Hello, welcome to Floppy Days Podcast #55.  This a special interview show to help get the word out about an upcoming event: Vintage Computer Festival Southeast version 4.  My special guest is Earl Baugh of the Atlanta Historical Computing Society.  He tells us all about the event, including special guest speakers that will be there, exhibits, gaming areas, a workshop where you can learn to solder and much more.  If you can make it to Roswell, Georgia, the weekend of April 2 & 3, 2016, I highly recommend that you drop in and enjoy the show.

Links

VCF East 4.0 - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-southeast-4-0/

Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/302393381/help-fund-the-vintage-computer-festival-southeast-1 

Hello and welcome to a special episode (#54) of the Floppy Days Podcast.  For this episode, I am announcing involvement in a new podcast that I’m very excited about.  Peter Cetinski, a well-known figure in the TRS-80 community as a result of some great software that he’s written for the platform, contacted me and others about doing a podcast about the TRS-80 line.  This is a major line of historically significant computers and has sorely needed its own podcast.  I wanted to help kick off the new podcast and promote it, so I invited all the members of the podcast to come onto Floppy Days and talk about it.  Please enjoy.

Links

This is a special interview-only episode.  I’m very happy to announce that my special guest for this show is Don French, co-designer of the TRS-80 Model I computer and long-time Tandy employee.  Don has a long and storied history with Tandy.  The TRS-80 Model I, the machine that saved Tandy and spawned a long line of historically significant computers, was his brainchild.  He worked closely with Steve Leininger to develop the Model I.  In addition, you’ll hear that he worked with Bill Gates, Paul Allen and many other giants of the microcomputer industry.  I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed talking with Don.

Links

Welcome to episode 52 of the Floppy Days Podcast where we talk about our beloved old computers like some guys talk about their old cars.  I’m Randy Kindig.  I want to thank Michael Glaser for providing his thoughts and memories of the TI-99 computer.  No, this hasn’t suddenly turned into a TI-99 podcast.  However, this IS the fourth in a series of what now will be 5 episodes on the TI-99/4A home computer.  There just turned out to be so much material on this very interesting machine and so much interest in the community, that this turned out to be quite an extended series.  Having already covered history and technical topics on previous episodes, I had originally intended this episode to cover everything from software and magazines to Web sites, but by the time my co-hosts and I had gotten through the material it turned out to be over 2 hours of audio and I decided to break it into 2 parts.  This episode will cover TI-99 software, books, magazines, ads and user groups while the next one will cover emulation and Web sites.  My very special co-hosts for this episode are two more luminaries in the TI-99 community: Chris Schneider, who produces the SHIFT838 newsletter and Rich Polivka, who manages the popular 99er.net Web site.  They provide a very interesting perspective on the TI-99 and I think you will enjoy this show.

One final thought.  It was 3 years ago this month, on Sunday, Feb. 17, that I posted the very first episode of Floppy Days.  It’s incredible to think that here we are 51 episodes later, still going strong.  I was new to the podcasting game at that time, unsure how well the show would be received or if anyone would care, but determined to do this because it seemed like a tremendous amount of fun to learn about all the old computers from the 70’s and 80’s.  I’ve been blown away by the interest and support from the community and have made an awful lot of friends along the way.  I honestly and deeply want to thank everyone who helped me produce this show, provided an interview, or simply provided words of encouragement.  Who would have thought that there would be 1,000 or so geeks like me out there who would care enough about old computers to listen to me ramble on month after month.  All I can say, is thank you so much, and please keep listening because I have a lot of ideas for interesting shows for some time to come.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

New Acquisitions

News

Feedback

Interview With Co-Hosts

Magazine/Newsletters

Books

Software

The TI-99/4A - Tech Specs, Peripherals, Modern Upgrades with Tursi

This show is a continuation of the on-going series about the TI-99/4A computer.  In the last couple of episodes, I had TI-99 fans Jim Fetzner and Mark Wills on the show and interviewed them about their experiences with the TI-99 and then we covered the history of the machine.  In this show, I have a new co-host, Mike Brent, better known as Tursi or Harmless Lion, the creator of the Classic 99 emulator and so much more.  After a short interview with Tursi, we discuss the technical aspects of the TI-99, including the tech specs, peripherals, modern upgrades, and connectivity to modern computers.  It’s an information-filled show, so I hope you enjoy it.

