Category: Computer System

After playing around with the Video Genie system which was a clone of the original TRS80, I decided it would be fun to explore the Tandy line of computers a bit more. So after looking around a bit I settled on the TRS-80 CoCo 2 (Color Computer 2).

This particular example had the benefit of coming with the CoCoSDC which allows you to load the entire TRS80 software inventory from an SD Card. It even has a nice menu system to make the loading process nice and simple.

I’ve always wanted to try on the game Dungeons of Daggorath which is part of the storyline for Ready Player One (The book version).

Anyway, here it is:

This one is something a bit different. The Video Genie EG3003 is a hong kong made clone of the Tandy TRS-80 computer. It was sold under several different names worldwide such as the TRZ-80 and the Dick Smith System 80. But for us UK folk it was the Video Genie.

Although it was a clone of the TRS-80, it did have a few differences which meant that compatibility wasn’t 100%. The Video Genie also went through a few hardware revisions to make it more compatible. But the version I have was the original version 1 machine, which was known for not loading cassettes very reliably from the internal tape drive, and also missing some fairly vital keys from the keyboard!

This computer had apparently been stored in the upstairs room of a 2nd hand shop until someone asked them if they had any old computers, they dug this thing out and it changed hands a couple of times before it found its way to me.

This has been an enjoyable project for me as the system had a few different faults going on so gave me the chance to do some diagnostics and repairs. I will be doing a full write-up on what went on shortly so be sure to subscribe to my newsletter if you are interested in that.

For now, I will finish with a photo of the machine as I received it. It’s a big computer!

With the exception of an original Apple iPad and an iPod Nano back in the day, I’ve never owned another Apple device. On the mobile side, I’ve always had Android devices from their first release, and from the computing side, I’ve always been in the PC camp.

But back in the time of the 8-bit computers, I don’t think I was even aware of Apple. Living in the UK, I was brought up with names such as Sinclair, Commodore, Acorn and Amstrad. But on the other side of the pond, Apples seemed to account for a vast number of people’s first home computers.

Well, I figured it was about time I found out what all the fuss was about and recently came across an Apple IIc up for sale. It had the Wdrive SD card floppy emulator with it, and I’ve also built up an RGBtoHDMI board for it and purchased a joystick port adapter to allow me to use PC gamepads with the computer.

I am currently running a Hard Drive image on the Wdrive named Total Replay, which has a large selection of the best Apple II games installed with a nice GUI to control it all. It even has a nice “attract” mode which scrolls through some of the games if you leave it sitting there doing nothing.

Going to spend some time now looking around the system and seeing how it all works. Getting used to such oddities as the Delete key not actually being a delete key and instead just printing a weird square character. Apparently, this is a real thing!

Having had the NC100 whilst I was at school and having one again in my collection now, I have still always wanted its bigger brother the NC200. The bigger screen, built-in backlight, and a 3.5″ floppy drive made it a far more advanced device.

I’ve been keeping an eye out for a while now for a decent priced one, and finally picked one up for a price I was happy with.

Since this has a built-in serial port and terminal emulator, My next thing to do is to get this connected up to some old skool BBSs.

After buying one of these as spares or repairs to try and fix up, I hit a bit of a stumbling block when I discovered the internal DC-DC converter seemed to be dead. I looked around for the schematics but didn’t have any luck. So I decided to get a second one and combine the two using the best parts of each, and now I have a fully working one I can measure the voltages and maybe resurrect the other one in the future.

But for now I have this one fully functional with the 40mb Hard Drive and a 4MB Ram expansion. Looking at the contents on the HDD it seems it once belonged to Woolworths! I guess they didn’t have proper disposal procedures back then.

Whilst I had it in pieces, I also fixed the common issue with the Dallas RTC chip being dead. This means it doesn’t remember any of its settings after you turn it off, and you then have to boot it from floppy to configure the HDD.

I’ve replaced it with a modern alternative so now the battery is easily replaceable in the future.

I’ve been a bit lazy recently and have been buying stuff without adding it to my site, so over the next couple of days I will update it with some new purchases and projects. The first of which is the ZX Spectrum +3.

Like most +3s the drive belt had gone and needed replacing, I also had to do the audio mod so the sound is no longer distorted over RGB scart. But other than that it all works beautifully. The next issue is the orignal games can be quite expensive. You can put a Gotek drive in these but I already have multiple DivIDEs for the spectrum so loading games isnt an issue. What I really want is something to make use of the drive. So, I have purchased some blank disks and a Multiface 3 expansion so i can snapshot games to disk. That should keep me entertained for a few minutes at least.

and here is a photo of it in pieces undergoing an internal refurb

And no I don’t mean the A500 Mini! My latest acquisition is non-other than the Amiga A600. Not the most popular machine back in its day but it is pretty cute and it fits onto a small shelf a lot easier than the Amiga 500 did.

This one currently has a fault with its floppy drive which I need to look at (or replace with a Gotek). It also has a bit of yellowing on its keyboard so I will be stripping that down and retro-brighting it over the weekend. But other than that it’s in pretty good condition. Due to a lack of space, I am probably going to retire my Amiga 500 to storage for a bit as I need the shelf for my Archimedes. So hopefully I will find a smaller spot for the 600 to sit.

As well as a general clean and refurb, I will also be fitting a Compact Flash adapter to this one so I can use it with WHD-Load.

Back in my old school, we had a mixture of Acorn BBCs, RM Nimbus PCs, Amstrad PCW Word Processors and even an Amiga. But down in our Design and Technology department, there was also another curious device sitting in the corner that seemed to have no purpose other than to play a 3D spaceship game titled “Lander”.

This device was an Acorn Archimedes A3000. I have always been curious about these devices as I didn’t get much time to play with it back then and have never come across one in person since.

It’s been on my list of computers to add to my collection for a while, but they have one pretty big issue, A little battery sat inside them on the main PCB. The years have not been kind to these batteries and they have pretty much all leaked, destroying various components and PCB traces along the way. If ever you see one of these devices for sale on eBay sold as “Untested”, you can be pretty sure that it has been tested and it’s very much broken. The price difference between a fully tested unit and a broken one is pretty substantial so of course, the seller has spent a few minutes plugging it in to see if he can make a few hundred extra pounds!

The only question left is how badly the board is destroyed and how much work will be needed to repair them.

Well, luckily I came across a sale on a Facebook group for an Archimedes A3020 (Which was the version normally sold to schools). This unit tested as far as it booting up to the desktop so there was a pretty good chance the damage wasn’t too bad.

After collecting the computer, the first thing I did was removed the old battery and neutralised the alkaline gunk on the board using lemon juice (No white vinegar in stock at our local supermarket and I was too impatient to wait!). Once this was done, I then wiped down the area with IPA and finally gave it all a good wash with distilled water.

One component was damaged next to the battery but it was just a resistor so I replaced that one. Also, I later found the floppy drive was intermittent and found a trace on the bottom of the board that was broken, so I replaced this with a thin wire. Apart from that the computer all boots up, the floppy drive works and it all seems happy!

So my plans moving forwards? I have already given it a good clean and retro-brighted the keys as they had yellowed a bit. I have also put a Gotek drive in it so I can use disk images from a USB pen. I am now currently designing a mount to hold an OLED display and buttons to navigate the disk images. This is being designed to also conveniently hide the security markings etched into the top of the case. I also want to look at an internal hard drive solution since this version has the onboard IDE port.

So, here it is! Ladies and Gentlemen, the Acorn Archimedes A3020!