An Atari 2600 repair, a Zenith Laptop, cleaning supplies and a 286 co-processor

#haribo
Welcome to MMMC29! This week, time for an Atari 2600 repair, an old XT laptop and some other stuff! Let's get right to it!
Zenith Laptop
Model Number: ZFL-181-93
--- Video Links
Guillaume's Channel (RetroLab)
/ @retrolabo
The New Retro Show
/ thenewretroshow
0:00 Into
1:20 Atari 2600 with composite mod repair
19:27 Cleaning supplies
21:07 Zenith XT Laptop
37:45 Apple Service Source
47:31 Dutch candies and Intel 80287 Co-Processor
58:22 Outro
--- Tools
Deoxit D5:
amzn.to/2VvOKy1
store.caig.com/s.nl/it.A/id.16...
Jonard Tools EX-2 Chip Extractor:
amzn.to/2VazxDS
www.jonard.com/Products/EX-2-...
Wiha Chip Lifter:
amzn.to/3a9ftWw
www.wihatools.com/precision-c...
O-Ring Pick Set: (I use these to lift chips off boards)
amzn.to/3a9x54J
Elenco Electronics LP-560 Logic Probe:
amzn.to/2VrT5lW
Hakko FR301 Desoldering Iron:
amzn.to/2ye6xC0
Rigol DS1054Z Four Channel Oscilloscope:
www.rigolna.com/products/digi...
Head Worn Magnifying Goggles / Dual Lens Flip-In Head Magnifier:
amzn.to/3adRbuy
TL866II Plus Chip Tester and EPROM programmer: (The MiniPro)
amzn.to/2wG4tlP
www.aliexpress.com/item/33000...
TS100 Soldering Iron:
amzn.to/2K36dJ5
www.ebay.com/itm/TS100-65W-MI...
EEVBlog 121GW Multimeter:
www.eevblog.com/product/121gw/
DSLogic Basic Logic Analyzer:
amzn.to/2RDSDQw
www.ebay.com/itm/USB-Logic-DS...
Magnetic Screw Holder:
amzn.to/3b8LOhG
www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-...
Universal ZIP sockets: (clones, used on my ZIF-64 test machine)
www.ebay.com/itm/14-16-18-20-...
RetroTink 2X Upconverter: (to hook up something like a C64 to HDMI)
www.retrotink.com/
Plato (Clone) Side Cutters: (order five)
www.ebay.com/itm/1-2-5-10PCS-...
Heat Sinks:
www.aliexpress.com/item/32537...
Little squeezy bottles: (available elsewhere too)
amzn.to/3b8LOOI
--- Links
My GitHub repository:
github.com/misterblack1?tab=r...
Commodore Computer Club / Vancouver, WA - Portland, OR - PDX Commodore Users Group
www.commodorecomputerclub.com/
--- Instructional videos
My video on damage-free chip removal:
• How to remove chips wi...
--- Music
Intro music and other tracks by:
Nathan Divino
@itsnathandivino
Outro Music:
Abyss by | e s c p | escp-music.bandcamp.com
Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
creativecommons.org/licenses/...

[@robintst]

He sent you one copy of Combat, I'm sure he has 30 more. When you collect for the Atari 2600 you just naturally accumulate Combat cartridges like you would pennies in a car ashtray. ;-)

[@emmettturner9452]

Speaking the truth though I honestly think I have more 2600 Pac-Mans. ;) Easily have over 10 Combats in my meager collection... well, it will be meager when I sell off that CIB SwordQuest WaterWorld I stumbled on over a year ago (wasn't ever going for a boxed collection).

[@TheGuyThatEveryoneIgnores]

Combat was the game that came packaged with a new Atari 2600.

[@emmettturner9452]

@@TheGuyThatEveryoneIgnores ...at first. They bundled Pac-Man with a lot of the 2600 Vader systems.

[@DaneArcher]

I didn't even collect for Atari 2600 and yet I had seven copies of Combat myself. Came with other collections, couldn't give them away.

[@emmettturner9452]

@@TheGuyThatEveryoneIgnores ...and I just realized that my boxed Vader console that included Pac-Man ALSO included Combat. ;)

[@3vi1J]

@7:02 "Why do round holes?". I know this one: the answer is that the 2600 was originally going to have stereo speakers in the console. They switched it to providing mono sound via the television before release, but you can still find code in the first batch of 2600 games that produced stereo sound specifically to each speaker.

[@hlavaatch]

"All the best stuff is made in Japan" is a quote from "Back to the future 3" movie which Dave loves

[@Hiraghm]

total lie, of course. Blondes don't come from Japan, for example. All the best games come from Japan is also in "Real Steel"

[@Nukle0n]

It's a joke about how 1955 Doc Brown doesn't think highly of Japanese goods (a combination of resentment after the war and Japan having a reputation for cheap unreliable products) vs 1985 Marty who is in the middle of the 80's being dominated by quality Japanese electronics absolutely wrecking shop amongst American manufacturers.

[@louistournas120]

@@Nukle0n My brother says that early japanese cars were crap but they kept at it and beat USA and Canada made cars by being more efficient and having a longer lasting engine.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@louistournas120 it's very true, the history of early imports gaining market traction into the USA in the '70s is very interesting. And now Lexus is respected just as much as Cadillac or Mercedes in many ways.

[@flebnard]

Smells like Japan

[@vwestlife]

The Intel 287XL is a 387 scaled down to work in a 287 socket, which makes it much faster than a regular 287 chip. That's also why some system information utilities will detect it as a 387.

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

AH ok no wonder -- it was shockingly fast and had no issues with the higher clock speed. Is that older original 287 compatible with 8088 machines? (As the person who sent it in said he recalls using it on a PC-XT)

[@vwestlife]

@@adriansdigitalbasement No, a 287 won't work in an 8088 machine, unless maybe someone installed a 286 accelerator card into it.

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

Yeah thought so!

[@tw11tube]

@@adriansdigitalbasement As VWestlife said, the 287 is not compatible with 8088 machines, but the 287 has the same numeric core as the 8087, so it has approcximately the same performance as a 8087 at the same clock speed.

[@DaveKeyes73]

When I was in the USAF, I wrote numerous programs for the units I was stationed with. Right before I got out of the Air Force, at a base, they had a Zenith Z-248. I noticed that we was getting short on disc space on the hard drive, so they authorized me to order another new 20 MB hard drive along with a 80287 math co-processor, since I was writing programs in FORTRAN. When the parts came in, I installed the new hard drive and the math co-processor. To my surprise when I ran fdisk, I noticed whom ever set this computer up, only allocated a 5 MB partition. So I fixed that, giving us 40 MB total hard drive space. I recompiled all of the FORTRAN programs with the math co-processor support switch. The programs did run a lot faster. Your video on the 80287 brought back good memories of this time. I am an old computer guy, retired now. CP/M, MS-DOS, OS/2, and Windows programmer.

[@timmooney7528]

I used to work for ZDS in their service depot. That's a ZFL-183-93 The F stands for dual floppy. The ZWL models had either an ALPS 10mb or a Connor 20mb drive under the second floppy bay. If the battery shorts out, it would cause the charging circuit to overheat, and the large ceramic resister on the charging board would melt the side of the lower case half.

[@emmettturner9452]

Japan kept using center-negative for most DC consumer electronics until the early '90s, presumably because it was generally accepted there that you don't include the AC adapter and half the devices supported batteries. Dave Jones pointed out that the reason why was because a common 5.5x2.1mm DC jack could automatically disconnect the batteries when you plugged in an adapter as long as you were using center negative, and Japan was all about portable electronics. Japan probably engineered most of their electronics for DC and expected the consumer to provide their own adapter since some regions were 50hz and others were 60hz. This led to a lot of battery-operated devices which led to Japan getting famous for miniature/portablized electronics. Speaking of Dave Jones, he is actually quoting Marty McFly in Back to the Future when he says "All the best stuff is made in Japan." It was meant to demonstrate a change in attitudes toward Japanese products between the '50s and the '80s. Examples of Japanese products that are center-negative: Sega Master System, Nintendo Family Computer, NEC PC Engine, Sega Genesis model 1, Sega CD model 1, CD-ROM² System, SuperGrafx, Game Gear (some regions), TurboGrafx-16, Super Famicom, NEC CoreGrafx, TurboGrafx-CD, CoreGrafx II, PC Engine Shuttle, NEC CDR-35D 1x SCSI CD-ROM drive for PC/Mac, every '80s-era Sony Discman, etc.

[@ExperimentIV]

centre-negative has basically become a standard in the world of guitar effects because of the popularity of boss/roland products. even modern boutique pedals made in the US without a battery for alternate power sources stick to that standard now, i guess so nobody fries their stuff.

[@emmettturner9452]

@@ExperimentIV Definitely. In fact, I often buy guitar effect pedal power supplies as replacements for retro game consoles. I'm particularly fond of the Truetone 1Spot since it's very well-built and center-negative with enough amps for any old 9v game console (1.7A). When I was troubleshooting an expensive modern accessory that kept dying the Japanese creator told me to use a 9v power supply closer to the original console's 650mA (guess he was admitting to an engineering fault) so I got a Dunlop ECB-03 670mA guitar effect pedal power supply and it has worked great ever since. No more replacements through international round-trip shipping. I assume the good ones intended for analog musical equipment will have better noise characteristics than your typical cheapie switching PSU from the bin at Goodwill. A month ago I was watching a video about AC Adapters on the Hijiquish channel, a Japanese retro game hardware "show and tell" guru, and he ended up featuring a "Power-All" guitar effects pedal power supply from Godlyke Distributing. Guess he had the same idea we did. :)

[@ExperimentIV]

@@emmettturner9452 oh damn, I've never even thought of using a pedal psu for game console plug replacements! gonna have to try that now, thanks! not that I've ever lost any of my own adapters, but I've found a few old consoles without their own.

[@emmettturner9452]

@@ExperimentIV Yes. Until embracing EIAJ plug types most Japanese consoles used 5.5x2.1mm tip/center-negative. The old 5.5x2.1mm is still the most common in the USA though your average wireless router or external HDD or whatever is typically 12v, center positive. The exceptions in Japanese electronics are usually logical... like the PC Engine CD-ROM² Interface Unit or TurboGrafx-CD dock both power their respective game consoles and need more amps than the original plug could provide, so they made the center pin larger to prevent you from inserting the original adapter and let you repurpose the original as an adapter for the CD player when removed from the dock (the drive was removable to be used as a portable player). The NES adapter was AC so the SNES had to use an incompatible size to prevent you from doing what was expected in Japan: The Super Famicom did not include an AC Adapter because you were expected to reuse the AC Adapter from your Nintendo Family Computer if you had one. Even the Virtual Boy used the same adapter in Japan. In Japanese electronics the 1.7mm EIAJ-03 seems to be the one that replaced the old 5.5x2.1mm plug after the switch to center-positive. You can find it in the Sega Genesis model 2, 32X, Game Gear (some regions), Sony Playstation PSone, PSone LCD (looks identical but has more amps), Sega Pico, slim Playstation 2, and more. Heck, even the PSP uses one of the smaller EIAJ plugs.

[@ExperimentIV]

@@emmettturner9452 oh wow yeah, my virtual boy (NA) uses a SNES adapter, more or less. i didn't realise that was for all of japan until today, re: centre negative, but what you said made total sense and made me go "whoa," lol.

[@wyldride]

"This is the exploded view. If you look at your computer and it looks like this, it has probably exploded. Please gather up as many of the pieces as you can find, package them securely, and throw the result in the trash because there's nothing we can do to help you with that." - What I think when I hear the phrase "Exploded View".

[@CptSoda]

Nan means "not a number" by the way, indicating an error.

[@blockbertus]

Basically meaning the outcome of a calculation was expected to be a number but due to an error (ex. division by zero), it will end up in NaN. PHP and Javascript do that too, by the way.

[@fragglet]

Nan is not a number, she's a free woman!

[@SkyCharger001]

@@unebonnevie assuming you haven't disabled/overridden the exception functions beforehand. (the IEEE standards allow this)

[@GeomancerHT]

@@unebonnevie 0f / 0 will give NaN.

[@naikrovek]

It doesn't necessarily mean an error, it just means that the variable is "not a number" and is being used as if it is a number. That could be desired for whatever reason.

[@evileyeball]

My first console was an NES that I got December 25th 1991 after a doctor perscribed video games to help with my Hand eye Coordination due to my Ehlers Danlos Syndrome resulting in reduced coordination. That NES now lives in my adault Living room and still gets use :)

[@matthewnielsen2549]

As a Canadian living in the USA, I subscribed to your channel just because you told how much you like ketchup- and dill-pickle-flavoured chips!

