A Pseudo-Random List of Retrocomputing Links
I’ve put this list together as much for my own benefit as for that of potential readers. The only selection criterion was “stuff that I find intersting and want to be able to go back to later.”
Yes, I know browser bookmarks exist.
Blogs & Podcasts
Programming Languages
- The Retrocomputing Museum – Languages From Hell — Co-curated and hosted by ESR. Don’t veer into the political parts of his site, it might spoil the fun… ;-)
General / Platform independent
- old-computers.com
- 8bit-homecomputermuseum.at
- 8-Bit-Nirvana
- CPU Shack
- AntiqueTech also has a directory of old CPUs
- Bitsavers
- Datormuseum
- Bytecollector – while no longer actively collecting, Bryan covers the very early years of the microcomputer revolution on his site.
- The Museum of Obsolete Media
- Erik S. Klein’s The Vintage Computer
- oldcomputers.net (nice timeline!)
- The Internet Archive is more than just the Wayback Machine: Amongst many other things, they also have books and magazines about and software for old computers and consoles, and lots of it. However, unlessyou know what you are looking for, the archive is a bit hard to navigate.
Homebrew
- Lee Hart’s Altoid-tin-sized single board computers, the COSMAC ELF Membership Card and the Z80 Membership Card. Lee is also working on putting an Altarir 8800 into an Altoids tin, using only components available at the time.
- Grant Searle has built replicas of the Sinclair ZX80, the Jupiter ACE, and the CompuKit MicroUK101, as well as a 6809 and a CP/M machine of his own design.
As his website was unavailable recently, here’s an archived copy at the internet archive.
Counterfeit ICs
A major source for obsolete ICs to use in retro-homebrew projects are Chinese sellers on eBay. Unfortunately, many of them don’t seem to care whether the ICs they sell are genuine or counterfeit. Here are a couple of pages about spotting counterfeit ICs
- An article in the ModWiggler Forum, formerly known as MuffWiggler
- https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/Information.asp?region=133
Commodore 8-Bit
- https://www.thefuturewas8bit.com
- Bo Zimmerman’s Commodore pages on Zimmers.net, including the CBM archive, formerly at funet.fi.
- 6502.org (general 6502 stuff, not limited to Commodore)
C-64/C-128
- C64 Preservation Project
- The Fridge of Steven Judd, “a code-storage facility […] for Commodore-64 and 6502 programmers”, includes the Commodore Hacking archives
- Ruud Baltissen’s site
- Commodore.ca has lots of manuals
- Back in the day, I was a great fan of Broderbund’s The Toy Shop. Michael Bean put the models online in 2007
Books and Magazines
- Karsten Schramm’s Die Floppy 1541 and Die Floppy 1571 on Spiro Trikaliotis’ site.
- C64 Programmer’s Reference Guide (PRG)
- Lots of German books on the C-128 on retrozone.ch
- DLH’s Commodore Archive has even more scanned books, mostly in English, for Commodore and other Platforms.
CBM II series (P500/B600/B700)
- Ulrich von Bassewitz’ Old Computers pages, in particular\n \n* Under the Hood of the Commodore P500 \n* Under the Hood of the CBM 610 \n\n
- David Viner’s CBM 5/6/700 pages
- petSD, SD card based storage for machines with IEEE bus
Repair
- Ray Carlsen’s repair articles
- World of Jani: Diagnostic Carts and Manuals
- The Pictorial C64 Fault Guide
CP/M systems in general
HP
- The HP Computer Museum, in particular the HP-85 page with repair links and all kinds of manuals
- Ansgar Kückes’ HP9485 project, in particular the HP Drive Project and his notes on turning the machine back on after a long time
- GPIB disk emulator
Tektronix 4051
- Entry at the Datormuseum, with a link to the service manuals
Kosmos CP-1
- Some excellent pictures, including all the expansions, at 8bit-homecomputermuseum.at
- The full set of manuals (including all expansions, in German) is available at retrozone.ch
- Commented ROM disassembly.
COSMAC Elf and other RCA1802-based Systems
- Greg Newton has written an 1802 Simulator