#Microcomputer

[gaykarstaagforever]

I want to live in the world where Atari won the computer war, and every tower is still a massive molded plastic chassis with vents that you can only mod with cartridge cards the manufacturer designed for it.

...Wait no I don't, that would be a nightmare.

Cool aesthetic, though.

[70sscifiart]

For Sci-Fi Dolphin Saturday, here's an uncredited cover to MicroComputer magazine, 1983

[arcadebroke]

[dinosaurspen]

An office worker logs addresses into a Data General computer at a direct-mail company in Boston, Massachusetts - via Mashable

[stone-cold-groove]

Translating languages is just the beginning. The revolutionary Craig M100. Ad for the Craig M100 translator/microcomputer - 1980.

[vinspixels]

MCM/70

A Canadian made Microcomputer from 1974.

[adafruit]

Fruit Jam RP2350B credit-card mini computer with all the fixin's 🍓🍇💾

We were catching up on a recent Hackaday hackchat with Eben Upton (https://hackaday.io/event/202122-raspberry-pi-hack-chat-with-eben-upton) and learned some fun facts: such as the DVI hack for the RP2040 was inspired by a device called the IchigoJam (https://www.hackster.io/news/ichigojam-combines-strawberry-and-raspberry-to-deliver-a-raspberry-pi-pico-powered-educational-micro-66aa5d2f6eec). We remember reading about this back when it was an LPC1114, now it uses an RP2040. Well, we're wrapping up the Metro RP2350 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/6003), and lately, we've been joking around that with DVI output and USB Host support via bit-banged PIO, you could sorta build a little stand-alone computer. Well, one pear-green-tea-fueled-afternoon later we tried our hand at designing a 'credit card sized' computer - that's 3.375" x 2.125", about the same size as a business card (https://hackaday.com/2024/05/07/the-2024-business-card-challenge-starts-now/) and turns out there's even a standard named for it: ISO/IEC 7810 ID-1 (https://www.iso.org/standard/70483.html).

Anyhow, with the extra pins of the QFN-80 RP2350B, we're able to jam a ridonkulous amount of hardware into this shape: RP2350B dual 150MHz Cortex M33 w/ PicoProbe debug port, 16 MB Flash + 8 MB PSRAM, USB type C for bootloading/USB client, Micro SD card with SPI or SDIO, DVI output on the HSTX port, I2S stereo headphone + mono speaker via the TLV320DAC3100 (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/texas-instruments/tlv320dac3100irhbt/2353656), 2-port USB type A hub for both keyboard and mouse or game controllers, chunky on-off switch, Stemma QT I2C + Stemma classic JST 3-pin, EYESPI for TFT displays, 5x NeoPixels, 3x tactile switches, and a 16-pin socket header with 10 A/D GPIO + 5V/3V/GND power pins. The PSRAM will help when we want to do things like run emulations that we need to store in fast RAM access, and it will also let us use the main SRAM as the DVI video buffer.

When we get the PCBs back and assembled, what should we try running on this hardware? We're pretty sure it can run DOOM. Should that be first? :) We also need a name. Right now, we're just calling it Fruit Jam since it's inspired by the IchigoJam project.

[arjorge1987]

Una Apple II plus clon de Brasil.

Si, esta Apple no es una Apple original, es clon hecho en Brasil simulando la marca original.

[geologyedinburgh]

Cassette Futurism: The future is saved 200KB at a time.

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.

Retrofuturism: This Restless Future | Sleepcore

Tokyo Futures: How Anime Predicted the Future | Retrofuturism and Animation

The underrated aesthetics of cassette Futurism | Jackerman 056

Retro Futurism in film and gaming. A vision of the future, from the past. | Kernatron

The future is saved 200KB at a time.

A place to share and discuss Cassette Futurism: media where the technology closely matches the computers and technology of the late 70s and early 80s.

Whether it's bright colors and geometric shapes, the tendency towards stark plainness, or the the lack of powerful computers and cell phones, Cassette Futurism includes: Cassettes, ROM chips, CRT displays, computers reminiscent of microcomputers like the Commodore 64, freestanding hi-fi systems, small LCD displays, and other analog technologies.

📼🕹️🎛️☢️

[coupleofdays]

One funny aspect of computer history is that during the 1960s, the term "minicomputer" was introduced for machines that were much smaller than previous computers. Previously, most computers could take up one or several rooms...

But these fancy new "mini" machines were much smaller. Just look at this:

Yep, this was what was considered a "minicomputer", since it was in fact much smaller than "mainframe" computers.

Of course, this seems to have lead to a problem when even smaller computers were introduced during the 70s and 80s, machines that were much closer to our modern desktop computers:

But since the term "minicomputer" was already taken, they decided to call these smaller machines "microcomputers" instead. And apparently some of the even smaller machines we use today (including our modern mobile phones) are sometimes refered to as "nanocomputers".

I honestly think that maybe they should have waited a little longer with using the term "minicomputer", since I think the terminology feels a little "off" considering the scales of the machines that they're currently applied to. But on the other hand, I can understand that people in the 60s might not have been able to imagine having computers that you could carry around in your hand.

Then again...

[bossdesboss]

[gaykarstaagforever]

Atari game cartridge prices - vendor price and suggested retail - from 1983.

I found this on some miraculously still-live forum from 2004.

These are in dollars, so to get the 2025 price, multiply everything by 2.24.

You will note that new games now are about the same price as they were then. They just lose value a lot faster now.

Also back then, a lot of these were made by like 2 guys over 6 months. The programming ecosystem has changed radically, and yet we still expect games to be $60.

I'm not saying we're wrong, or even that the newest Ubisoft sandbox made by 1000 people over 3 years is inherently more fun to play than Star Raiders (bad example, I suppose; Star Raiders rocks, and was also the equivalent of $90 when it came out. And Ubisoft needs to stop killing people to program realistic grass in a game most people will play for 2 hours and go "meh").

It's just interesting to reflect on the changes, and appreciate how good we have it.

Plus like we can steal EVERYTHING real easy now. That used to require meeting shady people in dank alleys, or being friends with a lunatic who was almost literally Doc Brown, but about 8-bit video games. Minus the parts where he's charming and funny and not a terrifying creep.

[art-of-mathematics]

I made a lego case for my Raspberry Pi4 with fan hat and 3.5" LCD touchscreen module (that is attached with a flatwire to the Raspi-fan hat combination).

- - -- --- -----

Yesterday's version of the Raspi case without the screen part:

(the top lid can be opened)

[histonics]

[computermagazines]

North Star HORIZON computer advertisement, featuring a Z80 possessor and 16 whole kilobytes of ram! - Byte magazine July 1978

[boredtechnologist]

Soviet Era Punchcards