Floppy Days Vintage Computing Podcast Randy Kindig

Floppy Days 123 - Amiga 1000, Parceiro and Podcast Tenth Anniversary!
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays
Sponsors:
8-Bit Classics 
Arcade Shopper  
Welcome to episode 123 of Floppy Days for February, 2023, where classic computers are all the rage and we lovingly take you back to the days when computers were simpler and we were younger.
This is a special show for me, because this month (Feb. 17 was the publish date) marks the 10th anniversary of publishing this podcast!  Man, oh, man, where has the time gone?!  This podcast itself has become vintage, depending on your definition of vintage.
My original intent was to continue the coverage of the ZX Spectrum this month, but my special co-host for that show was unable to record this month.  I decided this was the perfect opportunity to have a special show to in some way commemorate the 10-year anniversary. My co-host and I have scheduled the recording for the Spectrum show for early March, so I’ll publish that as early in March as I can.  In the meantime, for this show I wanted to talk about how the show has changed and grown over the years and what my plans are for the future.
I apologize for not having one of my two typical formats (machine coverage or interview)  for this show.  Not to worry though, I’ve got what I think is an interesting story around my recent work to test and set up some Amiga 1000s that have come my way; including some information about a great upgrade for the A1000 called Parceiro II.
I do also want to mention that I now have some show sponsors for Floppy Days.
https://www.8bitclassics.com, run by my friend Corey Koltz, is a great place to get vintage computer items.  This includes video cables, power supplies, PC boards, cartridges, upgrades and more for a wide variety of vintage computer platforms.  In the New Acquisitions section I cover each month on this show, often one of the items I talk about has been ordered from 8-Bit Classics.  Corey has been a friend of the show for some time and I really appreciate his support of the podcast.  Check out the site… he has some great stuff.
https://www.arcadeshopper.com, run by my friend Greg McGill, is another terrific site to get vintage computer items.  Greg has a wide variety of hard-to-find items for a large number of platforms.  This is another site that I do and have done a lot of shopping at and have mentioned numerous times on Floppy Days.  If anything shows out of stock, just ping Greg through the contact form and he can check whether he has or can get more of the item for you.
I also wanted to mention those listeners who appreciate the show enough to donate through patreon.com.  This includes Chris Petzel, Tony Cappellini, laurens, Richard Goulstone, Josh Malone, Andy Collins, Simon McCullough, Jason Moore, Quentin Barnes.  I really appreciate you guys and it helps offset the cost of running the podcast.
On a sad note, one other thing I wanted to talk about was the passing of a good friend in the community, James Shackel (aka Airshack).  James passed from this earth in January of this year due to illness, and it was a shock to me to realize I would no longer have James to talk to.  James came from the TI community, but was interested in a lot of the vintage machines.  Over the years, I traded a Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2A to him for a TIPI network card for the TI99 and James sent me things numerous times, such as books or software.  Most recently, just 3 months ago, I traded a Commodore 128 to him for an Atari 1200XL he had.  He also had been a patreon donator for Floppy Days for some time.   He pinged me all the time to discuss ANTIC or Floppy Days or just to let me know about some new vintage computer thing he came across.  I saw James at Tandy Assembly in October last year, just the second time I had ever seen him in person, but he never told me he was ill.
James had a singular sense of humor and I will miss it, and him, very much.  It rem

NEC TREK PC-6001, Part II
Please donate at: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays. 
Welcome to Floppy Days #122 for January, 2023.  And I’m your host, Randy Kindig.
We are currently covering the very productive year for home computers of 1982.  As regular listeners will know, we’ve been covering the ZX Spectrum and the myriad of information about that machine.  While we still have more information to cover, such as emulation, Web sites, and a lot more, we are currently taking a tiny step back to pick up coverage of a machine that I recently acquired and wanted to talk about, but which came out in very late 1981.  That machine is the Nippon Electric Company (NEC) PC-6001 and its US variation, the PC-6001A, or NEC-TREK.  It actually was released in November, 1981 in Japan.  Thus, you can see that this is really a very tiny detour to go back and pick up this machine.  It’s one I didn’t know about, honestly, and when I acquired a very clean, boxed version in the Great Barn Find of 2022, not only did I decide to keep the machine but also to cover it on Floppy Days.  I hope you can forgive me this minor detour off the path of covering the machines in the approx. order they were released.  I think you’ll find this machine interesting, as I did, and enjoy hearing about it.
