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Binary Dinosaurs

@binarydinosaurs.co.uk

1.1K followers 120 following 1.4K posts

Collecting, repairing and preserving vintage machines since 1998. W: https://binarydinosaurs.co.uk F: https://Facebook.com/binarydinosaurs M: @binarydinosaurs.oldbytes.space Favourite COBOL: https://www-users.york.ac.uk/~ss44/joke/cblgold.htm

binarydinosaurs.co.uk

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Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 2h

Barnsley grownups shove it in,
A gut stuffed full of gelatin.

Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 2h

Rex is indeed a great game, probably the last one I was playing before I moved to Amiga.

Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 5h

Moving quickly on to the Mac 512k which just needed a new RIFA, a clean and a few component reseats. Now where did I put my System 1 disk…

Pic of the front of a Mac M0001 512k edition, powered up waiting for a boot disk.

Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 5h

1983, yes, the Dragon 32.

Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 6h

*snort* 😆

Reposted by Binary Dinosaurs

Nanoraptor @nanoraptor.danamania.com · 8h

BBC Model Linear B

A picture of a very old BBC Microcomputer sporting a keyboard with markings in Linear B.

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Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 7h

That would be splendid if you did, a nice bit of provenance.

Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 7h

😆

Tsk.

Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 8h

I’m calling that a win. Your next challenge is to try and work out where this machine came from originally 😆

Overall picture of an Acorn A3000, still marked as ‘British Broadcasting Corporation’. It’s also stamped as belonging to Adran Addysg Dyfed Education Department.

It needs a clean, but that can wait. I have a RetroFest to prepare for.

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Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 10h

New cable made of win (and cable) so let’s plug in the keyboard to test my trace repair and socket replacement.

Splendid. Time for a Gotek full of disk images perhaps. Keyboard is desperately in need of a clean but that can wait.

Screenshot of RiscOS2 with the HELP MODULES command results. Keyboard is good!

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Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 11h

Acorn A3000 is getting there. Last night was 'test the floppy drive' so I gave it a little servicing and by and large, nothing happened. 'Drive empty' said RiscOS. Discovered the battery leak had destroyed the cable internally so I thieved one from my R140.

It works! Time to make a new cable...

Overhead view of the internals of the A3000 now that it's largely reassembled. You can see the recently replaced RiscOS2 ROM chips to the left in a stack, the RAM sticking up vertically in the middle, MIDI/User Port board to the upper left and floppy drive on the upper right. White/black wires power the speakers and the red/white cable is for the floppy. There are stickers on top of the major chips where I noted the pinouts for various functions.

Screenshot of the first successful floppy format under RiscOS2 showing 800k formatted and two bad blocks mapped out. I'm amazed this worked actually, given the state of the floppy drive.

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Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 12h

Equally fun fact - QLs themselves never got VARTA boardkillers, but when Sinclair gave up in 1986 a little Cambridge company called CST bought the remaining QL boards and produced a massively expanded machine called the Thor. Which had a boardkiller in. Fortunately I saved mine back in 2016.

Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 1d

I’d never played them, but last Xmas Steam had both of them on offer so I grabbed them and played both all the way through. Gave meself carpal tunnel so now I have to use an upright mouse for work and my Mac’s trackpad is now left hand only 😆

Bloody good fun though.

Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 1d

I haven’t yet, it’s been on my list of things to watch all week. I do like his excited face on the thumbnail though 😁

Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 1d

No, I found another 3-button Logitech at the same time I found the Nimbus Logitech. From memory it came with a RiscPC so it worked fine.

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Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 2d

I’m still bipedal 😄 All my clots eventually cleared but I still can’t properly kneel down, it must be hilarious for people to watch at events.

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Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 2d

It was, but I refused to go docs or hospital because Covid was raging. At least I can tell people I had membranous Nephropathy which sounds like a Norwegian death metal band 🤘🏻🤘🏻

Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 2d

Yes thanks. Auto immune disease attacked my kidneys so I ended up with a DVT. It’s been a fun 5 years and I absolutely ❤️❤️ the NHS.

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Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 2d

That book kept me sane when I was in hospital after my leg exploded. I only thought I'd be in overnight so took that book, and ended up being in there for 3 weeks. Summer when I went in, bloody freezing when I came out.

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Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 2d

Ahem, it's an Acorn A3000. I wish I DID have an Amiga 3000 but they're out of my reach now.

Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 2d

That would be cool, yes. That reminds me - I need to start on my table, yikes.

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Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 2d

Believe it or not that's the first one I've seen to actually touch and play. They do come up from time to time but always sell for £LOL.

(I think my 'wants' page still lists the Astrocade and that was last updated in 2003 😆)

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Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 2d

Early xmas present for me then!

Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 2d

Much bodge and repair later, the mouse port on the A3000 works and I can set the clock and other fun things. Picture is still mono because I’m using the composite port.

RiscOS3 desktop in lovely monochrome. Windows open are the system resources, configuration and calculator. WIMPs!
(Windows, Icons, Mouse Pointer or Program)

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Binary Dinosaurs @binarydinosaurs.co.uk · 2d

Fun fact - the name ‘Bally Astrocade’ never existed. It was made up for the ‘complete history of video games’ book. You had the Bally Computer System seen here, then the company was bought by Astrocade who released it under their own name.

No I haven’t got one.
Yes I’d like one 😄

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