#BASIC turns 60 today! Happy birthday from the PCjr. Sometimes, I wonder what path my life would have diverged into if I had never had access to a computer and a book on BASIC programming as a kid.
The image/source is originally from Icons & Images by Elmer Larsen from 1985. I typed it in and tweaked it with PC-BASIC, then transferred it to a working PCjr with a gotek floppy drive.
Retrocomputing Mastobrain! I am am working with @cvwise to complete a video of my #pcjr presentation from #vcfeast2024. I am looking for somewhere to host it. Where do you think the best place to do this is?
Once upon a time I used a PeerTube host whose name I can't even remember anymore. But I want a location that can easily be shared across the #retrocomputing community. Now, a lot of us are here so that may work. [1/2]
Today, my goals are to work on my household finances a bit, and to work with @cvwise at making a YouTube-able version of my "Life and Times of the IBM PCjr" presentation from #vcfeast2024 that I can share here and try to submit to the IBM Archives.
We started work yesterday, and because there is a slight interference in the composite out from the #pcjr (making it warble slightly) and chroma-key bleed, it looks like it came off of VHS and has a slight analog horror vibe (which I love)
Since it sounds like I'm probably one of the only people who has fond memories of a #PCjr, I should probably get one someday so I can play Lode Runner, Below the Root, and King's Quest 1 on it 🙌
Doing actual work using the #pcjr can be tricky. I found that I need to have different amounts of video memory set in order to run different applications; PC Paint 3.1 in PCjr graphics mode requires 32K, but if I dont start IBM Storyboard Plus with only 16K the Story Editor program will hang indefinitely. And also that Storyboard Plus appears to have it's own mouse drivers and will screw up memory so that the Cute Mouse drivers won't work right anymore. #vcfeast2024
Happy Birthday to the IBM PCjr. It was this day, 40 years ago, that IBM announced the PCjr would be available starting in early 1984. It may have been a commercial flop—outclassed by its knockoff, the Tandy 1000, in every way—but it was the first computer I ever had/used/programmed. Cheers! 🎩
#Dreamcast accessory that makes the system think it’s talking to a modem but it’s actually a UART to IP bridge, but without the analog phone bits that are required with #DreamPi. Make this accessory have an expansion header for someone to also attach a BBA emulator to the bus.
hardware hack for the #PCjr to make #EGA modes that are feature compatible work by mapping memory and implementing registers (and also redefinable characters with shadow RAM)
So, I teased (or threatened if you think that way...) a #mechanicalkeyboard gallery post last night... So here it is: the new KBt:RE - an #IBM#PCjr inspired keyboard: