«The world’s first GPU»: nVIDIA GeForce 256 is 25 years old
August 31, 1999 nVIDIA (as the name was then spelled) announced the GeForce 256 graphics card, which was released on October 11 of that year. Advertised as the «world’s first GPU», the video card completely changed the market. The term GPU (short for Graphics Processing Unit) was also coined by NVIDIA.
The Spectrum emulates a classic computer — 48 games, USB and HDMI included
A full-size modern remake of the classic Sinclair ZX Spectrum 8-bit computer is being prepared for release by Retro Games. The device is compatible with the 48K and 128K Spectrum and has a USB port for downloading games and other content.
The computer of the creator of the first Civilization with 16 MB of memory for $10,000 is still working
In the lobby of the Firaxis office, there is an old leather chair and an outdated PC with a CRT monitor in classic white color from the 1980s and 1990s. It’s not just an antique, but an important part of gaming history.
Microsoft was developing an alternative to Windows — Midori OS presentation leaked online
Ten years ago, Microsoft intended to release a special operating system called Midori. The new OS could run Windows applications without relying on the old code — it could have become a reliable alternative to Windows.
Forcing an update: NVIDIA drivers cause «death screen» with Windows 10 and older processors
In February of this year turned out to bethat some older computers cannot run the latest versions of Windows 11 due to the lack of the POPCNT instruction set. Now it’s been reported that Windows 10 users are also experiencing the POPCNT issue, and the cause is NVIDIA graphics drivers.
Who created the BSOD? Windows developer reveals 30-year-old mystery «blue screen of death»
In the second half of July large-scale failure of CrowdStrike hit Windows and a lot of businesses around the world. Many people have seen the «blue screen of death» — Microsoft developer told his story.
Windows 3.1 saved an American airline from CrowdStrike
Southwest Airlines, the fourth largest airline in the United States, was hardly affected by the CrowdStrike — problem due to the use of Windows 3.1. The chaos occurred only on airlines that used current Windows.
Former Microsoft vice president shows first copy of Windows 95
Brad Silverberg, former senior vice president and product manager at Microsoft, showed the world’s first a copy of Windows 95. It all started with a post by Dave Plummer, another prominent Microsoft employee who is the man behind Task Manager, ZIP files, and the pinball game Space Cadet, which came free with Windows. In the post, Dave showed…
«We won the war on floppy disks»: Japan repealed 1034 rules requiring the use of floppy disks
Japan — is not only about state-of-the-art high-speed trains and self-cleaning toilets. The flip side of progress was that the country’s regulations required government agencies to use flexible magnetic disks known as floppy disks. It looks like Japan’s Digital Agency has finally put an end to this anachronism.
A melted terminal of the French predecessor of the Internet is sold for €430 — as a work of art
An Alcatel Minitel 2 terminal of the Internet’s predecessor network, salvaged during a fire, exhibited for an eBay auction in France. The melted computer case leaves no chance for its practical use. Nevertheless, it is sold at auction for €430 as an inexpensive working smartphone or a very budget laptop.
The 1969 computer game Lunar Lander with text output received a patch from a retired programmer
Retired programmer Martin C. Martin discovered a bug in the original physics code of the 1969 computer game Lunar Lander. Created by then 17-year-old high school student Jim Storer, this «prototype» game only displayed textual status updates on a teletype. In fact, the game is a space simulator.
46 years of the x86 architecture — Intel 8086 processor introduced on June 8, 1978
The impact of the Intel 8086 processor on the computer industry is hard to overestimate. It pioneered the x86 architecture, which is still used in most computers today. Intel 8086, introduced on June 8, 1978, 46 years ago.
8BitDo has released a mechanical keyboard M Edition — in the style of the classic IBM Model M of 1985
Retro mechanical keyboards by 8BitDo have different looks, each paying tribute to classic technologies. The design hints are subtle enough to avoid copyright issues. Similar to the company’s NES and Commodore 64-style keyboards, the 8BitDo M Edition follows the color scheme and button shape of the classic IBM Model M keyboard from 1985.…
The D-17b computer from the Minuteman 1 ballistic missile in 1962 was the first desktop PC
What kind of computer can be considered a desktop? Apparently, one that is compact enough to be placed on a table. YouTuber Alexander the ok considers this to be the D-17b, which was responsible for guiding the Minuteman 1 ballistic missiles and was later transferred to US universities.
Wizardry — a remake of the 1981 game, the world’s first team-based RPG, is out on Steam
After several months of early access on Steam came out 3D remake of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, a classic 1981 RPG by Sir-Tech Software. Developed by Digital Eclipse, this project brings the iconic role-playing game to modern graphics while retaining the core gameplay elements.
An upgrade in 30 years: Apple Macintosh PowerBook 500 (1994) received iPad and MacBook Pro components
In the mid-1990s, the Apple Macintosh PowerBook 500 series of laptops was introduced and changed the market forever, even though it consisted of inexpensive elements and materials. YouTuber BillyTheKidCENTURION took a PowerBook 520C case and completely revamped the internals with a new iPad display and 2015 MacBook Pro components.
A combination of two eras: Windows XP launched on Intel i486 processor
A retro computer enthusiast managed to run Windows XP on a computer with an Intel i486 processor. Now, for many people, the time of release of both seems like antiquity, but in fact, ten years have passed between the release of the processor and the OS — they are not compatible, that is, they were until now. Author set out ISO image of a modified…
YouTubers found and restored Archie, the oldest search engine on the Internet
The YouTube channel The Serial Port has found perhaps the last working copy of Archie, the first search engine on the web, created in 1989 by Alan Amtedge while studying at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. It allowed searching FTP servers in what was then a very small network of universities, researchers, government and military servers, the…
Microsoft opened MS-DOS 4.0 code on GitHub — it was hacked due to UTF-8 and timestamps
In April, Microsoft published the code for its 1986 MS-DOS 4 operating system on GitHub. This is not the first release of DOS code, but this one seems to break some critical files.
The enthusiast ported «thousands of programs» to Windows 95 — he ported the .NET Framework from Windows 98
Video blogger MattKC, in his own words, has migrated «thousands of programs» to Windows 95 by porting an important Windows 98 feature — the .NET Framework. The main limitation of Windows 95 compared to Windows 98 is the lack of the .NET Framework — in most other aspects, Windows 98 is very close to its predecessor in design and function.
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