Video Retro Computers and Classic Consoles are my Passion when it comes to YouTube

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
Today on Tech Retrospective we continue our never-ending coverage of the Atari 8 bit line of retro computers. Up today is the Atari 1200XL, possibly the most polarizing of the Atari 8bit line. The Atari 400 and Atari 800 were moderate successes, but the Sweet-16 project led to the cray cool Atari 1000 and Atari 1000x. Which would have been great, except we never got them. No instead we got the 1200XL..... it's a mixed bag. But with competition from the TI99/4A and ESPECIALLY the Commodore 64, could it keep up?
 

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
I go over the SG-1000, Sega's first real entry into the home console market. I also look at 24 games from its library and a few of the variants that saw release elsewhere in the world.
 

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
DEC - the PDP 11 computer was my first introduction to video games. Adventure and Super Star Trek on my dads PDP 11 plus all the Basic games I was playing games before just about anybody. Nobody else had a mini computer PDP 11 in their house in the 70s except for me :)

Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) was at one point the 2nd largest computer company in the world. Defining the mini computer, with its PDP range. It would eventually go one the create the VAX line of computers and its VMS operating system, and well as the Alpha processor. Its time to look at the history of DEC, and its PDP line of machines, and build the PDP-11 replica kit the PiDP-11
 
Last edited:

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
I used to have a 3DO back in the day and I always loved it! It had some great games it was just way too expensive to ever catch on. It was a great Console though and this video goes through the Hardware Architecture and is very interesting!

 

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
I never had a Neo Geo. Always wanted one but never could have afforded the games anyway. I love the way it uses the Z80 just for sound. That is great!

The SNK Neo Geo AES released in 1990 and for the first time , brought the exact arcade experience to the home. In this episode we take a closer look at the Neo Geo and why it was so far advanced that its competition at the time.
 

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
The Famous Zero Wing - All your base belong to us with the correct text! :)

 

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
Slides and example code: https://bit.ly/3l0Ts1G The Atari 8-Bit computers such as the Atari 400 and 800 were affordable, fun, and capable machines for their time. Despite the 1 megahertz CPU, scarce memory (between 8 and 128 KB), programmers, especially game developers, could get a lot out of these machines.

Long video with a ton of information about the Atari 8 Bit line of computers, technical information and programming.
 

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701

These videos are great really showcasing the games that actually looked good or were realistic or super deep showing what the Atari 2600 could really do when pushed.
 

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
So cool to see new games still coming out for the Atari 8 bit line!
 

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
Attack of the PETSCII robots has been ported to a bunch of different systems including the Atari 7800. This is an interview with that versions developer at the 2022 PRGE - Portland Retro Gaming Expo.
 

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
Cool little system and actually quite awesome mobile technology at the time! It turned into one of the best sold handheld units in history.
 

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
Unboxing and testing the Plusdeck 2c, an audio cassette player for desktop computers! It fits into a 5.25-inch drive bay and offers the ability to play and capture tapes to digital files. Including MP3s, ooh. Let's install and try it out using the serial port on a Windows 98 PC!
 

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
Probably the coolest one-off computer ever designed. It is an absolute work of art and was so cutting-edge for the early sixties!
 

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
Let's take a extended look into the new Super Console X G6 PC Emulation Botacera machine from ali-express. Is this the machine that plays everything?
This thing is like 899 dollars as of this post. It has some serious specs!
 
Last edited:

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
Breakdown and repair of a rare portable Commodore 64.
 

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
Explores the early CGA card options including obscure tech such as the Plantronics showing on real hardware and a little EGA stuff.
 

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
I had a 3DO back in the day and I loved that console. This was supposed to be the next generation of that hardware but ended up getting bought out by Panasonic for a presentation kiosk which is the subject of this video. Good Stuff!
 

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
One of the more accurate Atari Jaguar histories. Not much new here but giving props to what I see as accurate reporting.
 
Last edited:

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
Never heard of the Sol-20 a 1970s home computer that was very ahead of its time.
 
