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Category: retrotech

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  • Engineer creates first custom motherboard for 1990s PlayStation console

    Last week, electronics engineer Lorentio Brodesco announced the completion of a mock-up for nsOne, reportedly the first custom PlayStation 1 motherboard created outside of Sony in the console’s 30-year history. The fully functional board accepts original PlayStation 1 chips and fits directly into the original console case, marking a milestone in reverse-engineering for the classic console released in 1994.

    Brodesco’s motherboard isn’t an emulator or FPGA-based re-creation—it’s a genuine circuit board designed to work with authentic PlayStation 1 components, including the CPU, GPU, SPU, RAM, oscillators, and voltage regulators. The board represents over a year of reverse-engineering work that began in March 2024 when Brodesco discovered incomplete documentation while repairing a PlayStation 1.

    “This isn’t an emulator. It’s not an FPGA. It’s not a modern replica,” Brodesco wrote in a Reddit post about the project. “It’s a real motherboard, compatible with the original PS1 chips.”

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  • US air traffic control still runs on Windows 95 and floppy disks

    On Wednesday, acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau told the House Appropriations Committee that the Federal Aviation Administration plans to replace its aging air traffic control systems, which still rely on floppy disks and Windows 95 computers, Tom’s Hardware reports. The agency has issued a Request For Information to gather proposals from companies willing to tackle the massive infrastructure overhaul.

    “The whole idea is to replace the system. No more floppy disks or paper strips,” Rocheleau said during the committee hearing. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the project “the most important infrastructure project that we’ve had in this country for decades,” describing it as a bipartisan priority.

    Most air traffic control towers and facilities across the US currently operate with technology that seems frozen in the 20th century, although that isn’t necessarily a bad thing—when it works. Some controllers currently use paper strips to track aircraft movements and transfer data between systems using floppy disks, while their computers run Microsoft’s Windows 95 operating system, which launched in 1995.

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  • Bill Atkinson, architect of the Mac’s graphical soul, dies at 74

    On Thursday, pioneering computer engineer and Apple veteran William “Bill” Atkinson died of pancreatic cancer at his home in Portola Valley, California, surrounded by family. He was 74. “We regret to write that our beloved husband, father, and stepfather Bill Atkinson passed away,” his family wrote on Facebook. “He was a remarkable person, and the world will be forever different because he lived in it.”

    As Apple employee number 51, Atkinson transformed abstract computer science into intuitive visual experiences that millions would use daily: His QuickDraw graphics engine made the Macintosh interface possible; he introduced the wider world to bitmap editing with MacPaint; and HyperCard presaged hyperlinked elements of the World Wide Web by years.

    A screenshot of Bill Atkinson's MacPaint, released with the Macintosh in January 1984.
    A screenshot of Bill Atkinson’s MacPaint, released with the Macintosh in January 1984.
    Credit:
    Benj Edwards / Apple

    “I say this with no hyperbole: Bill Atkinson may well have been the best computer programmer who ever lived,” wrote veteran Apple analyst John Gruber on Daring Fireball in a tribute. “Without question, he’s on the short list. What a man, what a mind, what gifts to the world he left us.”

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  • Endangered classic Mac plastic color returns as 3D-printer filament

    On Tuesday, classic computer collector Joe Strosnider announced the availability of a new 3D-printer filament that replicates the iconic “Platinum” color scheme used in classic Macintosh computers from the late 1980s through the 1990s. The PLA filament (PLA is short for polylactic acid) allows hobbyists to 3D-print nostalgic novelties, replacement parts, and accessories that match the original color of vintage Apple computers.

    Hobbyists commonly feed this type of filament into commercial desktop 3D printers, which heat the plastic and extrude it in a computer-controlled way to fabricate new plastic parts.

    The Platinum color, which Apple used in its desktop and portable computer lines starting with the Apple IIgs in 1986, has become synonymous with a distinctive era of classic Macintosh aesthetic. Over time, original Macintosh plastics have become brittle and discolored with age, so matching the “original” color can be a somewhat challenging and subjective experience.

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  • Polish engineer creates postage stamp-sized 1980s Atari computer

    In 1979, Atari released the Atari 400 and 800, groundbreaking home computers that included custom graphics and sound chips, four joystick ports, and the ability to run the most advanced home video games of their era. These machines, which retailed for $549 and $999, respectively, represented a leap in consumer-friendly personal computing, with their modular design and serial I/O bus that presaged USB. Now, 46 years later, a hobbyist has shrunk down the system hardware to a size that would have seemed like science fiction in the 1970s.

    Polish engineer Piotr “Osa” Ostapowicz recently unveiled “Atarino,” which may be the world’s smallest 8-bit Atari computer re-creation, according to retro computing site Atariteca. The entire system—processor, graphics chips, sound hardware, and memory controllers—fits on a module measuring just 2×1.5 centimeters (about 0.79×0.59 inches), which is roughly the size of a postage stamp.

    Ostapowicz’s creation reimplements the classic Atari XL/XE architecture using modern FPGA (field-programmable gate array) technology. Unlike software emulators that simulate old hardware (and modern recreations that run them, like the Atari 400 Mini console) on a complete computer system of another architecture, Atarino reproduces the original Atari components faithfully at the logic level, allowing it to run vintage software while maintaining compatibility with original peripherals.

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  • How a 1980s Atari creator with cystic fibrosis crafted a story of salmon survival

    In 1982, while most game developers were busy with space invaders and maze ghosts, Bill Williams created something far more profound: a game about swimming upstream against impossible odds. Salmon Run for the Atari 800 served as a powerful metaphor for life itself, one that resonates even more deeply when you learn about the creator’s own struggles with cystic fibrosis.

    As a kid growing up in the 1980s with an Atari 800 home computer, I discovered this hidden gem in our family’s game collection, and it soon became a favorite. What struck me most—and what still amazes me today—was its incredible audio design, creating water sounds that seemed impossible for 8-bit hardware. But Salmon Run was about far more than impressive audio.

    In the game, you play as Sam the Salmon, swimming upriver to spawn with a female salmon waiting upstream. You control your speed while dodging obstacles like rocks, waterfalls, and riverbanks, moving left to right and leaping from the water. And predators—bears, fishermen, and birds—are constantly trying to eat you.

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