Well, I would love to get a IIe.. but as you say, shipping may be an issue. It's unfortunately very difficult to find them in Europe now. Not to mention Japan (my other location), where people never had space to keep old computers, or even much nostalgia either (although there's a Toshiba word processor in the shed - looks like an early laptop. A very interesting machine).

As for games, I agree that would be an excellent motivation for using old computers. Unfortunately playing games never agreed with me, it's not that I don't like them, but my brain feels like I've been eating something bad after just a short time playing. It's not good for me. So my motivation, and what I enjoy, is always programming of some kind. So I need some target for that in order to find use for my old computers.

I used to compete when I was young, but I don't anymore.. so I have only two racing bikes in my garage. Both completely out of today's style (no fancy shoe locks, just the old type).

But the N+1 rule applies for guitars too, of course.. and I duly follow that rule!

I got it. It appears in "Outbox" until the recipient picks it up, then it appears in "Sent messages."


Even at age 56, I'm very performance-oriented, but never raced. Bikes today have a lot of benefits over what we had in the 70's when I got started, but they're not really any faster. Tires are more puncture-resistant, it's much easier to change a stem, headsets last longer, the large-bearing bottom brackets are much easier to remove and install and they last a lot longer too, shifting is more convenient and doesn't take as much skill as it used to, carbon fiber is much more durable than the old steel was (I broke steel, twice, but now my carbon-fiber frame has twice as many miles as I ever got out of steel, in spite of accidents, and in spite of being strong enough to break a crank arm two years ago, and mashing new chainring and cog teeth in a sprint), most brakes are better (although I remember a couple of incredibly good ones in the 70's too), rims are stronger for the same weight because of a better cross section, getting away from freewheels and going to freehubs brought the end to broken rear axles, etc..

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http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

Ah. Thanks. And I sent it twice. My apologies.

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Cat; the other white meat.

It is in C- condition, and hasn't been activated in over 20 years. It's a later version with detached keyboard and two built-in 5 1/4" disk drives, and I still have the user manual and FDOS master floppy in a small binder. I don't know how much it weighs, but I would accept a heart-felt "thank you" as payment if you wanted me to box it all up and send it "freight collect" to Tennessee. The USPS and/or UPS still does "freight collect", right?

Mike B.

[PS: If you decide that you want it, take a look at it and decide how much you think it's worth, and if it's more than $20, send me back a Walmart gift card for that amount.]

I've still got my Atari 800XL and 1050 disk drive that I bought in either '84 or '85. I haven't powered it since leaving the UK for the USA in '97 (due to its incompatible power and TV standards). I do have a 110V->240V transformer, but I've never had a PAL TV.

I look at it from time to time, and I think the case is turning a bit yellow (or maybe that's my Atari ST)... I'm also worried that when I do finally turn it on it might have degraded capacitors. I also wonder if my 5.25" disks have any data left on them!

I loved the 800XL. I taught myself 6502 on it, and the Atari had enough fancy hardware to keep learning fun.

That Atari Editor/Assembler cartridge though... It should be part of every course in performance and optimization as an example of what NOT to do. I've never before nor since seen an assembler that slow.

Unless they've been abused, I'm sure they're fine. I have an open-reel tape from the 1950's of Frank Sinatra singing, and it still sounds fabulous. My 1980's digital microcassettes for the HP tape drive still all work flawlessly too. I don't seem to have any working floppy-disc drives at the moment to try floppy discs; but before the last FD controller went down, I know that I had tried discs that had not been written to in 20 years and they were still error-free.

_________________
http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

I went through all my 5 1/4" floppies a few years back. Some were from the eighties. With a floppy drive with a carefully cleaned head, they all (and there were many!) read perfectly, except for two factory-made ones which appeared to have visited the degausser (there used to be one in the building, so it's not unlikely).

3.5" 1.44MB though.. Not a single one was ok. They all had read errors, in any drive. That medium had too high density for the material to handle.

