No Source Code? No Problem(queue.acm.org)
45 points by ibobev | 33 comments
A 2003 ACM Queue article by Peter and George Phillips on emulating or translating legacy binaries, such as arcade game ROMs, when source code is unavailable.
#retrocomputing on Hacker News
63 stories tagged retrocomputing, newest first.
Recreate the Apollo Guidance Computer(raspberrypi.com)
49 points by Brajeshwar | 5 comments
Raspberry Pi blog post on Michael Newton's Recreate Apollo project, a 3D-printed 1:1 DSKY replica running the Virtual AGC emulator on a Raspberry Pi.
ThinkPad I9990303 Error Catch-22(os2museum.com)
33 points by userbinator | 5 comments
OS/2 Museum blog post on fixing a ThinkPad 750C I9990303 error by patching IBM's BIOS flash utility to bypass power management checks and reflash corrupted firmware.
The Annotated VT100 Firmware (2022)(vt100.net)
65 points by Aleksandr_NFA | 3 comments
An annotated disassembly of the original 8 KiB DEC VT100 terminal firmware, with sections on methodology, bugs and oddities, and an 8080 coverage checker.
VMMouse for NT 3.x: QEMU/VMware mouse integration driver(github.com)
40 points by kiyouta | 8 comments
GitHub repository for an MIT-licensed QEMU/VMware mouse integration driver for Windows NT 3.x, written in C with Docker-based build and ISO installer.
Refurb weekend II: Alpha Micro Eagle 300 and friends(oldvcr.blogspot.com)
17 points by classichasclass | 1 comments
Old VCR blog post on refurbishing an Alpha Micro Eagle 300, a 68EC030-based multiuser AMOS system, and related Alpha Micro machines.
Bark: The Toll-Free BBS for 90s Teens(blog.bityard.net)
38 points by bityard | 10 comments
A personal blog post recalling BARK, a toll-free bulletin board system for teenagers in the 1990s, and the author's early online communities.
BeBox is a Haiku application that emulates Be Inc.'s BeBox(github.com)
79 points by rguiscard | 25 comments
GitHub repository for BeBox, a Haiku-native emulator of Be Inc.'s PowerPC and Hobbit-based BeBox computers, released under the MIT license.
Laptop Based on 6502 CPU(maddox.pro)
184 points by nanochess | 94 comments
A personal tech blog post describing a homebrew laptop built around the 6502 CPU; the captured view shows only the blog header and archives.
The Commodore 64 hardware simulator: break chips and pins, see the results(github.com)
219 points by antirez | 34 comments
GitHub repository for antirez's c64-hw-simulator, a pin-level Commodore 64 hardware simulator that lets users break chips and pins and observe the results.
16-bit fully functional DIY magnetic core memory(youtube.com)
58 points by oliculipolicula | 18 comments
A YouTube video from Japanese channel dydt製作所 demonstrating a DIY, fully functional tiny 16-bit magnetic core memory board built with 1970s East German cores.
Writing a Demoscene Intro for the ZX Spectrum(markround.com)
169 points by zdw | 35 comments
Blog post describing the tools, techniques and challenges of writing a retro-style demoscene crack intro for the 128K ZX Spectrum.
Atari Falcon(atarimuseum.nl)
53 points by debo_ | 17 comments
Atari Museum NL page about the Atari Falcon030, Atari Corporation's final computer, with a 68030 CPU and 56000 DSP, released 1992 and cancelled 1993.
A font recreated from photographs of classic Commodore 64 keycaps(github.com)
380 points by sohkamyung | 62 comments
GitHub repository for a photo-based reconstruction of Commodore 64 keycap lettering, providing desktop fonts, a webfont, editable outlines, and a specimen.
La Cueva BBS in Mexico in 1993 (session replay)(nanochess.org)
61 points by nanochess | 22 comments
Óscar Toledo G.'s blog post replaying a 1993 terminal session on La Cueva de Atari BBS, a dial-up bulletin board in Mexico.
Resurrecting iChat Audio and Video Conferencing(blog.pipetogrep.org)
99 points by thepipetogrep | 33 comments
A personal blog post by Chris Jones on getting Apple's discontinued iChat audio and video conferencing working again.
Borland Turbo Basic(dosdays.co.uk)
92 points by sssilver | 50 comments
DOS Days page on the history of Borland's Turbo BASIC, a BASIC compiler for MS-DOS that started as BASIC/Z by Bob Zale and later became PowerBASIC.
More like SC-Forth-thousand, am I right?(leadedsolder.com)
13 points by stevekemp | 1 comments
A Leaded Solder blog post about writing a custom Forth implementation for the Soggy-1000, a Sega SG-1000/SC-3000 compatible homebrew computer, for RetroChallenge.
Floppy Emu Hardware Failure Analysis Results(bigmessowires.com)
44 points by zdw | 9 comments
A Big Mess o' Wires blog post reporting the results of a hardware failure analysis of the Floppy Emu disk emulator for classic Apple computers.
NAND-16: a computer built from 277,248 NAND gates(somethingbig.ai)
152 points by rossant | 90 comments
Interactive 3D web simulation of NAND-16, a 16-bit computer built entirely from 277,248 NAND gates, with zoomable gate-level view and running programs like Tetris and Snake.
