Floppy Days Vintage Computing Podcast Randy Kindig

Episode 139 - Interview with Vic Tolomei, VP Software Development, Exidy
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays
Sponsors:
8-Bit Classics 
Arcade Shopper  
Hello, and welcome to episode 139 of the Floppy Days Podcast, for May, 2024.
This month I’m bringing you another interview episode; in the ongoing effort to document the story of Exidy and its Sorcerer computer.  I’ve already talked, in previous episodes, with Howell Ivy and Paul Terrell, both principals at Exidy and in the creation of the Sorcerer computer.  Those were quite popular episodes!  In this episode, I also tracked down Vic Tolomei, VP of Software Development at Exidy during that same time, and got his story.  If you want to know what it was like to lead a software development effort at that time, this is the interview for you!
Upcoming on the podcast, I have more interviews to share, as well as more hardware to cover.  I’m actually a few months ahead with developing content, which I guess is an advantage of being retired!
I've created some tiers for paid members and have come up with some ways to reward those who are generous enough to monetarily support the Floppy Days Podcast on Patreon.
First of all, all tiers ($2/month and up) will receive early access to companion videos for any interviews that are published. The audio will be published to Floppy Days immediately, as usual, while any video will be made available exclusively to all paid members for a period of time (at least 30 days) before the general public. The videos will be published for you on Patreon.com, and then moved to the Floppy Days YouTube channel after the exclusivity period is over.
Other benefits have been added for the tiers above the minimum $2 tiers, such as Floppy Days merchandise, an audio introduction for supporters, and even the option to co-host an episode!
It is my intention to always make all content available to everyone at no cost, while at the same time providing some benefits for those generous enough to support the podcast. I hope this is a good compromise.
Please let me know your thoughts. Enjoy!!
New Acquisitions
VTech Advantech IQ Unlimited - https://vtech.fandom.com/wiki/I.Q._Unlimited_Computerv 
A8PicoCart - https://github.com/robinhedwards/A8PicoCart 
M100/T102/T200 Dial-A-ROM - https://www.soigeneris.com/dial-a-rom-for-vintage-computers 
Upcoming Shows
Show list I maintain for the remainder of the current year - https://floppydays.libsyn.com/current-year-vintage-computer-show-schedule) 
CorgsCon (Columbus Ohio Retro Gaming Society) - June 1 - Kasich Hall – Ohio Expo Center, Columbus, OH - https://www.corgscon.com/ 
Game Not Over 2024 - June 8-9 - Dunstall Park Racecourse in Wolverhampton, U.K. - https://retro.directory/browse/events/326-game-not-over-2024 
VCF Southwest - June 14-16, 2024 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at UT Dallas - https://www.vcfsw.org/ 
Boatfest Retro Computer Expo - June 14-16 - Hurricane, WV - http://boatfest.info 
Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo - June 22 - New Westminster, BC, Canada - https://www.vancouvergamingexpo.com/index.html 
Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 22-23 - Old Rainier Brewery Intraspace, Seattle, WA - https://www.portcommodore.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=pacommex:start 
Kickstart Amiga UK Expo - June 29-30 - Nottingham, UK - https://www.amigashow.com/ 
KansasFest, the largest and longest running annual Apple II conference - July 16-21 (in-person), July 27-28 (virtual) - University of Illinois in Springfield, IL - https://www.kansasfest.org/ 
Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 19-21,  2024 - Atlanta, GA - https://gameatl.com/ 
Nottingham Video Game Expo - July 20-21 - The Belgrave Rooms, Nottingham, U.K. - https://www.nottsvge.com/ 
Fujiama - July 23-28 - Lengenfeld, Germany - http://atarixle.ddns.net/fuji/2024/  
Vintage Computer Festival West - August 2-3 - Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA - htt

Episode 138 - Interview with Hans Franke, VCF Europe and Computeum
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays
Sponsors:
8-Bit Classics 
Arcade Shopper  
Hello, and welcome to Episode 138 of the Floppy Days Podcast for April, 2024!  My name is Randy Kindig and I host this podcast about beautiful, obsolete, extremely interesting computers of 35 to 45 years ago, when computer diversity was abundant.
This episode is an interview show, where we talk with Hans Franke. Hans is very active in the classic computer community, being an organizer of the European Vintage Computer show AND curator of a computer museum!  We discuss both of these things with Hans and learn more about the vintage computer scene in Europe.
I actually have several interviews completed and queued up to publish.  So, while I continue to work on covering the next computer in the timeline, expect several interviews in the near term.  I won’t go into details, but these are great interviews that I think you will enjoy.
I also wanted to mention those listeners who appreciate the show enough to donate through patreon.com.   I really appreciate you guys and it helps offset the cost of running the podcast.
What I’ve Been Up To
Indy Classic Expo - http://www.indyclassic.org 
8-Bit Classics - http://www.8bitclassics.com 
80 column card for Atari 1090XL at Tindie from Brian Reifsnyder 
New Acquisitions
Coco MPI mention on an earlier episode (Episode 131) 
Cloud-9 - http://www.cloud9tech.com/ 
Texas Instruments TI58 & TI59 calculators coverage on an earlier episode (Episode 3) 
TI58/59 battery pack mod from Bob Wolfson 
2.4A power adapter for Atari XL/XE - https://www.8bitclassics.com/product/atari-xl-xe-2-4a-amp-power-adapter/ 
Upcoming Shows
The 32nd Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! - May 4-5, 2024 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago-Carol Stream (Wheaton), Carol Stream, Illinois - https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/ 
The Festival of Portable Computing - May 18-19 - Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England - https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72231/The-Festival-of-Portable-Computing-18th-19th-May-2024/ 
CorgsCon (Columbus Ohio Retro Gaming Society) - June 1 - Kasich Hall – Ohio Expo Center, Columbus, OH - https://www.corgscon.com/ 
Game Not Over 2024 - June 8-9 - Dunstall Park Racecourse in Wolverhampton, U.K. - https://retro.directory/browse/events/326-game-not-over-2024 
VCF Southwest - June 14-16, 2024 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at UT Dallas - https://www.vcfsw.org/ 
Boatfest Retro Computer Expo - June 14-16 - Hurricane, WV - http://boatfest.info 
Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo - June 22 - New Westminster, BC, Canada - https://www.vancouvergamingexpo.com/index.html 
Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 22-23 - Old Rainier Brewery Intraspace, Seattle, WA - https://www.portcommodore.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=pacommex:start 
Kickstart Amiga UK Expo - June 29-30 - Nottingham, UK - https://www.amigashow.com/ 
KansasFest, the largest and longest running annual Apple II conference - July 16-21 (in-person), July 27-28 (virtual) - University of Illinois in Springfield, IL - https://www.kansasfest.org/ 
Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 19-21,  2024 - Atlanta, GA - https://gameatl.com/ 
Nottingham Video Game Expo - July 20-21 - The Belgrave Rooms, Nottingham, U.K. - https://www.nottsvge.com/ 
Fujiama - July 23-28 - Lengenfeld, Germany - http://atarixle.ddns.net/fuji/2024/  
Vintage Computer Festival West - August 2-3 - Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA - https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-west/  
VCF Midwest - September 7-8 - Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - http://vcfmw.org/ 
VCF Europe - September 7-8 - Munich, Germany - https://vcfe.org/E/ 
Portland Retro Gaming Expo - September 27-29 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - https://retrogamingexpo.co

Post-VCF SoCal 2024 with Paul Nurminen
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays
Sponsors:
8-Bit Classics 
Arcade Shopper  
0 Floppy Days Tune
1 min 13 sec Vintage Computer Ads
1 min 43 sec Intro
2 min 53 sec bumper - Paul Nurminen
3 min 00 sec Discussion with Paul Nurminen
1 hr 20 min 00 sec Closing
Hello, and welcome to episode 137 of the Floppy Days Podcast.  I’m Randy Kindig, the host of this show.  This episode is an adjunct to and follow up to the last episode (#136) of Floppy Days.  In that episode, which covered the Grundy New Brain, I alluded to the fact that in the “What I’ve Been Up To” section of the podcast, I was going to publish a separate episode just for that.  I did that because I don’t like to have episodes over about 90 minutes, and having this segment in that show would have pushed it well beyond that.
