Floppy Days Vintage Computing Podcast
Vintage computing podcast for all types of home computers from the late 70's through the 80's. Covers the Apple II, Commodore PET, and TRS-80 Model I to the Commodore 64, Atari 800, TI-99, Tandy CoCo, and a whole lot more! Covers the computers in great detail in the order they were released. Also includes interviews with many movers and shakers from that golden era of home computers. For example, Forrest Mims III, Stewart Cheifet, Paul Terrell, Leonard Tramiel, and many, many more. YouTube content at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6DQ3cyp8h373H0lXSJ8yqQ
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Floppy Days 149 - The HP97 Programmable Calculator - Part 2 - With Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz
03/29/2025
Floppy Days 149 - The HP97 Programmable Calculator - Part 2 - With Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz
The HP97 Programmable Calculator - Part 2 - With Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz Patreon: Video version of the episode at YouTube: Sponsors: New Acquisitions 1027 print heads - ABBUC (Atari Bit-Byter Users Club) - Best Electronics - inexpensive keyboard available on Amazon (for domes) - “Atari 400/800 Student Pilot Reference Guide” by Atari - PortaCoCo - Tim Halloran video on making an adapter that allows you to run much of your CoCo off of battery - Ian Mavric’s TRS-80 store - Upcoming Shows Midwest Gaming Classic - April 4-6 - Baird Center, Milwaukee, WI - VCF East - April 4-6, 2025 - Wall, NJ - Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 12-13 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - The Commodore Los Angeles Super Show - April 26-27 - Burbank VFW Hall, Burbank, CA - The 32nd Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! - May 2-3, 2025 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago-Carol Stream (Wheaton), Carol Stream, Illinois - VCF Europe - May 3-4 - Munich, Germany - Retrofest 2025 - May 31-June1 - Steam Museum of the Great Western Railway, Swindon, UK - Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo - June 14 - New Westminster, BC, Canada - VCF Southwest - June 20-22, 2025 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at UT Dallas - Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - June 20-22, 2025 - Atlanta, GA - Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 21-22 - Old Rainier Brewery Intraspace, Seattle, WA - KansasFest - July 18-20 - Virtual only - VCF Midwest - September 13-14, 2025 - Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - Tandy Assembly - September 26-28 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 17-19 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - Chicago TI International World Faire - October 25 - Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - Schedule Published on Floppy Days Website - User Groups HP Handheld Conference - annual conference in the US: Website - YouTube channel - HHC 2024 USB Drive - Handheld and Portable Computer Club - Magazines/Newsletters HPX Exchange - Hewlett Packard Journal: journals - contents - Hewlett Packard Personal Calculator Digest Vol. 1, 1976 - (contents) - HP KEYNOTES - PPC Journal - produced by the PPC group: available on USB drive from Jake Schwartz’ PPC Archive - Datafile, the HPCC club journal: Back issues, excluding the current volume, are available on USB drive from Jake Schwartz - References Wikipedia - Museum of HP Calculators (David Hicks) -
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Floppy Days 148 - HP97 History and Memories with Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz and Everett Kaser
02/27/2025
Floppy Days 148 - HP97 History and Memories with Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz and Everett Kaser
HP-97 Programmable Calculator History and Memories with Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz and Everett Kaser Patreon: Sponsors: Hello, and welcome to episode 148 of the Floppy Days Podcast for February, 2025, where computers of the late 70’s through the 80’s are the Apple of our eye! (If you got that pun, then you’re in the right place 🙂) First off, I wanted to mention that this month is the 12th anniversary of the publication of the very first episode of Floppy Days way back in 2013. That’s right: 12 YEARS! A very small percentage of podcasts ever reach that sort of longevity. I can only think of one other podcast that’s in my sphere of listening that has been regularly produced for that long or longer (. I should be so lucky to produce a podcast as long as the 18 years that James and John have done. There are several reasons I keep doing this. I love talking about old computers, I love being able to interview incredible people that were actively part of the microcomputer revolution, I love feedback from listeners, and it keeps me out of trouble now that I’m retired from the daily grind of the workforce. This podcast wouldn’t still be going if you weren’t listening. The listenership actually has been pretty stable for the past several years, and I’m humbled and honored that so many continue to listen and provide feedback. Thanks to you and your support, what do you say let’s keep this thing going till you and I both are tired of it?! 🙂 Okay, now onto details about this particular episode. I’ve been very focused recently on producing interviews with some amazing guests. Frankly, this will always remain an important part of this podcast, as the individuals who were the main drivers in microcomputers will unfortunately only be around for an increasingly shorter period of time. However, the main focus is, and always will be, covering the vast array of unique machines that existed in the late 70’s through the 80’s. I will admit that the amount of research and work to publish the microcomputer-specific shows is a lot; considerably more than the interview episodes. However, as I said, covering vintage computers and programmable calculators is the main impetus for this podcast. It has been a full year since we covered a vintage machine, so it’s time to remedy that. To that end, in this episode we will be covering a vintage machine: the HP-97 and 67 programmable calculator. I speak of them as one, because, as we will cover in great detail, they are internally the same machine, with the main difference being the built-in printer for the HP-97. I was very fortunate to get a fantastic co-host for this episode: HP calculator historian Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz (“Vwahdek Meer-Yeng SHAY of itch”) . Wlodek has a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience with the HP calculators and I think you’ll find his stories and background extremely interesting and helpful as we go through the history of the HP-97/67. In this episode, we’ll be spending a few minutes to get to know Wlodek, then together we will cover the history of the 97/67. As another bonus, I also was able to catch up with another gentleman who has a lot of history with HP: Everett Kaser. Long-time listeners will recall that Everett worked for HP for many years on several of their calculators and desktop computers and helped with co-hosting the Floppy Days series of episodes on the HP Series 80. It turns out that Everett had spent some time at HP repairing the HP97 and he shares his memories of those times. Based on the amount of material that was generated about this calculator, it looks as though we’re going to have 3 episodes on the 97/67, with the first being this one on history and memories, the second covering tech specs and several other topics, and a third episode to finish off coverage. I should mention that the HP97 episodes do veer from the timeline a bit. Whereas I’ve been covering the machines that were introduced in 1982 (with the last being the Grundy NewBrain), the HP-97/67 were introduced in 1976. By rights, the HP97 should have been covered in a very early episode, just after the MITS Altair 8800 and in the same general time frame as the Apple I. However, I felt it was important to go back and pick up this machine, so I hope you will forgive me for departing from the timeline order for this. Intro Floppy Days Episode on the HP Series 80 with Everett Kaser - New Acquisitions ABBUC - Atari ST SidecarTridge - Upcoming Shows Midwest Gaming Classic - April 4-6 - Baird Center, Milwaukee, WI - VCF East - April 4-6, 2025 - Wall, NJ - Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 12-13 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - The Commodore Los Angeles Super Show - April 26-27 - Burbank VFW Hall, Burbank, CA - The 32nd Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! - May 2-3, 2025 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago-Carol Stream (Wheaton), Carol Stream, Illinois - VCF Europe - May 3-4 - Munich, Germany - Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo - June 14 - New Westminster, BC, Canada - VCF Southwest - June 20-22, 2025 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at UT Dallas - Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - June 20-22, 2025 - Atlanta, GA - Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 21-22 - Old Rainier Brewery Intraspace, Seattle, WA - Silly Venture SE (Summer Edition) - July 31-Aug. 3 - Gdansk, Poland - Fujiama - August 11-17 - Lengenfeld, Germany - VCF Midwest - September 13-14, 2025 - Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - Tandy Assembly - September 26-28 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 17-19 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - Chicago TI International World Faire - October 25 - Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - Schedule Published on Floppy Days Website - Interview with Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz Wlodek’s book - A Guide to HP Handheld Calculators and Computers - (affiliate link) References Wikipedia - Museum of HP Calculators (David Hicks) -
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Floppy Days 147 - Lorenzo Hagerty, Dynasty Computers
01/29/2025
Floppy Days 147 - Lorenzo Hagerty, Dynasty Computers
Interview with Lorenzo Hagerty, Dynasty Computers Patreon: Sponsors: New Acquisitions Juiced.GS - Call-A.P.P.L.E. - TRS-80 M1 keyboard remake - NEC PC-8201A Dial-A-ROM - TI-74/95 RAM/Flash cart - TI CC-40 RAM/ROM module - Upcoming Shows Vintage Computer Festival SoCal - February 15-17, 2025 - Hotel Fera Events Center, Orange, CA - Midwest Gaming Classic - April 4-6 - Baird Center, Milwaukee, WI - VCF East - April 4-6, 2025 - Wall, NJ - Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 12-13 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - The Commodore Los Angeles Super Show - April 26-27 - Burbank VFW Hall, Burbank, CA - The 32nd Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! - May 2-3, 2025 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago-Carol Stream (Wheaton), Carol Stream, Illinois - VCF Europe - May 3-4 - Munich, Germany - Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo - June 14 - New Westminster, BC, Canada - VCF Southwest - June 20-22, 2025 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at UT Dallas - Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - June 20-22, 2025 - Atlanta, GA - Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 21-22 - Old Rainier Brewery Intraspace, Seattle, WA - Silly Venture SE (Summer Edition) - July 31-Aug. 3 - Gdansk, Poland - Fujiama - August 11-17 - Lengenfeld, Germany - VCF Midwest - September 13-14, 2025 - Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - Tandy Assembly - September 26-28 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 17-19 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - Chicago TI International World Faire - October 25 - Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - Schedule Published on Floppy Days Website - Meet the Listeners - Carlos Byte High No Limit Podcast - Interview Volume 1 of Lorenzo’s chronicles. On page 121, it mentions Dynasty - Lorenzo’s Website - Lorenzo’s Books - podcast - Psychedelic Salon ( )
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Floppy Days 146 - Interview with Dan Bricklin, VisiCalc
12/24/2024
Floppy Days 146 - Interview with Dan Bricklin, VisiCalc
Interview with Dan Bricklin, VisiCalc Patreon: Sponsors: Hello, and welcome to episode 146 of the Floppy Days Podcast, for December, 2024. I am Randy Kindig, your host for this podcast. This month I’m staying with the recent interview theme, as I continue to get the opportunity for interviews with some amazing icons from the early personal computer days. This month, that person is Dan Bricklin, co-developer of the iconic VisiCalc software that helped kickstart the sales of early personal computers like the Apple II and began the important spreadsheet software category that persists until today. I published an interview with Dan’s partner in VisiCalc (and in Software Arts), Bob Frankston, back in 2023, and now Dan adds to the story in his own words. Please note that I do plan to get back into producing episodes covering specific vintage computers. I’ve just had an amazing run of interview opportunities in recent months, which has reduced the time I had to do the research on computers for the podcast. Coming up in 2025 will be coverage of machines like the HP97, the Lobo Max-80, the Dragon, and the C64. New Acquisitions Ian Mavric’s TRS-80 store on ebay - ( Lee Felsenstein’s book “Me and My Big Ideas: Counterculture, Social Media, and the Future” at Amazon (sponsor link) - Lee Felsenstein (Fel-zen-stine) interview on Floppy Days - Lee Felsenstein co-hosting episode on Osborne computer (history) on Floppy Days - Forrest Mims’ book “Maverick Scientist: My Adventures as an Amateur Scientist” at Amazon (sponsor link) - Forrest Mims interview on Floppy Days - News and Upcoming Computer Shows News The VintNerd (Steve Diedierch) and FutureVision Research (Brian Cox) FujiNet video - “Priming the Pump” book by David and Theresa Welsh - Kindle version - Upcoming Shows Virtual Tandy Retro Show (online) - January 25 - Vintage Computer Festival SoCal - February 15-17, 2025 - Hotel Fera Events Center, Orange, CA - Midwest Gaming Classic - April 4-6 - Baird Center, Milwaukee, WI - VCF East - April 4-6, 2024 - Wall, NJ - Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 12-13 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - Schedule Published on Floppy Days Website - Interview Bob Frankston interview on Floppy Days - Dan Bricklin’s Website - Dan Bricklin's book "Bricklin on Technology" (sponsor link) -
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Floppy Days 145 - Paul Terrell Interview - The Byte Shop Part 4
11/30/2024
Floppy Days 145 - Paul Terrell Interview - The Byte Shop Part 4
Episode 145 - Interview with Paul Terrell, The Byte Shop - Part 4 Patreon: Sponsors: Hello, and welcome to episode 145 of the Floppy Days Podcast, for November, 2024. I am Randy Kindig, your host for this audio tribute to the amazing variety of home computers that existed in the late 70’s thru the 80’s, before the influence of Big Blue changed the landscape forever. This month I’m continuing the series of interviews I’ve been doing recently with Paul Terrell. As we have discussed, Paul Terrell is a name well-known in the annals of computer history; probably most famously for his kickstart of Apple Computer through the purchase of one of Steve Jobs’ and Steve Wozniak’s first batches of Apple I computers for his Byte Shop. The Byte Shop was a very early computer store that was one of the few that existed in the world, at the time. In this interview, we continue to focus primarily on The Byte Shop, how it got started, what it was like, and much more. This is part 4 of a 4-part series on just that topic with Paul. If you want to know what it was like to run a computer store in those early days, this is the interview for you! Along the way, you’ll learn even more about just what the home and hobby computer scene was like in those days. In future episodes, Paul and I will discuss other topics around his long and distinguished career, such as the aforementioned dealings with the fledgling Apple Computer, and other ventures in which Paul was involved after the Byte Shop, including a business that rented software. New Acquisitions/What I’ve Been Up To Episodes 8 () and 9 (), containing interviews with David and Theresa Welsh, authors of the book “Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution”. Lobo MAX-80 - HP-97 Calculator and repair: Upcoming Shows Show list I maintain for the remainder of the current year - ) Silly Venture WE (Winter Edition) - Dec. 5-8 - Gdansk, Poland - Atari Party 2024 - Dec. 7 (noon - 4p.m.) - , Quakertown, PA - Vintage Computer Festival SoCal - February 15-17, 2025 - Hotel Fera Events Center, Orange, CA - Midwest Gaming Classic - April 4-6 - Baird Center, Milwaukee, WI - VCF East - April 4-6, 2024 - Wall, NJ - Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 12-13 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - Interview with Paul Terrell (3) Apple-1 Prototype Polaroid Photographs Given to Paul Terrell of the Byte Shop in 1976 - Ray Borrill’s Data Domain blog -
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Floppy Days 144 - Interview with Don French and Steve Leininger, Co-Designers of the TRS-80 Model I
10/27/2024
Floppy Days 144 - Interview with Don French and Steve Leininger, Co-Designers of the TRS-80 Model I
Episode 144 - Interview with Don French and Steve Leininger, Co-Designers of the TRS-80 Model I Patreon: Sponsors: Hello, and welcome to episode 144 of the Floppy Days Podcast, for October, 2024. I am Randy Kindig, your host for this audio ode to the home computers of the past. This month I have a special treat for you. At the recent Tandy Assembly, which I will talk about in more detail later in the podcast, not only were there a lot of great people, exhibits, vendors, and camaraderie, but we were also blessed with having Steve Leininger as one of the guest speakers along with his partner in the development of the TRS-80 Model I, Don French! I recently had an interview with Steve Leininger (episode 142: ), thanks to his willingness to be interviewed at the recent VCF Southeast in Atlanta. That was a milestone for my podcast, as I had always wanted to talk with Steve. I also had interviewed Don French several years ago, prior to his attending Tandy Assembly in 2017, in episode 53 ( ). This time, however, I was able to get an interview with Don and Steve together in the same interview! That in itself was amazing and I think you’ll really enjoy the back-and-forth between the two gentlemen who are obviously and correctly proud of the work they did to bring the TRS-80 to the world and Tandy into the computer business. Next month, I will talk about another computer rescue that came my way recently, and which is also tied into Tandy Assembly and Radio Shack computers. I’ll not go into any further detail here as I don’t want to spoil the story for you next month. But believe me, it will be fun both to tell and to listen to. New Acquisitions/What I’ve Been Up To Soldering kits from FutureVision Research Tandy Assembly 2024 - Drive cable for the TRS-80 Model I from Ian Mavric - RAM card for Tandy PC2/Sharp PC1500 from Jeff Birt - Upcoming Shows Retro Computer Festival 2024 - November 9-10 - Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England - Silly Venture WE (Winter Edition) - Dec. 5-8 - Gdansk, Poland - Show list I maintain for the remainder of the current year - )
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Floppy Days 143 - Paul Terrell Interview - The Byte Shop Part 3
09/25/2024
Floppy Days 143 - Paul Terrell Interview - The Byte Shop Part 3
