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
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.
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
Metacomco also find their way into the world of Sinclair...
http://www.clive.nl/cgi-bin/search/search.pl?Terms=metacomco
scuzz
Great fun....
York University Computer Museum
Links pages from DigiBarn
Links to other useful resources
scuzz
Now this is fascinating... The Atari TransputerThe 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
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
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
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
Chandraise Kingdom
Keep the Faith