I played a few Apple and Commodore games as a teenager, but I could only get into the simple ones, like Space Invaders, Apple Panic and Raster Blaster Pin Ball. I was never coordinated enough to handle multiple controls, and I didn't like the stress from fumbling around and dying because I couldn't get them right. My son is a wizard at the new games, where the controllers seem to have more buttons than I have fingers, but it doesn't appeal to me at all. I have always enjoyed watching an expert (like a friend or family member) play the complicated ones and root them on, but that's the limit of my participation.

Mike B.

Last month I "got into" a Sony PlayStation 3 -- a box more modern than that required for Space Invaders, but one considered retro nowadays, I suppose. (Therefore I'm not OT posting this in the Nostalgia section, right? That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

I'm not a gamer, but a certain five-year-old in my life is. When the PS3 woke up one day with its status LED showing the dreaded Yellow Light Of Death (YLOD), something had to be done! But some internet research led me to an unwelcome conclusion. It was time to expand my troubleshooting expertise in a new direction: BGA reflow!

In the time-honored tradition of reflow hobbyists, I did the work in the kitchen using cooking appliances (plus a heat gun). The PS3 motherboard is actually beautiful and fascinating. And of course the Cell processor is a whole study in itself. But I had to shed my admiration and replace it with pure aggression. I baked the %$#!*ing ^%#! out of those BGA's, absolutely flamed them with extended, point-blank heat gun set on high. And the board had been pre-heated with the electric skillet you see.

Even so, I never saw the BGA's budge or "settle" as I expected to happen when (if) the solder balls melted. Perhaps at the factory the BGA's were glued to the board prior to the original reflow -- I dunno. I do know it was stressful not knowing when to stop! Eventually my courage failed and I quit. The tops of the BGA's were hot enough to melt solder. I could only hope the bottoms were, too.

I guess a thermocouple is the proper way to manage. But with only gut instinct (and luck) I seem to have cheated the yellow light of Death!

-- Jeff

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In 1988 my 65C02 got six new registers and 44 new full-speed instructions!
https://laughtonelectronics.com/Arcana/ ... mmary.html

Garth/Tor,

Thanks for the optimistic notes w.r.t. 80s 5.25" disks. I was a bit alarmed by Tor's note on 3.5" disks though. My Atari ST code might be lost forever. Oh well.

I've had success in removing large SMD devices in motor controllers by baking the %$#!*ing ^%#! out of the parts with my (1500 watt) heat gun, but have never tried doing it with a BGA part. I suspect a *lot* of heat would have to be poured into it to get all those solder joints to let go, which then leads to the question of whether or not the part is toast after the baking.


Toaster-oven, my friend. Toaster-oven.


Perhaps all that heat fixed a long-dormant cold joint somewhere.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

I've got some 3½ inch disks here from back when I regularly used them on my old SCO UNIX box in the mid-1990s. During a recent "housecleaning" in my office, I found them sitting in an ancient disk organizer that hadn't seen the light of day since when I moved to my present location in 1999. All of these disks are still readable after being buried for at least 17 years.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

I guess what I ought to do is see if I can transfer the data from both the 5.25" 800XL disks and the 3.5" Atari ST disks.

A quick bit of googling found some projects where people have attached a 1050 disk drive to a PC. Given that I'm likely to use emulation in the future and keep the hardware only a keepsake, it might be the worthwhile route.

What density 3.5" disks did the Atari use? The 720KB format has a completely different reliability picture. The 2MB (HD, 1.44MB) format is the one with a density problem. But factory-written floppies tend to hold up better (a conclusion coming from discusssions with other people over the years. Regrettably the 3.5" floppy problems seem to be a fairly common experience).

I had to look it up online. The ST supported 360kB (single) or 720kB (double) density disks. I'm sure all mine are the 720kB variety. Back when I had a PC with a 3.5" drive I'm sure I popped an ST disk in and could read it (FAT filesystem).

Looks like a 3.5" USB drive is around $15 ($14 + tax)... Might just be a no brainier...