Before we get into that, I’ll discuss a few new vintage computer-related acquisitions that have come my way, give you the scoop on upcoming shows, and share with you a few pieces of feedback I’ve received about the show from listeners.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

Intro

New Acquisitions

News

Upcoming Shows

Feedback

Interview with Co-host

Modern Upgrades/Connectivity

Reference

The TI-99/4A - History, with Jim Fetzner and Mark Wills

This is the second in a multi-part series on the TI-99/4A computer.  For this history segment, I was lucky enough to find a couple of people who have an incredible history with the TI-99, Jim Fetzner and Mark Wills.  Jim has an extensive, multilingual library of all things TI and possesses some very interesting hardware items related to the TI-99.  Mark is the author of TurboForth for the TI-99/4A and has been involved in the TI-99/4A scene pretty much since 1983.  He’s also English, living in the UK, so he has a rather British take on the home computer wars.  I will cover TI-99 history with the help of these two gentlemen.  I think you will find this very interesting!

Links Mentioned in the Show:

Intro

New Acquisitions

News

Feedback

History

The TI-99/4A - History, Interview with Jim Fetzner and Mark Wills

In the home computer timeline, I’m currently covering computers released in the era from 1979 to 1980.  Next up is the TI-99/4A.  When I went to research the TI-99 I found an incredible amount of information about the machine and an involved, vibrant community surrounding it.  As a result, I pulled in as many experts as I could find to be involved in providing information about this very interesting machine.  I got so much involvement, and found so much information, that I will be covering the TI-99 for the next several shows.  That will include the typical topics, such as history, tech specs, modern upgrades, emulation, Web sites and much more, as well as interviews with some TI luminaries.  As I typically like to cover the history of the machine first, that will be the topic of the first couple of shows.  For the history segment, I was lucky enough to find a couple of people who have an incredible history with the TI-99, Jim Fetzner and Mark Wills.  Jim has an extensive, multilingual library of all things TI and possesses some very interesting hardware items related to the TI-99, as you will hear.  Mark is the author of TurboForth for the TI-99/4A and has been involved in the TI-99/4A scene pretty much since 1983.  He’s also English, living in the UK, so he has a rather British take on the home computer wars.  Since the interview piece I typically do with the co-hosts before covering the main topic took so long and turned out to be so interesting in it’s own right, I decided to break out the interview into its own show and the next show will then cover just the TI-99 history with the help of these two gentlemen.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

Mark’s Forth for the TI-99/4A - http://turboforth.net

Tursi’s (Mike Brent) Website - http://harmlesslion.com

Classic99 TI-99 Emulator - http://www.harmlesslion.com/cgi-bin/showprog.cgi?search=classic99

F18A video upgrade - http://codehackcreate.com

SID Master 99 Card - Marc Hull - http://www.dsapsc.com/what-is-sid.html

ForTI - Forth-driven sound card - http://www.unige.ch/medecine/nouspikel/ti99/forti.htm

ninerpedia - http://ninerpedia.org/index.php/Main_Page

FTP Site at whtech.com - ftp://whtech.com/

Chicago TI International World Faire - http://www.chicagotiug.com/tiki-index.php?page=Faire

Welcome to a special interview-only episode of the Floppy Days Podcast.  For this show, we have an interview conducted by Kevin Savetz, interviewer-extraordinaire from the Antic Podcast.  Kevin conducted this interview 2 years ago.  Since the interviewee and topic are not Atari-related, but are very much vintage computer related, Kevin and I thought perhaps Floppy Days would be a good medium for publishing this interview.

Wayne Green, Computer Magazine Publisher

Wayne Green was founder of 73 magazine; Byte magazine; Kilobyte, which became Kilobaud, then Kilobaud Microcomputing; 80 Micro magazine for the TRS-80; Hot Coco for the TRS-80 Color Computer; Run for the Commodore 64, inCider magazine for the Apple II; and several other computer magazines.  

