computer

GitHub – Antirez/c64-Hw-Simulator: Commodore 64 Hardware Simulator

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The c64-hw-simulator is a detailed pin-level hardware simulator of the Commodore 64 motherboard (ASSY 250407), allowing users to manipulate individual chip pins, pull chips from sockets, or open circuit elements to observe the resulting effects on the system’s behavior, including video output and signals. It models the board’s netlist and chip pin behaviors, integrating cycle-accurate cores for key chips and simulating electrical phenomena like drive strengths, floating nets with drift and noise, and power faults, enabling fault analysis and learning without risking real hardware damage. While comprehensive, the simulator runs slower than real time and does not simulate internal chip faults or analog components like the video output and power supply.

https://github.com/antirez/c64-hw-simulator

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The Holy Quinity of UNIX Workstations

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The article explores the author’s pursuit of collecting the final five commercial UNIX workstations produced by major vendors: the HP c8000 (PA-RISC/HP-UX), Sun Ultra 45 (SPARC/Solaris), SGI Tezro (MIPS/IRIX), IBM IntelliStation POWER 285 (POWER/AIX), and HP AlphaStation ES47 (Alpha/Tru64). These machines, released in the early 2000s, represent the last generation designed amid the decline of dedicated UNIX workstations, each embodying a unique approach in hardware and software development, but are rare, expensive, and challenging to obtain—highlighting a niche yet passionate aspect of retrocomputing preservation.

https://www.osnews.com/story/146092/the-holy-quinity-of-unix-workstations/

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Atari Collection & Benelux Online Archive

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Atarimuseum.nl is a comprehensive online archive and private collection dedicated to Atari hardware, software, and related materials, with a focus on the Atari Benelux region. The site features thousands of commercial and public domain Atari software releases, a wide range of Atari computers, consoles, peripherals, and extensive documentation including manuals, magazines, advertisements, and videos. It serves as a valuable resource for enthusiasts and historians interested in preserving and exploring Atari’s legacy in the Benelux and beyond.

https://atarimuseum.nl/

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Demoscene-Recomp

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Demoscene-recomp recreates classic PC demoscene productions from the early 1990s by recompiling their original DOS code to WebAssembly, enabling them to run in modern browsers with accurate hardware emulation. The project records executed CPU instructions of demos like Future Crew’s Unreal and Second Reality, Triton’s Crystal Dream II, and NoooN’s Stars: Wonders of the World, then recompiles them with precise timing and hardware models, preserving the original experience. Visitors can experience these historically significant demos smoothly, as they originally ran on VGA at 70 Hz, without any tracking or modification to the original release files.

https://treylorswift.github.io/demoscene-recomp/web/

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A Cray-1 Supercomputer Replica From 30 “Obsolete” Mac Minis

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Spain’s Museo de Historia de la Computación has created a full-scale visual replica of the 1976 Cray-1 supercomputer powered by a cluster of 30 Mac Minis from 2012, achieving over 1.3 teraflops through coordinated multi-core processing. The replica demonstrates the evolution from the Cray-1’s vector processing to modern parallel computing, using macOS Mojave with MPI for node communication, and employs a passive cooling design to maintain quiet operation. The museum plans to expand the cluster with newer Mac Minis to aim for inclusion on the TOP500 supercomputer list and offers the exhibit as a hands-on educational experience.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/a-cray-1-supercomputer-replica-from-30-obsolete-mac-minis/

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GitHub – Szabadkai/c64-Keyboard-Font: Photo-based Reconstruction of Classic Commodore 64 Keycap Lettering, with Desktop Fonts, Webfont, Editable Outlines, and a Specimen.

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The “c64-keyboard-font” project offers a photo-based reconstruction of classic Commodore 64 keycap lettering, providing desktop and web fonts along with editable outlines and a specimen. It recreates the original key legends, including PETSCII graphics, from a Central European Commodore 64 keyboard, with the font available under a public domain CC0 license for use and modification. The project includes an online preview, complete font packages, and detailed documentation about the PETSCII encoding and keyboard mappings.

https://github.com/szabadkai/c64-keyboard-font/

GitHub – Szabadkai/c64-Keyboard-Font: Photo-based Reconstruction of Classic Commodore 64 Keycap Lettering, with Desktop Fonts, Webfont, Editable Outlines, and a Specimen. Read More »

Computer Graphics: Past to Present

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Brendan Duncan’s “Computer Graphics: Past to Present” is an extensive, hands-on guide tracing the evolution of computer graphics from basic pixel manipulation to advanced real-time rendering techniques using WebGPU. The book builds knowledge step-by-step with interactive code examples in vanilla JavaScript, covering foundational topics like rasterization and 3D rendering, ray tracing and path tracing, GPU programming, and modern advancements such as global illumination and neural rendering. Designed for readers with basic JavaScript skills but no advanced math, it offers a practical pathway to understand both historical graphics methods and cutting-edge technologies.

https://taosengine.com/docs/graphics/

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Doom64 – Doom for the Commodore 64? Well Sort Of.. But It’s Still Impressive

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Developer Kweepa has released DOOM64, an ambitious demake of Doom for the Commodore 64, on Itch.io as the second installment of his planned id Software conversion trilogy. The game forgoes full texture mapping in favor of dynamic height changes and dithered shading on the C64’s text display, using custom tools and reworked PC shareware sprites, and is offered in versions optimized for both modern emulators and unmodified hardware.

https://www.indieretronews.com/2026/10/doom64-doom-for-commodore-64-well-sort.html

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The Tube Computer

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The Tube Computer is a modern 8-bit computer built from recycled 1950s vacuum tubes and germanium diodes, designed to run simple programs like an airship flight simulator or complex calculations. Its architecture uses only NOR gates, inspired by vintage designs like the IBM700 series, and emphasizes visible operation for educational purposes. The project, still in progress, highlights both the challenges and rewards of building and maintaining a large tube-based system, reflecting a blend of retro computing enthusiasm and personal storytelling.

https://www.thetubecomputer.com/

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Commodore Explains Its Modern Resurrection Isn’t “About Making Bank on Nostalgia” as Hardware Preservation Is Just as Important as Software Preservation

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Commodore officially relaunched in 2025 after years of fragmented ownership, making the iconic Commodore 64 hardware available again alongside new software like the Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection. The company emphasizes that its revival focuses not on profiting from nostalgia but on preserving both the classic hardware and software, highlighting the equal importance of maintaining physical devices as part of computing heritage.

https://frvr.com/blog/news/commodore-explains-its-modern-resurrection-isnt-about-making-bank-on-nostalgia-as-hardware-preservation-is-just-as-important-as-software-preservation/

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