Episode 143 - Interview with Paul Terrell, The Byte Shop - Part 3 Patreon: Sponsors: Hello, and welcome to episode 143 of the Floppy Days Podcast, for September, 2024. I am Randy Kindig, your host for this retro ride to the past of home computing. This month I’m continuing the series of interviews I’ve been doing recently with Paul Terrell. As we have discussed, Paul Terrell is a name well-known in the annals of computer history; probably most famously for his kickstart of Apple Computer through the purchase of one of Steve Jobs’ and Steve Wozniak’s first batches of Apple I computers for his Byte Shop. The Byte Shop was a very early computer store that was one of the few that existed in the world, at the time. In this interview, we continue to focus primarily on The Byte Shop, how it got started, what it was like, and much more. This is part 3 of a 4-part series on just that topic with Paul. If you want to know what it was like to run a computer store in those early days, this is the interview for you! Along the way, you’ll learn even more about just what the home and hobby computer scene was like in those days. In future episodes, Paul and I will discuss other topics around his long and distinguished career, such as the aforementioned dealings with the fledgling Apple Computer, and other ventures in which Paul was involved after the Byte Shop, including a business that rented software. New Acquisitions/What I’ve Been Up To VCF Midwest - Indus GT disk drive - Coco FujiNet - 10502PC - VTech PreComputer 2000 - Upcoming Shows Show list I maintain for the remainder of the current year - ) Portland Retro Gaming Expo - September 27-29 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - Tandy Assembly - September 27-29 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - AmiWest - October 25-27 - Sacramento, CA - Chicago TI International World Faire - October 26 - Evanston Public Library (Falcon Room, 303), Evanston, IL - Retro Computer Festival 2024 - November 9-10 - Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England - Silly Venture WE (Winter Edition) - Dec. 5-8 - Gdansk, Poland - Interview with Paul Terrell (3) Apple-1 Prototype Polaroid Photographs Given to Paul Terrell of the Byte Shop in 1976 - Ray Borrill’s Data Domain blog -
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Floppy Days 142 - Interview with Steve Leininger, Designer of the TRS-80 Model I
08/30/2024
Floppy Days 142 - Interview with Steve Leininger, Designer of the TRS-80 Model I
Interview with Steve Leininger, Designer of the TRS-80- Model I Patreon: Sponsors: 0 Floppy Days Tune 1 min 13 sec Vintage Computer Ads 1 min 42 sec Intro 9 min 03 sec bumper - Peter Bartlett 9 min 11 sec New Acquisitions 17 min 11 sec bumper - Ian Mavric 17 min 19 sec Upcoming Computer Shows 21 min 53 sec bumper - Myles Wakeham 21 min 58 sec Meet the Listeners 28 min 37 sec Interview with Steve Leininger 1 hr 20 min 29 sec Closing This particular episode has a special meaning for me, personally. You see, as I’ve mentioned on earlier episodes, the TRS-80 Model I from Tandy/Radio Shack was my first home computer (even though my first programmable device was a TI58C calculator). I recall the joy and wonder of playing with the machine (it wasn’t called the Model I at that time; just the TRS-80; as it was the first of the line) in the local Radio Shack store in 1977 and 1978 and the incredible rush of owning one in 1979; after my wife purchased a Level I BASIC machine for me as a gift for college graduation. That machine only had 4K of RAM and 4K of ROM (Tiny BASIC), as it was the entry-level machine, but it was a thing of beauty. I felt like I could do anything with that machine, even though my justification to the wife was that we could track our checkbook and recipes on it. I think she knew better, but went along with it anyway. The computer came with everything you needed, including a tape drive and black-and-white monitor, which was good for a poor recent college graduate. I quickly, as finances allowed with my new engineering job, upgraded the computer to 16K of RAM and Level II BASIC (a powerful Microsoft 12K ROM BASIC) and enjoyed the machine immensely, even using it in my job supporting the build-out of a new nuclear power plant back in those days. I eventually sold off the Model I, in favor of a computer that had color graphics and sound (the Atari 800), but have always continued to have a huge soft spot for that first computer. When I started the Floppy Days Podcast, one of the people that has always been on my bucket list to interview has been Steve Leininger, who, along with Don French while at Radio Shack designed the TRS-80 Model I, among other things. A few years back, I had the opportunity to participate in an interview with Steve for the Trash Talk Podcast, when I was co-hosting that show, but an ill-timed trip to the hospital for my son meant that I was not able to participate. While my son’s health is of paramount importance, of course, I always wanted to get another chance to talk with Steve. Not only was Steve the designer of one of my favorite home computers of all time, but he also was a fellow Purdue University Boilermaker, who graduated just a year before I started there. The thought that I could have met Steve on campus if I’d been there just a year earlier was very intriguing to me, and fueled my desire to talk with Steve even more. In the last episode (#141 with Paul Terrell) I talked about VCF Southeast in Atlanta in July of 2024. After I had made plans to attend that show, I was flabbergasted to find out that Earl Baugh, one of the show organizers, had somehow managed to contact Steve and get him to come to the show! I have to thank Earl for the work he did to make that happen. Here was my opportunity to certainly meet Steve, and perhaps even talk with him! I prepped some questions, just in case I was able to get an interview. While at the show, I met Steve and asked him if he would be willing to do a short interview for Floppy Days while at the show. Amazingly, he was very kind and agreed to do that. We found a quiet room and I was able to talk with Steve for almost an hour. This show contains that interview. Another note on this: as you’ll hear in the interview, the connection to Steve is even stronger than I realized! He not only went to my alma mater, but also grew up in some of the same towns that myself and my wife did. We personally peripherally know some of his relatives. Things like this really do make you think the world is small! One other, final, note: This interview even ties into the recent and continuing interviews I’ve been publishing with Paul Terrell. As you’ll hear in upcoming episodes with Paul, and in this interview with Steve, Steve actually worked at the Byte Shop before getting the first job with Tandy, and in fact his work at the Byte Shop directly led to him getting hired by Tandy to design the Model I. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I enjoyed getting it. I am overjoyed I finally got the chance to talk to one of my vintage computer heroes, Steve Leininger! New Acquisitions C64 Sketch and Design by Tony Lavioe - sponsored link Compute’s Mapping the IBM PC and PC Junior by Russ Davies - sponsored link The Best of SoftSide - Atari Edition - ZX81+38 - magnifying glasses - sponsored link Japanese power adapter - sponsored link Upcoming Shows VCF Midwest - September 7-8 - Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - VCF Europe - September 7-8 - Munich, Germany - World of Retrocomputing 2024 Expo - September 14-15 - Kitchener, ON, Canada - Teletext 50 - Sep 21-22 - Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, UK - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - September 27-29 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - Tandy Assembly - September 27-29 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - AmiWest - October 25-27 - Sacramento, CA - Chicago TI International World Faire - October 26 - Evanston Public Library (Falcon Room, 303), Evanston, IL - Retro Computer Festival 2024 - November 9-10 - Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England - Silly Venture WE (Winter Edition) - Dec. 5-8 - Gdansk, Poland - Schedule Published on Floppy Days Website - Interview Steve’s Workbench at radioshack.com (archived) - Transcript of Interview-Only Randy Kindig: All right. I really appreciate your time today, Steve. Steve Leininger: Thank you for having me, Randy. Randy Kindig: So let's start out maybe just by talking about where You live today, and what you do? Steve Leininger: I live in Woodland Park, Colorado, which is 8, 500 feet, right out in front of we got Pike's Peak out our front window. Randy Kindig: Oh. Oh, that's nice. Steve Leininger: Yeah we get snow up through about June, and then it starts again about September. But it's not as much snow as you would imagine. Randy Kindig: I've got property in Montana, and I lived out there for a couple of years, Steve Leininger: so there you go. Randy Kindig: We probably got more snow up there. Steve Leininger: Hey, you asked what I did. I'm involved with Boy Scouts, a maker space with a church based ministry firewood ministry, actually. Some people call it a fire bank. So we provide firewood to people who can't afford that. Randy Kindig: Oh. Steve Leininger: So it's like a food bank, but with fire, firewood. Randy Kindig: I've never heard of that. Steve Leininger: We source the firewood. We cut it down and we split it. Lots of volunteers involved; pretty big project. Randy Kindig: Yeah. Okay, cool. I also wanted to mention, I'm a fellow Boilermaker. Steve Leininger: There you go. Randy Kindig: I know you went to Purdue, right? Steve Leininger: I did go to Purdue. Randy Kindig: Did you ever get back there? Steve Leininger: Yeah, and in fact they've got a couple learning spaces named after us. Randy Kindig: Oh, okay. Steve Leininger: We've been donating to our respective alma maters. My wife went to IU. Randy Kindig: Oh, is that right? Oh my. Steve Leininger: Yeah, oh my and me. Yeah, the fact that the family who's all IU, their family tolerated me was, quite a remarkable thing. Randy Kindig: Okay. I find it interesting because I think you graduated in 76, is that right? Steve Leininger: 74. Randy Kindig: Oh, 74. Steve Leininger: Yeah. Yeah. I was there from … Randy Kindig: Oh yeah, you actually were gone before I started. Steve Leininger: Yeah. So I was there from 70 to 73. 70 to 70 four. When I graduated in four years, I got both my bachelor's and master's degree by going through the summer. I managed to pass out of the first year classes because of some of the high school stuff yeah. Randy Kindig: Okay. I started in 75, so I guess we just missed each other. Steve Leininger: Yeah. Yeah. You're the new kids coming in. Randy Kindig: Yeah. . So I, I found that interesting and I wanted to say that. Do you keep up with their sports program or anything like that? Steve Leininger: Yeah, they play a pretty good game of basketball in fact, I ribbed my wife about it because she was from the earlier days, the Bobby Knight days at IU that were phenomenal. Randy Kindig: Yeah, exactly. For those of you listening, I'm talking with Steve Leininger, who was the primary developer, if not the developer, of the TRS 80 Model I.. Steve Leininger: I did all the hardware and software for it. I'll give Don French credit for sticking to it and getting a project started. And for refining, refining our product definition a little bit to where it was better than it would have been if I would have stopped early. Randy Kindig: Okay. And I have talked with Don before. I've interviewed him on the podcast, and I met him at Tandy Assembly. But I'm just curious, when you were hired into Tandy and you were told what you were going to do; exactly what were you told? Steve Leininger: They had a 16 bit microprocessor board that another consultant had developed. And they were trying to make a personal computer out of this. It was the Pace microprocessor, which was not a spectacular success for National, but it was one of the first 16 bit processors. But they had basically an initial prototype, might have been even the second level of the thing. No real documentation, no software, ran on three different voltages and didn't have input or output. Other than that, it was fine. I was brought in because I was one of the product one of the engineers for the development boards, the development board series for the SCAMP, the S C M P, the National Semiconductor had a very low cost microprocessor that at one point in time, I benchmarked against the 8080 with positive benchmarks and ours was faster on the benchmarks I put together, but as I was later told there's lies, damn lies, and benchmarks. But so they said take a look at using that, their low cost microprocessor that you were working with. And it really wasn't the right answer for the job. Let's see, the Altair was already out. Okay. That was the first real personal computer. The Apple, the Apple 1 was out. Okay. But it was not a consumer computer. Okay. They, it was just, it was like a cookie sheet of parts, which was very similar to what was used in the Atari games at the commercial games. Okay. pong and that kind of stuff at that time. And I had been working, after Purdue, I went to National Semiconductor. There's a long story behind all that. But in the process, some of us engineers would go up to the Homebrew Computer Club that met monthly up at the Stanford Linear Accelerator. We're talking Wilbur and Orville Wright kinds of things going on. Yeah. Everyone who was in the pioneering version of computing had at one time been to that meeting. Randy Kindig: It's very famous. Yeah. Steve Leininger: Yeah. And Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were basically a couple guys working out of their garage at the time. I was still working at National Semiconductor, but I also had a Moonlight job at Byte Shop number 2. The second computer store in all of California. Randy Kindig: And So you worked with Paul Terrell. Steve Leininger: I actually worked with one of, yeah, Paul, I actually worked for Paul's I don't know if it was a partner, Todd, I don't even remember the guy's name. But I just, it was. Randy Kindig: I was curious because I'm talking to Paul right now and getting interviews. Steve Leininger: Yeah. I, I'm sure we met, but it wasn't anything horribly formal. Since it was the number two shop, it still wasn't the number one shop, which Paul worked out of. And so we had an Apple 1 there. I actually got the job because I when I When I went in there, they were trying to troubleshoot something with what looked like an oscilloscope that they pulled out of a tank, and so it had, audio level kind of bandwidth, but could not do a digital circuit. And I said what you really need is a, I told him, a good tectonic scope or something like that. He said do you want a job here? I ended up moonlighting there, which was, as fortune would have it, was a good deal when the folks from Radio Shack came down to visit. Because when they came down to visit the sales guy wasn't there. We'll let the engineer talk to them, they almost never let the engineers talk to them. Randy Kindig: So you had to talk with them. Steve Leininger: Yeah. It was John Roach, Don French, and it was probably Jack Sellers, okay and Don was probably the; he was the most on top of stuff electronically because he was a hobbyist of sorts. The other two guys: Mr. Sellers ran the engineering group. John Roach was the VP of manufacturing. And they were basically on a parts visit. They do it once a year, once, twice a year. And they also did it with Motorola and a couple other places. But I told him about this microprocessor and that I was writing a tiny BASIC for it. Okay. Tiny BASIC was a interpreted basic that a guy named Li-Chen Wang actually had the first thing in Dr. Dobbs, Dr. Dobbs magazine. We're talking about, we're talking about things that you don't realize are the shoulders of giants that turned out to be the shoulders of giants. And in fact, we reached out to Mr. Wang as we were working on it. We thought we had the software already taken care of because I'm jumping ahead in the story, but we were going to have Bob Uterich, and you'd have to chase that back. We had him signed up to write a BASIC interpreter for us, but because he'd already done one for the 6800, and it was included in Interface Age magazine. on a plastic record. You remember the old plastic records you could put in a magazine? Randy Kindig: Yeah, I did see that. Steve Leininger: Yeah, so this was called a floppy ROM when they did it. Yeah. So if you had the right software and everything you could download the software off of the floppy ROM and run it on 6800. I think he used the Southwest Technical Products thing. And so we'd signed him up to do the BASIC. This was independent of the hardware design I was doing. And he went into radio silence on us; couldn't find him. And so we get to, in parallel, I was using the Li-Chen Wang plan to do at least a demo version of BASIC that would run on the original computer. And when the demo went successfully on Groundhog Day in 1977. This is the time frame we're talking about. I I started work on July 5th, the year before it. With Tandy? Yeah. Okay. We rolled into town on the 3rd, and of course they're closed for the 4th. And on the 5th I started, and there was the wandering around in the desert at the beginning of that, and Don's probably talked about how I was moved from there to their audio factory and then to the old saddle factory. Tandy used to be primarily a leather company before they bought Radio Shack in 1966 or something like that. And anyway, when the software didn't come out, I ended up writing the software, too. So I designed all the hardware and all the software. I didn't do the power supply. Chris Klein did the power supply. And, a little bit of the analog video circuitry, but it was very little part of that. Because we were just making a video signal. I did all the digital stuff on that. Yeah. Randy Kindig: So the software ended up being what was the level one ROM, right? Steve Leininger: Yeah, the level one ROM started out as the Li-Chen Wang BASIC. But he had no I. O. in his software, so I was doing the keyboard scanning. I had to do the cassette record and playback. Had to implement data read and data write Peek and poke, which is pretty simple. Put in the graphic statements. Yeah, oh, and floating point. Now, floating point, luckily, Zilog had a library for that, but I had to basically, this was before APIs were a big deal, so I basically had to use their interface, To what I had written and had to allocate storage, correct? We're talking about 4K bytes of ROM. I know, yeah. Very tiny, and to put all the I. O. in there, and to make it so that you could be updating the screen, when you're doing the cassette I put two asterisks up there and blinked the second one on and off, you remember that? Randy Kindig: Oh yeah. Steve Leininger: Sort of as a level set. Randy Kindig: Yeah. Steve Leininger: And someone said, oh, you should have patented that thing. And actually I have seven or eight patents, U. S. patents, on different parts of the computer architecture. Randy Kindig: Oh, do you? Steve Leininger: But not the blinking asterisk, which is probably a patentable feature. Randy Kindig: Yeah, I wish I'd had that on other machines, that I ended up having. So that would have been nice, yeah. I liken what you've done with what Steve Wozniak did, for the Apple II. You're somebody I've always wanted to talk to because I felt like you were one of the important pioneers in their early years. What do you have to say about that? Do you feel like what you did was ... Steve Leininger: in retrospect, yes. And I have a greater appreciation for people like the Wright Brothers. If you think about the Wright Brothers they took all their stuff from their Dayton, Ohio, bicycle shop down to Kill Devil Hills. We now know it as Kitty Hawk. But they would take the stuff down there by train, and then they would have to put it in horse driven wagons. Think about that. And people would ask them, what are you going to use the airplane for? It's what are you going to use a home computer for? Yeah, to maintain recipes and to play games. Randy Kindig: Do your checkbook. Steve Leininger: Do your check, home security. There's a whole lot of stuff that we talked about. And other giants entered the field: Multiplan, which became Lotus 1 2 3, which became Excel. Not the same company, but the idea, could you live without a spreadsheet today? Very difficult for some things, right? Randy Kindig: Yeah. Yeah, it's ubiquitous. People use it for everything. Yeah. Yeah. So you've been, I talked with David and Teresa Walsh. Or Welsh, I'm sorry, Welsh. Where they did the book Priming the Pump. Steve Leininger: That's very that's pretty close to the real thing. Randy Kindig: Is it? Okay. They named their book after what you did and said; that you primed the pump for home computers. Can you expand on that and tell us exactly what you meant by that? Steve Leininger: It again goes back to that shoulders of giants thing, and I forget who said that; it's actually a very old quote, I can see...