So, for this episode I enlisted the aid of Paul Nurminen (aka Nurmix), who was also an attendee and exhibitor/vendor at the recent Vintage Computer Festival Southern California, to help me do a follow up discussion of that show.  We discuss our exhibits, other exhibits of note, our general thoughts about the show, and a whole lot more.
I hope you enjoy this.
Links
VCF SoCal - https://www.vcfsocal.com/ 
 Intellivisionaries Podcast - http://intellivisionaries.com/ 
White Flag Computing - https://www.whiteflagcomputing.com 
Episode 83 of Floppy Days about the Intellivision Keyboard Component with Paul Nurminen - https://floppydays.libsyn.com/floppy-days-83-the-intellivision-keyboard-component 
1090XL expansion unit and 320K RAM board - reifsnyderb 
Discussion - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/333084-swutils-simcheck-simtest-osdump/ 
Purchase - https://www.tindie.com/products/5cfab/1090xl-modernized-reproduction-main-board/ 
The VintNerd - https://thevintnerd.com/index.html 
Mega65 - https://mega65.org/ 
10-Minute Amiga Retro Cast - https://www.youtube.com/c/10MinuteAmigaRetroCast 
Aquarius+ computer - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/352635-introducing-the-aquarius/ 

Grundy NewBrain Peripherals thru Web Sites with Chris Despoinidis
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays
Sponsors:
8-Bit Classics 
Arcade Shopper  
0 Floppy Days Tune
1 min 13 sec Vintage Computer Ads
1 min 42 sec Intro
5 min 17 sec bumper - Chris Espoinidis
5 min 28 sec New Acquisitions
6 min 33 sec bumper - Gerald McMullon
7 min 16 sec Upcoming Computer Shows
12 min 01 sec bumper - Steve O’Hara-Smith
12 min 27 sec Peripherals
22 min 37 sec Using the Machine
33 min 14 sec User Groups/Newsletters
38 min 36 sec Books & Manuals
41 min 47 sec Software
44 min 11 sec Ads
46 min 45 sec Modern Upgrades
51 min 43 sec Emulation
59 min 07 sec Buying One Today
1 hr 02 min 52 sec Community
1 hr 04 min 50 sec Current Web Sites and Videos
1 hr 12 min 45 sec Closing
Hello, and welcome to episode 136 of the Floppy Days Podcast.  I’m Randy Kindig, the host of this show, and I’ll be your guide to a journey back to the year 1982, when a very interesting, low-cost machine entered the market in Great Britain.  This is the final episode on the Grundy New Brain, not a well-known machine, most particularly here in the United States where very few have even heard of it; let alone ever owned one.
If you want to know more, I’ve recently published interviews with John Grant, Steve O’Hara-Smith, and Gerald McMullon concerning their involvement with the New Brain back in the day.  I also, in the most recent episode, discussed tech specs around the machine with my co-host.
Regarding that, in that last episode, to help me talk about the machine, I enlisted Chris Espoinidis to co-host this episode.  Chris manages the New Brain Emulator site from his home in Greece.  Even though Chris created one of the premier New Brain emulators in existence, and that was the primary focus of his Web site initially, his site has become one of the best places (along with Gerald McMullon’s Website) to get any and all New Brain information (which quite honestly is quite sparse).
The focus of this last episode detailing the machine, Chris and I will cover things like peripherals, Web sites, books & magazines, software, using the machine, emulators and all of the topics that have become the standard for machine coverage on Floppy Days.  This episode will complete all the details we know on the New Brain, with the intent to impart every bit of information to you that I could find about this little-known machine.
Before we do that, I will talk about upcoming shows.
