A few weeks ago, back in 1981, my uncle showed his new computer a true blue IBM PC. We spent the next several hours playing Zork and when we both got tired of being eaten by a grue he taught me a little BASIC. At that point I was hooked on computers and spent the rest of my life poking and prodding them. I was so addicted to poking at hardware that I spent several years developing games consoles, back during the years when the machines were still unique. Eventually they just became little PCs and I switched over to standard desktop app development.
During this very long software career I was always in to programming, but despite my uncle being an electrical engineer and introducing me to electronics at a young age I never really got into that side of things. I was happy with the software side and also gravitated towards hobbies that got me outside. I always had a vague notion that people were building stuff based on Raspberry Pi's and Arduino's but soldering always seemed messy and difficult so I was never tempted to check it out.
Eventually I heard about replica products like the Replica PDP-11 and that started to catch my interest. However I knew that ultimately it was just a really good simulator and the idea of building it still seemed like a chore. A replica of the IMSAI 8080 got my attention again, who doesn't enjoy a nice game of chess, but it still wasn't enough. Then I finally stumbled upon the computer kits and everything changed.
See I was just slightly too young to have seen the computer kit era first hand. My first computers were the TI-99/4A, Commodore 64, and the IBM PC. You took it out of the box, plugged it all in, and started programming. However here were people on YouTube that were making their own backplanes, CPU cards, memory cards, and then connecting to them over serial ports! I could finally relive the true beginning of personal computing that I had just barely missed.
So I watched the videos about what I needed, went on a huge Amazon shopping spree, ordered all of my replica kits, ordered my RC2014 kit, and then realized I don't know electronics at all and ordered my SunFounder kit too! I'm super excited to build things and then write many, many hello world apps in languages I don't know!
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That's a great story but it isn't even actually the story of how I got here! One of my first computers, and probably still my favorite computer of all time, was the C-128. I used it to learn 6502 assembly and spent hours and hours messing with it long after it was considered obsolete. I mean what's not to love about a computer where you can code for the disk drive!
Anyway, that love for the C-128 and 6502 made me wonder why the bus based computers were always so Z80 heavy. Why was there no love for the 6502? Why were people mostly ignoring graphics and sound? I enjoy Zork and adventure too, but my 8bit experience needs hardware sprites and square wave generators!
So after binging on YouTube videos of various 6502 projects I finally came across someone who made a 6809 bus system. However this wasn't just an ordinary computer because from the very start it has a TMS9918! It has a SN76489 ! It can even have a V9958 !!! While I will definitely enjoy my CP/M a whole lot this was finally the computer I was looking for! (I also love all of the improvements to the bus and backplane compared to the RC2014 boards.)
In short, I am very ready to build. I also hope I can learn enough to help make the YM-2149 board!
Let's Build Some Boards!
Re: Let's Build Some Boards!
Welcome to the Forum. That’s an awesome story, that many can relate to!
I’m perhaps a little older, as I was first introduced to 8-bit computing via a digital electronics hobby and the availability of the early 8-bit microprocessors.
This meant my first introduction was via experimenting with the hardware, and learning the machine-code required to drive them.
But, like you've described, my career then took over, mostly focussed on high-level software development on PC’s and business systems.
But now, modern PCB manufacture and availability of reclaimed retro-parts, has very much driven me back to my roots of experimenting with the earlier 8-bit hardware.
This provides a lot of nostalgia for many, but is also helping others to experience the late 70’s / early 80’s period that they may have missed out on.
I hope you enjoy building, and also like your thoughts on making a YM2149 board.
One thing is for sure, there is still lots to experiment with from the 8-bit era!
Have fun!
I’m perhaps a little older, as I was first introduced to 8-bit computing via a digital electronics hobby and the availability of the early 8-bit microprocessors.
This meant my first introduction was via experimenting with the hardware, and learning the machine-code required to drive them.
But, like you've described, my career then took over, mostly focussed on high-level software development on PC’s and business systems.
But now, modern PCB manufacture and availability of reclaimed retro-parts, has very much driven me back to my roots of experimenting with the earlier 8-bit hardware.