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Floppy Days 141 - Paul Terrell Interview - The Byte Shop Part 2
07/31/2024
Floppy Days 141 - Paul Terrell Interview - The Byte Shop Part 2
Episode 141 - Interview with Paul Terrell, The Byte Shop - Part 2 Patreon: Sponsors: Hello, and welcome to episode 141 of the Floppy Days Podcast, for July, 2024. I am Randy Kindig, your host, as always, for this historical perspective on obsolete-but-still fun technology. This month I’m bringing you a follow-on interview episode from last month. As we discussed then, Paul Terrell is a name well-known in the annals of computer history; probably most famously for his kickstart of Apple Computer through the purchase of one of Steve Jobs’ and Steve Wozniak’s first batches of Apple I computers for his Byte Shop. The Byte Shop was a very early computer store that was one of the few that existed in the world, at the time. In this interview, we continue to focus primarily on The Byte Shop, how it got started, what it was like, and much more. There will be even more content in future episodes, as Paul and I had a pretty lengthy discussion on just this topic. If you want to know what it was like to run a computer store in those early days, this is the interview for you! Along the way, you’ll learn even more about just what the home and hobby computer scene was like in those days. New Acquisitions/What I’ve Been Up To VCF Southeast - Upcoming Shows Show list I maintain for the remainder of the current year - ) Vintage Computer Festival West - August 2-3 - Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA - Silly Venture SE (Summer Edition) - Aug. 15-18 - Gdansk, Poland - VCF Midwest - September 7-8 - Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - VCF Europe - September 7-8 - Munich, Germany - World of Retrocomputing 2024 Expo - September 14-15 - Kitchener, ON, Canada - Teletext 50 - Sep 21-22 - Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, UK - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - September 27-29 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - Tandy Assembly - September 27-29 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - AmiWest - October 25-27 - Sacramento, CA - Chicago TI International World Faire - October 26 - Evanston Public Library (Falcon Room, 303), Evanston, IL - Retro Computer Festival 2024 - November 9-10 - Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England - Silly Venture WE (Winter Edition) - Dec. 5-8 - Gdansk, Poland - Interview with Paul Terrell (3) Apple-1 Prototype Polaroid Photographs Given to Paul Terrell of the Byte Shop in 1976 - Ray Borrill’s Data Domain blog - Transcription of Audio-only Paul Terrell: Now eventually we did get to the point where we needed some legal assistance and we were once again, being in the heart of Silicon Valley, you would network with people. My salespeople knew a guy by the name of Larry Sonsini, who was a a lawyer in Palo Alto, and he happened to be the lawyer that had taken Intel public and Larry was very interested in what Byte Shop was doing because he was representing legally a lot of the electronics companies that were getting into personal computing. So Larry and I developed a friendship where we got together and I was able to convince him, since we were just a startup to be a little bit lenient with his legal fees and provide us with some legal assistance. And of course, Larry expanded his business right along with us. And he's actually the dominant legal firm in Silicon Valley. He's taken most of the companies public out there. He very much focused in the area of public markets and finance and that kind of thing. He grew his company and now he has a huge complex of buildings, a campus and in Palo Alto, which in the old days, it used to be called Wilson, Mosier and Sonsini and I think Mosier dropped out of the program, Rosati came in and so forth, but those were good, contacts to have you know in the marketplace because once again relationships. I met Bob Noyce from Intel who was the founder, one of the founders, of Intel and through Larry's relationship and friendship. Another person that was really dominant in the success that we had at Byte Shop was Regis McKenna. And Regis was one of the people that had come out of the semiconductor business. Paul Terrell: He was over at National. Had watched their success and as those semiconductor companies were going public and Larry was taking them public they were they were also a source for a lot of technical people, good management, technical people being able to cash out of the success that they had with the startup company they were involved with to where they created a venture capital market in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. Paul Terrell: And prior to that happening, there was very little funding available and actually the initial seed capital that came in for Apple was from Art Rock and Art Rock was a venture capitalist from New York City. So a lot of early startup money that was available to any kind of business was really New York is the center of finance; nobody's bigger than New York and Chicago does well in the mercantile business, but you know in commodities and so forth, but New York is where the big money was and there was really nothing in San Francisco other than some federal entities that the federal reserve was there and so forth, but and there was standard banking, going on. Paul Terrell: Wells Fargo was headquartered there and so forth, but these people weren’t seed capital people these people weren't providing funding for new business and of course there was a ton of new business going on. As a result of all of these semiconductor outfits and so forth. Paul Terrell: So we were seeing a lot of new growth and one of the one good example of a venture capital startup was Don Valentine. And he was the first seed money into Apple along with Art Rock because Art's problem was he was located in in San in New York but he needed to have somebody out here that was looking after his money. Paul Terrell: So a lot of these venture capital people, and actually the big financial institutes from New York would team up with these new technical venture capital people. Coming out of the semiconductor companies and Tom Perkins is a good example. Perkins Kleiner. These were semiconductor guys that got involved with venture capital and Tom was one of the guys that I talked to about when Byte Shop got to the point where we needed additional capital to grow. When I ended up selling the Byte operation I was opening eight stores a month and spending a lot of time on airplanes and our growth factor was just limited by how much time I had available to get out there and get contracts signed and so forth. Paul Terrell: Then, as I pointed out earlier there were new industries that were being created as a result of the personal computer and and venture capital was one of them that really flourished to the point today where, when you hear about these company startups like Facebook and Google and all of the internet companies that have come out of it. Paul Terrell: A lot of those people were initially funded by all of the people that made their money in personal computing and before we got into Internet and what that was all about. That, and as you pointed out, there’s all these other computer stores across the country were coming into existence. Paul Terrell: The consumer was becoming very aware of computer products. Video games was the big application that really kicked everything off because the electronic companies could make video game machines, which the kids loved. And they can make them very inexpensive versus the cost of putting a computer into a home or an office environment. Paul Terrell: We started to see the marketplace expand with the advent of the. video games and of course that was coming from the coin operated video games and arcades that were out there accessible to the public and so forth. So there were more opportunities to to be 1-on-1 with technology. Paul Terrell: Other than going to Paul Terrell's Byte Shops and and participating in the greatest show on earth. Randy Kindig: A couple questions for you. Did you actually end up with dealerships in other countries besides the U. S. as well? Paul Terrell: Yeah, the first country that we did business with and was Japan, and I actually opened up the Byte Shop SoGo in Japan what, once again, what would happen is people that were traveling to the San Francisco area maybe to a convention or business got exposed to the computer stores and they didn't have them in their countries. Paul Terrell: They would take the time to to look around and see what was going on there. And I had a a gentleman from Japan who would come in, and of course our computers weren't very attractive as products for him to sell other than to people that understood English when he went back to his country, but of course, there were a lot of people in Japan professionals that were multilingual and, once again, we were very fortunate in the computer industry that almost the leaders in the business, IBM and the such they were English speaking and so the languages and all of the materials were when they took computers to their country that were from here, they had to do translations and things. Paul Terrell: So that would have an effect on the amount of growth you could do there, but I was interested in doing a Byte Shop internationally from the legal trademark viewpoint and so we, within the first year, the first when I was involved in selling and expanding the Byte Shop operation I put the Byte Shop SoGo in play and got the trademarks that we needed in Japan. Paul Terrell: Once again, these things were additional expenses for us. So it wasn't something that I was actively pursuing with Byte Shop. But once again, after Byte Shop, I did a number of other businesses in Silicon Valley and once again, expanded a lot of those businesses internationally, but the stage was set, for the early pioneers, in the personal computer market, and then the same thing was happening in their countries where magazines were getting involved in the business. It was more than just retail stores. You could find magazines and of course the Japanese manufacturers, they were the ones that were making all the televisions and radio and electronic products for consumer electronics. Paul Terrell: So they were all interested in this category of either video game or personal computer. They had their own local suppliers that they could deal with. And I think they were just looking at our operations over here in terms of, getting a chance to see how it might evolve in their country and what the opportunities would be. Paul Terrell: one of the things that I was talking about were the individuals, the Tom Perkins the Regis McKenna. And the reason that I keep coming back to Regis McKenna is because Regis being a advertising and public relations person, and his offices were right down the street from from my Byte Shop. His people would spend a lot of time in the Byte Shop in Mountain View and when anybody came to them that they were companies that they were talking to about products and and being the advertising company. Paul Terrell: For that particular product or company, they would bring them into the Byte Shop and show them our operation and what we were doing and what potential market opportunities might be there. And through that association, I ended up hiring Regis to be the advertising and public relations for Byte Shop and, of course, they were. Paul Terrell: The advertising and PR for Intel, and Intel, a lot of these companies that were substantial companies with a lot of funding they would do joint advertising programs. And so we were able through our relationships with Regis to be able to create a whole ad program based on an Intel engineer, son, Ricky coming and visiting the Byte Shop. Paul Terrell: And then we could show off, we could talk about the Intel processor being the what's inside the computer and you see a lot of that co-op advertising is what they call it today and Intel pays a lot of the computer companies that buy their products and put them into the machine. Paul Terrell: They provide a lot of money for these companies. And so if you see Intel inside, that's what that's all about. If the company puts an Intel sticker on their product, they're getting free money, from the supplier, from Intel. And so we were able to leverage a lot of the expense that we would have had with these relationships and probably the most important relationship that Regis ever did for Byte Shop was he introduced me to Jack Wilson, who was the Bureau Chief for Business Week Magazine out of San Francisco and Jack would travel to the Silicon Valley visiting the computer manufacturers like Tandem Corporation, Apple; he would spend a lot of time over there and by the way, Regis I recommended to Regis early on that he get behind Apple once we started carrying the Apple products in the Byte Shop and got Steve Jobs and him together and once again there was a lot of co-op going on between the individuals as we networked out there. Paul Terrell: But Jack Wilson was writing an article for Business Week about the technology and the microprocessors and what was going on in Silicon Valley, and they had a technology section of business week, where people that were reading that magazine would go there and see what was going on new in the business. And so when Jack came down to see the Byte Shop he was also looking at the Homebrew Computer Club. He was looking at what was going on with Tandon Corporation, with Commodore, with Apple and so forth. Paul Terrell: And Jack was really amazed at the depth of what was happening with technology and the companies that were getting involved and the extent of the products that these products, these microprocessors, we're going to be in everything in your house. They were going to be in your refrigerators. Paul Terrell: They were going to be in your microwaves. They were going to be in your entertainment products and so forth. So he put together a a story about Silicon Valley and he interviewed me and our interview took about three hours when he came to the store, I took him over to Johnny Luigi and Johnny Frankie and Luigi's pizza parlor, which was two doors down from me, we spent lunchtime there and three hours talking about all of the things that were going on. Paul Terrell: And. And when in July of 76 is when the article came out in BusinessWeek and Jack called me up and said, Paul, he said, I really have to apologize. He said, we spent all that time talking about what you were doing and the computer club and the hobbyists and the computer stores. Paul Terrell: And all, but he said, when I sent the content of my article back to New York, he said, they cut out all of the personal computer stuff because it was just too lengthy. He said, I had 12 pages of an article and the technology section in business week is only about one or two pages, and they just wouldn't allow for it. Paul Terrell: So he said, unfortunately, your stuff isn't going to be in that magazine and I apologize for it. And so anyway, when the magazine came out, I obviously bought a copy of it read about all of these companies. That I was mentioning before being highlighted in there. And and then I got a call from Jack that following week, and he said, hey, he said, good news. Paul Terrell: He said New York has decided to go ahead and run the personal aspect of it. And so I'm going to have your stuff printed. And it'll be in the July 7th edition of business week, you might want to check it out. And when I got that magazine and it hit the street and the news racks, there was in the technology section, you opened it up and there was a picture of me standing behind the cash register in the Byte Shop and underneath the picture, it said Terrell plans franchising in California. That was the title of it. And then it went into all of the things that we were doing with the stores and the obvious, the computer enthusiasts that were out there and, what basically happened is Businessweek had whet the appetites of people with this huge article the previous week about microprocessors and what the future was going to hold, and then all of a sudden, the following week, they come up with a picture of me, and here's how you can make a buck at it. Paul Terrell: “Terrell Plans Franchising”. Let me tell you, all of a sudden, the mailman was coming to the Byte Shop in Mountain View, and he was literally dumping mailbags full of letters on the floor in my store and he said, you're the only Byte Shop in Mountain View. There's no address 1063 West El Camino here. So I'm assuming that this is all your mail. Paul Terrell:When I opened the letters was people like the chairman of the board of Telex Corporation wanted a three state territory. They were down in Texas. They wanted Texas, Oklahoma. Randy Kindig: Were these people wanting dealerships? Paul Terrell: Yeah, basically they were asking how do they become involved with Byte Shop and what the return on investment was for a Byte Shop store and quite honestly I'd never had any business like that and consequently I went to one of our directors and I mentioned earlier he also had contacts with the Tandy guy Nugent, who was their finance guy down there. When I went to, his name was Jim Bowles, and Jim was on my board of directors, and so I was telling them that I'm getting all kinds of questions in these letters that I'm not familiar with I didn't really have any college background had not been to business school and had joined the Air Force right out of high school so a lot of the terminology that was being thrown at me was new and ROI was the one return on investment and then, how do we come up with an ROI? Paul Terrell: And what was interesting is that led into another inquiry that we got from a new magazine that had come out and it was called Entrepreneur magazine. And once again, who's an entrepreneur, I don't even know how to spell that one. And as it turned out it was a brand new magazine and for their first issue of the magazine, they wanted to do the Byte Shop dealership in the magazine. So they sent somebody out to me and we sat down and went through the the whole process of what it takes to actually become a Byte Shop dealership complete with inventory investments talking about how to set up a store that was really a very thorough job that they did and we once again, we're being able to benefit from this concept of of networking. Paul Terrell: That was going on in the valley. And as I mentioned before with the sales and marketing and now the business side of things we were getting lots of exposure to a broad market of people out there. Randy Kindig: So I saw some of the stuff that Ray Burrell wrote and he mentioned you. He mentioned your brothers that you had, I think, two brothers that also had dealerships as well. And he was friends with you guys. Paul Terrell: Yeah. Once the program got started in the Bay Area there, one of my brothers had just left college and he came down to see what was going on in the Bay Area. Paul Terrell: And I actually hired a friend of his that had come out of college with him. And they, the two of them came down and One of them went to work for Byte Incorporated and then my brother, once he saw the activity that was going on in the Bay Area and he was from Portland, Oregon, he decided that he wanted to go up to Portland and do a Byte Shop in Portland. And we got him set up as the the Byte Shop of Portland. And I actually had three brothers that got interested one of them was back in North Carolina and he was working for AT& T as an engineer with their computer group Western Electric and he was interested in doing a a Byte Shop back there. Paul Terrell: And then the other brother that was up in...
