Back for another meetup, we took a slightly different course this time around. By far and large, it was a gaming day. The only technical thing anyone did was the upgrade on Sven’s Amiga 500. which now has a 68030 processor and an unimaginable 64MB of RAM. Looks slick, though!
Besides that, we spent some time on Sean’s Sanyo PHC-30N MSX machine, playing Bokosuka Wars, Highway Star, and an unexpectedly large amount of Antarctic Adventure!
And we played on Greg’s MiSTer, including some arcade classics like Metal Slug and Kung Fu, and one of the Amiga’s legendary titles, Defender of the Crown.
We were down a couple of members this month and there wasn’t much technical analysis going on, so we started a big later than usual and left a bit earlier than usual, but a good time was still had by those who could make it!
Another productive meeting was had by Tokyo Retro Computer Users to kick off the new year. – Edoardo repaired Sean’s finnicky (and temporary) PC-8201. A leaky battery and a couple of bad caps were the culprits but it’s well on the way to recovery. – Sven diagnosed the bejeezus out of his Pi-1541, with the help of Curt, Justin, and Edoardo. Mysteries remain surrounding its behavior but Sven will continue fighting. – Edoardo brought in his prototype digital to analog RGB converter card, and for a prototype card, it sure looked crisp and clean as it converted Curt’s JR-200 to display on Sean’s PVM.
While not busy with more productive tasks, some of us took turns with Sean’s SC-3000, which he brought along with cartridges for BASIC, Space Invaders, Hustle Chumy, and Shinnyushain Tohru (AKA Mikie in the western world).
Meetup number 11 was another in a string of good times. There were six in attendance with a variety of different technology in tow. Sean was first on the scene, bringing his Fujitsu FM-8 complete with kanji ROM set and a Sharp MZ-centric magazine for some light reading. He also brought a few items for repair – a keyboard for diagnosis and solder reflowing, and an FM-7/77 sound card and speaker set to have a new connector put on the speaker – courtesy of Edoardo, who showed up a bit later with his full arsenal of soldering implements.
Soon after came Greg with many different things to show off, for example his very unique Mega65 developers system, a beautiful piece of equipment with a great aesthetic and a classy-looking keyboard. He showed off the Commodore 65-looking startup screen and the included maze game that takes advantage of the 40MHz CPU mode, as well as some classic Commodore 64 games. Sven also tried testing if cartridges were compatible by loading up his 1541 Ultimate II+ with a cartridge image file, but it ultimately wouldn’t work.
Greg also brought other goodies, including his modern-day Nintendo Game & Watch, MiSTer, and Atari ST. The Game & Watch features a full-color Super Mario Bros. 1 & 2 as well as the classic Ball. The MiSTer is loaded and prepared to emulate many classic machines, for example the PCEngine. The Atari ST pumped some Star Wars action through Curt’s PVM.
Curt came with his Robotron KC 87, which is unfortunately not ready for action, but got some thorough diagnostics for future repair. It’s a computer released in East Germany that, much like the FM-8, is built like a tank. Edoardo and Curt also worked together on a power supply for running the European Atari ST on the Japanese electrical system.
Sean’s FM-8 got some attention not only for its enormous footprint, distinct appearance, and its very simple games – Black Jack and Lunar Lander – but even some crude tools such as a word processor and a drawing tool got some curiosity use.
