Lets head in to the Retro Computer Festival 2025 (Gaming Edition) at the Centre For Computing History, in Cambridge UK. The event promised to show an array of gaming history, from the early mainframe days, to Unix workstations, through to the 80s pomp of the home micro revolution, the Amiga and the 90s dominance of consoles vs the PC. It was a great event, with fun had by all!
Category: Video
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Apple II Storage: The ULTIMATE Timeline Deep-Dive (From Disk II to SuperDrive!)
For two decades, the Apple II family was a home micro pioneer! This deep dive celebrates its legendary storage history: From the revolutionary Disk II system and the birth of micro-hard disks, through the essential UniDisk 5.25 era, all the way up to the high-density drives of the IIe and IIGS. We’ll show you the crucial hardware, the controller cards required, and how these devices made the Apple II evolution a fun ride!
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Unleashing the Legend: The Apple II and the Disk II!
In this episode, we’re diving into a true titan of early micro-computing: *the legendary Disk II floppy disk system* for the Apple II. Designed by the brilliant *Steve Wozniak*, the Disk II wasn’t just another peripheral—it was a *seismic shift* in engineering ingenuity. Its streamlined, cost-effective design fundamentally unlocked the full potential of the Apple II, tearing down barriers that shackled game devs. Simply put, it was THE key ingredient that propelled the Apple II to greatness.
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How to connect a Vintage Apple IIe to Video today
Continuing our series on using an Apple IIe in 2025, today we are getting video working. Do we use a vintage monitor to get that authentic CRT look? Or do we use a modern flat screen? Another option is to use a modern Apple II video card. Yes, we can even use HDMI! Watch on to see the options you can use to rock 1977 hardware in 2025 and onwards!
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Amiga 40th Kickstart Event: with Exclusive Commodore News!
Join me at the Amiga 40th Anniversary Event at Kickstart, a retro computer meet-up where enthusiasts share their LOVE of vintage computers. There are a whole slew of cool retro computers, including custom Amiga builds, ZX Spectrums and a mini Amstrad CPC 64! I even managed to sneak in an Apple IIe. Ex Commodore UK MD David Pleasance was in attendance and gave us an update on the official Commodore Ultimate 64’s progress to hitting the shelves for Christmas 2025, and a few other juicy tidbits.
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Can we Resurrect this Dell Dimension E520?
This 20 year old Dell E520 Windows XP PC, was abandoned on a kerb side and does not work. Can it arise from the flames? Maybe, but we will have to fix its broken wings! We will repair it’s bulging and leaking caps, upgrade its PSU and fit a powerful nVidia graphics card (or two!). The mission is to restore this old PC and make it into an era busting vintage XP gaming power-house. But first we must get some kind of pulse from this vintage DELL.
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This Abandoned Dell PC Almost Became E-Waste
Is this old Dell vintage PC destined for landfill? Left at the side of a road, ready to be ground to metal dust. But does it have a possible 2nd life, as a vintage retro gaming PC? I want to play Temple Of Elemental Evil and other XP games on it, so…. What’s inside? Any hardware treasures? Does it Even work?
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Amiga CD32 CH02: Can I save this leaking-cap time bomb?
My CD32 is now up and running, but what about Leigh’s? Well, lets get on with replacing ALL of the caps on his machines mainboard. Should it survive the procedure, it should be future proof. Then lets test it out ,with some classic CD32 titles!