Upcoming Shows
Interim Computer Festival SPRING - March 23rd and 24th, 2024 - Intraspace, Seattle, WA - https://sdf.org/icf/ 
Midwest Gaming Classic - April 5-7 - Wisconsin Center, Milwaukee, WI - https://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/ 
VCF East - April 12-14, 2024 - Wall, NJ - http://www.vcfed.org 
Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 13-14 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - https://indyclassic.org/ 
The Commodore Los Angeles Super Show - April 13-14 - Burbank VFW Hall, Burbank, CA - https://www.portcommodore.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=class:start  
VCF Europa - April 27-28, 2024 - Munich, Germany - https://vcfe.org/E/ 
The 32nd Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! - May 4-5, 2024 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago-Carol Stream (Wheaton), Carol Stream, Illinois - https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/ 
VCF Southwest - June 14-16, 2024 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at UT Dallas - https://www.vcfsw.org/ 
Boatfest Retro Computer Expo - June 14-16 - Hurricane, WV - http://boatfest.info 
Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 22-23 - Old Rainier Brewery Intraspace, Seattle, WA - https://www.portcommodore.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=pacommex:start 
Kickstart Amiga UK Expo - June 29-30 - Nottingham, UK - https://www.amigashow.com/ 
Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 19-21,  2024 - Atlanta, GA - https://gameatl.com/ 
VCF Midwest - September 7-8 - NEW VENUE TBD - http://vcfmw.org/ 

Grundy NewBrain Tech Specs with Chris Despoinidis
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays
Sponsors:
8-Bit Classics 
Arcade Shopper  
0 Floppy Days Tune
1 min 14 sec Vintage Computer Ads
1 min 43 sec Intro
5 min 38 sec bumper - Chris Espoinidis
5 min 51 sec New Acquisitions
16 min 32 sec bumper - Gerald McMullon
17 min 15 sec Upcoming Computer Shows
21 min 26 sec bumper - Steve O’Hara-Smith
21 min 45 sec Interview with Chris Espoinidis
36 min 23 sec Tech Specs
1 hr 12 min 07 sec Closing
Hello, and welcome to episode 135 of the Floppy Days Podcast.  I’m Randy Kindig, the host of this show, and I’ll be your guide to a journey back to the year 1982, when a very interesting, low-cost machine entered the market in Great Britain.  This machine, if you've been following the show, was the Grundy New Brain.  This is not a well-known machine, most particularly here in the United States where very few have even heard of it; let alone ever owned one.
As you know, I’ve been hot on the trail of pioneers who were involved with development of this machine.  I’ve recently published interviews with John Grant, Steve O’Hara-Smith, and Gerald McMullon concerning their involvement with the New Brain back in the day.
In this episode I move more into discussing details of the machine and its impact on the home and small business market in the 1980’s.  To help me talk about the machine, I was able to track down Chris Espoinidis and convince him to co-host this episode.  Chris manages the New Brain Emulator site from his home in Greece.  Even though Chris created one of the premier New Brain emulators in existence, and that was the primary focus of his Web site initially, his site has become one of the best places (along with Gerald McMullon’s Website) to get any and all New Brain information (which quite honestly is quite sparse).
The focus of this episode, and the next, is to cover things like tech specs, Web sites, emulators and all of the topics that have become the standard for machine coverage on Floppy Days.  This particular episode contains an interview with Chris, and then goes into great detail concerning the technical specifications of the New Brain.  The next episode will cover all the other details, with the intent to impart every bit of information to you that I could find about this little-known machine.
Before we do that, I will talk about new acquisitions and upcoming shows.
 

VCF SoCal 2024 Preview with Organizing Team
Hello, and welcome to this bonus, interview-only episode of the Floppy Days Podcast.  My name is Randy Kindig; your host.  This episode is a discussion with most of the organizing team around the very first Vintage Computer Festival 2024 that is coming up February 17 & 18 in Orange, CA.  You’ll hear how the show came about, why the particular location and time were selected, and what you can expect to see at the show.  I’m excited to have a new VCF available in an area and time that should be fantastic to visit and be a part of.
Note that this interview occurred on Dec. 5, 2023, and you’ll hear several references to the show being “2 and a half months” away.
Links
VCF SoCal Website - https://www.vcfsocal.com/ 
VCF SoCal Organizers - https://www.vcfsocal.com/faq#organizers 
The VintNerd Website (Steve and Micki) - https://thevintnerd.com/index.html 
The VintNerd YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/thevintnerd 
Matt’s YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@polymatt 
Pathways to Invention Film (Levi) - https://pathwaystoinvention.org/ 
Southern AMIS Projects (Rob) - https://www.southernamis.com/ 
Video version of this interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y2zfRP8kyE&t=9s