Floppydays Vintage Computing Podcast

VCF SoCal 2024 Preview with Organizing Team Hello, and welcome to this bonus, interview-only episode of the Floppy Days Podcast.  My name is Randy Kindig; your host.  This episode is a discussion with most of the organizing team around the very first Vintage Computer Festival 2024 that is coming up February 17 & 18 in Orange, CA.  You’ll hear how the show came about, why the particular location and time were selected, and what you can expect to see at the show.  I’m excited to have a new VCF available in an area and time that should be fantastic to visit and be a part of. Note that this interview occurred on Dec. 5, 2023, and you’ll hear several references to the show being “2 and a half months” away. Links VCF SoCal Website - https://www.vcfsocal.com/  VCF SoCal Organizers - https://www.vcfsocal.com/faq#organizers  The VintNerd Website (Steve and Micki) - https://thevintnerd.com/index.html  The VintNerd YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/thevintnerd  Matt’s YouTube Channel - https://www.

Grundy NewBrain History with Gerald McMullon Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors: 8-Bit Classics  Arcade Shopper   0 Floppy Days Tune 1 min 14 sec Vintage Computer Ads 1 min 43 sec Intro 6 min 33 sec bumper - Gerald McMullon  7 min 15 sec New Acquisitions 13 min 55 sec bumper - Steve O'Hara-Smith  14 min 13 sec Upcoming Computer Shows 17 min 26 sec Interview with Gerald McMullon 57 min 51 sec Closing Hello, and welcome to episode 133 of the Floppy Days Podcast for December, 2023.  I’m Randy Kindig, your host on this vintage computer retrospective. Hard to believe we’re coming up on the end of 2023.  It was Feb. 2013 when I took the first halting steps in producing a podcast, so we’re coming up on 11 years of Floppy Days very soon. We are currently covering computers that were released in the year 1982.  We are very early in that year, with lots of other computers to be covered. This episode is about a machine that was developed in the UK.  It was pretty much unknown in the United States

Grundy NewBrain History with Steve O’Hara-Smith Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors: 8-Bit Classics  Arcade Shopper   0 Floppy Days Tune 1 min 14 sec Vintage Computer Ads 1 min 43 sec Intro 6 min 14 sec bumper - Steve O'Hara-Smith 6 min 32 sec New Acquisitions 22 min 53 sec bumper - Gerald McMullon 23 min 36 sec Upcoming Computer Shows 26 min 51 sec Feedback 30 min 19 sec Interview with Steve O'Hara-Smith 71 min 46 sec Closing Hello, and welcome to episode 132 of the Floppy Days Podcast; a podcast about home computers in the magical years of the late 70’s through the 80’s.  I’m Randy Kindig, your host on this voyage. We are currently covering computers that were released in the year 1982; a banner year for personal computers.  It’s actually going to take quite some time to get through this year in history. This is the second episode about a computer that few in the United States know much about.  It was released in the UK and even there didn’t get much traction.  It was a unique beast,

The Grundy NewBrain History with John Grant Hello, and welcome to episode 131 of the Floppy Days Podcast; where old computers get a new lease on life and have a purpose once again!  I’m Randy Kindig, your host on this journey to the late 70’s through the 80’s. We are currently covering computers that were released in the year 1982; a banner year for personal computers. Next up is a computer that few in the United States know much about.  It was released in the UK and even there didn’t get much traction.  It was a unique beast, with its own personality and quirks; before it went quietly into the annals of history.  The machine I’m talking about is the Grundy NewBrain.  Certainly a bold and pretentious name for a computer, but memorable nonetheless. As it was so relatively unknown, I’m going to be spending a lot of air time talking about its history.  Here’s how I’m planning to cover this unique machine: in this episode I’ll be summarizing its history, including a short interview with John Grant of Nine Tiles

Interview with Forrest Mims III, Electronics Author Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors: 8-Bit Classics  Arcade Shopper   Books: Forrest's first memoir "Siliconnections: Coming of Age in the Electronic Era" - https://amzn.to/48wmIao  Forrest's best-selling book "Getting Started in Electronics" - https://amzn.to/3LDExdY  Forrest's upcoming book "Maverick Scientist: My Adventures as an Amateur Scientist" - https://amzn.to/3PAgP3k  Hello, and welcome to episode 130 of the Floppy Days Podcast for September 2023.  I’m your host, Randy Kindig, and I’ll be bringing you this podcast as the beautiful fall weather and foliage descends on central Indiana.  I love the podcast, and I love the computer shows that start popping up in the fall, which you’ll hear more about on this show. I feel like I’ve been EXTREMELY lucky lately, in being able to get interviews with some outstanding contributors to the early home computer era of the late 70’s and early 80’s.  As you know, I’ve had interviews recent

