This is a story about restoring and upgrading a Commodore Amiga 1000, the first model of the Amiga series. Many of you might be familiar with the popular Amiga 500 or later models, but the Commodore Amiga 1000 was actually the first model of the Amiga series produced. I consider the A1000 a significant piece of home computing history. Arguably one of the most important machines of the 16-bit revolution period, considered by many to be the first multimedia computer, it marked the beginning of Commodore’s last cycle, after the huge success of the C64, in the history of personal computing.…

The CP/M, short for Control Program/Monitor, was one of the first operating systems of the personal computer revolution. It was launched in 1974, and it celebrates 50 years this year. It was ported and made available for many 8-bit machines with different CPUs and was related to running productivity software. If you ever used CP/M, then, well, I hate to say it, but you’re old. I had a brief encounter with CP/M when I was 14 or 15 years old; I can’t remember exactly.…

The C128 is a fascinating and unusual machine. It was the last 8-bit Commodore machine before the Amiga and co-existed with the C64 series for a while. They sold ~8 million units worldwide (vs ~17 million C64). I never owned one, but I fondly remember playing with one at my friend’s place and seeing them in computer shops. It’s fully 99.8% backward compatible with its predecessor in C64 mode, but in native C128 mode it takes advantage of its 128 KB RAM, higher clocked 2 MHz 6510 variant (the 8502), and the improved VIC-IIe graphics chip.…

Filipe Cruz (aka psenough) invited me to Inércia 2023, a local Demoscene event organized by the Associação Inércia that took place in the infamous Incrível Almadense. I’ve done my fair share of bouncing ball assembly demos in the 80s and others more recently, but I don’t qualify as a demoscener, not even by the lowest standards. Still, I promptly accepted the invitation. I participated in a panel that discussed the struggles and strategies of organizing community events.…

The ingenuity of combining open-source and open hardware in retro computing is a force of creativity and marvel these days. One of the conundrums with running old computers nowadays is how you display video. I love CRT monitors; I’m a proud owner of a classic 1084S that I use with my C128DCR, but they’re not easy to find in good condition, are expensive, and are increasingly prone to failure with passing years.…