This provides a lot of nostalgia for many, but is also helping others to experience the late 70’s / early 80’s period that they may have missed out on.
I hope you enjoy building, and also like your thoughts on making a YM2149 board.
One thing is for sure, there is still lots to experiment with from the 8-bit era!
Have fun!
Re: Let's Build Some Boards!
Great intro and welcome to the forum!
I think you hit on a lot of points that I love about 8-bit computing - the power of being able to control just about every aspect of the computer - down to every available bit. Also, that it is not quite as daunting as modern systems (where a lot of that control is limited to the user and/or documentation is difficult to find or non-existent). I also agree that having access to graphics and sound is what makes it fun (and input controllers ... something I still need to add. LOL, once I get a few more funds in my bank account and order will be heading Greg's way).
Funnily enough, I've been thinking about potentially porting Zork across to the MECB systems. It's quite interesting in how it is implemented and I came across this when I was looking into what CHIPOS was - there are many similarities. Zork effectively runs under a kind of virtual machine so the bulk of the code is common regardless of the underlying machine. It just needs an implementation of the virtual machine for each system it runs on.
The YM2149 or some variant of the C64 SID (apparently there are some modern implementations of it) would be really cool.
Cheers,
Emil.
I think you hit on a lot of points that I love about 8-bit computing - the power of being able to control just about every aspect of the computer - down to every available bit. Also, that it is not quite as daunting as modern systems (where a lot of that control is limited to the user and/or documentation is difficult to find or non-existent). I also agree that having access to graphics and sound is what makes it fun (and input controllers ... something I still need to add. LOL, once I get a few more funds in my bank account and order will be heading Greg's way).
Funnily enough, I've been thinking about potentially porting Zork across to the MECB systems. It's quite interesting in how it is implemented and I came across this when I was looking into what CHIPOS was - there are many similarities. Zork effectively runs under a kind of virtual machine so the bulk of the code is common regardless of the underlying machine. It just needs an implementation of the virtual machine for each system it runs on.
The YM2149 or some variant of the C64 SID (apparently there are some modern implementations of it) would be really cool.
Cheers,
Emil.
Re: Let's Build Some Boards!
I worked in video games from the the PS1/N64 era until getting fed up with the boring hardware and quitting a bit after we got early PS3 development kits. I didn't realize what was annoying me about the machine and had quite the ah-ha moment once I found all of these homemade computers. I miss messing directly with the bits and memory and abusing DMA controllers too.epaell wrote: Fri Jan 23, 2026 10:44 pm I think you hit on a lot of points that I love about 8-bit computing - the power of being able to control just about every aspect of the computer - down to every available bit. Also, that it is not quite as daunting as modern systems (where a lot of that control is limited to the user and/or documentation is difficult to find or non-existent). I also agree that having access to graphics and sound is what makes it fun (and input controllers ... something I still need to add. LOL, once I get a few more funds in my bank account and order will be heading Greg's way).
It's probably not really a two person job but I have a soft spot for the Z-Machine so let me know if you want some help. Decades ago I played around with it on the adventure game making side but would love to dig into the guts!epaell wrote: Fri Jan 23, 2026 10:44 pm Funnily enough, I've been thinking about potentially porting Zork across to the MECB systems. It's quite interesting in how it is implemented and I came across this when I was looking into what CHIPOS was - there are many similarities. Zork effectively runs under a kind of virtual machine so the bulk of the code is common regardless of the underlying machine. It just needs an implementation of the virtual machine for each system it runs on.
Re: Let's Build Some Boards!
That's great to know. I haven't made any start on it yet (as I've been mostly messing with hardware). I would probably attempt on it on the 68008 or 8088 board first because they have larger memory availability (otherwise it might complicate things with the larger game sizes without any external storage access). I do have an SD-card interface that I converted from another system but the more I look at the original design the more I find faults/limitations in it so I feel it needs some reworking or alternatively shifting to a simpler compact flash interface. Either way it would be nice to have some form of external storage for MECB.It's probably not really a two person job but I have a soft spot for the Z-Machine so let me know if you want some help. Decades ago I played around with it on the adventure game making side but would love to dig into the guts!