F-15 Strike Eagle II: The Origin Story

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The author recounts their early 1990s experience with the MS-DOS game F-15 Strike Eagle II, a 1989 flight simulator that sparked their passion for aviation and computing. Over the years, they learned programming and assembly language, leading to a current project to reverse-engineer and reimplement the game’s original engine in a high-level language while maintaining compatibility with original assets. The author plans to document this effort publicly, seeking collaborators, and emphasizing a faithful, bug-for-bug recreation rather than a remake.

https://neuviemeporte.github.io/f15-se2/2022/06/05/origins.html

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A Brief Tour of the PDP-11, the Most Influential Minicomputer of All Time

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The PDP-11 minicomputer, introduced in 1970 by Digital Equipment Corporation, significantly impacted computing by popularizing interactive computing and influencing modern hardware architecture, operating systems, and programming languages. It notably contributed to the development of the UNIX operating system and the C programming language, with its elegant 16-bit architecture and assembly programming features fostering flexibility and efficiency in software development. The PDP-11’s widespread use in various critical systems and its long commercial life underscore its profound legacy in computing history.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/03/a-brief-tour-of-the-pdp-11-the-most-influential-minicomputer-of-all-time/

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Show Your Hands Honor for the Strange Power They Bring You

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The article explores the historical evolution of keyboard design and interaction, emphasizing how human finger capabilities often outpace software responsiveness. It highlights the importance of designing interfaces that respect the speed and independence of finger movements by minimizing latency, optimizing feedback, and carefully managing buffering and loading states to create a seamless, “finger-time” experience. Integrating lessons from early typewriters, modern UI design must honor motor memory and overlapping finger actions to enhance productivity and user satisfaction.

https://aresluna.org/show-your-hands-honor/#canon-cat

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Soldering My Way to 1MB

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The Atari ST, launched in the mid-1980s under Jack Tramiel’s leadership, offered affordable and powerful computing with a Motorola 68000 CPU, a graphical desktop, and notably built-in MIDI ports that attracted musicians and developers alike. The author recalls personally upgrading their 520ST by soldering extra RAM chips onto the motherboard, doubling its memory and extending its lifespan, highlighting the machine’s hands-on, user-friendly nature. Although it never achieved widespread success in the U.S., the Atari ST remains a significant and nostalgic computer for its era, especially in music production.

https://www.macsparky.com/blog/2026/06/soldering-my-way-to-1mb/

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AmigaOS 2: The Greatest Upgrade

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AmigaOS 2, released alongside the Amiga 3000 in the early 1990s, marked a major advancement over the original 1.x series by improving system stability, speed, and usability. It introduced a standardized GUI toolkit with a modern 3D look, enhanced file management features, modular preferences, and new developer frameworks such as BOOPSI and ARexx scripting, greatly expanding the platform’s functionality and ease of development. While some beloved features, such as the Guru Meditation error message and speech synthesis, were removed, AmigaOS 2 significantly modernized the user experience and prepared the Amiga line for the 32-bit computing era.

https://datagubbe.se/os20up/

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What Was Nice About the UI of Windows 2000

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The Windows 2000 UI is praised for its clear, consistent visual design featuring distinct buttons, 3D relief effects, always-visible scrollbars, and well-grouped options that provide immediate, intuitive visual feedback. Its icons and font rendering helped users quickly identify interactive elements and navigate the system easily, contrasting with modern flatter, less obvious interfaces. Despite running slowly on minimal hardware, Windows 2000 offered a balanced, functional, and offline-capable UI that emphasized usability and clarity.

https://movq.de/blog/postings/2026-06-16/0/POSTING-en.html

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I Love the Computer

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Michael Enger reflects on his lifelong passion for computers, starting from his childhood encounter with a 1990s IBM 486 running Windows 3.0, through his immersion in early tech magazines and the pre-Internet era, to his deep engagement with programming and online exploration. He discusses how computers shaped his identity and career amid shifting tech cultures, lamenting the current commercialization and gatekeeping of technology while remaining hopeful about grassroots, decentralized alternatives and his enduring love for computing.

https://michaelenger.com/blog/i-love-the-computer/

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Windows 1.0 and the WinAPI, 40 Years Later

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The article describes an experiment in building a game for Windows 1.0 using the original WinAPI and development tools from the mid-1980s. By recreating software with the first Windows programming interface, the author shows that many core concepts of Windows development—message loops, event handling, windows, and graphical APIs—were already present in the earliest release and have remained remarkably stable for four decades. The main point is that the longevity of the WinAPI demonstrates an unusual level of backward compatibility, allowing software concepts introduced in 1985 to remain recognizable and relevant in modern Windows development.

https://medium.com/@stassaf.uae/windows-1-0-and-the-winapi-40-years-later-abaf64832918

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Online Playable Commodore 64 Games

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This webpage offers an extensive collection of classic Commodore 64 games that can be played online directly in a browser. It features a wide variety of iconic titles such as Prince of Persia, Impossible Mission, Bubble Bobble, and many others, preserving the retro gaming experience for enthusiasts. The site serves as a convenient platform to revisit and interact with vintage C64 games without requiring original hardware or emulation software.

https://c64.krissz.hu/online-playable-games/

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