> "Interestingly, MS-DOS also has a separate paper punch API."

Where did he pull that one from? No such thing that I'm aware of, and I've had my share of poring over MS-DOS API docs. If you wanted to talk to a paper punch using nothing but DOS, you'd likely have to do it over the serial port at COM1/2, which used the same generic I/O device API as the console (CON)... hence the ability to "CTTY" to those devices.

MS-DOS did implement CP/M function calls (along with the CALL 5 interface itself) to simplify porting code, even when those calls were meaningless in DOS and only returned dummy values. But this paper tape stuff doesn't seem to exist anywhere in DOS, which in turn makes me skeptical about it being in CP/M. When you think about it, it would've been an inexcusable waste to implement such a thing in either of them - seeing as they were disk operating systems, which (as the article points out) had every reason to be as minimal as possible.

Besides, if it was there in MS-DOS, you'd think Ralf Brown would know about it.

The reason for a separate API may just be due to punches and readers only being streaming character or byte devices.

Start reading might be operator assisted or automatic depending on the punch / reader and how the operator configured it. Often, the read would be initiated in software, then an operator presses a go button.

Flow control is a thing. Readers and punches will stop and start xon xoff ctrl q ctrl s style too.

A tape can be punched with block formatting of course. I never saw this happen.

Gcode is blocks! G1 X12 Y13(eob)

But they are variable and can reach darn near a page of ASCII text (256 bytes )for a single code, but the average might be 32.

No. I meant that instead writing this with turboc for msdos you could have used Python or Java or just about anything. Or gotten a prebuilt Mandelbrot render tool. There’s even on for the web [1].

So why bother. Because it’s fun.

1. https://mandelbrot.silversky.dev/

The paper punch saw wide use in two areas I have some experience with.

Amazingly, I handled paper tape punch stuff until the very early 00's!

I actually love paper tape. It is just fun, and it features an actual bit bucket with punched out bits in it! Good for all manner of work place tomfoolery, but I digress.

Tapes were typically read up to about 9600 baud (fast), with most at half that or less. Punching was 1200 tops if you cared about your gear and uses the black paper tape infused with lubricants.

The most common in manufacturing was Gcode punched to tape as 7 bit ASCII. Most punches could do 8 bits, so it also saw use as file storage, say master data read in to generate specific machine data.

One example I can cite was sheet metal CNC punch programming on a Tek storage tube computer. The application was read from tape and had various modules. Edit, backplate, archive, etc...

User would input tool lists and source gcode. That got written to paper tape much like a floppy drive would be used. Then generate an actual gcode tape for a real machine. Load the backplotter, then feed it a tool list from paper tape and then the long program tape.

Being a storage tube, the system would simply draw all the tool punches to the screen so the programmer could see the result, correct errors and such.

Then take the finished tape to the machine. Really old ones had no program memory, so they literally read the same tape, formed into a loop, over and over to make parts.

My first exposure to Atari was December 1978. My dad took me to a friends house who had just gotten an Atari. Played it in colour. I was just mesmerized by the games. I was so clumsy with the the joystick controller.

I remember it because the guy who owned the Atari was talking about the Newsweek article covering the Jonestown tragedy with my dad while we played.

Haha, fractint is a modern tool?

2600 was my earliest console experience. Obviously the original joysticks are pretty horrible. But the main thing wrong with them is that you have to hold the base in your hand and waggle the stick, which is what these replicate.

Joysticks work when they have rubber suction cups and you stick them to the desk.

Otherwise regular D-pad controllers are supremely more useable.

Meta: There are at least two later versions of this page in Wayback Machine, but both of those are incomplete and missing the actual list of games:

— https://web.archive.org/web/19990428015713/http://209.240.1..../

— https://web.archive.org/web/19990508074344/http://www.nt40ga...

This was the show, though none of my episodes surfaced yet!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q6yPcUwatg

I miss hanging out with Kate Russell, she's an absolute darling. The show was ridiculous fun to do, only got paid 15 quid an episode, but the studio folks would treat you like a king from the moment you arrived.

The beauty of this work lies not in practicality but in the pure joy of creation. Sure, they could have used a modern tool, but like baking your own bread when you could easily buy it, there’s a deep satisfaction in building something yourself, especially using vintage tools. There’s no pressing need—just the simple pleasure of programming for its own sake.

I say well done.

FractInt[1] is still around and most certainly faster with more options. I remember playing with it endlessly in the 90s, alawys looking for new versions on shareware CDs (that was before the Internet). I think I still have a dozen or so floppy disks filled with fractal images somewhere...

[1] https://www.fractint.org/

I am given to believe these machines are rare. I have seen people gut and upgrade them to iMac g3 or with a Mac mini

This is a really intersting machine. Do you have/use the Apple IIe emulator card ?

Hello :) I'm 47, never been a huge gamer but enjoyed my share of ZX-Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga & later DOS. A programmer and techi who plays retro dos games time to time and enjoy retro tech.

Hmm, seems like it would be hit and miss. There was no real way to reset from the cart port, so when one hit the button, you would just start running the other game ROM!

I bet some amazing glitches were possible!

By glitches, I mean things like the double shot in space invaders when powered up with reset held down.

So many games depended on a given CPU state. Random starting them would be very interesting.

Finally, some may not work properly depending on their banking scheme and where the rando start happened.

...or am I misunderstanding how it worked?

Oh so close!

They could have put two buttons where the one is. Having one duplicated on top of the stick and the other one as the trigger would have been ideal.

Love having a paddle on board, but it is kind of tiny. Imagine playing KABOOM on it! Lol

That said, nice to see the effort!