[@mattelder1971]

I don't know why Adrian thinks dill pickle chips aren't a thing in the US, plenty of different brands have that flavor, and at least one that I know of has ketchup as well.

[@matthewnielsen2549]

@@mattelder1971 Could be a regional availability thing? Like, I can get Lays-brand Dill Pickle in almost any grocery store in the Rocky Mountain States, but they're nowhere to be found in majour stores in the Dallas Texas area (so I'm told).

[@mattelder1971]

@@matthewnielsen2549 That would be weird since I'm FAR closer to Dallas than to the Rockies. I'm in South Mississippi and dill pickle chips from many different brands are everywhere (convenience stores, grocery stores, etc.).

[@scottlarson1548]

@25:00 When I worked support in the early 90's we got calls every day from people who said our DOS application was locked up. We told them to hit the scroll lock key and 99% of the time it would start working again. We hated that damn key!

[@vwestlife]

Those Zenith laptops run on 16 volts DC. 12 volts is too low, which is why the "low power" LED is on and the backlight is so dim.

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

Funny, someone emailed me about this and sent a pic of the original PSU, which was actually 18v. I gave it a try at 18v and strangely this didn't result in a brighter backlight and the low power LED stayed on as well. I tested it from 18v all the way down to 10v and it made no difference, the backlight was the same dim level without changing at all. It just must be worn out...

[@shawnmulligan3471]

@@adriansdigitalbasement It does 'run' on 12v but I have the same laptop with the original PSU and it is 18 volts. The battery supplies only 12, which is why it can run on that. Its possible that if the battery is installed (yours looks to be) but it can't charge it, it could be consuming a lot of power and preventing the backlight from working properly. It should run fine without the battery installed. The battery is NiCad so you can rebuild it if you want, or just remove it.

[@AndrewHelgeCox]

23:35 whoooaaah! Floppy drives which pop up! 😮

[@wojiaobill]

This was one of my favorite videos last year

[@mdamaged]

17:17 no it was not a paddle game, it was meant for the joytick, also, the game came with the system, which had no paddles.

[@Aruneh]

Popup disk drives are cool as heck.

[@mike685]

Enjoyed the segment on the Zenith laptop. I had a later version with a single floppy and 10 mb hard drive. There was also a version with a 20 mb drive. The situation with the floppy drive was common in portables of that era. I used a software/cable combination called Laplink to transfer data/programs between my desktop and portable. Really enjoy your program and projects. I live across the River in Vancouver so appreciate it when you mention local groups and places to find tech. Free Geek is an awesome local resource.

[@DouglasFish]

and if not stated before, I? [we?] love these videos because you actually interact with what is being sent in

[@grlg2]

Hi Adrian, as a kid I remember my Dad bringing home a "new" Zenith SuperSport from work and the screen was very bright and readable but with horrendous lag. Really love the channel. Thanks.

[@gertnutterts988]

That Zenith was my first ibm compatible when I was about 10 years old. Rarely see it on youtube. I still have it. The screen wasn't that bad back in the day, but mine and the only on a parts machine I have has degraded as well. Oh by the way, if you press CTRL+ALT+INS when you turn it on you'll get into a debugger.

[@leesmithsworkshop]

I wanted to thank you for entertaining us over the year, I look forward to the midweek videos and the weekend projects very much. I wish you all the best for 2021.

[@shadyoakum9978]

I remember looking at that Zenith with great desire as a student. It was a great portable terminal.

[@SparksNZeros]

i'll never get tired of these, I love your tech archeology and repair/restoration videos the most

[@MrGtagangster]

Adrian, I love MMC videos and all other repair videos you do. I really learn from them, and your explanation to why stuff is behaving or why you are repairing it like you do really helps and entertains. Have a great ending of 2020 and a fantastic 2021, despite COVID. Wish you and your family the best for 2021!

[@nicholasss666]

Your channel has been such a treat to watch this year! Wonderful content and such a human side to it at the same time! I wish I hadn’t thrown away all my old retro stuff many years ago. Had I known better, it would all be in your hands now. Have a lovely new year, Adrian!

[@EU_Red_Fox]

Just a small note that in my area of the Midwest you can get dill chips now. It’s somewhat recent but they are around so maybe Fritolays is finally getting around to bringing more flavors over. Another aside, when I lived in Chicago they had a limited time deep dish crisps that were okay.

