Retro Computing Archives

How to use Commodore disk drives

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 16, 2024November 15, 2024

If you’ve used other types of computers, Commodore disk drives can be a bit confusing. In this blog post, I will give an overview of the essential commands concepts you will need in order to use Commodore disk drives. All of this also applies to third party drives like drives from MSD, the Excelerator Plus or Oceanic 118, Enhancer 2000, Indus GT, Blue Chip, etc. It also works on modern solid state solutions like a Pi1541 or an SD2IEC.

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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NEC V20 vs Intel 80186

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 10, 2024July 18, 2025

An acquaintance recently asked me what the difference was between the NEC V20 and the Intel 186 and why the NEC V20 makes a better PC clone than an Intel 80186. The V20, after all, was compatible with the Intel 80186, but it makes for a much better PC clone. In this blog post, we will explore the NEC V20 vs Intel 80186.

Dave Farquhar

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HP 200LX and related palmtops

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 9, 2024May 20, 2025

The HP 200 LX was a successful palmtop computer introduced in 1994. HP continued to sell it through 1999, an unusually long run for a 1990s computer model. In this blog post, we’ll dig into this largely forgotten form factor and why it became such a quiet success.

Dave Farquhar

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Interact Home Computer from 1978

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 5, 2024May 20, 2025

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.

Dave Farquhar

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486SX vs 486DX: A closer look

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 3, 2024April 10, 2025

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.

Dave Farquhar

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Why the Imagination Machine failed

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing March 27, 2024September 25, 2024

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.

Dave Farquhar

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Store controllers and cables safely without damaging them

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing March 20, 2024March 16, 2024

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.

Dave Farquhar

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PC mouse connector types

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing March 19, 2024March 19, 2024

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.

Dave Farquhar

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Hash collisions in computer security

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing, security March 18, 2024March 26, 2024

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.

Dave Farquhar

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80s computer brands

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing March 13, 2024April 27, 2026

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.

Dave Farquhar

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