A New Start -- And A Return

Hi.

I'm Paul, a 50-something nerd. I've been noodling with computers in one way or another since the early 1980s. With the proliferation of "retrocomputing chic" out there, I thought I'd dip my toe in the field.

This is RIBBBITN3RDing

This is a particularly great time to get into "primitive computing", as the availability of parts, resources, and services is, for the most part, fantastic. Sure, there are specific parts for old Atari and Commodore machines that are no longer being manufactured -- but some of them have been reverse-engineered and created in CPLDs or other programmable devices.

Companies like Adafruit, Jameco, DigiKey, Mouser, and the like make parts available to ordinary folks like you and me. There're great, low-cost tools out there, from solder stations to oscilloscopes and logic analyzers, to make getting into this hobby a lot more straightforward than it was 20 years ago. Even Amazon has a lot of tools and parts for electronics hobbyists.

As if the availability of tools and parts was not enough, the availability of great information relating to retrocomputing both through "old fashioned" forums and static web pages, and though platforms like YouTube and Facebook is almost too much.

Of course, there are plenty of people who already knew this, and have been involved in the hobby for years, or decades. Thankfully, most of them are welcoming to new people in my experience, and har happy to give advice and answer questions.

My current project in this realm is the "RIBBBIT65" -- a 6502-based computer I was inspired to begin designing and building after watching these videos by Ben Eater. The RIBBBIT65 grew out of my desire to have a stable "core" that I could build on to develop peripherals and software. The project is ongoing, and I plan to document the stages of development, design choices, and lessons learned on this blog. I also have a YouTube channel where I post demos of nerdy stuff I'm working on (including RIBBBT65 stuff). I've already been working on the RIBBBIT65 for about a year and a half, so if you're feeling a little late to the party, I'm sorry. I'll try to get you caught up. This is an ongoing journey. I hope you join me, and we can learn together.