My Apple Lisa 2

Posted on August 27, 2006 by Blake Patterson

It’s nearly September, and we’re headed to the Outer Banks, NC for a week at the beach in a few days. We took the same trip last year – actually, we arrived on the first day of Katrina. It was an odd and somber thing, enjoying the sunny weather outside on our vacation and coming in to watch the latest horrors taking place just a few thousand miles around the coast, in the Gulf. At any rate, besides enjoying the sun and watching the news, I was also negotiating the refurbishment and purchase of an Apple Lisa 2 computer, over e-mail down at the local WiFi-equipped coffee shop.

Apple Lisa 2

And, yes, it took me a full year to get the pics online.

While this is not one of the elusive and highly valuable original Lisas employing a set of the curious Twiggy 5.25″ floppy drives, it is an interesting piece of computing technology. And it may have started life as an original Lisa; Apple offered Lisa owners upgrades to the 3.5″ floppy-based Lisa 2, and most users took advantage. The first commercial computer with a graphical user interface, it’s a most interesting machine with a most interesting history.

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Apple Newton Trumps Microsoft Origami Device

Posted on August 12, 2006 by Blake Patterson

CNET UK recently ran a rather interesting head-to-head showdown, deathmatch, cage-fight comparison between the much touted (by Microsoft) Ultra-Mobile PC (codename “Origami”) and the 10 year old Newton MessagePad 2000 from Apple.

The particular UMPC used in the comparison was the Samsung Q1. It debuted this year and features a true-color 800×480 touchscreen display, 1.8″ hard drive, Ethernet, Bluetooth, and more, all powerd by a 900MHz Celeron and running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 (say that five times fast). The Newton in question features a 320×480 greyscale touchscreen display, two PCMCIA slots, and Flash RAM storage, all powered by a 162MHz StrongARM processor and running NewtonOS. It’s a simpler device. And sometimes simpler is better.

Becuase the 10 year old Newton beat down the UMPC.

In the 8-round battle, the Newton and the UMPC both showed their strengths and weaknesses, but it was the Newton’s 30-hour battery life (twelve times that of the UMCP) and overall stability that set it ahead. It’s quite a nod to the Newton Group to see that the MessagePad is still quite usable today. I’m pleased to have not long ago become reacquainted with my trusty MessagePad 2100.

Recommended reading for those interested: Defying Gravity: The Making of Newton

Posted in Handhelds | Leave a comment

GP2X From GamePark Holdings: Retro Heaven

Posted on July 30, 2006 by Blake Patterson

I’ve recently stumbled onto what may be the most densely packed piece of retro computing goodness that can be found anywhere: the GP2X personal entertainment player from GamePark Holdings. In brief, it’s a handheld game/media machine based on a dual-core 200MHz ARM9-based CPU (soft-clockable up to around 250MHz) that sports a 3.5-inch 320×240 pixel color LCD screen and runs Linux with a simple, graphical menu system on top. Its chipset contains a 2D blitter (a help with games) and a hardware MPEG decoder, allowing the unit to playback MPEG4, XVID, DIVX, and WMV files of up to 720×480 at 30fps. It has a built-in audio player that supports MP3 and OGG files, with WMA on the way. It even has s-video / stereo TV out. All powered by two AA batteries.

The GP2X is an open system that comes with the dev kit CD right in the box, a fact that has brought it much support from the developer community, including a good number of original as well as ported games (DOOM, Quake, Nethack, etc.). But the real value here is the GP2X’s prowess at oldschool emulation; a wide variety of emulators have been ported to the platform. The list of supported systems is long and ranges from the the C64 and Atari 800 to the Amiga and Atari ST with the Playstation even finding support on the GP2X. Full MAME support puts over 1,100 games in your pocket, as well. A brief ad video provides a quick glimpse of what’s possible.

