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dekuNukem

749 karma · joined November 8, 2020

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dekuNukem··on Windows 2 for the Apricot PC/Xi
I really enjoy the brief period just after the release of IBM PC, where manufacturers could see where things were heading, but were still trying different things to set themselves apart.

Sirius 1 had the weird floppy drive and unusal high-res graphics. Apricot had Display-in-keyboard and compact form factors. Olivetti had charming italian design and the strange upside-down motherboard (when battery leaks it drips down instead of eating the PCB, talk about ahead of its time!)

All ran MS-DOS but not "PC compatible", so none of them really took off. Then everyone started to do 100% compatible clones, and it was a race to the bottom.

dekuNukem··on A note on the USB-to-PS/2 mouse adapter that came with Microsoft mouse devices
An active converter is needed to use modern USB on retro computers. I made one a few years ago for many different computers.

https://github.com/dekuNukem/USB4VC

There's also a more recent project called HIDman, but only for PCs.

https://github.com/rasteri/HIDman

dekuNukem··on Building a USB to Mac ADB keyboard adapter
However if you want to go the other way and use USB keyboards on ADB mac (and many others), check out my USB4VC project: https://github.com/dekuNukem/USB4VC
dekuNukem··on Pimp My BBC Micro
-5V has became optional in recent ATX specifications, and many newer PSUs don’t have it at all. (including the one I used here)

-12V is still mandated and on all ATX PSUs, so it’s more compatible to get -5V out of that.