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Serious question to those who still have a functioning retro computer: what do you do with it? My dad still has our old Atari 800 in the closet somewhere and I

Serious question to those who still have a functioning retro computer: what do you do with it? My dad still has our old Atari 800 in the closet somewhere and I sometimes wonder if it still works. But I just can't imagine using it for more than few minutes nostalgia hit.

buescher 6y ago
You can play Star Raiders and M.U.L.E. - the latter with four human players, which is best.
- IceCreamJonsey 6y ago
  Yeah! And Warlords for the Atari 800 (or "Castle Crisis," which is a homebrew / arcade-perfect port of the arcade version of Warlords) with some friends and real paddle controllers is a lot of fun.
  - protomyth 6y ago
    If you know something about wiring you can get photocells and wire them to the paddle ports (pin 9 and 5) then move by how much light gets to the photocell. I put two in a piece of wood so I could use my hand to allow or restrict light reaching the photocell. Also fun to write a basic program to take the value and use it for the sound command. Makes some weird noise.
    - ddingus 6y ago
      That seems fun. I have a kid who might love to play with one or two hooked up to the sound registers. Edit: I know what I am going to do. My granddaughter is 5. I am going to write a little basic program that reads these cells wired to a couple paddle ports. I have one set I can take apart for this bit of fun. We have two hands, which makes for a perfect pairing. https://www.atariarchives.org/ecp/chapter_5.php https://www.atariarchives.org/ecp/chapter_5.php Press a key, and something happens on screen. Maybe the color changes with the sound, or it says, "Hello Kiddo", whatever. And the registers, math, change. A couple hours on this should lead to interesting time watching her interact with it all. Thanks for the inspiration. Should be fun. Now all I have to do is get a program into that Atari. Might finally be time to get one of those SD card devices for my Atari, or a FujiNet. Something.
  - ddingus 6y ago
    Young kids love that game. I have a good version for the VCS. Medieval Mayhem. It never fails. Mine and friends will play that one for some time. It is simple, immediate on a low latency display and all interactive. Total classic!
- ddingus 6y ago
  4 player M.U.L.E. is special. Those computers did offer up 8 paddles! I am not sure any title ever made use of them.
mechagodzilla 6y ago
I enjoy playing around it with it for the programming challenge of targeting such a constrained platform (a 4MHz Z80 with 64KB of RAM for my system). It's simple enough that you can hold the whole system in your head when you're working on it. Basically the same things I do with embedded platforms like Arduinos, except my old Z80 system can host its own Turbo Pascal compiler.
- ddingus 6y ago
  I need to get a good Z80 card for my Apple. It is crazy how much there is out there for that CPU.
justanother 6y ago
Have an Atari 130XE, a C64, and two Apple IIs in my office still. Play my favorite old games, hack 6502 code, trace into ROM routines, mess with the latest accessories. (network adapters, solid state storage, accelerators, etc)... sometimes I even beat a game I couldn’t quite beat before. I rarely get time to actually do all this stuff, but when I do...
- ddingus 6y ago
  Same, minus as many machines, but yeah. Special recharge the soul time.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
krallja 6y ago
I have a half dozen retro computers. I write programs, trying to understand the hardware of the machine. I play games I remember. I play games I’ve never seen before. I try the “killer apps” like VisiCalc. I connect it to a BBS. But mostly I just collect.
- indigodaddy 6y ago
  Are there still any BBS’es around that are ONLY accessible via modem/phone line?
  - krallja 6y ago
    If there were, how would you find it? :D But seriously, they’re all running Telnet so you can put a WiFi modem on your C64 and “dial” an IP address and port 23.
bullen 6y ago
If you have a C64 there is new software to try every day: http://csdb.dk http://csdb.dk And some days, they release new good games for it (these came in the last 6 months): https://sarahjaneavory.itch.io/zeta-wing https://sarahjaneavory.itch.io/zeta-wing https://carletonhandley.itch.io/runn-n-gunn https://carletonhandley.itch.io/runn-n-gunn
ddingus 6y ago
I have a few. One, a Color Computer 3. Has a 6809 CPU. I know a friend who has kids. Perfect, it will find a new home for my lack of time. Maybe his kids get the spark same as we did. My daily retro driver is an Apple //e Platinum with some good cards in it. Serial, CFFA 3000 disk emulator so I can use USB drives, and a FastChip 16Mz 65816 CPU. I use it to write. Nice keyboard, and this may seem odd, but when I write on it, different words come out. It takes me to a place I find hard to be in otherwise. I can move my work back onto a modern machine with a USB stick. I also game on it, currently enjoying Nox Archaist a couple hours here and there. That is a new release, 5 years in the making, and it is exemplary. Old school, runs on an Apple, but done with more modern ideas. And it sometimes ends up being a terminal for various projects. By "daily driver", I mean setup, ready to use. I do use it a few times per month. My Model 100 is a portable curio. Sometimes when I am way out in the sticks, it is fun to play with. I may find it a home too. I have not used it in a long while. Took notes on it last time I did. And my Atari 800XL and 400 see some gaming along with an original 6 switch VCS. (2600) These come out for old school game time once or twice per year. I have young ones coming up and I plan on showing them the ropes old school. Probably the Apple to start. Lots of education and Oregon Trail. My favorite thing to do is small, fun programming and or electronics. The Apple is great for both. It is awful nice to be able to write a little code with almost no worries. And if one wants, putting a circuit on a card is not hard. Oh, and from time to time, I do use the Apple as a spiffy calculator. It can kind of just sit there holding values, bits of code, whatever. I have always used one this way since I was a kid. Sort of how people will use their powerful hand calculators. My workbench has a pro grade CRT I got for a song, and the Apple all setup and ready to go. Both are off to the side, right there. Flip a switch and it is there, ready same as it always has been. The CRT is special. Looks great and takes me back to fun places. It all reminds me how far we have come, if nothing else. It is nice to have it handy. And sometimes, when I am blocked somehow, a romp on that machine seems to always shake me loose. Worth it just for that.
tyingq 6y ago
I have the same attention span thing with them, but generally, I spend more time fixing it up then I do using it. Replacing capacitors, cleaning it up, adding a USB stick floppy emulator, etc. Then, put it up on eBay and buy another with the proceeds, rinse, repeat.
yitchelle 6y ago
I run @oldtechadverts on Twitter so I see my fair share of folks talking about their passion for the Atari computers (as well as other retro computers). The majority of them seems to really enjoy playing the games, repairing them, enhancing them, writing new games for them. The fact that these computers are old does not matter to them, the retro crowd enjoy these computers just because.

