4 ms·

The Sega SC-3000 Personal Computer (2018)

98 points by indigodaddy 7y ago

flohofwoe 7y ago
> I believe it's identical to the more well known Z80 CPU that saw massive use during the 80s in scientific calculators and many arcade machines. Interesting that the Z80 seems to be so relatively unknown (as home computer CPU) in some parts of the world. Apart from calculators and arcade machines it was in many home computers that were popular at least in Europe (the biggest being the ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC), and Japan I believe because the MSX standard was popular there. And it could run CP/M which was the standard office software operating system before DOS, and was the reason why Commodore added a Z80 CPU to the C128 (in addition to the 6502). CP/M was (most likely) also the reason why the Eastern Bloc choose the Z80 as its standard 8-bit CPU architecture. While 6502 clones were produced in Bulgaria, it was a complete underdog compared to the Z80 on the eastern side of the iron curtain. Oh, and not to forget: the Nintendo Gameboy also has a Z80 CPU, although stripped of some instruction ranges.
cmrdporcupine 7y ago
"In the bag there was a retro minicomputer" That would be quite the accomplishment :-) Looks like a fairly typical MSX system to me. All sorts of nifty Japanese machines were made in this style that never made it to our shores.
- forinti 7y ago
  This one was a bit different because it had so little RAM. I don't think a real MSX would have less than 16KB plus the VRAM.
Hallucinaut 7y ago
Ah, my first computer! I was gifted this for my sixth birthday back in NZ in a plastic bag full of games and old magazines and it set me on a lifetime of computer obsession. The pictured Star Jacker game was amazing for the time. Amongst the memories: * Finishing every level in Lode Runner bar one (and somehow discovering a cheat allowing you to change to any level) * spending hours typing out hundreds of lines of code from a magazine to make a basic dynamic curve "screensaver" * trying to hack into a bank (from a non-connected device, hey I was 7) after discovering the mem command * Coveting the better games my cousin had, like Sindbad and Yamato, on the SC-1000 * I feel like I finished Flicky at level 40. I can't remember the specifics but from the lens of a near-40 year old, the feeling on that run was the closest to perfect "flow" I could imagine at that age * So much blowing on the cartridge and other cargo cult behaviour on timings of off-on switches and first actions to not have things break * having the recorder (Sr-1000?) That never worked meaning everything was a sudden death knockout event. Stakes was high back then!
- indigodaddy 7y ago
  Funny, this is actually how I stumbled upon the article. I was looking for lode runner on archive.org and found this version: https://archive.org/details/Lode_Runner_19xx_Sega_TW_en https://archive.org/details/Lode_Runner_19xx_Sega_TW_en ... and saw, "SG-1000", and was like, what the heck is that? :)
  - Hallucinaut 7y ago
    Ah that's great, thanks for that link. I had no idea this was available on an emulator online, my dad is going to be a happy man! (Apologies to all for the terrible formatting in that last post too, didn't realise the app wasn't WYSIWYG)
    - indigodaddy 7y ago
      They have a nice collection in their sg-1000 console library as well: https://archive.org/details/sg_1000_library https://archive.org/details/sg_1000_library
kencausey 7y ago
Unfortunately it doesn't appear that there was every any followup to this, at least on this site.

98 points by indigodaddy 7y ago

> I believe it's identical to the more well known Z80 CPU that saw massive use during the 80s in scientific calculators and many arcade machines. Interesting that the Z80 seems to be so relatively unknown (as home computer CPU) in some parts of the world. Apart from calculators and arcade machines it was in many home computers that were popular at least in Europe (the biggest being the ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC), and Japan I believe because the MSX standard was popular there. And it could run CP/M which was the standard office software operating system before DOS, and was the reason why Commodore added a Z80 CPU to the C128 (in addition to the 6502). CP/M was (most likely) also the reason why the Eastern Bloc choose the Z80 as its standard 8-bit CPU architecture. While 6502 clones were produced in Bulgaria, it was a complete underdog compared to the Z80 on the eastern side of the iron curtain. Oh, and not to forget: the Nintendo Gameboy also has a Z80 CPU, although stripped of some instruction ranges.

cmrdporcupine 7y ago

"In the bag there was a retro minicomputer" That would be quite the accomplishment :-) Looks like a fairly typical MSX system to me. All sorts of nifty Japanese machines were made in this style that never made it to our shores.

forinti 7y ago
This one was a bit different because it had so little RAM. I don't think a real MSX would have less than 16KB plus the VRAM.

Hallucinaut 7y ago

Ah, my first computer! I was gifted this for my sixth birthday back in NZ in a plastic bag full of games and old magazines and it set me on a lifetime of computer obsession. The pictured Star Jacker game was amazing for the time. Amongst the memories: * Finishing every level in Lode Runner bar one (and somehow discovering a cheat allowing you to change to any level) * spending hours typing out hundreds of lines of code from a magazine to make a basic dynamic curve "screensaver" * trying to hack into a bank (from a non-connected device, hey I was 7) after discovering the mem command * Coveting the better games my cousin had, like Sindbad and Yamato, on the SC-1000 * I feel like I finished Flicky at level 40. I can't remember the specifics but from the lens of a near-40 year old, the feeling on that run was the closest to perfect "flow" I could imagine at that age * So much blowing on the cartridge and other cargo cult behaviour on timings of off-on switches and first actions to not have things break * having the recorder (Sr-1000?) That never worked meaning everything was a sudden death knockout event. Stakes was high back then!

indigodaddy 7y ago
Funny, this is actually how I stumbled upon the article. I was looking for lode runner on archive.org and found this version: https://archive.org/details/Lode_Runner_19xx_Sega_TW_en https://archive.org/details/Lode_Runner_19xx_Sega_TW_en ... and saw, "SG-1000", and was like, what the heck is that? :)
- Hallucinaut 7y ago
  Ah that's great, thanks for that link. I had no idea this was available on an emulator online, my dad is going to be a happy man! (Apologies to all for the terrible formatting in that last post too, didn't realise the app wasn't WYSIWYG)
  - indigodaddy 7y ago
    They have a nice collection in their sg-1000 console library as well: https://archive.org/details/sg_1000_library https://archive.org/details/sg_1000_library

kencausey 7y ago

Unfortunately it doesn't appear that there was every any followup to this, at least on this site.