[HN Gopher] Dick Smith's Wizzard-ry 8 (Bit)
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Dick Smith's Wizzard-ry 8 (Bit)
Author : zdw
Score : 102 points
Date : 2023-10-03 23:36 UTC (23 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.leadedsolder.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.leadedsolder.com)
| [deleted]
| defrost wrote:
| Dick Smith wasn't just about the electronics, he had a few other
| interests.
|
| https://www.wildernessshop.com.au/products/balls-pyramid-by-...
|
| https://dicksmithadventure.com.au/assault-on-balls-pyramid/
|
| These days its is essentially fly-by only unless you can get
| research related landing | climbing permission.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqQrWWpcT0I
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball%27s_Pyramid
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icJWq58_5QQ
| boffinAudio wrote:
| >I asked Cheshire if he had something to test with, and he just
| smiled and sent me a Sonic Invaders cartridge. I'm pretty sure
| that's how the song goes.
|
| LOL. Good one, mate.
|
| As someone who grew up with the Dick Smith Electronics Fun Way 1
| & 2 books, which were dog-eared and well-loved way into the 90's,
| it tickles me to no end that HN occasionally gets articles about
| this utter genius.
|
| And, as a retro-computing enthusiast it is very fun to see
| someone making the effort to produce a Wizzard clone. These were
| very much a 'crossover' type of device, where you could just use
| it to game, or learn to program - and it was definitely one of
| those 'make or break' situations - you either gamed, or you
| learned to program. A friend of mine had one - but he never
| programmed, because he hated the keyboard... whereas me, with my
| Oric-1 out there in the bush, had no access to any software - so
| I had to learn to program, whatever my issues with the chiclet
| keyboard.
|
| As a curator for a retro-computing museum, of course I'm biased
| but I think there is definitely a market for re-imagined 8-bit
| computers.
|
| Kids really benefit from digging into these systems and learning
| how the CPU really works, and 8-bit computers provide a really
| useful interface to this technology that isn't too overwhelming.
| We've built systems in the modern era that are so complex and
| overwhelming - returning to the simplicity of 8-bit computing
| really makes it a lot more accessible.
|
| I for one welcome re-imagined 8-bit computers being released to a
| new and eager market. I am constantly being asked where to get
| one of the machines in the museum collection - systems like the
| Fenix256 (another re-imagined 8-bit machine) and the MEGA 65 are
| very welcome new additions to this market, but we need to scale
| up.
|
| I could sell 4 of these machines a week, without even trying -
| categorically, kids go through my museum exhibit, playing with
| the old machines (we emphasize having access to the old machines,
| which still work, for people to have direct contact with the
| experience) .. and end up asking me where they can get their own.
| I'd _love_ to have the MEGA 65, ZX Spectrum Next, Fenix256 .. and
| maybe a reinvented Wizzard? .. to offer them on their way out ..
| RetroTechie wrote:
| Project described is very cool! Kudoz to Mike, the author.
|
| Personally I'd _never_ do a clone of an obscure system like
| that. Why? Clone a (once) popular system, and when it works,
| you 've got a wealth of software to run on it day 0.
|
| Including software useful during development like test ROMs,
| debuggers, assemblers, stuff that doesn't need keyboard input
| to show something (as mentioned in article), etc. And if that
| software comes as a known-good cartridge (or ROM), then if it
| doesn't work you know the problem is in the hardware.
|
| When clone works, project could be interesting to many others.
|
| Much value of any system is the library of software for it.
|
| Obscure system limits your options a great deal here. Custom
| design means doing _everything_ from scratch.
|
| Exception would be a tweaked version of popular system. Where
| eg. you could 'correct historical mistakes', simplify design,
| aid programming in some way, add modern type video output, etc.
| Then existing software would either work, or be easy to port.
| Like between systems with same CPU _and_ same video chip.
