Oldbitcollector

I'm in NE Ohio. Check your PMs

I having a hard time agreeing with his insinuation that archiving needs to be done by the experts. (I'm reading a little between the lines here, maybe I'm misreading) I'm of the thought that anyone who is safe guarding these machines and materials from the landfill is doing a good thing, regardless of their experience, credidentals, etc. I'm more frustrated with the fact that several well published individuals have published revisionist history to slant the details toward one or another company.

Finally got my Commodore 64 hooked up again at the shop. For fun I thought the MMC and the C64 could give each other a little ELIZA therapy. The Micromite Companion (The little MMC board on the left) runs Micromite MMBASIC which is compatible with Qbasic (labels style) and "Old School" BASIC making the original Creative Computing ELIZA program pretty much work perfectly. It took a bit more patience to get it working with the Commodore 64. Good retrocomputing fun! Jeff

I was just re-reading my last message and saw that the stupid spell checker in my brower replaced the word "capability" with "compatibility" -- stupid. Here's a thread on my forums that I posted a while back that explains the differences between the boards, PEB and MMC http://propellerpowered.com/forum/index.php?topic=600.0

The big difference between the Pocket Mini (PEB) and the Micromite Companion (MMC) is the extra chip added to the MMC. (and large SD socket). Adding the Micromite chip to the new board upgrades the compatibility of the project x100. Instead of running BASIC (and it's supporting objects) on the Propeller alone. (leaving around 4k of programming space), the Micromite provides a very robust "MMBASIC" (written by Geoff Grahm) and an onboard editor. The Propeller is now freed to run the objects alone. This combination now allows us 54k of programming space, an expanded commandset, and the ability to create almost unlimited "mode/styles" because we can boot new screen/audio modes from the SD into the memory of the Propeller. The Propeller becomes the I/O device to the Micromite chip. If you are planning to play with COLOR BASIC, then move into serious Propeller programming and want the access to the I/O pins of the Propeller, wait for the PEB. If you would like a much more robust BASIC with access to the Propeller's open I/O, and the I/O of the Micromite, then grab an MMC kit. BTW, The MMC is compatible with COLOR BASIC, and it's Propeller can be accessed for programming as well. Jeff

Wow.. I'm relieved.. I thought I was the only really weird one when it came to just avoiding modern games altogether... I have the following systems hooked up in my livingroom on switchboxes. NES, SNES, N64, Dreamcast, Playstation 1, and Xbox (original). I have no desire for an Xbox 360 or Xbone, or Playstation 3 or 4. (Even though I have a buddy who would bring one over to me in a heartbeat.) I'd much rather play the old games... Favorites include DK64, MarioKart, Fzero, MarioBros, Dreamcast Rez & Crazy Taxi, Badicoot series, Xbox Burnout Series.

A BBS isn't out of the question right now.. There are a few of us getting ready to play with those new ESP8266 modules (cheap wifi). They should be a good match with this project. Now that we have 54k memory free, there should be plenty of room for this.

How cool to see our PEB board posted on the Atari Classic Forums! I "JUST" completed a second version of this board, called the Micromite Companion. Here's a couple videos that are a Tour of the Project and of course... you can get them here. http://propellerpowered.com/shop/?page_id=1946

Most certainly the C64 qualifies as an 8bit machine.. Life is too fast these days.. A little load-time waiting is good for the soul... Jeff

You might find the stuff I've been posting to http://commodore64.80sisland.com handy. It's a "Getting Started" resource from an NTSC point of view. Jeff

You are pretty much dead-on with the pros/cons of systems like this one, with perhaps one exception: not emulation. I find that most "emulations" of other systems are always lacking in some way. From my vantage point, emulation tends to be a negative in itself most of the time. Here's an "off-the-cuff" video of the project in action: Jeff

I thought you guys might find a project that I'm working on mildly interesting. I've designed a little computer platform around the Parallax microcontroller that runs a generic style BASIC. http://propellerpowe...t Mini Computer It's a fairly powerful BASIC interpreter, with around 4k of tokenized basic command space and around 100 BASIC commands. Because it's formed around a Propeller, it was easy to also permit it to run Propeller binaries. (games and other non-basic programs) I probably need to give the project a little more "retro cred" by adding a 5.25 drive interface to the open I/O, but it's pretty sweet to have all the retro-feel of BASIC, at the same time use microSD for storage. I built kits for it, but the entire design and source code is open source, so anyone is free to build and use it. Let me know what you guys think. Jeff

Installed the new voltage regulator.. worked perfectly for 5min. Crystal clear... then... It just turns off. Am I looking for a chip issue? It almost looks like it's overheating, as it seems to come back up when things have set for a while. OBC

Looks like a combination of issues... what a pain to troubleshoot. Going out after a replacement 7805 this afternoon.. So far, I've found... A broken power wire. A loose connector (resoldered) and a back voltage regulator. I've dropped 5v on the one side of the regulator and am getting a screen, so it's been working just enough to keep me on the hook. Maybe I'll have a closed up unit later today. OBC

Now that I have it apart.. On power up, I get a black screen that reduces back to static within 30 seconds. I'll start checking the basics with my meter tonight. OBC