Superb Old Computer Quiz

Check out this cool old computer and console quiz posted on the BBC website this week. I managed to score 9 out of 10 on my first try. I slipped up on the NeoGeo question. Go on and have a go then post your score back here.

Link to BBC Old Computer Quiz

Cottonwood BBS alive on a C128

Cottonwood BBS

I happened across this site and BBS after a site visitor mentioned it in the Guest book. To see a BBS still in full operation with a Commodore 128 at its heart using 1581 disk drives to serve up files to users across America put a huge grin on my face.

I spent many hours as a young teenager dialling up many different BBS in search of files, other users and more knowledge. This was a time before internet, where the only way to spread code, demo's and programs was to host them on your own computer and allow access via good old modems. The BBS or Bulletin Board System was the hunting ground of the first hackers, crackers and phreakers. In an age where 2600 magazine was the underground and WarGames was 'our' movie.

I tip my hat to you guys and hope that your BBS never ends. You brought a little ray of sunshine to my day already.

Nectarine Radio to make a comeback

It is with baited breath that I await the return of Nectarine Demoscene Radio in whatever form it decides to take. Only a few days have passed since the loss of Nectarine toa hacker (see post below) but already the scene has rallied to Yes (Christophe) support both financially and through the offer of temp streams, servers, hosting and backup.

You can follow a lot of the story and scene discussions at Pouet you can also visit the new Official Nectarine Revival Project and donate or just keep in touch with developments.

For my part I just want to say a big thanks to everyone making this happen. I look forward to updating my dedicated Retro Radio Page with the new feeds.

Good luck.

Nectarine Radio - GONE !

I have been a fan of Nectarine Demoscene Radio for many years now, in fact from its launch. For those of you that dont know, its a site dedicated to preserving the demo scene music from the past, namly Commodore 64, Amiga and other formats from the ere. It was a polished and professional site that offered many memorable tracks. It allowd you to request tracks and was one of my regularly visited pages. Although free it did rely on donations to keep going.

Many of you will know from my website that I was a huge Amiga fan and was a part of the scene back in the 90's. So it is with a very heavy heart that I learned yesterday that Nectarine Radio site had been hacked again (it had been attached a few months ago) and this time the idiot who did it, managed to delete all files and backups. Looking at the message from the webmaster it appears that it will not be returning.

Apparently a childish scripter posted a message about the vulnerability before bringing the site down, a transscript of the message follows....

Country flag xdxf 10:29:28
look in the html src for mysql_pconnect
Country flag xdxf 10:29:01
the vuln is: http://www.nectarine.fr/played.php?Template=../includes/db.php
Country flag xdxf 10:28:44
enjoy your faggy forum in peace
Country flag xdxf 10:27:55
k that should do the trick
Country flag [name] 10:26:24
whatever
Country flag xdxf 10:26:12
just to make sure lemme delete it
Country flag xdxf 10:25:54
seems fair to me
Country flag [name] 10:25:42
Sure i promise
Country flag xdxf 10:25:24
hmm.. ok how about this.. i’ll expose the vuln if [name] admits that he’s a [rude word] and agrees to change his usern/password forever because it’s an insult to pyros/chemists everywhere…

Its easy to start ranting and raving about the hacker but alas there is no point. Who cares, all that matters is that our beloved radio station is no more. I am hoping that we can convince the webmaster of Nectarine to reconsider. Maybe after a few days rest he will once again start to rebuild the site.

In order to show our support and love for his work and also to help him pay for replacement materials and time I have started a ChipIn donation fund that I hope everyone will see fit to send a little money his way.

(Update: I have suspended my ChipIn fund in order to point directly to the official ChipIn Fund. I have also transfered any funds made to my account to Nectarines)

Please also visit the now official site of Nectarine

The Official Fund is Listed Below, Please Donate.

They're taking the hobbits to Isengard (C64 version)

This is silly, funny and a great example of the never ending life of the ubercool Commodore 64 computer. Sid tunes are just the best.

Vintage Computer Festival 5.0 New Jersey

Saturday, Sept. 13th and Sunday, Sept. 14th 2008
InfoAge Science Center
Wall Township, New Jersey


The 5th annual Vintage Computer Festival East will be held on Saturday, September 13th and Sunday, September 14th, at the InfoAge Learning Center at Wall Township, New Jersey. The event is sponsored by MARCH and VintageTech.

The exact daily schedule will be announced shortly.

Admission is $15 for two days, $10 for one day. Free for ages 17 and younger. Parking is free.

Please click here to visit their website for more information.

Batman Games for you to play

To celebrate the new Batman movie 'Dark Knight' I have decided to list all the available Batman games you can download and play for the old consoles. Please see the entire list below with direct downloads for each rom. Remember to visit my Roms Section for complete lists on every console format.

The Roms are as follows :-

Atari LYNX - Batman Returns

Commodore 64 - Batman & Batman II

Nintendo NES - Batman 1
Nintendo NES - Batman 2
Nintendo NES - Batman 3

Nintendo Gameboy - Batman
Nintendo Gameboy - Batman Chaos in Gotham
Nintendo Gameboy - Batman Return of the Joker
Nintendo Gameboy - Batman The Annimated Series
Nintendo Gameboy - Batman Beyond - Return of the Joker
Nintendo Gameboy - Batman Forever

Nintendo SNES - Batman Forever
Nintendo SNES - Batman Returns
Nintendo SNES - Batman Revenge of the Joker

Nintendo N64 - Batman Beyond - Return of the Joker

Sega Master System - Batman Returns

Sega Game Gear - Batman Forever
Sega Game Gear - Batman Returns

Sega Genesis MegaDrive - Batman
Sega Genesis MegaDrive - Batman Revenge of the Joker
Sega Genesis MegaDrive - Batman Forever
Sega Genesis MegaDrive - Batman Returns
Sega Genesis MegaDrive - Batman and Robin

PC Abandonware - Batman The Movie
PC Abandonware - Batman the Caped Crusader
PC Abandonware - Batman Returns
PC Abandonware - Batman Forever
PC Abandonware - Batman II

Remember to check out my other 30 rom sections to see if you can find a Batman game that I have missed.