Author: Dave Farquhar

Commodore 1670 modem 1200

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
Commodore 1670 modem 1200

It was 1985. Just 3 years before, Commodore had made telecommunications affordable, releasing the first modem on the market that retailed for $100. They weren’t just making it possible to live in the future, they were making it affordable. But the industry was passing them by. Commodore needed to catch up, and the 1670 modem 1200 was what they came up with.

Read more

Marx 52750 train set: The Champion

Dave Farquhar Toy trains
Marx 52750 train set: The Champion

In 1974, Marx introduced a diesel freight train set it called The Champion, catalog #52750, that ran on AC electric power and sold through catalog retailers. If you have a Marx 52750 train set today, it’s worth considerably more than its original retail price, even adjusted for inflation.

Marx’s Champion train set was part of the Great American Railroads series. It had catalog number 52750 and was manufactured only in 1974. Today it is one of the most valuable Marx train sets ever made.

Read more

Marx Cannonball train set number 4362

Dave Farquhar Toy trains
Marx Cannonball train set number 4362

Marx thrived for years selling low budget electric trains with an inexpensive locomotive pulling 4-wheel cars made of plastic. The Cannonball train set, part of its Great American Railroads series, carried catalog number 4362 and was the last of that breed.

The Marx Cannonball train, set number 4362, was part of the Great American Railroads series. It had two variants sold by discount retailers, but only in 1974.

Read more

UMC Green CPU: The forbidden 486

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
UMC Green CPU: The forbidden 486

Clock for clock, the best 486 was a CPU you might not have been able to buy and may very well have never heard of. Aside from Intel, AMD, and Cyrix, there was a fourth 486 family that didn’t get very far due to legal issues: the UMC Green 486 CPU. In this blog post, we will cover what made this 486 so special and what made this forbidden 486 illegal.

Read more

Reattach Activision Atari 2600 cartridge labels

Dave Farquhar Retro Gaming
Reattach Activision Atari 2600 cartridge labels

The labels on Activision cartridges for the Atari 2600 didn’t age nearly as well as the games did. And the average hobbyist won’t be able to make the labels new again, there are some things a hobbyist can do to reattach detached labels and even clean them up a bit. In this blog post, I will provide an inexpensive way to deal with detached and dirty Activision labels. Replacing the label with a repro isn’t your only option.

Read more

Maverick: Final-generation C-64 copier

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
Maverick: Final-generation C-64 copier

When I wrote my blog post about Fast Hack’em, a fair number of C-64 fans said they preferred Maverick. I seem to recall a lot of those kinds of conversations in the ’80s as well.

Read more

Should Atari own all of classic retro?

Dave Farquhar Retro Gaming
Should Atari own all of classic retro?

Into the Vertical Blank asked a good question this week: In the wake of Atari’s purchase of the Intellivision-associated intellectual property, should Atari control essentially all of the pre-Nintendo classic video game market? Of course, one company controlling such a large part of our history could be problematic. But I can also think of a precedent by looking back at my father’s generation.

Read more

Marx 25760 train set: The Allegheny

Dave Farquhar Toy trains
Marx 25760 train set: The Allegheny

In 1974, Marx introduced a diesel freight train set it called The Allegheny, catalog #25760, that ran on AC electric power and sold through catalog retailers. If you have a Marx 25760 train set today, it’s worth considerably more than its original retail price, even adjusted for inflation.

Marx’s Allegheny train set was part of the Great American Railroads series. It had catalog number 25760 and was manufactured only in 1974. Today it is one of the most valuable Marx train sets ever made.

Read more

Why SID chips go bad sitting on a shelf

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
Why SID chips go bad sitting on a shelf

The distinctive thing about the Commodore 64 was its custom chips. And while the VIC-II chip provided competitive graphics, the 64’s secret weapon was the sound interface device, also known as the SID. The Mastermind behind the SID was a young chip designer named Robert Yannes, who went on to found the synthesizer company Ensoniq. But the chips frequently fail today and the problem is getting worse. Here’s why 6581 SID chips can go bad just sitting on a shelf.

Read more

First CD burner: Sony, Yamaha, or Philips?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing
First CD burner: Sony, Yamaha, or Philips?

What was the first CD burner? It seems like a straightforward question, but I had a hard time finding a straight answer. The first CD burner in the modern sense was released in 1991. And I think it was either Yamaha or Sony.

Read more