Interact Home Computer from 1978

Interact Home Computer from 1978

When you think of the Intel 8080 CPU, the computer that springs to mind probably doesn’t look like the Interact. The prebuilt Interact, designed for home use, with an integrated keyboard and tape drive, doesn’t look much like an Altair 8800 or and only superficially resembled even the SOL-20 from earlier in the decade. In this blog post, we’ll explore the Interact, an obscure 1978 computer whose maker went bankrupt after just a year, but the system still found ways to survive into the early 1980s.

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486SX vs 486DX: A closer look

486SX vs 486DX: A closer look

When Intel released the 486 CPU in 1989, there was no SX or DX designation on it. But similarly to what they had done with the 386, they followed up with an economy version. And they borrowed the same name designations they’d used on the 386. But the difference between the economy version and the premium version wasn’t the same in the two chip generations. In this blog post, we will explore the 486SX vs 486DX.

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Why the Imagination Machine failed

Why the Imagination Machine failed

Ed Smith, the designer of the Imagination Machine, says it failed because Apple released its floppy drive in 1979 and that made the Imagination Machine obsolete. I think Smith is selling himself short a bit, or perhaps he’s giving people the answer he knows everyone wants to hear. In this blog post, we’ll explore what went wrong with the APF Imagination Machine.

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Store controllers and cables safely without damaging them

Store controllers and cables safely without damaging them

It’s something I think we’ve all done before. You get done playing video games and you don’t want to just leave the controllers plugged into the console and laying around somewhere. So you pick up the controller, unplug it, wrap the cable around the controller, then set it aside or even put it in a box. Maybe you even disconnect the console and wrap the video cable around the console. But did you know that doing that can damage the plastics? In this blog post, I’ll show you a better way to store game controllers and consoles neatly without the risk of damage.

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PC mouse connector types

PC mouse connector types

The last several vintage computer mice I’ve bought on Ebay were not properly described. So I figured I would write this guide because it will help people find the right mouse for a computer, and if you are trying to sell one on Ebay, properly describing the mouse connector type will help you sell it more quickly, and potentially get more money.

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Hash collisions in computer security

Hash collisions in computer security

Last week, Robin of the YouTube channel 8-bit Show and Tell wondered out loud on Twitter why Chrome flags Netracer 1.1, a modern indie Commodore 64 game, as malware. I think this is a classic case of hashing algorithms having gone wrong. In this blog post, I’ll explain what a hash collision is, using this collision of my hobby of retro computing and my day job of information security as an example.

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80s computer brands

80s computer brands

A small number of 80s computer brands are the same as today, but a lot more companies played in the field than now. Profit margins were higher then, so industry consolidation wasn’t the matter of survival that it is now. You might be surprised to see all of the most popular computer brands of today were around in the 80s. But many popular 1980s computers no longer exist in any form.

There’s a human element to 80s computing that the 90s erased. In this list, besides the familiar stories, you’ll find a computer designed by an engineer who grew up in public housing, computers designed by two women, and a company that didn’t survive its CEO dying in a car crash celebrating its IPO. While some survived the 80s and into the 90s or even today, others only lasted a few years. The 1980s were a make or break time, and many broke.

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APF Imagination Machine

APF Imagination Machine

The APF Imagination Machine was a hybrid game console/home computer from 1979 that sought to exploit a gap in the market. Although it was not a commercial success, it is a historically interesting machine and they were not the last console to attempt that approach.

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Use an IBM 5170 without a battery

Use an IBM 5170 without a battery

I got tired of my IBM 5170 PC/AT draining batteries every few months. And unlike newer PCs, operating an IBM 5170 without a battery isn’t just a matter of taking the battery out, leaving it out, and relying on the BIOS to auto configure with sensible defaults. The BIOS in the 5170 wasn’t that advanced. But if you are willing to compromise on one thing, you can use a 5170 without a battery while retaining the IBM BIOS and ROM Basic so it still feels like using an IBM.

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Why we like retro

Why we like retro

Why do we like retro? The question comes up from time to time on forums and podcasts and discussion groups. I think there is more than one answer, but none of them are terribly complicated. In this blog post, I’ll explore retro’s appeal.

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