The Retro Collective

As Hot Chocolate once said, Everyone's a Winner Baby. This is in fact a lie. There are 5 winners and I'm going to reveal them today.

The Pioneer Laser Active was a games console for the richest. Vastly more expensive than the systems supported it offered a convenient entertainment hub with a price tag to brag about. Commercially it was a failure, technically it was flawed and many of the 10,000 systems produced have been destroyed by that flaw. We discover why it has a reputation for terrible capacitors and just what it's all about while attempting to repair it.

Pong is Pong right? We've all tried every variant of it, what more could there be to learn about Pong? Well in amongst the hundreds of Pong systems of the past there is a story to be told, and it comes from Commodore.

From Neo Geo to Candy Cabs, Dreamcast to C64, 3DO to Mega Drive Sime has a dream games room, and today he gives us a tour as well as his thoughts.

We continue our repairs on the Pioneer Laser Active today concentrating on the Sega PAC-S1. This add on lets us play Megadrive or Genesis games, MegaCD games and LaserDisc games. Can we fix it? Lets find out.

RMC Live is back and this time we take a trip into the world of ZX Spectrum games, and an adventure in time with Derek Findas, host of the Derek Findas Archives the most popular show on Scottish Television in his own time of 1984. What will we play, and how will we escape the clutches of Derek and return to our own time?

The Fairchild Channel F games console arrived in 1976. The first in a new wave of second generation games machines and the culmination of works by Alpex Computer Systems outlined in the "555" Patent. A blueprint for consoles for generations to come. Today we remember the system and take a tour.

The Pioneer Laser Active is a system we've been repairing on the channel. But there's no point in repairing a system if we're not going to play some games. Today we play an exclusive LaserMD disc, and it's glorious. Spoiler: It's horrible.

The power of modern computers means we take tasks like video captions and effects for granted these days, but how did intro graphics, credits, overlays and other art assets get made digitally in the 80's and 90's? Today we find out about the Quantel Paintbox workstations, made for just such tasks.

We continue our repairs on the Pioneer Laser Active today concentrating on the Sega PAC-N1. This add on lets us play PC Engine or TurboGrafx 16 games, as well as CD's and Laserdiscs for the system. Can we fix it? Lets find out.

The Swindon Museum of Computing has an Amiga graveyard, and I didn't like it one bit! We must save all of the Amigas! Lets see what we can do.

It's time to upgrade The Cave. After a week of back breaking removals lets take a tour of the new setup.

Europe was weened on low cost 8bit micros in the home, spending in excess of £1000 on a home computer seemed absured when we were used to £399 for a complete machine including monitor. So how would we ever adopt IBM PC's with their huge price tags? Amstrad had the answer. Lets take a look at the PC1512 and PC1640 which took Europe by storm.

Commodore was determined to rinse every last penny of profit it could from the C64 platform and the C64GS was a last push in Europe to do just that. Take a C64, remove the keyboard and call it a games console. What could possibly go wrong? What could possibly be right about it more like. Join us for a Show and Tell discussion about the misguided console.

Trash to Treasure returns with the only micro computer to come out of Wales. A 1982 Dragon32. It's not working and it deserves to be saved, can we breath fire into the Dragon once again?

Have you ever wondered how to program a C64 game? On today's Retro Road Trip we learn how, we explore some rare Commodore micros and we enjoy Marks collection of handhelds.

A modern Lightgun for LCD / LED displays that doesn't require sensor bars? I've been waiting a long time for this, but does it work? Let's find out in this Show & Tell of the Sinden Lightgun with inventor Andrew Sinden.

As much as I loved the Commodore Amiga I was starting to get jealous of my PC owning friends systems in the early 90's. Higher frame rates, more colours, hard disks as standard, I wanted to taste the PC action and if my magazines were to be believed I could, with a simple upgrade to my Amiga. I couldn't afford one back then but I have one now, so lets find out once and for all if my Amiga could be a good IBM PC for under £200.

In our final Trash to Treasure episode on the Dragon32 we clean the machine up, take it for a test drive and learn more about the history of the computer.