This is the second episode of a 2-part arc on this machine, due to the amount of material we were able to pull together and length of time it took to go through it.  Last episode we covered history and tech specs (as well as a brief interview with my co-host), and this month we will cover the remaining usual topics.
With me this month again to provide the co-hosting duties will be Carlos Camacho.  Carlos lived in Japan for a while and has a great perspective on this line of computers, as well as a lot of experience and knowledge around Japanese computers in general, which I think you’ll find interesting.  The research he did on the PC-6000 line a few years ago was a tremendous help in pulling together information for this show.  At the end of the day, if you have an interest in acquiring anything for this platform, you’ll need the information that Carlos provides on how to navigate the Japanese vintage computer market.  I know I learned a ton from Carlos.
Very soon we’ll return to ZX Spectrum coverage.
As usual, I will also talk a bit about a few new acquisitions (beyond the barn find) that have come my way.  In addition, I’ll briefly tell you about upcoming shows of which I’m aware and share any feedback I’ve gotten.
I hope you enjoy the show!
Links Mentioned in the Show:
New Acquisitions
IBM PC5140 Display Adapter - http://ohlandl.ipv7.net/5140/5140.html#CRT_Display  Spectrum Machine Language for the Absolute Beginner by William Tang - https://amzn.to/3Y1p8rq  C128D JiffyDOS - https://store.go4retro.com/jiffydos-kernal-rom-overlay-ic/  Atari Fast BASIC - https://github.com/dmsc/fastbasic  Upcoming Computer Shows
VCF East 2023 - Apr 14-16, 2023 - InfoAge Science and History Museums, Wall, NJ - https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/  The Commodore Los Angeles Super Show - April 15-16, 2023 - Burbank VFW Hall, Burbank, CA - https://www.portcommodore.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=class:start  31st Annual “Last” CocoFest - April 22-23, 2023 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago, Carol Stream, IL - https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/  Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 29 & 30 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - https://indyclassic.org/  Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 24-25 - “Interim” Computer Museum, Seattle, WA - https://www.portcommodore.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=pacommex:start j KansasFest, the largest and longest running annual Apple II conference - July 18-23, 2023 - Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri - https://www.kansasfest.org/  Southern Fried Gaming Expo - July 28-30 2023 - Atlanta, GA - https://gameatl.com/  Portland Retro Gaming Expo

Please donate at: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays. 
Welcome to Floppy Days #121 for December, 2022.  And I’m your host, Randy Kindig.  Happy holidays to all!
We are currently covering the very productive year for home computers of 1982.  As regular listeners will know, we’ve been covering the ZX Spectrum and the myriad of information about that machine.  While we still have more information to cover, such as emulation, Web sites, and a lot more, we’re going to take a tiny step back and pick up coverage of a machine that I recently acquired and wanted to talk about, but which came out in very late 1981.  That machine is the Nippon Electric Company (NEC) PC-6001 and its US variation, the PC-6001A, or NEC-TREK.  It actually was released in November, 1981 in Japan.  So, you can see that this is really a very tiny detour to go back and pick up this machine.  It’s one I didn’t know about, honestly, and when I acquired a very clean, boxed version in the Great Barn Find of 2022, not only did I decide to keep the machine but also to cover it on Floppy Days.  I hope you can forgive me this minor detour off the path of covering the machines in the approx. order they were released.  I think you’ll find this machine interesting, as I did, and enjoy hearing about it.
With me this month to provide the co-hosting duties will be Carlos Camacho.  Carlos lived in Japan for a while and has a great perspective on this line of computers, as well as a lot of experience and knowledge around Japanese computers in general, which I think you’ll find interesting.  The research he did on the PC-6000 line a few years ago was a tremendous help in pulling together information for this show.
This will be a 2-part episode, due to the amount of material we were able to pull together and length of time it took to go through it.
After that, we’ll return to ZX Spectrum coverage.
As usual, I will also talk a bit about what I have been up to, including an update on the The Great Barn Find of 2022, as well as a few new acquisitions (beyond the barn find) that have come my way.  In addition, I’ll briefly tell you about upcoming shows of which I’m aware and share any feedback I’ve gotten.
Finally, while I usually abstain from talking about monetary support for this podcast, I do want to mention that I have a way for you to help if you have the  inclination.  I have a page set up at https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays where you can donate.  Any funds will be used to defray the cost of managing the podcast as well as acquiring new hardware to  talk about.  On that topic, I do intend to beef up the various Floppy Days offerings, including some additional content depending on the donation level at Patreon.  Look for that as soon as I’ve figured out what I want to offer and how to manage it.  I do want to send out a heart-felt thank you for everyone who has already contributed and continues to contribute!
