[ Newsbits ] June 29, 2016

June 29th, 2016 by Benj Edwards

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VC&G Newsbits Logo

Vintage computing and retrogaming news small enough to eat.

I’ve recently received a big influx of news, announcements, and press releases, so I thought I’d bring Newsbits out of cold storage and use it to share everything all at once.

Recent News

  • Producer of The Oregon Trail Donates Collection to The Strong

    It’s wonderful to see this stuff preserved, as always

    A group of former employees from the Minnesota Educational Computing Corporation (MECC) recently donated an extensive collection of materials to The Strong museum documenting the history of the pioneering company from 1973 to 1996. The collection includes hundreds of pieces of software, internal documents, and press clippings.

  • EveryMac.com Turning 20 Years Old

    Brock Kyle recently let me know that his essential Apple info site is turning 20 this Saturday. Quite an accomplistment!

    Established in 1996, EveryMac.com is the complete guide to every Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad and Mac clone in the world, with technical specs, configuration details, system identifiers, performance benchmarks, and global pricing info.

  • Atari Video Documentary Project Needs Support

    They’ve assembled some incredible footage so far; would be a shame to see this disappear

    This 100 minutes long documentary about the Atari story will feature a list of unreleased interviews with the key people of these events, including a very rare one with Warner VP Manny Gerard and a unique one with Atari CEO Ray Kassar, the man held responsible for Atari success and the video game industry crash at the same time, who never appeared in a documentary before.

  • YouTube Gamer on a Quest to Play 1001 Games Hits 100th Episode

    Quite a project

    My name is Gaming Jay. I’m a retro gamer who started a challenge this past year to play through a book called ‘1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die.’ Each week I’ve been playing 2 games and recording my gaming sessions and uploading them to YouTube. I have also recently developed a new website to document my journey with written summaries to supplement my YouTube videos.

  • iOS Camera App with Retro Filters Released

    Neat iOS camera app that simulates vintage graphics

    I created Famicam64, an 8bit RetroGaming style Camera app. Famicam64 lets you take photos with 40+ real-time filters that emulate the nostalgic look of retro computers (and games) of the 80s and 90s. CGA, EGA, VGA, Hercules and old PC graphic modes are all there, as well as style emulating home computers and handheld consoles (C64, Spectrum or Gameboy etc. etc.).

  • Secret History of Mac Gaming Book Seeks Funding

    It’s a niche subject, but a story worth telling

    The Secret History of Mac Gaming is the story of those communities and the game developers who survived and thrived in an ecosystem that was serially ignored by the outside world. The work draws on archive materials as well as 60+ new interviews with key figures from Mac gaming’s past.

  • Cool Links

  • Circuit Classics Boards Re-Create Classic Forrest Mims Designs

    Very, very creative electronics project from Star Simpson

    Forrest M. Mims III is a trusted name in the electronics world for good reason: his charming and engaging texts have drawn millions of people into the world of electronics for the first time. I am bringing some of those hand-drawn circuits projects to life by creating an exquisitely designed series of finely crafted and highly detailed boards. These are the Circuit Classics.

  • NES Coffee Table on Etsy

    VC&G reader Ben Winchester built a NES-shaped coffee table; it’s up for sale on Etsy.com

    I wanted to show this to you because I feel this piece is truly unique and original to me. I got my start by replicating your NES DVD player and then moving on to putting my own twist on the NES coffee table, and now I think I have created an original design.

  • Artist Re-Creates Classic Byte Cover in Photo

    Bob Alexander turns Tinney’s train illustration into a photo composition

    I’ve just completed an art project that was inspired by Robert Tinney’s painting “Computer Engineering” for Byte magazine. That’s the one with a train chugging around a printed circuit board. I made a printed circuit board that resembled the one in the painting, photographed it, and Photoshopped a picture of an HO scale model train onto it.



  • 7 Responses to “[ Newsbits ] June 29, 2016”

    1. Geoff V. Says:

      Thanks for sharing!

      That Byte recreation was awe inspiring. One of my favorites.

    2. Benj Edwards Says:

      Glad there are still people out there reading VC&G. If I hear more from people liking Newbits, I may start it back up again regularly.

    3. Geoff V. Says:

      Benj,
      I know in a previous post, you commented that readership was still strong but comments had waned.

      Is this still the trend?

    4. Benj Edwards Says:

      Geoff,

      Traffic in general is still fine, but it’s hard to tell the difference between crawlers, spambots, and actual readers if people don’t comment and let me know they’re out there. For all I know, computers are reading this blog thousands of times a day and not real people. It’s hard to tell.

      I was going to say traffic was down, but it looks like the last three Retro Scans have been the most popular (traffic-wise) in a long time. So maybe less is more.

    5. Ben Says:

      Thanks for featuring my end table, Benj! The link takes me to everymac.com, though :/

    6. Benj Edwards Says:

      No problem, Ben. I fixed the link now — sorry about that.

    7. Ant Says:

      Newbits are awesome. More please, Benj. 🙂

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