• Wow is the Commodore 64 bus slow!

    20 Jul | 13
    • in Raspberry Pi • 
    • in Commodore 64 • 
    • by FozzTexx

    Got the kernel module for the Raspberry Pi that does the Commodore 64 IEC protocol working quite well. Managed to get rid of pretty much all the timing issues, and cobbled together a simple user space program to handle the file I/O. I can now read & write PRG files, even very large ones. It was interesting sending a file (by accident) larger than the C64's RAM, the poor C64 freaked out and overran even the screen and crashed. It was very cool to load a Demo without having to mess...

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  • Me Grimlock!

    16 Jul | 13
    • in Computers • 
    • by FozzTexx

    A couple of days ago I decided to visit Surplus Stuff in Sacramento for the first time. Since I've been on this retro computing kick I thought it might be fun to check out what they had and see if they had anything interesting. Found a lot of really old stuff along with stuff that was only 5-10 years old. They're not as big as Weird Stuff in Sunnyvale, but it was still a fun trip. A stack of HP9000/300 computers Something that caught my eye while wandering around was a pile of HP...

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  • Is a super cheap Android tablet completely worthless?

    23 May | 13
    • in Computers • 
    • by FozzTexx

    I often get asked by people how they can browse the internet on their TV. When I ask why they would want to do such a thing, they have this idea that it would be neat to be able to watch TV *and* browse the internet at the same time. I've been telling them they should get an iPad or Android tablet instead, because it had to be better than trying to browse the web on a TV. Of course the reason they want to do it on the TV was because they didn't want to spend much money. Since I was...

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  • Stay away from Focal Price

    15 May | 13
    • in Misc • 
    • by FozzTexx

    About a month ago I purchased an Android tablet from Focal Price, a store out of China. The tablet was listed on their web site as brand new and in stock yet for some reason it took over a week before they shipped it. When it arrived the tablet was not new, it was definitely used. There were fingerprints on the screen, the USB cable was broken, the power supply was missing, and the serial number didn't even match the package. I tried going through them to get it resolved. They told me that...

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  • USB Joysticks and Retro Consoles

    07 May | 13
    • in Raspberry Pi • 
    • in Commodore 64 • 
    • by FozzTexx

    One of the things bugging me while tinkering with old computers has been the joysticks. Several of the computers I'm playing with can use the Atari 2600 joysticks, but those joysticks are awful. I've never liked them, even back when the Atari 2600 was new. I kept thinking about getting some other 2600 compatible joystick, or maybe making a box and sticking some of my arcade buttons and joysticks in it and wiring it up with the 9 pin Atari pinout. Neither of those ideas seemed...

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