to a hard disk, CD-ROM or even CompactFlash card and experience your favourite games, demos and utilities the way the were meant to be run – and even better. Using existing firmwares, many users find their Speccy box again a live platform – time for you to make the switch?

Features:

  • divIDE uses full 16 bits of ATA bus.
  • divIDE works on all ZX Spectrum flavours (16, 48, 48+, 128, +2, +2A, +3 and clones)
  • Thanks to divIDE’s onboard logic, theoretical transfer speed is 218 KB/sec (determined by the latency of INI/OUTI instructions).
  • divIDE has 8 KB of shadow flash ROM that hosts operating system core, leaving your original ZX Spectrum ROM intact. Additional 32 KB of RAM accessible as 8 KB memory banks are present.
  • divIDE’s auto-mapping feature transparently maps shadow ROM at important entry points, enabling standard tape emulation, BASIC extensions, NMI menu and DISCiPLE/+D or BetaDisk emulation.
  • divIDE’s MAPRAM feature helps developers and users to test new software without the need of reflashing their working system in shadow ROM. It can also emulate another 8 KB of ROM if necessary.
  • divIDE works with all ATA-compatible devices (there are no known compatibility issues).
  • Available software supports widely used emulator formats (TAP, SNA, Z80, SCR). Just download your all-time favourite games from the web and play!

source: divide homepage divide forum

VIC-20 Games cartridges + 16k Ram Expansion

July 15th, 2009 No comments
Some VIC-20 Cartridges

Cartridges list:

  • VIC-1909 – Road Race.
  • VIC-1911 – 16k RAM Cartridges.
  • VIC-1914 – Adventure Land.
  • VIC-1915 – Pirate’s Cove.
  • VIC-1917 – The Count.
  • VIC-1924 – Omega Race.

Autopsy:

from Wikipedia:

As for commercial software offerings, an estimated 300 titles were available on cartridge, and another 500+ titles were available on tape. By comparison, the Atari 2600—the most popular of the video game consoles at the time—had a library of about 900 titles near the end of its production life (many were variations of another title).

Most cartridge games were ready to play as soon as VIC-20 was turned on, as opposed to games on tape which required a time-consuming loading process. Titles on cartridge included Gorf, Cosmic Cruncher, Sargon II Chess, and many others.

source: wikipedia

Some Cartridges: ATARI 2600 – XL 800 – Pong Clone – MSX Cassette

July 10th, 2009 2 comments
Some Cartridges ATARI 2600 - XL 800 - Pong Clone and a Unknown Cable

Autopsy:

Description:

  • 2 x Pong Clone Cartridges (AY 3 8765 GI Chip)
  • 1 x Facemaker Cartridge for Atari XE XL 800.
  • 1 x Pole Position for Atari 2600.
  • 1 x Music Maestro Cassette for MSX 64k.
  • 1 x Unknown Cable Rare SIO Cable for ATARI.

Radio Shack TRS-80 Model MC-10 with 16k RAM Expansion

July 9th, 2009 4 comments
Radio Shack TRS-80 Model MC-10 with 16k RAM Expansion

Autopsy:

from Wikipedia:

TRS-80 was Tandy Corporation’s desktop microcomputer model line, sold through Tandy’s Radio Shack stores in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The line won popularity with hobbyists, home users, and small-businesses. Tandy Corporation’s leading position in what Byte Magazine called the “1977 Trinity” (Apple, Commodore and Tandy) had much to do with retailing the computer through more than 3000 of its Radio Shack (Tandy in the UK) storefronts.

Notable features of the original TRS-80 included its full-stroke QWERTY keyboard, small size, well-written Floating Point BASIC programming language, an included monitor, and a starting price of $600.

The MC-10 was a short-lived and little-known Tandy computer, similar in appearance to the Sinclair ZX81.

It was a small system based on the Motorola 6803 processor and featured 4 KB of RAM. A 16 KB RAM expansion pack that connected on the back of the unit was offered as an option as was a thermal paper printer. A modified version of the MC-10 was sold in France as the Matra Alice. Programs loaded using a cassette which worked much better than those for the Sinclair.