buescher 6y ago

You can play Star Raiders and M.U.L.E. - the latter with four human players, which is best.

IceCreamJonsey 6y ago
Yeah! And Warlords for the Atari 800 (or "Castle Crisis," which is a homebrew / arcade-perfect port of the arcade version of Warlords) with some friends and real paddle controllers is a lot of fun.
- protomyth 6y ago
  If you know something about wiring you can get photocells and wire them to the paddle ports (pin 9 and 5) then move by how much light gets to the photocell. I put two in a piece of wood so I could use my hand to allow or restrict light reaching the photocell. Also fun to write a basic program to take the value and use it for the sound command. Makes some weird noise.
  - ddingus 6y ago
    That seems fun. I have a kid who might love to play with one or two hooked up to the sound registers. Edit: I know what I am going to do. My granddaughter is 5. I am going to write a little basic program that reads these cells wired to a couple paddle ports. I have one set I can take apart for this bit of fun. We have two hands, which makes for a perfect pairing. https://www.atariarchives.org/ecp/chapter_5.php https://www.atariarchives.org/ecp/chapter_5.php Press a key, and something happens on screen. Maybe the color changes with the sound, or it says, "Hello Kiddo", whatever. And the registers, math, change. A couple hours on this should lead to interesting time watching her interact with it all. Thanks for the inspiration. Should be fun. Now all I have to do is get a program into that Atari. Might finally be time to get one of those SD card devices for my Atari, or a FujiNet. Something.
- ddingus 6y ago
  Young kids love that game. I have a good version for the VCS. Medieval Mayhem. It never fails. Mine and friends will play that one for some time. It is simple, immediate on a low latency display and all interactive. Total classic!
ddingus 6y ago
4 player M.U.L.E. is special. Those computers did offer up 8 paddles! I am not sure any title ever made use of them.

