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I have prepared a new blog with wordpress at https://vintagecomputing.info !!!

Thank you.

I was really surprised while "browsing" through an old BYTE issue (December, 1980).
There was an article about a MICROSOFT ADVENTURE which runs on a TRS-80 and an APPLE II (later, there was also a DOS version).
Even though it's not the best adventure, there is an interesting side note.
It wasn't invented from Microsoft, it already existed for a PDP 10 and/or 11/70 (see notes from the author in the below attached PDF).
So it can be the first rip-off from Microsoft (and *not* MS-DOS).
I am not sure at the moment, that it's identical to "Colossal Cave".
If someone has further information about this and the creation history, please give me a hint.





Ensure to take a look into the article (PDF) - >HERE< !

There is a nice page about the original "Colossal Cave Adventure".
Just visit http://www.rickadams.org/adventure/ ...

And finally, there are a few CP/M-80 ports also, just download >this archive< (Mike Goetz made it possible).

P.S.:
Meanwhile I saw there is another page which describes the creation history, but they didn't talk about a "rip off" or a copyright violation.
Visit http://www.filfre.net/2011/07/microsoft-adventure/ for more details.
Also, there is a page about the first version of this "Cave" adventure, written in Fortran. Just take a look at http://digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/00 ... 00009.html too.

I've found a new blog about the efforts to get CP/M running on a modern hardware expansion for APPLE II's (= CFFA). See http://applecpm.blogspot.com/ ... hopefully he will have success.
It's amazing that there is still a lot of ongoing development for Apple 2 enthusiasts.

I have now to resurrect my dead Apple II too, I guess (power suppy problems, but I have already a spare power supply here).

Project site for CFFA can be found at "Related Link" at bottom of this entry.
I placed also a picture of this expansion card here:

I have to add one note:
There is still a living community related with a Debian Port for Alpha, regardless of the fact, that a port of Debian Linux for Alpha isn't developed further (and supported) anymore.
There is a newsgroup named linux.debian.ports.alpha - and there are still new entries.
I have found some other newsgroup related with this old CPU architecture, but there is no life anymore.
This seems to be the last newsgroup which still covers the topic "Alpha".

If you're looking for ISO images for Debian 5.0.9 "Alpha", this will be difficult, too.
But I've found a reliable download site in Europe: debian.bsnet.se (see "Related link" below).


May 2012: Meanwhile 5.0.10 is out, see at http://debian.bsnet.se/mirror/cdimage/a ... ha/iso-cd/

In 1999, this (print) ad was very demonstrative, and many like me thought, this will be the future.
Do you remember ?

(btw if you're using Firefox and Adblock, this image may be blocked too)

Regardless of this, I found some useful links for my DEC PWS Miata.
Maintenance guides and docs
http://www.o3one.org/hwdocs/alpha/miata_pws_.html
A collection of hints and small guides
http://www.turquoisewitch.com/~bradh/miata/Service/

Especially the error codes (LED codes and beeps codes) were interesting.

Also, I found an outdated hint about installing CentOS and OpenBSD on a Miata (PWS).
http://www.cromwell-intl.com/unix/linux-alpha.html
CentOS development for Alpha CPUs were stopped in 2006 (latest CentOS Release is 4.3)
OpenBSD is still also available for Alpha CPUs - Release is 5.0 (November 2011!)

So best choice for my PWS433a (beside a Windows 2000 RC2 for Alpha Build 2128) is OpenBSD at the moment, OpenVMS would be still interesting but license is time limited and not very easy to get.

Related link leads to current OpenBSD distribution for Alpha.

UPDATE: Meanwhile OpenBSD 5.1 is out. I refreshed the "related" link.

Interesting blog and site of Rudolf Brandstätter, can be found at http://alker33.wordpress.com

He shows an Apple Lisa 1 running with a very early operating system version - named "Lisa Office System"(LOS) 1.0 - and surprisingly also with a kind of 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drive named "Twiggy media".
I've seen more than one Apple Lisa in real, but never with such floppy drives.
So take a look at his blog entry now:
http://alker33.wordpress.com/2010/12/29 ... er-of-gui/

Here is a picture of it:


Very nice!

Btw... it seems he is addicted to Lisa's. See his whole collection here:
http://alker33.wordpress.com/2011/04/05 ... ollection/