Jim Audiomisc
pfm Member
FWIW I've never really had any interest in computer games. But I guess I could add a 'randomly located' UFO to see if any amateur astronomer spots it. 
Vintage computer fun
- Thread starter Tony L
- Start date
Seeker_UK
Feelin' nearly faded as my jeans
FWIW I've never really had any interest in computer games. But I guess I could add a 'randomly located' UFO to see if any amateur astronomer spots it.
Not quite UFOs but you could add space objects from the NORAD catalogue (https://www.n2yo.com/database/) to help avoid confusing a satellite in MEO or GEO with a star.
suzywong
Wot, no electrons?
A MEO would move across the sky, albeit slowly (LEOs move quite fast and are easy to see)
You would certainly need a time-lapse telescope to see the daily “figure of eight” movement of a GEO.
Heath
pfm Member
The OLD command will sometimes restore programs after hitting the BREAK key. We used to assign OLD and RUN commands to the BREAK key if we didn't want people killing an application.
Tony L
Administrator
After much thought I decided to do a couple of well documented 'upgrades' to the Spectrum. I'd already replaced every electrolytic capacitor (including in the outboard PSU), but I've now gone further and taken the RF modulator out to convert the video output to composite and also replaced the old regulator for a very efficient cool-running modern drop-in replacement. The former noticeably improves the video out (still a long way behind the RGB out of the Electron, but definitely better and more stable). The latter gets a lot of the heat out of the case and should extend the life of the various ICs as the large heatsink shifted heat over some quite hot-running chips (CPU, ULA etc), a really dumb bit of design to be honest! This also puts a lot less strain on the rather basic outboard PSU as the new regulator is something like 95% efficient compared to about 50% of the original. It runs cold so doesn't need the heatsink.
I'm always very skeptical of modifying classic kit, but everything I've done here is very neat and reversible (I got everything out very cleanly and will keep the redundant parts). I'd not personally do this to classic audio kit, but here there is a strong argument that it makes it more usable (few modern TVs have an RF tuner) and will increase its lifespan. There's a 'before' pic upthread which indicates what has been changed.
I got my vintage Kempston Competition Pro joystick, so have been happily playing Ms Pacman etc (original Pac Man doesn't have stick control). All good fun!
PS I've also bought myself a BBC B, though I've not got it yet. Always wanted one and I think/hope I've found a very nice one for a pretty decent price...
gavreid
Pretty Words...
Tony L
Administrator
I’ll go see if I can find Pheenix later, it is not a game I know anything about.
I don’t know about the resistors, but they certainly don’t have a reputation for failing. The capacitors in the Spectrum are of a known poor quality due to Sinclair’s well deserved reputation for penny-pinching, and very few of the ones I removed were even remotely close to spec. The other issues with Spectrums are the keyboard membrane, again very poor quality and almost always useless by this point, and then either overheating or misuse. It is very, very easy to kill a Spectrum by removing an expansion device without powering off, or using the wrong type of wall-wart PSU as the polarity is inverted compared to the overwhelming majority of 9V supplies and plugging the wrong one in just fries all the RAM chips. One could probably argue the resistors are the good bit!
The difference in build between Sinclair (and for that matter Amstrad) and Acorn really is huge. The BBC and Electron are in a whole different ball-park with much better quality comonents and construction right through. Even to this day most folk seem to suggest no need to recap Electrons and only replacing three specific small caps in the BBC PSU that are prone to failure. The rest seem to be of such good quality they are still in spec. The feeling in many retro computing areas is the 35 year old ones in there are likely far better than the dodgy Chinese crap we so often get to buy these days (I deliberately hunted down nice Vishays for the Spectrum)!
Tony L
Administrator
Had a go on Pheenix, eventually managed to get to the second level - I’m disappointingly inept at playing computer games, always with the dying! It works with the joystick which is a bonus (I’ve usually used up all my lives before I’ve even found the move and fire keys!).
PS I know next to nothing about the Oric, will watch the video later.
