Webtagr - Technology News Summarizer

Resurrecting a SparcStation 1+: A Years-Long Battle with Hardware Gremlins

2025-08-09

The author's journey to revive a SparcStation 1+ workstation began in 2018 and culminated in a breakthrough in 2025. The repair involved overcoming numerous hardware hurdles: a failing hard drive, a malfunctioning floppy drive, SCSI bus issues, and power supply problems. Through replacing a blown SCSI fuse, employing a SCSI emulator, and persistent troubleshooting, SunOS was finally booted. The tale highlights the complexities and challenges of hardware repair, and the author's dedication and perseverance.

Reverse Engineering a VTech Socrates: An 80s Hybrid Game Console/Computer Adventure

2025-04-25

This blog post details the author's reverse engineering journey of a late-80s VTech Socrates hybrid game console/computer. Starting with a poorly-conditioned eBay purchase, the author cleans, disassembles, and discovers its Toshiba-heavy internals, including a Z80 CPU and an expansion edge connector. An AV mod is designed and built to overcome dim video output. Gameplay ensues, leading to ROM analysis within the MAME emulator to understand cartridge loading and memory mapping. While encountering quirks in creating a simple 'Hello World' program, the author successfully draws pixels to the screen, laying the groundwork for further reverse engineering and development.

Retro Revival: Bringing a Tandy Coco Back Online with FujiNet

2024-12-20

This article details the author's journey in connecting an old Tandy Coco computer to the internet using the FujiNet project, an ambitious open-source initiative aiming to be the only peripheral needed for vintage computers. The author faced challenges during the assembly process, including soldering difficulties, hardware bugs, and software compatibility issues. Despite these hurdles, they successfully connected to the internet and ran various applications, including an ISS tracker and games. The experience highlights the vibrancy of the open-source community and the potential of retrocomputing, showcasing the fun of hardware repair and software development.