Retro Computing Archives

Commodore Plus 4 and Commodore 16

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing July 29, 2018July 5, 20251980s, amiga, apple, apple ii, atari, Bil Herd, commodore, commodore 128, Commodore 16, commodore 64, commodore vic 20, Dave Haynie, IBM, jack tramiel, loyalists, motorola

Dan Bowman kindly pointed me to former Commodore engineer Bil Herd’s discussion of the ill-fated Commodore TED machines on Hackaday. Here in the States, few remember the TED specifically, but some people may remember that oddball Commodore Plus 4 that closeout companies sold for $79 in 1985 and 1986. The Commodore Plus 4 was one of those TED machines. So was the Commodore 16.

What went wrong with those machines? Commodore miscalculated what the home computer market was doing. The TED was a solution to too many problems, and ended up not solving any of them all that well. Arguably it’s more popular with vintage computer enthusiasts today than it was in the 1980s. Read more

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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Advantages of Intel processors

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Retro Computing July 13, 2018September 23, 2024

I’ve talked before about the disadvantages of the Intel 8086. But in spite of its weaknesses, it won. The CPU you are using right now descended from it. Even if you’re reading this on a smartphone, the server that sent the page to your smartphone has an Intel 8086 descendant in it. So what are some advantages of Intel processors? They won for a reason.

In the 1980s, there was a saying that nobody got fired for buying IBM. Intel positioned itself as the logical successor to that, building an ecosystem around its CPUs that allowed it to conduct marketing campaigns as the safe, reliable, compatible choice. It was true enough of the time that Intel built momentum that no other company could match.

Dave Farquhar

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8088 vs 8086

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing July 4, 2018March 25, 2024

Intel’s 8088 and 8086 chips were close relatives that came out in the late 1970s and became popular in the 1980s thanks to the IBM PC and its compatibles. The chips were very similar and used the same software, but there were some differences. Here’s a look at 8088 vs 8086.

Dave Farquhar

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How did computers change during the 1990s?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing June 27, 2018January 9, 2025

How did computers change during the 1990s? Sounds like a test question, but I’ll bite. I’m willing to say it was the most pivotal decade for computing, rivaled only by the 1980s. Computers made multiple important changes during the 1990s, so let’s talk about them.

Dave Farquhar

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Windows 95 vs 98

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing, Windows June 19, 2018June 28, 2025

Windows 95 vs 98 didn’t seem like a very big deal to me in 1998-1999. With nearly 20 years of hindsight, I still don’t really think it’s a big deal. Here are the differences between Windows 95 and Windows 98.

Dave Farquhar

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Commodore SX64

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing June 12, 2018June 1, 2026

Over the course of its 12 years on the market, Commodore released a number of Commodore 64 models. The computer’s capability changed very little over time, but the technology did. The world changed a lot between 1982 and 1994, and that gave Commodore some opportunities to lower costs, chase other market segments, or both. The Commodore SX64, also known as the Executive 64, was an example of this, trying to get into the luggable market where Compaq thrived. It was a pioneering machine but didn’t set any sales records.

Dave Farquhar

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What does compressing a file do?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing, Software June 11, 2018November 16, 2019

What does compressing a file do? There are several ways to describe it, from eliminating redundancy, to just thinking of it as digital shorthand. The goal is to make the file take up less space on disk and in transit. How it works is a bit more complicated.

Dave Farquhar

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Radio Shack laptops

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing May 23, 2018March 14, 2024

Tandy didn’t invent the laptop, but Radio Shack sold more laptops than anyone else in the 1980s. Here’s a look back at the pioneering Radio Shack laptops. They may have been unsophisticated by today’s standards, but they were very innovative for their time.

Radio Shack also sold desktop and home computers, but its laptop line was a huge success.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

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What does BBS mean, or bulletin board system?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing May 16, 2018March 28, 2025

What does BBS mean? In the 1980s and early 1990s, before the Internet was available for home use, hobbyists would set up a computer with a modem on a phone line to see who would call in. In some cases, hundreds of people did. Here’s a look back at the days of the BBS, or bulletin board system, and what people did with their modems in days of yore.

Dave Farquhar

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1980s technology

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 30, 2018May 9, 2025

Although 1980s technology is recognizable today, by modern standards, it had shortcomings. Yet I can’t think of another decade that was so obsessed with technology. Growing up in the 80s probably is what made me a technologist, and I know I’m not alone in that. Many of my peers went the same direction I did for the same reasons. So let’s take a look at 80s technology and how it shaped the world to come.

Subsequent decades railed against the 1980s in many ways, but you have to learn how to walk before you learn to run. It’s clear that the 1980s was, if nothing else, that turning point. While 1989 technology is rudimentary compared to 30 years later, elements of modern technology were present in 1989 that weren’t visible at all in 1980. And not all of the 1980s nostalgia is negative. The Netflix series Stranger Things is a tribute to the 80s at heart.

Dave Farquhar

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