Category Archives: Software

VIC-20 Adventures: The Return Journey

An Update Five Years in the Making Back in May 2020, I wrote about a collection of text adventures I’d created for the Commodore VIC-20 between 1983 and 1984. At the time, I reflected on those six games—two released, four … Continue reading

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River Software down under

Back in 1991, I operated a small software company in Australia named Entertainment Software. Essentially, it was a mail-order business, complemented by several independent computer stores that carried my products. During that same year, I reached out to Jack Lockerby, … Continue reading

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The Quest for the Sun

In September 1986, I found myself in year 10 at a regional high school in New South Wales, eagerly anticipating my work experience at a local computer shop called RAMROD. The store manager, Greg, was an absolutely awesome guy who … Continue reading

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BBS and beyond

On Monday, June 30, 1986, we launched Comm-Link BBS for the Gosford Commodore User Group (based in Gosford, NSW). Over the past six months, I had worked on designing, programming, and conducting extensive testing to reach the point where users … Continue reading

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Relics from the past

During the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, I decided to tackle the task of scanning old paperwork and digitizing it on my PC. As I sifted through boxes of documents, I stumbled upon a treasure trove of computer printouts dating … Continue reading

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SNAKE – VIC 20

Had a few nights free recently so was inspired to create a simple game for the unexpanded Commodore VIC – 20 using BASIC v2.0. For those who have programmed the VIC 20 in BASIC realise that you only have 3.5KB … Continue reading

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Discover a utility from the past

I’ve been continuing to clean up old documents, backup, and take the time to sort these out. Unsurprisingly, after 40 years of working with, programming and running various computer/software-related businesses, I would gather so much stuff. I’m slowly putting it … Continue reading

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STM8 BASIC

Well continuing on from my last post with an Arduino Nano running TinyBASIC with it 1k of memory I’ve gone one step further and picked up an STM8 BASIC dev board (STM8S103F3 Microcontroller) which is running BASIC and has 611 … Continue reading

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SC131 ‘Z80’ SBC

I’ve had this item on my to do list since 1991 and at the time I got hold of some great books on the topic and sketched out some basic designs I never found the time to design/build my very … Continue reading

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Vital Message

My second BASIC to C conversion using the classic Usborne 1980s computer books which helped many of today’s tech professionals were inspired by the Usborne computing books they read as children. The books included program listings for such iconic computers as the … Continue reading

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