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Floppy Days 140 - Paul Terrell Interview - The Byte Shop Part 1
06/27/2024
Floppy Days 140 - Paul Terrell Interview - The Byte Shop Part 1
Episode 140 - Interview with Paul Terrell, The Byte Shop - Part 1 Patreon: Sponsors: Hello, and welcome to episode 140 of the Floppy Days Podcast, for June, 2024. I am Randy Kindig, your guide to this journey through vintage computer goodness. This month I’m bringing you another interview episode. Paul Terrell is a name well-known in the annals of computer history; probably most famously for his kickstart of Apple Computer through the purchase of one of Steve Jobs’ and Steve Wozniak’s first batches of Apple I computers for his Byte Shop. The Byte Shop was a very early computer store that was one of the few that existed in the world, at the time. I’ve had an earlier introductory interview with Paul where numerous topics were covered in a more general manner. I also talked with Paul about his time at Exidy working on the sorcerer computer. In this interview, we focus primarily on The Byte Shop, how it got started, what it was like, and much more. Through several conversations with Paul, the interview ran quite long, so this is part I of The Byte Shop discussion. If you want to know what it was like to run a computer store in those early days, this is the interview for you! Along the way, you’ll learn even more about just what the home and hobby computer scene was like in those days. New Acquisitions/What I’ve Been Up To American Computer and Robotics Museum - Vtech Pre-Computer Unlimited - USB-C Power Adapter for Atari 8-bit - USB-C Power Adapter for Apple IIc - Upcoming Shows Show list I maintain for the remainder of the current year - ) KansasFest, the largest and longest running annual Apple II conference - July 16-21 (in-person), July 27-28 (virtual) - University of Illinois in Springfield, IL - Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 19-21, 2024 - Atlanta, GA - Nottingham Video Game Expo - July 20-21 - The Belgrave Rooms, Nottingham, U.K. - Fujiama - July 23-28 - Lengenfeld, Germany - Vintage Computer Festival West - August 2-3 - Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA - Silly Venture SE (Summer Edition) - Aug. 15-18 - Gdansk, Poland - VCF Midwest - September 7-8 - Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - VCF Europe - September 7-8 - Munich, Germany - Teletext 50 - Sep 21-22 - Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, UK - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - September 27-29 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - Tandy Assembly - September 27-29 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - AmiWest - October 25-27 - Sacramento, CA - Chicago TI International World Faire - October 26 - Evanston Public Library (Falcon Room, 303), Evanston, IL - Retro Computer Festival 2024 - November 9-10 - Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England - Silly Venture WE (Winter Edition) - Dec. 5-8 - Gdansk, Poland - Meet The Listeners Brian Cox's site FVResearch.com - Transcription of Interview-only Randy Kindig: All right. Today I'm with Paul Terrell. Paul, today we wanted to talk about the Byte Shop and, exactly what happened with that, how it got started, a lot of things about it. So maybe we could just kick it off by how did the idea of the Byte Shop come about and, how did that kind of get started? Paul Terrell: Okay, yeah basically I had a rep company called Repco in Mountain View, California. I started Repco in 1975, the beginning of the year and January sort of frame. Uh, with Repco it's a manufacturer's rep representative sales representative in a geographic territory. And Boyd and I had our partnership company for Northern California, Northern Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Paul Terrell: And then there was also another territory, the electronic rep association divides the country up into about 26 different geographical areas and then people, can join the ERA and become members of the ERA. Reps in those territories and with the association they have contractual information and they provide contact information with different manufacturers and such. Paul Terrell: With Repco we're selling electronic products, but mainly, different kind of instruments, multimeters from companies that manufactured that, and companies would use reps when they were just getting started out and they couldn't afford to have direct sales people and offices all over the country. Paul Terrell: So they would hire a rep and typically pay about, oh, anywhere from 5 to 10 percent commission on sales that happened in that territory. And Boyd and I we're carrying power supply companies and instrument companies. One day I got a phone call from one of my customers at Stanford research facility in Palo Alto, California, and he was saying that he had just read about an Altair computer that used a 8080 Intel processor chip, and he was wondering why the products he was buying from me were costing so much. Paul Terrell: And basically the Altair computer was on the cover of Popular Electronics, and so he went ahead and ordered one of these. They were for sale, mail order, and so I told him that I personally didn't believe that it could be sold for $439, I believe was the mail order price for this and it was in kit form rather than an assembled and tested computer. Paul Terrell: I told him that I thought that, basically that product was a paper tiger, and it would never really show up and that he should continue to buy the Intel processor cards from the company that we were representing, which was Prolog down in Monterey, California. And about a month later I got another phone call from this guy and he said “Hey, Paul”, he said, “if you're free for lunch, come on over because the paper tiger has arrived at Stanford Research and we're taking a look at it.” Paul Terrell: I went over there and sure enough, there was a computer and it did have a true Intel 8080 microprocessor chip included in there. And quite honestly it had a very professional Optima rack mounted case up that was part of the kit product.And so they were going to have to assemble the unit themselves, but to the computer, it it looked very much like a Data General with panel controls and lights and things and once again, rack mountable. And I got the information out of the documentation that they had received there with the product. And as soon as I got back to the office, I called MITS down in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And talked to Ed Roberts, who was the founder and the CEO of the company. Paul Terrell: And told Ed about my company Repco. He was changing his company from mail order four function calculators to these what he was calling a microcomputer and a personal computer. And I told them that, something as complicated as a computer, he’s going to have feet on the street for people to explain how this computer works and support the the product because it was a lot more sophisticated and capable than the four function calculator kits he was using, presently selling, and he agreed with me and invited me to come down to Albuquerque and talk to him about how he might be able to set up a sales rep organization nationwide because that was his intention. Paul Terrell: And he was getting all kinds of checks in the mail from people all over the country that had read this article and. And literally we're just sending off checks and ordering these kits. And he had a pretty tremendous back order at the time. Boyd and I contacted some of the reps that sold products like the Prologue and Control Instruments that we were representing. And we were attempting to get other territories lined up for MITS so that he would have the kind of support that he wanted in the sales organization. Paul Terrell: And that's basically how we got introduced to personal computing and The Altair computer, and of course when we went down to Albuquerque to meet with Ed, Bill Gates and Paul Allen were at the premises. They had a little office on Route 40 going through the center of Albuquerque, and it was just one of those little strip centers that you see with retail stores and offices and we sat down with Ed, signed the contracts, signed up our territory for ourselves. And then, gave contact information that we had to bring more reps across the country on board and gave them some, information that made feel that these people could do a good job for him and he saw the products we were carrying and how they fit with the personal computer and Altair. Paul Terrell: We got the contract signed. We started to represent MITS and the Altair and what we did in the initial stages of it there was a group in Palo Alto that was meeting at Stanford's linear accelerator called Homebrew Computer Club. And this was a group of guys that, worked in the industry and that we were selling to. We were interested in joining the Homebrew Club and going to the meetings, and once again, basically representing MITS to the audience there and answering questions. Randy Kindig: Paul, did the Byte Shop actually exist yet? Was that an entity yet? Paul Terrell: No, no. The Byte Shop didn't exist at that time. It was just the rep company Repco. Uh, we had an office in mountain view, California. We were calling on all of the, aerospace companies and universities in the Northern California Bay Area as well as Oregon and Washington and Idaho. We would take trips up there to University of Oregon, University of Washington and then once again, anywhere where our manufacturing people had done some advertising, and people would fill out cards and information to get more product. Paul Terrell: And Boyd and I would show up on their doorstep and show them a demonstration of the product and sell it to them and get our commission. So that's how all of that kind of stuff worked at the time. And the computer stores there was no such thing. At the time nobody had thought about doing computer retail because, of course, there, there was no retail consumer pricing available. Paul Terrell: There were no computers. There were very few products that were even showing up in magazines or like the popular electronics. And so forth. And these the computers that were out there Intel was just introducing their 8080 microprocessor chip. The first eight bit computer chip that they manufactured was the 8008. Paul Terrell: And the 4004 was a 4 bit computer chip, and then they went to the 4040 and the 8080, and that was a more advanced instruction set. And with one of our manufacturers, Prolog, we were actually teaching engineers and actually anybody that was interested in coming to our seminars. Paul Terrell: Prolog would have seminars on designing with a programmed logic design versus the traditional electronic chip designs that were going on by people making products with the semiconductor devices that were out there from companies like Texas Instrument and National Semiconductor and so forth. So the microprocessor was the heart of this thing. Paul Terrell: And it was really changing the way people were designing products so they had to learn about programmed logic design and how to do it and, of course, have the components available from the various manufacturers. And, once Intel had introduced everybody else started to get into the business Fairchild Instruments came out with the F8 microprocessor, Chip National Semiconductor came out with the SC/MP microprocessor. Paul Terrell: And so forth. So the industry was transforming at the component level. And of course with the heart of the product becoming a computer. Everybody else had to adapt to this new philosophy of electronic design and all the way up through aerospace companies. Paul Terrell: And then, of course, universities were always interested in and teaching new technologies to the students and so forth. Randy Kindig: You mentioned Boyd Wilson, right? He was your partner in a lot of this stuff at the time, right?And I know you're just getting ready to get into exactly how the Byte shop came about. Randy Kindig: So I'll just let you go there. Paul Terrell: Okay. Yeah, Boyd and I, basically, it was the two of us with a secretary bookkeeper that would answer the phones and take messages and so forth. And we would just travel around our territories.I had the peninsula of San Francisco and Boyd had the East Bay and so we split up our areas and we'll call on customers that way and what happened with the advent of computer retailing was that MIT has had a convention that they were holding in Albuquerque and they were bringing the reps and they invited the public to to come to Albuquerque to a private convention that they were holding at their facilities, and they had just moved from that little strip center on Route 40 out to an industrial park by the airport, and so they were showing off their new facilities. Paul Terrell: To everybody and anybody that was interested and of course, one of the things they were doing at this conference was to invite the people that had done some things with the Altair computer to bring the products and show off what it was capable of doing. Everybody, uh, showed up in Albuquerque at the I think they called it the WAC, the World Altair Computer Convention, WACC, and, once again the the people at MITS, when they were putting these kits together and they started to actually offer assembled computers as well. Paul Terrell: So part of this facility was dedicated to manufacturing Altair computers. But the majority of their sales were in the kits because all they had to do is bag parts and provide documentation to the technicians that were buying these things and the hobbyists and putting them together, and which was a very inexpensive process for them and provided them a lot of profit margin in the kit product. Paul Terrell: Whereas when they got into the assembly of the computers, that was much more complicated. They had to hire a technical staff that could fix these products. And as they came down the production lines, and of course, it took a lot longer to take that check from the customer and. And provide a product for him. Paul Terrell: When we went to the world convention at MITS we were introduced to other startup companies that were making products that would plug into the Altair computer and provide other capabilities. A good example of this is a company called Cromemco, which had a color a video card that would plug into an Altair computer, and it was called the Dazzler, and you could actually program them. Paul Terrell: Color graphics for an application. You might have with a Dazzler card and Heuristic Systems had a voice recognition card that they had provided. So you could see that these hobbyists and people out there were starting companies. To create other products to to go with this personal computer. Paul Terrell: And uh, the marketplace was starting to mature with more than one manufacturer. The people at Cromemco actually focused in on the more professional side of computing and built a ruggedized version of the Altair computer that Boyd and I were selling to the state of California, and the engineers at in Sacramento were using those computers for the ramp controllers on the interstate highways and also on the canal system that they had built had controlled the water flow from all of the dams in California. So there were some serious applications that were happening and companies that were being formed to address those kinds of markets. Paul Terrell: Processor Technology was another company that originally started making cards. They had a serial board that you could plug into if you wanted to attach your Altair to a modem and communicate over the phone lines with other computers and they eventually created the processor technology SOL computer; so I could see that the industry was growing to the point where you could have more than one manufacturer You could have a number of manufacturers and of course at Repco, we approach these companies to represent their products as well. Paul Terrell: And but what happened at the Altair meeting that we had in Albuquerque was Ed Roberts had told us that one of the customers in the Los Angeles area was starting a computer store. It was Dick Heiser and his wife, who worked for RAND Corporation, down by the L. A. airport had opened up a Arrowhead computer store on Sepulveda Boulevard, and he was selling the kits to the public in this computer store, and so it told us that when we got back to our territories after the convention that we should try and identify customers of that sort, rather than the types of people that were presently buying the products. And so I asked that at the meeting what could we offer a retailer for for getting into that business? And he said he was giving Dick a 25% discount on his computers. And that was his purchase price. And the Sales reps, we were all getting 5 percent for all of the MITS products that shipped into our territory. And so on the way to the airport, I asked Boyd what was going to be the name of the computer store, because 5% plus 25% was 30%, and I much prefer the 30% margin from 5%. When we got on the plane, I had picked up a magazine at the airport, it was called Byte Magazine, and it was from a company in New Hampshire, that was one of the new startup companies in this personal computer industry. Paul Terrell: They were in the magazine business and they were following the hobbyist market. And there, there were a number of new magazines that were coming out at the time uh, to join people like Popular Electronics, Radio Electronics. Which had been around in the CB radio market and addressing hobby people and electronics engineers and technicians and so forth. Paul Terrell: And so Byte magazine was on the racks on and we should call the store that we were going to start in Northern California, the Byte Shop. And people would think that maybe we were associated with the magazine and it would give us some factor for Byte Shop. so That was our plan. And when we landed it took me about 3 months to go from our Repco office complex to the Mountain View area that had good visibility in retail. They say that the three rules are location, location and location. The highway, the road, that goes from San Jose all the way up to San Francisco is called El Camino Real, the King's Highway, and parallels the Highway 101, which was the, connector for everybody that and of course, it also parallels the the railroad tracks for all the commuters and so forth. Paul Terrell: So I decided that El Camino real was where the Byte Shop should be located and we should have a, we should find a place. So it was about a thousand square feet and had good visibility to the road that we could shoot our products and that's what we found at 1063 West El Camino in Mountain View, California. Paul Terrell: That's where the original Byte Shop was, number one, was. I opened that on my birthday in 1975, December 8th, 1975. We introduced the Byte Shop to the world. Randy Kindig: Boyd was your partner in this when you started that or was he not? Paul Terrell: Yeah. Yeah. This was a this was a spinoff of Repco the rep company agreement that we had. Paul Terrell: And eventually we would incorporate, uh, Byte Incorporated, ran the dealership program that we put together when we expanded the stores. It also encompassed Byte manufacturing, because we actually created our own computer. Compatible to the Altair computer, compatible to the Cromemco, compatible to processor technology. Paul Terrell: It's becoming the standard in the personal computer industry. Everybody was designing their products to be plug compatible to the what they call the S100 Bus that Ed Roberts had originally designed in his first Altair computer. We, corporation-wise, we had...
