Urbancamo

I have a KIM Uno to build, a custom hex keypad to interface, a load of seven segment LEDs to do something with and all this will have to relate to a VAX at some point

Michael Sternberg

Write a program in Noahsoft’s PL65, an exquisitely obscure programming language for the Atari 8-bit. The program will be a port of the modern-day Apple II game, Structris. The target platform will be an Atari 800 with 48k RAM.

Eric Smith

My RC2015WW project is to reverse-engineer and restore a 16-bit microcomputer (not minicomputer) that was sold in 1976, and design and build a memory upgrade and serial interface for it. If there’s time left after that, I’ll try to get Forth running on it.

How many people today would even believe that there had been such a thing as a 16-bit microcomputer in 1976?

I’ll leave the identity of the microcomputer a secret until the RC begins. Maybe someone will guess what it is.

Paleoferrosaurus

As usual, I’m looking forward to participation in the 2015/01 “Winter Warmup” or whatever it’s called. This year’s project will involve building a classic computer system from crap that I have laying around…

Dave Cheney

The task I have assigned myself is to revive a 1981 vintage revision 7 Apple II motherboard which I discovered in a box of parts while visiting my family last week. I have a vague memory that I got this board and some other spare parts in the mid 90’s, but beyond that its origin is a mystery.

z0m8ied0g

Not doing anything too ambitious this time as we have a baby due in February so I envision I will be fairly busy getting stuff done before then.
So I’m going to aim to get a network of BBCs running using Econet and hopefully setup my MDFS file server.

epooch

I seem to be able to get more done during the Winter Warm up than the Summer Challenge, so I am feeling ambitious. I still want to get a web server working on my Mac 128K, so that is my primary goal. I have renewed my interest in working on my 1991 Nissan, and interfacing with the ECU using the Nissan CONSULT protocol. It is a JECS microprocessor which is either a Motorola 6802 or 6303 equivalent. It isn’t the typical retro computer, but it seems to qualify.

Paul Robson

Remake Temple of Apshai/

wgoodf

TI-99: I hear that they are not very good. By the time they hit these shores, I think they had been discontinued State side. With that they don’t have a big presence here. The box is (metaphorically) wrapped and under the Xmas tree, so no playing until the 25th. No software, just the machine. But there is a reason i collect all those old magazines.TI

Rob Sayers

This time around I’m going to be taking a random Apple //e that I’ve had for years, and do something useful with it. I’ve had this idea floating around for a while of taking an Apple 2 and setting it up as a serial terminal for a nice desk decoration and distraction-free hacking environment, so I’m finally going to make that happen.

Conceited Jerk

This winter’s project will be the continuation of my summer project (building up my Toshiba T5200 386 portable) as well as trying to get my Tandy 2800HD to mate with my TRS-80 Model 4P (while my TRS-80 Model 100 takes notes).

Jim Gerrie

My project this year for the January Challenge will be to put the finishing touches on and write blog entries for two classic programs I am porting to the TRS-80 MC-10. The first is the Basic program “Rail: Switch the Railroad” by Chris Torkildson for the Commodore PET . The second is the Fortran program “Colossal Cave Adventure”, the original version by Will Crowther for the DEC mainframe. And if time permits I might be able to get a few more programming projects completed that I have on the back burner.

Sean Billings

I have decided to set myself the challenge of writing a game for the ZX Spectrum in BASIC. I will use the ZX Spectrum itself to develop with and the only new tech I will use will be a network interface that plugs into the back of the Spectrum allowing me to quickly save and load my BASIC code.
The finished article will then be made available as a type-in listing, and possibly cassette 🙂

mmphosis

My retro software challenge is to rewrite the Forest Fire 6502 assembly language code.

Daily Apple

My project will be to create a text adventure for the Apple // using Eamon, a text adventure system written in Applesoft. I have played several Eamon games and looked at writing one of my own several times over the years. This would be a chance to finally buckle down and write one.

My last Retrochallange project was a text adventure that I never finished, that I put on indefinite hold due only partly to some technical details. This project will be significantly smaller and hopefully more manageable.

coronax

I have another C64-based idea for Retrochallenge. This time around, I’m trying to interface wirelessly with a toy robot. It should be good fun.

