Aug 16, 2007

Z80 OS for the Retro Gaming Techie

Interestingly retro gaming is bringing people in touch with their more tech-oriented side, or so I hear. To be honest though, I wouldn't touch a screwdriver to save my hard disk, but that's both an outrageous exaggeration and way besides the point of this post, said point being them spanking new and terribly impressive Z80 operating systems.

The first one is the aptly named SymbOS Z80 for the Amstrad CPC 6128, a piece of software that might need a few extras attached your CPC (or MSX variant) but will undeniably turn it in an 8-bit computing monster complete with its very own Windows-like GUI. Real multitasking, a 128GB (!) filesystem and a collection of multimedia apps are also provided. Have a look. Oh, yes and don't forget to grab the excellent SymbOS version of Pac-Man too.

The second OS (and this pretty much sum things up, I'm afraid) is ALPACA, another Z80 OS, but one specifically designed for the Pac-Man/Pengo 1kb RAM featuring arcade hardware. It too features a GUI, drives the hardware beyond its original limitations and is quite impressive as you can easily see for yourselves here.

Related @ Gnome's Lair: The Atari 2600 GUI, Saboteur 95, C64 & CPC games videos, retro features

8 comments:

  1. (fighting back tentacled aliens.....)

    one day i'll hop in here and be able to download my very own Angelina Jolie emulation.... once again a most fantastic find mr. Gnome

    thank you!

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  2. Welcome, but I really believe the truly majestic find of the week was your discovery of the utterly stunning Bioshock artbook.

    (shoots an alien)

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  3. erm... well (decides to own up whispers to Gnome...) found it on digg.... shhhhhh!

    yes well... let's finish off the alien straggglers and then maybe we can figure out why a llama is portrayed on the alpaca os system

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  4. Well, searching digg is still searching digg, and still it (the Bioshock thingy) still is an amazing find.

    Llamas... unlikely creatures. Can sneak into absolutely anything and that includes Monty Python movies and Minter creations...

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  5. ninja llama so to speak...

    (designs new ninja llama t-shirt.. sells design.. retires to caribean.. meets Angelina Jolie... wakes up...)

    ..damn.. sorry dosed off there for a second....... where were we?...

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  6. Well, nowhere particularly... Anglina said dinner will be ready in 15 minutes and brought us the whisky. You lucky sod, you...

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  7. but ...(pinches himself...) ouch!.. okay i think therfore I am, i feel pain therfore.. i won't pinch myself again.. but this place is it real... (bangs head against wall....) it feels real.... 15 minutes you say.. right dont' touch her when she arrives... (heads off for a quick shower and change of clothes.....)

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  8. I wouldn't. Are you crazy? Touching a friend's woman? Of course not. Besides I'm hungry.

    Ah, there you are dear. And the ragout smells fantastic!

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