[@AndyDavis007]

Happy New Year, Adrian. Thanks so much for all your hard work this past year. Looking forward to seeing what you bring in 2021.

[@chairthrower]

That Zenith laptop was given to every freshman at Drew University in 1988. I remember it well (although I started the year before, when we got Zenith desktops with amber monitors and 5.25" DSDD drives)

[@OttawaOldFart]

Thank you from Ottawa.

[@ultrametric9317]

The Zenith screen was a marvel in its time. The backlight is no doubt gone, but the LCD screen seems fine. You're not going to get a great picture by changing out the backlight but it will make a huge difference.

[@ultrametric9317]

More about this - the most modern machines still make a picture the same way, with a diffused backlight behind an LCD screen - so this is really a sort of historical display you have, and it works perfectly. There were TSRs for DOS to improve the picture. There was an entire industry in TSRs to massage displays.

[@PCPSolutions]

I was manufactured July 27th 1979... That Atari is one year older to the day! It's a keeper, good day to be born!

[@rabidbigdog]

For Yar's Revenge, the 'noise' bar is actually the game 6502 code used as random data. Brilliant.

[@trailersic]

I have one of those Zeniths upstairs, so much nostalgia, it was one my dad used for his job, carried on using it into the late 90s. Plugged it in the other month and the HDD still worked fine.

[@MrKott2002]

Happy new year, thanks for awesome vids

[@mikehensley78]

MAN! that mac IIsi. we had them in our computer LAB in 1992 or 93. Clarisworks. Maelstrom(YO!). they were all on some strange network of a phone cord in and a phone cord out to the next machine, chained like that to each mac IIsi. token ring probably. that brought up a lot of memories. i'm glad you are doing these videos on retro equipment. back then i didn't know crap really and now its nice to go back and actually see how those machines ran. love the videos!

[@ultrametric9317]

That Zenith is in great shape! You really need to bring that up to spec with a retrobrite etc. That's a real history piece. Heath-Zenith did some of the first mass-market do-it-yourself computers in the mid-70s.

[@incrediblySmart]

Thank you Adrian for your great work making entertaining and informative content. You take me back to times just being nerdy with my friends or their dads too. Thank you also for Doscember as it's introduced me to even more creators I wouldn't have been exposed to. You do great things. Happy new year.

[@dinomagick]

Happy New Year, Adrian! Thank you for the great retro and human content!! Can't wait for your first Video of 2021!

[@devttyUSB0]

All the best, Adrian! Hope 2021 will be glorious for you!

[@gorak9000]

20:55 "mel-a-mean" - same stuff the insides of your kitchen cabinets are probably coated with, just not in foam form. Fun fact, melamine foam was originally used as sound dampening foam in theaters because it's anti-flammable, and it's also used as sound deadening insulation on bullet trains! you can probably turn a cheap (noisy) dishwasher into an expensive one (quiet) with a few boxes of magic erasers glued to the outside of it! Probably way cheaper to buy the foam in larger sheets though - I can imagine the markup when they cut it into hand sized bricks and sell it as "magic erasers"

[@bduplessie]

Always look forward to Wednesday’s

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

Wednesday's what?

[@VenomStryker]

@@theannoyedmrfloyd3998 He's talking about the Wednesday Midweek Mail Call videos of course. I like them as well.

[@djosearth3618]

Hump-day, the peak of the week! ;]

[@Jackpkmn]

Adrian's Candy Basement 😂

[@frankowalker4662]

I love the disc drives on the Zenith. Happy New Year, Adrian. :)

[@mulderga]

Thanks Adrian for this wonderfull video ... glad the 80287-3 co-processor still works! Almost got you switched to "the dark side" with that licorice ;-) take care, Gerard

[@cappaculla]

AWESOME STUFF

[@rudge3speed]

My wife and I visited the Netherlands during the day the mill tours happen, it was great! An old guy taught me how the mill operates, a bit like a sailing ship.

[@rbergen]

I love the "Dutch touch" in this video, on top of the always high quality discussion of retro tech. "Korenmolen" ("Flour mill") is actually a rather common street name in this country, as at least one of your Dutch viewers can attest to by personal experience. :)

[@andrewlittleboy8532]

I remember that Zenith form back in the day and I’m sure the screen was much brighter than that. Used to light my room up in the dark! Looking at some other zenith laptops on eBay that low power light definitely shouldn’t be illuminated, I wonder if there’s a battery in there draining the 12v?

