Floppy Days 123 - Amiga 1000, Parceiro and Podcast Tenth Anniversary!

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors:

• 8-Bit Classics 

• Arcade Shopper  

Welcome to episode 123 of Floppy Days for February, 2023, where classic computers are all the rage and we lovingly take you back to the days when computers were simpler and we were younger.

This is a special show for me, because this month (Feb. 17 was the publish date) marks the 10th anniversary of publishing this podcast!  Man, oh, man, where has the time gone?!  This podcast itself has become vintage, depending on your definition of vintage.

My original intent was to continue the coverage of the ZX Spectrum this month, but my special co-host for that show was unable to record this month.  I decided this was the perfect opportunity to have a special show to in some way commemorate the 10-year anniversary. My co-host and I have scheduled the recording for the Spectrum show for early March, so I’ll publish that as early in March as I can.  In the meantime, for this show I wanted to talk about how the show has changed and grown over the years and what my plans are for the future.

I apologize for not having one of my two typical formats (machine coverage or interview)  for this show.  Not to worry though, I’ve got what I think is an interesting story around my recent work to test and set up some Amiga 1000s that have come my way; including some information about a great upgrade for the A1000 called Parceiro II.

I do also want to mention that I now have some show sponsors for Floppy Days.

https://www.8bitclassics.com, run by my friend Corey Koltz, is a great place to get vintage computer items.  This includes video cables, power supplies, PC boards, cartridges, upgrades and more for a wide variety of vintage computer platforms.  In the New Acquisitions section I cover each month on this show, often one of the items I talk about has been ordered from 8-Bit Classics.  Corey has been a friend of the show for some time and I really appreciate his support of the podcast.  Check out the site… he has some great stuff.

https://www.arcadeshopper.com, run by my friend Greg McGill, is another terrific site to get vintage computer items.  Greg has a wide variety of hard-to-find items for a large number of platforms.  This is another site that I do and have done a lot of shopping at and have mentioned numerous times on Floppy Days.  If anything shows out of stock, just ping Greg through the contact form and he can check whether he has or can get more of the item for you.

I also wanted to mention those listeners who appreciate the show enough to donate through patreon.com.  This includes Chris Petzel, Tony Cappellini, laurens, Richard Goulstone, Josh Malone, Andy Collins, Simon McCullough, Jason Moore, Quentin Barnes.  I really appreciate you guys and it helps offset the cost of running the podcast.

On a sad note, one other thing I wanted to talk about was the passing of a good friend in the community, James Shackel (aka Airshack).  James passed from this earth in January of this year due to illness, and it was a shock to me to realize I would no longer have James to talk to.  James came from the TI community, but was interested in a lot of the vintage machines.  Over the years, I traded a Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2A to him for a TIPI network card for the TI99 and James sent me things numerous times, such as books or software.  Most recently, just 3 months ago, I traded a Commodore 128 to him for an Atari 1200XL he had.  He also had been a patreon donator for Floppy Days for some time.   He pinged me all the time to discuss ANTIC or Floppy Days or just to let me know about some new vintage computer thing he came across.  I saw James at Tandy Assembly in October last year, just the second time I had ever seen him in person, but he never told me he was ill.

James had a singular sense of humor and I will miss it, and him, very much.  It reminds me that we need to appreciate the people around us while we can, as we don’t know how long they will be around.  James, I will truly miss you. 

Ok, let’s get on with the show.  I hope you find something interesting out of this episode.  Here’s to 10 more years of Floppy Days!

Intro

• James Shackel passed away - https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/james-shackel-obituary?id=39585348 

New Acquisitions

• computer trading cards - https://www.8bitkick.cc/home-computers.html 

• Yamaha MSX AX-150 Computer - https://www.msx.org/wiki/Sakhr_AX-150 

• memory mapper + SD card interface - Arcade Shopper 

• Amiga 1000 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_1000 

• Parceiro II by David Dunklee:

• https://bytecellar.com/2021/12/13/parceiro-an-extraordinary-upgrade-for-amiga-1000-users/ 

• [email protected] to order one

Upcoming Shows

• Midwest Gaming Classic - March 31-April 2 - The Wisconsin Center, Milwaukee, WI - https://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/ 

• VCF East 2023 - Apr 14-16, 2023 - InfoAge Science and History Museums, Wall, NJ - https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/ 

• The Commodore Los Angeles Super Show - April 15-16, 2023 - Burbank VFW Hall, Burbank, CA - https://www.portcommodore.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=class:start 

• 31st Annual “Last” CocoFest - April 22-23, 2023 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago, Carol Stream, IL - https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/ 

• Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 29 & 30 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - https://indyclassic.org/ 

• Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 24-25 - “Interim” Computer Museum, Seattle, WA - https://www.portcommodore.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=pacommex:start 

• KansasFest, the largest and longest running annual Apple II conference - July 18-23, 2023 - Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri - https://www.kansasfest.org/ 

• Southern Fried Gaming Expo - July 28-30 2023 - Atlanta, GA - https://gameatl.com/ 

• Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 13-15, 2023 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - https://retrogamingexpo.com/ 

• http://chiclassiccomp.org/events.html 

10th Anniversary Special Content

• OldComputers.net timeline - http://oldcomputers.net