Interview with Giacomo Vernoni, author Commodore Vic 20: A Visual History Hello and welcome to the Floppy Days Podcast.  I’m Randy Kindig, your host.  This is a special interview-only episode.  I was able to track down Giacomo Vernoni(Jockamo VERnoni), a computer historian who recently published a book called “Commodore Vic 20: A Visual History”.  As I’ve been covering the Vic-20 on recent shows, it thought it was very timely and that it would be great to interview someone who is very familiar with the machine and liked it well enough to publish a book about it.  It was awesome to catch up with Giacomo and talk with him for a little while. This interview took place on April 1st, 2017. Links:  Kickstarter -  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/958354463/commodore-vic-20-a-visual-history-hardback-book Giacomo’s site - www.oldcomputr.com Giacomo’s older Italian site - http://vecchicomputer.com 

Floppy Days 74 - Giacomo Vernoni, Commodore Vic 20: A Visual History

Technology

Tech News

Podcasting

Gadgets

Software How-To

History

Society & Culture

Post-VCF SoCal 2024 with Paul Nurminen Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors:   8-Bit Classics    Arcade Shopper     0 Floppy Days Tune 1 min 13 sec Vintage Computer Ads 1 min 43 sec Intro 2 min 53 sec bumper - Paul Nurminen 3 min 00 sec Discussion with Paul Nurminen 1 hr 20 min 00 sec Closing Hello, and welcome to episode 137 of the Floppy Days Podcast.  I’m Randy Kindig, the host of this show.  This episode is an adjunct to and follow up to the last episode (#136) of Floppy Days.  In that episode, which covered the Grundy New Brain, I alluded to the fact that in the “What I’ve Been Up To” section of the podcast, I was going to publish a separate episode just for that.  I did that because I don’t like to have episodes over about 90 minutes, and having this segment in that show would have pushed it well beyond that. So, for this episode I enlisted the aid of Paul Nurminen (aka Nurmix), who was also an attendee and exhibitor/vendor at the recent Vintage Computer Festival Southern California, to help me do a follow up discussion of that show.  We discuss our exhibits, other exhibits of note, our general thoughts about the show, and a whole lot more. I hope you enjoy this. Links   VCF SoCal - https://www.vcfsocal.com/     Intellivisionaries Podcast - http://intellivisionaries.com/    White Flag Computing - https://www.whiteflagcomputing.com    Episode 83 of Floppy Days about the Intellivision Keyboard Component with Paul Nurminen -  https://floppydays.libsyn.com/floppy-days-83-the-intellivision-keyboard-component    1090XL expansion unit and 320K RAM board - reifsnyderb     Discussion -  https://forums.atariage.com/topic/333084-swutils-simcheck-simtest-osdump/    Purchase -  https://www.tindie.com/products/5cfab/1090xl-modernized-reproduction-main-board/     The VintNerd - https://thevintnerd.com/index.html    Mega65 - https://mega65.org/    10-Minute Amiga Retro Cast - https://www.youtube.com/c/10MinuteAmigaRetroCast    Aquarius+ computer -  https://forums.atariage.com/topic/352635-introducing-the-aquarius/   

