AkBKukU

Retrobright Damages Plastics - 10 Year Test

Hello!

I was originally going to make this a TT2 video but I posted this early on my discord server for feedback and most people there seemed to think it would be better off as a main channel video since it's a big subject. So the production value on this one isn't that high, but it is something I've put a lot of time and research into, just many years ago.

I've never done retrobrighting on my channel and probably haven't mentioned it that much. That's because for a while I was ...

Worlds First Portable Touchscreen - Casio IF-8000

Hello!

This is a device that I was sent in a mail video a long time ago now and it ended up being a fascinating device! Somehow this simple Casio from 1988 has managed to slip under the radar when from all the research I've done, it is the first portable device with a true touch screen that maps 1:1 to display pixels!

I have had a script for this video being workshoped for about 6 years. The reality is the IF-8000 was really undercooked as far as what all it can do. And...

TT2: Forgotten Magazine - Bar Code News

Hello!

When I'm researching a topic for a video I find I get the most complete picture when I go too far into the subject and related things. Knowing where you cross the line between relevant or not lets me know what is needed to present the whole story. When I was researching the Cauzin Softstrip video I was going down the rabbit hole of Byte->Bar Codes->Carl Helmers and ran into a wall when I found that Carl left Byte to create a magazine all about bar codes which would have be...

TT2: DECWriter II Print Head Repair

Hello!

Alright, here's the repair attempt I mentioned at the end of the DECWriter II video. It was as hair raising as I feared so I am glad that I waited to attempt it. This was the most delicate work I've had to do that wasn't solder related for sure.

Video Link: https://youtu.be/q49qK2poPvE

1974 DECWriter II Hardcopy Terminal

Hello!

I've been on the lookout for a hardcopy terminal since before I even got the Data Generals, the idea of using a computer directly on paper is fascinating to me. And I finally got my chance to get one from a local surplus auction! I was super excited, at first, but this project had a lot of tumultuous parts to it and this thing has a surprise I wasn't expecting but wasn't caught off guard by that's going to make it fairly hard to use. And then there was the...incident.

Th...

TT2: VTech Type-Right - 1985 Pre-Computer Typing Tutor

Hello!

I've been planning to revamp my home filming area for doing quick videos for a while and after filming most of the Atomic Keyboard video at home I realized I needed do that sooner than later. So I've made some big changes to my lighting setup and should get much more consistent results now. Though this may not be the best video to showcase that because the plastic of the subject here isn't just "red" it's "R.E.D." and any camera has a hard time with it. And the glossy manual pag...

Atomic Keyboard Prototype - A Modern Dasher Keyboard

Hello!

This is a really exciting video for me, when I was in the middle of working on my Dasher terminal a completely unrelated project was forming by some other people to recreate the Dasher keyboard, more specifically from the show Severance. I reached out to them in earlier this year about collaborating because I have the real hardware. That brings us to now where the project is a reality and they are working on finalizing the production version of the keyboard, and I have one of th...

Minor Video Delay

Hello!

I've had a delay in video production after encountering some surprisingly aged caps that I'm working on reforming still. It's coming along but I am having to take it slow based on the results I'm seeing and not wanting to damage them. I thought this was going to be a quicker video subject but definitely not hah!

I've got a secondary project I'm working on, and typing this on, that this morning everything came into place for that I might work on instead. There's a lot more...

Japanese Exclusive Floppy NIN Tron OST Made Real

Hello!

A very quick on here that I'm actually going to preempt the last video for. The new Tron Ares movie soundtrack by NIN got a Japan exclusive release that looks like a floppy disk. It's just paper though...so what if I made it real?

Video Link: https://youtu.be/yGJ7oRI0MLU

TT2: Firmware Modding Bluray Drives for Redump in the Disc Robot

Hello!

So after getting the CD Robot working I discovered that the drive I had picked and painstakingly modified to work, still weren't going to cut it. They would crash hard when I tried to rip mixed-mode CDs. So...I decided to rip off the band aid and order some of the drives supported by Redump, that just also happened to be bluray compatible. But even these drives aren't completely straight forward to use. This is a second channel video going over why the drives need to be...

