RetroReads

By Mike Whalen

What's RetroReads about?

Retro Reads is a short podcast for commuters and spoken word audio fans who like to listen to articles, reviews, and editorials from days gone by on topics related to retrocomputing and retrogaming.

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RetroReads episodes:

02.01.2020
History of FidoNet Pt. 1
What do you do when a lot of people ask you for the history of a project? You give them one! But what happens when that project is changing rapidly? You give them a history…. and then something of a...
01.18.2020
Memories of Radio Part 2
Last time, we heard stories of radio pre-1930. Let’s continue the journey. It’s the final part of Memories of Radio. https://archive.org/details/Radio_Fun_Issue_30_Jan_1994/page/n3
01.04.2020
Memories of Radio Part 1
An early radio engineer’s stories from radio’s days gone-by https://archive.org/details/Radio_Fun_Issue_29_Dec_1993/page/n3
12.21.2019
The Book of Nolan
After Nolan Bushnell left Atari, he went for one wild ride. This is that story. https://www.inc.com/magazine/19841001/136.html
11.20.2019
PlanBe(OS) (republish)
[NOTE: I became alerted to the possiblity that this episode did not show up in all podcast feeds and I think I know why. To resolve that possibility, I decided to republish. This is not a new episode. Sorry for...
11.16.2019
MOS Technology — It’s over!
The legal tangle between Motorola and MOS is over, so says this newsletter opening. Off the product lists? The 6501. But the 6502? Ah, that stays and, what’s more, practically fueled the entire microcomputer revolution!
11.02.2019
Plan Be
If you’re a long-time Apple user, you certainly remember MacOS (not macOS). By the 90s, Apple admitted that the OS was getting a bit stale and started making plans to upgrade to something a bit more in-line with then-modern OS...
10.19.2019
Kaypro 16 Review
I come across fascinating things to read all the time. For instance, I spied this article whilst looking at an old ad for a single board computer in Carrollton, Texas. This article is a review of the Kaypro 16, one...
08.31.2019
Faster Than Light — The Atari ST Book
Jamie Lendino graciously allowed me to read some from his recent book, Faster Than Light — The Atari ST and The 16-bit Revolution. It’s an amazing book. (I just finished it this week.) If you’ve any interest in platform, I’m...
08.03.2019
cDc Excerpt
I’m excited to bring you an excerpt from Cult of The Dead Cow: How The Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save The World. This book, by Joseph Menn, is a must if you are at all interested in tech culture....
07.06.2019
STate of the ST
A couple of episodes ago, we took a trip to those heady days when the Amiga could do no wrong. Now we take a similar trip, this time to the heady days of the Atari ST.
06.22.2019
The Rise and Fall of Osborne
I imagine anyone interested in retrocomputing knows about the Osborne-1 and the so-called Osborne Effect. Is it true? I don’t know. Maybe? Sure? Why not. But I find the story behind the company, Osborne Computer Corporation, to be just as...
06.08.2019
Welcome to Amiga (Amiga 1000 Intro)
It’s easy to remember Commodore for what happened to it. But there were a lot of years of fun and excitement before that bitter end. From the first issue of Amiga World magazine comes today’s entry: The introduction of the...
05.25.2019
HP, Woz, and The MicroComputer Revolution
The basic story is this: Woz offers the very beginning of the microcomputer revolution to HP in the Apple 1. HP declines. Woz leaves with Steve Jobs to found Apple. Apple is a titan. HP is slowly sinking. As with...
05.18.2019
An aside: Apple II Composition
If you follow my Twitter account (@retroreadspod), then you may have seen a tweet in which I mentioned that I recently hired a narration and voiceover coach. While meeting with him on May 13, 2019, I mentioned that I had...
05.11.2019
PT Boat – DAK Winter 1988
Today’s is an item from the DAK Winter 1988 catalog about a small laptop. It’s retro-ish. There are a few DAK items up on the Internet archive! https://archive.org/details/1988-Winter-DAK-Catalog/page/n47
05.11.2019
Tedium – Joysticks and Benj Edwards
Tedium piece about joysticks including Benj Edwards small business creating insanely great ones! https://tedium.co/2019/02/07/bx-foundry-video-game-controllers/
04.26.2019
Tedium – Joysticks – Benj Edwards
Tedium piece about joysticks including Benj Edwards small business creating insanely great ones! https://tedium.co/2019/02/07/bx-foundry-video-game-controllers/
04.13.2019
Xerox Star Emulator
This episode details the Xerox Star Emulator the Living Computer Museum and Labs announced in January. The below link contains a _lot_ of images and links so review it! Introducing Darkstar: A Xerox Star Emulator
03.30.2019
Timesharing History – Kevin Savetz
Kevin Savetz recently* wrote a Twitter thread about Timesharing History that he uploaded to the Internet Archive. Here’s that thread. Show Note: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1073364446007816197.html * Not at all recent
03.09.2019
Altair 8800
Three articles all to do with the Altair 8800.

What's RetroReads about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

RetroReads episodes:

History of FidoNet Pt. 1

Memories of Radio Part 2

Memories of Radio Part 1

The Book of Nolan

PlanBe(OS) (republish)

MOS Technology — It’s over!

Plan Be

Kaypro 16 Review

Faster Than Light — The Atari ST Book

cDc Excerpt

STate of the ST

The Rise and Fall of Osborne

Welcome to Amiga (Amiga 1000 Intro)

HP, Woz, and The MicroComputer Revolution

An aside: Apple II Composition

PT Boat – DAK Winter 1988

Tedium – Joysticks and Benj Edwards

Tedium – Joysticks – Benj Edwards

Xerox Star Emulator

Timesharing History – Kevin Savetz

Altair 8800