This list will be updated as new stories are published.
Last updated: 22 Sept 2025.
Zolatron
A 6502-based homebrew microcomputer. This project has its own page, so that's the best place to start.
Flash-based ROM
A series of articles looking at replacing the ROM (or EEPROM) in a homebrew computer with a flash chip and/or a microcontroller.
There is a GitHub repo for this project.
Infrared IoT hub
Creating ESP8266- and ESP32-based devices to receive IR signals and relay them across the network via MQTT, or receive MQTT messages and emit corresponding IR signals.
There is a GitHub repo for this project.
From the archive
These are articles I wrote for computer magazines and other publications back in the 1980s and 90s. They offer an insight into how products and technology we now label as 'vintage' or 'retro' were viewed at the time. Each piece comes with a new introduction.
- Fly by Wire, Personal Computer World, June 1990.
- WordStar 5 review, Personal Computer World, 1989.
- Amstrad 640 PPC review, Which PC?, 1988.
- Olivetti Quaderno review, What PC?, 1992.
- Cambridge Computer Z88 review, Practical Computing, 1988.
- Computers in air traffic control, Personal Computer World, 1991.
- Computers in photography, Personal Computer World, March 1991.
- Bulletin board systems for pilots, Pilot, 1991.
Vintage stuff
New stories about old stuff. The articles cover retrocomputing, computer history and old tech that I still have lying around and find fascinating.
- The Hacker's Handbook — my introduction to 'exploring' computer systems.
- LEAPS Elliott 405 — a trove of documents relating to a classic mainframe computer from the 1950s.
- Lost software: Emerald Bay database — remebering a worthy yet failed competitor to dBase from the MS-DOS days.
- Retro to the core — a solid piece of computer history in the shape of core memory.
