I never though i'd see the day where computer hobbyists start having and making the stuff to maintain interest in the classic 8 bit machines that made modern computers possible. Just like car hobbyists care keeping classics alive, computer hobbyists are doing that and going beyond to create NEW classic 8 bit systems and support.
I agree! I don't personally have the skill to refurbish old machines or work with these "new" ones. But I see kids like my nephew and niece disconnected on 'where computers came from' IE. they just tap around with Netflix on pads or cheap games. When I was in grade school we were taught to program in BASIC to help understand the technology we knew we would be using as adults and its been really helpful with my home and work computers to be able to fix or tweak little things.
Yep! It seems the kids of yesterday who had those old classic computers (and consoles too) are now full grown adults with money of their own! New software AND hardware comes out almost weekly and that's great.
@@Makkenhoff A friend of mine's mom used to do medical transcribing from home on her Commodore 64 well into the Windows 95 age. Why? Because, at the time, it met all of her needs for that task and also one of the best programs made for that task were made specifically for the C64. She kept different files on different floppies and kept them safely stored (and duplicated) in organized boxes. From a programming point of view, those 8 bit systems were great because it was easy to "scrape the metal" and interact directly with the hardware instead of having to go through one or more additional layers to get to the hardware, slowing the program down.
My first home computer in 1979 was a PET 2001 8K Ram with the chicklet keyboard and cassette drive. Which at the time was $750. I got it after getting a job as a Computer Operator and later a Programmer for it, on a Digital PDP 11/70 system producing the White Pages for New York Telephone which itself could only address 64K, That was fun writing programs to produce the telephone books for all of NY and later New England when we became NYNEX, all with an address limit of 64K.
I remember using NYNEX White Pages back in the day! Although people found various creative uses for it's pages besides looking up numbers... Especially the ones permanently attached to phone booths...
While I don't own or have any experience of these retro computers (eg the PET), I find the 8 bit guy's videos absolutely fascinating! Keep up the good work! Marius from Poland...
As a Finnish guy with Russian ancestors who has a fascination with old technology, I find 8-Bit Guy's videos informative and entertaining as well. Love to Poland from the gloomy north :)
The little 'rings' are there to help quiet down the mechanical keyboard. I actually used those on my CODE keyboard, but later removed them since I like the click and I didnt have an infant in the house anymore.
Well, it's good to see it living on in yet another form, but I don't see a big advantage over emulation because the physical PET's main appeal for me is the iconic trapezoid monitor. I will wait for a convincing replica of that. - The PETSCII games showed in the video I find fabulous, and their artistically pleasing packaging as well.
That's still a hefty price point for just the motherboard.. $361 after shipping to the USA. And you need either an empty pet, or source a keyboard replacement and monitor.
David, I respect you for the consistency and quality of your content. It may not be for everyone, even I something don't feel like watching a new episode, but I always know pretty much exactly what I am gonna get, no annoying sponsors, no bs, just straight to the point.
Yes. Watching a certain channel that has lots of "tips" can get annoying with the commercials... David is always just "here's the thing." And I love that.
He truly is one of the best modern youtubers! I don’t think I’ve seen a single video of his that wasn’t entertaining, on top of that I find myself viewing these videos more than once.
@@hobblinharry I wish more creators had crypto wallets or some kind of self-hosted donation pages. I simply cannot do Patreon in my country, not to mention other concerns.
Glad you liked it :D .. Not bad for a pre-production PCB huh (only one mod.. did u spot it?) The 'retail' version is 99.99% the same, the most noticeable difference is the longer buttons for RESET & SD Menu function.
Love these old recreation boards. As the prices of originals continues to go up, for someone like me that wants to dabble but doesn't want to go in the deep end, it makes things accessible. Granted, they may not be cheaper than the originals in all cases, but with less headaches.
I don't understand everything you say, @The 8-Bit Guy, especially when it comes to very specific hardware terms, but I love your videos, you make complicated things understandable and as a 41-years-old grown up with the C64 + 5 1/4 " floppy drive, there is so much nostalgia. Fortunately I was very interested and kind of good in basic and later on in IC-programming, your videos are THE source of my personal healthcare. Thank you so much and please go on and on and on.