New Fry's Electronics Linux PC from 2005 - GQ3131 with Linspire

Hello!

This video is one I would never think I would be able to make. After what I feel like is an incredibly lucky score of something that would be ewaste to even 99% of computer collectors I get to re-experience a very significant computer and operating system to me!

Like I say in the intro, this one is a bit self indulgent, but I think the "along for the ride" feel of it may still be something people enjoy. This is also me dipping a toe in the water for vintage linux stuff be...

Reverse Engineering CD Changers for Archival Use - Aleratec

Hello,

Finally it's done. In this video I go over the laborious and ridiculous process I went through to get a disc duplicator robot, well two of them, set up to be usable for disc ripping. Not only was it hard, there were aspects of this that were actively working against me.

I should be back to the normal production schedule now. In the next video I will get caught up on the printout at the end of the video.

Video Link: 2025-09-12 23:15:29 +0000 UTC View Post

September Update

Hello,

I'm trying to get back into work on the next video. I'm not fully ready personally but the channel's ad revenue is down to about 30% of what it was before I started this project and I need to get something done to course correct the channel. I ended up deciding to re-record that broken edit from the preview view and cover why in the video. I'm not too far into editing it yet, but I think it is going to be the better take to go with. I'm only focusing on getting this video done a...

I Need to take some recovery time

I had to say good bye to my cat Gulliver yesterday. What I thought was regaining weight with more focused feeding, turned out to be fluid build up from new heart issues that can't be treated with kidney failure at the same time. After 21 amazing years he was able to go peacefully with everyone he loved before his life became miserable.

Early Preview - CD Ripping Robot Reverse Engineering

Hello,

I am not going to be able to finish the video for release this weekend. I had a critical vet visit with my cat today and I probably don't have long left with him. My heads not in the right place for this right now and I want to have time with him while I can.

The project itself is done and earlier this week I had recorded my script read for the video. Here's what I have so far if you want a early preview of it.

Video Link: 2025-09-04 02:48:26 +0000 UTC View Post

Video Delay

Hello

I'm making, or I guess made since I'm a little late here, the decision to delay the next video. It's on the subject I show in this preview video that will give you an idea where I'm at with it. In short, the story just isn't complete yet and I need more time to finish the project before it will feel "right". I'm not exactly sure when this will be done, there is still a bunch of work to do on it. It really seemed like it would be a simpler project but the scope kind of blew up in ...

IBM Compatible...Typewriter? - Juki Sierra 3400

Hello!

So the Amiga was a bust...I mentioned in my update video that I wanted to record a video on that next but it's PSU is toast. It seems like most people just replace the guts to repair it and commodore doesn't have a great history with PSUs so I'm going to end up doing that too. Which meant I needed a backup video...

This is a video I've been wanting to make for a long time but reality just hasn't made it that easy to do and I decided it's time to just do what I can with it...

Supporter Update: 2025-08

Hello!

It's been a while since I've done one of these and wanted to talk a bit about recent projects as well as upcoming ones. This has been an interesting year so far and very different for me, I've also lined up a few more huge projects but I absolutely must finish them before I try taking on any more.

Also I cover some continuing updates to https://github.com/AkBKukU/pyDiscRip that I've been working ...

MailCall 0x11: Mail from viewers like you!

Hello!

It's time for a mail video, I've had a lot of stuff I've been waiting to open (and some I couldn't wait on) that was sent from very generous viewers!

This wasn't my full plan for the next video but I needed this one to buy me some time on a different project I'm putting together. But I do think this was a better result than some of my other mail videos. I mentioned right at the start that I was trying to make it a bit more succinct. I tend to get too excited and go on abo...

TT2: My Custom Scan Post Processing Script

Hello!

I completely forgot I meant to publicly release this yesterday, it's not super critical though. I'm going to put it up tomorrow morning.

In preparation for the Dot and the manuals that would come with it, I re-wrote my scan post processing and PDF creation script to be much more powerful. It's capable of a lot of different corrections and handles any page order problems you may have depending on how you scanned the document. It's only a CLI program but it can do ...

Widescreen CRT PC Portable - Computer Devices Dot from 1983

Hello!