General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • Ghan Ghan:
    Howdy
  • Ghan Ghan:
    Still lurking
    +3
  • The Helper The Helper:
    I am great and it is fantastic to see you my friend!
    +1
  • The Helper The Helper:
    If you are new to the site please check out the Recipe and Food Forum https://www.thehelper.net/forums/recipes-and-food.220/
  • Monovertex Monovertex:
    How come you're so into recipes lately? Never saw this much interest in this topic in the old days of TH.net
  • Monovertex Monovertex:
    Hmm, how do I change my signature?
  • tom_mai78101 tom_mai78101:
    Signatures can be edit in your account profile. As for the old stuffs, I'm thinking it's because Blizzard is now under Microsoft, and because of Microsoft Xbox going the way it is, it's dreadful.
  • The Helper The Helper:
    I am not big on the recipes I am just promoting them - I use the site as a practice place promoting stuff
    +2
  • Monovertex Monovertex:
    @tom_mai78101 I must be blind. If I go on my profile I don't see any area to edit the signature; If I go to account details (settings) I don't see any signature area either.
  • The Helper The Helper:
    You can get there if you click the bell icon (alerts) and choose preferences from the bottom, signature will be in the menu on the left there https://www.thehelper.net/account/preferences
  • The Helper The Helper:
    I think I need to split the Sci/Tech news forum into 2 one for Science and one for Tech but I am hating all the moving of posts I would have to do
  • The Helper The Helper:
    What is up Old Mountain Shadow?
  • The Helper The Helper:
    Happy Thursday!
    +1
  • Varine Varine:
    Crazy how much 3d printing has come in the last few years. Sad that it's not as easily modifiable though
  • Varine Varine:
    I bought an Ender 3 during the pandemic and tinkered with it all the time. Just bought a Sovol, not as easy. I'm trying to make it use a different nozzle because I have a fuck ton of Volcanos, and they use what is basically a modified volcano that is just a smidge longer, and almost every part on this thing needs to be redone to make it work
  • Varine Varine:
    Luckily I have a 3d printer for that, I guess. But it's ridiculous. The regular volcanos are 21mm, these Sovol versions are about 23.5mm
  • Varine Varine:
    So, 2.5mm longer. But the thing that measures the bed is about 1.5mm above the nozzle, so if I swap it with a volcano then I'm 1mm behind it. So cool, new bracket to swap that, but THEN the fan shroud to direct air at the part is ALSO going to be .5mm to low, and so I need to redo that, but by doing that it is a little bit off where it should be blowing and it's throwing it at the heating block instead of the part, and fuck man
  • Varine Varine:
    I didn't realize they designed this entire thing to NOT be modded. I would have just got a fucking Bambu if I knew that, the whole point was I could fuck with this. And no one else makes shit for Sovol so I have to go through them, and they have... interesting pricing models. So I have a new extruder altogether that I'm taking apart and going to just design a whole new one to use my nozzles. Dumb design.
  • Varine Varine:
    Can't just buy a new heatblock, you need to get a whole hotend - so block, heater cartridge, thermistor, heatbreak, and nozzle. And they put this fucking paste in there so I can't take the thermistor or cartridge out with any ease, that's 30 dollars. Or you can get the whole extrudor with the direct driver AND that heatblock for like 50, but you still can't get any of it to come apart
  • Varine Varine:
    Partsbuilt has individual parts I found but they're expensive. I think I can get bits swapped around and make this work with generic shit though
  • Ghan Ghan:
    Heard Houston got hit pretty bad by storms last night. Hope all is well with TH.
  • The Helper The Helper:
    Power back on finally - all is good here no damage
    +2
  • V-SNES V-SNES:
    Happy Friday!
    +1

      The Helper Discord

      Staff online

      Members online

      Affiliates

      Hive Workshop NUON Dome World Editor Tutorials

      Network Sponsors

      Apex Steel Pipe - Buys and sells Steel Pipe.
      Top