Top all-time · #2390
Byte Cellar
Personal blog · bytecellar.com · on HN as blakespothistoryhardware
Byte Cellar is a personal blog at bytecellar.com about history and hardware. Since 2010, 34 different Hacker News readers have linked it 106 times, most often “Computer Classified Ads Dating Back over 35 Years, Uncovered”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-05-10, and you can follow it by feed.
The Vintage Computing Weblog
Most-linked posts?
- Computer Classified Ads Dating Back over 35 Years, Uncovered3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-05-09
- Let's Talk About Capacitor Failure3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-04-08
- Looking Back on 35 Years as an Amiga User3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-10-28
- A secret Apple Silicon extension to accommodate an Intel 8080 artifact3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-11-17
- A Look at the Short-Lived 3-Inch Compact Floppy Disk3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-02-26
- My Little BBSing Page2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-12-29
- A Quick Tour of the HP-9000 712/100 NeXTSTEP Workstation (2016)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-03-10
- High-Res Graphics on a Text-Only TRS-80 Model 4 from 19832 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-10-18
- /2018/04/25/bbsing-on-a-virtual-next-cube-thanks-to-previous-2-0/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-02-06
- A Program from a 35 Year Old Magazine for BASIC Month and a Chat with Its Author2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-10-04
What Hacker News says?
I run a vintage computing blog that has been active for the past 16 years. Modern systems at the time of its lunch are now basically vintage. Check it out. https://bytecellar.com
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: What is your blog and why should I read it?”Submitted The era of American computer magazines has drawn to a close as a story · 336 points
HN discussionPerhaps of interest here: http://www.bytecellar.com/2012/09/11/susan-kares-32x32-pixel...
Comment linking /2012/09/11/susan-kares-32x32-pixels-of-steve-jobs-on-my-flesh-and-forever/
on “Susan Kare designed the suite of icons that made the Macintosh revolutionary”Submitted A secret Apple Silicon extension to accommodate an Intel 8080 artifact as a story · 268 points
HN discussionFor reference, this [0] is Amiga Four Byte Burger, and it looks impossibly good. [0]: https://bytecellar.com/2023/04/24/lost-amiga-four-byte-burge...
Comment linking /2023/04/24/lost-amiga-four-byte-burger-painting-digitally-recreated-and-looking-amazing-in-glowing-phosphor/
on “The Pile is a 825 GiB diverse, open-source language modelling data set (2020)”Submitted The Wonderful WiFi232: BBSing Has Never Been Easier as a story · 195 points
HN discussionI gave Linux on the desktop a good shake once, back in 1994. I installed Debian from a dev branch that came on 15 floppies. I was running it on an AMD 5x86 160 with 24MB RAM and had a lovely 17-inch (unusual for the time) trinitron display from Nokia. I used it for about 4 months, then went back to Windows 95. https://bytecellar.com/2015/07/16/that-time-i-ran-linux-on-t... An interesting hitch was that I needed to p…
Comment linking /2015/07/16/that-time-i-ran-linux-on-the-desktop/
on “I spent 18 years in the Linux console”Submitted An Apple II Tale as a story · 171 points
HN discussionI love my HP PA-RISC "Gecko." https://bytecellar.com/2016/03/02/a-quick-tour-of-the-hp-900...
Comment linking /2016/03/02/a-quick-tour-of-the-hp-9000-712100-nextstep-workstation/
on “The Itanic Has Sunk”Submitted Let's Talk About Capacitor Failure as a story · 154 points
HN discussionThe Obscuritory -- https://obscuritory.com/ -- if you have any interest in the culture surrounding computer games or retrocomputing or even just obscure, weird things in general I can not recommend this enough OS/2 Museum -- https://www.os2museum.com/ Fun With Virtualization -- https://virtuallyfun.com/ The Old New Thing -- https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing The Byte Cellar -- https://bytecellar.com/ McMansi…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Favourite blogs?”Submitted “No Man’s Sky” Displayed on the Amiga 1000 as a story · 142 points
HN discussionI use it and wrote a bit about it here. It’s pretty slick when I’m not looking to fire up one of my NEXTSTEP systems. https://bytecellar.com/2018/04/25/bbsing-on-a-virtual-next-c...