Floppy Days 137 - Post-VCF SoCal 2024 with Paul Nurminen

Grundy NewBrain Peripherals thru Web Sites with Chris Despoinidis Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors:   8-Bit Classics    Arcade Shopper     0 Floppy Days Tune 1 min 13 sec Vintage Computer Ads 1 min 42 sec Intro 5 min 17 sec bumper - Chris Espoinidis 5 min 28 sec New Acquisitions 6 min 33 sec bumper - Gerald McMullon 7 min 16 sec Upcoming Computer Shows 12 min 01 sec bumper - Steve O’Hara-Smith 12 min 27 sec Peripherals 22 min 37 sec Using the Machine 33 min 14 sec User Groups/Newsletters 38 min 36 sec Books & Manuals 41 min 47 sec Software 44 min 11 sec Ads 46 min 45 sec Modern Upgrades 51 min 43 sec Emulation 59 min 07 sec Buying One Today 1 hr 02 min 52 sec Community 1 hr 04 min 50 sec Current Web Sites and Videos 1 hr 12 min 45 sec Closing Hello, and welcome to episode 136 of the Floppy Days Podcast.  I’m Randy Kindig, the host of this show, and I’ll be your guide to a journey back to the year 1982, when a very interesting, low-cost machine entered the market in Great Britain.  This is the final episode on the Grundy New Brain, not a well-known machine, most particularly here in the United States where very few have even heard of it; let alone ever owned one. If you want to know more, I’ve recently published interviews with John Grant, Steve O’Hara-Smith, and Gerald McMullon concerning their involvement with the New Brain back in the day.  I also, in the most recent episode, discussed tech specs around the machine with my co-host. Regarding that, in that last episode, to help me talk about the machine, I enlisted Chris Espoinidis to co-host this episode.  Chris manages the New Brain Emulator site from his home in Greece.  Even though Chris created one of the premier New Brain emulators in existence, and that was the primary focus of his Web site initially, his site has become one of the best places (along with Gerald McMullon’s Website) to get any and all New Brain information (which quite honestly is quite sparse). The focus of this last episode detailing the machine, Chris and I will cover things like peripherals, Web sites, books & magazines, software, using the machine, emulators and all of the topics that have become the standard for machine coverage on Floppy Days.  This episode will complete all the details we know on the New Brain, with the intent to impart every bit of information to you that I could find about this little-known machine. Before we do that, I will talk about upcoming shows. Upcoming Shows   Interim Computer Festival SPRING - March 23rd and 24th, 2024 - Intraspace, Seattle, WA - https://sdf.org/icf/    Midwest Gaming Classic - April 5-7 - Wisconsin Center, Milwaukee, WI - https://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/    VCF East - April 12-14, 2024 - Wall, NJ - http://www.vcfed.org    Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 13-14 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - https://indyclassic.org/    The Commodore Los Angeles Super Show - April 13-14 - Burbank VFW Hall, Burbank, CA - https://www.portcommodore.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=class:start     VCF Europa - April 27-28, 2024 - Munich, Germany - https://vcfe.org/E/    The 32nd Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! - May 4-5, 2024 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago-Carol Stream (Wheaton), Carol Stream, Illinois - https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/    VCF Southwest - June 14-16, 2024 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at UT Dallas - https://www.vcfsw.org/    Boatfest Retro Computer Expo - June 14-16 - Hurricane, WV - http://boatfest.info    Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 22-23 - Old Rainier Brewery Intraspace, Seattle, WA -  https://www.portcommodore.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=pacommex:start    Kickstart Amiga UK Expo - June 29-30 - Nottingham, UK - https://www.amigashow.com/    Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 19-21,  2024 - Atlanta, GA - https://gameatl.com/    VCF Midwest - September 7-8 - NEW VENUE TBD - http://vcfmw.org/    Portland Retro Gaming Expo - September 27-29, 2024 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - https://retrogamingexpo.com/    Tandy Assembly - September 27-29, 2024 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - http://www.tandyassembly.com/    Chicago TI International World Faire - October 26, 2024 - Evanston Public Library (Falcon Room, 303), Evanston, IL - http://chicagotiug.sdf.org/faire/     http://chiclassiccomp.org/events.html    Facebook show schedule - https://www.facebook.com/VintageComputerShows/    Newsletters   NewBrain Online (Dutch/Netherlands) - https://retro.hcc.nl/newbrain/newbrain-online.html    Books and Manuals   books/manuals at archive.org - https://archive.org/search?query=grundy+newbrain    Modern Upgrades   NewBrain SD-Box    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G5fARz7HnM     https://newbrainemu.eu/new/download/nb-sd-card-box-v-2-circuit-diagram/     Emulation   NewBrain Emulator by Chris    https://newbrainemu.eu/new/download/newbrain-emulator-beta-4/    https://github.com/cdesp/NB-Emulator-V.3     Buying One Today   https://www.ebay.com/itm/325473049117 - $999 BIN (from Greece)   Grundy NewBrain Model AD.Complete with PSU, Manual, AZERTY !! Tested & Working!! - https://www.ebay.com/itm/334406491114 - 995 euro (from Netherlands)   untested, no power supply - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256162599251 - 449 pounds BIN (from UK)   Community   Forums    AtariAge -  https://forums.atariage.com/search/?q=grundy&quick;=1&type;=forums_topic&nodes;=116    Stardot -  https://www.stardot.org.uk/forums/search.php?keywords=grundy&fid;%5B0%5D=45     Current Web Sites/Videos   https://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/Museum/Grundy/    https://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/Museum/Grundy/gerald.php     https://web.archive.org/web/20160303192051/http://newbrain.hcc.nl/    https://www.newbrainemu.eu/    Article on NewBrain in Popular Computing Weekly (PCW) -  https://newbrainemu.eu/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_download/gid,99/Itemid,52/    Grundy NewBrain Model A repair     http://www.8bit-homecomputermuseum.at/repair/newbrain/newbrain.html     http://www.8bit-homecomputermuseum.at/repair/newbrain/newbrain_ad_repair.html     Series of videos on fixing the NewBrain from the Clueless Engineer - https://www.youtube.com/@Brfff/search?query=grundy    Several videos by Chris on using the emulator and many other videos - https://www.youtube.com/@CDESP072    NewBrain Robot Car - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T6mNi2ula4    References   history article by Gerald McMullen -  https://newbrainemu.eu/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_download/gid,96/Itemid,52/    https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/5291/Grundy-NewBrain-AD/     https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/8265/Grundy-Business-Systems/    https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=176    https://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/Museum/Grundy/index.php    https://www.theregister.com/2012/07/02/newbury_labs_grundy_business_systems_newbrain_is_30_years_old/     

