RC 2023/10 Results!

The results are in and it's a tie! The three Grand Prize "winners" this year (one for each category) tied for first by popular vote! The other prize winners also received votes and were highly regarded by the judges. But as we all know, even finsihing the RetroChallenge is an impressive task (one that I have been unable to complete for years). Everyone who finished has earned the judge's respect and appreciation!

Stay tuned for details on RetroChallenge 2024/10!

Click below to see the results...

Category: Endurance Challenge
Granz twitter : @retrocheng Platform: MS-DOS, x86 Project : I think that I will commit to using MS-DOS on a daily basis (I did this throughout the late 1980s and into the 1990s, in several different professional positions.) I plan on connecting my chosen system (see first post in my blog thread) to the internet (maybe through an ESP modem.) Then I will try to figure out how to post to my thread (or some other) to keep my blogging up. Halftime Update: Granz is keeping us well updated with his endurance challenge and is making great progress getting his Zenith Z-Star configured and connected to peripherals. Reading the good book and dealing with cursed CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files... what a combo! Happy birthday! Final Comments: Granz actually managed to use MS-DOS everyday for a month!! His journal on the daily struggles with the Z-Star is a joy to read: FoxPro database installation, serial port issues, PS/2 mouse problems, BBS logins, experimenting with NewDOS, programming in C, TinyBASIC corruption, a few games, and daily Bible study. His perseverance is award-worthy! I hope he can get the content posted where it is accessible again. Final Status: *** Grand Prize! ***
Digitalrampage Affiliation: Australian Computer Museum Society Platform: Multiple Project : I’m attempting to setup an ISP, restore a broken Micro PC 286, fix a PowerBook 2300 PPC laptop and others Halftime Update: DigitalRampage has added to his list of things to do by damaging the power supply on his 286 Carry-I terminal PC. At least he got a bit of time playing Leisure Suit Larry. Final Comments: Digitalrampage had mixed success during the month, but finally ended up with a blown powersupply, a non-functioning PowerBook Duo 2300c, and some recapped PowerBook Duos. Final Status: Finished the Month!
TiredGeezer303 twitter : @ElonIsEvil303 Platform: iBook g4, IBM Netvista circa 2003 Project : Doing the endurance challenge!! Trying to use my iBook g4 and NetVista computer for all of my computing with a few exceptions for work, texts, phone calls, etc. Halftime Update: TiredGeezer made some initial progress with his Net Vista PC, installing Debian 10, but I fear we may have lost him. Give us some more updates! Final Comments: Despite my pleas, we lost TiredGeezer303 early in the month. Final Status: Stalled
Category: General
LambdaMikel Platform: Busch Microtronic Project : My goal is to create a multi-purpose expansion for the Busch Microtronic Computer (1981, 4bit). I already have a Raspberry Pico set up to emulate the Microtronic's 2114 SRAM. The Pico enables me to store and restore Microtronic memory dumps as files to resp. from SDcard, in milliseconds (the cassette interface takes minutes for a decent program!) By "snooping" the address bus and SRAM (which the Pico emulates), the Pico also knows the instruction currently being executed by the Microtronic. I can hence turn the Pico into co-processor, adding new op-codes to the original Microtronic. I plan to add op-codes for OLED display output, sound, speech synthesis, a Real Time Clock, as well as bank switching. The goal is to have a working prototype at the end of the Challenge month that can then be turned into a PCB (consisting of a Pico, OLED display, loudspeaker am op-amp, SDcard, speech chip, and a few buttons for the user interface). Halftime Update: LambdaMikel gave us a thorough log post and video right at halftime. He demonstrates the voice function and fully functional SD card. He even has the RPi Pico interfaced with the Busch Microtronic allowing it to run programs directly from the to RPi. Great work so far! Final Comments: LambdaMikel made amazing progress on his Busch Microtronic, and provided some great demo videos to finish off the project. I love the Microtronic's German accent... very appropriate! He added many capabilities, including RTC, OLED display, voice, SDcard, all integrated through a Raspberry Pico. Final Status: *** Grand Prize! ***
Gergő twitter : @gergo_erdi Platform: HomeLab-2 Project : I'll be making a game (or maybe several) in Assembly for the Hungarian HomeLab-2 computer from 1982. Halftime Update: Gergő just barely got us his first post in time for this half-time update. Looking forward to more content here! Final Comments: Gergő ported a text adventure game “The Revenge” to the HomeLab-2 which required optimizing it to fit in the computer's 16 KB of RAM. Text compression and carefully pruning the maps and storyline resulted in a completed 'Part I' with the ability to save gamestate in-memory. We are looking forward to the sequel! Final Status: Finished the Month!