It's time for me to be educated on Mega Drive / Genesis and Super Nintendo games. I was never a big console gamer, Marc didn't own the systems first time around.... perhaps he can teach me what he has learned about the must have games for the systems from his collection.

The SGI Octane was a 3D Workstation from 1997 with a price tag no mortal could afford. Today we take a look at a machine in a long line of SGI hardware which was responsible for some of our favourite films, owned the MIPS processor we saw in Playstation and Nintendo consoles and performed number crunching scientific work. Let's see what it's all about.

This was a cheap impulse buy from Buyee.jp because I had £10 left on a voucher to use up. I don't know what I was expecting, but it probably wasn't this, and what an interesting machine it turned out to be. Whether or not we can use it is a different matter.

Today we take tea and 15 minutes with Stephen who was a video game artist on 8 and 16bit titles. His chosen topic, his work on Space Gun by Taito when he ported the graphics to the ZX Spectrum. Grab a cuppa and enjoy chatting with Stephen.

Join the RMC Live crew with special guest Dan Ibbertson AKA DJ Slope from Slopes Game Room. Dan will be putting the Mega Drive side of the Amstrad Mega PC through its paces, sharing his favourite games and chatting with you live.

In todays Tea Break we follow up on the Checkmate 1500+ case for Amiga computers and PC's. We first saw this case when we met Stephen Jones in 2018 and he was launching a kickstarter. Today we get to hear how the experience went.

EVERYONE had California Games it was impossible not to own it whether you were a Sega, Nintendo, Apple, Commodore, Spectrum or any other platform fanboy. And it turns out VCR owners don't escape, this is the VCR board game version of California Games.

Today we take tea and 15 minutes with Stephen or SIR who created some of the most memorable Commodore 64 title screens on the games we loved.

Today we take a 15 minute tea break with Philip Oliver of The Oliver Twins, 8 bit games developers from the 80's and beyond.

The Micro Museum in Ramsgate, Kent, is one of the most impressive private computer collections I've had the pleasure of visiting. Run by Mike and Carol Deer we get to see inside today as Mike takes us through some of his rare and interesting computers and consoles.

Today we take a 15 minute tea break with Andrew Oliver of The Oliver Twins, 8 bit games developers from the 80's and beyond.

Who would have thought that BASIC programming on a Nintendo Switch would be a thing? It's about to become a reality when FUZE is released for the handheld console and you can write your own games just like we did with AMOS, STOS, Blitz Basic, Dark Basic and numerous other languages in the past. Jon introduces us to his new produce Fuze4Switch.

Mini arcade machines seem to be on trend these days, but where's the fun in buying one off the shelf. Here's a DIY mini arcade cabinet I made in 2011 and only just got around to finishing this week. It's based on Atari's Gauntlet arcade and aims to be completely playable while retaining the original machines proportions and style. How did I do?

Al Lowe tells us all about life at video game developer Sierra in teh 80's and 90's, his work on Leisure Suit Larry, Police Quest, Kings Quest and more classic adventure titles and the demise of Sierra. A great insight into the early US home computer game industry.

30 years ago the Gameboy was born, the original DMG-01 and it was....terrible in my opinion. Today I give it a birthday makeover and some upgrades to make it the device I wanted at the time and perhaps we can become friends. A deep clean, a bivert mod and a backlight should transform this Gameboy, but careful, it's a very delicate task.

It's the final part of the Amstrad Mega PC Trash to Treasure. A chance to upgrade it with a maths co processor, some more VRAM and stretch its legs to see what it's capable of.

George "The Fatman" Sanger is a musician who has worked on such games as 7th Guest, Wing Commander, Ultima Savage Empire and more. Making video game music since 1983 he gives us an insight into the very early days of making video games and how music contributed to their development.

Is FPGA the future of emulation? Today I review the DE-10 Nano and MiSTer bundle, which combined promises an accurate and accessible way to emulate your favourite retro computers and consoles, from the Sega Mega Drive to the Nintendo SNES, PC Engine to Atari 2600, Amiga to ZX Spectrum this thing promises the lot, but can it deliver? Lets test it out.

