Nostalgia Nerd

What is this NES slot for?

Morning folks,

I've had to rush this one through a bit, as it has been my son's birthday this week, and apparently I've been incredibly busy. Also, I've had no sleep and I'm about to go to some kind of "Covid Safe" theme park, so it might still be uploading for the next half hour or so.

Hopefully it's still up to scratch and provides some brief respite.

Comment below if you notice anything glaring.

Have a great weekend!

Pete

Ridiculous LCD Games

I've been wanting to cover this trio of Tiger/Grandstand tabletop games for years. There's just something stupid about them. Very likely the size of the screen in relation to their body. But regardless, they're a fascinating set, which lured me in during the late 80s, just like anyone else.

Also, I've literally just finished this and haven't had time to do a proper "proof view", so madness may lie within.

A Computer Bundle Changed James Bond History

Greetings folks. Hope you're keeping well.

This past week or so, I've been knee deep in James Bond. I'm not entirely sure whether that's a good place to be, but the outcome of it is this video, looking at the ZX Spectrum 007 James Bond Action Pack; you might be familiar with it, especially if you're from the UK.

What made this pack so interesting was the varied contents and the story it tried to tell, counter to the story of The Living Daylights. 

Join me, let us delve....

Do Old Viruses Work on Modern PCs

I wanted to solve 2 things in this video. The first is to discover whether you can actually run DOS malware under Windows 10. The second was to try and  run over 6,000 DOS Viruses and just see what happened.

That's what this video is about.... as well as looking at some early DOS viruses and seeing what they did.

VTech Machines

I want to say that I've enjoyed the last week of setting up and delving into (what seems like) countless VTech laptops. But I haven't.

I thought it would be a joyus festival of electronics. It was not.

These laptops, designed for children, it turns out, might be fun in small doses. But on large scale. The T E D I U M sets in.

Still, for what they are, they're actually not all that bad.

Join me. Witness the h̶o̶r̶r̶o̶r̶ glee!

MIDI

Alright folks, here's a little video about MIDI; at least from a general PC users perspective. What was once an incredibly popular go-to for Gaming and media playback, has somewhat disappeared over the years, this video explores where it went.

Although I'm fascinated by the world of MIDI, I haven't used it as much as I'd liked over the years, so apologies for any discrepancies. Feel free to point anything out.

This video makes use of my new Lumix GH5, which I was able to upgrade t...

80s Overdrive codes

EDIT: THEY GONE!

Hello everybody!

I've got a couple of codes for 80s Overdrive on the Switch! The publisher sent them to me, so if you'd like one, the first two comments shall receive!

Pete

These Keys 'Shouldn't' Exist

Keyboards seem to be still present in my mind, so I thought I'd explore the reason why there are two pipe symbols on a lot of keyboards, specifically UK and International.

After successfully finding my way out of the deepest recesses of ASCII research, I made this video, on the double pipe problem.

Patreon Taxes - Good and bad news.

UPDATE: This doesn't affect all countries. It shouldn't affect UK residents, and it should be minimal for US residents.

Hey folks! So, I've got good news and bad news. 

The bad news is that Patreon is apparently adding sales tax in the next few days (they'll be emailing you) for Patreon supporters. I thought I'd give you a heads up beforehand.

BUT.... The good news is that I've spent the last few hours updated the categories so that the vast majority of it *should* be o...

Why Does USB Keep Changing

My son came up to me the other week and said, what happened to all the previous USB types?

And I thought, yes, that's a good question. What DID happen to them. Why do we have so many.

Here lies the answer (perhaps)

Hope you're all good, and have an excellent (bank holiday, for some) weekend!

Why is a Fossilised Keyboard in this Pavement?

Hi peeps, so this is a video I've been working my balls off on for the past couple of days (plus a hella lot of research and investigation beforehand). I had to pause work on the main video I was working on, but I wanted to get this one out asap, as there's some "rival factions" trying to find out this same information and scupper me, the scallywags. They probably got whiff of what I was doing.

Anyway, I found it fascinating to find the history behind this, very Norwich, piece of histor...

Time to get Active with Computer Athlete

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE OF FITNESS.... MS-DOS

Yes, I've grabbed myself another shoddy accessory. One which interfaces with "ALL" exercise equipment.

But actually....well, it's actually half decent.

Hope you folks are all good. Speak soon.

Pete

Exploring GeoCities

Hello you excellent people,

I hope you're doing ok. 

To keep myself busy this week, I've been exploring GeoCities pages. 

Here's the fruits of my labour. Presented in a video about GeoCities and some of its pages.

I thank you for listening.

Speak soon,

Peter

MS-DOS Pin Badges

Hey folks,

Hope you're keeping well.

You might have seen on Twitter that I've had a load of MS-DOS enamel pin badges made up. Well, I've now got custom backing cards for them too, so they look pretty snazzy. The demand for them looks like it's going to be pretty high, so I'm offering them here first.

The price is £5, with £1.50 for UK postage or £3.50 for worldwide postage.

You can grab them on the link above, and use code PATPEOPLE to get £1.50 off. Please don't s...

PC Golf

As we're in lock-down, it felt appropriate to try some interactive PC golf. 

Released in 1994, PC Golf by Sports Sciences inc. is the accessory of choice.

To be honest, I think I'll just stick to sitting in the garden.