Floppy Days 136 - Grundy New Brain Peripherals to Web Sites with Chris Espoinidis

Grundy NewBrain Tech Specs with Chris Despoinidis Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors:   8-Bit Classics    Arcade Shopper     0 Floppy Days Tune 1 min 14 sec Vintage Computer Ads 1 min 43 sec Intro 5 min 38 sec bumper - Chris Espoinidis 5 min 51 sec New Acquisitions 16 min 32 sec bumper - Gerald McMullon 17 min 15 sec Upcoming Computer Shows 21 min 26 sec bumper - Steve O’Hara-Smith 21 min 45 sec Interview with Chris Espoinidis 36 min 23 sec Tech Specs 1 hr 12 min 07 sec Closing Hello, and welcome to episode 135 of the Floppy Days Podcast.  I’m Randy Kindig, the host of this show, and I’ll be your guide to a journey back to the year 1982, when a very interesting, low-cost machine entered the market in Great Britain.  This machine, if you've been following the show, was the Grundy New Brain.  This is not a well-known machine, most particularly here in the United States where very few have even heard of it; let alone ever owned one. As you know, I’ve been hot on the trail of pioneers who were involved with development of this machine.  I’ve recently published interviews with John Grant, Steve O’Hara-Smith, and Gerald McMullon concerning their involvement with the New Brain back in the day. In this episode I move more into discussing details of the machine and its impact on the home and small business market in the 1980’s.  To help me talk about the machine, I was able to track down Chris Espoinidis and convince him to co-host this episode.  Chris manages the New Brain Emulator site from his home in Greece.  Even though Chris created one of the premier New Brain emulators in existence, and that was the primary focus of his Web site initially, his site has become one of the best places (along with Gerald McMullon’s Website) to get any and all New Brain information (which quite honestly is quite sparse). The focus of this episode, and the next, is to cover things like tech specs, Web sites, emulators and all of the topics that have become the standard for machine coverage on Floppy Days.  This particular episode contains an interview with Chris, and then goes into great detail concerning the technical specifications of the New Brain.  The next episode will cover all the other details, with the intent to impart every bit of information to you that I could find about this little-known machine. Before we do that, I will talk about new acquisitions and upcoming shows.  

Floppy Days 135 - Grundy New Brain Tech Specs with Chris Despoinidis

VCF SoCal 2024 Preview with Organizing Team Hello, and welcome to this bonus, interview-only episode of the Floppy Days Podcast.  My name is Randy Kindig; your host.  This episode is a discussion with most of the organizing team around the very first Vintage Computer Festival 2024 that is coming up February 17 & 18 in Orange, CA.  You’ll hear how the show came about, why the particular location and time were selected, and what you can expect to see at the show.  I’m excited to have a new VCF available in an area and time that should be fantastic to visit and be a part of. Note that this interview occurred on Dec. 5, 2023, and you’ll hear several references to the show being “2 and a half months” away. Links   VCF SoCal Website - https://www.vcfsocal.com/    VCF SoCal Organizers - https://www.vcfsocal.com/faq#organizers    The VintNerd Website (Steve and Micki) - https://thevintnerd.com/index.html    The VintNerd YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/thevintnerd    Matt’s YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@polymatt    Pathways to Invention Film (Levi) - https://pathwaystoinvention.org/    Southern AMIS Projects (Rob) - https://www.southernamis.com/    Video version of this interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y2zfRP8kyE&t;=9s     

