Welcome to my site … made by a homecomputer enthusiast of the 80s for just those and who are simply interested in it 😉
This is not only about the famous “bread box”, the Commodore C64, but generally about 8-bit home computers of the 80s … the time when we (now about 45/50 years old) had the first contact with computers.
So besides the Commodores, it’s also about the Schneider, Amstrad, Sinclair, Atari, Apple
So have fun exploring the site!
Franconian (so called people from a German region in upper Bavaria) are rather reserved and quiet people. They prefer the cozy social gathering over a glass of beer or wine and the greatest praise of a Franconian is: “Bassd scho!”
Today I would like to present you a PC from 1984 of a former computer manufacturer from Franconia – more precisely from Nuremberg, the metropolis of Middle Franconia. It is the TA alphatronic PC from the company Triumph-Adler, a Z80 based 8-bit computer with 64 kB RAM, 32 kB ROM and integrated Microsoft Basic.
You can definitely compare the computer with the features of the Franconian: The PC has a simple, straight-lined case shape and it comes across rather inconspicuous and reserved. On the other hand, it impresses with its workmanship and inner values. A Franconian would say: “Bassd scho!”.
Continue reading “TA alphatronic PC – A pretty German Personal Computer”
The Tandy Color Computer is indisputably a gaming machine. There are also large software archives for it on the Internet. But many games need a joystick. Unfortunately the CoCo has a different joystick connector than the Ataris and Commodores and therefore CoCo joysticks are hard to get today. I was also looking for a way to use my joysticks from the C64 or ATARI for the Tandy Color Computer. I found a build instruction for a simple adapter board on this page: https://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-tandy-1000-digital-joystick-adapter.html
You can buy ready-made adapters on eBay, but since the construction of the circuit didn’t look very complicated and the parts were available for a few Euros, I decided to build one myself.
Continue reading “Joystick Adapter for Tandy Color Computer”The Commodore VC-1520 is a compact roller plotter with small ballpoint pens in four colors (black, blue, green, red) and a speed of 12 characters per second on average, with a maximum of 80 characters per line. The character count in CBM-ASCII mode is 96 characters and in plotter mode a maximum of 260 steps per second. The plotter prints on roll paper (cash register roll) with 114 mm width (96 mm printable), which is fixed on a spindle outside the plotter. The plotter mechanism comes from the company Alps Electric and was also used in other devices, such as the Sharp MZ-731 or Olivetti M10.
Sometimes it can be worthwhile to help with a move! As an active member it was clear for me to help when the office manager of the BN district group Bamberg asked me. After all, the move only took place within Bamberg. Out of a quaint old town apartment in Sandstraße, home to many pubs, bars and the famous smoked beer brewery “Schlenkerla” in the middle of the beautiful world cultural heritage.
As is well known, the great success of the C64 from the mid-80s onwards was based on its revolutionary sound and graphics capabilities, making it the ideal gaming console. Due to its low price, which was based on the philosophy of Jack Tramiel, founder and head of the company Commodore Business Machines (CBM) (quote: “We need to build computers for the masses, not the classes.“), the Commodore C64 – or as its fans soon affectionately called it – bread box, achieved very strong distribution and thus became the best-selling home computer.
So it was obvious to offer “serious” application software as well. Despite its very limited memory of 64 kB RAM, there were also many word processing programs, spreadsheet, database or financial software, which were mostly designed for the private sector or the “small office”. From the beginning of the 80’s the first IBM PC’s came on the market, but they were simply too expensive for most home users. Therefore, the C64 had to be used for correspondence at home.
An extremely powerful application software was Pagefox from the German company Scanntronik near Munich. However, Pagefox is actually more than just a word processor. The software is already considered as a so-called desktop publishing software, which could be used for layouting magazines or print templates. It offers free design options for page layout and combines text and graphics into a single unit, the so-called page layout, which could then be printed out on a standard dot-matrix printer.
“All in all Pagefox is highly recommended despite its high price of just under 250 Marks the best DTP program for the C64.”
Pagefox was developed by German programmer Hans Haberl, who had previously attracted some attention with Printfox and Hi-Eddi. The software came onto the market in 1987 for around 250 DM.
Curious? Then I want to introduce Pagefox to you a bit closer.
Continue reading “Desktop Publishing on C64 with Pagefox”