Mystery Stationery Shop PC

If you cast your mind back to around this time last year, you may remember I found a 1994 PC whilst doing a bit of thrifting. It was just hanging about in a stationery shop window, for sale, like it was a brand new piece of kit.

Well, it's time to lift the lid on this machine, and find out just what's making it tick.

General release version: https://youtu.be/HDmKlWoy2mg

What Happened to the Beige Box?

Following on from the NetVista, I thought it would be interesting to look at the origins of the beige computer desktop style, and its demise.

This video kicked up a few surprises, including speaking to Carl Feynman, son of Richard Feynman, about his time working at Thinking Machines Corporation. Which, will definitely be put into a video in the near future.

IBM NetVista X40

Ey up. I hope you're all keeping well. Currently I'm furiously editing videos in lock-down, which doesn't seem to be much different from usual, except that I've got 2 children to teach/feed/talk to all day now, rather than just after 3:15pm.

But this will not prevent new videos, oh no. 

Here's a video on a system I picked up recently, an IBM NetVista X40. Really nice looking machine, with quite an interesting background. So I thought I'd take a look, play a few games, and fin...

Patron support at this time.

Hey everyone,

I know that this is going to be an incredibly tough few weeks/months for some of us, so if you need to, please put yourselves first, and don't feel bad about dropping your patron support, even if only temporarily.

For anyone who needs to suspend their pledge, I'll still include your names in videos credits, etc, as your support so far has meant a hell of a lot.

Put your well being first, and please, stay safe.

Thank you,

Peter

Sorting the Office

Apologies for the sparse amount of videos in the past 2 weeks. Among feeling a tad ill, one of the other reasons for this was the sheer amount of detritus that had built up in the office.

This video is a vlog type affair in which that gets fixed.

Rewards

The next batch of physical rewards will be sent out next month.

There's a slight delay, as I'm waiting for some rather fetching pins to be delivered. Updates to follow.

Thanks for your patience!

Play Expo Margate (After Party)

And almost immediately, here's another VLog for your delectation. This is just a short one, filmed at the PlayExpo Margate after party.

I wanted to get some more footage during the day, but after rocking up at about 11am, I was almost immediately swept into stage shenanigans, then talking to the many people, and then went and sat at my little table to sign some books. Hopefully Bex (Trista Bytes) should be publishing the stage stuff in the near future. 

Shame I didn't get a c...

"Alternative Valentines Night" Vlog

*Warning - contains flashing screen images*

I always feel like I should capture footage when I go to a computer/gaming themed event or location, but I don't always know what to do with it.

So, I thought I'd start uploading Vlogs to Patreon, to share my outings with you, as some extra content.

This video is from the "Alternative Valentines Night" they ran at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge. Octav1us and I thought we'd pop along, and this is what we got up to! 2020-02-26 00:09:23 +0000 UTC View Post

ZX Spectrum Next

The Next is finally here!

This video over-ran somewhat. It's also the reason I'm now leaving for Playexpo Margate, at 7.30am on a Saturday, rather than at a leisurely pace yesterday.

Enjoy!

The NEXT (not video)

This Spectrum Next really is a thing of beauty. I was going to do a swift "unboxing", but thought I'd make a full review instead. Really get to grips with the machine.

Hopefully that'll be ready next week.

So, my question is. Is there anything you want me to include/answer?

Let's -go- Learn about Dutch Computers!

So, here's the polished and more informative video about my recent trip to the Home Computer Museum in the Netherlands.

I thought it would be interesting to focus on a few specific machines, and get their story, rather than just strolling aimlessly about.

I hope you enjoy.

If you want the non-Patreon general release version (for commenting), then it will be at https://nnerd.es/HomeComputer

The Netherlands Trip Vlog

Most of the respondents asked for a vlog style video, so here it is. A rather crude overview of my trip to the Netherlands with Octav1us. Our ultimate desination was, of course, The Home Computer Museum in Helmond, but we visited other places along the way.

There will be a "proper" video about the actual museum within the next week, but this one, for now, is a Patreon exclusive. 

Enjoy! Maybe. Possibly.

The Journey Inside: The Computer

Thanks to Mr. Blanchard "re-enthused", I picked up an Intel learning pack from eBay, just before Christmas. 

These things were given to schools in the USA and Canada between 1994 and 1998, to bolster computer education (whilst splashing their brand about).

This video is an exploration of that pack, and the VHS tapes it comes with.

I'll upload the full VHS content separately, either on archive.org, or my extra channel. Probably both. But, I'll drop a separate message in ...

This weekend

So, it looks like I'm taking a trip to the Netherlands this weekend, to the re-opening of the Home Computer Museum. They're moving to a larger premises and it looks bloody amazing.

So many machines, most of which are in an era relevant setting. You can take a look at their Youtube channel at  https://www.youtube.com/user/kofferband 

The question is. Should I made a vlog style video of the eve...

The 1st Affordable "IBM PC Compatible"

Lately, I've felt like exploring the IBM PC Compatible world more. It's the world I was pre-occupied with from 1995 onwards, but I seem to neglect it. This video, then, gets a little bit closer. The Sanyo MBC-550 was an 'almost' IBM PC Compatible, but one which completely out-priced its competitors by smashing through the $1k floor. 

In this video I explore why and how, and then take a look at the machine.

This is the Patreon exclusive version, as the release version is due t...