12Oct New additions - old PC’s
In a pile of old PCs I was given yesterday, there we two old machines. A IBM PC AT and a Olivetti M380/C
Ive not tested these machines yet…
There were also some 486, Pentium and Pentium 3 pcs in the pile. The Pentiums will probably go on Freecycle.
Also got a stack of SIMMs, ZIP drives and hard disks.
Sphere: Related Content09Oct U.K. Launches First Official National Videogame Archive
The videogame medium is, depending on when you start counting, 46 years old. That’s still relatively young compared to other popular media, but it’s old enough, it seems, to start preserving the industry’s rich history. To that end, the U.K.’s first official National Videogame Archive was launched earlier this week, which will house a “treasure trove” of consoles and cartridges ranging from “the humble beginnings of 1972’s ‘Pong’, to the blockbusters of the 21st Century.”
The archive was formed by academics at Nottingham Trent University, in cooperation with the National Media Museum in Bradford. The archive will, in fact, be located at the National Media Museum, and managed by Nottingham Trent University’s Centre for Contemporary Play. Interestingly, along with games and consoles, the archive will also include a wide swath of game-related media, such as advertising campaigns, artwork, and “the communities that sustain them” (which we really hope doesn’t mean they’ll be preserving the average videogame forum post).
“The National Videogame Archive is an important resource for preserving elements of our national cultural heritage,” said Nottingham Trent University’s Dr James Newman. “We don’t just want to create a virtual museum full of code or screenshots that you could see online. The archive will really get to grips with what is a very creative, social, and productive culture. It will not only be a vital academic resource to support growing disciplines in videogame studies but will also be something that the general public can fully engage with.”
The archive is similar to the archives that exist for other media, such as the National Film Preservation Foundation in the U.S. In fact, the press release for the National Videogame Archive specifically notes, as a reason for its creation, the “mistakes” made in the film industry that lead to the loss of historically significant materials in the past.
The actual opening of the National Videogame Archive will take place during the GameCity 3 festival in Nottingham, which is a three-day event set to start on October 30.
More info at source.
Sphere: Related Content05Oct Photos moving over to Flickr..
As this website will me moving from my webserver at home to a proper web hosting company, I will need to move my photos to Flickr.
You will be able to view the phots at http://www.flickr.com/photos/andysretrocomputers/
Sphere: Related Content05Oct Some features unavailable…
My main webserver is down for maintenance at the moment, so it currently running on a Virtual Machine on my desktop PC.
Some features may be unavailable during this time. For example, the photo gallery. Photo gallery fixed…
I expect normal service to be back later today.
Sphere: Related Content02Oct The Apple LCIII NAS - DEAD!!!
Hard disk has failed in my NAS. Im not happy, luckily i’ve not lost any data as its all backed up!
I don’t have any spare IDE disks to put in it, apart from a 20Gb drive, which isnt enough. But I do have 2 SATA drives spare. Unfortunately, the system board in the NAS does not have a SATA port. I do have a IDE/SATA adapter but its too big to put in the NAS case.
Will need to source a disk…
Sphere: Related Content28Sep RCM Open Day - more info…
More info about the RCM Open day…
25Sep RCM Open Day - 16th November 2008 - Leicestershire
OPEN DAY (One Day Only!)
Sunday 16th November 2008
Tickets are now on sale for the Retro Computer Museum Open Day.
You can pay via paypal or cheque (or cash on the day!). If you want to pay via paypal then just click on the donate link on the home page.
Tickets are £2.50 for adults and 50p for children (advance sales) and £3.50 for adults and 50p for children (on the day).
Tickets will be sent out two-three weeks before the event.
More information about the even can be found on the Retro Computer Museum homepage and forums at http://retrocomputermuseum.co.uk/
I wll be taking my Tatung Einstein TC01 on the day to be put on display. Also will be taking the VIC-PC and my Spectrum +3 with IDE interface. (Should be on compact flash by then, not a IDE hard disk…)
Other machines on display include…
- Amstrad CPC464
- Commodore 64 + Disc Drive + Cassette + Monitor etc
- Commodore 128 + Disc Drive + Monitor etc
- Commodore Amiga 1200 + Monitor etc
- Commodore CD32
- Sega Dreamcast + Games + LCD Monitor (VGA)
- Sega Genesis Nomad + Games (slightly poorly - but plays okay)
- Sinclair ZXSpectrum (Rubber Key) + TV
- Sinclair ZXSpectrum +2
- Sinclair ZXSpectrum +3
- Sinclair ZX81 + 16k Rampack + Games
- Sega Saturn + Games + TV
- Sony PS2 + Games + (maybe Guitar Hero 2) + TV
- Microsoft XBox + Games + TV
- Astro Wars Tabletop
- Gameboy Original + Games
Hope to see some of you there!
Sphere: Related Content22Sep The Apple LCIII NAS
Ive done another conversion! Ive taken my old Apple Mac LCIII and made it into a NAS! 
Photos can be found here.
It has a 250Gb hard disk. The software running on the system is FreeNAS. It serves files via SMB for Windows clients and NFS for my unix boxes. It can also stream media files via uPNP and iTunes etc.
Please post your comments!
Sphere: Related Content21Sep New addition - Apple Performa 475
Latest addition to the collection is a Apple Performa 475. Recieved from Freecycle. Also came with monitor, keyboard, mouse and exteranl SCSI CD-ROM drive.
All fully working. How has a LAN card installed, and System 7.5.5 loaded.
Photo here.
Sphere: Related Content14Sep More spectrum stuff
I collected a lot of Spectrum games and some hardware today. There were two items of interest in there…
Frel Ltd ComCon Joystick/Keyboard adapter
Basically, this adapter maps the movement from a joystick to keyboard keys. Therefore, it allows you to control keyboard only games with a joystick. More info can be read on this Crash page.
Hungry Horace cartridge
I’ve never seen a ROM cartridge for the 48k spectrum before, so a bit of a novelty for me. I’m unable to test it as I dont have a Interface 2.
There were many more games in this haul, but too many to mention here…
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