|
| Either that, or use a similar _concept_ as historic system, but
| then go all-in with modern features ( _much_ faster cpu, many
| MB 's of RAM, high-res graphics, flash storage, modern OS,
| etc). If done right, such a system can still have that
| nostalgic, tinker-friendly feel to it.
| boffinAudio wrote:
| I agree with you - but I think both the ZX Spectrum Next and
| the Fenix256 both comply with your last statement .. but with
| the added advantage that backwards compatibility (in the case
| of the Next) provides a plethora of existing titles - whereas
| the Fenix256 is just too damned cool not to write code for,
| from the get-go ..
| hcfman wrote:
| They were nice shops. Before that in Auckland we had John
| Gilberts electronics. Dick Smith's increased the availability of
| what you could get by quite a lot.
| lmpdev wrote:
| How did that compare to the current Jaycar/Altronics/etc
| offerings?
|
| I imagine a sleeping zombie
| glaucon wrote:
| Up until, say, 2005 they were pretty similar to current
| Jaycar but, I think perhaps after an acquisition, they
| started selling branded audio/computers etc and the geeky
| stuff gradually became less prominent. At some point they got
| bought by Australian Woolworths. The shops began to look more
| like mainstream "electronics" shops than Jaycar does now.
| Then the whole lot came tumbling down. The DS name and domain
| got sold off to a third party but the bricks and mortar just
| disappeared.
|
| When they went down the gurgler all the outstanding gift
| cards went with them (at least in NZ, Ozzie might have had
| better legislation), worth remembering that a branded gift
| card is an unsecured loan.
| ssss11 wrote:
| In Aus the Kogan acquisition was their tombstone. Dick
| Smith who started the company was a legend, it's a shame.
| Jaycar is the best electronics retailer we have now.
| lastyearmodel wrote:
| I'd probably only correct that Jaycar is the best brick
| and mortar electronics retailer we have now.
| aragilar wrote:
| No, was bad in AU too, see
| https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-05/dick-smith-enters-
| vol... and https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-05/dick-
| smith-receivers-....
| bentpins wrote:
| I have fond memories of Dick Smith. My dad bought my first
| soldering iron, along with some soldering projects (I
| remember the FM Wireless Microphone from here https://ia80100
| 2.us.archive.org/3/items/dicksmithsfunwayinto... ). You could
| tell the people creating the kits were really keen to share
| their love of electronics.
|
| You could buy loose components out of trays, and it seemed
| like they had a bunch more unusual adapters and gadgets that
| wouldn't interest a typical consumer. But they gradually
| became just a retailer for big brand items.
| boffinAudio wrote:
| Australian 80's hacker here .. Between Computer Age, TANDY
| Electronics, and Dick Smith Electronics shops, a budding
| early-80's hacker could get access to a _lot_ of technology to
| sharpen their teeth. I had many great times getting kicked out
| of TANDY only to cross the street to DSE and continue my
| hacking .. ;)
| pkaye wrote:
| I think we had a few Dick Smith Electronics shops in the US
| in the 80s. I seem to recall I went to one in the SF bay area
| when I was young.
|
| https://www.retroist.com/p/1982-commercial-for-dick-
| smiths-e...
| olliej wrote:
| I started electronics as a youngster with the Dick Smith's "Fun
| Way into Electronics" sets which were really great. They came
| with a board you could screw into to link components, etc and
| general introduction to everything involved.
|
| Internet archive has the books themselves archived:
| https://archive.org/details/dicksmithsfunwayintoelectronicsv...
| lmpdev wrote:
| Off topic:
|
| I'm a developer who got burnt out after a few years
|
| I currently work at one of Dick Smith's former competitors,
| Jaycar
|
| It's utterly bizarre working in such a company. The sheer range
| of backgrounds of the people you work with is immense
|
| I've met genuinely top of their field "between grant" astro-
| physicists and kids who wouldn't pass Year 12
|
| It's what I imagine working at RadioShack was like in the States,
| pre-mobile-phone-shoved-down-the-throat shenanigans
|
| The amount of proper engineering still done sourced with a
| 50-200% mark up in Australia is insane to me, but must make sense
| to someone?