I hope you enjoy the show!
Links Mentioned in the Show:
New Acquisitions
Tandy M100/T102 items from http://www.ArcadeShopper.com  Inside Commodore DOS by Richard Immers and Gerald G. Neufeld  The Personal Computer BASIC S Reference Manual by Donald A. Sordillo  An Introduction to Electronic Data Processing by Roger Nett and Stanley A Hetzler  Principles of Compiler Design by Alfred V. Aho and Jeffrey D. Ullman  A Comparative Study of Programming Languages by Bryan Higman  Assembly Language Programming for the IBM Personal Computer by David J. Bradley  Upcoming Computer Shows
VCF East 2023 - Apr 14-16, 2023 - InfoAge Science and History Museums, Wall, NJ - https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/  31st Annual “Last” CocoFest - April 22-23, 2023 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago, Carol Stream, IL - https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/  Indy Classics presented by Indy Vintage Computer Club - late April - near Indy airport - TBA Feedback
Byte High No Limit Podcast episode - https

Dontate at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays
Welcome to Floppy Days #120 for November, 2022.  And I’m your host, Randy Kindig.  I hope everyone is well.
We are currently covering the very productive year for home computers of 1982.  This episode is the continuation of a multi-episode arc that covers the Spectrum through all the usual topics.  I’m still unsure how many episodes we’re going to end up with in this arc.  There’s so much to talk about and so many knowledgeable people on the subject, that the Spectrum is probably going to set the illustrious Floppy Days record for the number of episodes about a single machine. This is the fifth of those, with the first having been the interview with John Grant of Nine Tiles, the second and third being coverage of the history of the Spectrum with Alessandro Grussu, and the fourth being the interview with the author of the terrific book “The ZX Spectrum Ula: How to Design a Microcomputer”; Mr. Chris Smith.
As I don’t know of anyone who knows more about the internals of this machine than Chris, as evidenced by his book, other than maybe the original designers, Chris continues to help me with this episode and we cover the tech specs of the Spectrum.
As usual, I will also talk a bit about what I have been up to, including an update on the The Great Barn Find of 2022, as well as a few new acquisitions (beyond the barn find) that have come my way.  In addition, I’ll briefly tell you about upcoming shows of which I’m aware and share any feedback I’ve gotten.
Finally, while I usually abstain from talking about monetary support for this podcast, I do want to mention that I have a way for you to help if you have the  inclination.  I have a page set up at https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays where you can donate.  Any funds will be used to defray the cost of managing the podcast as well as acquiring new hardware to  talk about.  On that topic, I do intend to beef up the various Floppy Days offerings, including some additional content depending on the donation level at Patreon.  Look for that as soon as I’ve figured out what I want to offer and how to manage it.  I do want to send out a heart-felt thank you for everyone who has already contributed and continues to contribute!
Before we get started, I want to apologize for the lateness of this episode.  It’s being published a couple days into December due to my son having been in the hospital the past week.  However, I’m happy to report that he’s home now and I’m delighted to be able to get this to you now.  I hope you enjoy it.
Links Mentioned in the Show:
Upcoming Shows
World of Commodore = Dec. 3-4. - Mississauga, Ontario, Canada - https://www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodore/world-of-commodore-2022 - Virtual and Physical! VCF East 2023 - Apr 14-16, 2023 - InfoAge Science and History Museums, Wall, NJ - https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/  Indy Classics presented by Indy Vintage Computer Club - late April - near Indy airport Feedback
Josh Renaud blog - https://breakintochat.com/blog/2022/11/26/bringing-dry-bones-back-to-life-the-kirschen-software-collection/  Tech Specs
The ZX Spectrum Ula: How to Design a Microcomputer (ZX Design Retro Computer) Illustrated Edition by Christopher David Smith (Author) - https://www.amazon.com/ZX-Spectrum-Ula-Microcomputer-Computer/dp/0956507107 

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays 
Welcome to Floppy Days #119 for October, 2022.  And I’m your host, Randy Kindig.  I hope everyone is safe and sound...
We are currently covering the prolific year (for home computers) of 1982.  This episode is the continuation of a multi-episode arc that covers the Spectrum through all the usual topics.  I don’t even know yet how many episodes we’re going to end up in this arc.  There’s so much to talk about and so many knowledgeable people on the subject, that the Spectrum is probably going to set the illustrious Floppy Days records for the number of episodes about a single machine. This is the fourth of those, with the first having been the interview with John Grant of Nine Tiles, and the second and third being coverage of the history of the Spectrum with Alessandro Grussu.
