Aren't you glad you don't have to download this show at 300 baud?

Welcome to show #009!  Today we're focusing on computerized Bulletin Board Systems!

Topics and links discussed in the podcast...

Jeff Ledger's Guide to TelBBS will get you back in the BBS game in no time.  Miss the old BBS days?  They're back...  Be sure to check out the various links from this web page.
The BBS Documentary is one of the finest historical accounts of a computing phenomenon that I've ever seen.  Hats off to Jason Scott, this is a masterpiece.  Many thanks to Jason for licensing his work under Creative Commons, making it possible for us to provide excerpts of his work in today's podcast.
If you see the BBS Documentary and are hungry for more, you're in luck!  Additional footage can be found in the BBS Documentary section on the archive.org website.

Be sure to send us any comments, questions or feedback to retrobits@gmail.com

Our Theme Song is "Sweet" from the "Re-Think" album by Galigan

Thanks for listening!

- Earl

64 bits?  Why, back in my day, we had to push our 8 bit computers uphill, 5 miles, in the snow...

Welcome to show #008!  The star of today's show is the CP/M Operating System.

Topics and links discussed in the podcast...

E-mails came in from Thurstan, Alan, JagMod, Mike, Chuck and Ryan!  Excellent, and fun reading!  Thanks, the e-mails make my day.

Wikipedia has a great entry on CP/M, including technical info and some links.  I am starting to use Wikipedia a lot.
The "Unofficial" CP/M Web Site has lots of technical information, source code and resources for the CP/M operating system.
Gaby’s Homepage for CP/M and Computer History has a wide variety of info on CP/M, and lots of excellent links!
The Computer Chronicles special on Gary Kildall is a must-see.

Be sure to send us any comments, questions or feedback to retrobits@gmail.com

Our Theme Song is "Sweet" from the "Re-Think" album by Galigan

Thanks for listening!

- Earl

AT DT retrobits podcast
CONNECT 9600

Welcome to show #007!  Today's podcast focuses on making the connection between retro computers and modern-day PCs.

Topics and links discussed in the podcast...

E-mails came in from Alan, Ryan and Dave with Libsyn - thanks!  Always great to get e-mails regarding the show.

The C64 Take Away Podcast is, in their words, "Your regular fix of Commodore 64 tunes, remixes, news and whatever takes our fancy. Produced and presented by Jan Lund Thomsen of Remix.Kwed.Org fame".  Also check out the parent site, Slay Radio, for streaming retro remixes at various bandwidths.
Juiced.GS is a quarterly Apple II publication.
The X1541 series of cables connect Commodore computers and disk drives to the parallel port of a standard PC.
The Apple Disk Transfer program lets you take Apple disk images, and using a serial cable and real Apple II, turn those images into real disks!
Good old RS232 serial ports have been around forever, and can hook up the old and new with relative ease.  Here's a site with lots of technical goodness on RS232.
The 64HDD software package, both free and professional versions, allow you to turn a DOS-based PC into a floppy and hard drive emulator for Commodore computers.
The Star Commander is a DOS shell program that can handle C64 disk formats, and permits copying of files and disk images to a Commodore drive connected with one of the X cables.
The SIO2PC cable connects Atari computers to a PC.  The PC can emulate storage, printers, and more.
The Catweasel series of disk controllers are used in modern PCs, and can make your 3.5 and 5.25 drives capable of reading and writing foreign disk formats for retro computer systems.  Information on various Catweasel models is available at the Individual Computers site.

Be sure to send us any comments, questions or feedback to retrobits@gmail.com

Our Theme Song is "Sweet" from the "Re-Think" album by Galigan

Thanks for listening!

- Earl

Who says 128K of RAM isn't enough?

This is show #006!  Today's podcast focuses on the Commodore 128 computer, a wonderful example of advanced 8-bit technology.

As always, here are the links discussed in the podcast...

The Lamp and other Apple II publications are available at A2Central.  The parent site is definitely worth checking out as well!
Want to see great pictures of retro computers, including many international models?  Have a look at the Home Computer Museum.
Do a Google search for the C64 DTV - a cute little joystick with the brains of a Commodore 64!
You can purchase GEOS and related applications at the cmdrkey.com website.  They sell hardware and software for Commodore systems, including the CMD line of peripherals.
The commodore.ca site has a great page on the Commodore 128.
Find out about the C65, an 8-bit that never saw daylight (except in prototypes) at the Secret Weapons of Commodore.
Good pictures and good information can be found at the Old Computers page for the C128.
VICE emulates the C128 (and many other Commodore systems).

Be sure to send us any comments, questions or feedback to retrobits@gmail.com

Our Theme Song is "Sweet" from the "Re-Think" album by Galigan

Thanks for listening!

- Earl

A List of My Computers

A side note...here are the computers in my personal collection, in no particular order...

Commodore...
Vic-20
C64
C64c
SX-64
C16
Plus/4
C128 (flat model)
C128DCR

Apple IIe (enhanced, non-platinum model)
HP 41CX (programmable calculator)
TRS-80 Model 1
Timex/Sinclair 1500
Tandy MC-10 micro color computer
TI 99/4A
Atari 800
Atari 400
IBM Portable 5155
Apple Macintosh SE/30

And that's it! Wow, it's a wonder I have room to breathe :-)

Hello, lovers of computers old and new...

This is show #005!  Thanks for sticking around - hope you enjoy the program.

In addition to covering your e-mails and some interesting links, this show discusses a couple of my favorite (even older than show #003) computer languages, Fortran and COBOL.  If you'd like to dust off your old programs and give them a whirl, have a look at the links below!

Braeburn provides articles about the history of computing and technology in general.  They have a recent article on the history of the Apple Lisa.
The Replica I, a replica of the original Apple I computer!
The Retrocomputing 2005 challenge - test your retrocomputing abilities...
DOSBox is an environment to run older DOS games (and other programs) on modern systems and operating systems.
Tiny COBOL is a modern COBOL compiler that is open-source.
Salford FTN95 is a modern Fortran 95 compiler for Windows (with .NET support!).

Be sure to send us any comments, questions or feedback to retrobits@gmail.com

Our Theme Song is "Sweet" from the "Re-Think" album by Galigan

Thanks for listening!

- Earl