Deciphering Glyph, the blog of Glyph Lefkowitz.

Now that we have a functioning Forth interpreter on the Sega SG-1000, it’s time to actually finish hooking up the keyboard input. Because I considered this task to be a little mind-numbing, I’ve put it off for years. How long do you think it took me to figure out? About an hour. One day, I’ll learn.

When we were first introduced to the X68000 ACE, we saw that the board was very corroded from battery damage. Later on, I whacked the battery out of it and did my best to clean up the corrosion without completely dismantling the machine. This time, it’s personal. Workstation, that is.

I’ve loved HyperCard for a really long time now. As a kid, I made simple games in it. As what could arguably be called “an adult,” I now want to play with HyperCard itself to see what weird stuff I can make it do. Today, I’ll make it display text… in a different font.

Design, implementation, and testing of a composite-video adapter for the BBC Bridge Companion home game console. Replaces the original RF modulator for sharper video quality and more compatibility with TVs.

The repair of a BBC Bridge Companion home game console with a damaged cartridge slot. A homebrew cartridge for the system is designed by disassembling and reverse-engineering the original game cartridge.

Overview and history of the BBC Bridge Companion home game console, and a brief overview of a composite video mod, repairs, the design of a game cartridge PCB, and the development of a new puzzle game for the obscure system.

Fix of a 1980s NEC JB-1260MA monitor that won’t show anything on screen.

There’s a lot of NEC computers on this blog, but tons of Japanese companies made great machines. Fujitsu, for instance, built a whole spectrum of computers. You’ve seen three of their 6809 machines in previous articles. Today, we’ll figure out how to get this sad 486-based FM Towns II to boot. Ideally, it should stay booted, too.

Now that I’ve fixed the Rising-Trigger knockoff chassis’s broken motor mount in the previous entry, it’s time to move on and start building the car. Of course, since it’s a knockoff Daxing chassis, this car will mostly be used for display. So we better do a good paint job. Did I mention it’s my first paint job?

When I was visiting my buddy, he pointed out that he had a 24” LCD monitor in the garage that he was throwing out. Sometimes it wouldn’t turn on, he explained. I don’t remember what he said after that, but the monitor ended up in the back of my crappy van full of cool junk, and now it’s here. Ready to be used for… monitoring?

Although we usually deal with old computers around these parts, today’s project comes to us from the futuristic year of 2021. What makes it interesting? You can’t buy it at your local store. Or any store, really. Today, we’re going to be getting a salvaged Loongson 3A5000-based motherboard up and running, and figuring out how good Linux is on a domestic Chinese CPU.

This Model 1 TRS-80 has been through a lot before it was rescued out of an e-waste dumpster by my friend. With some patient work, I should be able to turn it back into a computer. But how bad will this Frankenstein’s monster of a trash 80 become in the process?