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I had a Cromemco Dazzler (still have it). Nifty graphics board for the S-100 bus. Uses DMA off system memory. Here are some links to further info. (PDF's) Man

by k310 4y ago

I had a Cromemco Dazzler (still have it). Nifty graphics board for the S-100 bus. Uses DMA off system memory. Here are some links to further info. (PDF's) Manual: https://www.quaxio.com/files/2020/kaleidoscope_part1/cromemco_dazzler_manual.pdf https://www.quaxio.com/files/2020/kaleidoscope_part1/cromemc... Someone cloned one: https://www.worldphaco.com/uploads/THE_WORLD_FAMOUS_CROMEMCO_DAZZLER.pdf https://www.worldphaco.com/uploads/THE_WORLD_FAMOUS_CROMEMCO...

rbanffy 4y ago
We really need ways to preserve these artifacts for longer. It kills me to see pre-PC computers having been recycled.
- flyinghamster 4y ago
  I feel conflicted - preservation is a worthy effort indeed, but space is a problem. I barely have space for my current stuff, and most of my non-laptops are Computers of Theseus as it is. The only thing my family ever had that was "historically significant" was an Apple II, now long gone. For most of us, the more pressing concern is data preservation. It's a crying shame that tape drives are so expensive, given the dirt-cheap-per-gigabyte media. About the only thing I can afford to use as a backup medium is hard drives and ZFS. The clown, er, cloud is not an option. Between the issues of trusting third parties, the speed of data transfer, and the potential cost of data transfer, I'm just going to say no.
  - rbanffy 4y ago
    I don't care that much for the Computers of Theseus - we keep them working in whatever way we can. And indeed, past the IBM PC's explosion, there aren't many significant computers or that are actually unique - Macs, UNIX workstations, that Unisys ISA board that has an A-series mainframe on it, IBM's counterpart (with a 370) and a few others that earn a place in history by some unique design or historical accident. And data. I'm thinking about BD archive, but most of the time it's local hard disks with BtrFS or ZFS with snapshots stored in Amazon Glacier and other similar services.
eigenvalue 4y ago
Wild how they expected the user to sit there for hours soldering and measuring dozens of little resisters and other components. Thank god for high-speed pick and place robots, the amount of human toil and tedium avoided cumulatively is astounding.
- quantified 4y ago
  The hobbyist paved the way. It was like knitting in a way, but with molten metal and wisps of smoke. Cathartic sometimes.
- k310 4y ago
  Oh I did it! Countless solder joints. Used a plastic gizmo to bend the resistors to match the PCB holes. But these were "hobbyist" computers. No long term effect from the lead in the solder solder solder solder .. "-)

by k310 4y ago

rbanffy 4y ago

We really need ways to preserve these artifacts for longer. It kills me to see pre-PC computers having been recycled.

flyinghamster 4y ago
I feel conflicted - preservation is a worthy effort indeed, but space is a problem. I barely have space for my current stuff, and most of my non-laptops are Computers of Theseus as it is. The only thing my family ever had that was "historically significant" was an Apple II, now long gone. For most of us, the more pressing concern is data preservation. It's a crying shame that tape drives are so expensive, given the dirt-cheap-per-gigabyte media. About the only thing I can afford to use as a backup medium is hard drives and ZFS. The clown, er, cloud is not an option. Between the issues of trusting third parties, the speed of data transfer, and the potential cost of data transfer, I'm just going to say no.
- rbanffy 4y ago
  I don't care that much for the Computers of Theseus - we keep them working in whatever way we can. And indeed, past the IBM PC's explosion, there aren't many significant computers or that are actually unique - Macs, UNIX workstations, that Unisys ISA board that has an A-series mainframe on it, IBM's counterpart (with a 370) and a few others that earn a place in history by some unique design or historical accident. And data. I'm thinking about BD archive, but most of the time it's local hard disks with BtrFS or ZFS with snapshots stored in Amazon Glacier and other similar services.

eigenvalue 4y ago

Wild how they expected the user to sit there for hours soldering and measuring dozens of little resisters and other components. Thank god for high-speed pick and place robots, the amount of human toil and tedium avoided cumulatively is astounding.

quantified 4y ago
The hobbyist paved the way. It was like knitting in a way, but with molten metal and wisps of smoke. Cathartic sometimes.
k310 4y ago
Oh I did it! Countless solder joints. Used a plastic gizmo to bend the resistors to match the PCB holes. But these were "hobbyist" computers. No long term effect from the lead in the solder solder solder solder .. "-)