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Floppy Days 139 - Vic Tolomei (Exidy) Interview
05/28/2024
Floppy Days 139 - Vic Tolomei (Exidy) Interview
Episode 139 - Interview with Vic Tolomei, VP Software Development, Exidy Patreon: Sponsors: Hello, and welcome to episode 139 of the Floppy Days Podcast, for May, 2024. This month I’m bringing you another interview episode; in the ongoing effort to document the story of Exidy and its Sorcerer computer. I’ve already talked, in previous episodes, with Howell Ivy and Paul Terrell, both principals at Exidy and in the creation of the Sorcerer computer. Those were quite popular episodes! In this episode, I also tracked down Vic Tolomei, VP of Software Development at Exidy during that same time, and got his story. If you want to know what it was like to lead a software development effort at that time, this is the interview for you! Upcoming on the podcast, I have more interviews to share, as well as more hardware to cover. I’m actually a few months ahead with developing content, which I guess is an advantage of being retired! I've created some tiers for paid members and have come up with some ways to reward those who are generous enough to monetarily support the Floppy Days Podcast on Patreon. First of all, all tiers ($2/month and up) will receive early access to companion videos for any interviews that are published. The audio will be published to Floppy Days immediately, as usual, while any video will be made available exclusively to all paid members for a period of time (at least 30 days) before the general public. The videos will be published for you on Patreon.com, and then moved to the Floppy Days YouTube channel after the exclusivity period is over. Other benefits have been added for the tiers above the minimum $2 tiers, such as Floppy Days merchandise, an audio introduction for supporters, and even the option to co-host an episode! It is my intention to always make all content available to everyone at no cost, while at the same time providing some benefits for those generous enough to support the podcast. I hope this is a good compromise. Please let me know your thoughts. Enjoy!! New Acquisitions VTech Advantech IQ Unlimited - A8PicoCart - M100/T102/T200 Dial-A-ROM - Upcoming Shows Show list I maintain for the remainder of the current year - ) CorgsCon (Columbus Ohio Retro Gaming Society) - June 1 - Kasich Hall – Ohio Expo Center, Columbus, OH - Game Not Over 2024 - June 8-9 - Dunstall Park Racecourse in Wolverhampton, U.K. - VCF Southwest - June 14-16, 2024 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at UT Dallas - Boatfest Retro Computer Expo - June 14-16 - Hurricane, WV - Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo - June 22 - New Westminster, BC, Canada - Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 22-23 - Old Rainier Brewery Intraspace, Seattle, WA - Kickstart Amiga UK Expo - June 29-30 - Nottingham, UK - KansasFest, the largest and longest running annual Apple II conference - July 16-21 (in-person), July 27-28 (virtual) - University of Illinois in Springfield, IL - Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 19-21, 2024 - Atlanta, GA - Nottingham Video Game Expo - July 20-21 - The Belgrave Rooms, Nottingham, U.K. - Fujiama - July 23-28 - Lengenfeld, Germany - Vintage Computer Festival West - August 2-3 - Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA - VCF Midwest - September 7-8 - Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - VCF Europe - September 7-8 - Munich, Germany - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - September 27-29 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - Tandy Assembly - September 27-29 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - AmiWest - October 25-27 - Sacramento, CA - Chicago TI International World Faire - October 26 - Evanston Public Library (Falcon Room, 303), Evanston, IL - Retro Computer Festival 2024 - November 9-10 - Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England - Interview Links Interview with Vic - Vic has several software credits at Moby Games, including Arrows and Alley, and Magic Maze for the Sorcerer - Exidy Sorcerer Book: Software Internal Manual for the Sorcerer (1979)(Quality Software) by Vic Tolomei - VP of Software, Vic Tolomei at The Ultimate (So Far) History of Exidy blog -
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Floppy Days 138 - Interview with Hans Franke, VCF Europe and Computeum
04/24/2024
Floppy Days 138 - Interview with Hans Franke, VCF Europe and Computeum
Episode 138 - Interview with Hans Franke, VCF Europe and Computeum Patreon: Sponsors: Hello, and welcome to Episode 138 of the Floppy Days Podcast for April, 2024! My name is Randy Kindig and I host this podcast about beautiful, obsolete, extremely interesting computers of 35 to 45 years ago, when computer diversity was abundant. This episode is an interview show, where we talk with Hans Franke. Hans is very active in the classic computer community, being an organizer of the European Vintage Computer show AND curator of a computer museum! We discuss both of these things with Hans and learn more about the vintage computer scene in Europe. I actually have several interviews completed and queued up to publish. So, while I continue to work on covering the next computer in the timeline, expect several interviews in the near term. I won’t go into details, but these are great interviews that I think you will enjoy. I also wanted to mention those listeners who appreciate the show enough to donate through patreon.com. I really appreciate you guys and it helps offset the cost of running the podcast. What I’ve Been Up To Indy Classic Expo - 8-Bit Classics - for Atari 1090XL at Tindie from Brian Reifsnyder New Acquisitions Coco MPI mention on an earlier episode () Cloud-9 - Texas Instruments TI58 & TI59 calculators coverage on an earlier episode () TI58/59 battery pack mod from 2.4A power adapter for Atari XL/XE - Upcoming Shows The 32nd Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! - May 4-5, 2024 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago-Carol Stream (Wheaton), Carol Stream, Illinois - The Festival of Portable Computing - May 18-19 - Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England - CorgsCon (Columbus Ohio Retro Gaming Society) - June 1 - Kasich Hall – Ohio Expo Center, Columbus, OH - Game Not Over 2024 - June 8-9 - Dunstall Park Racecourse in Wolverhampton, U.K. - VCF Southwest - June 14-16, 2024 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at UT Dallas - Boatfest Retro Computer Expo - June 14-16 - Hurricane, WV - Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo - June 22 - New Westminster, BC, Canada - Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 22-23 - Old Rainier Brewery Intraspace, Seattle, WA - Kickstart Amiga UK Expo - June 29-30 - Nottingham, UK - KansasFest, the largest and longest running annual Apple II conference - July 16-21 (in-person), July 27-28 (virtual) - University of Illinois in Springfield, IL - Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 19-21, 2024 - Atlanta, GA - Nottingham Video Game Expo - July 20-21 - The Belgrave Rooms, Nottingham, U.K. - Fujiama - July 23-28 - Lengenfeld, Germany - Vintage Computer Festival West - August 2-3 - Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA - VCF Midwest - September 7-8 - Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - VCF Europe - September 7-8 - Munich, Germany - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - September 27-29 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - Tandy Assembly - September 27-29 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - AmiWest - October 25-27 - Sacramento, CA - Chicago TI International World Faire - October 26 - Evanston Public Library (Falcon Room, 303), Evanston, IL - Retro Computer Festival 2024 - November 9-10 - Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England - Schedule Published on Floppy Days Website - Interview with Hans Franke VCF Europe () Computeum ( )
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Current Year Vintage Computer Show Schedule
04/06/2024
Current Year Vintage Computer Show Schedule
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Floppy Days 137 - Post-VCF SoCal 2024 with Paul Nurminen
03/11/2024
Floppy Days 137 - Post-VCF SoCal 2024 with Paul Nurminen
Post-VCF SoCal 2024 with Paul Nurminen Patreon: Sponsors: 0 Floppy Days Tune 1 min 13 sec Vintage Computer Ads 1 min 43 sec Intro 2 min 53 sec bumper - Paul Nurminen 3 min 00 sec Discussion with Paul Nurminen 1 hr 20 min 00 sec Closing Hello, and welcome to episode 137 of the Floppy Days Podcast. I’m Randy Kindig, the host of this show. This episode is an adjunct to and follow up to the last episode (#136) of Floppy Days. In that episode, which covered the Grundy New Brain, I alluded to the fact that in the “What I’ve Been Up To” section of the podcast, I was going to publish a separate episode just for that. I did that because I don’t like to have episodes over about 90 minutes, and having this segment in that show would have pushed it well beyond that. So, for this episode I enlisted the aid of Paul Nurminen (aka Nurmix), who was also an attendee and exhibitor/vendor at the recent Vintage Computer Festival Southern California, to help me do a follow up discussion of that show. We discuss our exhibits, other exhibits of note, our general thoughts about the show, and a whole lot more. I hope you enjoy this. Links VCF SoCal - Intellivisionaries Podcast - White Flag Computing - Episode 83 of Floppy Days about the Intellivision Keyboard Component with Paul Nurminen - 1090XL expansion unit and 320K RAM board - reifsnyderb Discussion - Purchase - The VintNerd - Mega65 - 10-Minute Amiga Retro Cast - Aquarius+ computer -
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Floppy Days 136 - Grundy New Brain Peripherals to Web Sites with Chris Espoinidis
02/28/2024
Floppy Days 136 - Grundy New Brain Peripherals to Web Sites with Chris Espoinidis
Grundy NewBrain Peripherals thru Web Sites with Chris Despoinidis Patreon: Sponsors: 0 Floppy Days Tune 1 min 13 sec Vintage Computer Ads 1 min 42 sec Intro 5 min 17 sec bumper - Chris Espoinidis 5 min 28 sec New Acquisitions 6 min 33 sec bumper - Gerald McMullon 7 min 16 sec Upcoming Computer Shows 12 min 01 sec bumper - Steve O’Hara-Smith 12 min 27 sec Peripherals 22 min 37 sec Using the Machine 33 min 14 sec User Groups/Newsletters 38 min 36 sec Books & Manuals 41 min 47 sec Software 44 min 11 sec Ads 46 min 45 sec Modern Upgrades 51 min 43 sec Emulation 59 min 07 sec Buying One Today 1 hr 02 min 52 sec Community 1 hr 04 min 50 sec Current Web Sites and Videos 1 hr 12 min 45 sec Closing Hello, and welcome to episode 136 of the Floppy Days Podcast. I’m Randy Kindig, the host of this show, and I’ll be your guide to a journey back to the year 1982, when a very interesting, low-cost machine entered the market in Great Britain. This is the final episode on the Grundy New Brain, not a well-known machine, most particularly here in the United States where very few have even heard of it; let alone ever owned one. If you want to know more, I’ve recently published interviews with John Grant, Steve O’Hara-Smith, and Gerald McMullon concerning their involvement with the New Brain back in the day. I also, in the most recent episode, discussed tech specs around the machine with my co-host. Regarding that, in that last episode, to help me talk about the machine, I enlisted Chris Espoinidis to co-host this episode. Chris manages the New Brain Emulator site from his home in Greece. Even though Chris created one of the premier New Brain emulators in existence, and that was the primary focus of his Web site initially, his site has become one of the best places (along with Gerald McMullon’s Website) to get any and all New Brain information (which quite honestly is quite sparse). The focus of this last episode detailing the machine, Chris and I will cover things like peripherals, Web sites, books & magazines, software, using the machine, emulators and all of the topics that have become the standard for machine coverage on Floppy Days. This episode will complete all the details we know on the New Brain, with the intent to impart every bit of information to you that I could find about this little-known machine. Before we do that, I will talk about upcoming shows. Upcoming Shows Interim Computer Festival SPRING - March 23rd and 24th, 2024 - Intraspace, Seattle, WA - Midwest Gaming Classic - April 5-7 - Wisconsin Center, Milwaukee, WI - VCF East - April 12-14, 2024 - Wall, NJ - Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 13-14 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - The Commodore Los Angeles Super Show - April 13-14 - Burbank VFW Hall, Burbank, CA - VCF Europa - April 27-28, 2024 - Munich, Germany - The 32nd Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! - May 4-5, 2024 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago-Carol Stream (Wheaton), Carol Stream, Illinois - VCF Southwest - June 14-16, 2024 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at UT Dallas - Boatfest Retro Computer Expo - June 14-16 - Hurricane, WV - Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 22-23 - Old Rainier Brewery Intraspace, Seattle, WA - Kickstart Amiga UK Expo - June 29-30 - Nottingham, UK - Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 19-21, 2024 - Atlanta, GA - VCF Midwest - September 7-8 - NEW VENUE TBD - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - September 27-29, 2024 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - Tandy Assembly - September 27-29, 2024 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - Chicago TI International World Faire - October 26, 2024 - Evanston Public Library (Falcon Room, 303), Evanston, IL - Facebook show schedule - Newsletters NewBrain Online (Dutch/Netherlands) - Books and Manuals books/manuals at archive.org - Modern Upgrades NewBrain SD-Box Emulation NewBrain Emulator by Chris Buying One Today - $999 BIN (from Greece) Grundy NewBrain Model AD.Complete with PSU, Manual, AZERTY !! Tested & Working!! - - 995 euro (from Netherlands) untested, no power supply - - 449 pounds BIN (from UK) Community Forums AtariAge - Stardot - Current Web Sites/Videos Article on NewBrain in Popular Computing Weekly (PCW) - Grundy NewBrain Model A repair Series of videos on fixing the NewBrain from the Clueless Engineer - Several videos by Chris on using the emulator and many other videos - NewBrain Robot Car - References history article by Gerald McMullen -
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Floppy Days 135 - Grundy New Brain Tech Specs with Chris Despoinidis
01/28/2024
Floppy Days 135 - Grundy New Brain Tech Specs with Chris Despoinidis
Grundy NewBrain Tech Specs with Chris Despoinidis Patreon: Sponsors: 0 Floppy Days Tune 1 min 14 sec Vintage Computer Ads 1 min 43 sec Intro 5 min 38 sec bumper - Chris Espoinidis 5 min 51 sec New Acquisitions 16 min 32 sec bumper - Gerald McMullon 17 min 15 sec Upcoming Computer Shows 21 min 26 sec bumper - Steve O’Hara-Smith 21 min 45 sec Interview with Chris Espoinidis 36 min 23 sec Tech Specs 1 hr 12 min 07 sec Closing Hello, and welcome to episode 135 of the Floppy Days Podcast. I’m Randy Kindig, the host of this show, and I’ll be your guide to a journey back to the year 1982, when a very interesting, low-cost machine entered the market in Great Britain. This machine, if you've been following the show, was the Grundy New Brain. This is not a well-known machine, most particularly here in the United States where very few have even heard of it; let alone ever owned one. As you know, I’ve been hot on the trail of pioneers who were involved with development of this machine. I’ve recently published interviews with John Grant, Steve O’Hara-Smith, and Gerald McMullon concerning their involvement with the New Brain back in the day. In this episode I move more into discussing details of the machine and its impact on the home and small business market in the 1980’s. To help me talk about the machine, I was able to track down Chris Espoinidis and convince him to co-host this episode. Chris manages the New Brain Emulator site from his home in Greece. Even though Chris created one of the premier New Brain emulators in existence, and that was the primary focus of his Web site initially, his site has become one of the best places (along with Gerald McMullon’s Website) to get any and all New Brain information (which quite honestly is quite sparse). The focus of this episode, and the next, is to cover things like tech specs, Web sites, emulators and all of the topics that have become the standard for machine coverage on Floppy Days. This particular episode contains an interview with Chris, and then goes into great detail concerning the technical specifications of the New Brain. The next episode will cover all the other details, with the intent to impart every bit of information to you that I could find about this little-known machine. Before we do that, I will talk about new acquisitions and upcoming shows.
