Retro Computers
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retrocomps.bsky.social
Retro Computers
@retrocomps.bsky.social
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Semi-automated posting of old computers and videogames. Sometimes other bits of retro aesthetics and design. ~6-8 posts a day, ~24 posts on holidays.

⚠Outbound links tagged and monitored by Bluesky.
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retrocomps.bsky.social
SPARKS OF GENIUS (Source.)
A red ad, showing five games. The title is "Sparks of Genius." Game 1 is NARC ("Your mission is to seek out and destroy the king pin of the MR BIG Corporation); screenshots show a beat-em-up and a guy on a walkie-talkie. Game 2 is Robocop 2 ("Seven levels of muscle-straining, reflex-testing, sideways scrolling fury!); screenshots show a sidescrolling stage and robocop firing up. Game 3 is Total Recall ("As Doug Quaid you travel to Mars to discover your true identity..."); a poster and images of a platforming section and an elevator section appear. Game 4 is Chase HQ 2 ("Special Criminal Investigation - continuing where Chase HQ left off..."); screens show a racing game in a foggy cityscape in skyscrapers, and a helicopter chase in a dirtier city at nighttime. Game 5 is Pang ("No time for balloonin' around!"); screenshots show a UK palace and a mountain range, both of which have a tiny guy in a safari hat shooting up at bubbles. At bottom, the OCEAN logo.
January 10, 2026 at 12:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
FREE! Special LIVE recording of RELAX! (Source.)
A painting of the band, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, in front of obscured screens from the game, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, under the heading, Frankie Goes To Hollywood (for Spectrum 48K and Commodore 64 computers). The men have early onset to late stage mullets. Beneath is the price point (£9.95 - about £39.95 in 2024), promises of an included audio tape, and a list of retailers you can purchase the software from; at ad bottom is the highly reflective logo of Ocean.
January 10, 2026 at 6:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
Leprechaun (Original Mac, 1989)
A black-and-white top-down block pusher, in the original System 6 black-and-white. Up top, a leprechaun is walking, with pots of gold to collect nearby. Down below, a troll is trapped by boulders; if the boulders are moved to retreive gold it will be free to chase the leprechaun. On the right, birds are moving around a fence to chanse the leprechaun.
January 10, 2026 at 12:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
While only 200 rolled off the assembly line, the technologies learned by this extreme all-in-one were put to use in Sharp's MSX series.
The Sharp Rateca Puter. Up top, left to right: a collapsable TV/radio antenna, brightness and contrast dials, a giant speaker, a smaller speaker, and input for the tapedeck, with the play counters that were more common on the day. Face, left to right: A 4.5 inch CRT (behind a plastic guard), VHF/UHF and radio dials, channel and band selectors (TV/COMP, FM, Shortwave, and Middlewave), the "RATECA PUTER' logo on the battery gauge, AFC switch, mode selector, tape deck controls, audio controls for balance, bass, treble, and volume, and a mollyguard to prevent dials and switches from being mashed (the mollyguard being a signature of Sharp's boomboxes of the time). Face, low: the collapsable carrying handle that doubles as a stand; computer power button; slide-out chiclet keyboard based on Sharp calculators of the day, with number pad; an LED clock, clock controls, alarm controls. Right side: mic jacks, earphone jacks in two different sizes, beat cut switch, fan exhaust, DC and AC power plugs, and a printer port (!). Help I'm trapped in an alt text factory
January 9, 2026 at 6:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
I thought about altering the script so this post would quote this post, but then thought better of it. (Source.)
Under the read heading "Recursion," A ballpoint pen drawing of a girl holding a mirror in front of her and behind her. We see the front of her head and the back of her head stretching into infinity. Artist's signature is "C. Lewis", but no credit is given in the booklet itself.
January 9, 2026 at 12:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
Paint on your computer in over 100 colors with 96 different brushes!
In this William Geise illustrated ad, the title "Computer Graphics" appears up top, being cast from a giant Apple II monitor on an iceburg; the casts are a gradiant from purple to orange to yellow to green to blue to purple again, hewing towards neon tones. From the tan Amdek monitor flies a red biplane, a parachuting penguin, and a leaping unicorn; dolphins jump from the ice into the monitor. Around the iceberg, a sea otter peeks up, a penguin tap-dances, and a whale tale lifts a unicorn on a floe. The monitor is sitting on a giant Apple II. Down below, breathless text describes three different programming packages: "For the artist: Special Effects by David Lubar and Mark Pelezarski. Paint on your computer in over 100 colors with 96 different brushes!" "For the designer: The Complete Graphics System II by Mark Pelezarski. Everythign needed for computer-aided design." "For the programmer: The Graphics Magician by Mark Pelezarski, David Lubar, and Chris Joehumson. Add fast, smooth animation and hundreds of pictures to your programs." In the bottom left, the penguin software logo appears next to ordering information, with a sunfish floating to its left; at the very bottom it says, "All Penguin applications products are now on unprotected disks for your convenience."
