Mastodawn

Matt Large Dec 27

I bought my first Apricot PC about three years ago, when I realised I wanted an 8086-based computer. At the time, I knew nothing about it and simply bought it because it looked rad and the price was low. I had no idea that it was not IBM PC-compatible, and that there were very few programs available for it.

I have been on a quest to get a modern-ish word processor and spreadsheet program for it ever since. Which eventually made me "port" Windows 2 on it. In this post, I share the story of the port. Many photos inside!

https://www.ninakalinina.com/notes/win2apri/

Nina Kalinina Dec 28

Some of you might be wondering about the CRT on the right from the Apricot.

This CRT is currently connected to a Compaq286 running DOS+Windows 3.1. The Compaq machine has access to the home server over MsNet. If I need to copy files from my Mac to a floppy, I just need to put them on the home server.

That being said, the original test of Windows 2 on the Apricot was done with a 3.5" floppy written by a USB floppy drive connected to an Apple Silicon MacBook.

When Compaq286 is resting, the monitor is used with a Sparc Ultra 5 "Otter" for all the things Unix or, optionally, our Pentium MMX and Celeron machines.

Bredroll Dec 28

@nina_kali_nina have you thought about trying Atari ST or Amiga? I can remember running Debian Hamm on my Atari Falcon

Nina Kalinina Dec 28

@Bredroll If you squint at the photo, you will see a box labelled "...odore AM.. model 500" on the shelf behind the computers. So, I am definitely thinking about trying Amiga and Atari. But these are not machines I am familiar with, so I expect a steep learning curve. Even a 68k Macintosh Classic was quite a challenge to figure out (it runs NetBSD and has WiFi now)

Bredroll Dec 28

@nina_kali_nina so very cool!

@nina_kali_nina @Bredroll if you want to run a BSD on an amiga you're gonna have a hard time.
the ones with an MMU are expensive, and modern "accelerators" are uninteresting (to me).
That said if you can find an amiga model it is kind of fun to mess with. And the OS's command line, while its own thing, definitely has some shared heritage with CP/M and unix stuff and makes some sort of sense.

@nina_kali_nina @Bredroll I think the Atari TT would be preferable, due to the memory management features of its 68030 chip. While I've run a unix-like system on an upgraded 520ST (with 14MB RAM IIRC), I think the lack of virtual memory makes it less ideal for multiprocessing tasks.

If you do get yourself an ST, watch out for a tendency for any pressure or flexing in the middle of the keyboard to cause it to freeze, especially with older hardware. We had two that developed this fault, most likely due to a solder joint or track breaking near the CPU, which was located just under the centre of the keyboard.

HP van Braam Dec 28

@nina_kali_nina now you're just showing off...

(Jealous)

@nina_kali_nina

FYI the link to Where is Owl in your post doesn't work

Nina Kalinina Dec 27

@eliza thanks, let me check...

@nina_kali_nina

I love that you wrote it in Turbo Pascal!

Nina Kalinina Dec 27

@eliza it wasn't me, it was awesome @bytex64

@nina_kali_nina @eliza Thanks for the shout out. :)

Nina Kalinina Dec 27

@eliza all links should work now, thanks for reporting!

@nina_kali_nina

You're welcome

Aprazeth Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina

> The XENTEL button is somewhat similar to a Copilot button, except it can actually be useful in some situations.

LMAO

(I'm still reading your post but this part I just had to share - I jumped to the keyboard section because it looks really nice.)

Nina Kalinina Dec 27

@Aprazeth I just had to make a joke about it!

About XENTEL: apparently, some XEN computers came with a phone handset controllable from the computer. I am not quite sure why, but maybe it was something like "Select a phone number in Excel, and your handset will dial it". XENTEL is a button to call the tool controlling the handset.

Unfortunately, I don't own one :)

Aprazeth Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina
And right you are to joke about it.

I am genuinely impressed by all of this, and it's way beyond my level of computer knowledge to fully grasp what you achieved here - so for what it's worth - amazing achievement in getting this to work!

Being able to effectively dial a number would have been a boon for many a business/entrepreneur, who has time to press/dial all those numbers? And honestly, I love the look of the machine in general. I can see why you got it :)

@nina_kali_nina oh wow that thing looks adorable

Nina Kalinina Dec 27

@Polychrome it is also almost "luggable". First, the front cover hides the floppy drive from any dust. Then the keyboard attaches to the bottom side of the computer. Finally, a handle can be pulled out from the computer, so it becomes a suitcase. The CRT has to be carried separately, but it also has a handle for transportation.

