RSS Parrot

Oya, I’ve heard of mega-ROMs

https://www.leadedsolder.com/2024/09/03/msx-megarom-oyanami.html

Published: September 3, 2024 00:00

Konami made some of the best games for the MSX computer platform. Unfortunately, the market being what it is, those cartridges have become expensive collectibles rather than cheap games, which takes all the fun out of it. Before we can build a bootleg…

Turbo Typin’

https://www.leadedsolder.com/2024/08/13/x1turbo-detachable-cable-keyboard-mod.html

Published: August 13, 2024 00:00

Times are tough for the Sharp X1turbo community. While keyboards used to be thriving in the used market, nowadays whole families of hungry junk hoarders can go years without a single ping on their Yahoo! Auctions watch lists. We gotta do what we can to…

Giving my PC-6001 a LIFT

https://www.leadedsolder.com/2024/07/23/inufuto-cartridge-port-pc6001.html

Published: July 23, 2024 00:00

Most software for the NEC PC-6001 was sold on tape cassettes. Tapes are great, but they require a lot of patience. I do strongly prefer the modern conveniences of floppy disk and ROM cartridge. What do you mean those aren’t “modern?”

The Origin of the Species

https://www.leadedsolder.com/2024/07/02/pc8001-pickup-disk-drive-interface.html

Published: July 2, 2024 00:00

NEC moved into personal computing relatively quickly. After the hobbyist and industrial success of the TK-80, they produced a handful of “better TK-80s,” which didn’t do as well as the original. Ultimately, they developed a whole new system: the 1979 NEC…

Tandy 1000SX is cleared for flight

https://www.leadedsolder.com/2024/06/11/tandy-1000sx-setup.html

Published: June 11, 2024 00:00

Now that the Tandy 1000SX finally works, it’s time to set it up for something useful. By which I mean playing Sopwith off of a Gotek floppy drive emulator.

Outfitting my BlueSCSI disk image

https://www.leadedsolder.com/2024/05/21/bluescsi-preparing-a-disk-image.html

Published: May 21, 2024 00:00

The BlueSCSI hard drive emulator works well in my Macs. But what use is a hard drive if it’s not stuffed full of programs? In this article, I’ll detail my process for putting software on an old Mac using a new Mac. Don’t worry, I will play a videogame at…

MZasters of the Universe

https://www.leadedsolder.com/2024/04/30/sharp-mz700-psu-repair-tape-loading.html

Published: April 30, 2024 00:00

This poor Japanese Z80 computer is literally screaming out for someone to come and fix it. With the some troubleshooting and a little luck, I got it back on the open seas and pumping out its fantastic chunky colour graphics once again.

Pretty Eight Machine

https://www.leadedsolder.com/2024/04/09/fujitsu-fm8-pickup-cpu-repair.html

Published: April 9, 2024 00:00

I got a really good deal on a Fujitsu FM-8, the big, brown predecessor of the FM-7. Of course, it’s missing a few parts. Follow along with me as I get acquainted with an earlier version of Fujitsu’s dual-processor wonder computer.

Flat Panels Aren’t MultiSync 3D

https://www.leadedsolder.com/2024/03/19/nec-jc1404hma-multisync-3d-crt-repair.html

Published: March 19, 2024 00:00

While I adore my NEC PC-TV151, there is one monitor that NEC shipped to our shores that may be the ultimate CRT. This one was cheap, and this one is also very, very sick. Can I cure it so that I can enjoy CGA the way it was meant to be?

Getting Kermit onto the MBC-555

https://www.leadedsolder.com/2024/02/27/sanyo-mbc555-kermit-on-a-disk-msdos-2-upgrade.html

Published: February 27, 2024 00:00

My Sanyo MBC-555 has been a good little computer, but it’s not especially useful. I haven’t been able to get software onto its strange disk format, and the software I do get can’t be run under DOS 1.25. If I want to test out a prototype serial card, I need…