When I consider a custom case for the minipet, my brain goes to something like the Apple II that you can put a monitor on top of. And then it hits me: screw down the monitor and that's basically an original PET. I have no imagination.
although, the monitors used with Apple II were substantial; at least 12". I think PET monitor was 9" or smaller(?) Sorry to be pedantic, but guessing wrongly is practically good as being imaginative, in my experience anyways... 🙄
Those little O rings are to slightly reduce the travel of Cherry MX keys, mostly to prevent the key from bottoming to reduce deck clack. They are entirely optional.
They do, I purchased them to make a blue switch keyboard more quiet in a work environment in which I got a colleague that hated it's sound with a passion
@@fabiosemino2214, I doubt the rings had any effect on blue switches. The noise of blues comes from the construction of the switch, not from the key reaching end of travel which is the only thing the rings affect.
I am glad I follow you and LGR, mainly because LGR makes me wax nostalgic for PCs of the 80's and 90's, and you actually show me a different side of those decades that I didn't even know existed. Also, it's cool that these 8-bit and 16-bit boards live on and new software continues to be developed for them.
Honestly, I'm surprised that he has 1 million subs, but also surprised her does not have more!! Been following you for years and freaking love you're content! Keep it coming man!
@The 8-bit Guy One thing that I did when the keyboard ribbon broke in my TI-99/4A was I soldered male pin headers to the main board and the keyboard PCBs in order to use a 40-pin, 40 conductor IDE cable and used the same half of each connector on the ends to connect the keyboard to the mainboard there. The same method would work here as well instead of the individual groups of wires seen here.
Stuff like this is really cool. As someone who was never even close to this tech (im 15) i find it really interesting to see how computers started, and now how people are keeping the old stuff alive.
I have access to a glow forge laser cutter through my college, it'd be fairly trivial to make an acrylic case, all you'd need to provide would be the various pieces in a vector format (or a high resolution raster image I could vectorize)
As others have pointed out, the rings are for noise reduction. More specifically- they stop the keys bottoming out and hitting the PCB which is where the majority of the noise tends to come from.
Woah.... I remember how utterly amazed we were my 3D monster maze, even on a ZX81.... but seeing it run on a "real computer" is still quite a sight even today.
I always know it's going to be a good day when David posts a new video. Today was no exception! Fingers crossed that the same will happen for 8-Bit Keys soon!
I’ve got a 3D printer and would love to try my hand at a design, though I don’t have a large 3D printer (yet-waiting on the Prusa XL). However, this could be done in multiple pieces and still be pretty strong when joined together using tabs or screws. I also think that printing it in smaller pieces would be better because then it’d be more accessible to more people without access to a large printer.
When you get the Prusa XL, you will have to do a review on what you think. I have the CR-10S Pro V2 and it's a bundle of issues from time to time. I swear I'm fixing it as much as I am printing with it.
@@helldog3105 Will do. I’ve found the Prusa i3 Mk3S+ to be really reliable, provided it’s assembled correctly, which I didn’t the first time around, but even then, it keeps on going and produces great prints. The great thing about Prusa is you’ve got live chat support available whenever you need it, and IMO it’s well worth the money to have someone ready to be there. Like you, I want my hobby to be “3D printing”, not “3D printers”
I love your videos! I miss my commodore days. So many good memories. It's dang near impossible to find one around here at a reasonable price, but the search continues.... :)
If you get a product for free in exchange for promoting it, it is technically a payed promotion, but there isn't anything wrong with that, it just means you should disclose it, which you did. Nice informative 'payed promotion', great little project. I really like how they keep it simple, but did some very meaningfull additions for making the machine usable.
Stumbled across this randomly. I never knew this was a thing, but you video was so interesting I watched til the end. When I think of retro things I like most jump to NES/SNES/Sega etc, the obvious ones. But it is good to know the community extends to cool things like this :3. If I had more space/money this would be a cool hobby O:
A toner transfer method would be perfect for labeling these keys. Print the mirror image of the key letter onto the wax paper backing from any sticker by using masking tape to stick it to a sheet of paper and running it thru a laser printer. The toner is now only loosely adhered to the wax paper. Spray a light coat of rattle can clear coat on the key and allow to dry until just tacky but not wet. Then press the wax paper against the tacky key and burnish to transfer. Then finish with a final clear coat to seal it in. The results are often very professional looking.