A magazine was published which offered programs for both the CoCo and MC-10 but very few programs were available for purchase. Programs for the MC-10 were not compatible with the CoCo.

source: wikipedia trs-80.com themc10archive.com

Amstrad CPC 464 Plus (Keyboard problems are Fixed)

July 9th, 2009 10 comments
Amstrad CPC 464 Plus

Autopsy:

from Wikipedia:

The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8 bit home computers produced by Amstrad during the 1980s and early 1990s. “CPC” stands for ‘Colour Personal Computer’, although it was possible to purchase a CPC with a green screen (GT64/65) as well as with the standard colour screen (CTM640/644).

In 1990 Amstrad introduced the “Plus” series, 464 and 6128 Plus, which tweaked the hardware and added a cartridge slot to the system. Improvements were made to the video display which saw an increase in palette to 4096 colours and gained a capacity for hardware sprites.

Splitting the display into separate modes and pixel scrolling both became fully supported hardware features. The former was reasonably easy on the non-”Plus” machines, and the latter possible to some degree using clever programming of the existing Motorola 6845.

source: wikipedia

Some Cartridges for Atari 2600 & 7800

June 30th, 2009 No comments
Some Cartridges Atari 2600 & 7800

Cartridges:

  • Desert Falcon (Atari 7800)
  • Impossible Mission (Atari 7800)
  • Midnight Magic (Atari 2600)
  • Surround (Atari 2600)
  • Pole Position (Atari 2600)
  • Mario Bros (Atari 2600)

Atari 7800 ProSystem with RGB Encoder inside (Peritel version)

June 24th, 2009 No comments
Atari 7800 Peritel + AC Adaptor + Cartridges

Autopsy:

from Wikipedia:

The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a video game console re-released by Atari Corporation in June 1986.

The original release had occurred two years earlier under Atari Inc. The 7800 was designed to replace Atari Inc.’s unsuccessful Atari 5200 and later to re-establish Atari Corp.’s market supremacy against Nintendo and Sega.

With this system, Atari Inc. addressed all the shortcomings of the Atari 5200: it had simple digital joysticks; it was almost fully backward-compatible with the Atari 2600; and it was affordable (originally priced at US$140).

source: wikipedia

Some Commodore stuff donated to me by a Friend

June 22nd, 2009 No comments
Some Commodore Items Donated to Me by a Friend

Gallery / Autopsy:

Stuff Donated:

  • 1 x Joystick TAC II from Suncom.
  • 1 x Commodore 64.
  • 1 x Commodore Floppy Drive 1541 II.
  • 1 x Compatibile Powersupply for Commodore 64/VIC20.
  • 1 x Cabletronic Compatible Powersupply for Commodore Floppy Drive 1541 II.
  • 1 x Commodore 64 Cover Protection.
  • 2 x Serial Floppy cable.

Thanks to Igor.

from Wikipedia:

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer released by Commodore International in August, 1982, at a price of 595 USD.

Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore MAX Machine, the C64 features 64 kilobytes (65,536 bytes) of RAM with sound and graphics performance that were superior to IBM-compatible computers of that time.

It is commonly known as the C64 or C=64 and occasionally referred to as CBM 64 (Commodore Business Machines Model number 64), or VIC-64. It has also been affectionately nicknamed the “breadbox” and “bullnose” due to the shape and colour of the first version of its casing.

source: wikipedia

Commodore Floppy Drive Oceanic OC-118 aka Excelerator+

June 20th, 2009 4 comments
Oceanic OC-118 aka Excelerator+

Autopsy:

here my collections of Commodore Floppy Drive.

The Oceanic OC-118N Floppy Drive has a external power supply, one diskette station with one read / write head and a motherboard.

On the motherboard you will find RAM and ROM memory, twice a 6522 VIA and a 6502 processor.