[@aCivilServant]

Maybe it simply needs more amps. Adrian was running it at 12v, 1A. Perhaps 2 amps or even more would improve the screen brightness.

[@technomage7282]

HAPPY 2021 GREAT CHANNEL!!!

[@wbfaulk]

Scroll Lock was actually used a reasonable amount in early PCs. It was definitely used in spreadsheets, which were kind of the killer app for early PCs, so a machine that was missing that key would be problematic.

[@JohnSproull]

Glad to see some Ottawa love! Happy New Year.. love the channel!

[@ETA555]

Love your videos Adrian you get every thing to life 👍

[@randelstuckey5494]

Lays potato chips do offer a dill pickle flavor chip here in the US. I don't know if they taste like the ones that you remember or not but it is available. Keep up the good work on the videos.

[@Benzene265]

I’ve only ever seen the dill chips at convenience stores in the US.

[@LevisLabOfficial]

​@@Benzene265 The Meijer chain of grocery stores in the midwest has them usually, and the Walmart nearby me has them as well.

[@SteveGuidi]

Kroger and Safeway stores carry Lay's Dill Pickle in Washington state (Seattle area). Its too bad we can't enter Canada right now to stock up on ketchup chips!

[@derekarnold]

Old Dutch has dill pickle in the midwest too

[@directionlessstudios7210]

Awesome, man! Yar’s Revenge - one of the best. Good job!

[@TuanNguyen-wj2yz]

That Zenith laptop brings back memories. Back in the 80s, Zenith had the contract to provide computers for the Air Force. We had Z-248 AT class computers on base. We used to carry these laptops on TDYs. I don't remember the screen being that bad; but, yes, it wasn't easy to read.

[@retrolabo]

I am not even surprised, this thing is built like a tank, Adrian did not mention it but it is really heavy. It just fit this prepaid USPS box and the lady at the postboffice was joking that I really used the "if it fits it ships" clause :P

[@DanielMonteiroNit]

The New Retro Show is awesome. Totally recommend it

[@frogz]

mid week mini mail call; every episode is about an hour OR LONGER, this is just evidence that when we get the mid week mega mail call.... its going to be 4 hours long...

[@jeremiefaucher-goulet3365]

26:00 "All the best stuff is made in Japan" is acutally a line that comes from "Back to the future". And of course, as we all know, Dave Jones is a huge fan of that movie.

[@thenewretroshow]

Sorry I forgot to put my Name :P Its Mke :)

[@stonent]

Hey Mike! Guess what day it is?! Mike Mike Mike Mike! (Sorry we used to do this with a guy at work named Mike and he got promoted transferred to another office so it's harder to do now.)

[@thenewretroshow]

@@stonent LOL, I also go by Mikey :)

[@PJBonoVox]

Enjoy your channel dude, been watching for a while. Keep up the good work.

[@thenewretroshow]

@@PJBonoVox Thanks Phil :)

[@ChrisKewl]

Nice Light Sixer! I have many of them and fixed them in the past.

[@jms019]

Here in East Anglia we’re only just out of the sea thanks to the Dutch and if I cycle north towards the Isle of Ely I go under sea level

[@philsbbs]

49:37 lovely photos brings back memories I work in Amsterdam for a while.

[@jbucata]

@15:30 "What am I, a bird?" Yes. You are a bird... specifically a chicken... crossing a road...

[@JoseGonzalez-rh3we]

FYI, Ketchup flavored chips can be found at Trader Joe's.

[@NozomuYume]

Even more important, you can get All-Dressed chips in the U.S. now! Previously you could only get them in U.S. prisons.

[@AndyDavis007]

... and on the plate next to my hamburger. 😂

[@SteveGuidi]

In the Seattle area, Trader Joe's carries ketchup flavored french fry cut chips, but it is a seasonal item.

[@andremartins_74]

Regards from Brazil. Happy New Year!

