Paleotronic
paleotronic.com · Group blog · on HN since 2018
Paleotronic covers vintage computing history, especially Apple II software, interviews with hardware designers, and retro emulation.
What HN saysHN commenters recommend its piece on 4am's Apple II software preservation work and mention its MicroM8 emulator, while one calls an Apple Logo headline clickbait.
27HN people shared it
19linked it in comments
136stories submitted
1.9Kstory points
6 months agolast shared
2018people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Steve Wozniak Recounts His Efforts to Engineer the Apple II Floppy Disk System3 people · 336 points · first shared 2018 · 70 comments on HN
- 2Confessions of a Disk Cracker: The Secrets of 4am3 people · 275 points · first shared 2018 · 54 comments on HN
- 3Spacewar written in Apple Logo2 people · 53 points · first shared 2018 · 30 comments on HN
- 4A 1980s Quantum Link to a Modern-Day Mutiny2 people · 15 points · first shared 2018 · 1 comments on HN
- 5The Horrors of Capacitance Electronic Disk (CED)2 people · 10 points · first shared 2020 · 5 comments on HN
- 6An Interview with ZX Spectrum Designer Richard Altwasser2 people · 9 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 7The Home Computer Christmas Wars2 people · 5 points · first shared 2019 · 1 comments on HN
- 8A Tongue-in-Cheek Look Back at Broderbund’s ‘The Print Shop’2 people · 4 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
- 9Diversi-Dial: An Apple II Party Line2 people · 3 points · first shared 2019 · 1 comments on HN
- 10Confessions of a Disk Cracker: the secrets of 4am2 people · 3 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 11The Moon Tube: 1969 Televisions, Lunar Science-Fiction, and Dreams of the Future2 people · 3 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
- 12An Interview with Atari 2600 Developer and Imagic Co-Founder Rob Fulop2 people · 2 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
- 13The Horrors of Capacitance Electronic Disk (CED)2 people · 2 points · first shared 2024 · 1 comments on HN
- 14The Adventures of Captain Midnight: An Early History of Pay TV Scrambling2 people · 2 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 15Show HN: Apple IIe emulator written in WebAssembly2 people · 2 points · first shared 2021 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
eej71 · 2025-04-28
If you enjoy stuff like this - do read up on 4am's incredible efforts to preserve Apple ][ software. Just amazing.
https://paleotronic.com/2024/01/28/confessions-of-a-disk-cracker-the-s…
jquast · 2023-08-25
4am has cracked loads of apple ii games, and after doing several hundred manually, automated it as a set of python scripts, https://github.com/a2-4am/passport an article with interview here, https://paleotronic.com/2018/06/15/confessions-of-a-disk-cracker-the-s…
These lab notebooks of the cracking process are shared for titles that could not automatically be cracked.
These are the only public records of reverse engineering these titles, though many did this in the 80’s the techniques and findings were never shared beyond the cracks themselves, and 4am is so practiced and proficient I think he definitely wins the title of the best apple ii cracker in history!
empressplay · 2022-04-06
https://paleotronic.com
Haven't written anything new in a while though
brassattax · 2021-07-16
Looks like their emulator MicroM8 has built in support for emulating an Epson MX-80 printer and saving the output to PDF, as well as a virtual modem. https://paleotronic.com/software/microm8/help/peripherals/
That's excellent!
anonsivalley652 · 2020-02-10
Clickbait. This is not quite the same as teaching Apple II LOGO turtlegraphics, which was taught to me in private elementary (primary) school around grade 2 (7-8 years old). It teaches sequences and repetition, but neither paradigm nor pair of concepts are Turing complete so I wouldn't call them "programming." Perhaps if they built on foundation concepts in subsequent grades, then that would be respectable. Btw, here's a SpaceWars game in Apple II LOGO using the full language. [0]
PS: Once upon a time, Finland turned around their education system from being one of the worst to being one of the best, by among many other changes, eliminating many multiple choice tests and homework that weren't adding value to overall education quality. Michael Moore showcased this in one of his documentaries, Where to Invade Next?
