wgoodf

Something Psion – But I am not sure what.

@erazmus

This time, I’m scaling back a bit, and trying to answer a programming challenge that 15-year-old me posited in a 32-year-old magazine. Should be fun!

@PowerBook540

To make 2 HyperCard stacks. One for balancing my checkbook and the other one, flash cards for learning Morse Code. All on a PowerBook 540c.

@urbancamo

I recently aquired a Tandy TRS-80 Model 102. Possible goals for this month’s Retrochallenge include:

• Explore 8085 Assembly language programming.
• Investigate the feasibility of targetting the Model 100/102 with Small-C.
• Document the process of creating a custom ROM.
• Use the Model 102 to write at least some of the blog posts.

@buildboats

I will develop a Baseball game on Timex Sinclair 2068 (emulated and actual HW)
based on the 70=E2=80=99s 80=E2=80=99s board game Super Star Baseball from
Avalon Hill.

Cat’s Eye Technologies

Assume there is no programming environment available on the machine, write one *by hand*, convert it to machine code by hand, and enter that machine code into the (emulated, alas) machine *by hand*. Details TBD.

@brouhaha

Interface an old vector display to a modern microcontroller and write
or port a game

epooch

I have to keep my challenges simple this time:

• Retr0bright my recently revived (and upgraded) Macintosh 128K
• Add a few features to my ElWhip web server
• Mess around with an RS232 WIFI device on an old Macintosh

luddite

Against my better judgement (and probably much to the chagrin of serious retrocomputists the world over) I’ve decided to have another crack at this RetroChallenge thing that everyone’s going on about…

I’ll be resurrecting an earlier failed challenge, to whit: bringing life to my currently dead Apple IIe web server. Wish me luck!

Paul Robson

My entry this half-year is called simontosimon.

Basically I’m going to reverse engineer Ralph Baer’s Simon code and write an emulator for it for the AVR powered Sparkfun Simon kit.

Andy Collins

I shall be doing “Something programmy” for the Sharp MZ-700 but don’t know what yet.

Earl Evans @RetroEarl

For this summer’s Retrochallenge entry, I’ll be writing a Forth interpreter for the Commodore 128.

Mike Spooner @ShellDozer

Still not sure what to do… but let’s see what turns up.

John Linville @JohnWLinville

So, for my RetroChallenge 2015/07 project I will be exploring some hardware possibilities for CoCo cartridges that might be interesting for games in particular. This will include both some existing (i.e. documented) circuits and hopefully some new ones as well.

z0m8ied0g @z0m8ied0g

Creating a portable BBC Master Compact.

@oldcomputerclub

To write a game for the Acorn Electron using the built in BASIC and optionally in-line 6502 assembly.
I don’t know what the game will be yet except that it will work with paddles and be mainly two player.

XQWV

I intend to resurrect some old mobile computers and their programming environments. I’ll also make updates to some previous projects.

Terry Stewart (Tezza)

Re-coding classic-computers.org.nz for Mobile (and modern browsers)

Google has told me my classic-computers.org.nz website is not mobile-friendly. They are right. My HTML skills are about as vintage as my machines. My HTML stopped at about version 2.0 and my code uses lots of tables for layout, minimal css, has never heard of “containers” and makes almost no use at all of the ‘div’ tag.

My challenge is to completely re-code classic-computers.org.nz to HTML 5 standards while also making it suitable for mobile platforms. I’ve already dipped my toe into the water with one part of the site (the collections…which at least is now mobile friendly) but the code is still largely legacy. It’s a big job and I may not get through it. This challenge will at least help me focus.

MFLOPS

Mattel Electronics Football – create a 6502 version for Commodore/MOS KIM-1

Anders Carlsson @anderszapac

I’ll replace the power supply in my BBC Micro, replace caps and install a CF card on an Amiga 600, fix some cables, play some PET games, take on some of the tasks I haven’t finished in previous challenges and so on.

@yorgle

I’m honestly not sure what I’m going to work on… I do have a KIM Uno that I keep pretending to want to work with. Maybe I’ll figure out doing a vi-like text editor for it, or perhaps make a SD card interface for it… or both.

Some other thoughts;

Another project I was considering was a “bare metal c64” project. Start with a C64, 1541 drive, some blank floppies, manuals, and nothing else. First make an assembler, then a text editor, then a file
manager system, gui, paint program, etc… start with nothing, end with a GEOS-like user interface system. I know very little 6510 currently, and i know i don’t have the time for this, but it is on my
radar.

I’ve also been talking with others in my local hackerspace, Interlock Rochester (I’m the president! about building our own retro-styled computer… using an AVR or Propeller at the core. I’d of course be emulating a 6502 on it to fit with this contest. We’re talking about making it modular (cpu modules, video modules, keyboard modules, sd card modules, etc.) and selling kits for it. This of course does not fit within the rules of the RetroChallenge, but I feel it fits with the heart of it. That said, it’s likely not going to happen for a while.

Interlock is @interlockroc on twitter and our sister space (all female hackerspace for Rochester NY), @ada_space is also getting in on the twitter love too!

@minus56bits

I recently aquired a Commodore CBM 8296-D and the goal for my first RC entry will be to build some kind of graphic extension for this computer, where ‘graphic extension’ is a hardware that can display at a resolution of at least 240 x 240 pixel on the internal 12″ monitor (aka framebuffer controller). Stretched goal if there is some time left: Integrated software routines for tasks like ‘set pixel’, ‘draw line’, ‘print character’ (aka graphic processing unit) and a simple interface to access the new hardware from CBM BASIC via POKE commands or so.

halfbit

I’d like to attempt to spend some time investigating methods of getting games onto one of my Sinclair Spectrum, without resorting to cassette tape. I know there are a number of potential methods out there, so its nothing particularly original or inventive, but I’m hoping to make a concerted effort to give some of the options a try and finger crossed I’ll find ones that are cheap and easy.

Adam Green

It has been awhile since my last Retrochallenge and I think it is high time that I do something retrocomputer related again. I am currently busy with other hobby projects this year but I would still like to take some time to start getting back up to speed on the computer which started it all for me back in 1983, the TRS-80 Color Computer 2. The main goal of this Retrochallenge for me will be to dream up new CoCo2 software/hardware projects to work on for future Retrochallenge competitions.

April and Melody Ayres-Griffiths

During July we plan on getting around to upgrading tapDancer ( href=”http://tapDancer.info”>http://tapDancer.info) with seek controls, Apple II support, in-TAP searching, and whatever else comes to mind… (also maybe port it to Windows 10…?)

Coronax @coronax_cj

I’m going to be continuing from one of my entries last year, and doing more 3d graphics stuff on the Amiga 500.

Paolo Poletti

I will be programming on both a TRS-80 Model 100 and a Commodore 64/128. I will be working primarily in BASIC with some machine language subroutines to aid in the creation of an original fantasy text based RPG.

Harry Culpan

My challenge is to write a text-based game in Fortran on a PDP-8 emulator.

Paleoferrosaurus

My project this time is simply to organize my computer junk, find something useful to do, and enjoy everybody else’s project.

@atari8bitgames

Rob will be ‘hacking the classic Star Raiders game on the Atari 8-bits to prevent the slowdowns during the explosions.’

kd0rg

I am going to modify and upgrade an amateur radio logging program written in Atari basic. When finished I hope to be able to use the program along with my vintage 1980 radio in an amateur radio contest.