mechagodzilla 6y ago

I enjoy playing around it with it for the programming challenge of targeting such a constrained platform (a 4MHz Z80 with 64KB of RAM for my system). It's simple enough that you can hold the whole system in your head when you're working on it. Basically the same things I do with embedded platforms like Arduinos, except my old Z80 system can host its own Turbo Pascal compiler.

ddingus 6y ago
I need to get a good Z80 card for my Apple. It is crazy how much there is out there for that CPU.

justanother 6y ago

Have an Atari 130XE, a C64, and two Apple IIs in my office still. Play my favorite old games, hack 6502 code, trace into ROM routines, mess with the latest accessories. (network adapters, solid state storage, accelerators, etc)... sometimes I even beat a game I couldn’t quite beat before. I rarely get time to actually do all this stuff, but when I do...

ddingus 6y ago
Same, minus as many machines, but yeah. Special recharge the soul time.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

krallja 6y ago

I have a half dozen retro computers. I write programs, trying to understand the hardware of the machine. I play games I remember. I play games I’ve never seen before. I try the “killer apps” like VisiCalc. I connect it to a BBS. But mostly I just collect.

indigodaddy 6y ago
Are there still any BBS’es around that are ONLY accessible via modem/phone line?
- krallja 6y ago
  If there were, how would you find it? :D But seriously, they’re all running Telnet so you can put a WiFi modem on your C64 and “dial” an IP address and port 23.

bullen 6y ago

If you have a C64 there is new software to try every day: http://csdb.dk http://csdb.dk And some days, they release new good games for it (these came in the last 6 months): https://sarahjaneavory.itch.io/zeta-wing https://sarahjaneavory.itch.io/zeta-wing https://carletonhandley.itch.io/runn-n-gunn https://carletonhandley.itch.io/runn-n-gunn

ddingus 6y ago

I have a few. One, a Color Computer 3. Has a 6809 CPU. I know a friend who has kids. Perfect, it will find a new home for my lack of time. Maybe his kids get the spark same as we did. My daily retro driver is an Apple //e Platinum with some good cards in it. Serial, CFFA 3000 disk emulator so I can use USB drives, and a FastChip 16Mz 65816 CPU. I use it to write. Nice keyboard, and this may seem odd, but when I write on it, different words come out. It takes me to a place I find hard to be in otherwise. I can move my work back onto a modern machine with a USB stick. I also game on it, currently enjoying Nox Archaist a couple hours here and there. That is a new release, 5 years in the making, and it is exemplary. Old school, runs on an Apple, but done with more modern ideas. And it sometimes ends up being a terminal for various projects. By "daily driver", I mean setup, ready to use. I do use it a few times per month. My Model 100 is a portable curio. Sometimes when I am way out in the sticks, it is fun to play with. I may find it a home too. I have not used it in a long while. Took notes on it last time I did. And my Atari 800XL and 400 see some gaming along with an original 6 switch VCS. (2600) These come out for old school game time once or twice per year. I have young ones coming up and I plan on showing them the ropes old school. Probably the Apple to start. Lots of education and Oregon Trail. My favorite thing to do is small, fun programming and or electronics. The Apple is great for both. It is awful nice to be able to write a little code with almost no worries. And if one wants, putting a circuit on a card is not hard. Oh, and from time to time, I do use the Apple as a spiffy calculator. It can kind of just sit there holding values, bits of code, whatever. I have always used one this way since I was a kid. Sort of how people will use their powerful hand calculators. My workbench has a pro grade CRT I got for a song, and the Apple all setup and ready to go. Both are off to the side, right there. Flip a switch and it is there, ready same as it always has been. The CRT is special. Looks great and takes me back to fun places. It all reminds me how far we have come, if nothing else. It is nice to have it handy. And sometimes, when I am blocked somehow, a romp on that machine seems to always shake me loose. Worth it just for that.

tyingq 6y ago

I have the same attention span thing with them, but generally, I spend more time fixing it up then I do using it. Replacing capacitors, cleaning it up, adding a USB stick floppy emulator, etc. Then, put it up on eBay and buy another with the proceeds, rinse, repeat.

yitchelle 6y ago

I run @oldtechadverts on Twitter so I see my fair share of folks talking about their passion for the Atari computers (as well as other retro computers). The majority of them seems to really enjoy playing the games, repairing them, enhancing them, writing new games for them. The fact that these computers are old does not matter to them, the retro crowd enjoy these computers just because.