Bob Collins Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina
You could try Minix OS for fun.

Nina Kalinina Dec 27

@BobCollins in fact, I ported Minix 2 to the Apricot a while ago. And then accidentally lost the port when my previous laptop broke. https://tech.lgbt/@nina_kali_nina/110245231666246838

Davide Bucci Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina great stuff. I read a test of the Apricot many years ago and I always thought it was a really elegant computer. I really like it.

Paolo Amoroso Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina Pretty much Frankenwindows.

Nina Kalinina Dec 27

@amoroso this is exactly the name of my working directory for this project

Paolo Amoroso Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina LOL

@nina_kali_nina That's class, so it is

Peter Sommerlad Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina

almost exactly 40 years ago I programmed ms-dos stuff on and for Apricot PCs. memories.

Peter Sommerlad Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina but the one I used had a different form factor and color

Nina Kalinina Dec 27

@PeterSommerlad was it one of the F-series, perhaps? https://oldcomputers.net/apricot-f1.html

ACT Apricot F1 computer

Peter Sommerlad Dec 28

@nina_kali_nina
yes

Tisha Tiger / Neliger Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina I learned some interesting things from your port adventure, thank you :3

Limes 🇺🇦Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina Your achievements are truly impressive!

Nina Kalinina Dec 27

@limes Thanks~

HP van Braam Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina that was a fun read! Thanks for sharing your work!

Nina Kalinina Dec 27

@hp I'm glad~

Russell Davis Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina The Apricot range were nice machines although as you say not that IBM PC compatable (quite a few British machines of the time were IBM PC-ish but not compatable) The screen was great to look at for hours and hours without eyestrain. I did quite a few of my early contracts programming them. Mostly using the Alpha database although iirc Dataease and Sensible Solution DB/4GL and I think TAS and Multisoft/MOSS ran on it too

ndevenish Dec 28

@ukscone @nina_kali_nina i remember a long time ago, we had an Apricot and I loved the form factor; possibly they were shipping compatible by then? I think it ran windows 95 and remember it was the first computer we had with USB although we had nothing that used it until the next generation of PC we had

Nina Kalinina Dec 28

@ndevenish @ukscone Yep! Apricot eventually started making PC-compatibles in 1986. Mitsubishi bought the computer-making business in 1990, and Apricot continued making some rad computers, like Apricot VX FT, the first 486-based machine.

Colin Macleod Dec 28

@ukscone @nina_kali_nina Wow, somebody else who remembers "The Sensible Solution"!
#retrocomputing

Russell Davis Dec 28

@CGM @nina_kali_nina Yeah I think i've only met 3 people who know of it in the last 30 years or so. I used to hangout overnight in a computer/bespoke database app programming store & a recruitment agency in Surbiton across the road from the Y and in return for letting me use their phone lines and just hang out (plus a few quid a week) i'd do some of their database stuff in Sensible Solution and Dataease

The Penguin of Evil Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina we used one for a lot of the Adventure International UK 8bit graphics design. Mostly though I remember the joy of a terminal,/pc room full of them and discovering the IR signal was not keyed to a given machine.
Aberystwyth also had a Sirius which was a beautiful machine licensed from Victor and designed by Chuck Peddle of PET fame.

Nina Kalinina Dec 27

@etchedpixels could you please share more about the usage for the graphics design? I'm not sure if there were any graphic editors for it except ones shipped for GEM and Windows. Unless you had an F-series Apricot with CGA-like graphics, of course.

And yes, IR trackball 👀 I don't have one :(

The Penguin of Evil Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina It was an F series machine. The graphics design tool was totally custom. To squash the graphics into an 8bit micro each pictture was made up of logic combinations of 1 to 4 8x8 characters with rotate/mirror from a font (obviously mostly of lines and arcs and angles plus custom bits) plus colour data (max 2 per 8x8 square because ZX Spectrum, C64 and other similar limits)

Before that they were done by hand by the artist on graph paper and an incredibly painstaking job.

