_____            .__                             _____                    __   .__     
  /  _  \    _____  |__|  ____ _____               /     \    ____    ____ _/  |_ |  |__  
 /  /_\  \  /     \ |  | / ___\\__  \    ______   /  \ /  \  /  _ \  /    \\   __\|  |  \ 
/    |    \|  Y Y  \|  |/ /_/  >/ __ \_ /_____/  /    Y    \(  <_> )|   |  \|  |  |   Y  \
\____|__  /|__|_|  /|__|\___  /(____  /          \____|__  / \____/ |___|  /|__|  |___|  /
        \/       \/    /_____/      \/                   \/              \/            \/
June 28th, 2017


[Cauldron for C64]


Oh, the glory days of yesteryear! Today I'm going to demonstrate a bit of emulation on my Amiga I touched a bit on it a little while ago, but today I'm going to grab a few screenshots to share. Growing up we had the c16 but we never had the datasette and relied mostly on cartridges, my favorite was a pirate game that was entirely text based. The computer I used most in the 80s was the default school computer, an Apple ][e - complete with monochrome monitor, and dot matrix printer.

[MagiC64 emulator for amiga]


If you have an Amiga, I suggest you head over to Aminet and grab this little wonder. It is a really impressive emulator for its time, the author was talented - especially given how few resources there were available back then, for people writing emulators.

[Emulating the C64]


And here we are, at the mainscreen. I get to experience everything I missed as a child of the 80s no longer am I limited to the monochrome display of the Apple 2 (although that had some great games as well).


[Skramble for C64] [Cauldron for C64]



[Cauldron for C64] [The Great Giana Sisters for C64]


Above there is Skramble, Cauldron,Cauldron (again). and The Great Giana Sisters. Cauldron is my favorite one the c64 thus far. My game collection is pretty weak, because I've mostly been focusing on the Amiga.

Amazingly these old Amiga computers can emulate quite a few other systems, Nintendo being on that I like, and also the 68k versions of MacOS. There are others, but so far these three are the only ones I have tried so far.

There is just something about a computer released 25 years ago emulating other systems that brings a smile to my face. To think of how much potential this little device had, and to see that it was never fully utilized sort of makes me sad.

If there is one thing I miss about the 80s and 90s, it is all of the competing brands of computers all of the options available. Now the two main systems competing with one another are using the same hardware, and to me, it doesn't even seem like the gaming consoles have that much variation.

Of course, I have not owned my own gaming console since the PS2 - which I still use to this day. So my judgement is probably off.

I think a lot of this competition is coming back via mobile computing though, I'm excited to see what the future brings. I'm also excited to see how far smart phones will go, until the next technological breakthrough takes over. My bet, is retinal display - actual retinal display, no screen at all.

How amazing would it be, to have actual 3D without the limitation of a screen! Okay, I'm detracting a bit off from Amiga month now :) One thing is for certain, if we ever get to the point of having a holodeck, you can bet I am going to be in there, playing on an holographic Amiga =) I see great potential for retro computers in the coming technological breakthroughs..

Hey, that ties in the theme of the blog pretty well.

[Day 28?!?!?] My daughter's pony


Geeze, day 28 is already here. This went a lot faster than I thought it would, of course there are another two days left to the month, and this is not it, but still - it is so close to the end now.

I'm still going strong on the Amiga, I actually feel more productive on this computer than I did on my PC, and all of the drama of the web is not easily accessible. I do have my cellphone, which is more or less a computer in it's own right.. Without the keyboard or even mouse (touch screen is not my thing) I don't really consider it a pesonal computer. Otherwise, my computer usaege has been limited to helping my wife on her Macintosh. I did slip into UAE on my tablet once, but that has been it.

I think this may be the longest I have been away from a x86 based PC since the 90s. There is quite a lot to say about the experience, but I want to save most of it for the end of the month, and then a follow up after I've been on my laptop for a bit.



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