Subj : What's in your retro closet?
To   : Bob Worm
From : Nigel Reed
Date : Tue Feb 20 2024 10:07:59

  Re: What's in your retro closet?
  By: Bob Worm to Nigel Reed on Tue Feb 20 2024 08:57:44

 > Nice - I hated BBC micros in school, probably because I was never allowed on
 > them because I "already knew computers" but I saved one from a skip circa 20
 > years ago and, now I'm an old grunter, I've decided to explore it. It just
 > made it to my desk last night after a short stint in the repair area (the
 > loft). It's a good job it came in via the loft because the power supply
 > burnt up a RIFA capacitor which *stunk*... Anyway, it's awaiting a colour
 > composite mod and I will probably stick an ESP8266 serial-to-wifi inside it
 > for BBSing.

You never forget your first RIFA :) I think I pointed you to Mark at Retroclinic. He sells a recap kit so you don't have to go find those caps.

 > Have you done anything with the ROM sockets? I'm thinking of cobbling
 > together something with battery backed SRAM so I can choose which "ROMs" to
 > run at any given moment.

Yup, Mark also sells a multirom which includes some sideways ram so you can load images into memory.

A guy called Kent Lowe has recreated the Intigra-B board which contains a number of added ROM sockets and 4 banks of battery backed sideways ram + RTC. It's a touch on the expensive side. You can check it out here and see if he has any left for sale. It's a pretty easy install.

https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19392

 > I was going to suggest Vela's BeeBS board to you but I can see you already
 > found it :)

Oh yeah. I'm familir with it :)

 > Got: BBC B, Acorn A3020, Pentium I laptop (does that count? It's a real pain
 > finding an OS for it these days!)

You could always run FreeDOS on it or an early version of Slackware.

 > Want: Would love a C64 again, not a lofty goal, but having seen a YouTube
 > video recently where someone had new old stock of the C64 "Light Fantastic"
 > edition, which is what I had (or rather shared) as a kid... that would be
 > the absolute win.

Go for the win!

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