|
| Also: the amount of life threatening work some customers are
| willing to undertake themselves confounds me. Even though I can
| show countless examples of people within 200km causing their, and
| their family's demise
| boffinAudio wrote:
| Australian 80's hacker kid, high school dropout, tuning in ..
| DSE and Jaycar were a constant source of enlightenment for me
| as teenager. I distinctly remember the smell of the Fun Way 1
| Electronics clearance basket, those delightful particle board
| layouts ..
|
| What do you mean by life threatening work at Jaycar?
| glaucon wrote:
| > Even though I can show countless examples of people within
| 200km causing their, and their family's demise
|
| Can you expand on this ? Do you mean their deaths, or some sort
| of economic suffering?
| lmpdev wrote:
| Dozens of people in Australia die every year from their own
| 12 or 230V wiring
|
| I actually find 12V worse. People then try to run mains
| equipment off it with high amperage and correspondingly high
| heat, causing fire and...
| ddeck wrote:
| _> Dozens of people in Australia die every year from their
| own 12 or 230V wiring_
|
| Do they? Your claim surprised me, so I did some digging:
|
| Not from electrocution certainly, because as of a few years
| ago [1], there were only about 5-6 unintentional
| electrocutions in the home each year nationally, and that's
| all cause, not DIY electrical.
|
| WRT fire, there are 4-5 deaths from preventable house fires
| annually caused by electrical faults (the leading causes
| being smoking and cooking) [2]. There is also a further ~1
| death per year categorized as "misuse of electrical
| equipment". It's not clear into which category DIY
| electrical would fall, but it's not mentioned at all in the
| report.
|
| [1] https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/2c37bd48-ee08-43d5-be1
| 1-f69...
|
| [2] https://www.bnhcrc.com.au/publications/biblio/bnh-5807
| tomhoward wrote:
| I'm a founder of an IoT product company, and whenever I'm in
| the middle of a new product build (including right now), I find
| myself visiting Jaycar frequently over several weeks. I've been
| there every day for the past 3 days. I have two branches within
| 20 mins of my house. It's a Godsend. An engineer in Canada I'm
| working with loves that when he is looking for a part we need
| for a device we're building, he can first see if Jaycar has it
| and if so I'll be able to get it easily. I use Core Electronics
| and Mouser quite a lot too but have to wait at least a few days
| for shipping. Being able to get so many essential items at
| short notice or on the way to an installation job makes my work
| so much easier. It seems to be a rarity in the world these
| days. So, thanks to you and the team!
| stephen_g wrote:
| As an electronics engineer in Australia I don't quite get what
| you're saying about proper engineering - can you elaborate?
|
| Are you talking about the markup on parts or how expensive
| Australian labour is? I assume the former since the average
| salary isn't massive and US engineers do better? (Although
| there are ways, like consulting which is what I do!)
| lqet wrote:
| When I access https://www.jaycar.com.au/ from Europe, I get a
| 503 on every page (although the website says its a 404: "Great
| Scott! Page Not Found... It looks like the flux capacitor has
| overloaded and sent the page you're looking for back to the
| past.").
| c0balt wrote:
| Interesting, I can access it from Germany. Maybe your ip is
| blacklisted or the server has a peoblem with your client.
| tomhoward wrote:
| The site seems "up" but showing the same 404 error page
| (Back To The Future - inspired) for most/all URLs.
| tomhoward wrote:
| The site is just down today (I can attest to this as I've
| been using their site to place orders most days for the past
| week - and to some degree the past few weeks - and only in
| the part 12-ish hours has it gone down).
| balou23 wrote:
| I get a "website down" message, and a neat little space
| invaders game to play. Quite neat actually, all in a 24kb
| html file without external dependencies of any kind
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