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1500 questions
17
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3 answers
Atari 800 CPU - 6502 vs. Sally
Regarding the Atari 800...
What's the difference between the 6502A and the 'Sally'? Is it simply a revision, or do the changes improve performance?
Brian Blake
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17
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5 answers
Why didn't early color TV sets accept RGB input?
Early PCs generated RF signal, and later Composite video or S-video, to use a TV set as monitor. Why didn't color TVs of those days expose a analog RGB interface for direct connection from VCR/PC or any other local device? There must be some stage…
Schezuk
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17
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1 answer
How did the Nova 1200 divide so quickly?
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_General_Nova
The Nova 1200 executed core memory access instructions (LDA and STA) in 2.55 microseconds (μs). Use of read-only memory saved 0.4 μs. Accumulator instructions (ADD, SUB, COM, NEG, etc.)…
rwallace
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17
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1 answer
How did SABRE work interactively without screens?
The SABRE airline reservation system went online in 1964, astonishing the world by being among other things the first large-scale interactive computing system.
Once the IBM 3270 video terminals were introduced, of course SABRE would have started…
rwallace
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17
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1 answer
How did SNES render more accurate perspective than PS1?
The PlayStation was notorious for texture warp, because it didn't have the transistor budget to implement perspective: Why do 3D models on the PlayStation 1 “wobble” so much?
But wait a minute. The Super Nintendo implements perspective in mode 7,…
rwallace
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17
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3 answers
Why were early 3D games so full of muted colours?
A lot of games from the PS1 and especially PS2 era are full of low contrast greys and browns and not much else. Some examples:
Why is this? Was it just a design decision, or was there a technical reason?
Edit: Based on comments here are some…
user
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17
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3 answers
Why did the Sinclair ZX-Spectrum use a membrane keyboard?
As a kid, I always had problems with the keyboard. Membrane was hard to come by and expensive. I did not have Kempston/Protec. So I had to play on the keyboard.
I was using QAOPMN combination, and shortly it would wear off. Then I had to try to fix…
Amiga500
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17
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3 answers
Why was the 1541 so slow?
The Commodore 1541 floppy disk drive, sold for use with the 64, was notoriously slow for historical and technical reasons:
Marketing insisted on compatibility with the 1540, the floppy drive sold with the Vic-20, which was slow because the shift…
rwallace
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17
votes
2 answers
Power cycling old hardware
For those of us that use an old computer daily, is it safer for the hardware if the machines are turned off every night, or should they be left on?
I assume that powering up is more stressful for the components, but I'm also concerned about…
driph
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17
votes
1 answer
Why are older Shift keys shaped the way they are?
On today's keyboards, the two Shift keys are somewhat elongated horizontally, but otherwise look much the same as any other key on the keyboard. However, in times past it was not altogether unusual for Shift keys to have quite a different profile:…
Psychonaut
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17
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2 answers
Emulate a text-mode DOS program using a Unix terminal
Is it possible to run a text-mode DOS program in an emulator under a Unix-like operating system (Linux/*BSD/macOS) such that DOS text-mode input and output is done on a Unix terminal instead of a separate GUI window?
The purpose would be to allow…
Lassi
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17
votes
4 answers
A good method for formatting a modern device in HFS (Not HFS+)
I started this project ages ago and it's just been sitting on my bench for ever. I have this old MacIIci and I put a LAN card in it, maxed out the memory, has the turbo proc in it.
The next step I wanted to take was using this adapter that converts…
Digital Shiba
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17
votes
4 answers
How did dot matrix printers do Landscape?
In the 1980's, few people could afford laser printers and other page printers (e.g. inkjets) were not yet affordable. Most had inexpensive dot matrix printers with tractor feeds, such as my own Star Gemini SG-10. These printed text in Portrait mode…
Brian H
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17
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1 answer
What proprietary AT&T code/features were removed in BSD Net1 (/2), and BSD 4.4 Lite (/2) from the original 4.3BSD codebase?
Background
Although BSD and its source code was freely available under the original BSD licenses, but it only covered the portion of the code which copyright was owned by Regents of the University of California. BSD as a whole, was "encumbered" -…
比尔盖子
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17
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2 answers
Which computers used the Intel 82786 graphics chips, and what sort of commercial success did that chip attain?
In the late 1980's, Intel offered the 82786 graphics chip, with specific support for windowed environments. I remember it being covered in Byte magazine, but don't remember seeing any applications of the chip. The chip datasheet covered a range of…
mschaef
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