Most Popular
1500 questions
21
votes
2 answers
What computer was used in Weird Science?
In the 1985 movie Weird Science, two teenage boys use a computer to create a girlfriend (Kelly Le Brock). I've seen that movie 20 times or so but I still couldn't make out what computer they use.
I realize the graphics of the computer (along with…
cbmeeks
- 8,531
- 3
- 25
- 97
21
votes
5 answers
What is the history of DE-9 joystick ports?
The Commodore 64 and the Atari 2600 had compatible joystick ports. Commodore, Atari, and third-party companies like Wico made joysticks supporting that standard.
Did this standard have a name? Where did it originate?
Ben Jackson
- 313
- 1
- 7
21
votes
2 answers
What is the best way to obtain old versions of MS-DOS and Windows?
I'm wondering what the best way obtain old versions of Windows would be, specifically:
DOS
Windows 95
Windows 98/SE
Windows 2000/ME
Windows XP Professional
Windows 7 Professional
Microsoft Office for each version of Windows (i.e. Office 98 for…
InterLinked
- 537
- 1
- 4
- 14
21
votes
5 answers
How can I adapt a modern mouse for use with Amiga?
Death of the Amiga platform predated introduction of optical mice of reasonable quality by a couple years. The Amiga mouse was a box of problems, with non-ergonomic shape, crud-accumulating rollers and buttons dying after some intense use. Comparing…
SF.
- 7,095
- 7
- 30
- 58
21
votes
5 answers
Early Forth for personal computers
What were the earliest Forth programming language implementations for 8-bit personal computers? Was it FIG Forth? Or a predecessor? Or some other development?
Why did Forth lose its relative popularity in usage after the advent of 16/32 bit…
hotpaw2
- 8,183
- 1
- 19
- 46
21
votes
7 answers
Was Amiga the last of the home retrocomputers sold?
The Commodore-Amiga was offered for sale to home users from 1985 (original A1000 in North America) until 1996, when Escom stopped selling the A1200. By 1996, Apple was selling PowerPC-based Macs for home users, and the other major home computer…
Brian H
- 60,767
- 20
- 200
- 362
21
votes
12 answers
640x480 color display in 1980
I'm working on an alternate history story in which the protagonists, Silicon Valley computer entrepreneurs, are trying to release a graphical workstation in 1980, with the capability of displaying 640x480, 60 Hz noninterlaced, 64 colors. (Basically…
rwallace
- 60,953
- 17
- 229
- 552
21
votes
2 answers
Is there a better way to the 6 disks install of Windows 3.1
I want to install Windows 3.1 on my MS-DOS 6.22 Machine. I have the 6 disk images. But I only have 1 or 2 spare Floppy disk that I can write the disk images onto. One way I can think of is to write the first disk image on one, and then when the next…
Tom Shen
- 607
- 5
- 13
21
votes
2 answers
68000 and memory access speed
On the one hand, I get the impression that memory chips around 1980 could be accessed no faster than 2 MHz.
On the other hand, the 68000, introduced in 1979, had a typical clock speed of 8 MHz.
How did the latter work with the former? Admittedly the…
rwallace
- 60,953
- 17
- 229
- 552
21
votes
5 answers
How can I reverse-engineer the game Wizardry (1981) for PC, based on UCSD Pascal?
I am looking at the files included with the 1981 game Wizardry. The particular version I have is from a 1998 re-release, but I do not know if the binary is still the original 1981 release.
My questions are at the bottom. Here is all the information…
typedeaf
- 313
- 1
- 5
21
votes
3 answers
6510 clock rate of C64: Why was it considerably slower than the 6502 of the Atari 800?
According to Wikipedia, the Atari 8 bit series had a 6502 running at ~1.8 MHz.
Why was the clock speed of the 6510 for the C64, which was designed a couple of years later, considerable slower?
Was the main drive to save costs (e.g. lower frequency…
Marco
- 1,387
- 1
- 10
- 11
21
votes
10 answers
Was there any computer since about 1960 without interrupt support?
The invention and spread of interrupts in the 1950s is reasonably well known but I am curious: were there any systems after which didn't support them?
chx
- 931
- 1
- 8
- 21
21
votes
1 answer
How did "Super Wonder Boy (in Monsterland)" defeat the Multiface One?
The Multiface One was a memory dumper for the ZX Spectrum 48K with a button that generated an NMI to run code in its ROM that could dump the machine state to mass storage (CMT/cassette tape, diskette, etc.). This could later be reloaded, and was…
cjs
- 25,592
- 2
- 79
- 179
21
votes
1 answer
Why does invoking a bat file from another bat interrupt the first?
I'm looking for some historical context, valid for both any Windows prompt but my guess would be that the behaviour can be seen at least from MS-DOS, if not earlier.
It feels counter-intuitive to me to have a batch file just ignore the rest of the…
bracco23
- 313
- 2
- 6
21
votes
2 answers
Origin of UNIX symbolic links?
When I search the web for information about the origin of UNIX symbolic links, I see "Symbolic links were first introduced into Unix with 4.1c-BSD". But when I go to fact check that, it doesn't appear to be true. What I see instead is that Dennis…
Knickers Brown
- 620
- 2
- 11