Paul Terrell - Exidy Part 2 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors: 8-Bit Classics  Arcade Shopper   Hello, and welcome to episode 129 for August, 2023 of the Floppy Days Podcast, with your host, Randy Kindig! If you’re a regular listener, you’ll know that we’re in the middle of a series of episodes where we talk with Paul Terrell.  Paul has been credited with essentially jump-starting the personal computer industry in many ways, not the least of which was by buying the original Apple I computer from the just-getting-started Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and selling it in his equally-famous computer store, The Byte Shop.  This was one of the first personal computer retail store chains in existence.  Paul was also a member of the legendary Homebrew Computer Club and attended the West Coast Computer Faire.  He was involved in the development of both the Exidy Sorcerer and BYT-8 computers and he later went on to start ComputerMania Inc. which was a chain of computer stores created with the pur

Floppy Days Episode 128 - Paul Terrell - Exidy Part 1 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors: 8-Bit Classics  Arcade Shopper   Hello, and welcome to episode 128 for July, 2023 of the Floppy Days Podcast, with your host, Randy Kindig! If you’re a regular listener, you’ll know that we’re in the middle of a series of episodes where we talk with Paul Terrell.  Paul has been credited with essentially jump-starting the personal computer industry in many ways, not the least of which was by buying the original Apple I computer from the just-getting-started Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and selling it in his equally-famous computer store, The Byte Shop.  This was one of the first personal computer retail stores in existence.  Paul was also a member of the legendary Homebrew Computer Club and attended the West Coast Computer Faire.  He was involved in the development of both the Exidy Sorcerer and BYT-8 computers and he later went on to start ComputerMania Inc. which was a chain of computer stores cr

Floppy Days 127 - James Shackel Estate Haul and Paul Terrell Intro Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors: 8-Bit Classics Arcade Shopper  Hello, and welcome to episode 127 for June, 2023 of the Floppy Days Podcast, with your host, yours truly, Randy Kindig! I'd bet there are few listeners who don’t know the name Paul Terrell.  Paul has been credited with essentially jump-starting the personal computer industry in many ways, not the least of which was by buying the original Apple I computer from the just-getting-started Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and selling it in his equally-famous computer store, The Byte Shop.  This was the first personal computer retail store in existence.  Paul was also a member of the legendary Homebrew Computer Club and attended the West Coast Computer Faire.  He was involved in the development of both the Exidy Sorcerer and BYT-8 computers and he later went on to start ComputerMania Inc. which was a chain of computer stores created with the purpose of renting comp

Floppy Days 126 - Interview with Bob Frankston, Co-developer of Visicalc Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors: 8-Bit Classics  Arcade Shopper   Hello, everyone!  Welcome to episode 126 of the Floppy Days Podcast, with yours truly, Randy Kindig, as the host. Everyone, and I mean everyone, listening to this podcast has surely heard of the ground-breaking application (for its time) Visicalc.  Visicalc was the first spreadsheet computer program for personal computers, originally released for the Apple II by VisiCorp on October 17, 1979.  It is considered the killer application for the Apple II, turning the microcomputer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a serious business tool, and then prompting IBM to introduce the IBM PC two years later.  More than 700,000 copies were sold in six years, and up to 1 million copies over its history.   Initially developed for the Apple II computer, VisiCalc was ported to numerous platforms, both 8-bit and some of the early 16-bit systems, such as th

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors: 8-Bit Classics  Arcade Shopper   Welcome to Floppy Days #125 for April, 2023.  And I’m your host, Randy Kindig. We are currently in the year 1982 for home computers.  This episode is the continuation of a multi-episode arc that covers the Sinclair ZX Spectrum through all the usual topics.  This is the seventh of those, with the first having been the interview with John Grant of Nine Tiles, the second and third being coverage of the history of the Spectrum with Alessandro Grussu, the fourth being the interview with the author of the terrific book “The ZX Spectrum Ula: How to Design a Microcomputer”, Mr. Chris Smith, the fifth covering tech specs for the Speccy with Chris, and the sixth covering the topics peripherals, using the machine, and magazines with PJ Evans, Tour Guide and Sinclair curator at The National Museum of Computing on Bletchley Park in the U.K. The topics covered in this episode include books, software, ads, modern upgrades, emulatio

