Hacker News with Generative AI: Retrocomputing

Get your Minitel back, the COMPUTEL videotex BBS is back (medium.com)
After sleeping more than 30 years and 5 years after the “official” shutdown of the Minitel (actually the shutdown of the “Télétel kiosk”, the famous 3615 and others) here is how I restarted my COMPUTEL videotex BBS on Apple IIe as it was running at the end of 1986…
Modern 6502 (mikekohn.net)
A few years ago while searching for electronic parts, I stumbled on the Western Design Center W65C02 processor.
NTATV: Bringing Windows NT (Windows XP, Windows 2003) to the Original Apple TV (github.com/DistroHopper39B)
The NTATV Project: Bringing Windows NT (Windows XP, Windows 2003, ReactOS) to the original Apple TV. Created by DistroHopper39B (YouTube: @DistrosProjects, Mastodon: @distrohopper39b) with help from several ReactOS devs (see Credits)
An FPGA-based LGP-30 Replica (e-basteln.de)
The LGP-30 was a commercial computer, released in 1956. Due to its simple design and relatively low cost, it may be seen as the first “personal computer” – to be used by a single user as their “desk computer”. (It could sit by your desk, and was the size of a desk too.)
Porting Windows XP to original Apple TV (github.com/DistroHopper39B)
The original Apple TV is probably one of the most fascinating devices Apple has ever made.
PiDP-1, or the rebirth of an old machine (hackaday.io)
In other words, we increased the number of PDP-1s ever produced by 10% in two days :-)
I'm manually transcribing the AltairBASIC source, ten lines a day starting today (codeberg.org)
Thinking Different, Thinking Slowly: LLMs on a PowerPC Mac (theresistornetwork.com)
There is something incredibly satisfying about breathing new life into old hardware.
A TV with Contrast You Haven't Seen for Years (hackaday.com)
It’s something of a surprise, should you own a CRT TV to go with your retrocomputers, when you use it to view a film or a TV show.
Cobalt Networks CobaltOS: Proxmox Port (archive.org)
Cobalt's "RaQ 3" Linux operating system (based on Red Hat 6.1) released in roughly 1999 this OS was designed for Cobalt Networks "RaQ" and "Qube" network appliances. Popular with ISP's, small businesses and other customers in the late 1990's through the 2000's. This port is largely derived from "The Phintage Collector" a Retrocomputing YouTuber who previously ported it to Virtualbox Default login is admin/admin and root can be gained by running "su" with no password
NetBSD on a JavaStation (fatsquirrel.org)
Hard as it may be to imagine, there was a time when Java was brand new and exciting.
iMac G4(K) (jcs.org)
A year ago I tried using an M1 iMac for work duty but its 21" screen took up too much room on my desk. After seeing Sean's video on Action Retro about putting an M4 Mac Mini inside an iMac G4, I thought I'd give it a try.
Show HN: Llama2.c on a Commodore C64 (github.com/trholding)
Have you ever wanted to inference tiny stories on a C64 while going about your daily life and then return after many years to read a story? No? Well, as luck would have it, now YOU CAN!
Pocket386 Retro DOS Computer 386SX-40Mhz (tindie.com)
Pocket386 Retro DOSComputer 386SX-40 CPU DOS Computer Hand386 upgrade
. – –. e s x d o s – o R g (esxdos.org)
ESXDOS aims to be the ultimate firmware for the DivIDE/DivMMC interface.
History of a PKMS that is 48 years old (reddit.com)
Greetings all. A few people have expressed interest in the history of my PKMS that is currently 48 years old. They were curious about the software and hardware and approach I took over all of these years. (tagging u/OatmealDurkheim u/Effective_Beat_6105 u/Aeyrien ) Hopefully this is helpful and/or entertaining, and not just the musings of an old man who should spend more time yelling at the clouds. 😊
Ascending Mount FujiNet (leadedsolder.com)
In case you haven’t heard of it, FujiNet is an ambitious open-source community project. Its intent is to be the only peripheral you will ever need to get for your old computer. That’s a lofty goal if ever I’ve heard one. I’ve been in and out of the project over the last few years, but I hadn’t actually gotten (or finished) any FujiNet hardware. Let’s revive my troubled CoCo1 with a cartridge that does it all.
Knight TV Resurrection (2018) (pdp-6.net)
The Knight TV system was a terminal system made by Tom Knight that was connected to the AI KA10.
Patched AppKit in Mac OS X 10.0 to re-enable the NeXTSTEP interface style (2022) (mastodon.social)
Programming the C64 with Visual Studio Code (retrogamecoders.com)
Program the Commodore 64 in BASIC, Assembly or C using Microsoft Visual Studio Code on Mac, Windows and Linux!
Writing assembly language subroutines for Extended Color BASIC (conman.org)
The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”
One-parting some Commodore 64 utilities for fun and profit (blogspot.com)
I've got a few retrocomputing bucket list items I'm slowly working down, and a couple of them involve some little Commodore 64 games I've had kicking around on the backburner.
Testing the Z80 Chip with a 1970s Beauty (mtsi.substack.com)
If you used a Z80 chip back in the 1980s, it almost certainly passed through a single room and its Fairchild Sentry 610 test system.
Virtual Windows 3.11 Computer (pieter.com)
Welcome to my new homepage!
The History of PC Audio (thejpster.org.uk)
This is a brief, abridged, and possibly inaccurate history of audio on the IBM PC compatible. It's based on an exhibition I prepared for Synthesised, a special event at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge, England.
Refurb weekend: the Symbolics MacIvory Lisp machine I have hated (blogspot.com)
Every collector has that machine, the machine they sunk so much time and, often, money into that they would have defenestrated it years ago except for all the aforementioned time and money.
Refurb weekend: the Symbolics MacIvory Lisp machine I have hated (blogspot.com)
Every collector has that machine, the machine they sunk so much time and, often, money into that they would have defenestrated it years ago except for all the aforementioned time and money.
Are retrocomputers best left on or off? (stackexchange.com)
I have a machine from 1998. I believe its hard drive and RAM are all original. It powers on and loads the OS, so I have reason to believe that nothing major is corrupted. However, is it best to leave it on once it is on, or to power it down unless I'm using it?
Linux/4004: booting Linux on Intel 4004 for fun, art, and no profit (dmitry.gr)
In 2012, I ran real Linux on an 8-bit microcontroller (AVR), setting a new world record for lowest-end-machine to ever run Linux.
Lessons from implementing Sokoban for the Intel 8080 (dyer.me)
For a while, I've had the urge to find a project that would give me an excuse to learn more about how computer architectures work at a low level.