Retro Computers

[Mr E]

Motorrad said:

Internet archive game launcher add on for Kodi and an Xbox One controller will do what you want with ease.

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=332966

Noted. Looks like exactly what I was looking for.
Much appreciate the steer.

[CaptainSlow]

My father, in his wisdom, was an early adopter of the MSX...buying a Toshiba HX10. Turns out he was pretty much the only adopter and they were halved in price in the New Year sales 1985. Buying games was a pain and I was the only lad in the school with one.

Shame really as they were much better than Speccy 48s, BBC Bs and, imo, C64s. Still have it in the loft though.

Also, bought an Amiga A600 which came down before Christmas. Not as good as I remembered.

[AlexC1981]

I've installed Wing Commander on the compact flash card I fitted in my Amiga CD32 and I've spent ages trying to figure out how to save the game. I've given up for the time being, I'll need to do a little more reading as I'm no Workbench guru.

CaptainSlow said:

My father, in his wisdom, was an early adopter of the MSX...buying a Toshiba HX10. Turns out he was pretty much the only adopter and they were halved in price in the New Year sales 1985. Buying games was a pain and I was the only lad in the school with one.

Shame really as they were much better than Speccy 48s, BBC Bs and, imo, C64s. Still have it in the loft though.

Also, bought an Amiga A600 which came down before Christmas. Not as good as I remembered.

If you have the right lead you can connect your HX10 to the headphone port on an Android phone and use the below app to "play" a tape to load software onto it.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=br.c...

[CaptainSlow]

AlexC1981 said:

If you have the right lead you can connect your HX10 to the headphone port on an Android phone and use the below app to "play" a tape to load software onto it.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=br.c...

Looks interesting..does the app include the game files..also is it possible to buy a cable?

[AlexC1981]

It doesn't contain any game files, but I'm sure there will be enthusiast websites where you can download them.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Black-3-5mm-For-Mi...

This cable might work....or it might blow it up. Let me know if it works and I'll get one.

There is a wiring diagram for the cable on the website for the app. You could make your own or get this one and see if you can rewire it. Maybe the seller could provide a wiring diagram.

EDIT - actually, googling an Alpine Mbus cable suggests the way the pins are connected is completely different so I'm pretty sure that lead won't work.

Edited by AlexC1981 on Tuesday 23 April 20:30

[droopsnoot]

CaptainSlow said:

My father, in his wisdom, was an early adopter of the MSX...buying a Toshiba HX10. Turns out he was pretty much the only adopter and they were halved in price in the New Year sales 1985. Buying games was a pain and I was the only lad in the school with one.

Shame really as they were much better than Speccy 48s, BBC Bs and, imo, C64s. Still have it in the loft though.

Also, bought an Amiga A600 which came down before Christmas. Not as good as I remembered.

MSX was one of those great ideas to get around all the home computer platforms being incompatible with each other, but never really took off. At the time, it was all about one-upping the spec, hence things like the Lynx and the Enterprise, which were announced with really way-out features (for the time) to get interest, usually long before they were actually available. By the time they arrived they were so watered-down that they didn't really take off, either. And I think at that point, lower-cost PC clones started to become available (we used to sell the Sanyo machine) and interest started heading that way.

[J4CKO]

Got my Raspberry Pi 64 up and running yesterday, still some issues to sort.

A lot of the games bomb back to the menu
Sound went off, suspect that the output to the headphone jack now being HDMI instead
Various issues with "trainers" on the start of games "infinite lives" etc
Mapping of keyboard and gamepad

Sure I can work them out, the retropie image also has Amiga games but none of those worked.

Will give it another go tonight.

[Jammez]

Still have the old BBC B up in the loft. I remember joining a mail order game club who sent a new game every month, I think at least 25% would just refuse to load!

Spent hours playing Elite and those crazy adventure games. I seem to remember having a Star Trek one, no matter what you typed you died! "Go left", "I'm sorry you've been killed", "Go right", "I'm sorry you've been killed", "Jump", I'm sorry you've been killed"...…………

No online forums back in those days to get cheats from!

[droopsnoot]

Jammez said:

No online forums back in those days to get cheats from!

Well, there were BBS systems, but they seemed to be a lot more popular in the US.

Slightly off-topic, but at a recent car-boot sale I bought a DVD called "BBS: The Documentary", which is kind of a history of text-based bulletin board systems and their users and operators. Looks quite interesting, if a little long, in that it's on three DVDs. Someone obviously had an interest in such things and then lost it, from the same stall I got another called "Get Lamp", which is a 2-disc set exploring text-based adventure games. One day I'll find the time to watch them.

[boxst]

droopsnoot said:

Well, there were BBS systems, but they seemed to be a lot more popular in the US.