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors: 8-Bit Classics  Arcade Shopper   Welcome to Floppy Days #124 for March, 2023.  And I’m your host, Randy Kindig. We are currently covering the very productive year for home computers of 1982.  This episode is the continuation of a multi-episode arc that covers the Spectrum through all the usual topics.  This is the sixth of those, with the first having been the interview with John Grant of Nine Tiles, the second and third being coverage of the history of the Spectrum with Alessandro Grussu, the fourth being the interview with the author of the terrific book “The ZX Spectrum Ula: How to Design a Microcomputer”, Mr. Chris Smith, and the sixth covering tech specs for the Speccy with Chris. The topics covered in this episode include peripherals, using the machine, and magazines.  Next episode we will complete the ZX Spectrum coverage, by talking about books, software, ads, modern upgrades, emulation, buying one today, community, and Web sites. As usual,

Floppy Days 123 - Amiga 1000, Parceiro and Podcast Tenth Anniversary! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors: 8-Bit Classics  Arcade Shopper   Welcome to episode 123 of Floppy Days for February, 2023, where classic computers are all the rage and we lovingly take you back to the days when computers were simpler and we were younger. This is a special show for me, because this month (Feb. 17 was the publish date) marks the 10th anniversary of publishing this podcast!  Man, oh, man, where has the time gone?!  This podcast itself has become vintage, depending on your definition of vintage. My original intent was to continue the coverage of the ZX Spectrum this month, but my special co-host for that show was unable to record this month.  I decided this was the perfect opportunity to have a special show to in some way commemorate the 10-year anniversary. My co-host and I have scheduled the recording for the Spectrum show for early March, so I’ll publish that as early in March as I can.  In the m

NEC TREK PC-6001, Part II Please donate at: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays.  Welcome to Floppy Days #122 for January, 2023.  And I’m your host, Randy Kindig. We are currently covering the very productive year for home computers of 1982.  As regular listeners will know, we’ve been covering the ZX Spectrum and the myriad of information about that machine.  While we still have more information to cover, such as emulation, Web sites, and a lot more, we are currently taking a tiny step back to pick up coverage of a machine that I recently acquired and wanted to talk about, but which came out in very late 1981.  That machine is the Nippon Electric Company (NEC) PC-6001 and its US variation, the PC-6001A, or NEC-TREK.  It actually was released in November, 1981 in Japan.  Thus, you can see that this is really a very tiny detour to go back and pick up this machine.  It’s one I didn’t know about, honestly, and when I acquired a very clean, boxed version in the Great Barn Find of 2022, not only did I decide to keep

Please donate at: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays.  Welcome to Floppy Days #121 for December, 2022.  And I’m your host, Randy Kindig.  Happy holidays to all! We are currently covering the very productive year for home computers of 1982.  As regular listeners will know, we’ve been covering the ZX Spectrum and the myriad of information about that machine.  While we still have more information to cover, such as emulation, Web sites, and a lot more, we’re going to take a tiny step back and pick up coverage of a machine that I recently acquired and wanted to talk about, but which came out in very late 1981.  That machine is the Nippon Electric Company (NEC) PC-6001 and its US variation, the PC-6001A, or NEC-TREK.  It actually was released in November, 1981 in Japan.  So, you can see that this is really a very tiny detour to go back and pick up this machine.  It’s one I didn’t know about, honestly, and when I acquired a very clean, boxed version in the Great Barn Find of 2022, not only did I decide to keep the m

Dontate at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Welcome to Floppy Days #120 for November, 2022.  And I’m your host, Randy Kindig.  I hope everyone is well. We are currently covering the very productive year for home computers of 1982.  This episode is the continuation of a multi-episode arc that covers the Spectrum through all the usual topics.  I’m still unsure how many episodes we’re going to end up with in this arc.  There’s so much to talk about and so many knowledgeable people on the subject, that the Spectrum is probably going to set the illustrious Floppy Days record for the number of episodes about a single machine. This is the fifth of those, with the first having been the interview with John Grant of Nine Tiles, the second and third being coverage of the history of the Spectrum with Alessandro Grussu, and the fourth being the interview with the author of the terrific book “The ZX Spectrum Ula: How to Design a Microcomputer”; Mr. Chris Smith. As I don’t know of anyone who knows more about the