Digital Audio on the ZX Spectrum's 1-Bit Beeper(bumbershootsoft.wordpress.com)
54 points by ibobev | 15 comments
A Bumbershoot Software blog post explaining how to play high-quality digital audio through the ZX Spectrum's 1-bit beeper, concluding a series on the platform.
KICKI: a DECsystem1060(icm.museum)
24 points by rbanffy | 3 comments
A computer museum blog post about KICKI, a DECsystem-1060 (PDP-10) machine, shown with a photo of its front console panel.
Ask HN: Who's still keeping a DOS machine up because the business depends on it?
233 points by mlaux | 240 comments
Ask HN post asking who still runs DOS machines, ISA-card instruments, or dongle-protected software for business, for research on keeping them running on modern hardware.
Amiga Screens: A Primer(datagubbe.se)
131 points by msephton | 39 comments
A blog essay explaining how Amiga screens work, covering the OCS graphics hardware, differing resolutions per screen, and draggable screens in Workbench.
Z80 REPL (2018)(abagames.github.io)
150 points by adunk | 18 comments
A browser-based interactive Z80 assembly REPL that executes typed instructions and displays memory and register state.
Web-based IBM 1620 emulator and IPL-V from 1963(github.com)
47 points by abrax3141 | 12 comments
GitHub repository for a web-based emulator and operating environment for the IBM 1620 Model 2 computer, including IPL-V sample programs.
16-bit Intel 8088 chip (c. 1985)(allpoetry.com)
119 points by rbanffy | 15 comments
An allpoetry.com page for the poem "16-bit Intel 8088 chip"; the capture shows only a Cloudflare security verification screen.
Making portable my unportable transputer C compiler(nanochess.org)
58 points by nanochess | 8 comments
Oscar Toledo G. describes recovering his late-1990s transputer C compiler from a floppy disk and making its code portable to modern compilers.
User Interfaces of the Demo Scene(datagubbe.se)
408 points by zdw | 70 comments
A blog article from datagubbe.se exploring the peculiar user interfaces of tools built by the demo scene, mostly for the Amiga.
Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail(fabiensanglard.net)
823 points by vinhnx | 213 comments
Fabien Sanglard's blog post cataloguing every computer and piece of software visible in the movie Jurassic Park, starting with an Apple PowerBook 100.
Tiny Emulators(floooh.github.io)
327 points by naves | 28 comments
Tiny Emus is a gallery of browser-based 8-bit computer emulators, including KC85 systems and visual chip simulations, by floooh.
I’ve built a virtual museum with nearly every operating system you can think of(virtualosmuseum.org)
912 points by andreww591 | 201 comments
The Virtual OS Museum is a Linux VM for QEMU, VirtualBox, or UTM bundling 1,700+ pre-installed historical and modern operating systems running under emulation.
Screenshots of Old Desktop OSes(typewritten.org)
629 points by adunk | 330 comments
A media gallery from the Typewritten Software retrotechnology lab showing screen captures of vintage desktop operating systems like VisiCorp Visi On and SunTools.
1-Bit Hokusai's "The Great Wave" (2023)(hypertalking.com)
581 points by stephen-hill | 90 comments
A blog post describing recreating Hokusai's "The Great Wave" as 1-bit pixel art at 512x342 on vintage Macintosh hardware using Aldus SuperPaint.
Windows 9x Subsystem for Linux(social.hails.org)
960 points by sohkamyung | 227 comments
A Mastodon post by @hailey on social.hails.org about a Windows 9x Subsystem for Linux project; the page did not render any content.
Archive of BYTE magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975(archive.org)
561 points by DamnInteresting | 147 comments
Internet Archive scan of BYTE magazine issue #1 from September 1975, viewable in an online book reader.
I ported Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii(bryankeller.github.io)
1847 points by blkhp19 | 314 comments
A developer blog post describing how the author ported Mac OS X 10.0.4 to run natively on the Nintendo Wii's PowerPC hardware.
LT6502: A 6502-based homebrew laptop(github.com)
398 points by classichasclass | 207 comments
GitHub repository for LT6502, an open-source 6502-based homebrew laptop design with case files, schematics, and software.
Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle(dmitrybrant.com)
793 points by zdw | 251 comments
Dmitry Brant's blog post about reverse engineering and bypassing a decades-old parallel-port copy protection dongle for legacy software.
Booting from a vinyl record (2020)(boginjr.com)
338 points by yesturi | 113 comments
A blog post describing how the author made a PC boot from a vinyl record played on a record player, as an alternative to disks, network, or USB.
Show HN: Z80-μLM, a 'Conversational AI' That Fits in 40KB(github.com)
457 points by quesomaster9000 | 101 comments
GitHub repository for Z80-μLM, a 2-bit quantized character-level language model that runs as a 40KB CP/M .COM binary on a Z80 processor.
IDEs we had 30 years ago and lost (2023)(blogsystem5.substack.com)
534 points by AlexeyBrin | 478 comments
Blog post by Julio Merino examining the text-mode IDEs of the late 1980s and early 1990s on DOS and comparing them to today's development tools.