This interview took place over Skype on January 29, 2013, when I was doing research for a book about the very first personal computer magazines — Byte, Kilobyte, and Creative Computing. Although I've decided not to write the book, I am publishing the interviews that I did for them.

Wayne Green died on September 13, 2013, eight months after we did this interview.

Teaser quotes:

"Sharing is the big deal for me. When I find something fun, interesting, I have to share it."

"Steve Jobs ... I heard about the Apple computer so my wife and I stopped by to visit him. ... He took me out to the garage and showed it to me. He says, 'What do you think?' I said 'I think you've got a winner. There's a first computer conference is going to be in Atlantic City in two weeks. Be there.' He says 'Oh, I can't afford to fly.' I said, 'Take a bus. Be there.'"

"Amelia Earhart kept her plane at my dad's airport. ... I used to play in that when I was a kid. ... I'm one of the few people who knows exactly what happened to her."

Links:

Obituary:  http://www.arrl.org/news/ham-radio-publications-pioneer-visionary-iconoclast-wayne-green-w2nsd-sk

An article remembering Wayne: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2474900/windows-pcs/goodbye-wayne-green--and-thanks-for-the-memories.html

Wayne Green FBI file:  https://archive.org/details/Wanye_Green_FBI_FOIA_Request_Response

Kilobaud Microcomputing issues: https://archive.org/details/kilobaudmagazine

This episode is part 3 of a 3-part series on the Tandy Color Computer, also known as the CoCo.  I have special guest hosts to help me again this month: John Linville and Neil Blanchard of the “CoCo Crew Podcast”.  Join us as we discuss Coco magazines, books, software, modern upgrades, emulation, Web sites and much more. 

I also go over my new acquisitions, tell you about upcoming vintage computer shows and cover some podcast feedback.

Finally, we also have audio segments from no less than 4 different CoCo fans who share with us their memories and thoughts about the Tandy Color Computer.  Thank you to Michael Moore, Rick Adams, Jon Day, and Tony Cappellini for your contributions.

Note that Floppy Days now has a Facebook page where you can discuss the show or vintage computers in general.  Search for “Floppy Days” on Facebook.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

Intro

New Acquisitions/What I’ve been Up To

Upcoming Shows

Feedback

Magazines/Newsletters

Books

Software

Ads

User Groups and Shows

Modern Upgrades

Connectivity to Modern Computers

Emulation

Community

Current Web Sites

This episode is part 2 of a 3-part series on the Tandy Color Computer, also known as the CoCo.  I have special guest hosts to help me this month: John Linville and Neil Blanchard of the “CoCo Crew Podcast”.  Join us as we discuss Coco tech specs, peripherals and pulling it out of the box.

I also go over my new acquisitions, a short overview of VCF Midwest 10 that occurred on August 29 & 30, tell you about upcoming vintage computer shows and cover some podcast feedback.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

Intro

“CoCo: The Colorful History of Tandy's Underdog Computer” by Boisy G Pitre, Bill Loguidice - http://www.amazon.com/dp/1466592478/?tag=flodaypod-20

New Acquisitions

Atlanta Historical Computing Society (AHCS) - http://atlhcs.org/

HP-85B - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_series_80

VCF Midwest 10 - http://vcfmw.org/

Peter Bartlett’s Model I System Expander (MISE) - http://bartlettlabs.com/

Ian Mavric’s FreHD Hard Drive Emulator - http://ianmav.customer.netspace.net.au/trs80/emulator

News - Upcoming Shows

AmiWest 2015 - http://www.amiwest.net/ 10/14 - 10/18, 2015, Holiday Inn Express, Sacramento, CA

Chicago TI International World Faire - http://www.chicagotiug.com/tiki-index.php?page=Faire October 31, 2015, Evanston, IL

World of Commodore - http://www.tpug.ca/category/woc/ 12/4 - 12/6, 2015

VCF SE 4.0 - April 2-3, 2016

Interview

CoCo Crew Podcast - http://www.cyberears.com/index.php/Show/audio/6139