Sweet revision, that is a cute little speaker onboard. ;) Do kind of wish for more video output options but I guess they're trying not to stray too far from the original hardware foundation. I love all this game software, kind of stuff I always wanted to see on the PET. I remember doodling on a PET in the early 90s and thinking approximate graphics were possible, love that Lemmings clone. Love to see something like SanctuaryRPG on the PET to anyone making homebrew. :D You know in hindsight the whole reversed font set method seems kind of redundant and wasteful for precious ROM space. Seems like the kind of thing a VDP should have been able to muster natively, inverting a character graphic in real time. Nice game update Dave, lovely improvements. I hope somebody can help you out with a new shell, would love to see a scaled down Mini-PET myself.
The o-rings for the key caps are primarily used to reduce the amount of distance needed to register a keystroke, in addition to sound reduction you noted. They’re good if intend to type quicker and gamers will use them (they come in different thicknesses) to register keystrokes quicker.
Interesting video and board. I wish the board had an option to move the DC Input and Composite output to the back though. Oh and I could easily design and print a case.
Make a replica based on the original curvy PET which was demonstrated at CES or similar. There is a picture on Wikipedia. I have since learnt that case was a painted wooden mock up. The reason the case changed to flat sheet metal was that Jack Tramiel realised released that Commodores filing cabinet factory could produce those cheaply in house. The reason I recall the picture of the curvy Pet was that as a schoolboy in 1977 I took an feature about it in a Sunday Newspaper to show the Head of Maths to show him how much more advanced it was than the schools Busicom 2017.
There are keycap profiles which are flat and thus allow the keys to moved to any row. Specifically XDA and DSA style keycaps. Aliexpress has a bunch of XDA keycap sets for relatively low cost (compared to most custom keycap sets).
Hi! I just watched your video and saw that you were looking for someone who works with acrylic and lasers. I own a laser and have worked quite a bit with acrylic. I would be happy to work with you on a custom case for your MiniPET. I'm also a fellow retro computer geek, and really enjoy the videos you make. The intro music to your videos just makes me smile. :) Let me know if you want to talk lasers and custom cases, that would be a lot of fun!
My first idea for an external keyboard for a MiniPET would have been using an CAT 5 Ethernet cable, but it's 11 cables short. A DB-19 connector would match exactly, but it's quite rare to source these days. Then I thought about using a DB-25 printer cable or a DVI Cable. It's more pins/cables than required, but it's easily sourceable nowadays. Finally, I thought about HDMI cables. 19 pins. A perfect fit. And they even sell coiled Micro HDMI cables. Well, food for thoughts.
No, its not a paid promotion As long as its transparent that it was free but arent under obligation, then it isnt. Even though they sent it to you, you didnt have to make a video about it, but you like it and chose to do so. Thanks for all your quality content.
Paid promotion or not I think you made it clear of your relationship with them and FWIW that's cool. I think it's obvious why they would want to get you involved with their product and you gain some value from it as well. So all in all it's good. I'm no hobbyist nor am I really interested in buying that platform but I find it very cool to see the work you do with the hardware/keyboard and programming. Really enjoy that content and really enjoy the channel. Thanks so much for sharing, great stuff as always.
Hey I've been trying to find the games I played in grade school back in the early 90's on the Apple IIe. I've been through many ROM sites and still can't find them. The bulk of the games I found were possibly made by MECC, if I recall correctly. A small company out of Minnesota. There were games made to teach simple mechanics like levers, pulleys, and fulcrums. I think it was called Pizza2Go, and you solved the puzzles to unblock your route to delivering pizza. Usually to the likes of Dracula and the Mummy guy. And there was another game where you had like 3 floors set up and you had to move your robot from the start near the top, to the goal usually near the bottom. There were elevators to go up and down from floor to floor. If I remember correctly it was a math game, and you used addition and subtraction to move your robot around. You could play with a friend or against the computer. Lastly another game from I don't know what platform, but it had Atari like graphics. Lots of yellows and greys in use. In the game you play as a few criminals trying to break into a vault and make off with gold bars. To get to the vault you had to go through a maze and avoid the guards.
I think the off centre before was that it was set up for the original PET monitor. I've seen the same issue in a RU-vid video where the monitor was replaced with an amber one, and the first MiniPET installed in the casing.
