August 31, 2022
My Raspberry Pi 4/400 console menu playlists on a 128gb microSD card includes over 12,000 unique titles to play spanning over 30 machine emulators, courtesy of RetroArch, CoinOps and Daphne. There is also an Arcade Tournament mode that can be fun for a retro gaming party.
Don't be deceived by its simple text layout. It can use both keyboard and joystick to operate. It runs a spectacular attract mode when sitting idle. A lot of multimedia and special screen effects have been carefully selected and configured to bring the player back in time.
Also pictured here is built-in PDF viewing of some favorite manuals, including my help documentation:
November 19, 2019
For nearly four decades, I have invested in the latest for home video gaming: Atari, Sega, and Sony. This year, I am a Google Stadia Founder.
But I still enjoy retrocomputing -- mostly games from the 1970s & 1980s arcade and home computer era -- using machine emulation.
I started learning BASIC on a WANG like this in high school. Bought my Commodore VIC 20 in February 1982, followed by its replacement Commodore 16, then Commodore 128. I was an Amiga PC user from 1988 - 1997 before succumbing to PC -- for Linux.
February 12, 1982
I grew up with the start of the 8-bit era. After playing the Milton Bradley electronic board game, Dark Tower, for Christmas, I got hooked on BASIC programming when starting the second semester with a Computer Math class.
I spent the first four weeks handwriting a port of Dark Tower while saving up for a $400 Tandy Color computer. My high school buddy convinced me that the Commodore VIC 20 might be a better value at $300, and clearly it was. I would purchase one at Ann & Hope, then buy its Datasette tape drive for $79 the following week.
The Commodore joystick and an Omega Race game cartridge would follow, after all, I wanted not only to learn computers but also wanted to craft and play games.
The following year, I would get a 6-slot cartridge extension to plug-in the Machine Language Monitor cartridge with a 3K and 8K memory expander. 6502 machine code programming was my key to understanding how computers worked at the speed and level required to achieve my goals.
I would not get my first floppy drive until after I switched to the Commodore 16 for Christmas 1984. But, I had started my professional career as a computer programmer later that Spring and was able to get a complete Commodore 128 setup with an 80-column monitor, modem, printer and the quirky 1571 floppy drive.