Back fromt he Grave: Commdore 1571 redux (light stays on and the system locks)

  This entry is going to seem familiar at a glance, as the title is nearly identical to a previous entry. Unfortunately this is due to the tragic nature of retro computers in general: parts are inevitably going to fail, even when living an easy life. It's for this reason that both emulation and software preservation are going to start becoming more and more important as time goes on as eventually there simply won't be replacement parts available for many of these machines, and trying to fix ICs at the individual transistor level doesn't seem like it will ever be within the reach of a hobbyist - either in terms of ability or simple practicality.

Back from the Grave: Before you begin

(Originally drafted on January 21, 2018. Blogger just decided not to post it when I asked, for reasons I can't even begin to guess)

Before I get into my new series, I'd like to take a moment to outline some of the tools, equipment and processes that can (and should) be used for people wanting to undertake such things.  Keep in mind that I'm more of an electrics person than electronics, so it's going to be a fairly "simple" list of tools - but don't let that fool you into thinking they can't get many, many jobs done.

Back from the Grave: Apple //e (keyboard repeating and ignoring input)

(Originally drafted on February 17, 2018. Blogger just decided not to post it when I asked, for reasons I can't even begin to guess) 

The Apple II series includes a fairly unusual keyboard  A semi-custom decoder chip feeds the input via a ROM to determine which character code should be sent to a system.  This meant that custom keyboard layouts (such as DVORAK) could easily be implemented by only switching the ROM, and modified or extended characters (such as the extras added to the //e Enhanced and Platinum) could be easily dealt with.

It also offers functional advantages and disadvantages.  On the one hand, a full keyboard matrix meant that every key can be read individually - something only more expensive modern keyboards offer.  On the other hand, the decoder provides no feedback when individual keys are released, so the system only really ever knows what the last key pressed was.  These two aspects combined to make it extremely good for typing, but abysmal as a control method.

Back from the Grave: Atari Lynx II (No power, capacitor leak)

Released just two months after the Nintendo Game Boy, the Atari Lynx had all the makings of a clear winner in the portable console wars of the late 80s before it even began: a more efficient yet still familiar CPU; a backlit, colour display being driven by a 16-bit graphics chip capable of blitting and an extensive array of hardware manipulation; four channel, stereo, digital sound support; and support for up to 16-player gaming through link hardware. On paper, it left Nintendo's offerings for dead.

Unfortunately for Atari, Nintendo had three rather significant counter points in its favour: the Game Boy's launch price was only half that of the Lynx, Nintendo was able to focus on more than one device at a time, and they knew how to run advertising campaigns. Despite its clear shortcomings this meant that the Game Boy would go on to enjoy far more success simply by virtue of market penetration, rather than any actual merits.

Towards the end of the Lynx's lifetime a second model - known as the Lynx II - was released. This version, like modern "slim" consoles, was aimed to reduce costs and power usage, thus improving battery life. But it would prove to be too little too late as Atari would very shortly afterwards shift their focus entirely to the ill-fated Jaguar. This single-minded approach ultimately heralded the end of the Lynx, and of Atari itself as a hardware company when the Jaguar failed to compete with the PlayStation and Saturn.

Back from the Grave: Acorn A4000 (Battery leak, environmental damage)

Despite its obvious performance advantages against much all of the competition, Acorn redesigned its formerly-Archimedes systems to compete on the new battlefront: price. In 1992, this would be realised with the implementation of the ARM250 - an SoC variant of the ARMv2 chip. While raw performance was slightly inferior to the ARMv3 that had been used since 1990, the removal of many discrete components resulted in potentially significant cost savings

Sadly for Acorn this still wasn't enough to bring them to the forefront. By this point in time, Intel's x86 and IBM's PowerPC had basically claimed a duopoly on both the home and professional computer markets. Acorn would go on to continue their efforts to make inroads with the RiscPC but would not manage to gain the notoriety they deserved until the late 2000s.

Back from the Grave: Acorn A3000 (Battery leak)

In 1983, Acorn - already well known for the existing BBC Micro - set about attempting to compete with IBM in the business domain.  After determining that all the existing options were unsuitable they would settle on designing their own processor, unknowingly becoming one of the grandfathers of modern computing. Following successful simulations run in BASIC on a BBC Micro, in 1985 they would produce the first prototype Acorn RISC Machine processors, better known today as ARM processors.