I purchsed my GP2X bundle from Play-Asia and paid $169 USD for the main unit. Despite recent preoccupations, I’ve spent a good deal of free time recently setting up various emulators and ROMs collections on the 2GB SD card I’ve got in the unit. So far emulation of these systems is up and running on my GP2X:

    Amiga, Atari 800, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Apple IIe, TI-99/4A, Colecovision, Gameboy / Gameboy Color, Odyssey 2, Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, Atari Lynx, Atari 7800, MAME, NeoGeo, and Super Nintendo

The great majority run smooth and at full speed. I download another emulator every day or so, it seems. It’s great fun reliving old memories of early 80’s gaming as well as getting familiar with classic systems I’d never really played with before, such as the Sinclair Spectrum. It’s the most vintage computing fun I’ve had in a long while, and I really hope that the word gets out about this great machine – the more users out there, the richer the software base will become.

Why not grab one, yourself? See this lengthy review full of photos to learn more, or visit these GP2X forums to meet the community and ask a few questions.

Posted in Handhelds | 12 Comments

Apple II Game Server

Posted on July 24, 2006 by Blake Patterson

As regular readers may be aware, one of my first machines was an Apple //c. I sold my TI-99/4A and got a //c in April or May of 1984. I was 11. I have particularly fond memories of it and over the years I’ve owned a variety of other Apple IIs and presently have an accelerated IIgs at home and a //c in the office. The II was really my 8-bit experience.

Given my fondndess for the II, I do worry about my library of 5.25″ floppies, most of which are over 20 years old. Only a few have failed, but finding floppies in really good condition is getting harder and harder. That’s why I was so happy to come upon the Apple II Game Server. The Apple II Game Server is a Java (v1.5) application that allows you to send games from a Mac or PC directly to an Apple II by way of a serial null-modem cable. No other hardware required. (See pics at the project’s old homepage.)

Once you get the Apple II accepting input from its serial port, the Java application takes over and spends about 15 seconds “typing in” the loader program which, when executed, establishes the datalink and presents the program chooser interface on said Apple II. For most of your library, floppies can be completely taken out of the picture. An excellent show of support for the retro scene by author Brendan Robert, self proclaimed Geek and Code Slinger.

Apple II Forever!

Posted in Apple II | 2 Comments

Baby On Board

Posted on July 14, 2006 by Blake Patterson

Been a couple months since my last post – not that I normally post here daily or anything. “Why the hiatus,” do you ask? The answer is that my wife and I just had a baby! Our daughter came into the world on May 3rd, just after midnight. Our first child. Her name is Rory. She came by emergency C-section about six weeks early, but has been doing just fine from day one. And of course, there’re pics of her. She’s great, as you can see. :-)

But down to business – do chime in as to which vintage computer you folks out there think I should start her on. Something super simple like an Atari 2600 at first? Or right to a home computer like an Apple II or C64? It’s not as if I can just set her up with a modern PC or Mac and allow her to miss “the journey.” And at what age?

So much to organize, so little time!

Posted in Just Rambling | 6 Comments

Running OPENSTEP on my Intel-based Mac

Posted on April 22, 2006 by Blake Patterson

As most reading this are likely aware, Apple has begun transitioning the Mac to the Intel processor. The processor used by most of the new Intel-based Macs, the Core Duo, supports virtualization technology which is utilized by software such as Parallels Workstation to allow many x86 operating systems to run at basically “full speed” from within Mac OS X. Windows and Linux are the first operating systems that jump to mind for most people when considering this capability. I had a different idea.

I’ve long been a fan of all things NeXT. From the sexy and robust NeXT Cube and NeXTstation machines to the operating system itself, NEXTSTEP, I lusted after them all since their debut in the late 80s. I was fortunate to have had a high-end 486 66 setup on which to run NEXTSTEP for Intel, back in 1994, got hold of a refurbished NeXTstation Turbo Color unit in 2000 and, more recently, picked up an HP PA-RISC workstation for pocket change and had much fun installing NEXTSTEP on it.

All that said, it occured to me that perhaps NEXTSTEP for Intel would install under the Parallels virtualization software. Having the media for both NEXTSTEP and OPENSTEP (the latter a further evolution of the former), I gave the OPENSTEP install a try. Lo and behold, it worked just great! See the article along with a screenshot gallery over at another site of mine, Mac on Intel.

