I'm carrying a surprise exhibit for #PaCommEx... can you tell what it is?

#retrocomputing

That's right! It's the Sam440ep, a rare PowerPC Amiga made by the Italian company ACube Systems!

https://www.acube-systems.biz/index.php?page=hardware&pid=2

#amiga #retrocomputing #PaCommEx

It still works perfectly, and boots into AmigaOS 4.1.

Compared to a classic m68k Amiga, it feels blazingly fast: windows with soft shadows move smoothly on a high-resolution, true-color screen.

#amiga #retrocomputing #PaCommEx

More pics from the first day of Commodore Pacific Expo.

#PaCommEx #amiga #c64 #retrocomputing

Robert Bernardo kindly provided a monitor and desk space to exhibit my 600 MHz PPC AmigaOS 4.1 running on the Sam440ex.

#PaCommEx #amiga #ppc #retrocomputing

A 9 year old was typing BASIC commands on the Plus 4 next to me. I introduced him to the one-liner maze generator published in the original user manual of the Commodore 64:

10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10

Afterwards, he started modifying the code, trying different values to see what would happen... much like I did when I was about the same age 🥲

#c64 #retrocomputing #basic #PaCommEx

Now this young programmer has his own YouTube channel, and he's coding an adventure game called High Honor:
https://youtu.be/eG9Rp45BepA

#c64 #basic #programming #retrogaming #education

The hand-written program listing of High Honor is impressive.

I also scribbled BASIC programs while in school, and I also used squared paper to draw sprites or PETSCII art, but this work is *neat*! 🥹

#c64 #basic #programming #education

It's also remarkable that the parents don't know anything about programming. They told me that their elder son asked for a Commodore 64, and they bought it without being too sure what he'd be doing with it.

This is pretty much how I started learning the fun and rewarding profession I'm still doing today.

So I wish both these kids to reach their potential and enjoy their careers 👍

#programming #c64 #retrocomputing

Meanwhile, I managed to get AmigaOS 4.1 online.

The TCP/IP stack seems quite buggy, at least the configuration interface. There are better alternatives for the classic m68k Amiga, but on PowerPC I'm stuck with what's bundled with the OS 😒

Next, I run AmiUpdate, which self-updates and then shows several years worth of updates for various apps, including the web browser and AmiSSL. I need this update for compatibility with websites which have disabled older TLS versions.

Unfortunately, most updates failed because I didn't have LHA, the de-facto standard archiver for Amiga software.

So I download LHA for PPC from Aminet, but... it's an lha archive too! 😭

#amiga #amigaos #retrocomputing