It would be a further 2 years before these processors would see a commercial release, however, as the ARMv2 powering the brand new BBC Archimedes. A dozen or so models were released in all over the next 5 years eventually producing the ARMv3 and perhaps the first ever example of an SoC in a commercial product with the ARM250 variant of the ARMv2.

While their obvious performance advantage over the existing competition, especially in 32-bit scenarios, went largely unnoticed (and largely unused in 2D games), it's fair to say their legacy has well and truly outlived all but x86 when it comes to modern computers.

Back from the Grave: Commodore Plus/4 (kitchen sink)

Following on from the success of the C64, Commodore set about creating a system to replace the ageing VIC-20 - itself still in production - and potentially replacing the C64 itself with something cheaper. The 264 series was born, split into three variants: the largely-unknown-outside-Europe 116, the 16, and the Plus/4. While the former two featured just 16KB of RAM, the latter boasted a full 64KB; plus a 4-programme office suite in ROM (from which it derived its name).

Sadly, for all it did right, it did far too much wrong to make a name for itself. While it had twice the clock speed, more colours to choose from, stereo sound, and even more usable RAM (approximately 60KB was free in BASIC), it cost as much as the established C64, couldn't run the majority of existing Commodore software, had a fractured market due to the 16KB variants, lacked sprite and sound modulation capabilities, and inexplicably changed nearly every external interface to one that was physically incompatible with existing peripherals.

The entire 264 line was discontinued in 1985 - the year after its introduction.

Back from the Grave: Sega Saturn (losing power, flashing LED)

Sega's Saturn holds the unfortunate fate of being the beginning of the end of Sega as a hardware manufacturer.  Launched in 1994, Sega mistakenly believed their competition would come in the form of the (unsuccessful) Atari Jaguar and designed their console primarily as such, essentially pairing two Mega 32X consoles together for a 2D graphics monster with some 3D capability.

Sadly, between developers being unable to fully utilise a twin-CPU, twin-GPU system, and the extremely successful launch of Sony's fully-3D PlayStation, the Saturn would prove to be a financial disaster from which Sega would never fully recover.  It was discontinued in 1998 with just 9.26 million units sold.

Back from the Grave: Sega Game Gear (dull screen)

The Sega Game Gear.  Released in 1990 to compete with Nintendo's Game Boy, on paper it was a no-contest winner: colour graphics on a backlit display, a more common-place processor, twice the VRAM, compatibility (via an accessory) with the entire existing library of Master System titles (including an adaptor for 2-player games), and even an analogue TV tuner accessory made it seem all but certain Nintendo would have to react or fall by the wayside.

Sadly, something went wrong for Sega.  Nintendo didn't add colour (or a backlight in the global market) until 1998, by which time the Game Gear had already been dead for a year.  While the Game Gear had comparatively short battery life (especially considering it took more batteries) and some questionable titles, it was ultimately Sega's lack of focus on the mobile market which sealed its fate.

Back from the Grave: Atari 2600 (Skewed, garbled screen; buzzing)

The console that effectively created, dominated and then almost destroyed the videogame industry, all on its own: The Atari 2600.  Originally launched in 1977 as the VCS (Video Computer System) before being renamed upon the 1982 release of the Atari 5200, it was originally released to play upon the name and reputation of the Fairchild VES (Video Entertainment System) released a year earlier; itself renamed to the Channel F upon the release of the VCS.

The 2600 itself was, even by the day's standards, an unimpressive machine.  While it featured a 1MHz 6507 (similar to the 6502 found in the Apple II and VIC-20, just with fewer addressing pins), it had just 128 bytes (yes, bytes) of RAM, only allowed for 4 kilobyte cartridges (which was later expanded to 32kB by way of bank switching) and had almost zero graphical capability.  But developers managed to use this meager offering to exceptional effect, resulting in games that weren't Pong and securing its place at the top of the proverbial food chain (right up until ET, anyway).