Personally, I would love to have seen an analog mode like the Apple 2 and some other machines.

Choplifter is one game example where two buttons and analog controls are so sweet! Many Atari games would be improved with an analog option.

I know the 5200 had that, but the implementation was tough.

This could be better.

Maybe next rev!

Other little things, differences.

NT file handling was different and still is!

On a Linux box today, and on an IRIX machine back in the day, you can run a program and then un another window delete the executable!

On Windows that executable is locked, needed by processes.

It took a ton of work to get windows to the point where one does not have to reboot all the time...

The power behind this difference is significant!

One time I was training on a high end solid modeler and I upgraded the class installation. Well, one user was on the old version, logged in.

When I started the next class, one computer was on the old revision, and the files were literally gone! I took a quick look at the IRIX system stats and the file cache was huge! It maintained everything for those processes without missing a beat.

When I logged that session off there was a pause, a ton of resources freed up and that student was running current! Amazing.

Another time I was having to push a movie out the door and I had a batch render go bad. Did the math and was doomed.

Well, I used the X window system to install software all over the place on a ton of machines, many with active users who did not even know. This was done on the sophisticated IRIX software package manager that could even pause an install to allow another removal to free space and continue among many other awesome tasks. Look up swmgr one day. I did all this in the late 90s.

I pushed out the renders, set the process priority to believe the users so they would not be impacted and basically used every machine in the building for many hours to get the dang movie done.

Some of those machines were so buried the sysadmin came to me wondering what the hell ate up all the resources. I told him I was pissed getting shit done and he laughed saying basically he was glad he was not on the receiving end and carried on.

I was able to do a full cleanup, left no trace, no user impacted despite me removing large parts of somenod their systems that day and putting them back before too much happened.

Windows was no match at the time.

Today it is much better, but some of the really powerful things in UNIX are mostly there today in windows land. But the better tools always were in UNIX.

UNIX machines running the X window system enjoy multi user graphical computing.

An example:

I can run an app on one machine, from files shared from another one, window manager on another one, fonts from another one, the user display being served by yet another one all seamless to that user who would have just clicked on a start program icon.

Those machines do not even have to be running the same operating system.

Or, I can put a few displays on one powerful machine, set them all up with keyboards and mice and have many users logged into one machine.

Other crazy things, like me launching an app on my box to be displayed on yours where you interact with it as if it were local.

Win NT 3.5.1 was lined up to be that capable, but it all ended with NT 4 where it really is a single user graphical display to this day.

Today I largely don't care because far too many people only experienced the NT way meaning they had no idea what was possible and so today it is all forgotten.

And we have web browsers that can fill in many of these ideas well enough to work.

So I am on Win 10 or MacOS a lot of the time and it works well enough.

But damn! The 90's headed into the early 00's were an amazing time! The OS wars were in full swing and computing on UNIX was awesome, and on SGI seemingly 5 years or more in the future!

NT 3.5.1 was excellent OS. NT 4 was also an excellent OS, but they did move the graphics system into ring 0.

This did a few good things, and IMHO, some bad ones.

The good was a foundation for a much more efficient graphics experience that was easier to achieve. Many believe the 3.5.1 way, with graphics in Ring 1 was just as capable, but just a bit more difficult to make shine.

PC gaming really wanted the ease of XP with the better kernel in NT.

The bad thing was the inability to theme and customize the window manager, desktop and other features like we could do with the X window system at the time.

My NT 3.5.1 system was customized and it rocked! Wish I had some screenshots...

NT 4 was basically the win 98 GUI and ... meh. It worked well, but was no fun.

Accelerated 3D cards were becoming a thing. NVidia along with others made great cards that could run games, and nVidia supported full OpenGL, which had the higher precision found in the UNIX world, and on Sgi IRIX hardware in particular.

People could pay $5 to $10k for an NT PC and do things that cost $20k and up on SGI, and do them often more quickly.

But it would crash, and being in ring 0 meant crashing the whole box hard. Was kind of an ugly time.

And money talks! People put up with the crap, Intel produced multi processor and then multi core machines that NT was able to handle.

End of one era (IRIX, Solaris, others) and the beginning if another one, (Linux, NT, eventually MacOS)

It is pretty great. My experience with retro in general is the people seem to be pretty high quality. Nice when that happens.

Your site is classy and compelling. New to me. Imma going to go dig in. Thanks for mentioning it.

Yeah, the guy I got mine from said the same thing back in the day. Must have been a nice side gig at the time.

Hello!! I love working on and programming my mac color classic!

I did good business doing b-key 400 upgrades in Toronto back in the day. Weird thst people would let a 12 year old (me) take apart a computer they were afraid to do themselves.

Dude. The article from your site. “ The Impact of Jungle Music in 90s Video Game Development” was awesome.

One of us from the heartland! Greets from Oregon.

It is hard to find time for me too. I go in phases. When I find time, I use it. And one thing I learned is get your gear when an opportunity comes up. It may never again.

Happened with my Apple. I had snagged cards I wanted, then ended up with a machine.

That is a cool old Brick! I just got one running Win 3.11. Toshiba something or other.

The Nicad battery still works!

Indeed

Probably by now, but it is such a rare beast.

Is there one running somewhere maybe? Super interesting hardware for sure.

No worries and you are welcome, but our mutual friend bmonkey probably has us all beat!

Do you miss anything from doing the show?

I find myself craving an original PC from time to time.

Yeah, big iron! I am interested but lack the space, so I watch others with great interest.

I did get really into Sgi machines, but those are a newer breed. They do have that big iron feel. At one point I had quite a set, Origin server, Indy machines, an O2... purged it all in the early 10's and went small, embedded after that.