[@Obie327]

Hi Adrian love your content.. I used to have that 286 IBM case and remember stuffing a 386 DX 40 in mine. I had fond memories with 32 megabytes of ram playing 11 hour and 7th Guest. I kinda like that setup the way it is since it does a wee bit more stuff than the 286 version could do. I also remember the gaming console days which i never actually owned the Atari 2600 but did get a 5200 first. Nintendo also came late for me since I was messing with Ti994a/Apple 2/Sega Master System stuff at the time. Thanks again for the informative and entertaining videos of my youth. P.S. Happy New Years!

[@xyberfunk]

The freeway animal is actually a “chicken” lol :-). Also, you do realize that you just opened yourself up to be flooded with licorice, right? Haha

[@bobettier]

And canadian ketchup potato chips.

[@mattelder1971]

@@bobettier I'm thinking of sending him a bunch of different American brands of dill pickle chips since he seems to think they don't exist.

[@stealthsock]

How did the chicken cross the road? Poorly.

[@julianricky3620]

I never seen your channel before but seems to be the same kind of stuff I like watching subscribing.

[@johnsonlam]

Thanks, this bring back memories, when I'm still a child we got a 430 TV time for children, and there are gaming session playing ATARI, later change to Apple ][, remember the good old days I'm happy to watch children going on the show playing games, at that time most of us simply can't afford the ATARI. Happy New Year!

[@that_duck_over_there]

Love your videos

[@raymondheath7668]

I've picked up a small stack of TRS80 MC10 computers and was inspired by your C64 test board. Since the parts count is very low in the MC10 I decided to socket one completely to use as a test board and possibly add my trouble shooting findings to the community. I also bought myself a hot air station because your desoldering method looks less destructive

[@charlesdorval394]

"And of course I took the opportunity to... " Not the ending I expected, way better! ;) Happy Holidays!

[@pwissink1]

Kinderdijk is nice, also is Zaanse Schans which is closer to Amsterdam. Anyway cool to hear that you have visit the Netherlands. I want to wish you all the best for 2021. Stay healthy and please keep making those awesome videos. They are really something to look forward too these days.

[@JamesPotts]

Back in the day, we used to punch holes in 720K disks to turn them into 1.44M. The claim was that disk manufacturers started using the same media for both types.

[@duanerobinson935]

Happy New Year!

[@erie910]

About 20 years ago I bought a Zenith notebook, maybe a 286 with a monochrome touchscreen with a battery-operated pen. It had a small- capacity hard drive with one 1.44 mb floppy drive. I ran DR-DOS 5 with Windows for Workgroups 3.31. The computer came with Windows extensions for pen computing. I installed the Windows 32-bit extensions. The DR-DOS/Windows combination was more stable than Windows 10.

[@thepthepthep]

@17:42 I’ve always found that the “simple” composite mod is rather substandard and it provides inconsistent results from console to console. The UAV and the 2600RGB are the best video mods for the 2600 and aren’t too difficult to install.

[@Johnny-es9xg]

Nice video. From what I've seen that is one of the smaller PC XT class laptops I've seen. Happy new year and God bless ya for the new year.

[@bobdole57]

"All the best stuff is made in Japan" is a line from Back to the Future

[@Smartphonekanalen]

Jungle Hunt at 600 XL was great. I used to play it for hours. But I broken the machine by pulling the cartridge. I was 8 years old 1986 and didn't understand basic electronic. Learning the hard way without Internet :)

[@ZeroWalker26]

Awesome video and so many nice things you got. Talking about Ketchup chips here in Sweden we had a short run of Heinz ketchup and man I loved them but sadly nothing you can get anymore in Sweden or at least not in my city.

[@joshhardin666]

In another life, I used to be an apple certified desktop technician (ACDT) circa 2004-2010 and as you stated, the reason apple service manuals don't include schematics is because apple DOES NOT do circuit repairs. if a computer has a fault, apple always replaces the entire faulty sub-assembly. they DO NOT repair circuits. they verify that there's a faulty board, and as far as i know, throw the faulty assembly away. occasionally, to investigate new systemic problems with new computers that were unknown (in order to do sub-assembly revisions in production of new components moving forward). I have never, not once, heard of an apple technician replacing or repairing any soldered components. not once did I, at the direction of apple in the performance of my duties on their behalf or at their behest heat up a soldering iron. that didn't stop me from making simpler repairs on out of warranty computers or at the direction of customers with a liability waiver and notification that it would void any warranty they had on their machine should they direct me to do circuit repair on a computer. - but I agree... not having the correct information in order to do proper component level repair significantly and frustratingly diminishes serviceability, leads to way more waste and expense than just replacing inexpensive components, and makes it particularly difficult to service/maintain/repair discontinued products. it's a rather annoyhing attitude. but Mr. Rossman has many way more (and less) eloquent rants on the topic available on his channel :D

[@AntonyTCurtis]

Centre negative was how those barrel connectors was originally intended to be used when they were developed for externally powering battery radios. 80287xl is a 387 core modified to work with the 286.