Stoo Cambridge is a graphic designer who worked at Sensible Software at the height of its success. Producing pixel art for games such as Sensible Soccer, Cannon Fodder and....Sim Brick....Stoo gives us an insight into his beloved Commodore Amiga 1000 and the software he used as well as life at Sensi.

We've broken into the Museum of Computing in Swindon and raided the archives to bring you all of the Amstrad CPC's we can find. From the Amstrad CPC 464 through to the GX4000 and the Plus series, this range of computers is where it all started for me and I'm looking forward to discovering the rest of the range.

We chat to the man behind Return to Zork and many more great games Bill Volk is the man behind Return to Zork and the first ever CD based title on a home computer The Manhole. A man with a long and illustrious career talks us through his highs and lows in the industry as well as his current project.

We've been following the Checkmate A1500 Plus project for the last year, from conception through to delivery today of the very first case off the production line. Was it worth the wait? Lets find out, this brand new desktop case is made for classic Amiga computers, modern PC's and a lot more.

Would the real DJ Echo from LSD please stand up. Looks like I have some explaining to do about a very odd situation.

Francois Lionet is the father of STOS and AMOS, a BASIC programming language aimed at games making which we enjoyed on our Atari ST and Amiga's. Francois is back with AMOS 2, so let's catch up with him about the past, present and future over a cuppa.

Today we get to try out the Octane from Silicon Graphics Interactive, and we don't just test it, we also beef it up with some huge upgrades from SGI Depot. Maya, OpenGL, Lightwave and Blender are just a few of the technologies and applications which benefited from the SGI series of machines and we try out as many as possible today.

After some controversy on the channel recently I am pleased to present the real Echo from LSD. The man behind the huge tune that accomponied the Jesus on E's Amiga demo. Today we hear more about that demo, the man behind the music and what he went on to do with his life.

The Mattel Aquarius may just be the biggest flop in home computer history. Today we discuss why it failed so badly, what was inside it and can we get our own model up and running. Find out in this new Trash to Treasure series.

All the music on this video has appeared in previous RMC Videos, and this mix was made thanks to your requests for me to make it, which I really enjoyed doing. If you want more let me know!

Chris Abbott is turning our favourite C64 tunes into full blown epics with a symphony orchestra. Today he tells us all about the 8 Bit Symphony, Rob Hubbard and the journey taken so far to make these glorious renditions a reality.

Thank you all for your kind donations and your support of The Cave. You lot are bloomin' amazing.

DMA Design If lightening ever struck twice in the games industry then it was Mike Dailly who was hit, with both Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto to his name he helped to drive two of the biggest selling franchises of the '90s and beyond. Today we get to hear about the early days of DMA Design and how he got into the industry.

The Mattel Aquarius may just be the biggest flop in home computer history. Today we continue the story of the home micro's history, retrobrite it and perform other maintenance to get it working again.

David Fox was employee number 3 at Lucas Arts, a video game company so new it was simply an experimental arm of Lucas Film and wouldn't adopt the Arts name until much later. David shares his memories of Indiana Jones, Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken, Rescue on Fractalus and much more. He even got to work with Douglas Adams. Enjoy your tea break!

The Commodore Amiga 4000 was a flagship product in 1992. The Amiga to see the company into a new era and fight the 486 PC's and Apple Macs of the time. Was it good enough? We find out today when we meet Ravi's A4000 and hang out with Dan.

Paul Owens was a video game developer at Ocean Software from the day the name was born having been an employee at Spectrum Games. Paul shares with us today his memories of ZX Spectrum programming, game licensing and the cut throat world of 8 and 16bit video game development in the '80s and '90s.

Today we get to try out the Mattel Aquarius and see if it can redeem itself following the restoration. Do the tapes work, can we program with it, is any fun to be had at all with this failure in compting history?

Today we take tea with a modern developer, Robin Jubber, who tells us all about the Vectrix console and his new game Player2.