PS I know next to nothing about the Oric, will watch the video later.
stephen bennett
Mr Enigma
stephen bennett
Mr Enigma
I used BBC Bs to capture data from a '60s vintage X-Ray diffractometer and X-ray Fluorescence machines in the late '80s.
It was really easily interfaced with scientific gadgets.
Stephen
It was really easily interfaced with scientific gadgets.
Stephen
MJS
Technical Tinkerer
I remember pulling out a couple of 19" rack's worth of computing from UCL in the late 90s. It had been installed 20 years previously and had been monitoring cell replication with a video camera. Only then had PC hardware caught up enough to do the same job. Interestingly the machine was made by a company called Micro Consultants. They developed high-speed video DACs and the soft and hardware to go around them to make video processing a reality back in the early 70s. Applications included missile tracking apparently. Civilian use got hived off into a different company that became the household name for TV graphics and effects in the 80s - QAUNTised TELivision.
Jim Audiomisc
pfm Member
Echoed. Our self-built lab kit was essentially all designed to be controlled by a BBC B or its 'children' - Master, Arc, etc.
Jim Audiomisc
pfm Member
If so, something of a disaster for a lot of science and engineering! I decided long ago that the scientific discoveries you could make were limited by the kit you had. So it made sense to ensure you could make kit better than others could buy off the shelf.
e.g Pretty much all the early radio/microwave/mm-wave/IR astronomy was based on people who made their own kit. All the while, others telling them, "You're wasting your time. There isn't anything to observe"... 8-]
One nice offshoot, of course, was that those of us who made such kit ended up bringing in money for more work on the basis of selling instruments to others, once they'd realised it was useful. Tragic if UK researchers can't now do this and stick up two fingers to research councils, etc, who refused to fund them because there was "Nothing to see" or "What you propose is impossible". I lost count of how many times I was told variations on that, only to get results *and* sell suitable kit to others later on.
Tony L
Administrator
The Beeb turned up safe and sound. It boots ok, so I’ve stripped it down for cleaning and recapping the three dodgy caps in the PSU. It is a nice early one with the rough textured case with large vent at the back and early logo. It was fitted with an ATPL Sideways ROM board populated with quite a few things. I’ve taken this out for the time being and returned it to stock spec as I’ve no interest in that aspect to be honest, I just want a standard machine and I’ll add an SD card interface for software, but nice to have nonetheless. The whole thing was absolutely bloody filthy, but is otherwise in really nice condition with no scratches, dings or dents. Colour-wise it is pretty good, nowhere near as yellow as many, the pic above highlights that the area covered by the keyboard is still about the same colour as the top-case, so very minimal UV ageing. It is cleaning up very well, though it took me well over an hour just to clean the mains lead (its filthy in the pic above, looks like new now)! Recapping the PSU is the next step...
Jim Audiomisc
pfm Member
The Beeb turned up safe and sound. It boots ok, so I’ve stripped it down for cleaning and recapping the three dodgy caps in the PSU. It is a nice early one with the rough textured case with large vent at the back and early logo. It was fitted with an ATPL Sideways ROM board populated with quite a few things. I’ve taken this out for the time being and returned it to stock spec as I’ve no interest in that aspect to be honest, I just want a standard machine and I’ll add an SD card interface for software, but nice to have nonetheless. The whole thing was absolutely bloody filthy, but is otherwise in really nice condition with no scratches, dings or dents. Colour-wise it is pretty good, nowhere near as yellow as many, the pic above highlights that the area covered by the keyboard is still about the same colour as the top-case, so very minimal UV ageing. It is cleaning up very well, though it took me well over an hour just to clean the mains lead (its filthy in the pic above, looks like new now)! Recapping the PSU is the next step...
I'm trying to remember who made the 'tube' co-processor I added to my 'B's. I think their name was 'PMS' or similar. Made the machine run faster and freed up memory. if you ever use the 'B' add-ons like that are worth exploring if you can find them. IIRC I also fitten a 'zero insertion force' socket for programmable roms as well to one machine as it made rom changes easier. Crumbs, long time ago now...