Retro Computing Archives

Coleco Adam computer

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing June 5, 2025April 5, 2025

The Coleco Adam computer was a 1983 attempt by toy and game console maker Coleco to enter the growing home computer market. Critics and consumers looked forward to the computer after Coleco unveiled it June 5, 1983, but it never lived up to that anticipation. Coleco discontinued the Adam in 1985. Nevertheless, the Adam remains an interesting might-have-been.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

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AMD 486DX4 released June 4, 1995

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing June 4, 2025June 1, 2025

On June 4, 1995, AMD released its DX4 CPU, about six months after Intel released its DX4 CPUs. The AMD CPUs weren’t quite as fast as Intel’s DX4s, but they proved very popular because of their value for money. While I didn’t see AMD’s DX4 in many name-brand PCs, smaller manufacturers, especially local clone shops, sold them extensively. In the June 5, 1995 issue of Infoworld, an unnamed AMD spokesperson said they expected to sell 12 million 486-class chips by the end of 1995.

Dave Farquhar

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Intel 8088s and non-Intel non-clones

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing June 2, 2025March 2, 2026

The Intel 8088 CPU made its debut June 1, 1978. It rose to fame as the CPU powering the IBM PC, PC/XT, and tens of millions of PC and XT clones from the 1980s. But did you know Intel wasn’t the only company that manufactured 8088 CPUs? No fewer than nine other companies produced exact copies of the Intel 8088, and they did it with Intel’s cooperation. In this blog post, I’ll explain why.

Dave Farquhar

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DR DOS: Revenge of CP/M

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing May 28, 2025May 3, 2026

DR DOS was a third party clone of MS DOS that developed a well-deserved niche following in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Even though it was first released May 28, 1988, its copyright date of 1976 suggests some historical significance. Indeed, it was more than just any clone of MS-DOS. Arguably it was both a clone and a predecessor. DR DOS was its own grandpa.

Dave Farquhar

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AMD K6-2 released May 28, 1998

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing May 27, 2025January 23, 2026

AMD launched its K6-2 microprocessor on May 28, 1998, a little over a year after its predecessor, the K6. The K6-2 built upon the K6, increasing performance to better compete with the Pentium II. Since it still used the Socket 7 architecture, and Socket 7 motherboards had provision for cache on the board, the motherboard cache served as a level 3 cache.

Dave Farquhar

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Bill Gates’ Internet Tidal Wave Microsoft memo

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing May 26, 2025May 20, 2025

30 years ago today, on May 26, 1995, Bill Gates wrote a company memo to Microsoft. It was something he did every few years, outlining the company’s top priority. But this one was different. It was a five-alarm fire titled “The Internet Tidal Wave,” warning that the Internet was going to change everything and had the potential to disrupt the current order, displacing Microsoft and other titans of the computer industry.

Dave Farquhar

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Quantum Link: AOL before it was AOL

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing May 23, 2025May 23, 2025

I used AOL before it was AOL. And if you had a Commodore and a modem in the 1980s, you may have too. On May 24, 1985, Control Video reorganized and became Quantumlink, or Q-Link for short, on its way to reinventing itself as an online service for home computers. It opened for business November 5 of the same year.

Dave Farquhar

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Advantages and disadvantages of Windows 3.0

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing May 21, 2025May 21, 2025

I hear the question from time to time what the advantages and disadvantages of Windows 3.0 were. Windows 3.0, released May 22, 1990, is generally considered the first usable version of Microsoft Windows. It was certainly the first one to see commercial success. The oft-repeated advice to always wait for Microsoft’s version 3 is a direct reference to Windows 3.0 that still gets repeated today.

Although Windows 3.0 is clumsy by today’s standards, in 1990 it had the right combination of everything to take the world by storm.

Dave Farquhar

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Microsoft’s attempted merger with Intuit

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing May 20, 2025May 26, 2025

Before Microsoft was obsessed with Netscape, it was obsessed with another piece of software: Quicken. Unable to beat it in the marketplace with a clone called Microsoft Money, Microsoft tried to buy its publisher, Intuit, outright. On May 20, 1995, Microsoft and Intuit abandoned that merger over antitrust concerns.

Dave Farquhar

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Microsoft Antitrust case of 1998

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing May 19, 2025March 21, 2025

On May 18, 1998, the Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, seeking ultimately to break up the company. The case was controversial at the time and remains controversial now, but I would also argue the case is misunderstood today, and the Microsoft of today is not the Microsoft of the 1990s, and the Microsoft Antitrust Case of 1998 had something to do with that.

It’s popular to say today that the Microsoft antitrust case of 1998 was unnecessary and the market figured out how to handle Microsoft. But provisions in the settlement kept Microsoft from behaving toward Google the way they behaved toward Netscape and Lotus.

Dave Farquhar

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