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Floppy Days 134 - VCF SoCal 2024 Preview with the Organizing Team
01/08/2024
Floppy Days 134 - VCF SoCal 2024 Preview with the Organizing Team
VCF SoCal 2024 Preview with Organizing Team Hello, and welcome to this bonus, interview-only episode of the Floppy Days Podcast. My name is Randy Kindig; your host. This episode is a discussion with most of the organizing team around the very first Vintage Computer Festival 2024 that is coming up February 17 & 18 in Orange, CA. You’ll hear how the show came about, why the particular location and time were selected, and what you can expect to see at the show. I’m excited to have a new VCF available in an area and time that should be fantastic to visit and be a part of. Note that this interview occurred on Dec. 5, 2023, and you’ll hear several references to the show being “2 and a half months” away. Links VCF SoCal Website - VCF SoCal Organizers - The VintNerd Website (Steve and Micki) - The VintNerd YouTube Channel - Matt’s YouTube Channel - Pathways to Invention Film (Levi) - Southern AMIS Projects (Rob) - Video version of this interview -
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Floppy Days 133 - Grundy NewBrain History with Gerald McMullon
12/31/2023
Floppy Days 133 - Grundy NewBrain History with Gerald McMullon
Grundy NewBrain History with Gerald McMullon Patreon: Sponsors: 0 Floppy Days Tune 1 min 14 sec Vintage Computer Ads 1 min 43 sec Intro 6 min 33 sec bumper - Gerald McMullon 7 min 15 sec New Acquisitions 13 min 55 sec bumper - Steve O'Hara-Smith 14 min 13 sec Upcoming Computer Shows 17 min 26 sec Interview with Gerald McMullon 57 min 51 sec Closing Hello, and welcome to episode 133 of the Floppy Days Podcast for December, 2023. I’m Randy Kindig, your host on this vintage computer retrospective. Hard to believe we’re coming up on the end of 2023. It was Feb. 2013 when I took the first halting steps in producing a podcast, so we’re coming up on 11 years of Floppy Days very soon. We are currently covering computers that were released in the year 1982. We are very early in that year, with lots of other computers to be covered. This episode is about a machine that was developed in the UK. It was pretty much unknown in the United States and even in the UK didn’t get much traction. The machine I’m talking about is the Grundy NewBrain. There are a lot of unique things about this machine that you’ll discover through the history episode, these interviews and the episodes that cover the details. I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to contact a few people who were involved in the development of the machine. I’ve published interviews so far with John Grant and Steve O’Hara-Smith. This episode is also an interview episode, but this time with another key member in its development: Gerald McMullon. Gerald has a lot of interesting information to share about the NewBrain, including information about its development and support of the machine after its release. I have been able to contact some other principals in the development of the NewBrain: Basil Smith and Mike Wakefield. Unfortunately, Basil has had a lot of recent requests for interviews, so I’m waiting in line for that. However, should I be able to talk with Basil and/or Mike, I will of course bring all of that to Floppy Days in future episodes. This current episode is the end of the interview episodes around the NewBrain at this point in time. Next month, and actually likely the next 2 months, we will be covering the details of the machine such as tech specs, emulators, software, newsletters, peripherals, web sites, etc. That will happen with a special co-host that I’m going to leave as a surprise for right now. New Acquisitions TI95 cassette interface - AquariCart + 32K RAM - MC-10 3-button joystick pad - Upcoming Computer Shows Vintage Computer Festival SoCal - February 17-18, 2024 - Hotel Fera Events Center, Orange, CA - Interim Computer Festival SPRING - March 23rd and 24th, 2024 - Intraspace, Seattle, WA - Midwest Gaming Classic - April 5-7 - Wisconsin Center, Milwaukee, WI - VCF East - April 12-14, 2024 - Wall, NJ - Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 13-14 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - VCF Europa - April 27-28, 2024 - Munich, Germany - The 32nd Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! - May 4-5, 2024 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago-Carol Stream (Wheaton), Carol Stream, Illinois - VCF Southwest - June 14-16, 2024 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at UT Dallas - Boatfest Retro Computer Expo - June 14-16 - Hurricane, WV - Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 14-15 - Old Rainier Brewery Intraspace, Seattle, WA - Kickstart Amiga UK Expo - June 29-30 - Nottingham, UK - Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 19-21, 2024 - Atlanta, GA - Fujiama - July 23-28 - Lengenfeld, Germany - Silly Venture SE (Summer Edition) - Aug. 15-28 - Gdansk, Poland - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - September 27-29, 2024 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - Silly Venture WE (Winter Edition) - Dec. 5-8 - Gdansk, Poland - Facebook show schedule - Interview Gerald’s Website - NewBrain Nutshell History by Gerald at Binary Dinosaurs - NewBrain history article by Gerald in Micro Computer Mart newsletter -
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Floppy Days 132 - Grundy New Brain History with Steve O'Hara-Smith
11/21/2023
Floppy Days 132 - Grundy New Brain History with Steve O'Hara-Smith
Grundy NewBrain History with Steve O’Hara-Smith Patreon: Sponsors: 0 Floppy Days Tune 1 min 14 sec Vintage Computer Ads 1 min 43 sec Intro 6 min 14 sec bumper - Steve O'Hara-Smith 6 min 32 sec New Acquisitions 22 min 53 sec bumper - Gerald McMullon 23 min 36 sec Upcoming Computer Shows 26 min 51 sec Feedback 30 min 19 sec Interview with Steve O'Hara-Smith 71 min 46 sec Closing Hello, and welcome to episode 132 of the Floppy Days Podcast; a podcast about home computers in the magical years of the late 70’s through the 80’s. I’m Randy Kindig, your host on this voyage. We are currently covering computers that were released in the year 1982; a banner year for personal computers. It’s actually going to take quite some time to get through this year in history. This is the second episode about a computer that few in the United States know much about. It was released in the UK and even there didn’t get much traction. It was a unique beast, with its own personality and quirks; before it went quietly into the annals of history. The machine I’m talking about is the Grundy NewBrain. As it was so relatively unknown, I’m going to be spending a lot of air time talking about its history: in the last episode (Episode 131) I summarized its history, including a short interview with John Grant of Nine Tiles, whose company did some work on the machine This episode contains an very informative interview with Steve O’Hara Smith, who was involved with development of the machine The next episode will have an interview with Gerald McMullon, also having done some work on the early NewBrain, as well as support after its release Finally, there will be 1 or more episodes to cover the usual topics of tech specs, Web sites, emulators, etc. I will have a special guest co-host for that. So, as you can see, there’s a ton of upcoming information about the NewBrain. Please join me in learning more about this unusual machine. Before we get into this interview, I’ll let you know what I’ve been up to and have been able to acquire lately; which continues to grow seemingly beyond my control. That brings me to some administrative news. In order to provide maximum flexibility for my listeners, I’m going to start publishing a timeline in the show notes. It will have a time marker for each section of the podcast, so that, for instance, if you want to jump straight to an interview and re-listen to just that section, you can do so. This is an easy thing to provide, with the audio editing software I use, so from now on expect to see that information in the show notes. New Acquisitions TS2068/Spectrum group - Wafadrive - mini-bus expansion board - composite mod for TS1000/ZX81 - 64K RAM pack (Memopak) - TS1500 keyboard membrane - Upcoming Computer Shows Atari Party 2023! - Saturday, December 2, 2023, 1pm to 4pm - Quakertown Train Station, Quakertown, PA - - organized by Peter Fletcher World of Commodore - Dec. 2-3, 2023 - Admiral Inn Mississauga, Mississauga, ON - Vintage Computer Festival SoCal - February 17-18, 2024 - Hotel Fera Events Center, Orange, CA - Interim Computer Festival SPRING - March 23-24, 2024 - Intraspace, Seattle, WA - Midwest Gaming Classic - April 5-7 - Wisconsin Center, Milwaukee, WI - VCF East - April 5-7, 2024 - Wall, NJ - Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 13-14 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - The 32nd Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! - May 4-5, 2024 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago-Carol Stream (Wheaton), Carol Stream, Illinois - VCF Southwest - June 14-16, 2024 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at UT Dallas - Boatfest Retro Computer Expo - June 14-16 - Hurricane, WV - Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 19-21, 2024 - Atlanta, GA - Fujiama - July 23-28 - Lengenfeld, Germany - Silly Venture SE (Summer Edition) - Aug. 15-28 - Gdansk, Poland - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - September 27-29, 2024 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - Silly Venture WE (Winter Edition) - Dec. 5-8 - Gdansk, Poland - Facebook show schedule -
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Floppy Days 131 - Grundy NewBrain History with John Grant
10/26/2023
Floppy Days 131 - Grundy NewBrain History with John Grant
The Grundy NewBrain History with John Grant Patreon: Sponsors: Hello, and welcome to episode 131 of the Floppy Days Podcast; where old computers get a new lease on life and have a purpose once again! I’m Randy Kindig, your host on this journey to the late 70’s through the 80’s. We are currently covering computers that were released in the year 1982; a banner year for personal computers. Next up is a computer that few in the United States know much about. It was released in the UK and even there didn’t get much traction. It was a unique beast, with its own personality and quirks; before it went quietly into the annals of history. The machine I’m talking about is the Grundy NewBrain. Certainly a bold and pretentious name for a computer, but memorable nonetheless. As it was so relatively unknown, I’m going to be spending a lot of air time talking about its history. Here’s how I’m planning to cover this unique machine: in this episode I’ll be summarizing its history, including a short interview with John Grant of Nine Tiles, whose company did some work on the machine a later episode will have an interview with Steve O’Hara Smith, who was involved with development of the machine yet another episode will have an interview with Gerald McMullon, also having done some work on the early NewBrain, as well as support after its release Finally, there will be 1 or more episodes to cover the usual topics of tech specs, Web sites, emulators, etc. I will have a special guest co-host for that. So, as you can see, there’s a ton of upcoming information about the NewBrain. Please join me in learning more about this unusual machine. Before we get into the history of the machine, I’ll let you know what I’ve been up to and have been able to acquire lately, computer and modern upgrade-wise. New Acquisitions the Commodore Room - Tandy Assembly - PiKey-10 upgrade - NewSoft - ( CoCo3 512K RAM upgrade - CoCo Multi-pak PAL upgrade - ChromaTRS - Vintage computer printed items - 48KRAM (Josh Malone) Twitch channel - Vintage Computer Shows Atari Party 2023! - Saturday, December 2, 2023, 1pm to 4pm - Quakertown Train Station, Quakertown, PA - - organized by Peter Fletcher World of Commodore - Dec. 2-3, 2023 - Admiral Inn Mississauga, Mississauga, ON - Vintage Computer Festival SoCal - February 17-18, 2024 - Hotel Fera Events Center, Orange, CA - Midwest Gaming Classic - April 5-7 - Wisconsin Center, Milwaukee, WI - VCF East - April 5-7, 2024 - Wall, NJ - Indy Classic Computer & Video Game Expo - April 13-14 - Indianapolis, IN - The 32nd Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! - May 4-5, 2024 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago-Carol Stream (Wheaton), Carol Stream, Illinois - VCF Southwest - June 14-16, 2024 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at UT Dallas - Facebook show schedule - References history article by Gerald McMullen - Grundy NewBrain history at Centre for Computing History - Grundy articles at Centre for Computing History - Grundy NewBrain at old-computers.com - Grundy NewBrain at Binary Dinosaurs - 2012 Article on the Grundy NewBrain at The Register - NewBrain at Wikipedia -
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Floppy Days 130 - Interview with Forrest Mims III
09/25/2023
Floppy Days 130 - Interview with Forrest Mims III
Interview with Forrest Mims III, Electronics Author Patreon: Sponsors: Books: Forrest's first memoir "Siliconnections: Coming of Age in the Electronic Era" - Forrest's best-selling book "Getting Started in Electronics" - Forrest's upcoming book "Maverick Scientist: My Adventures as an Amateur Scientist" - Hello, and welcome to episode 130 of the Floppy Days Podcast for September 2023. I’m your host, Randy Kindig, and I’ll be bringing you this podcast as the beautiful fall weather and foliage descends on central Indiana. I love the podcast, and I love the computer shows that start popping up in the fall, which you’ll hear more about on this show. I feel like I’ve been EXTREMELY lucky lately, in being able to get interviews with some outstanding contributors to the early home computer era of the late 70’s and early 80’s. As you know, I’ve had interviews recently published with Paul Terrell, who jump-started the early Apple Computer with his purchase of their first 50 Apple I’s. Those interviews will continue as Paul and I continue to talk. Additionally, I also recently was able to talk with one of the most prolific, impactful authors of electronics books and kits on the planet, Mr. Forrest Mims III. I would be surprised if just about every listener of this podcast hasn’t heard of Forrest and wasn’t impacted in some positive manner by his terrific tutorials on electronics. In this episode, Forrest and I talk about his early involvement with the creation of MITS and the Altair, how he got into publishing numerous books for Radio Shack, and much, much more. Forrest is still extremely busy and involved with the scientific community today and was happy to share his story. Almost as happy as we are to have been able to talk with him. Before we talk with Forrest, I will give a short run-down of what I’ve been up to and new acquisitions (that’s where the computer show discussion comes in). New Acquisitions/What I’ve Been Up To TS2068 Twister/HDMI board - TS2068 OS64 board - HDMI cable - 2068 Personal Color Computer User Manual - T/S 2068 Basics and Beyond by Sharon Zardetto Aker - The Essential Guide to Timex/Sinclair Home Computers - TS2068 group on groups.io - “Back Into the Storm” by Bil Herd and Margaret Morabito (autographed) - / modern power supply for TS2068 - M100/T102/T200 TPDD1 boot disk - TI99 CF7+ case - Upcoming Shows Tandy Assembly - Sep. 29-Oct. 1 - Courtyard by Marriott in Springfield, Ohio - Amiga38 Germany - Oct. 6-7 - Das Rote Krokodil - Kunstwerk Mönchengladbach - The Interim Computer Festival - Oct. 7-8 - Seattle, WA - AmiWest - October 14-15 - Sacramento, CA - Dragon MeetUp - October 7-8 - The Centre for Computing History in Cambridge - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 13-15, 2023 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - Chicago TI International World Faire - October 14, 2023 - Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - Mactoberfest Bay Area Meetup - October 14, 2023 - Belmont, CA - World of Commodore - Dec. 2-3, 2023 - Admiral Inn Mississauga, Mississauga, ON - Facebook show schedule - Interview Web site operated by Forrest - History of MITS - Forrest at Wikipedia - “The Altair story; early days at MITS.”, CREATIVE COMPUTING VOL. 10, NO. 11 / NOVEMBER 1984 / PAGE 17, Forrest M. Mims III - Easy-to-understand guide to home computers by Forrest Mims III - Digital computer book by Paul Malvino - Understanding Digital Computers by Forrest Mims III - Forrest’s articles in Popular Electronics Magazine -
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Floppy Days 129 - Paul Terrell - Exidy Part 2
08/30/2023
Floppy Days 129 - Paul Terrell - Exidy Part 2
Paul Terrell - Exidy Part 2 Patreon: Sponsors: Hello, and welcome to episode 129 for August, 2023 of the Floppy Days Podcast, with your host, Randy Kindig! If you’re a regular listener, you’ll know that we’re in the middle of a series of episodes where we talk with Paul Terrell. Paul has been credited with essentially jump-starting the personal computer industry in many ways, not the least of which was by buying the original Apple I computer from the just-getting-started Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and selling it in his equally-famous computer store, The Byte Shop. This was one of the first personal computer retail store chains in existence. Paul was also a member of the legendary Homebrew Computer Club and attended the West Coast Computer Faire. He was involved in the development of both the Exidy Sorcerer and BYT-8 computers and he later went on to start ComputerMania Inc. which was a chain of computer stores created with the purpose of renting computers and software. The first episode with Paul (June 2023’s episode) was a sort of overview before Paul’s time being involved with Exidy and the Exidy Sorcerer computer. Last month was segment 1 of 2 focusing directly on Exidy and the Sorcerer. And, this month is segment 2 of 2; again focusing on Exidy and the Sorcerer. You’ll hear more about how the Sorcerer came about, hear Paul’s insight into why certain design decisions were made, and what mistakes were made. The Sorcerer was truly an early, important machine, and had impressive features for the timeframe that it came out. As a reminder, if you want to hear additional information about the Sorcerer and about Exidy, there are 2 other Floppy Days Podcasts you’ll want to listen to: Episode 17, where the Sorcerer is covered in detail - Episode 114, which features an interview with Howell Ivy. Howell was the principal designer of the Sorcerer and recollects his time at Exidy. - Paul decided he would really like to be able to talk about his incredible career in its entirety, including an amazing number of industry-impacting contributions, more than just the time with Exidy, and I of course was ecstatic that he decided my humble podcast could be a good medium for that. What that means for the listener, is that you can expect an even broader series of continued podcasts with Paul in the near future, interspersed with other computer-based and interview episodes along the way. I really hope you enjoy the Paul Terrel series in general, and this episode should give you a nice wrap-up on his involvement with Exidy and the Sorcerer! New Acquisitions Console5 - Okimate 10 printer - ATR8000 - Happy 1050 - Atari Joystick USB Adapter (JAKAdapter) - Upcoming Shows VCF Midwest - September 9-10 - Waterford Banquets and Conference Center, Elmhurst, IL - World of Retrocomputing - September 16-17 - Kitchener, Ontario, Canada - Tandy Assembly - Sep. 29-Oct. 1 - Courtyard by Marriott in Springfield, Ohio - Amiga38 Germany - Oct. 6-7 - Das Rote Krokodil - Kunstwerk Mönchengladbach - The Interim Computer Festival - Oct. 7-8 - Seattle, WA - AmiWest - October 14-15 - Sacramento, CA - Dragon MeetUp - October 7-8 - The Centre for Computing History in Cambridge - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 13-15, 2023 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - Chicago TI International World Faire - October 14, 2023 - Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - World of Commodore - Dec. 2-3, 2023 - Admiral Inn Mississauga, Mississauga, ON - Facebook show schedule - Paul Terrell Interview Paul on LinkedIN - Paul on Facebook - Paul at WikiPedia - Interview with Paul at NextShark - “Today in Apple history: The Byte Shop, Apple’s first retailer, opens” by Cult of Mac - “The Man Who Jump-Started Apple by Harry McCracken”, August 23, 2007, PC World -
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Floppy Days 128 - Paul Terrell - Exidy Part 1
07/28/2023
Floppy Days 128 - Paul Terrell - Exidy Part 1