Floppy Days 134 - VCF SoCal 2024 Preview with the Organizing Team

Grundy NewBrain History with Gerald McMullon Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors:   8-Bit Classics    Arcade Shopper     0 Floppy Days Tune 1 min 14 sec Vintage Computer Ads 1 min 43 sec Intro 6 min 33 sec bumper - Gerald McMullon  7 min 15 sec New Acquisitions 13 min 55 sec bumper - Steve O'Hara-Smith  14 min 13 sec Upcoming Computer Shows 17 min 26 sec Interview with Gerald McMullon 57 min 51 sec Closing Hello, and welcome to episode 133 of the Floppy Days Podcast for December, 2023.  I’m Randy Kindig, your host on this vintage computer retrospective. Hard to believe we’re coming up on the end of 2023.  It was Feb. 2013 when I took the first halting steps in producing a podcast, so we’re coming up on 11 years of Floppy Days very soon. We are currently covering computers that were released in the year 1982.  We are very early in that year, with lots of other computers to be covered. This episode is about a machine that was developed in the UK.  It was pretty much unknown in the United States and even in the UK didn’t get much traction.  The machine I’m talking about is the Grundy NewBrain.  There are a lot of unique things about this machine that you’ll discover through the history episode, these interviews and the episodes that cover the details. I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to contact a few people who were involved in the development of the machine.  I’ve published interviews so far with John Grant and Steve O’Hara-Smith.  This episode is also an interview episode, but this time with another key member in its development: Gerald McMullon.  Gerald has a lot of interesting information to share about the NewBrain, including information about its development and support of the machine after its release. I have been able to contact some other principals in the development of the NewBrain: Basil Smith and Mike Wakefield.  Unfortunately, Basil has had a lot of recent requests for interviews, so I’m waiting in line for that.  However, should I be able to talk with Basil and/or Mike, I will of course bring all of that to Floppy Days in future episodes. This current episode is the end of the interview episodes around the NewBrain at this point in time.  Next month, and actually likely the next 2 months, we will be covering the details of the machine such as tech specs, emulators, software, newsletters, peripherals, web sites, etc.  That will happen with a special co-host that I’m going to leave as a surprise for right now.   New Acquisitions   TI95 cassette interface - https://github.com/molleraj/ti95interface    AquariCart + 32K RAM - https://www.ebay.com/itm/124471439128    MC-10 3-button joystick pad - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzsGst8HAiI    Upcoming Computer Shows   Vintage Computer Festival SoCal - February 17-18, 2024 - Hotel Fera Events Center, Orange, CA - vcfsocal.com    Interim Computer Festival SPRING - March 23rd and 24th, 2024 - Intraspace, Seattle, WA - https://sdf.org/icf/    Midwest Gaming Classic - April 5-7 - Wisconsin Center, Milwaukee, WI - https://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/    VCF East - April 12-14, 2024 - Wall, NJ - http://www.vcfed.org    Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - April 13-14 - Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - https://indyclassic.org/    VCF Europa - April 27-28, 2024 - Munich, Germany - https://vcfe.org/E/    The 32nd Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! - May 4-5, 2024 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago-Carol Stream (Wheaton), Carol Stream, Illinois - https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/    VCF Southwest - June 14-16, 2024 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at UT Dallas - https://www.vcfsw.org/    Boatfest Retro Computer Expo - June 14-16 - Hurricane, WV - http://boatfest.info    Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 14-15 - Old Rainier Brewery Intraspace, Seattle, WA -  https://www.portcommodore.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=pacommex:start    Kickstart Amiga UK Expo - June 29-30 - Nottingham, UK - https://www.amigashow.com/    Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 19-21,  2024 - Atlanta, GA - https://gameatl.com/    Fujiama - July 23-28 - Lengenfeld, Germany - http://atarixle.ddns.net/fuji/2024/     Silly Venture SE (Summer Edition) - Aug. 15-28 - Gdansk, Poland - https://www.demoparty.net/silly-venture/silly-venture-2024-se     Portland Retro Gaming Expo - September 27-29, 2024 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - https://retrogamingexpo.com/    Silly Venture WE (Winter Edition) - Dec. 5-8 - Gdansk, Poland - https://www.demoparty.net/silly-venture/silly-venture-2024-we     http://chiclassiccomp.org/events.html    Facebook show schedule - https://www.facebook.com/VintageComputerShows/    Interview   Gerald’s Website - http://www.mcmullen.com    NewBrain Nutshell History by Gerald at Binary Dinosaurs - https://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/Museum/Grundy/gerald.php    NewBrain history article by Gerald in Micro Computer Mart newsletter -  https://newbrainemu.eu/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_download/gid,96/Itemid,52/     

Floppy Days 74 - Giacomo Vernoni, Commodore Vic 20: A Visual History

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