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays  Welcome to Floppy Days #119 for October, 2022.  And I’m your host, Randy Kindig.  I hope everyone is safe and sound... We are currently covering the prolific year (for home computers) of 1982.  This episode is the continuation of a multi-episode arc that covers the Spectrum through all the usual topics.  I don’t even know yet how many episodes we’re going to end up in this arc.  There’s so much to talk about and so many knowledgeable people on the subject, that the Spectrum is probably going to set the illustrious Floppy Days records for the number of episodes about a single machine. This is the fourth of those, with the first having been the interview with John Grant of Nine Tiles, and the second and third being coverage of the history of the Spectrum with Alessandro Grussu. In this episode, I talk with the author of the wonderful book “The ZX Spectrum Ula: How to Design a Microcomputer”; Mr. Chris Smith.  I don’t know of anyone who knows more about the internals

“The Great Barn Find of 2022!” Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays  Welcome to Floppy Days #118 for September, 2022.  And I’m your host, Randy Kindig.  I hope everyone is doing well.. I decided to take a 1-month break from the ZX Spectrum series of episodes, of which I’m currently in the midst, in order to talk about some other vintage computer activities with which I’ve been involved lately.  There has been a lot going on the vintage computer front for me, as well as some changes in my personal life that I wanted to share with all of you.  I apologize that you’re just going to hear my voice for the entire show, but I’ll make sure not to drone and try to keep it lively. I will talk a bit about what I have been up to, an amazing barn find, attendance at the largest vintage computer show of the year, and an incredible computer museum adventure, as well as a few new acquisitions (beyond the barn find) that have come my way.  In addition, I’ll briefly tell you about upcoming shows of which I’m aware. Next

https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays  Welcome to Floppy Days #117 for August, 2022.  And I’m your host, Randy Kindig.  I hope everyone is doing well.. Thank you so much, Andy Collins, for providing your thoughts and memories about the ZX Spectrum to kick off this episode.  Great work! We are currently covering the prolific year (for home computers) of 1982.  This episode is the continuation of a multi-episode arc that covers the Spectrum through all the usual topics.  I don’t even know yet how many episodes we’re going to end up in this arc.  There’s so much to talk about and so many knowledgeable people on the subject, that the Spectrum is probably going to set the illustrious Floppy Days records for the number of episodes about a single machine. This is the third of those, with the first having been the interview with John Grant of Nine Tiles, and the second being coverage of the history of the Spectrum through about 1984. In this episode, I once again talk with the author of the wonderful book “Spectrumpedia

donate at https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays  Welcome to Floppy Days #116 for July, 2022.  And I’m your host, Randy Kindig.  I hope everyone is staying safe. Thank you so much, Mark Hacker, for providing your thoughts and memories about the ZX Spectrum to kick off this episode. As mentioned in the last show, 1982 was a landmark year for home computers, as there were some significant introductions in this year.  One of the most impactful computers released at this time was the ZX Spectrum; in the UK by the iconic Sir Clive Sinclair.  This episode is the continuation of a multi-episode arc that covers the Spectrum through all the usual topics.  In fact, there’s such a rich history leading up to the introduction of the Spectrum, and through its lifetime in the market, of which many in the US may not be aware, that we’re going to be spending three (3) full episodes just on its history.  This is the second of those, with the first having been the interview with John Grant of Nine Tiles, who played a part in the de

https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Please consider donating to keep Floppy Days going! ZX Spectrum Part 1 History with John Grant Welcome to Floppy Days #115 for June, 2022.  And I’m your host, Randy Kindig.  I hope everyone is doing well. As you know, we are generally following the timeline of computers as they were released to the world.  We have arrived in the year 1982.  1982 was a landmark year for home computers, as there were some significant introductions in this year.  Machines that played a critical part in the rich home computer period of the 1980’s.  In particular, I’m talking about the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64 as well as some other interesting machines. One of the most impactful computers released at this time was the ZX Spectrum; across the pond in the UK by Sir Clive Sinclair.  This episode kicks off a multi-episode arc that covers the Spectrum through all the usual topics. The first topic we always start with is history.  I was able to catch up with a person who played a significant ro