8-Bit Wall of Doom - 'Studio' tour - walk through of some gear plus, what's next for this channel
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- This video provides a glimpse into the 8-Bit WoD 'studio', aka the place where I keep 95% of my vintage gear and record the videos that have been published on this channel thus far. The idea here is to share my philosophy which is to use (not stockpile) these wonderful systems, to show one approach to manage the mess, and to hopefully provoke a few requests on what you (the viewer) might want to see next on this channel. The tour runs the gamut through:
Corsham KIM Clone (built from kit)
Oscar Vermeulen's KIM-Uno (built from kit)
Commodore PET, VIC 20, SX-64, Plus/4, C16, and C128 (vintage)
ATARI 800XL (vintage) with Fujinet
Tynemouth Software MiniPET (built from kit)
NeXT Cube (Motorola 68040 based) (vintage)
Foenix C256 U+, F256K, and A2560K including the introduction of the Motorola 6809 clone, the FNX6809 (retro, but with vintage roots!)
... and a cursory discussion about how I wire-up several systems in a point-to-point RS-232 serial-port 'network'; also, as bonus, a quick look at my makeshift arcade which shares a room with my vintage PET 4032.
A brief introduction leads to the reason why I'm here at all; because as a 16 year old growing up in the 1980s, I was obsessed with commercial arcade and my generation was lucky enough to witness the parade of classic titles emerge, show up in take-out Pizza Restaurant storefronts, in Snack Bars, at the entrance of department stores, and ultimately, in large and bustling Arcades.
Many of my friends from those days were also led through Computer Science programs at University and into careers as technicians, software developers, sys admins, and system architects. Now that I have the time, I'm beginning to share what I've been passionate about with others.
If you are new to this channel, there is plenty to catch up on, and a backlog of great content on software development, demos, vintage hardware, and system-to-system interoperability in the works... so subscribe and stay tuned!!
** The usual stuff
Constructive feedback and questions are welcome, and clicking the SUBSCRIBE button is much appreciated. We are just getting started, but have big plans for this channel.
** Links and/or references mentioned:
NOTE: to download either of the Foenix Rising Newsletters linked below, you may need to right-click and "open link in a new window" then press RETURN on the URL (depending on your security settings and browser).
Link to download Foenix Rising Issue #3 (the 32-page Arcade issue featured in the first half of this video):
apps.emwhite.or...
Link to "Foenix F256 meets its match - the FNX6809 and a port of NitrOS-9 Level 2":
• Foenix F256 meets its ...
Link to the VCF East 2021 Stephen Edwards interview of Bill Mensch from the first break-from-COVID in October of 2021 (VCF East is typically held in the Spring/April time frame: • Western Design Center:... (unfortunately, the audio has some dropouts, but there is still plenty of great dialogue and stories between Stephen and Bill in this video)
Link to 8-Bit Show and Tell's (@8_Bit) "Programming Pitfall Harry" episode • "Programming Pitfall H...
(not completely unrelated...) I found the reference to the conversation with Bill Mensch and it was within my article on the BCD mode of the 6502. (it implicates the ATARI smash Arcade hit, Asteroids and its score keeping). See page 8-12 of:
apps.emwhite.or...
Great tour, really good to see around The Wall in more detail. Thanks for the shout-out, that's a really nice display you have for the Pitfall pamphlet. Loved seeing LeMans running there too :)
Very nice collection, I was totally blindsided to the fact that you had a fully decked out arcade room in addition to everything else.
Looking forward to how you route the serial comm stuff. I had to get creative for my HDMI/DVI/capture routing, my sound routing and my MIDI switching, but no serial (...yet??)
I watched your Appletalk/localtalk over WiFi over SCSI. As crazy as that is, I agree that routing ancient Mac video to a modern machine is more of a challenge. I have a newer BlueSCSI (bought at VCF Midwest last year) hope to use it someday if I can get my SE/30 working. Thanks for the comment.
So much Stuff I would need to buy a new house to try to collect as much stuff!!
Whatever you do, please do not request to see my Music Studio or my EM Pinball room. FWIW, I 'own' this basement. In the upstairs of my house where my family lives, I own a toothbrush!
On zoom calls during COVID lockdown, it was inevitable that somebody would call me out and say "where are you now! Is that a virtual background?"; I would simply reply that some people collect books, or they collect thoughts; some people collect enemies; I collect retro tech and 70s and 80s synths and arcade games. : )
Amazing! It’s like you’ve created a private museum. I never thought of mounting working system mainboards on the wall. So much stuff, tidily organised, in a small space! Nicely done! Looking at the tidy layout, made me wonder if you had previously been a model train layout enthusiast? Definitely lots of stuff I’d love to hear more about. 🤓
Model RR... hmmm, I've been tempted but never had the $$, time, or space. Even now, as much gear as I appear to have (and I'm somewhat on the low-end in this realm), there are plenty of people with 10x this amount. Much of what I have was purchased non-working or given to me, the NeXT workstation was probably the biggest expenditure, but it's precious.
At this point in my life, I've got no more $$, plenty of time, and limited space. I suppose it's about doing what you can with the gear you have. I spent way too much time in Data Centers in the late '90s and early '00s and the people that ran the place would throw a fit if cables were not tied down or had excess slack. This was when every system had a serial port/console connection, Ethernet crossover cables and local switches provided clustered heartbeats, and SCI interconnects were precious.
I'll shortly be producing a video on 'plywood' and SBCs featuring some of what I breezed over (KIM-1 and more about the Foenix C256U+) plus the Motorola 68HC11, a $68.11 'micro' controller dev board that was popular in universities here in the Northeast U.S. in the late 1980s.
@@8-bitwallofdoom Awesome, I can’t wait for more videos! I was also a teenager in the late 70’s / 80’s, when I first got into digital electronics and microprocessors. Unfortunately, where I live (NZ), it was a little more difficult to acquire the early systems. Perhaps that’s what drove me to build my own, in order to self-educate myself on the microprocessor revolution. So, your collection is pretty impressive to me, as is the way you have mounted & displayed them!
I look forward to more about the KIM-1, and also any Motorola devices (where I started), and (or course) the Foenix.
I started with the 6800, before building a number of 6809 systems. I also designed a number of early MCU projects, based on the MC68HC705, and later the MC68HC11. I still have a pristine M68HC11EVBU board & manual, circa 1990.