Matter of fact

tl;dr

I'm a computer programmer and electronics tinkerer.

My programming journey began in earnest in 1983 when the family bought a Commodore 64.  Liftoff!  I read everything I could find about programming (both BASIC and machine-language) and coded my little heart out.  I spent all my free time tapping away at that computer and my persistence started to pay off.  I even got a couple of minor program submissions (more like hints and tips) published in magazines (which I've lost and cannot find online).

In the autumn of 1985 I got a Commodore 128 system.  Twice the memory, twice the CPUs, twice the speed, twice the video outputs and a faster disk-drive with twice the capacity?

Oh. Yeah.

I immediately started to explore what this machine had to offer and soon got to grips with the new features.  I started to write more substantial programs than before mainly in the name of self-sufficiency: I couldn't find much C128 software out there.  The first project to gain traction was 80 Column Disk Sector Editor that was published in Compute's Gazzette in August 1987.  The second was prompted by the gift of a 300 baud modem and I suddenly needed a decent 80 column terminal emulator.  I must have coded the early versions of what would eventually become DesTerm sometime in 1986.

As a child I was bought a book about building my own radio.  So I did and it worked rather nicely.  I built a few projects over the years (mostly analog electronics), some from magazines and some from kits.  Electronics mostly took a backseat once the computers came along, though I did keep my hand in now and then.  I took an electronics class in high-school and my university degree (BSc Computing) had a focus on the digital electronics found in computers.  Perfect.

Nowhere really.  My life just took me elsewhere.

After university I got a job as a software engineer/software developer (though 'programmer' suits me just fine) and for the past 32+ years I've held positions at several high-tech companies programming cool stuff.  I've worked in Aerospace, Communications, Consumer Electronics and Video Processing.  I was even field crew for a several years installing ATC solutions in some interesting places around the world.

I had my '128 set up in my basement for a fair while, but over time I visited that world less and less until eventually it all got boxed-up and stored.  Not a conscious decision to leave the Commodore world, just following the course of my life.

I got back into electronics a few years ago while attempting to fix a broken PS3 (a complete failure).  Still, that led me to find the EB50 kit - which of course I knew how to program and wanted to build hardware for.  I created an RS232 board (6551 based) and a simple Digital to Analog board for simple 4-voice sound and oscilloscope art.  I hand-etched and drilled my first few PCBs, but It didn't take me long to find the inexpensive PCB manufacturers and off I went.  Somehow I got the notion to build a reproduction of an arcade machine (Centipede) and started to experiment with FPGA programming (to replace the 100 or so 74 series chips on a real board).  I've built reproductions of Pac-Man, Asteroids and Defender (sometimes using real CPUs and support-chips, sometimes using soft-core versions in the FPGA).  Nothing unique or groundbreaking for sure, but built by me to my specifications in my own way.  Which I think is the point of making things.

I pulled out a plethora of Retro equipment during Covid when I was asked about archiving DesTerm.  Of course it didn't take long to start tinkering with it and building some simple electronic projects to go with it.

So that's where we are.  I'm going to create new software projects, visit old ones and mess with hardware anyway, so why not bring everyone that's interested along for the ride?  Along the way I'll document past projects and even share some cool stories when I remember them.