JB

Congratulations on the repair. So much harder to live the 99 life when you can't type 99.

It seems more like the Linux community started using "vt100" to mean "terminal emulator" and forgot it referred to a specific piece of hardware at some point. So the DEC VT220 color codes are now part of the Linux vt100 software platform.

"VT100 up to 5 colors"? That's a bit impressive, given theVT100's a B/W teminal.

Yeah, I do acknowledge that adding the clocks up would be a, umm, questionable thing to do. But you COULD do it!

Given it requires four different 3-MHz clock inputs, there's an argument to be made there.

The datasheet is clear that there's a 1/4 divider in the chip. Granted, it does not explicitly say "and the processor runs at the divided clockerate", but they didn't include the divider for no reason(transistors cost money). Empirical evidence shows that, with a 12 MHz input clock, the 9995 performs slightly better than a 9900 with a 3 MHz clock input, which is what is expected for a slightly improved 9900 running at 12/4 MHz. It is also what is expected for a much much worse version of the 9900 running at 12/1 MHz, but it is difficult to imagine how iterative updates could result in a 4x loss of performance. I would say the onus is on you to prove the processor ISN'T clocked off of that divider, and it truly was included for no reason. And I look forward to your groundbreaking research in that regard.

They take different clock inputs, but both run at the same internal frequency. It is like a 486 DX2, only in reverse. A 486 DX2 66 takes a 33 MHz clock input and doubles it internally, but no one will argue it isn't a 66 MHz chip. Similarly, the 9995 takes a 12 MHz input and divides it by four internally. We can only speculate as to why, but it clearly doesn't "run at" 12 MHz.

Illegus looks nice as heck. I know there's other obstacles on the 99, but it is like Tunnels of Doom if Tunnels of Doom wasn't hella choppy.

Then rephrase it. "Is your TV a flickery mess? If yes, press P. If no, press N."

That you can't fight the zygonaut is the game's greatest flaw.

They still make real printers. Heck, they still make 9-pin tractor-feed printers with RS-232 and parallel ports. https://epson.com/For-Work/Printers/Impact/LX-350-Impact-Printer/p/C11CC24001 Case in point, though it took a little scraping to find the ports list.

SCART is... complicated. It can do several different things. I've heard that not all displays with SCART inputs will accept RGB. I've never owned a display with SCART inputs myself, though.

I believe even in the 80s they were harvesting gold from electronics. Dunno how bad the fake IC market was then. But there's a lot of stuff that wasn't retired until much later, or was retired to a storage room and forgotten for a decade or two. Heck, there's probably STILL some businesses with an old 990 whirring away on some business-critical piece of COBOL.

Probably because everyone ships their electronics over there for recycling. If it doesn't wind up in a landfill close to home, it goes to China to be recycled. They strip the metal from the PCBs, strip the ICs for resale, then the unsellable parts go in a landfill far from home.

No battery in the system or most possible add-ons.