Is there really a light at the end of the journey...?

[levi]

What surprises me about early Atari stuff is that the 400 and 800 had pretty good software libraries, with some fairly complex gameplay for a 1979 machine, but the 5200 that they were based on had very few basic looking games. In the UK by about 1983 we had a lot of home computers that grew up natively; the Amstrad 464, the Sinclair Spectrum, the BBC Micro from Acorn, the Dragon 32, the Oric-1 from Tangerine. We probably had imports of the Coco and the TI 99/4A but I don't know anyone who had one. And I know the BBC Micro and the Spectrum were exported to the US, the former only relatively late, and the latter as a Timex brand, but I don't think they fared very well against the C64.

 

[klapse]

Remember how sexy the TI 99/4A looked? Compared to everything else at the time...

 

[ZXDunny]

Yeah, I got my first Spectrum (my own machine as opposed to my dad's) in 1982 when they first dropped. 16Kb of RAM and a surprising number of games available at or close to launch (with BASIC to tide you over). Went up to the 48k the following year when the price dropped. The 80s was huge in terms of gaming - Ultimate (now RARE) got their start on the Speccy back then and some of the stuff they managed to do in 16k of RAM was incredible. Hundreds of games - of varying quality, admittedly - released every year, always something new to try.

I keep hearing about this videogames crash and as you say it must be limited to the US because it really didn't register as anything over this side of the pond - I knew a few people with 2600s, but pretty much everyone had a C64, Spectrum or in the case of the rich kids with clueless parents, Amstrad 464s and BBCs.

 

[carlberry]

I knew a few people with 2600s, but pretty much everyone had a C64, Spectrum or in the case of the rich kids with clueless parents, Amstrad 464s and BBCs.

Harsh, BBCs were in every school at the time so there was a valid reason for parents buying them for their kids, not sure what the Amstrad argument was . Of course if you couldn't afford a BBC (like my parents couldn't) then you ended up with an Acorn Electron, which I still have, also doesn't have the tendency to set on fire like BBCs do these days (I've had two do it on me now).

 

[vcoleiro1]

The video game crash in the 80's shut down the ColecoVicison world championship that I was to compete in representing Australia

 

[sm0kew0n]

BBCs were in every school at the time

Yeah, probably my first experience of computing, saw this too the other day -

https://computer-literacy-project.pilots.bbcconnectedstudio.co.uk/

 

[Kippykip]

The video games crash was when the sale of cartridge video games plummeted toward the end of 1983, and both Atari's and ColecoVision's success ended in the home video game market. Nobody really picked up the slack until the Nintendo Entertainment System started to become really successful, which didn't really happen in North America until 1986.

One thing I always point out is the video game crash of 1983 was only in North America, video games were still immensely popular everywhere else in the world especially for microcomputers.
I actually kind of feel Nintendo monopolised the US market a bit as their games were crazy expensive for what they were but oh well hahaha.

 

[spud42]

i had a Dick Smith Wizzard with the chicklet keyboard, basic cartridge and about 6 games.... had heaps of fun with that thing. would have been 1981 ish.... had a Vic 20 a bit later then got a Sorcerer computer... ahh the good old days..

http://www.ausretrogamer.com/retrospective-a-tale-of-dick-smiths-wizzard/

 

[EvilDragon]

Quick update:
Finally got the case samples, the cooling aluminium plates. Will test them and I already have a flight booked to Greece next week Wednesday.
More news when I find the time to post

 

[levi]

I hope those case samples include the logo plates finally.

 

[Caine]

Glad that the case parts have arrived. I hope they are good.

 

[EvilDragon]

I hope those case samples include the logo plates finally.

Yes, but painted, not anodized (sigh).
One thing to check next week as well.
In worst case, I'll let a german company do that. There are tons that can laser-cut anodized aluminium...

 

[Eight Bit]

The suspense!

 

[hns]

There is news on the Mainboards.
Well not THE Mainboards but a derivative.
We now have the "PC sytle" mainboard that can carry a Pyra OMAP5 CPU board and has a lot of interfaces to make it a "PC". Or development board.

Here is what it looks like:

Spoiler: LC15 Evaluation Motherboard

I have posted a longer description here:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/th...-rk3399-sounds-good.83004/page-5#post-1439447

 

[Bosbeetle]

There is news on the Mainboards.
Well not THE Mainboards but a derivative.
We now have the "PC sytle" mainboard that can carry a Pyra OMAP5 CPU board and has a lot of interfaces to make it a "PC". Or development board.

Here is what it looks like:

Spoiler: LC15 Evaluation Motherboard

I have posted a longer description here:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/th...-rk3399-sounds-good.83004/page-5#post-1439447

Really cool, not for me but non the less really cool

 

[CFWhitman]

I keep hearing about this videogames crash and as you say it must be limited to the US because it really didn't register as anything over this side of the pond - I knew a few people with 2600s, but pretty much everyone had a C64, Spectrum or in the case of the rich kids with clueless parents, Amstrad 464s and BBCs.

One thing I always point out is the video game crash of 1983 was only in North America, video games were still immensely popular everywhere else in the world especially for microcomputers.
I actually kind of feel Nintendo monopolised the US market a bit as their games were crazy expensive for what they were but oh well hahaha.

Remember that the computer game market was considered separately. It didn't crash in the US any more than it did in Europe. It was only the console game (cartridge) market that crashed. In fact, the rise in popularity of computer games was blamed for the console game market crashing (though that turned out not to be accurate). So, it kind of sounds like the video game market in Europe couldn't crash because it didn't really amount to much until the revival after the crash. Apparently the early cartridge systems were popular enough in Japan for it to at least register there (more so than in Europe).

 

[___]

@hns The image seems corrupt. I can only see the cables/plugs going into something, but then it is cut off.

 

[CommanderB]

@hns these are amazing news! The board can be used as a pyra automatic build and testing environment for example!


Maybe you should create an own thread? It is definitely worth it.

How and when can you order this? Is there going to be complete set of mainboard+CPU available?

Gesendet von meinem SM-N9005 mit Tapatalk

 

[JustSimon]

@hns The image seems corrupt. I can only see the cables/plugs going into something, but then it is cut off.

Look at the post that he linked:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/th...-rk3399-sounds-good.83004/page-5#post-1439447

It has the complete image.

 

[Grench]

Yes, but painted, not anodized (sigh).
One thing to check next week as well.
In worst case, I'll let a german company do that. There are tons that can laser-cut anodized aluminium...

Ordered as anodized and delivered as painted... Did they happen to also do it out of the same gauge material as the heat sink sheets? Wondering if they did that for a small quantity to avoid cutting into a full new roll of material?

Was this 'all 500' or was it another smaller test run?