Retro Computing Archives

Gotek floppy emulator for retro PCs

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing August 26, 2019October 9, 2019

Gotek floppy emulators are a useful piece of hardware, especially for retro PCs. The problem is they suffer from poor (or entirely missing) instructions. If you mess around with old PCs a lot, a Gotek is a must-have.

A Gotek floppy emulator is a drop-in replacement for 3.5-inch floppy drives that reads images off a USB flash drive. The Gotek can cycle through 1000 disk images on the USB drive by pressing buttons on its front panel. Goteks are really designed and marketed with vintage music equipment in mind, but they benefit old PCs too, for exactly the same reason.

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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Why computer cases changed from beige to black

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing August 22, 2019August 3, 2019

For most of the 1980s and 1990s, computer cases were an off-white color people variously called cream, putty, or beige. It changed in the early 2000s, and from then onward, the most common color was black. Here’s why computer cases changed from beige to black.

Dave Farquhar

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Optimizing DOS memory

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing August 19, 2019September 13, 2023

After watching some 486 build videos, it became clear to me that optimizing DOS memory is a lost art. Yes, I made some boot menus and custom DOS boot disks in my day, but for power users familiar with DOS memory management, boot disks were usually a last resort. Memory managers usually free up more than 600K of conventional memory so the overwhelming majority of DOS programs don’t need a special configuration. Here’s how to use them.

The key is using HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE in your config.sys with certain recommended parameters. These programs move device drivers and memory-resident utilities out of conventional memory to make room for memory-hungry DOS programs. Using HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE is a bit of a lost art, so let’s see if we can un-lose it.

Dave Farquhar

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PC DOS vs MS-DOS

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing August 13, 2019May 7, 2024

DOS was a bit of an oddity, in that you could buy it from either Microsoft or IBM. The two were never quite identical, but were always mostly interchangeable. The differences grew larger at version 6, but they were still more alike than different. Let’s take a look at PC DOS vs MS-DOS.

IBM and Microsoft collaborated on DOS, and both had the right to market it. IBM sold its version as PC DOS, while Microsoft sold its version as MS-DOS. And for a time, IBM was happy just to sell PC DOS to owners of true-blue IBM PCs. But in 1993 it changed.

Dave Farquhar

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What is retro in computers?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing August 8, 2019July 26, 2019

What is retro in computers? It’s a fair question, because there’s a fine line between junk and treasure when it comes to old computers. And the answer definitely depends on who you ask. It means the computer is old enough to be collectible, but there’s no universal standard for “old enough.”

As a general rule, if it’s obsolete and no longer being made, someone considers it retro. But not necessarily everyone will, so there certainly are degrees of retro when it comes to computers.

Dave Farquhar

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Atari ST vs Amiga

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing August 1, 2019June 20, 2025

When it comes to Atari ST vs Amiga, there are more similarities than differences from today’s perspective. But the two machines had significant differences that led them to be incompatible even though the hardware differences look minor today. Here’s a look at the two machines and why they were such fierce rivals in the late 1980s.

Dave Farquhar

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How to collect vintage computers

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing July 30, 2019March 15, 2022

I see a lot of people asking how to collect vintage computers, perhaps frustrated they aren’t able to replicate other people’s results. Collecting retro computers isn’t dead, but it’s changing. As hobbyists adapt, collecting will continue.

Dave Farquhar

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Sega Genesis power supply specs

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing July 24, 2019January 10, 2021

When it comes to the Sega Genesis power supply, there’s one important thing to remember. You can use a Genesis power supply in a Nintendo NES, but the reverse is not true. The NES isn’t picky about its power, but the Genesis needs 9 volts DC and the right polarity.

The original Genesis power supply connector is the same size as a Nintendo NES, but the Genesis requires 9 volts DC, center negative, and 1 amp, though 1.2 amps is better. A non-Sega adapter is fine to use as long as it meets these specs, but using AC or the wrong polarity will damage the game console.

Dave Farquhar

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Fix a VIC-20 displaying the wrong colors

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing July 22, 2019March 13, 2021

It’s not terribly uncommon for a VIC-20 to display colors badly, or just downright wrong. Most people attribute this to the nature of the machine. But it’s possible to adjust the color to get something closer to what screenshots in vintage magazines suggest the VIC-20’s display really looked like. Here’s how to fix a VIC-20 displaying the wrong colors.

The VIC-20 never had great color rendition to begin with, but as the components age, the color can drift even further. The VIC-20 has two potentiometers on its motherboard that you can use to adjust the color.

Dave Farquhar

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Computer game cartridges

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing July 17, 2019March 15, 2022

Typically we associate game cartridges with consoles, but for a time in the 1980s, computer software, especially games, were also distributed on cartridge. Here’s why computer game cartridges fell out of fashion.

Computer game cartridges were convenient because they loaded quickly, but their high cost of production led publishers to prefer disk or tape. There was also some concern that repeatedly removing cartridges would wear out an expensive computer.

Dave Farquhar

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