Slightly off-topic, but at a recent car-boot sale I bought a DVD called "BBS: The Documentary", which is kind of a history of text-based bulletin board systems and their users and operators. Looks quite interesting, if a little long, in that it's on three DVDs. Someone obviously had an interest in such things and then lost it, from the same stall I got another called "Get Lamp", which is a 2-disc set exploring text-based adventure games. One day I'll find the time to watch them.

I used to run a BBS when I was a child. It was interesting, and not much different to this in terms of forums etc.. They demographic of the people were obviously different, and I ran it on an Atari 800 so the people who dialled in were typically Atari users as well and would trade games as well as discuss devices like the Happy drive. The phone calls were ruinously expensive, so we also used to have devices that would allow free call in to the BBS by fooling the exchange into thinking the phone was still ringing even though it had been answered.

[S11Steve]

When my parents moved hgouse a few years back, they still have a load of my old Spectrum +3 kit, which now resides in my loft. It's all boxed and in good cosmetic condition, but I've not powered it up yet. Besides, I'm not sure if theyw or with modern LED TVs. There was also two boxes of Sinclair User and Your Sinclair that had got damp and ruined at some point, which is a shame, it was the highlight of the month getting those as a kid.






I did "invest" in the Sinclair Vega+ through IndieGogo and Retro Computers Ltd back in 2016, but that really hasn't ended well, and has split the Spectrum community. The liquidators are currently picking over the bones, but it seems that the second wave of directors/shareholders that took over the project wasted the backers funds on in-fighting legal bills rather than production.

[andy_s]

Didn't someone on here have a Curta?

[Oakey]

Mr E said:

I have a PC under the telly.
It provides live TV, bluRAY, DVD, music, pictures, any and all video streams etc.

I keep threatening to install a bunch of emulators and buy a couple of control pads.

Anyone got any advice for best emulator packages to use?
If it can be fired up from Kodi, would be even better.

You can install any of the mainstream emulators and then install an add on for Kodi which manages your ROM's and will fire up the specific emulator when you run the game. I forgot the name of the plugin now, Kodi Rom Collection Browser or something like that.

[Jinx]

S11Steve said:

When my parents moved hgouse a few years back, they still have a load of my old Spectrum +3 kit, which now resides in my loft. It's all boxed and in good cosmetic condition, but I've not powered it up yet. Besides, I'm not sure if theyw or with modern LED TVs. There was also two boxes of Sinclair User and Your Sinclair that had got damp and ruined at some point, which is a shame, it was the highlight of the month getting those as a kid.






I did "invest" in the Sinclair Vega+ through IndieGogo and Retro Computers Ltd back in 2016, but that really hasn't ended well, and has split the Spectrum community. The liquidators are currently picking over the bones, but it seems that the second wave of directors/shareholders that took over the project wasted the backers funds on in-fighting legal bills rather than production.

If you ever get around to playing again you may need to replace the disk drive belt as these perish ( guide here) I have an Amstrad 6128 I need to service at somepoint (either to sell or use again).

[AlexC1981]

S11Steve said:

. Besides, I'm not sure if theyw or with modern LED TVs.

You should get a good picture from your Spectrum+3 if you use an RGB scart lead like this one.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SINCLAIR-ZX-SPECTRUM-2-...

Don't bother with an upscaler or HDMI adaptor. Unless you are prepared to pay a lot for one, your TV will do a better job upscaling the signal. Unfortunately the light gun will only work on CRT TVs.

[S11Steve]

AlexC1981 said:

You should get a good picture from your Spectrum+3 if you use an RGB scart lead like this one.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SINCLAIR-ZX-SPECTRUM-2-...

Don't bother with an upscaler or HDMI adaptor. Unless you are prepared to pay a lot for one, your TV will do a better job upscaling the signal. Unfortunately the light gun will only work on CRT TVs.

Excellent - thank you.

I need to spend some time in the loft this weekend, so I may haul the +3 out and give that a go.

[Mr E]

Mr E said:

Motorrad said:

Internet archive game launcher add on for Kodi and an Xbox One controller will do what you want with ease.

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=332966

Noted. Looks like exactly what I was looking for.
Much appreciate the steer.

I need some appropriate controllers.

[Motorrad]

Mr E said:

I need some appropriate controllers.

Good work!

As you'd expect xbox one controller support is integrated in Kodi, I've found it works without faffing about on most console games.

The home computer stuff really needs mouse and keyboard.

[Mr E]

Well, I have a Xbox one upstairs I can rob some controllers off.

PSOne emulation doesn’t appear to work. Job for the weekend.

[Mr E]

Amiga emulation also doesn’t work.

Passing the baton.