Retro Computing Archives

Video card vs graphics card

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Retro Computing April 26, 2018November 11, 2024

Occasionally someone comes on a hardware forum and asks for help with the terms video card vs graphics card, and apologizes for possibly asking a n00b question. The thing is, it’s not a bad question at all. While there’s technically no difference between them today, in retro computing, there was a difference. And even in modern times, the two words certainly imply different things. So let’s dig in.

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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Commodore 65: A 16-bit C-64 that never was

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 5, 2018January 19, 2026

The Commodore 65 was an ill-fated attempt to extend the Commodore 8-bit line one last time and release a hybrid 8/16-bit computer with some backward compatibility with the Commodore 64. The concept was similar to the Apple IIgs and the Nintendo Super NES. Commodore never released it.

Dave Farquhar

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Is emulation legal?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 2, 2018August 7, 2024

It’s generally only a matter of time before someone discovers emulation, the ability to run old software on new systems. And since people can do it without necessarily paying for the software they run, someone may wonder, is emulation legal?

Emulation certainly tends to be a gray area. You can do it legally, but not everyone does. And there are a good number of misconceptions about what you are and aren’t allowed to do. But plenty of emulation happens all the time, without breaking the law at all.

Dave Farquhar

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1990s AOL competitors

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing March 20, 2018March 10, 2025

It’s hard to believe now, and nobody should have believed it then, but around 1997, analysts were calling AOL the only blue-chip dotcom stock. The problem was the golden age of dialup ended around 1998. But AOL served a purpose, for a time. Here’s a look back at 1990s AOL competitors.

In the 90s, technology stocks were a slightly different category. Today we don’t distinguish them, but companies who made and sold physical goods like IBM were easier to understand than companies whose business model revolved around the Internet and or proprietary information services.

Dave Farquhar

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Packard Bell vs Hewlett-Packard

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Retro Computing March 19, 2018September 10, 2022

I didn’t realize that the question of Packard Bell vs Hewlett-Packard existed anymore. The search engines say otherwise. So here’s the difference between these two rather old brands.

Dave Farquhar

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Why did Compaq fail?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing March 15, 2018September 6, 2024

Compaq was a high-flying PC brand in the 1980s and 1990s. It created the first successful and fully legal IBM PC clone, set records as a startup, usurped IBM as the standard bearer in the PC market, and made sturdy, highly regarded desktop PCs and servers. But today it’s just a trademark that HP owns and doesn’t use. Why did Compaq fail?

There were several reasons why Compaq failed, but one stands taller than the others.

Dave Farquhar

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Why is x86 so popular? Momentum.

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Retro Computing January 10, 2018June 9, 2024

Intel and Intel-compatible x86 CPUs are everywhere around us. It’s been a long time since you could buy a desktop or laptop computer with anything but an x86 CPU in it. Even Apple, a longtime anything-but-Intel stalwart, started using x86 CPUs more than a decade ago. That raises a fair question: Why is x86 so popular?

Dave Farquhar

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Computers in the 1990s

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 5, 2018September 24, 2024

Computers in the 1990s, especially at the dawn of the 1990s, were very different from today. Looking back now, it’s easy to see how the 1990s were a pivotal decade for computing. And since GenXers like me live under the delusion that the 1990s just happened, I still remember it well.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember about computers in the 1990s is the number of things that didn’t exist prior to 1990. In other cases, they existed, but were terrible, so nobody used them.

Dave Farquhar

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Commodore 64 vs Nintendo 64

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 3, 2018October 5, 2018

The Commodore 64 and Nintendo 64 have similar names, but they aren’t related. The number “64” was significant enough that both companies wanted to brag about it. But in the case of the Commodore 64 vs Nintendo 64, the number meant two completely different things. Here’s why that number keeps coming up.

Dave Farquhar

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Advantages of 8086 over 8085

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing December 21, 2017November 13, 2018

Intel had a hit on its hands with the 8080 CPU and its successor, the 8085. But then Zilog came along and stole its thunder with the compatible but superior Z-80. Intel needed to follow up with something a lot better. The 8086 was what they came up with. The advantages of 8086 over 8085 were numerous, and that’s why everyone knows Intel, and few people outside of retro computing enthusiasts and embedded systems engineers ever heard of Zilog.

Here are the major advantages of 8086 over 8085.

Dave Farquhar

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