Back from the Grave: Commodore VIC-20 (Part 3: blank, dark screen)

The Commodore VIC-20 - the "Friendly Computer".  Friendly perhaps to everyone except those who wanted to make it do anything significant.  The default RAM configuration meant it only had enough free RAM to hold a single page of 11-point text, making it perfectly adequate for documents which would fit but utterly dreadful for those that wouldn't.  Its 16 colour palette completely lacked any greys, and only 2 of the 4 colours in multicolour mode could even access the second 8.  Even its sound was limited by virtue of each of the three melody channels only having minor overlap in their range.

Yet, despite all this, it was a hit.  Even to this day people are still forcing it to do things never even dreamed of at the time of its creation.  In 2013, even Doom was ported to it - it didn't have all the levels, all the enemies, all the guns or all the music, and ran in a reduced size while requiring 32KB of RAM (all bar 1 expansion), but it is still there, playable, and relatively faithful to the original.  As yet the same cannot be said of the C64, which currently uses a co-processor to do the same (a 65c816, similar to that of a Super Nintendo/Famicom, running at 20MHz with 16MB of its own RAM) and still isn't nearly as complete (eg It has no sound).

Back from the Grave: Commodore VIC-20 (Part 1: blank, dark screen)

(This is unchanged from the original post, aside from this message.  Blogger simply decided it wanted to revert the post to a draft and change its posting date, and I'm unable to figure out why)

Launched in 1980, the VIC-20 (sold as the VC-20 in Germany and the VIC-1001 in Japan) was the first computer of any kind to sell in excess of one million units.  Pairing the already established MOS 6502 (used in the PET as well as Apple's II), a custom graphics chip (VIC) originally intended for game consoles, and an introductory price of just $299 it effectively created the entry-level computer market and filled it in spite of its shortcomings (such as only 5KB of RAM, though expandable to 32KB).

Eventually it would finally give way to the juggernaut that was the Commodore 64 which, while incompatible with most VIC-20 software and twice the price, was simply too much better to ignore.  Commodore would eventually retire the VIC-20 in 1985 after superseding it with the similarly low-cost (and much less successful) 264 series; specifically the Commodore 16.

Back from the Grave: Commodore 64 (phantom characters, low BASIC RAM, no sound)

The Commodore 64.  Arguably the best known home PC ever made, and certainly the most popular single model ever produced having shipped an estimated 10 to 17 million units in its 12 year lifespan.  As far as completely 8-bit units were concerned, there simply wasn't anything better: 64KB of RAM, 16 colours (up to 4 usable at the same time), 8 hardware sprites, 3-channel fully synthesised sound, a generous 320x200 display (160x200 in multi-colour) and plenty of inputs and outputs.  Other vendors needed to use 16-bit components just to keep up, and it still wasn't enough.

Eventually the C64 would ultimately be defeated by itself.  The vast majority of its software became gaming related and the 8-bit system simply couldn't compete against the emerging 16-bit console market.  With no direct successor to keep its design legacy alive, the rise of the x86 ecosystem, now moving to 32-bit, was simply the final nail in the coffin.

Back from the Grave: Commodore VIC-20 (Part 2: blank, dark screen)

Contrary to popular (at the time) belief, the "20" in "VIC-20" wasn't actually a reference to any part of the system.  Speculation varied, from it being a reference to its horizontal text resolution (which was actually 22 columns), the total size of the system memory (16KB of ROM and 5KB of RAM, for 21KB total), revision numbers, IC count (the original version had 32 chips, the "CR" or D version had 26; both had 7 proprietary chips), speed references or all manner of other potential origins.

As it turns out, however, it was much less meaningful.  According to Michael Tomczyk (responsible for leading development on the VIC-20), in an interview in 1996, 20 was simply chosen as it was "a friendly number" to offset that VIC "sounded like a truck driver".  It was, after all, "the friendly computer".

Back from the Grave: Commodore 1571 (light stays on and the system locks)

To go along with the 128, Commodore also released a new floppy drive in the form of the 1571.  Much like the 128 itself, this drive was designed to replace and build upon its predecessor - the 1541 - while retaining near 100% backwards compatibility.  A second read head was added, enabling both sides of a disc to be accessed simultaneously (though the second side would be effectively backwards, making it incompatible with a 1541), and a new burst transmission mode doubled transfer speeds.  It even supported reading IBM-compatible MFM format discs and CP/M discs, among others.