Doom crash after 2.5 years of real-world runtime confirmed on real hardware(lenowo.org)
426 points by minki_the_avali | 184 comments
A forum post on LenOwO describing how the original DOOM engine crashed after running for 2.5 years on real hardware due to an ever-incrementing demo variable.
Finding a 27-year-old easter egg in the Power Mac G3 ROM(downtowndougbrown.com)
374 points by zdw | 109 comments
Blog post by Doug Brown describing his discovery of an undocumented easter egg hidden in the Power Macintosh G3 ROM using Hex Fiend.
Evertop: E-ink IBM XT clone with 100+ hours of battery life(github.com)
524 points by harryvederci | 168 comments
GitHub repository for Evertop, an open-source E-ink IBM XT clone with solar power, ultra-low power consumption, and very long battery life.
A note on the USB-to-PS/2 mouse adapter that came with Microsoft mouse devices(devblogs.microsoft.com)
349 points by luu | 122 comments
Raymond Chen's The Old New Thing post explaining how the passive USB-to-PS/2 adapter bundled with Microsoft mice worked, with the mouse handling both protocols.
iMac G4(K)(jcs.org)
394 points by ingve | 156 comments
Blog post by Joshua Stein about putting an M4 Mac Mini inside a vintage iMac G4 enclosure, inspired by an Action Retro video.
1972 Unix V2 "Beta" Resurrected(tuhs.org)
407 points by henry_flower | 125 comments
A TUHS mailing list post describing the recovery of a working 1972 UNIX V2 "beta" system from Dennis Ritchie's s1/s2 DECtapes.
The capacitor that Apple soldered incorrectly at the factory(downtowndougbrown.com)
488 points by zdw | 220 comments
Blog post investigating whether Apple installed a capacitor backwards at the factory in the Macintosh LC III and Performa 450-467, analyzing the circuit.
Linux/4004: booting Linux on Intel 4004 for fun, art, and no profit(dmitry.gr)
517 points by dmitrygr | 136 comments
Dmitry Grinberg's project page describing booting Debian Linux on a custom board powered by a 1971 Intel 4004 4-bit microprocessor via MIPS emulation.
A modern 8 bit design, built using 1950s thermionic valves(valve.computer)
387 points by cenazoic | 70 comments
Project site for Valve.Computer, a modern 8-bit computer design built from 1950s thermionic valves, with technical and art sections.
1/25-scale Cray C90 wristwatch(chrisfenton.com)
361 points by akkartik | 60 comments
Chris Fenton's blog post describing his build of a 1/25-scale replica of the Cray C90 supercomputer made into a wristwatch.
MicroMac, a Macintosh for under £5(axio.ms)
784 points by als0 | 122 comments
Blog post describing MicroMac, a project that emulates a classic Macintosh 128K on a low-cost microcontroller for under £5.
How to copy a file from a 30-year-old laptop(unterminated.com)
551 points by tfvlrue | 257 comments
A personal blog post describing how the author transferred files off a 1994 Apple PowerBook Duo 280c laptop.
PumpkinOS, a Re-Implementation of PalmOS(github.com)
379 points by rickcarlino | 120 comments
GitHub repository for PumpkinOS, a GPL-3.0 licensed open-source re-implementation of the PalmOS operating system.
IDEs we had 30 years ago(blogsystem5.substack.com)
613 points by titaniumtown | 526 comments
Blog post by Julio Merino examining the text-mode IDEs of the late 1980s and early 1990s and comparing them with today's development tools.
As I retire, my goal now is to release 40+ years of source code(dunfield.themindfactory.com)
1180 points by elvis70 | 302 comments
Dave Dunfield's source code download page releasing 40+ years of his software, including kernels, OSes, tools, and disassemblers, upon his retirement.
Why does trying to break into the NT 3.1 kernel reboot my 486DX4 machine?(retrocomputing.stackexchange.com)
402 points by segfaultbuserr | 96 comments
Retrocomputing Stack Exchange question about why breaking into the Windows NT 3.1 kernel debugger reboots a 486DX4 Compaq ProSignia machine.
2,200 forgotten vintage computers from a barn in Massachusetts(vice.com)
385 points by zhte415 | 80 comments
Vice article about 2,200 unused vintage NABU personal computers being recovered from a barn in Massachusetts.
Windows NT on 600MHz machine opens apps instantly. What happened?(twitter.com)
559 points by dceddia | 509 comments
Tweet by Julio Merino showing a video of a ~2000-era 600MHz PC running Windows NT 3.51 and opening apps very quickly.
1-Bit Hokusai’s ”The Great Wave”(hypertalking.com)
337 points by scraplab | 65 comments
Blog post about recreating Hokusai's The Great Wave as 1-bit pixel art at original Macintosh 512x342 resolution using vintage Macs and SuperPaint 3.0.
RePalm(dmitry.gr)
483 points by p_l | 139 comments
Dmitry Grinberg's project write-up on rePalm, an unauthorized port of PalmOS to new hardware, covering PalmOS architecture, ROM formats, DALs and drivers.