NYS Interactive

03/05/2025

This Atari 400 was dropped off for recycling recently. Sadly, someone cut the RF cable end. It does power on, and each key press registers a beep. I bet that a new cable will have this up and running in no time.

02/17/2025

In the 1980s, this little 12" monitor would have been a very desirable addition to anyone's setup. With both composite and RGB capibilities, one could have used this as a very high quality monitor for their computer and their Nintendo Entertainment System, when most people were stuck using the RF input on their consumer TV.

01/15/2025

A friend dropped this ADDS Regent 25 terminal off on my porch, today.

The terminal looks like it belongs in the Fallout TV show.

01/07/2025

I finally decided to swap out my Amiga 500 on the table for my Amiga 1000. With its internal Gotek and external floppy drive - system-modified to boot from it, with a key press - it was a little more usable than the 1000, but I already have an Amiga 1200 on the other side of the room, setup with tons of games.

The Amiga 1000 really does deserve to be on permanent display, next to my Commodore 128 DCR (soon). The 1000 was Commodore's first Amiga and with its ability to store the keyboard under the computer when not in use, it frees up a lot of desk space. Also, it's nice to have a fairly stock example of an Amiga. I have a lot of software on disk, so if I feel like having a more authentic Amiga experience, I can hop on this machine.

01/07/2025

Thanks to the generosity of a good friend, I am the proud owner of a very limited edition monitor that pretty much does it all - the Checkmate IPS Retro Monitor. My buddy Jon backed the Kickstarter, and as far as I know, only folks who backed the Kickstarter will have these monitors, for now.

With this monitor, you can hook just about any kind of retro computer or game console to this monitor. I need to get a SCART cable for my Amiga 600 here, but the PC, PS2, and ZX Spectrum work great with the monitor.

01/05/2025

I can't belive I forgot to highlight Retro Tech Chris's Youtube channel.

Here at RetroTech Chris, we're focused on vintage computers, including reviews, tours, and step-by-step tutorials to help vintage enthusiasts get their systems configured and up and running. Chris Lenderman has been lurking in the vintage computing scene for several years, and finally took the plung...

01/05/2025

I thought I would share some retro YouTube channels I enjoy and that have helped me get excited for the hobby, provide a solid education, and some seriously impressive how-to guides.

Give some of these a try.

LGR
Nostalgia Nerd
This Does Not Compute
The 8-Bit Guy
Action Retro
Adrian's Digital Basement
RMC - The Cave
Ctrl-Alt-Rees
Retrobytes
Modern Vintage Gamer
Long Island Retro Gaming
PhilsComputerLab
Jeremy Parish | Video Works
Into the Vertical Blank
Slope's Game Room
Gadget UK
GenXGrownUp
Jan Beta

01/01/2025

Tonight, 25 years ago, I was on an overnight shift at WSET ABC in Lynchburg, VA, waiting for the world to end. It was an "all hands on deck" moment. I was an engineer, which is a fancy way of saying IT monkey. None of us were surprised when nothing happened. Good times.

12/30/2024

What can an external midi/sound module do to enhance supported games? Take a gander at Doom, utilizing a Roland SC-88VL. These devices were intended for musicians to interface with midi instruments.

I also provided an example of midi files played through this device. The difference between this and a standard OPL is pretty remarkable.

12/29/2024

Bastian Tenbergen, you outdid yourself.

All three of these Macs you serviced (cleaned, recapped, cold solder joints fixed, and floppy serviced) work like new.

12/29/2024

Today's retro event was pretty fun. I had a good time learning about Cliff Conklin 's career at IBM and learned about Xbox development kits from Matthew StAngelo and his brother Robby.

Here is Cliff providing a little show and tell. Sadly, 2 minutes after this video was recorded, we were blessed with some magic smoke. It was still very cool and probably the first time I have ever seen anything load from an 8" floppy disk.

I look forward to doing this again, soon.

12/23/2024

I buttoned up this Power Macintosh G4 with Mac OS 10.5, dual G4 1ghz CPUs, 1 gigabyte of RAM, 250 gigabyte hard drive, Iomega Zip250 drive, DVD-RW drive, and an Nvidia Geforce4 MX video card. This is a pretty sweet machine.