In this episode, I talk with the author of the wonderful book “The ZX Spectrum Ula: How to Design a Microcomputer”; Mr. Chris Smith.  I don’t know of anyone who knows more about the internals of this machine than Chris, as evidenced by his book, other than maybe the original designers.  In this episode, I interview Chris about him, his book, his collection and other topics.
As usual, I will talk a bit about what I have been up to, including an update on the The Great Barn Find of 2022, attendance at a computer show, as well as a few new acquisitions (beyond the barn find) that have come my way.  In addition, I’ll briefly tell you about upcoming shows of which I’m aware.
Finally, while I usually abstain from talking about monetary support for this podcast, I do want to mention that I have a way for you to help if you have the  inclination.  I have a page set up at https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays where you can donate.  Any funds will be used to defray the cost of managing the podcast as well as acquiring new hardware to  talk about.  Thank you so much everyone who has contributed and continues to contribute!
Links Mentioned in the Show:
New Acquisitions and What I’ve Been Up To
Apple GS monitor connector for CoCo - Mike Rojas, Facebook - (https://www.facebook.com/commerce/listing/392874865780089/?ref=share_attachment)  GFA BASIC - http://gfabasic.net/  “GFA BASIC Training Reboot Camp - A Beginning Tutorial for the GFA BASIC Interpreter” - https://docs.dev-docs.org/  “GFA BASIC Book - An intermediate programming tutorial for GFA BASIC” - https://docs.dev-docs.org/  GFA BASIC Atari Reference Manual  Tandy Assembly - http://www.tandyassembly.com  Vintage is the New Old with Paulo Garcia - https://www.vintageisthenewold.com/  Jeff Birt’s Website at Tindie - https://www.tindie.com/stores/hey_birt/ Upcoming Shows
Chicago TI International Worlds Faire = Oct. 29, Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - http://chicagotiug.sdf.org/faire/  World of Commodore = Dec. 3-4. - Mississauga, Ontario, Canada - https://www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodore/world-of-commodore-2022 - Virtual and Physical!  Interview with Chris Smith
The ZX Spectrum Ula: How to Design a Microcomputer (ZX Design Retro Computer) Illustrated Edition  Chris’ Web site - http://www.zxdesign.info/indexPage.shtml  Harlequin - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ZX_Spectrum_clones#Harlequin  ZX Spectrum 30-year Anniversary event - http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/news/23039/Celebrating-30-Years-of-the  MicroMen: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1459467/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIcAyFVK0gE 

“The Great Barn Find of 2022!”
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays 
Welcome to Floppy Days #118 for September, 2022.  And I’m your host, Randy Kindig.  I hope everyone is doing well..
I decided to take a 1-month break from the ZX Spectrum series of episodes, of which I’m currently in the midst, in order to talk about some other vintage computer activities with which I’ve been involved lately.  There has been a lot going on the vintage computer front for me, as well as some changes in my personal life that I wanted to share with all of you.  I apologize that you’re just going to hear my voice for the entire show, but I’ll make sure not to drone and try to keep it lively.
I will talk a bit about what I have been up to, an amazing barn find, attendance at the largest vintage computer show of the year, and an incredible computer museum adventure, as well as a few new acquisitions (beyond the barn find) that have come my way.  In addition, I’ll briefly tell you about upcoming shows of which I’m aware.
Next month, we’ll pick up where we left off with the Spectrum series.  I have some additional guest hosts lined up to really dive into topics like tech specs, peripherals, books, magazines, modern upgrades, Web sites, etc.  I think you’ll enjoy the remaining Spectrum topics and guests I have planned. 
Links Mentioned in the Show:
What I’ve Been Up To
VCFMW - http://vcfmw.org/  Kevin Ottum and his Nu-Brick company - https://www.facebook.com/commerce/listing/181163469893545  Jim Brain and his RetroInnovations company - http://go4retro.com  American Computer and Robotics Museum - https://acrmuseum.org/  Upcoming Shows
Portland Retro Gaming Expo = Oct. 14-16, Portland, OR - https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/  Chicago TI International Worlds Faire = Oct. 29, Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - http://chicagotiug.sdf.org/faire/  World of Commodore = first weekend of Dec. - https://www.tpug.ca/category/woc-posts/ NOT YET ANNOUNCED