Released as both a stand-alone drive and integrated into the C128D and C128DCR, the 1571 was all but retired with the C128 in 1989, and discontinued entirely with the C64 in 1994.

Back from the Grave: Commodore 128D (incorrect character and colour display)

Commodore's attempt to supersede the infamous Commodore 64, the C128 was designed to take the C64 and give it a significant boost in its general computing and business credentials.  The MOS 6510 was replaced with an MOS 8502 able to run at twice the speed (2MHz), the RAM was doubled to 128KB (expandable to 1MB), the BASIC interpreter was upgraded and a second, high resolution VDC was added - complete with its own video RAM - and even a numeric keypad was now standard on the keyboard.  Not only that, but a Zilog Z80 (running at 4MHz, though only really 2MHz effectively) was included to enable what is generally considered the best implementation of 8-bit CP/M.

Unfortunately, the juggernaut that was the Commodore 64 would ultimately prove its undoing.  As the C128 boasted near 100% backwards compatibility with its predecessor, most software was still developed for the older, cheaper system to ensure a broader user install base.  Between that and the rising popularity of x86-based systems in businesses, in 1989 the C128 was discontinued.

Back from the Grave: Apple //e (vertical white lines)

The penultimate version of the 8-bit Apple II - the Apple IIe (stylised //e) - was originally released in 1983.  In essence, it was little more than a standard Apple II with some of the optional extras built in, and many off-the-shelf chips replaced by fewer custom ASICs.  Powered by an MOS 6502 running at 1MHz and featuring 64KB of RAM, expandable to a staggering 1MB, along with expansion card facilities it was very much a home computer - but its lack of graphical acceleration, single channel "beeper" sound and limited input options heavily restricted its gaming capabilities (especially compared to the recently-released Commodore 64).

Including its later revisions (Enhanced and Platinum), the //e ultimately became the longest-lived version of the Apple II before finally being discontinued in 1993.

New series: Back from the Grave!

It's been a while between proverbial drinks, 'eh?  While I make no promises that this will signal some kind of massive influx of posts, I do know for certain that I've got some source material to go on this time which may take a while to get through.  As always I don't know the frequency with which I'll be posting, but this is hardly a super-popular blog - mostly just an outlet for myself, and perhaps some info for others.

So what do I mean by "Back from the Grave"?  My brothers are big on retro computers - gaming consoles and PCs alike.  As is to be expected from things which are sometimes pushing 30 years old or more, they don't always work as they once did so things need to be repaired, or even outright modified.  Since we've had a few successes recently, I feel this might be a good time to start documenting them online for reference.  And since I can't find anywhere better I'll be using this blog.

Hopefully there will be some useful information here for others.  But, as always, text only - so I'll try to be descriptive.

Tech tip: Make sure you get what you paid for!

While your computer isn't normally the biggest expense you'll encounter in your life, nor is it generally the most important, it's still a large enough expense to warrant a lot of time and effort in making sure you do it right.  You'll ask around for comments, critique, opinions, feedback and all manner of other, similar terms before finally shopping around and finding a retailer - and a price - that you're happy with.

Sometimes, though, that happiness is short lived.  Not because you made the wrong choice, but because when you open the box there's something just not quite right.

An apology and an explanation

For the few people who were possibly hoping this blog would go somewhere, I can only apologise.  I originally started this page when I was going through a decent bit of PC gadgetry and hoped to share my experiences with other people, though as you can see it didn't exactly last long.

That having been said, I'm not giving up entirely.  I'm still planning to update this as I get more goodies - I just can't predict with any degree of accuracy how long it will be between posts, or even the topic of each post.  Since I have no idea what I'm going to be getting next or when I'll be getting it (since I have to pay for it myself) it's all up in the air.  I'll also refrain from posting more "opinion" posts, since they seem to be about as popular as a flat tyre; though I can't promise they'll be completely gone.

Hopefully things will pick up for a little bit.  I don't have anything new as yet, but I am looking into doing some things with liquid cooling in the near future.  Those who've done it will know that there's a whole heap of things which can (and do) happen when setting up your first loop, and those who haven't may benefit from my experiences; whether they're successful or not.