The Oceanic OC-118N disk drive is a smart device, reading and writing works independent of the connected computer.

source: wikipedia richardlagendijk.nl Oceanic OC-118 Manual

CBS ColecoVision Secam RGB connector pinout Hack *updated*

June 14th, 2009 16 comments

Coleco Vision RGB Hack

ColecoVision RGB Hack:

Photo from #3 to #6 explain how to hack the RGB output signal inside the console.

ColecoVision RGB connector pinout:

__________________________________
\ o1  o   o3  o   o5  o   o   o8 /
 \  o   o   o   o   o13 o   o15 /
  \____________________________/

Pin Signal

 1  Red Output
 3  Green Output
 5  Blue Output
 8  Ground
13  Composite Synch
15  Audio Output (very low volume)

Scart RGB pinout:

   ----------------------------21
  _| 19 17 15 13 11 9 7 5 3 1 |
 |                            |
 | 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2  |
  ----------------------------

Pin Signal                     Signal level

 1  Right Audio Out
 2  Right Audio In
 3  Left Audio In
 4  Audio Ground
 5  Ground (blue)
 6  Left Audio Out
 7  Blue input                 (0.7V, 75ohm)
 8  Function select/AV control (9.5-12V = AV mode, >10kohm)
 9  Ground (green)
10  Reserved Data
11 Green input (0.7V, 75ohm) 12 Reserved Data
13 Ground (red) 14 RGB Blanking
15 Red input (0.7V, 75ohm) 16 RGB switching control (1-3V = RGB mode on, 75ohm) 17 Ground (sync signal) 18 Ground (RGB switching) 19 Composite Out 20 Composite Input (Synch) (as in 1Vpp video signal, 75ohm) 21 Common ground (shield)

CBS ColecoVision Secam (RGB) Version

June 14th, 2009 No comments
CBS Coleco Vision Secam Version

Autopsy:

Pal Verison here

from Wikipedia:

The ColecoVision is Coleco Industries’ second generation home video game console which was released in August 1982. The ColecoVision offered arcade-quality graphics and gaming style, the ability to play Atari 2600 video games, and the means to expand the system’s basic hardware.

Released with a catalog of twelve launch titles, with an additional ten games announced for 1982, approximately 125 titles in total were published as ROM cartridges for the system between 1982 and 1984.

source: wikipedia colecovision faq

Radofin (Mattel) Aquarius Home Computer / Tron Deadly Discs

June 12th, 2009 No comments
Mattel Aquarius Home Computer

Autopsy:

Description:

  • Country: USA/Europe
  • Most Common: Usa
  • Rarity: Rare
  • Year: 1983

from Wikipedia:

Aquarius is a home computer designed by Radofin and released by Mattel in 1983.

It features a Zilog Z80 microprocessor, a rubber chiclet keyboard, 4K of RAM memory, and a subset of Microsoft BASIC in ROM. It connects to a television set and uses a cassette tape recorder for secondary data storage. A limited number of peripherals, such as a 40-column thermal printer, a 4-color printer/plotter, and a 300 baud modem, were released for the unit.

source: Wikipedia

Atari 2600 Jr Black version

June 10th, 2009 1 comment

Autopsy:

This is an all-black version of the Atari 2600 Jr. There is no silver band, and there is only a small rainbow, and the Atari Fuji and “Atari 2600″ appear in white above the rainbow. We believe this version was only sold in Ireland.

from Wikipedia:

The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in.

The first game console to use this format was the Fairchild Channel F. However the Atari 2600 is credited with making the plug-in concept popular among the game-playing public.

Click here for the others pieces of my Atari console Collections.

source: wikipedia atariage.com

Autopsy of SNK NeoGeo 108 in 1 Multigame Cartridges *updated*

May 31st, 2009 No comments
NeoGeo MVS 108in1 Cartridges

Autopsy:

Find 108 hits of the Neo Geo on a single cartridge, all type are present. This cartridge uses a on-screen menu that allows you to choose the game you wish to play.

Features:

  • 108 Games on only one cardridge.
  • You can change parameter on each game.
  • Just hold the player 1 start button down for 5 seconds to return to the game selection menu.

Note:

The Chip with the label erased on Photo #11 is a Atmel AT89S52 datasheet

source: neo-geo.com