RETRO
111111116666 MMAAYY^2202200 |COMPUTERSHOPPER|IISSSUUEE^38877
wasnotontheirservers,I’dsearchVimeo
firstandseeifsomeonehadputupacopy.
Ifnot,I’dchecktheInternetArchive’s
Wayback Machine before waving the white
flag andsearching foritonYouTube,which
is my absoluteleast favouriteplace to
source viddeosffrom.””
By makinguse of Vimeo,the videos in the
archivecould benefit from less compression.
“You cangoontoYouTube and type
‘iPod gamma ad’ and you’ll get abunch of
240p/360pvideos.ButIwasluckyenough
tofinditin1080p,andthat’svirtually
unheardofforlate2000sApplevideos.
Even their keynotes from thatera are in
standard definition,”Goldsays.
In the end, the work sawGold amass more
thhan 1, fifilles, whhichhamounts to abbout
worth of data. These were split across four
time periodsinthe archive:1970s and1980s,
1990s, 2000s and 2010s, with an additional
2020s category created forfuture media.
LOGGINGON
Goldisstilllookingforvideos.Applemay
havepulleddowntheshuttersonthearchive,
but his insatiable desire to completehis own
collection stillburns. Topofhis list are the
WWDC 2000 and2002 keynotes, which he
hhasbbeen unabblletofifindd.
“I’d also really like to upgradethe quality
of the MacBook Air Envelope ad from 2008
–that’sbeen stuck at 848x480 forawhile
and it’s prettynasty,” he says.
Ph
oto
:Ja
nK
uc
era
⬆Thearchivegoesbackto 1977 ,withacringe-inducingadvertintroducing
theAppleIIFuga
⬆AppleisconstantlylookingforwardfromitsfuturisticbaseinCupertino,but
thatdoesn’tmeanweshouldn’treflectontheimportanceofitspast
warned, it’s not cheap.
You’ll have to contact
Kucera forthe latest
price but it’ll set you
back around €399.
JAVA MADE
TO RUN ON
DEBUTAMIGA
In 2015, software
developer Michael
Kohn figured away
to compile aJava
program to run on a
Sega Megadrive.
Less than five years
later,he’srepeated the trick
on the Commodore Amiga
1000, acomputer that was
released in 1985 and
discontinued two years later.
Both devices were originally
powered by the Motorola
68000 processor,and Kohn
reckoned it would be rather
straightforward to extend
support to Commodore’s debut
Amiga computer.Even so,it’sa
technological accomplishment,
making use of the Java Grinder
tool, which allows programs
written in Java to run natively
on older machines.
He explains the thinking
and the process behind the
task on his website(tinyurl.
com/387retro3), where there’s a
video of a138k demo running
on an original machine.
“Getting the software running
on areal computer was quitea
bit of work,”hesays, explaining
that he loaded Java to the Amiga
using anull modem cable.
ULTIMATE EXPANSION
UNVEILEDFOR
SPECTRUM
Rather than clog up aZX
Spectrum with ahost of
expansions and interfaces,
Jan Kucera from the Czech
Republic has created aversatile
all-in-one device capable of
performing multiple functions
at the same time.
Powered by the 8-bit
computer,the MB03+Ultimate
mimics the General Sound
sound card designed in the
1990s to allow samples and
.MOD files to be played. It also
incorporates the esxDOS
firmware forthe DivMMC
mass storage interface,
allowing the use of microSD
cards via one of two sockets.
The device also boasts 16MB
of SRAM, as well as digital
outputting to TV,two USB ports
(one foruse with amouse), a
DB9 joystick socket and
mini-jack stereo sound output.
An optional Wi-Fi module is
available toobut,
sincework is
ongoing, the spec
list is set to grow
and grow (indeed,
we’ve only
touched on the
highlights here).
To findout
more,checkout
the latest news
on the project
attinyurl.com/
387retro2but, be