This is a video I never would have guessed I would be able to make, I've been on the lookout for a Computer Devices Dot since my video on the origins of the 3.5in floppy disk. Well a couple of months ago, I managed to get one. This is the full story of the computer and the company that made it. I don't want to say too much more because I really think the history of this machine comes across well in the video.

I've been planning this video since I got it but another thing ha...

I Made the Map Nintendo Didn't for Mario Kart World

Hello, yes, this is actually a video about a modern game from Shelby from Tech Tangents.

Okay, so this is a weird one. While I was on my break the Switch 2 had just come out and I was playing a bunch of Mario Kart World. Apparently I am incapable of not "doing something" and I ended up making an online map ( https://mkw.techtangents.net/ ) of all the collectables in the game. Originally I was at most going t...

TT2: SimH Data General Nova Setup

Hello!

In the last video of the microNOVA series I mentioned the potential of making a video showing how to use simH to emulate a Nova like I was to work with the disk images. There was a lot more interest in that than I would have expected(even a comment on it today!). So I did make a second channel video as well as a guide on my personal wiki with some more detailed information. Hopefully that helps gets some people up and running to experience these cool but obtuse machines...

TT2: Simple Epoxy Mold - Dasher Knob Repair

Hello!

This is quick little video where I attempted repairing the knobs on the second Data General Dasher terminal I now have. This is a very common fault where the knobs that retain the vertical tilt crack and break off the screw mount. I repaired them using some epoxy and hot glue as an impromptu mold which turned out pretty good I would say.

Video Link: https://youtu.be/dNnGzFPXCCU

Nixie Sony Calculators - SOBAX ICC-400 and ICC-550

Hello!

This is a video 7 years in the making, or at least one I've wanted to make for 7 years. After I got my SOBAX ICC-1600 I've been keeping an eye out for the first models in the SOBAX line, and I finally managed to get my hands on not just one example, but two! Though I wouldn't have bought the second one if the first one hadn't died in shipping...so I also want to try to fix one of them. This video bounces between the history, repair, and usage of these wonderful machine and I'm s...

TT2 - Safely Remove Vintage Chips Using Chip Quik

Hello!

Time for another simple second channel video! In this one I wanted to walk through a method of using Quip Quik as a safe method for removing vintage chips and dealing with fragile old PCBs. I'm really happy with the results of this method and while this solder isn't cheap and I ended up using about $3 worth of it, on something like the Data Generals it was worth it to me for sure.

Video Link: https://youtu.b...

Using a 50 Year Old Computer - Data General microNOVA is Done

Hello!

This is it, the Data General microNOVA finally! We've gone through all the hardware needed to make it work over the last four months and it's all ready. So in this one I am able to put the microNOVA back in the rack, get it all dressed up and pretty, and walk you through what it's like to set up and use the machine!

This is going to be it for Data General videos on the main channel for a while now. I definitely need a break to unload after all of the massive effort it's t...

TT2: Cowon A2 - Dvix Media Player from 2005

Hello!

Time for another second channel video, this one is a first look at a candidate for my desire to use an early high end portable media player from the mid 2000s. This is about the Cowon A2 from 2005 that was a fairly "standard" with its feature set. Though it does support Dvix which is a little odd.

I'm really enjoying getting to make some simple stupid videos like this again. It's not anything revolutionary, but it gives me an outlet for sharing things I find interesting b...

Resurrecting Floppy Drive - Data General 6039 Repair

Hello!

We're closing in on the end of the first series of Data General videos, this video is solving the last problem preventing the system from being usable. The next one will be about how the system is setup and actually used! But for now I need to tell you how almost loosing one of the two floppy drives was a massive problem, both in the difficulty to solve it, and the weird way that the OS works.

This video is kind of filled with spoilers for the last one because I have to s...

TT2: My Open Source Archiving Workflow Software - pyDiscRip

Hello!

I gotta keep this short because I need to leave for the office in minutes, but I've been working on a new workflow software for how I automate imaging and arching media. It's finally at the point where it's ready to take over for my previous tools and I thought I would do a walkthrough of how to use the software because it turns out some people have found my previous attempts at this helpful.

Video Link: htt...