Peter Jackson

For the 2015/01 Retrochallenge I plan to integrate some DEC kit and VMS more accessably into my general infrastructure. This may be a well-trodden path for some, but I expect the entertainment to be in the mistakes I make along the way. Documentation will be at RC.XQWV.ORG.UK as usual, with blogging at XQWV.LIVEJOURNAL.COM.

@ShellDozer

Replace a wilting SS10 PSU with an adapted modern PSU capable of providing the old-fashioned voltage/wattage needed

John Linville

My project will be an attempt to read and absorb “Assembly Lines: The Complete Book” with the goal of writing some sort of program for the Apple II series of computers. I’m not promising anything as good as Threshold. But if I succeed, then maybe I can go to KansasFest this year without feeling like too much of a poser!

BroadbandPig

Six months later and it’s time for another Retro Challenge. This time around, I’m going to do a bit of a hardware project. The state of Atari 8-bit emulation is really good – even down to running real SIO hardware on the emulated machine. But there’s one piece missing. A PC (or Apple) keyboard isn’t the same layout as the original Atari keyboard. I’m going to take Atari’s only 8-bit separated keyboard and build a USB adapter to allow it to be plugged into a PC and be used on one of the many Atari emulators out there. The keyboard I’m talking about is the one that came with Atari’s last 8-bit computer, the Atari XE Game System.

Vintage Volts

My entry is more of an excuse to play than to try something new with my retro computer. Recently, I joined in on the resurgent release of Elite:Dangerous for Windows, an intragalactic MMORPG of combat, exploration, and commodity trading. If you’re into simulating the perceived realities of space travel over one millennium from now, then I recommend the new Elite game.

Anders Carlsson

My plans for this challenge are none in particular. I will take on tasks as I find them and as time permits.
The first sub-challenge lies in finding a way to reuse PC compatible gamepads to some other system, see my first post.

Michael Mulhern

S-Basic – 3rd time lucky. I’m going to give this one another shot, and if I can’t complete it this time, I promise to find a new topic to try in 2015/07 “Summer Challenge”

Doug Crawford

I just cracked open a DOA Superbrain QD computer. At this point all I know is that the power supply has blown fuses. I’m hoping to fix it this month. What I read is that a Superbrain was at one end of the first Kermit session. So I want to get Kermit run on it, perhaps with a fresh build of the original software. thought for fun I’d see if I could enter it into the “competition” just to get a little more public and force me to keep on it. Its going to be tough cause I’ll be away for a week… unless I can take the power supply with me to work on!

Rockasoo

Porting the graphics from Super Mario Bros. 1 to the Commodore 64

VINTAGESOFTWAREFUN

I’m planning to start writing a PDP-11 simulator for the Raspberry Pi, and to make it more interesting will write it in ARM assembly language. I don’t expect to finish it in January, but hope to at least get a “hello, world” program working by then.

BleuLlama

1. I want to repair and upgrade my Sinclair ZX-81. Fix the keyboard matrix, Composite/TV out instead of RF, replace the power transistor and jack with a USB port for 5v power, upgrade the RAM internally…
2. I want to build my own KIM-UNO hardware while I wait for the kit to arrive… (I have some common-cathode LED displays, and the KIM-UNO uses common anode… not to mention that my keypad is the wrong arrangement, so some code will need to be hacked. 😉

Goran Devic

Goran is working on two retro-computing projects this month:

• The first one is a completely novel implementation of the Zilog Z80 CPU on an FPGA, architected from scratch and mostly using the low-level gates. I have reverse engineered portions of Z80 from microphotographs of a die, consulted other people who did the same, researched a number of sources and did tests to find out how the Z80 actually works and how it is internally designed and then I replicated it. This is not a functional (like T80) but architectural re-implementation: there is a sequencer, control unit, internal buses, ALU, registers and everything else that makes a CPU doing wonders! This is a blog that describes it: http://www.devic.us/hacks/z80-ground/
• The second part is using that same Z80 design to implement a Sinclair ZX Spectrum micro. One of the peripherals is a Kempston-compatible makeshift joystick to play games in style after you load them from a tape… This is a blog that describes it: http://www.devic.us/hacks/sinclair-zx-spectrum-z80/

Dave G4UGM

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Working on the TR-10 Analogue Computer