Patreon link for supporting the show: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays 

Welcome to Floppy Days episode 111 for February, 2022.  I am Randy Kindig, your host.  As a reminder, we are currently finishing up talking about computers released in 1981.  This is the 4th of 5 shows covering the release of the IBM PC 5150, the grand-daddy of most modern personal computers.

As on the earlier IBM PC episodes, I’m extremely happy to have Jim Leonard as co-host for these remaining episodes on the 5150.  When Jim and I went to record what was to be the final episode on the IBM PC, it ran so long that I decided to break it into 2 episodes.  That means there will be one more episode next month, for 5 total on this historic machine.

In this episode we will cover ads appearances and modern upgrades.  Next month, in the final episode, we will focus on emulation, buying one today, Community, and Web sites.

Before we get into the main part of the show, I will be talking a bit about new acquisitions in the vintage computer hobby.

One other thing I wanted to mention to the listeners is that this month coincides with the 9th anniversary of Floppy Days!  That certainly makes Floppy Days one of the grand-daddys of vintage computer podcasts and makes me wonder where the last 9 years went.  It’s been a fun ride and it’s a long way from over.  The interest remains high from listeners, with over 300,000 downloads since it started.  More importantly, my love of the topic and interest in keeping this going remains high!  We have a lot more machines to talk about!  1982 & 1983 were extremely rich years for the introduction of new home computers and I want to bring all of them to you.

Finally, while I usually decline talking about monetary support for this podcast, I do want to mention that I have a way for you help if you have the  inclination.  I have a page set up at https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays where you can donate.  Any funds will be used to defray the cost of managing the podcast as well as acquiring new hardware to talk about.  Thank you so much everyone who has contributed and continues to contribute!

Links Mentioned in the Show:

New Acquisitions

• SIO2MIDI - https://thebrewingacademy.com/products/midi-for-your-atari-8-bit-400-800-xl-xe-xel-xld 
• ABBUC membership - http://www.abbuc.de 

Upcoming Shows

• VCF East 2022  =   Apr 22, 23, 24, Infoage Science and History Museums, Wall, NJ - https://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/ 
• CocoFest 2022 = May 14th & 15th 2022, Elk Grove Village, Illinois - https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest-2022/ 
• Boatfest Retro Computing Festival 2022 = June 24-25 - Hurricane, WV - https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/boatfest-retro-computer-festival-2022-tickets-222333103297 
•  The Commodore Los Angeles Super Show 2022 = June 25-26 - Burbank, CA - https://portcommodore.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=class:start 
• VCF Southeast = July 15-17  Southern Fried Gaming Expo https://gameatl.com/ 
• KansasFest 2022 = July 19–24, 2022, Kansas City, MO - https://www.kansasfest.org/ 
• VCF West 2022 =  Aug 6, 7, The Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA - https://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-west/ 

Ads and Appearances

• Movies and TV: “Starring The Computer” - https://www.starringthecomputer.com/computer.html?c=58 
• • Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) 
  • Halt and Catch Fire - Season 1, Episode 1, "I/O" (2014) 
  • Halt and Catch Fire - Season 1, Episode 4, "Close to the Metal" (2014) 
  • Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) 
• IBM Ads
• • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPLGvI03Vrk 
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQT_YCBb9ao 

Modern Upgrades

• Lo-Tech 1MB memory board (Jim’s favorite version is https://texelec.com/product/lo-tech-1mb-ram/) 
• XT-IDE - https://www.tindie.com/products/glitchwrks/glitch-works-xt-ide-rev-4a/ 
• Serge Kise’s “monster-fdc project” - https://github.com/skiselev/monster-fdc 
• YouTube video for using a gotek - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTAWjtQPYF4 
• RGBtoHDMI - https://github.com/hoglet67/RGBtoHDMI 

References

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer 
• https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/pc25/pc25_birth.html 
• https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/pc25/pc25_reference.html 
• http://oldcomputers.net/ibm5150.html