The Commodore Amiga is a computer close to the hearts of many retro computer fans, but as time goes on the Amigas are dying, not least because of the dreaded Varta battery leak so common in the A500+. Today we build the worlds newest Amiga. A new PCB, a new case and new upgrades will all come together to create my ultimate new Amiga.

the Telephone The Sega Hotline was the place to go for help on your favourite Sega Master System or Mega Drive games. If you were in Australia and you called it then you probably spoke to this man. Tim shares his memories of his five years working there.

Today we visit SWAG, a group of Commodore Amiga enthusiasts who hold a quarterly event to share their passion. From the CDTV to A500, the original A1000 to A4000 towers, everything Amiga is here and you can get hands on with them all and chat to the owners.

Nintendo Playchoice 10 is an arcade cabinet from 1986 based on NES technology. Today we're at the Swindon Museum of Computing to help them fix their's up with needs some repairs and a lot of cleaning! Let's fix it up and see what's inside.

Today we talk to Ian Robinson about a gaming mystery. What happened to Karma, the title that promised to beat Elite at its own game? Today Ian explains all.

The Commodore Amiga is a computer close to the hearts of many retro computer fans, but as time goes on the Amigas are dying, not least because of the dreaded Varta battery leak so common in the A500+. Today we upgrade the A500++ with some modern upgrades fitting of the build including the Vampire V2 FPGA board, USB keyboard and SD Card storage.

We're live today at Blackpool Play Expo where I was asked to host a Q&A with the legendary composer Tim Follin. We hear about his life history and enjoy some audience participation at the event.

Devkits are a weird and wonderful world, expensive development and test systems which only rich developers have access to, until now. Alan brings to The Cave his collection of development systems for us to poke around in and enjoy.

Grab an RMC Calendar here: https://www.etsy.com/nz/listing/729062644/ Available anywhere in the world, shipping is calculated at checkout. All profits go to https://www.bluebellwood.org/ and will be presented in January when I will give you an update on what we've raised. Let's use RMC for good and make a difference in our own special way. Thank you.

Three Donations arrived in The Cave recently which will go together just perfectly. An Amstrad CPC 464, the DDI-1 disk drive and interface and a 664 monitor. Lets give them the care and attention they deserve as well as a loving home.

Rob Hubbard is a giant in the world of video games and his music enhanced and at times surpassed the quality of the games themselves. Today we learn about his wizardry with the C64's SID chip as well as what he went on to do in the '90s which is less spoken about but just as interesting.

Legend of the Amiga music scene H0ffman joins us live in The Cave to have a chat and answer your questions and then treat us to a Live DJ set of his music mixed on two Amiga 600's, using the DJ software he co-created, PT-1210.

The Commodore Amiga is a computer close to the hearts of many retro computer fans, but as time goes on the Amigas are dying, not least because of the dreaded Varta battery leak so common in the A500+. Today we build the worlds newest Amiga. A new PCB, a new case and new upgrades will all come together to create my ultimate new Amiga. Today we test drive the Vampire upgraded machine and see what it's capable of.

The Commodore Amiga was such a popular machine here in the UK and across Europe, but it always struck me as odd that in the USA, the home of Commodore, it was little more than a footnote in computer history. I've decided to ask some dedicated American Amiga owners for their perspective on the machine as underground Amiga owners back in the day.

The Retro Computer Museum in Leicester, UK, is a place where home computers and consoles are celebrated. Today I take a trip to see what happens here and also get hands on with their awesome display of Virtuality equipment, some of the first VR we got to use outside of military and research circles.

My trusty CRT went *pop* some time ago and I've finally got around to fixing it. Hopefully this will help some of you save your own monitors and do it safely.

The BBC Micro turns 40 in 2021. Few computers can claim to be as influential as the BBC Micro. It's place at the centre of The Computer Literacy Project saw it address the political and social concerns a nation had about the rise of technology and automation. It paved the way for a new generation to take up a career in computing, and reskilled existing workers who took up the opportunity. In this series we'll get to know the machine and the history surrounding it while fixing up a nice example or two for The Cave.

Just a bit of fun for Christmas week, lets review some of the more choice comments I get on the channel. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and I look forward to more RMC in 2020.