January 9, 2026 at 6:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
WORD PROCESSING HAS NEVER BEEN SIMPLER
Above, the headline "Word Processing Has Never Been Simpler." Below, a picture of a young girl dutifully typing at her computer, while her proud parents watch, set before a monochrome CRT. Below, bullet points of features ("Document chaining allows you to print documents of unlimited length", "Highlighting of text", "Upper and lowercase without additional hardware"), below the Bank Street Writer logo. The slogan: "The First Word Processor For The Entire Family." The logo of Broderbund Software, three abstract crowns, appears at page bottom.
January 9, 2026 at 12:05 AM
Reposted by Retro Computers
drac.at
The mouse is a versatile little beast
Scan of a black and white magazine article photo of a Macintosh mouse, with its two-tone grey and beige design, followed by caption “The mouse is a versatile little beast”
January 1, 2026 at 7:39 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
If it's Commodore International, then where's the ship- oh
A report from the August 1983 issue of Commander Magazine, showing the 'Commodore Clipper', a fairly large ferry decked out in Commodore colors, docked on the Chicago waterfront for the 1983 Consumer Electronics Show.
January 8, 2026 at 6:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
You always find something in the last place you look. Unfortuantely, the average hard disk has about 20,000 places.
A verbose advertisement for Magellan 2.0 from Lotus. Down below is dense ad copy. Up top is a picture of a businessman in striped shirt and tie sticking his head into a computer monitor.
January 8, 2026 at 12:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
The year is Heisei 11, and you're on the market for an amplifier. Why go with another plastic wall wart hanging off the back of your sound center, when even the amplifier can look like a work of digital art? (Source.)
An amplifier. The case is an inverted quadrilateral made of brushed aluminum; the sides and stand are made of turquoise-anodized aluminum, a chevron of glass frames the big center dial, and insets of glass along the top hint at machinery underneath. Face left, a big clicky button reads 'Power'. and the logo on the left reads "ΔΣ 1Bit Amplifier SM-SX100 Sharp"; face center, there is a heavy dial underneath a glass chveron; face right, there are signal LEDs for Digital 1, Digital 2, Digital 3, Digital 4, Saco, Line 1, and Line 2.
January 8, 2026 at 6:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
Curse of the Azure Bonds
A "Gold Box" computer program, labelled "Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Computer Product: Curse of the Azure Bonds: A Forgotten Realms Fantasy Role-Playing Epic, Vol. II" In the inset image, a chainmail-and-cape equipped soldiar, Alias, rests a long sword on her shoulderpads. Behind her, a mace-equipped lizardman, Dragonbait, stands at the ready. Behind them, the Wizard's Tower, one of the villainous locations they will encounter. At bottom, the logos of TSR (in letters designed to look like an overhead dungeon map drawn on graph paper) and Strategic Simulations Inc (with the large letter Ss made of opposing arrowheads) appears at the bottom.
January 8, 2026 at 12:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
"Once you've been aloft, you'll want to buckle up up behind your own IBM PC with the Microsoft Flight Simulator. It's the closest you can get to flying. Without leaving your nest." (Source.)
Up top, the slogan: "If flying your IBM® PC got any more realistic, you'd need a license." Upper half, dense ad copy with headings like "The plane inside your PC," "The world beneath your fingers," "The learning curve," "The Ace in your soul," and "Throttle on." At the end of the ad copy, the MICROSOFT "pixel earth" logo, with the slogan: "Better Tools For Microcomputers." Below, the viewer is put behind a tilted art-deco airplane control panel, looking towards a vaporwave horizon; the plane is lining up for Runway 18. The registration on the dash, N4081L, belonged to a real Piper PA-31 Navajo in the 80s, and the instrument panel is (with some artistic license) what it would look like if you were sitting in the copilot's seat.
January 7, 2026 at 6:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
The 'ribbon' metaphor for Windows programs was divisive. But it was a far sight better than what came before. (Source.)
A screenshot of Word 2003. This screenshot has 27 toolbars, a menu (with only seven items) that you have to expand for some reason, very few text labels, tiny icons, and no obvious way to chord from one page to the next. Each toolbar is coded different, so they are of varying widths, some are floating, some are up top while some are down below, and one is a side pane for some reason. That's not to say anything about the dozens of controls hidden within the menu proper. The tiny text editing area, dwarfed by the dozens of toolbars with dozens of controls, reads: "It is getting a bit crowded in here!"
January 7, 2026 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by Retro Computers
sega.jp
We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of David Rosen, one of the founders of SEGA, and a true pioneer in the video game industry. SEGA would like to offer its condolences to the family, friends and acquaintances of Mr. Rosen, and we will always remember his contributions to our company.
