Hello!
This is a very special video to me because I was finally prepared and equipped to go back to my first vintage computer and the first project I ever tried to record to make a video of. A Commodore VIC-20 that I got for $30 nearly 8 years ago that was dead as soon as I took it out of the box. It's...
Hello!
Here is the bonus section I mentioned in the last post. This was originally going to be part of the Roland MC-505 repair video but both the repair and description of the device were really too long to have both in one video. So I decided to break them up. But, if I'm making a dedicated video about using the MC-5...
Hello!
This project took way more time than I planned and I actually ended up deciding to scrap about half of what I shot. But I should I should go back a bit to explain that more. This video is about repairing a Roland MC-505 that I was given. This is a device I've been after for years after getting my MC-303...
Hello! I thought I'd give another update with stuff because the server stuff I've been working on is finally over with after quite a lot of effort. Nearly all of the public facing sites I run are self hosted now and are working much better! It was a lot of work, but worth it.
And two addendums to keep in mind ...
Hello! This was the other video I was working on before I started the change up with my server. That's going well and is nearly over now, I'm hoping to make an update video talking about it next week. This one though is about a CAD tablet for the HP 9836C that gives you graphics input capabilities! I still don't have acce...
This one was nerve wracking and exciting, after some back and forth I worked out getting a huge amount of HP hardware shipped half way across the US which is something I never do. I have probably bought 95% of my hardware locally because shipping big things is costly and risky (as we will see in the next video...). B...
2023-07-26 14:27:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello! I've got a video coming up soon but thought I would take some time to give you some updates on what has been happening in the background. Mostly that I've been spending a bunch of time on preparing to redo the entire software stack on my main project server.
An addendum to this video, my idea for multiplayer on...
Hello! I've got some more stuff for that HP-9836C computer I picked up on plate (and even more planned for later). This time I was able to get the printer made for it and get it fixed to be usable again! And somehow this is my first time using a standalone thermal printer and I've got to say, this is the best...
2023-07-13 19:36:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello! This is the update video I wanted to make to talk about some stuff like how I made the 9122C repair video. As a tease, I didn't edit this video after shooting it in any way other than adding some text and color work, but it still has multiple cameras, video capture, and a fully cut timeline in my editing software!
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Hello! That floppy drive I got for the HP 9836C I showed at the end of the last video? It didn't work. But I was able to get it going again after a deep cleaning which I hadn't done on 3.5" drives before. And I think this 9122C drive is going to be a dream to use with that computer going forward!
Making this v...
This is a shocking video for me to make, I picked up this system a couple weeks ago now and have been working non-stop to get it going again. It is amazing and I cannot believe how much HP was able to pack into this thing considering how early it was made. I've used the Series 80s computers a fair bit now and this thing feels...
2023-06-16 23:43:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello again, thank you all so much for the understanding and feedback on the last post. I got a lot more response to it than I was expecting and wanted to mull over a lot of the input you provided and finish the physical copies while I thought about it more. After that, I think keeping a deadline but making it biweekly instea...
2023-06-06 14:08:27 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello, there isn't going to be a video this week and that happening finally gave me the incentive to make this video. Basically, I want to know what everyone here thinks about moving from a release schedule focused on weekly videos to one that favors more production time for them. I go over this a lot better in the video so I...
2023-06-01 19:57:36 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello! This is a simpler video for this week, mostly because I almost completely forgot to make this video! I was cleaning up recently and found all the parts to put it together and realized I never made the video on it, oops.
I designed this adapter late last year that allows you to connect an external floppy drive di...
Wow this one was a lot more of pain to put together than I thought! This computer has clearly lived a troubled life and when I sat down to try to get it working again I completely underestimated what it would take to do it. But with some perseverance, luck, and help this computer is getting a new lease on life!
It's al...