Posted in NeXT, UNIX | 1 Comment

So There’re These Things Called PixelBlocks…

Posted on April 2, 2006 by Blake Patterson

I’d seen them at ThinkGeek for quite a while, but I never put in an order. PixelBlocks, they are. For whatever reason, I finally got around to grabbing a 2000-block pack (12 colors) last week. By design, they’re great for rendering into plastic what one might find on a computer screen. But given the limited palette of home computers of years past, these blocks seem ideally suited to bringing to life classic retro computing scenes. They’re pretty great.

It’s a modest first go, but the above little character definitely brings to my mind memories of some pretty fun moments behind a joystick, back in the mid-80s. Anyone know who he/she is? Anwser correctly and I’ll mail you one of my blocks. (I won’t really.)

Posted in Just Rambling | 4 Comments

Running Windows 1.0 Circa 1985 (and a Few Others….)

Posted on March 29, 2006 by Blake Patterson

DigiBarn is running a piece that, in a series of 24 photos, shows Micsoroft Windows 1.03 being installed on an AT&T 6300 PC compatible (hey, I’ve got one of those!). From the stack of ten 5.25″ floppies to the warm, green glow of the of the high-res monochrome display, to the…intuitive and aesthetically pleasing graphical interface that Windows brings to bear on the user experience proposition — it’s all there.

That’s a savvy interface eh? I mean, if you’re going to rip Apple someone off, you may as well do it right, right? So first there was the Lisa with the first commercial GUI, announced in January of 1983. Then there was the much more consumer-friendly Macintosh, with a nicer interface, released in January of 1984. Windows 1.0 wasn’t released until November of 1985. And it’s not even an operating system; it’s a presentation manager that sits on DOS. Windows 2.0 didn’t come until late 1987. It boggles the mind.

So let’s see…. Back in 1985, I went through a few different machines. According to my list and my fading memory, I owned an Apple //c, an Atari 400, a Commodore 128, an original Macintosh (128K), a Laser 3000 (Apple ][+ clone), and an Amiga 1000. Most of those had GUIs available for them. Read on to hear me prattle on a bit about them.

Continue reading →

Posted in Multi-Platform | 3 Comments

Gaming Then and Now: A Side-by-Side Look

Posted on March 23, 2006 by Blake Patterson

I just ran across an interesting piece put up by Fosfor Gadgets. The article [Archive] provides a side-by-side screenshot comparison of games from various genres – one from today and one from somewhere around 20 years ago. It’s amazing how technology has advanced.

But with the incomparably superior visuals of today’s games, has the gameplay become “more fun?” I don’t think so. Not overall. Perhaps this is why I so enjoy playing with the old hardware. The old games.

What do you think?

Posted in Multi-Platform | 1 Comment

Of AJAX, GATO, and Bill Scott

Posted on March 15, 2006 by Blake Patterson

I build database driven web applications for a living. Lots of server-side code – usually PHP or ColdFusion tying to Oracle or MySQL. A good bit of this work also involves interface design. I try to be as innovative as possible in this work, and because of that, I am intrigued by the AJAX development methodology. I use it in a few applications right now, including my first Mac OS X Dashboard Widget.

Seeking to further my AJAX abilities, I talked my employer into sending me to a recent AJAX Seminar in New York City. It was a long day, well spent. Among the many notable speakers, one stood out for me: Bill Scott, AJAX Evangelist and member of Yahoo’s User Experience Design team. His take on sound design and his enthusiasm for these new technologies spoke to me. And I must confess, part of the reason I took particular note of the man was the fact that he is clearly “a Mac guy” – and not just a casual Mac guy. Bill Scott wrote the Macintosh port of Spectrum Holobyte’s submarine simulation, GATO, in the mid 80s.

I e-mailed Bill, asking a bit about the development of Macintosh GATO. He quickly responded and explained that the Macintosh version was coded in C and was based on the original IBM PC verison of the game, which was written in MS BASIC. The development specification was the PC GATO manual. He pointed me to a far more detailed history of the development of the game that he posted as a comment tied to a story posted on Folklore.org, entitled “3rd Party Developers and Macintosh Development“.

See the extended entry of this article for an excerpt from Bill’s commentary on the Folklore.org story.

Continue reading →

Posted in Macintosh | 3 Comments