Comment linking /2018/04/25/bbsing-on-a-virtual-next-cube-thanks-to-previous-2-0/
on “Previous: NeXT computer hardware emulator”Submitted Looking Back on 35 Years as an Amiga User as a story · 114 points
HN discussionThis site seems to be out of date: the current development site seems to be https://sourceforge.net/projects/previous/ while https://bytecellar.com/2018/04/25/bbsing-on-a-virtual-next-c... seems to have some relevant links too. How does the experience of running NeXTStep or OpenStep in Previous compare to that of running x86 OpenStep or NeXTStep https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz2nPJGx4Qg on x86 hardware, on an old…
Comment linking /2018/04/25/bbsing-on-a-virtual-next-cube-thanks-to-previous-2-0/
on “Previous: NeXT computer hardware emulator”Submitted A Program from a 35 Year Old Magazine for BASIC Month and a Chat with Its Author as a story · 113 points
HN discussionIt was my first computer, Christmas 1982. I recall it well, and not too long ago had some old Kodak disc film sent off for development and found photos of the fully expanded setup from 1983: https://bytecellar.com/2016/07/03/33-year-old-roll-of-film-o... I currently have a comparable TI setup (not the same unit as my first), and still enjoy typing in magazine programs on it. I had some particular fun "recently" find…
Comment linking /2017/10/03/a-program-from-a-35-year-old-magazine-for-basic-month-and-a-chat-with-its-author/
on “A collection of modern games for the TI-99/4A”Submitted A Quick Tour of the HP-9000 712/100 NeXTSTEP Workstation (2016) as a story · 69 points
HN discussionGive it a try, and ideally on a vintage machine. There are lots of telnet BBSs out there today! Here’s my guide: https://bytecellar.com/bbsing/
Comment linking /bbsing/
on “Ask HN: What was it like to use BBS?”Submitted High-Res Graphics on a Text-Only TRS-80 Model 4 from 1983 as a story · 69 points
HN discussionNo Man's Sky is the most impressive implementation of this in a game that I've ever seen. Not just basic data defining the systems and the planets and stars within them, but the fractal detail that is each world full of flora, fauna, etc. A big jump over Fractalus, on that. :-) ( https://bytecellar.com/2016/11/14/procedural-planetary-explo... )
Comment linking /2016/11/14/procedural-planetary-exploration-across-the-decades/
on “Procedural content generation: creating a universe (2015)”Submitted Ray Tracing Is No New Thing as a story · 58 points
HN discussionBlake Patterson has a beautiful tribute to No Man's Sky[1] done on an Amiga 1000 if anyone wants to see one in action. I really love his more recent Amiga retrospective[2] and he has a great Amiga 1000 photo album[3] too. [1] - https://bytecellar.com/2018/03/14/a-planetary-anachronism-no... [2] - https://bytecellar.com/2020/10/27/looking-back-on-35-years-a... [3] - https://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/albums/7215…
Comment linking /2020/10/27/looking-back-on-35-years-as-an-amiga-user/
on “The Amiga 1000 Parceiro”Submitted Modern-Day BBSing on an Epson CP/M-based Laptop from 1984 as a story · 52 points
HN discussion"High" being relative and constantly changing, of course. The SGI 1600SW from 1998 was 1600x1024 at 17.3 inches, so 110dpi. A beautiful thing, but not really like paper IMHO. https://bytecellar.com/2008/02/13/the_sgi_1600sw/ && https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_1600SW
Comment linking /2008/02/13/the_sgi_1600sw/
on “TCL's bet on screens that look like paper”Submitted Let’s Talk About Capacitor Failure as a story · 28 points
HN discussionOMG that Epyx joystick [1] in the screenshot brings it all flooding back! I hated that thing so much that I went to my local arcade parts dealer, bought a stick and buttons, built a plexiglass housing and circuit board (designed in Deluxe Paint) in the electronics lab at my high school, and cannibalized that horrible Epyx joystick for its plug. Best decision I ever made! SOTB and Turrican were so much nicer with an…
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/2020/10/a2000.jpg
on “Looking Back on 35 Years as an Amiga User”Submitted Wait QuickTake? Apple recycles another term from its past as a story · 11 points
HN discussionIt’s not magic. Some of us get the appeal of vintage machines, but it’s not magic that these systems work. I have a large room full of them that I use daily. https://www.bytecellar.com/photo_pano.html I’m glad that this article is out there, though.
Comment linking /photo_pano.html
on “I Wrote This on a 30-Year-Old Computer”Submitted A Look at the Short-Lived 3-Inch Compact Floppy Disk as a story · 10 points
HN discussion