0. https://paleotronic.com/2018/09/27/ancient-tongues-logo-spacewar/
DonHopkins · 2019-08-27
I love your 3D Apple ][ emulator too!
https://paleotronic.com/software/microm8/
wallflower · 2018-10-21
Steve Wozniak's story of making the Apple ][ floppy disk is an absolute must read, if you have not yet enjoyed it.
https://paleotronic.com/2018/05/19/steve-wozniak-talks-disk/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17101830
The story was included with many other Woz tales in jl's book "Founders at Work"
http://www.foundersatwork.com/steve-wozniak.html
agumonkey · 2018-05-18
https://paleotronic.com/2018/05/19/steve-wozniak-talks-disk/ <= has a bit about sound too, read it it's worth it
Octokiddie · 2023-03-08
Regarding the copy protection process itself, there's an interesting interview at one of the links:
> The most common protection schemes were the ones that were productized and resold to hundreds of publishers. This was coordinated through the disk duplication houses, who offered copy protection as a “value add” on top of mastering the disks themselves. Publishers got the benefit of the latest and greatest copy protection without needing to play the cat-and-mouse game themselves.
> The E7 bitstream, a.k.a. “generic bit slip protection,” was the most common. It was a sequence of 1s and 0s, specially crafted so the first half could be read “in phase,” then the code would intentionally skip half a byte and read the second half “out of phase.” Bit copiers would drop bits due to hardware limitations, and the out-of-phase values would be wrong. It was brilliant.
https://paleotronic.com/2018/06/15/confessions-of-a-disk-cracker-the-s…
code_duck · 2019-10-28
I recall circa 1985 I really wanted to sign up for QuantumLink, aka Q-Link, which I had seen advertised on the back of a C64 video game package (maybe M.U.L.E.?). The idea of chatting with other people through my computer was fascinating. I was six. I asked my mother about it and with splendid foresight of the modern world, she said no, that I would probably get molested or something.
"Quantum Link users could send electronic mail, use on-line chat rooms, download files, read the news, send instant messages to other users, and play a number of multiplayer games, including classic board games and games inspired by contemporary TV game shows. In late 1986, Q-Link expanded, adding casino games, a database dedicated to rock music, an on-line auction service and the ability for users to have customised avatars digitised from photos they sent in to the service."
https://paleotronic.com/2018/07/01/a-1980s-quantum-link-to-a-modern-da…
kmoser · 2023-08-28
Not exactly a forum as we now know it, but I believe Bill Basham's Diversi-Dial (DDial) BBS software for the Apple II was written entirely in assembly. https://paleotronic.com/2019/09/28/diversi-dial-an-apple-ii-party-line…
ofrzeta · 2022-12-24
I am impressed how their emulator MicroM8 emulates an Epson MX-80 printer to write a PDF: https://paleotronic.com/software/microm8/help/peripherals/
JayCuthrell · 2022-04-07
Thank you for this trip down memory lane! https://paleotronic.com/2020/06/06/lasers-and-dragons-remembering-don-…
adambb · 2021-07-16
Looks like they mention it in the blog post
https://paleotronic.com/2021/07/13/introducing-the-print-shop-club/
Zenst · 2019-12-26
Only one I diffinitiavly remember from that time: https://paleotronic.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/YourComputer8112-1.…
few felt familiar, but then, was UK market selection for me and so Your Computing and BYTE would be the ones with PCW.
I do miss BYTE, odd to remember a time in which you actually enjoyed the adverts as much as the content, something you could not achieve today as easily.
homarp · 2019-03-12
https://paleotronic.com/2019/03/12/theres-a-3d-flying-dragon-inside-mi… seems to be what the url should be
dang · 2018-09-30
zellyn · 2018-09-27
The paleotronic folks have been on fire lately. Their Apple II emulator, microM8 is fast becoming one of the most advanced, cross-platform emulators.
https://paleotronic.com/microm8/
soferio · 2025-10-21
This is an assembler: https://paleotronic.com/merlinplus/