Equipment: Apple II+, Apple IIe
Projects: Maintain a Contiki-friendly "blog" on my Apple IIe web server and record some 8-bit music (again).
Equipment: Tandy 102, Commodore 64, Powerbook 1400, PowerPC 6100*
Projects: I will be entering with my 1400 and my Tandy 102 for my portable use. For home use, I will be using my PM 6100 and my Mac Plus. (along with maybe a Toshiba Tecra or a Pentium 1 Desktop). For gaming, of course it will be my Commodore 64 all the way! My challenge will probably be endurance with a tad of creativity in BASIC.
* subject to change.
Equipment: SPARCstation 4, Macintosh Quadra 650
Projects:
Quadra 650: Write some sort of Application.
SparcStation 4: I'd like to do endurance with this, and since i just
got it, I'd like to rebuild it.
Equipment: ZX81 and Commodore Pet 8032 - plus whatever other kit I need as required.
Projects: I have done the endurance and the creative and a running blog - this time I plan on doing hardware. I am going to attach something to either the ZX81 or the Pet - I dont know what or how I am going to do it, but i am going to stick something into their ports, even if it is only my finger!
Equipment: Digital Equipment Corp. Rainbow 100
Projects: Complete an in-progress port of an ancient C graphics library for the Rainbow to Turbo C 2.0, including serial mouse drivers. Write a simple game library extending the graphics library. Author an original or port an existing action game to the Rainbow to show that the graphics system is powerful enough for fast-action games. If possible, try to exploit dual-monitor capabilities of the Rainbow as well.
Equipment: I'm leaving things open ended again, but I'll start with a Mac Plus.
Projects: I'm going to implement and measure the results of Tom Lee's suggested Mac Plus modification.
Equipment: Powerbook G3 Pismo, Microtek ScanMaker 3600, Graflex Speed Graphic
Projects: So an endurance test is a bad idea for me; I like portability too much. I also like cameras; I am, after all, a photo student [the one called 'the resident scientist' of the darkroom] but without large-format darkroom at the moment.
What I want to do is adapt the flatbed to the back of the Speed Graphic as a digital scanning back; I know this is possible and often done; I'm also looking into the possibility of borrowing an 8x10 inch view camera for this. If this is successful, I'm looking into making the whole thing *portable*. You know, for happy-snaps?
Equipment: Sinclair ZX Spectrum + 128K
Projects: Over the last couple of weeks I was trying to think of ideas for this year's RetroChallenge but was drawing blanks. Then fate gave me a sign in the form of a Sinclair ZX Spectrum + 128K, which I found purely by chance in a bin at work. I rescued it and was delighted to find that it still works! The ZX Spectrum is a completely new beast to me, so this July I plan to learn more about my new retro toy, get some games running on it and maybe even try a bit of coding.
Equipment: Apple 1 replica (A-ONE from Achatz Electronics)
Projects: Technically my Apple 1 replica isn't over 10 years old, but functionally it is the same as the actual Apple I, and who among us can play with an actual Apple 1? I haven't even powered it since I bought it over a year ago. I plan to do that and do a little programming to see what this little guy can do.
Equipment: Macintosh Classic 4/80; Prometheus 288 modem
Projects: Using my Macintosh Classic, I will attempt to relearn and then record various traditional rhythm patterns on the middle eastern goblet drum (the darbuka). The Mycroft Server Project will run at announced times to present my recordings as well as various other information about this particular instrument.
Equipment: Apple IIe, Macintosh SE/30, Macintosh LC
Projects:
1.
Repair an Apple //e (replace defect Logicboard)
and I will restart some unfinished RC08 winterwarmup Projects:
2. Mac SE/30 - Build in an internal CD drive
3. Apple IIe Card in a Macintosh LC
Equipment: Macintosh SE with 4 Megs Memory, 40 meg hard drive and ethernet adapter.
Projects: I plan to setup a BBS system on my Macintosh SE that can be accessed via Telnet over the internet. I'm not sure what BBS software I will be using or exactly how to get it to work with Telnet, but that is part of the fun. My Mac SE is currently connected to the internet where I like to play several MUD's and access other BBS's.
Equipment: Tandy 102 and possibly my Tandy pocket computer (pending getting it working).
Projects: I would like to attempt to get my Tandy 102 online somehow, probably with the use of a UDS. I am also planning on writing some small games or maybe a larger one for the 102. I think it will be neat if I can manage to get my pocket computer running again, but I don't know yet what I'll do with it. I plan on posting my code so that others can play with it too.
Equipment: Compaq Portable (first one).
Projects: I will clean the computer thoroughly inside and out and restore it to as close to as-new condition. I will install a hardcard hard drive, then DOS 3.3, then Windows 1.0. Then play, and / or try to do something fun and interesting.
Equipment: A broken Mac Plus, a broken iBook G3, LCD Touch Screen.