Hello! Now that I've got my capacitor reforming setup dialed in I want to start getting some of the much older hardware I've picked up running again! I want to start on the S-100 computers first to see what I'm in for, but first I figured I'd get one of the terminals done to sample what condition they might be in. I'm pretty ...
2023-05-10 16:11:45 +0000 UTC View Post
This video has been a very long time coming, a detailed breakdown of how reforming capacitors and how you can do it. This has been one of my most researched and tested videos to produce because I wanted to make sure I got every single thing right with it.
I'm pretty sure I'm good calling the video done here, ...
Hello! A couple weeks ago a listing popped up near by me that had an Apple II plus in it that I was absolutely dreaming to get. I called them, only to be told that someone else has reached out first about them but if they flaked out I would be up next. Well, a few days later the listing was pulled and I never heard from them....
2023-04-26 21:41:47 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello! So first, sorry for no video last week. I tried, but the concept fell apart at the last minute and it just wasn't possible to make a video. I meant to post about it but have also been thinking about making some changes to how I plan video production that I didn't know if I wanted to get into yet and it just slipped pas...
2023-04-20 18:13:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello! This was a big one, probably actually too big. I maybe should have made three videos out of this but I don't want to flood the channel with Hydro Thunder videos. So I decided to make one bigger video with three different projects all in one.
Last week I didn't have a video because I was still finishing up parts ...
Hello!
This week's video is something I've been meaning to look at for years and wow do I feel DUMB for not having done it sooner. What I thought I bought was just the tip of an iceberg of Roland MIDI awesomeness that I didn't know about and was able to preserve!
This video is split between covering Roland Visua...
Hello! This week I wanted to take it a little easier and I've been meaning to take a look at this Commodore Adding Machine for a while and figured now was as good a time as any. This is a fairly straight forward device on the outside that has a few interesting design choices on the inside. Definitely a fun device to spend som...
2023-03-15 23:06:07 +0000 UTC View Post
I finally finished a video in a week! It's been a while since I did that though I did barely made it in time here. This video was very experimental for me in a number of ways and is my first real software review I think. It was also made almost entirely at home as a test to see what that would be like because haven't done tha...
2023-03-11 19:17:53 +0000 UTC View Post
Sorry for no update last week but this project just kept going on and on, just when I thought I had the next thing sorted I encountered another issue. Now I know what I'm dealing with, it isn't surprising, but none of this one went how I expected.
When I was working on the Windows XP Media Center video I found out abou...
This video took way more time to put together than I planned and ended up being so much longer than I really wanted it to be. But I tried a different production style with a hybrid of scripted and unscripted portions. I think it may work in the future but this was really clunky to get made.
Now on the ...
Hello, I wanted to let you know there won't be a video this week. The last video on Doom Multi-monitor blew up way more than I expected and when that happens I've found it can be better to skip a release the next week to let that video have it's time to shine if I don't have another really good one ready to follow it up with....
2023-02-09 18:38:42 +0000 UTC View Post
This week I decided to go for an idea that had been kicking around in the back of my head for a long time. It was daunting because a lot of things had to fall into place to ever pull it off. After what I can only call one of my luckiest videos ever, it worked, and incredibly well. I present, original Doom v1.1 from 1993 runni...
2023-02-04 00:07:36 +0000 UTC View Post
This was a hard fought video to get done this week, I wasn't sure I was going to make it. A lot of learning pains with stuff and unexpected set backs. But here we are!
Kevin from https://texelec.com/ is working on a new 4 drive capable floppy controller and I...
Hello, this week I got so closeto a video being ready but it just fell apart at the last possible moment in the most frustrating way. I won't get into the full nitty gritty details here because I'm hoping this will be solved eventually and I can make a video about it, but I've been working on a tool for exporting/imp...
2023-01-21 14:27:29 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello, sorry I didn't get this one done earlier. There were a lot of problems that happened while making this and resulted in multiple reshoots. I just got it done in the edit and have already released it so there is time to watch this weekend.
This is the second part and the last for a while on these machines. I've go...