[@craftsman123456]

Great to see an Atari 2600 repair

[@chadsmith8476]

We appreciate you Adrian Black :-)

[@Skios]

If you're ever back in The Netherlands, a massive computer museum recently opened up, and there's also a smaller National Videogame Museum. I haven't been to the former yet, but the latter is a fun way to spend an afternoon.

[@philsbbs]

Happy 2021

[@terosaarela4555]

Thanks for the video and a Happy New Year! The NAN that you saw in the math co-processor test probably means ’Not A Number’.

[@peterhurst]

I had a Z180 series just like that in the 80's and yes the floppy drives need to be shut to work. I still have the owners manual as it contained a mini service manual and programing/ function guide as well.Happy to send shots if required, though it's a hundred pages or so!

[@dirkkrohn1907]

Freeway, Combat, and Yar's Revenge were some of the games that I used to have on the 2600 growing up. Listing to you playing them brought back memories. Also in Freeway if I remember right the player was a chicken, as in the joke of 'Why'd the chicken cross the road?' Be away that if you're playing on difficulty B you go all the way back to the start if you get hit rather then going back a short distance like you were when you were testing things. If you get your hands on some paddles then a game that I played back in the day that I played with my mother quite a bit was Super Breakout. Good times for the two of us playing that one.

[@MegamanEXEv2]

I had a zenith laptop just like this one when I was a kid in the mid 90’s (dad worked in IT and data destruction wasn’t really a thing, so old PC’s came home). It was definitely a much brighter screen.

[@PixelOverload]

3:47 I remember back when we lived in Texas, every time family came to visit (from Canada), they'd bring these giant boxes of snack-size lays and humpty-dumpty chips (along with smarties and other candies) and we'd pack them in our school lunch for the next few weeks. It was pretty fun sharing with the other kids that were either intrigued, grossed out, or simply confused 😁

[@awilliams1701]

That laptop kind of reminds me of the first IBM PC I saw. It was a Zenith EZ PC it's a 286 all in one with a orange monochrome monitor and had dual 3.5" DD floppies. It had CGA. I have no idea how much RAM, but it didn't have 640k because we upgraded it to 640k I distinctly remember that. I fried it along with my compaq 386 because the zenith drives didn't work in the compaq (which only had 5 1/4" but it also had a hard drive) When it didn't see the drive I got this ingenious idea to swap the bios chips...............and POOF both chips had a residual charge and never worked again even in the correct machines. Fortunately not long after that we got a custom built 486 using my compaq's EGA card since EGA was the only monitor we had at the time.

[@MegaWildweasel]

the zenith laptops when new the display was a bit brighter but not horribly good. we had one in the dept at the University I work at, and it would run some greyscale games with no issues. (my nephew payed games on it when I used it on vacation. Neat to see one again.

[@scorchio70]

I look forward to 2 youtuber video's, yours and LGR....Love the channel and thank you 👍👍👍👍

[@noanyobiseniss7462]

Zenith was very high quality, had a 5150 back in the day (all the traces were gold).

[@santidhammo]

Coming from the Netherlands, I respect that you dare to try the liqourice. My wife is from another country, lives here for more then a decade, and still can't. For us it is easy, as we acquire the taste in a younger age. For you it will be a quite learning curve 😀

[@niklaslindqvist4042]

When I was a child, every week I was keenly waiting for an episode of MacGyver. Now at my mid-thirties, I realise that I'm getting the same feeling for Adrian's Digital Basement. Keep up the excellent work and greetings from Finland. :)

[@toddrlyons]

The sound and graphics of Round 42 reminds me of Falcons on the Apple II.

[@jerryspann8713]

I added composite video to an Atari back in the late 90s and didn't have to use a transistor or any components other than some RCA jacks. I just located the video and audio going into the modulator and probed around till I saw an image on my monitor.