Floppy Days Episode 128 - Paul Terrell - Exidy Part 1 Patreon: Sponsors: Hello, and welcome to episode 128 for July, 2023 of the Floppy Days Podcast, with your host, Randy Kindig! If you’re a regular listener, you’ll know that we’re in the middle of a series of episodes where we talk with Paul Terrell. Paul has been credited with essentially jump-starting the personal computer industry in many ways, not the least of which was by buying the original Apple I computer from the just-getting-started Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and selling it in his equally-famous computer store, The Byte Shop. This was one of the first personal computer retail stores in existence. Paul was also a member of the legendary Homebrew Computer Club and attended the West Coast Computer Faire. He was involved in the development of both the Exidy Sorcerer and BYT-8 computers and he later went on to start ComputerMania Inc. which was a chain of computer stores created with the purpose of renting computers and software. This guy has had an amazing career and I am truly honored to be able to bring you a series of interviews with Paul for the podcast. Paul and I will be covering his entire career, from his early beginnings, thru the Byte Shop years and his time with the nascent Apple Computer, and beyond. The first segment (last month’s episode) was a sort of overview before Paul’s time being involved with Exidy and the Exidy Sorcerer computer. This segment is part 1 of 2 focusing directly on Exidy and the Sorcerer. You’ll hear how the Sorcerer came about, hear Paul’s insight into why certain design decisions were made, and what mistakes were made. The Sorcerer was truly an early, important machine, and had impressive features for the timeframe that it came out. If you want to hear additional information about the Sorcerer and about Exidy, there are 2 other Floppy Days Podcasts you’ll want to listen to: Episode 17, where the Sorcerer is covered in detail - Episode 114, which features an interview with Howell Ivy. Howell was the principal designer of the Sorcerer and recollects his time at Exidy. - Paul first contacted me after the interview I had with Howell Ivy and Howell’s involvement and remembrances of the Exidy Sorcerer. He really liked Howell’s interview and wanted to add a few details and give his perspective on the Sorcerer. As we talked further, Paul decided he would really like to be able to talk about his incredible career in its entirety, more than just the time with Exidy, and I of course was ecstatic that he decided my humble podcast could be a good medium for that. I really hope you enjoy the Paul Terrel series in general, and this episode should give you a nice perspective on his involvement with Exidy and the Sorcerer! Upcoming Shows Vintage Computer Festival West 2023 - August 4 & 5 - Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA - Atari Buy/Sell/Swap/Trade Event - August 5th 10am-2pm - 15 miles SE of Charlotte, NC - ZZAP! Live 2023 - August 12 - The Holiday Inn, Kenilworth, CV8 1ED - Silly Venture SE (Summer Edition) - Aug. 17-20 - Gdansk, Poland - Fujiama 2023 - Aug. 30 - Sep. 3 - Lengenfeld, Germany - VCF Midwest - September 9-10 - Waterford Banquets and Conference Center, Elmhurst, IL - Tandy Assembly - Sep. 29-Oct. 1 - Courtyard by Marriott in Springfield, Ohio - Amiga38 Germany - Oct. 6-7 - Das Rote Krokodil - Kunstwerk Mönchengladbach - The Interim Computer Festival - Oct. 7-8 - Seattle, WA - AmiWest - October 14-15 - Sacramento, CA - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 13-15, 2023 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - Chicago TI International World Faire - October 14, 2023 - Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - World of Commodore - Dec. 2-3, 2023 - Admiral Inn Mississauga, Mississauga, ON - Facebook show schedule - Paul Terrell Interview Paul on LinkedIN - Paul on Facebook - Paul at WikiPedia - Interview with Paul at NextShark - “Today in Apple history: The Byte Shop, Apple’s first retailer, opens” by Cult of Mac - “The Man Who Jump-Started Apple by Harry McCracken”, August 23, 2007, PC World -
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Floppy Days 127 - James Shackel Estate Haul and Paul Terrell Intro
06/30/2023
Floppy Days 127 - James Shackel Estate Haul and Paul Terrell Intro
Floppy Days 127 - James Shackel Estate Haul and Paul Terrell Intro Interview Patreon: Sponsors: Hello, and welcome to episode 127 for June, 2023 of the Floppy Days Podcast, with your host, yours truly, Randy Kindig! I doubt there are few listeners who don’t know the name Paul Terrell. Paul has been credited with essentially jump-starting the personal computer industry in many ways, not the least of which was by buying the original Apple I computer from the just-getting-started Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and selling it in his equally-famous computer store, The Byte Shop. This was the first personal computer retail store in existence. Paul was also a member of the legendary Homebrew Computer Club and attended the West Coast Computer Faire. He was involved in the development of both the Exidy Sorcerer and BYT-8 computers and he later went on to start ComputerMania Inc. which was a chain of computer stores created with the purpose of renting computers and software. This guy has had an amazing career and I am truly honored to be able to bring you a series of interviews with Paul for the podcast. Paul and I will be covering his entire career, from his early beginnings, thru the Byte Shop years and his time with the nascent Apple Computer, and beyond. This first segment is a sort of overview leading up to Paul’s time involved with Exidy and the Exidy Sorcerer computer. You’ll hear a small bit about Bill Gates, the early Micro-soft, the Byte Shop, the early Apple, the Homebrew Computer Club, the West Coast Computer Faire and a whole lot more. Later episodes will be focused primarily on a single topic, such as the Sorcerer, the Byte Shop, etc. Paul first contacted me after the interview I had with Howell Ivy and Howell’s involvement and remembrances of the Exidy Sorcerer. He really liked Howell’s interview and wanted to add a few details and give his perspective on the Sorcerer. As we talked further, Paul decided he would really really like to be able to talk about his incredible career in its entirety, more than just the time with Exidy, and I of course was ecstatic that he decided my humble podcast could be a good medium for that. I really hope you enjoy the series in general, and this short episode should give you a taste of the things to come! What I’ve Been Up To and New Acquisitions Console5 (cap kit for Osborne) - “The Commodore Room” YouTube Channel - Upcoming Shows Kickstart Amiga UK Expo - July 1-2 - Nottingham, UK - KansasFest, the largest and longest running annual Apple II conference - July 18-23, 2023 (in-person) - July 29–30, 2023 (virtual) - Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri - Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 28-30 2023 - Atlanta, GA - Atari Buy/Sell/Swap/Trade Event - August 5th 10am-2pm - 15 miles SE of Charlotte, NC - ZZAP! Live 2023 - August 12 - The Holiday Inn, Kenilworth, CV8 1ED - Silly Venture SE (Summer Edition) - Aug. 17-20 - Gdansk, Poland - Fujiama 2023 - Aug. 30 - Sep. 3 - Lengenfeld, Germany - VCF Midwest - September 9-10 - Waterford Banquets and Conference Center, Elmhurst, IL - Tandy Assembly - Sep. 29-Oct. 1 - Courtyard by Marriott in Springfield, Ohio - Amiga38 Germany - Oct. 6-7 - Das Rote Krokodil - Kunstwerk Mönchengladbach - AmiWest - October 14-15 - Sacramento, CA - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 13-15, 2023 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - Chicago TI International World Faire - October 14, 2023 - Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - World of Commodore - Dec. 2-3, 2023 - Admiral Inn Mississauga, Mississauga, ON - Facebook show schedule - Paul Terrel Interview Paul on LinkedIN - Paul on Facebook - Paul at WikiPedia - Interview with Paul at NextShark - “Today in Apple history: The Byte Shop, Apple’s first retailer, opens” by Cult of Mac - “The Man Who Jump-Started Apple by Harry McCracken”, August 23, 2007, PC World -
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Floppy Days 126 - Bob Frankston - VisiCalc
05/26/2023
Floppy Days 126 - Bob Frankston - VisiCalc
Floppy Days 126 - Interview with Bob Frankston, Co-developer of Visicalc Patreon: Sponsors: Hello, everyone! Welcome to episode 126 of the Floppy Days Podcast, with yours truly, Randy Kindig, as the host. Everyone, and I mean everyone, listening to this podcast has surely heard of the ground-breaking application (for its time) Visicalc. Visicalc was the first spreadsheet computer program for personal computers, originally released for the Apple II by VisiCorp on October 17, 1979. It is considered the killer application for the Apple II, turning the microcomputer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a serious business tool, and then prompting IBM to introduce the IBM PC two years later. More than 700,000 copies were sold in six years, and up to 1 million copies over its history. Initially developed for the Apple II computer, VisiCalc was ported to numerous platforms, both 8-bit and some of the early 16-bit systems, such as the Commodore PET, Atari 8-bit, TRS-80 (TRSDOS), CP/M, MS-DOS, and even the HP Series 80. VisiCalc was later replaced in the market by Lotus 1-2-3 and eventually by Microsoft’s Excel, which is the dominant spreadsheet today. Spreadsheets, along with word processors, and presentation tools are still today considered one of the key applications for computing. Bob Frankston, along with Dan Bricklin, are the co-inventors of VisiCalc. This month, we have an interview with the aforementioned Bob Frankston. Bob was kind enough to take time to talk with me about what it was like to create such a ground-breaking tool. Before doing that, I have a few new acquisitions to discuss and I’ll tell you about upcoming computer shows. New Acquisitions/What I’ve Been Up To Lige and the YouTube show “The Commodore Room” - (cap kits) Upcoming Shows The 64 bits or less Retro Gaming Festival - June 3-4 - Benton County Fairgrounds in Corvallis, Oregon (sponsored by the Portland Retro Gaming Expo) - Boatfest Vintage Computer Exposition - June 23-25 - Hurricane, WV - VCF Southwest - June 23-25 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX - Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 24-25 - “Interim” Computer Museum, Seattle, WA - Kickstart Amiga UK Expo - July 1-2 - Nottingham, UK - KansasFest, the largest and longest running annual Apple II conference - July 18-23, 2023 (in-person) - July 29–30, 2023 (virtual) - Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri - Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 28-30 2023 - Atlanta, GA - ZZAP! Live 2023 - August 12 - The Holiday Inn, Kenilworth, CV8 1ED - Silly Venture SE (Summer Edition) - Aug. 17-20 - Gdansk, Poland - Fujiama 2023 - Aug. 30 - Sep. 3 - Lengenfeld, Germany - VCF Midwest - September 9-10 - Waterford Banquets and Conference Center, Elmhurst, IL - Tandy Assembly - Sep. 29-Oct. 1 - Courtyard by Marriott in Springfield, Ohio - AmiWest - October 14-15 - Sacramento, CA - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 13-15, 2023 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - Chicago TI International World Faire - October 14, 2023 - Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - World of Commodore - Dec. 2-3, 2023 - Admiral Inn Mississauga, Mississauga, ON - Facebook show listings - Interview Bob’s Website - New York Times article on Bricklin and Frankston joining Lotus (acquisition) - Bob interview on TwitTV -
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Floppy Days 125 - ZX Spectrum Part 7 With PJ Evans
04/23/2023
Floppy Days 125 - ZX Spectrum Part 7 With PJ Evans
Patreon: Sponsors: Welcome to Floppy Days #125 for April, 2023. And I’m your host, Randy Kindig. We are currently in the year 1982 for home computers. This episode is the continuation of a multi-episode arc that covers the Sinclair ZX Spectrum through all the usual topics. This is the seventh of those, with the first having been the interview with John Grant of Nine Tiles, the second and third being coverage of the history of the Spectrum with Alessandro Grussu, the fourth being the interview with the author of the terrific book “The ZX Spectrum Ula: How to Design a Microcomputer”, Mr. Chris Smith, the fifth covering tech specs for the Speccy with Chris, and the sixth covering the topics peripherals, using the machine, and magazines with PJ Evans, Tour Guide and Sinclair curator at The National Museum of Computing on Bletchley Park in the U.K. The topics covered in this episode include books, software, ads, modern upgrades, emulation, buying one today, community, and Web sites. Once again, my co-host will be PJ Evans, who did a wonderful job last episode. This will be the final episode covering the ZX Spectrum, after setting the record in terms of number of episodes on Floppy Days about a single machine. As usual, I will also talk a bit about what I have been up to, including an update on any new acquisitions that have come my way. In addition, I’ll briefly tell you about upcoming shows of which I’m aware. Before we get started I want to mention the show sponsors for Floppy Days. , run by my friend Corey Koltz, is a great place to get vintage computer items. This includes video cables, power supplies, PC boards, cartridges, upgrades and more for a wide variety of vintage computer platforms. In the New Acquisitions section I cover each month on this show, often one of the items I talk about has been ordered from 8-Bit Classics. Corey has been a friend of the show for some time and I really appreciate his support of the podcast. Check out the site… he has some great stuff. , run by my friend Greg McGill, is another terrific site to get vintage computer items. Greg has a wide variety of hard-to-find items for a large number of platforms. This is another site that I do and have done a lot of shopping at and have mentioned numerous times on Floppy Days. If anything shows out of stock, just ping Greg through the contact form and he can check whether he has or can get more of the item for you. I also wanted to mention those listeners who appreciate the show enough to donate through patreon.com. This includes Chris Petzel, Tony Cappellini, laurens, Richard Goulstone, Josh Malone, Andy Collins, Simon McCullough, Jason Moore, Quentin Barnes. I really appreciate you guys and it helps offset the cost of running the podcast. Links Mentioned in the Show: New Acquisitions and What I’ve Been Up To Amiga 500 Parceiro - Atari XEP80-II Case - FD sign and shirt - book - Over the Spectrum - ZXPand+ Case - Upcoming Shows Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 29 & 30 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - The 64 bits or less Retro Gaming Festival - June 3-4 - Benton County Fairgrounds in Corvallis, Oregon (sponsored by the PortlandRetro Gaming Expo) - Boatfest Vintage Computer Exposition - June 23-25 - Hurricane, WV - VCF Southwest - June 23-25 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX - Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 24-25 - “Interim” Computer Museum, Seattle, WA - j KansasFest, the largest and longest running annual Apple II conference - July 18-23, 2023 - Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri - Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 28-30 2023 - Atlanta, GA - ZZAP! Live 2023 - August 12 - The Holiday Inn, Kenilworth, CV8 1ED - VCF Midwest - September 9-10 - Waterford Banquets and Conference Center, Elmhurst, IL - Tandy Assembly - Sep. 29-Oct. 1 - Courtyard by Marriott in Springfield, Ohio - AmiWest - October 14-15 - Sacramento, CA - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 13-15, 2023 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - World of Commodore - Dec. 2-3, 2023 - Admiral Inn Mississauga, Mississauga, ON - Books books listed at World of Spectrum - Spectrum Machine Language For The Absolute Beginner by William Tang 2020 - (Retro Reproductions) Over the Spectrum by Philip Williams 2020 - (Retro Reproductions) Spectrum Games Bible 1982-1984 Paperback – June 11, 2008 by P Johns - ZX Spectrum Games Code Club: Twenty fun games to code and learn Paperback – November 23, 2015 by Gary Plowman (Author) - Spectrumpedia by Alessandro Grussu (2 volumes) - Volume I (English) - Volume II (English) - The Micro Kids: An 80s Adventure with ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and more Paperback – Illustrated, December 8, 2018 by Gary Plowman - The ZX Spectrum Ula: How to Design a Microcomputer Illustrated Edition by Christopher David Smith - Sinclair ZX Spectrum : A Visual Compendium - Software archive at World of Spectrum - TOSEC at archive.org by Lady Eklipse - Top 10 games - 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Productivity and Education Software from Sinclair Catalog (all cassette) - Ads and Appearances Starring the Computer - Ad - Modern Upgrades ZX-AY external stereo audio interface for all ZX Spectrum models - ZX-HD HDMI Interface - DIVMMC - SpectraNet - Emulation Emulator list at World of Spectrum - Spectaculator (paid) Fuse: Windows - macOS - Linux - Speccy - Eighty One - Retro Virtual Machine (RVM) - ZEsarUX - ZX Spectrum 4 Android - QAOP (browser-based) - JSSpeccy (browser-based) - Community Facebook Spectrum Forever - Spectrum for Everyone - World of Spectrum - ZX Spectrum - Twitter ZX Spectrum Code Club - Mastodon Sinclair ZX Spectrum Bot - Spectrum User - Forums AtariAge - Podcasts Our Sinclair: A ZX Spectrum Podcast by Amigos Retro Gaming - Reddit Web Sites Byte Delight shop - The Future Was 8bit shop - Power supplies for Spectrum machines at Retro Games Supply - Dr. Steve Vickers at YouTube - “The first ZX Spectrum prototype laid bare” article about John Grant - The official world archive for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum - The Spectrum Show by Paul Jenkinson - The MagPi - Interview with Steve Vickers & Richard Altwasser - References Retro 8-bit Computers - Wikipedia - Old-Computers.com museum -
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Floppy Days 124 - ZX Spectrum Part 6 with PJ Evans
03/29/2023
Floppy Days 124 - ZX Spectrum Part 6 with PJ Evans
Patreon: Sponsors: Welcome to Floppy Days #124 for March, 2023. And I’m your host, Randy Kindig. We are currently covering the very productive year for home computers of 1982. This episode is the continuation of a multi-episode arc that covers the Spectrum through all the usual topics. This is the sixth of those, with the first having been the interview with John Grant of Nine Tiles, the second and third being coverage of the history of the Spectrum with Alessandro Grussu, the fourth being the interview with the author of the terrific book “The ZX Spectrum Ula: How to Design a Microcomputer”, Mr. Chris Smith, and the sixth covering tech specs for the Speccy with Chris. The topics covered in this episode include peripherals, using the machine, and magazines. Next episode we will complete the ZX Spectrum coverage, by talking about books, software, ads, modern upgrades, emulation, buying one today, community, and Web sites. As usual, I will also talk a bit about what I have been up to, including an update on any new acquisitions that have come my way. In addition, I’ll briefly tell you about upcoming shows of which I’m aware and share any feedback I’ve gotten. Before we get started I want to mention that I now have some show sponsors for Floppy Days. , run by my friend Corey Koltz, is a great place to get vintage computer items. This includes video cables, power supplies, PC boards, cartridges, upgrades and more for a wide variety of vintage computer platforms. In the New Acquisitions section I cover each month on this show, often one of the items I talk about has been ordered from 8-Bit Classics. Corey has been a friend of the show for some time and I really appreciate his support of the podcast. Check out the site… he has some great stuff. , run by my friend Greg McGill, is another terrific site to get vintage computer items. Greg has a wide variety of hard-to-find items for a large number of platforms. This is another site that I do and have done a lot of shopping at and have mentioned numerous times on Floppy Days. If anything shows out of stock, just ping Greg through the contact form and he can check whether he has or can get more of the item for you. I also wanted to mention those listeners who appreciate the show enough to donate through patreon.com. This includes Chris Petzel, Tony Cappellini, laurens, Richard Goulstone, Josh Malone, Andy Collins, Simon McCullough, Jason Moore, Quentin Barnes. I really appreciate you guys and it helps offset the cost of running the podcast. Links Mentioned in the Show: New Acquisitions and What I’ve Been Up To Amiga 1000 - Commodore SX-64 repair video by The Commodore Room - Upcoming Shows Midwest Gaming Classic - March 31-April 2 - Wisconsin Center, Milwaukee, WI - VCF East 2023 - Apr 14-16, 2023 - InfoAge Science and History Museums, Wall, NJ - The Commodore Los Angeles Super Show - April 15-16, 2023 - Burbank VFW Hall, Burbank, CA - 31st Annual “Last” CocoFest - April 22-23, 2023 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago, Carol Stream, IL - Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 29 & 30 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - The 64 bits or less Retro Gaming Festival - June 3-4 - Benton County Fairgrounds in Corvallis, Oregon (sponsored by the PortlandRetro Gaming Expo) - Boatfest Vintage Computer Exposition - June 23-25 - Hurricane, WV - VCF Southwest - June 23-25 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX - Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 24-25 - “Interim” Computer Museum, Seattle, WA - j KansasFest, the largest and longest running annual Apple II conference - July 18-23, 2023 - Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri - Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 28-30 2023 - Atlanta, GA - ZZAP! Live 2023 - August 12 - The Holiday Inn, Kenilworth, CV8 1ED - VCF Midwest - September 9-10 - Waterford Banquets and Conference Center, Elmhurst, IL - Tandy Assembly - Sep. 29-Oct. 1 - Courtyard by Marriott in Springfield, Ohio - AmiWest - October 14-15 - Sacramento, CA - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 13-15, 2023 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - World of Commodore - Dec. 2-3, 2023 - Admiral Inn Mississauga, Mississauga, ON - Feedback Claus, webmaster at Using the Machine Popular Magazines/Newsletters Crash Modern Crash - articles for Crash written by Paul Evans - Your Sinclair Current blog - Sinclair User Spectrofon Sinclair Programs ZX Magazin References Retro 8-bit Computers - Wikipedia - Old-Computers.com museum -
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Floppy Days 123 - Amiga 1000, Parceiro, and Podcast Tenth Anniversary!