Kerry Affiliation: Australian Computer Museum Society Platform: DEC PDP11 Project : I have spent hundreds of hours repairing a PDP11/10 CPU box which is now working. It is lonely for a peripheral and I have just the thing, a PC05 high speed paper tape punch/reader. I am hoping to get it cleaned, repaired and interfaced to my PDP11/10 and loading the DEC pdp11 paper tape basic. Utilising another previously restored paper tape punch I will be creating the tape and the absolute loader to suit. Halftime Update: After "getting his bits together" and punching some necessary paper tapes, Kerry is working hard on the restoration of his PC05 paper tape reader and has a lot of video updates to show his progress. I am really enjoying the multidisciplinary effort on this one! His short videos are definitely worth watching. Final Comments: Kerry finished of the month strong with a video of an end-to-end boot of the PDP11 paper tape system including load, run and punch a program on the PC05 high speed punch/reader. This was one of my favorites with frequent updates and explanations of how he ultimately conquered many setbacks. Awesome job! Final Status: Prize "Winner"!!
Cefiar (aka Stuart) Affiliation: Australian Computer Museum Society Platform: Applix1616 Project : Restoration/rebuild of an Applix1616 kit computer that hasn't been powered up in years. Cleaning, checking all components, redoing bodge wires, etc, through to booting the system and hopefully accessing files on a SCSI attached volume (on a BlueSCSI V2). Halftime Update: Cefiar is making awesome progress with his handsomely minimalist Applix1616. Great photos and great content here, as he basically re-solders the entire logic board and installs a BlueSCSI card. Keep up the great progress! Final Comments: Cefiar knocked this one out of the park with the computer equivalent of a frame-up restoration of his Applix1616. Then he took it the next step with some resto-mods to update its usefulness with a floppy emulator. Despite the loss of a loved pet, he really finished strong. I look forward to seeing more of what the Applix1616 will do! Final Status: Prize "Winner"!!
John Honniball twitter : @anachrocomputer Platform: Compukit UK101 Project : I built a Compukit UK101 from a kit in February 1980. 43 years later, I'm going to write a demo program for it. Something snazzy that'll wow the onlookers. Halftime Update: Only one great background post about the Compukit UK101 so far. John usually makes a late surge, so we won't count him out yet. Final Comments: Compukit UK101 entered the 'demo scene' with John's completed graphics routines. Progress on his assembler written in C finished up a productive month for John. Final Status: Honorable Mention
Etno Platform: VG-5000µ Project : Using an emulator to develop for a retro-machine can easily result in code that runs smoothly but not on the real hardware. I will try to build an interface for the VG-5000µ which injects a binary and grabs the display in an automated way. Thus exercising the real graphics chip (EF9345). I want to compare the resulting images with the output of emulators running the same code. Halftime Update: Etno has built up a clean looking breadboard for his VG-5000µ ROM emulation device "hot ROM". Nice progress! Final Comments: Looks like Etno stalled half way. Final Status: Stalled
ep00ch twitter : @ep00ch Platform: Synertec MBC020 Project : I will focus on some 6502 projects, mostly my Synertek MBC020 ExorBus board. I never got it working correctly as a terminal: skewed video and no keyboard yet. Let's see if I can get all of this working properly! Halftime Update: epooch got us one post with some fixes to his Synertec MBC020. Hopefully he can get a keyboard working with it! Final Comments: ep00ch gave up early and ended up just enjoying "October Offline," meeting up with urbancamo on his visit to Southern California. He tried to fill the retrocomputing hole in soul with a tour of the USS Midway Museum, tacos, and a football game with his co-host. Final Status: Stalled
paulscottrobson Platform: Sinclair LC3 Project : Try to recreate the Sinclair LC3 unreleased prototype as accurately as possible. There's not much information, but some intelligent guesswork will do. I have inquired of both of the main people involved, not "for information" but to ask if my thoughts and guesses were right. If it changes, it changes, that'll teach me to write code that can be adapted easily. I'll write some games and system software for it. Halftime Update: Paul is back with another ambitious entry! He gave us some great background posts about the Sinclair LC3 and his choices for period appropriate components. Finally a post about video RAM and sprites before we might have lost him. We are looking forward to more progess on this project! Final Comments: No more progress from paul after a strong start. It is still worth checking out his project for some Sinclair info. Final Status: Stalled
MacEffects Affiliation: Australian Computer Museum Society Platform: Apple Lisa Project : Restore a non-working Apple Lisa 2/5 Halftime Update: Hmm, not sure where I should be looking for updates here. Final Status: Non Starter
Category: October Offline
JKnightandKARR Platform: Zenith Z-Star EX Project : Repair an old Zenith laptop for DOS and WIndows 3.1x gaming Halftime Update: How many Z Stars does Granz have?! JKnightandKARR got an early start on things and is still battling replacement drives and batteries. Hopefully the parts he ordered will do the trick! Final Comments: JKnightandKARR had a very productive month after getting new batteries, fresh hard drive, mouse, parallel port sound card, and SD card adapter, On the software side, he freed up some RAM and installed new games, utilities, and drivers. Nice overhaul for the old Z-Star! Final Status: *** Grand Prize! ***