January 7, 2026 at 9:15 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
Rogue (DOS, 1984)
ROGUE: The Adventure Game. The game of Rogue was originated by: Michael C. Toy and Kenneth C.R.C. Arnold Adapted for the IBM PC by: John Lane. Significant design contributions by: Glenn Wichman and scores of others. Public Domain Software - 1984, not to be sold. Rogue's Name? Player
January 7, 2026 at 6:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
Shining Force CD (Sega CD, 1994)
In the background, a female, red-silhouetted elf with red eyes faces left; a male, blue-silhouetted human faces right. Center, a full-coor skeletal cerberus with bat wings rampant, its skull faces and red pixel eyes focused on you. Below, the words "A fierce battle with Dark Dragon ensued" appears in florid script.
January 7, 2026 at 12:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
The ARMAGEDDON Man
A man stands, holding the globe in his hands. Behind him, a satellite shoots lasers at missiles; further behind that, a nuclear bomb goes off in the distance. Labelled "The ARMAGEDDON Man: Martech, For the COMMODORE 64/128 CASSETTE." The art is signed 'Steiner.'
January 6, 2026 at 6:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
Scientists At Berkeley Stop The Aging Process!
An encyclopedic, two-page ad touting the ability of Berkeley Softworks software to extend your C64. Software advertised include GEOS, GEOS 128, geoPublish, geoCalc, GeoWrite Workshop, geoFile, geoProgrammer, geoSpell, Deskpack, Fontpack 2, geoFile 128, geoWrite Workshop 128, and geoCalc 128.
January 6, 2026 at 6:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
I keep finding signs of first- and second-gen furries in the pages of early computer user groups. (Source.)
The cover of Twin Cities 128: Commodore C-128 User Journal. On the front illustration, a fox at a lectern looks nonplussed at his student, a computer fellow with a monitor head. The chalkboard reads: "Memory Improvement 101 with Thaddeus Fox, instructor." The image is signed T.H.E. Fox 1991, Joe Ekaito; the journal is priced $3.95 US, $4.95 CAD.
January 6, 2026 at 12:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
Galaxy Travelers (Stuart & Donna Paltrowitz; BASIC, 1983) (Source.)
Two astronauts sit in a cockpit. On the tall viewscreen before them, they see a flying wing heading twoards an alien planet in deep, dark space.
January 5, 2026 at 6:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
The "first hypermedia PC", the Tulip Universa took cues from the Classic Mac, but included features Apple never did - such as an IR remote, allowing users to view their photo CDs from the comfort of a chair up to about four yards away (six yards in even lighting). (Source.)
A white PC, taking design cues from the classic Macintosh; the CRT and main computer are in the same body, with the "Tulip" logo prominent; the computer has a floppy, a 4x CD drive, and detached keyboard and mouse. The mousepad features the Tulip mascots, an unshaven guy with a big nose and a mouse with a not quite as big nose, waving at the user.
January 5, 2026 at 12:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
THE WEB PORTAL FOR KIDS! (Source.)
Ad top, a nondescript anthro mascot critter in backwards cap, black shirt with magenta 'A', and no discernable pants skateboards on the logo. The "Web Portal For Kids!" shows a nondescript browser (some sort of mashup of Windows icons with then-current-System 8 textures, and a IE5-esque layout of icons) showing the Alfy website, which has six icons - all very low linecount, very low color count icons of different things kids might be itnerested in like dogs, elephants, lions, dinosaurs, fish, and bats. The bottom text reads: "Revolutionizing how your kids search the web" "www.alfy.com", "a safe, easy, and educational place where kids can reach over 4000 sites thorugh pictures!" From the October 1999 issue of Family PC magazine.
January 5, 2026 at 6:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
ASCII Super Stick L5 (1992)
The front page of the ASCII Super Stick L5. It is a round controller. The front face has a D-pad, two round black L and R keys, and grey Select/Start, and five colored turbo switches on the underside. The back face of the ASCII Super Stick L5. It is a round controller. The back face has four keys - red A, blue X, yellow B, green Y - with different textures and angles on each button to make it easier to find with your grip. Below, it reads "SUPER FAMICOM LICENSED BY NINTENDO" "ASCII" "AS-114 SP RATING: 6mA MADE IN JAPAN", with three screws holding the case tight. The case has small notches in either side, allowing left or right handed players to hold on to the controller.
January 5, 2026 at 1:41 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
Bad Day in Bagdad!
An ad from the October '93 issue of Compute Magazine for Prince of Persia 2. Up top, the heading "Bad Day In Bagdad." In the background, a still of a Harryhausen-style action movie. In the foregrounds, photos of a man stuck in quicksand, fighting on a pier, leaping from a minaret into a windowsill, fencing on a castle wall while a guard leaps from above. The long winded text touts features like "Pulse-Quickening Action", "Rich Movie-Like Story and Soundtrack", and "Incredibly Realistic Animation."
January 5, 2026 at 12:05 AM