02/28/2023
Floppy Days 123 - Amiga 1000, Parceiro, and Podcast Tenth Anniversary!
Floppy Days 123 - Amiga 1000, Parceiro and Podcast Tenth Anniversary! Patreon: Sponsors: Welcome to episode 123 of Floppy Days for February, 2023, where classic computers are all the rage and we lovingly take you back to the days when computers were simpler and we were younger. This is a special show for me, because this month (Feb. 17 was the publish date) marks the 10th anniversary of publishing this podcast! Man, oh, man, where has the time gone?! This podcast itself has become vintage, depending on your definition of vintage. My original intent was to continue the coverage of the ZX Spectrum this month, but my special co-host for that show was unable to record this month. I decided this was the perfect opportunity to have a special show to in some way commemorate the 10-year anniversary. My co-host and I have scheduled the recording for the Spectrum show for early March, so I’ll publish that as early in March as I can. In the meantime, for this show I wanted to talk about how the show has changed and grown over the years and what my plans are for the future. I apologize for not having one of my two typical formats (machine coverage or interview) for this show. Not to worry though, I’ve got what I think is an interesting story around my recent work to test and set up some Amiga 1000s that have come my way; including some information about a great upgrade for the A1000 called Parceiro II. I do also want to mention that I now have some show sponsors for Floppy Days. , run by my friend Corey Koltz, is a great place to get vintage computer items. This includes video cables, power supplies, PC boards, cartridges, upgrades and more for a wide variety of vintage computer platforms. In the New Acquisitions section I cover each month on this show, often one of the items I talk about has been ordered from 8-Bit Classics. Corey has been a friend of the show for some time and I really appreciate his support of the podcast. Check out the site… he has some great stuff. , run by my friend Greg McGill, is another terrific site to get vintage computer items. Greg has a wide variety of hard-to-find items for a large number of platforms. This is another site that I do and have done a lot of shopping at and have mentioned numerous times on Floppy Days. If anything shows out of stock, just ping Greg through the contact form and he can check whether he has or can get more of the item for you. I also wanted to mention those listeners who appreciate the show enough to donate through patreon.com. This includes Chris Petzel, Tony Cappellini, laurens, Richard Goulstone, Josh Malone, Andy Collins, Simon McCullough, Jason Moore, Quentin Barnes. I really appreciate you guys and it helps offset the cost of running the podcast. On a sad note, one other thing I wanted to talk about was the passing of a good friend in the community, James Shackel (aka Airshack). James passed from this earth in January of this year due to illness, and it was a shock to me to realize I would no longer have James to talk to. James came from the TI community, but was interested in a lot of the vintage machines. Over the years, I traded a Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2A to him for a TIPI network card for the TI99 and James sent me things numerous times, such as books or software. Most recently, just 3 months ago, I traded a Commodore 128 to him for an Atari 1200XL he had. He also had been a patreon donator for Floppy Days for some time. He pinged me all the time to discuss ANTIC or Floppy Days or just to let me know about some new vintage computer thing he came across. I saw James at Tandy Assembly in October last year, just the second time I had ever seen him in person, but he never told me he was ill. James had a singular sense of humor and I will miss it, and him, very much. It reminds me that we need to appreciate the people around us while we can, as we don’t know how long they will be around. James, I will truly miss you. Ok, let’s get on with the show. I hope you find something interesting out of this episode. Here’s to 10 more years of Floppy Days! Intro James Shackel passed away - New Acquisitions computer trading cards - Yamaha MSX AX-150 Computer - memory mapper + SD card interface - Amiga 1000 - Parceiro II by David Dunklee: to order one Upcoming Shows Midwest Gaming Classic - March 31-April 2 - The Wisconsin Center, Milwaukee, WI - VCF East 2023 - Apr 14-16, 2023 - InfoAge Science and History Museums, Wall, NJ - The Commodore Los Angeles Super Show - April 15-16, 2023 - Burbank VFW Hall, Burbank, CA - 31st Annual “Last” CocoFest - April 22-23, 2023 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago, Carol Stream, IL - Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 29 & 30 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 24-25 - “Interim” Computer Museum, Seattle, WA - KansasFest, the largest and longest running annual Apple II conference - July 18-23, 2023 - Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri - Southern Fried Gaming Expo - July 28-30 2023 - Atlanta, GA - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 13-15, 2023 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - 10th Anniversary Special Content OldComputers.net timeline -
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Floppy Days 122 - NEC PC-6001 and Japanese Computers with Carlos Camacho - Part II
01/31/2023
Floppy Days 122 - NEC PC-6001 and Japanese Computers with Carlos Camacho - Part II
NEC TREK PC-6001, Part II Please donate at: . Welcome to Floppy Days #122 for January, 2023. And I’m your host, Randy Kindig. We are currently covering the very productive year for home computers of 1982. As regular listeners will know, we’ve been covering the ZX Spectrum and the myriad of information about that machine. While we still have more information to cover, such as emulation, Web sites, and a lot more, we are currently taking a tiny step back to pick up coverage of a machine that I recently acquired and wanted to talk about, but which came out in very late 1981. That machine is the Nippon Electric Company (NEC) PC-6001 and its US variation, the PC-6001A, or NEC-TREK. It actually was released in November, 1981 in Japan. Thus, you can see that this is really a very tiny detour to go back and pick up this machine. It’s one I didn’t know about, honestly, and when I acquired a very clean, boxed version in the Great Barn Find of 2022, not only did I decide to keep the machine but also to cover it on Floppy Days. I hope you can forgive me this minor detour off the path of covering the machines in the approx. order they were released. I think you’ll find this machine interesting, as I did, and enjoy hearing about it. This is the second episode of a 2-part arc on this machine, due to the amount of material we were able to pull together and length of time it took to go through it. Last episode we covered history and tech specs (as well as a brief interview with my co-host), and this month we will cover the remaining usual topics. With me this month again to provide the co-hosting duties will be Carlos Camacho. Carlos lived in Japan for a while and has a great perspective on this line of computers, as well as a lot of experience and knowledge around Japanese computers in general, which I think you’ll find interesting. The research he did on the PC-6000 line a few years ago was a tremendous help in pulling together information for this show. At the end of the day, if you have an interest in acquiring anything for this platform, you’ll need the information that Carlos provides on how to navigate the Japanese vintage computer market. I know I learned a ton from Carlos. Very soon we’ll return to ZX Spectrum coverage. As usual, I will also talk a bit about a few new acquisitions (beyond the barn find) that have come my way. In addition, I’ll briefly tell you about upcoming shows of which I’m aware and share any feedback I’ve gotten. I hope you enjoy the show! Links Mentioned in the Show: New Acquisitions IBM PC5140 Display Adapter - Spectrum Machine Language for the Absolute Beginner by William Tang - C128D JiffyDOS - Atari Fast BASIC - Upcoming Computer Shows VCF East 2023 - Apr 14-16, 2023 - InfoAge Science and History Museums, Wall, NJ - The Commodore Los Angeles Super Show - April 15-16, 2023 - Burbank VFW Hall, Burbank, CA - 31st Annual “Last” CocoFest - April 22-23, 2023 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago, Carol Stream, IL - Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 29 & 30 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 24-25 - “Interim” Computer Museum, Seattle, WA - j KansasFest, the largest and longest running annual Apple II conference - July 18-23, 2023 - Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri - Southern Fried Gaming Expo - July 28-30 2023 - Atlanta, GA - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 13-15, 2023 - Oregon Convention Center - Feedback Khalid Yousif NEC PC-6001 MkII SR FM synth music capability - Khalid’s website to document and archive findings on the Iraqi Warkaas - YouTube Playlist by Todd Geiger - Byte High No Limit Podcast - Popular Magazines/Newsletters PC-6000, 6600 information magazine SAVE, produced by Hokuten (owner of pc-6001.net) - Oh, PC! - all NEC models - I/O Magazine - PIO Magazine - Books PC-6000,6600 related book list - - to get books in Japanese Software TOSEC: NEC PC 6001 (archive.org) - Software Compilation Neo Kobe - NEC PC-6001 (archive.org) - Ads and Appearances video ad - (Japanese with English subtitles) Emulators PC6001V - PC6001VW - iP6 and iP6 Plus Windy’s Room - iP6 home page - VNECTREK - October 27, 2009 in the Wayback Machine - MAME/MESS - Buying One Today freight forwarding companies Community Facebook - Japanese Vintage Computer Users - Forums AtariAge - VC Federation - PC-6000,6600 information bulletin board at pc-6001.net - Reddit - Current Web Sites Purchasing today at The Beep Shop - Write-up of the PC-6001 at the in the May, 1982 Byte Magazine (archive.org) Write-up of the PC-6001 in the March, 1983 Byte Magazine (archive.org) NEC PC-6001 search at archive.org - Obscure Systems Showcase: 10 Games For The NEC PC6001 by Sharopolis (YouTube) - The PC-6001: NEC's home challenger by Re:Enthused (YouTube) - PC-6001 series portal site - some PC-6001 software (WAV for real machine and .P6 for emulator) - iP6 information and links at retropc.net - PC-6001 World - - download site References NEC Retro - GiantBomb.com - OldComputers.net - Co-host The Color Computer Store - , @TRS80CocoStore,
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Floppy Days 121 - NEC PC-6001 and Japanese Computers with Carlos Camacho - Part I
01/07/2023
Floppy Days 121 - NEC PC-6001 and Japanese Computers with Carlos Camacho - Part I
Please donate at: . Welcome to Floppy Days #121 for December, 2022. And I’m your host, Randy Kindig. Happy holidays to all! We are currently covering the very productive year for home computers of 1982. As regular listeners will know, we’ve been covering the ZX Spectrum and the myriad of information about that machine. While we still have more information to cover, such as emulation, Web sites, and a lot more, we’re going to take a tiny step back and pick up coverage of a machine that I recently acquired and wanted to talk about, but which came out in very late 1981. That machine is the Nippon Electric Company (NEC) PC-6001 and its US variation, the PC-6001A, or NEC-TREK. It actually was released in November, 1981 in Japan. So, you can see that this is really a very tiny detour to go back and pick up this machine. It’s one I didn’t know about, honestly, and when I acquired a very clean, boxed version in the Great Barn Find of 2022, not only did I decide to keep the machine but also to cover it on Floppy Days. I hope you can forgive me this minor detour off the path of covering the machines in the approx. order they were released. I think you’ll find this machine interesting, as I did, and enjoy hearing about it. With me this month to provide the co-hosting duties will be Carlos Camacho. Carlos lived in Japan for a while and has a great perspective on this line of computers, as well as a lot of experience and knowledge around Japanese computers in general, which I think you’ll find interesting. The research he did on the PC-6000 line a few years ago was a tremendous help in pulling together information for this show. This will be a 2-part episode, due to the amount of material we were able to pull together and length of time it took to go through it. After that, we’ll return to ZX Spectrum coverage. As usual, I will also talk a bit about what I have been up to, including an update on the The Great Barn Find of 2022, as well as a few new acquisitions (beyond the barn find) that have come my way. In addition, I’ll briefly tell you about upcoming shows of which I’m aware and share any feedback I’ve gotten. Finally, while I usually abstain from talking about monetary support for this podcast, I do want to mention that I have a way for you to help if you have the inclination. I have a page set up at where you can donate. Any funds will be used to defray the cost of managing the podcast as well as acquiring new hardware to talk about. On that topic, I do intend to beef up the various Floppy Days offerings, including some additional content depending on the donation level at Patreon. Look for that as soon as I’ve figured out what I want to offer and how to manage it. I do want to send out a heart-felt thank you for everyone who has already contributed and continues to contribute! I hope you enjoy the show! Links Mentioned in the Show: New Acquisitions Tandy M100/T102 items from by Richard Immers and Gerald G. Neufeld by Donald A. Sordillo by Roger Nett and Stanley A Hetzler by Alfred V. Aho and Jeffrey D. Ullman by Bryan Higman by David J. Bradley Upcoming Computer Shows VCF East 2023 - Apr 14-16, 2023 - InfoAge Science and History Museums, Wall, NJ - 31st Annual “Last” CocoFest - April 22-23, 2023 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago, Carol Stream, IL - Indy Classics presented by Indy Vintage Computer Club - late April - near Indy airport - TBA Feedback Byte High No Limit Podcast episode - You can play the Elite game yourself here - Co-host Interview The Color Computer Store - , @TRS80CocoStore,
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