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The origins of Prince of Persia unearthed

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 23, 2012August 20, 20181980s, 6502, apple, apple ii, atari, commodore, commodore 64, USB flash drive, video game

Prince of Persia isn’t just a recent movie. It’s based on a video game series, the first of which was first released all the way back in 1989 for the venerable Apple II series of 8-bit computers. That original game, extremely simple by today’s standards, is a classic today.

The author, Jordan Mechner, had given up on looking for the 6502 assembly language source code behind the game until his dad found a box of disks buried in a closet. Among them were several hand-labeled disks claiming to contain the long-lost code. Read more

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.

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RIP, Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 9, 2012August 1, 20171980s, apple, atari, atari st, Chuck Peddle, commodore, commodore 64, dell, IBM, jack tramiel, Linus Torvalds, motorola, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Texas Instruments, TI

Commodore founder Jack Tramiel, the orchestrator of the first line of affordable personal computers, died this weekend at the age of 83.

I don’t know exactly what to think about it, and I’m probably not alone, though it didn’t take long for tributes to pour in. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Was CP/M overrated?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing September 27, 2011October 1, 20181980s, atari, atari st, Bill Gates, commodore, commodore 128, DEC, Gary Kildall, IBM, PIP, unix, vector, windows nt

Veteran tech journalist Dan Tynan recently published a list of 10 overrated technology products, and CP/M was on his list. But was CP/M overrated? I want to dig into that question a bit.

I think everyone knows the story of how IBM almost used CP/M as the operating system for its PC, but ended up using an upstart product from a small company named Microsoft instead. We’ll probably never know exactly what happened, seeing as the author of CP/M is dead and his business partner is no longer able to recollect those events from the 1980 timeframe, and IBM and Bill Gates have no reason to embarrass themselves by revisiting the story.

But CP/M was the first and most popular operating system for early 8-bit computers, so people who used it remember it fondly, and the way Microsoft steamrolled it made Gary Kildall and his operating system folk heroes to underdog lovers everywhere. Even people who never used it and weren’t even born when Kildall’s company ceased to exist have at least a vague idea of what it was.
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Dave Farquhar

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So Amazon’s tablet is a go

Dave Farquhar Hardware September 5, 2011September 5, 2011android, apple, Apple Ipad, atari, christmas, commodore, hp, ipad, kindle, TSA

Reports of Amazon’s tablet plans are trickling out. Basically, it’s going to be a 7-inch tablet running a very customized version of Android, tweaked to play media purchased from Amazon, and priced at $250, half the price of an entry-level Apple Ipad. (In English, we capitalize the first letter of proper nouns, and my native language is English, not C++, if you’re wondering.) Techcrunch and The Register have some of the details. The name: Amazon Kindle. The release date: end of November.

I wouldn’t call it a can’t-miss, but it’s clear Amazon’s thought a lot of things through here.

Dave Farquhar

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Commodore 128, top-12 dud? By what measure?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing August 17, 2011September 3, 20181980s, amiga, apple, apple ii, Apple Macintosh, atari, atari 2600, atari st, commodore, commodore 128, commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, IBM, ibm pcjr, macintosh, motorola, NES, nintendo, nintendo nes, pc magazine, video game

PC Magazine presented a list of 12 computer duds, and while I agree with most of them, my old friend the Commodore 128 makes an appearance. Commodore released several duds over the years, but calling the 128 one of them doesn’t seem fair.
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Dave Farquhar

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Floppy disks for Commodore and other vintage computers

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing June 12, 2011September 9, 20181541, 1571, 1980s, apple, atari, commodore, IBM, vintage computer

It’s been many years since 5.25-inch floppy disks suitable for Commodore, Apple, Atari, and other vintage 8-bit computers (not to mention IBM PCs and PC/XTs) have been something you can buy at the store down the street. I found some 360K DS/DD disks on Amazon, but they aren’t available in huge quantities.

Dave Farquhar

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The many troubles with e-books

Dave Farquhar Copyright June 8, 2011October 11, 20191980s, apple, atari, best buy, Blade, computer software, kindle

A brief essay by free software pioneer Richard Stallman on the problems with e-books made the front page of Slashdot today. It’s everything I’ve come to expect from Stallman. I found myself vigorously agreeing with parts of it, and vigorously disagreeing with other parts of it.

But mainly I found myself disappointed that he didn’t really elaborate much. Maybe it’s because he covered similar ground once before in his 1997 dystopian 1984-ish short story, The Right to Read.

And, to me, that’s the problem. We’re on a slippery slope. Today it sounds ridiculous that it could be illegal to loan your laptop or your e-reader or your tablet to someone else. But prior to 2009, the idea that you could buy a book and then at some point the party that sold it to you could take it back from you without permission sounded ridiculous.
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Dave Farquhar

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Windows, ARM, emulation, misconceptions and misremembered history

Dave Farquhar Hardware May 22, 2011January 23, 20221980s, 1990s, 6502, amiga, android, apple, atari, atari st, Bill Gates, commodore, Digital Research, excel, IBM, intel, macintosh, Microsoft Basic, motorola, netbooks, Once Windows, unix, web os, windows 2000, windows 7, windows 8, windows nt, Windows XP, x86

I keep reading stuff about Windows and ARM and, well, I think people just aren’t remembering history.

I’m not saying that Windows 8 on ARM will save the world, or even change it substantially. It probably won’t, since Microsoft tends not to get things right the first time. But will I automatically write off the project? No. It could prove useful for something other than what it was originally intended. That happens a lot.

But I’m more interested in clearing up the misinformation than in trying to predict the future.
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Dave Farquhar

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Ye Olde Nintendo 64

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 24, 2011December 4, 2018atari, atari 2600, NES, nintendo, playstation, RCA, rca jack, sega dreamcast, SNES, VCR, video game

I fixed up a Nintendo 64 this past weekend. People of a certain age affectionately refer to it just as “the 64,” though to me, “the 64” refers to a computer with 64K of memory introduced in 1982. I have an inherent bias against almost anything that reminds me of 1997, but in spite of my biases, I found a number of things to like about the system after spending a few hours with it.

Dave Farquhar

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So why didn’t Commodore make the Commodore 128 differently?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing March 27, 2011December 6, 20201980s, 6502, amiga, Andy Grove, apple, atari, Bil Herd, christmas, commodore, commodore 128, commodore 64, Dave Haynie, IBM, ibm pcjr, intel, irving gould, MOS, motorola, Steve Jobs, stock scam

I grew up on the Commodore 128. We got one for Christmas 1985 (an upgrade from a Commodore 64). It was a bit of a quirky machine, but I liked it.

On the retro computing forums, it might be the most controversial thing Commodore ever did. Which says something, seeing as some computer historians have summed up Commodore’s history in four words: Irving Gould‘s stock scam. But that’s another story.

The cool thing about Commodore was that its engineers weren’t shy about talking about their projects. Bil Herd, Fred Bowen, and Dave Haynie have all weighed in over the years, talking about what they did and why and what they would have done differently.

Dave Farquhar

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