Nina Kalinina Dec 27

@etchedpixels incredible stuff, thanks! I wonder if you knew about the cling wrap scanning technique back then? Though it probably didn't matter for sprites

The description of the method:
https://tech.lgbt/@nina_kali_nina/111456601586845563

Nina Kalinina (@[email protected])

Attached: 4 images "16 bit sensation" mentioned a curious technique used to convert lineart to digital data. The art is transferred to a piece of cling film, then affixed to the screen, and converted to pixels - using just the keyboard! I never heard about this method, so I wanted to try it immediately...

LGBTQIA+ and Tech

The Penguin of Evil Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina these were pictures to go with text adventures like the Hulk game. No cling film trickery Teoman was just an incredible artist who could also do the needed encoding work too.

QINGCHARLES Dec 27

@etchedpixels @nina_kali_nina Sirius 1 was so totally underrated. I loved mine as a kid.

Nina Kalinina Dec 27

@QINGCHARLES @etchedpixels I believe it had SN sound like the Apricot PC? I'm surprised no one made synths/chiptunes for it...

Space Hobo Dec 27

@etchedpixels @nina_kali_nina Wait, were you part of AIUK? Did you work on Gremlins? We asked Scott Adams about it in https://retroadventurers.podbean.com/e/35/ but he said he'd never even played it!

Episode 35 - 2025 Year-End Chatisode | The Retro Adventurers

Holiday merriment with many past guests and minimal editing! Retro Adventurers Jason and Nick chat about the year that was including recent developments in classic adventure open source, plans for 2026, and more with many of our past participants: Robin Raymond, author of Kingdom of the Seven Stones (Episode 9)Tim Gilberts of Gilsoft (Episodes 5, 13, 17, 25)Scott Adams of Adventure International (Episodes 3, 13)Andrew Plotkin (Inhumane covered in Episode 27 and interviewed in Episode 28)Dave "Velociraptor" of This Week in Retro (Episode 29)Christian Neuhaus, co-writer of You've Ruined a Perfectly Good Mystery! (Episode 23)Iain Lee, game show pilot host and media icon (Episode 18) A separate chat with Ron Martinez (Episode 11) will be published in a later episode. Parsely tabletop game Nick's unfinished PunyInform book

The Penguin of Evil Dec 28

@spacehobo @nina_kali_nina yes I was. My first AI UK job was helping on Gremlins in German, as a work experience scheme. Pretty much everyone spent 2 weeks from education making tea in offices on official recommended placements but I phoned up AI UK (technically Adventuresoft UK trading as AI UK) and went there After that I worked for them at various points as AI and Horrorsoft on a bunch of stuff. There's a reason Elvira and co run a modified AberMUD 5 engine

Space Hobo Dec 28

@etchedpixels That's a fantastic story! We'd love to have you do an episode with us on the Retro Adventurers, if you're up for it. We've got an episode coming up where Andrew Plotkin played a couple games with us, and Tim Gilberts is hoping to become a more regular guest host.

The format is usually that we play through a short "appetiser" game and one more involved (thought not necessarily long) game beforehand, and meet up to chat about the games' history and development, and the experience of playing them compared to their original context.

Or we could just arrange an interview to talk about AI UK and ScottFree and the like.

QINGCHARLES Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina Amazing achievement. I don't know how many of these Apricot PCs I had as a kid. By the late nineties I was buying them for £1 each 2nd hand as nobody wanted them (nobody could figure out why they didn't run PC software). I already had a couple of Sirius 1 computers, so I'd amassed a lot of "DOS compatible" programs that would work, and there was always the hope with every new PC you bought it would have some random new gem hidden on the HDD that you hadn't seen before.

Ethan Mizara Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina that, is a nice computer

Rob\Viewdata UK Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina
I used to have one of these.. Co. I worked for had a few, and I liberated an unused one in the 486 era. Unfortunately I left it behind in a "simplification" of my life, 26 years ago, and I'm pretty sure it was binned (along with a pile of other not-quite-PCs I couldn't take with me, that makes me cry now, but at the time were worthless) when the house was sold later on.

Richie Rich Dec 27

@nina_kali_nina Great story! Cool. This is very exotic.

@nina_kali_nina sad

@nina_kali_nina Congratulations. This is absolutely brilliant work. Thank you for sharing all the gory details with us - during and after. :)

Nina Kalinina Dec 27

@ltning Thanks~

Jona Joachim Dec 28

@nina_kali_nina This is gorgeous ! And Word looks so nice and usable !

Nina Kalinina Dec 28

@jaj it does! The same Word running on a Windows 3 machine with a colour graphics card looks even more familiar.