Projects: I will be creating a Banana Jr 6000 (of Bloom County fame). I will not be attempting to create one that can walk or is self aware.
Equipment: Atari 800 (starting).
Projects: The Atari 800 is my fallback machine. At this time I am also tempted to try for uniqueness sake to run the whole month on a Newton 2000. :D Either way, just typical existance... E-mail, websites, BBS's, and so forth. If using the Newton 2000 it will be to treat a portable computer as basically a desktop for a month. Also tempted to run on a Commodore 64 since I have never used one.
Equipment: Amstrad CPC 6128 or Commodore 64.
Projects: I intend to learn the basics of either Z80 or 6502 assembly language on either an Amstrad CPC 6128 or a Commodore 64 respectively. My aim is to create a small program to pick lottery numbers for me!
Equipment: A Commodore 64 running so sort of modern D64 loader and propeller Microcontroller.
Projects: I'll be assembling a Propeller/Accelerometer to build a special skateboard joystick to play games like Skate or Die.
Equipment: 2 PowerBook 540c's and a PowerBook 520c.
Projects: I would like to create some screensavers using CodeWarrior and to play Doom and use nothing but the blackbirds for an entire month.
Equipment: Epson PX-8 laptop computer.
Projects: I've been working for a while now on a disk drive emulator for the Epson PX-8 laptop computer. The PX-8 is from the early 80s and runs CP/M. An available accessory was the PF-10 disk drive. These disk drives are very rare, and I'm attempting to make a microcontroller based emulator for that drive. The drive emulator will store disk images on a secure digital flash memory card. I have the equipment for the prototype and have done some initial testing, but my project has been stalled. By the end of the Retrochallenge, I would like to have a prototype of the drive emulator working. The prototype should at least be able to feed a file or two to the PX-8, and also list a disk directory. If I can get that much working, the rest is possible!
Equipment: Macintosh PowerBook 540, Macintosh Quadra 700, Macintosh SE/30, Macintosh IIcx, ImageWriter II (some or all of them).
Projects: I would try to write a raytracer and maybe something else graphic related using Think C. If I get tired of programming, maybe try to fix one or more PowerBook 160's that have been been waiting for inspection.
Equipment: Sun Sparcserver (1994); NeXT Nextstation Turbo (1992/3)
Projects: I
purchased a SparcServer V box back in Nov 2007, the keyboard/mouse
for the Sun in Feb, a monitor and CD-ROM adapter in May and lastly
some more memory in June. On the way I got some free Solaris discs.
Now it's time to put it all together and get the SparcServer running
again.
Mini Project One:
- To get the SparcServer V running again with Solaris 2.5.1. Install a 'new'
CD-ROM Drive and clean OS.
- To get the SparcServer sharing files with a PowerMac G3 - Mac OS 10.4 Server
perhaps using NFS.
- To look out for 'interesting free software' for the Sparcserver and report
back.
Mini Project Two:
- To get the NeXT NextStation sharing files with the PowerMac G3 server, again
perhaps using NFS?
- To backup the NeXT NextStation harddrive in a way I can recover in case of a hard drive failure...
Although I was a UNIX developer in the 90's I never was a UNIX administrator so this is going to be 'interesting'!
Scott Baret
Equipment: Macintosh Plus, LaserWriter 4/600
Projects: I plan to write and publish a novel using a Macintosh Plus equipped with a LaserWriter 4/600. My word processor will be MacWrite II and I may use MacDraw II and MacPaint to supplement the text with an occasional illustration. I will likely use Publish It! Easy to finish the project. While I am writing it, I will be listening to music and that music will be played through the Mac itself using an external SCSI CD-ROM drive. The Plus is running System 6 and has 4MB RAM, the hard drive is an external 80MB model.
Equipment: Macintosh Plus, Macintosh SE/30.
Projects: Run a proper Mac Plus server from a zip drive with system 7.0.1. Write a game using worldbuilder or some other funny program (have to decide what to) that works on system 6.
Equipment: 16 Mac Portables, 4 Lisas, 7 ProFile Hard disks and a soldering iron.
Projects: To restore and repair as many of my collection (as listed above) as possible. I have another 150 machines to restore, but Im starting at the older end of the scale.
Stevep
Equipment: Mac 128K (serial F4264KZM0001) built week 26 of 1984.
Projects: Restoration to operating condition. I've had this Mac for ages, and it has a floppy drive problem and possibly other issues. I am not sure if I have powered it up (the floppy issue can be seen by looking at it).
Equipment: Olivetti
M-10, Eee PC(data storage
for the Olivetti only), Apple II.
Projects: Just going to try to code something interesting in BASIC for the Olivetti, probably a game. Not very good at BASIC, but I'll try regardless. Also may try to repair my malfunctioning Apple II.
Retro Retro
Conceited Jerk spent a month using nought but his trusty old Amiga during the 2008 RC Winter Warm-up.