Before the modern Internet existed, there were still plenty of ways of connecting with other computer users “online”, although many of them might seem completely foreign to those of us in the modern era. One of those systems was the Bulletin Board System, or BBS, which would have been a single computer, often in someone’s home, connected to a single phone line. People accessing the BBS would log in if the line wasn’t busy, leave messages, and quickly log out since the system could only support one user at a time. While perhaps a rose-tinted view, this was a more wholesome and less angsty time than the modern algorithm-driven Internet, and it turns out these systems are making a bit of a comeback as a result.

The video by [The Retro Shack] sets up a lot of this history for context, then, towards the end, uses a modern FPGA-based recreation called the Commodore 64 Ultimate to access a BBS called The Old Net, a modern recreation of what these 80s-era BBS systems were like. This involves using a modern networking card that allows the C64 to connect to Wi-Fi access points to get online instead of an old phone modem, and then using a terminal program called CCGMS to connect to the BBS itself. Once there, users can access mail, share files, and even play a few games.

While the video is a very basic illustration of how these BBS systems worked and how to access one, it is notable in that it’s part of a trend of rejecting more modern technology and systems in favor of older ones, where the users had more control. A retro machine like a C64 or Atari is not required either; modern operating systems can access these with the right terminal program, too. A more in-depth guide to the BBS can be found here for those looking to explore, and we’ve also seen other modern BBS systems recently.

Thanks to [Charlie] for the tip!

Given the technical specs of the FPGAs available to hobbyists these days, it really shouldn’t be a shock that you can implement a relatively-modern chipset on one, like one for a 486 system. In spite of knowing that in the technical sense, we were still caught off guard by [maniek-86]’s M8SBC project that does just that– the proas both CPU and BIOSducing a 486 FPGA chipset with a motherboard to boot.

Boot what? Linux 2.2.6, MS-DOS 6.22 or FreeDOS all work. It can run DOOM, of course, along with Wolfenstien 3D, Prince of Persia, and even the famous Second Reality demo– though that last without sound. [maniek-86]’s implementation is lacking direct memory access, so sound card support is right out. There are a few other bugs that are slowly being squished, too, according to the latest Reddit thread.
The heart of the system is a Xilinx Spartan II XC2S100 FPGA, which serves the motherboard chipset, codnamed “Hamster I”. The CPU is a vintage i486, running at a configurable 24MHz.  The BIOS code is based on an open-source project by [b-demitri1] that’s also on GitHub, if you happen to need a PC BIOS.  The FPGA isn’t doing everything: graphics is, as right and proper for a PC-compatible of this vintage, provided by an ISA card. [maniek] has tested several VGA cards and all apparently worked equally well, so that aspect of the system is apparently well in hand. The 4MB of system RAM seems pretty reasonable for a 486 build, as does restricting peripherals to PS/2 and the aforementioned ISA bus. We might have gone for a faster clock default than 24MHz, but that’s well within historical territory. Only a few bugs and the pesky lack of a DMA controller keep this from being a true PC-Compatible build, and that’s pretty amazing for one human’s hobby project.

Eventually, as stocks dwindle, reproducing retrocomputers in FPGA– as was recently done with the MSX standard–may be the only way to enjoy them. That’s probably least true of the 486, which lived on for decades in industrial hardware, but that doesn’t take away from how impressive this build is.

Thanks to [sven] for the tip! Remember: if you see something, say something, because Big Hacker isn’t always watching. (We leave that to the tech giants.)

[AmiCube] has announced their new PiStorm68K special edition MiniMig accelerator board. This board was developed to replace the 68000 CPU in a MiniMig — a recreation of the original Amiga chipset in an FPGA allowing a real genuine 68000 CPU to operate.

The PiStorm68K itself can host a real genuine 68000 CPU but it can also host various Raspberry Pi models which can do emulation of a 68000. So if you combine a PiStorm68K with a MiniMig you can, at your option, boot into an emulated environment with massively increased performance, or you can boot into an original environment, with its reliable and charming sluggishness.

In the introduction video below, [AmiCube] uses the SYSINFO utility software to compare the CPU speed when using emulation (1531 MIPS) versus the original (4.47 MIPS), where MIPS means Millions of Instructions Per Second. As you can see the 68000 emulated by the Raspberry Pi is way faster than the original. The Raspberry Pi also emulates a floating-point unit (FPU) which the original doesn’t include and a memory management unit (MMU) which isn’t used.

If you’re interested in old Amiga tech you might also like to read about Chip Swap Fixes A Dead Amiga 600 or The Many-Sprites Interpretation Of Amiga Mechanics.

In the 1980s there were an incredible number of personal computers of all shapes, sizes, and operating system types, and there was very little interoperability. Unlike today’s Windows-Mac duopoly, this era was much more of a free-for-all but that didn’t mean companies like Microsoft weren’t trying to clean up all of this mess. In 1983 they introduced the MSX standard for computers, hoping to coalesce users around a single design. Eventually it became very successful in Japan and saw some use in a few other places but is now relegated to the dustbin of history, but a new FPGA kit unofficially supports this standard.

The kit is called the OneChip Book and, unlike most FPGA kits, includes essentially everything needed to get it up and running including screen, keyboard, and I/O all in a pre-built laptop case. At its core it’s just that: and FPGA kit. But its original intent was to recreate this old 80s computer standard with modern hardware. The only problem is they never asked for permission, and their plans were quickly quashed. The development kit is still available, though, and [electricadventures] goes through the steps to get this computer set up to emulate this unofficially-supported retro spec. He’s also able to get original MSX cartridges running on it when everything is said and done.

Although MSX is relatively unknown in North America and Western Europe, it remains a fairly popular platform for retro computing enthusiasts in much of the rest of the world. We’ve seen a few similar projects related to this computer standard like this MSX-inspired cyberdeck design, but also others that bring new hardware to this old platform.