Retro Computers
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retrocomps.bsky.social
Retro Computers
@retrocomps.bsky.social
22K followers 1 following 7.3K posts
Semi-automated posting of old computers and videogames. Sometimes other bits of retro aesthetics and design. ~6-8 posts a day, ~24 posts on holidays.

⚠Outbound links tagged and monitored by Bluesky.
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retrocomps.bsky.social
♪ The song I sing will tell the tale of a cold and wintry day; / when evil fled, and brave men bled, the Dark One came to stay... ♫
A Commodore 64 screenshot. Underneath the gothic font header of "The Bard's Tale by Michael Cranford", a bard plays a lute and sits on a barrel, drink at his side; customers lean in to listen. Below are the lyrics above: "The song I sing will tell the tale of a cold and wintry day;"
November 13, 2025 at 12:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
"Over 600 local access numbers are available across the country..." (Source.)
A Global Coffeeshop style ad. Column left shows a man, near, standing in South America, waving to a woman, far, standing on North America. Dense ad copy touts the abilities of the Internet, circa 1993.
November 12, 2025 at 6:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
The #1 independent VIC-20 full-line software publisher in the US is proud to announce 4 new Game Cartridges & 5 Home Appliances for the COMMODORE 64.
An ad for the company Creative Software. The four left boxes depict VIC20 cartridge games: a man in space for Moondust, giant robot wasps attacking buildings in Save New York, a UFO shooting at a fighter jet shooting at a satellite dish in Astroblitz, and a giant fly attacking a garbage truck in Trashman. All are marked "Joystick controller required." The five smaller applications on the side are a sports car on a jack named Car Costs, a car attached to a comically giant loan agreement named Loan Analyzer, a set of bar charts named Household Finance, a safe with valuables inset into a wall covered in floral wallpaper named Home Inventory, and a man leaning over and considering his computer named Decision Maker.
November 12, 2025 at 6:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
Soon. (I hope.)
A login prompt, brown controls on a tan background, intentionally picked form the C64 breadbox. Underneath a butterfly, it says "Login to Skybot" "Username" "Password", a big brown button says "Login," and underneath it says, "Use OTP generated crednetials to login"
November 12, 2025 at 2:24 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
There's just something about red computers.
The Hit-Bit 10 is a MSX 1 computer, sold with Lode Runner and a BASIC manual. Unlike most coputers before or sense, the Hit-Bit 10 is a blazing cherry red.
November 12, 2025 at 12:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
There's never anything good on television, but MAD TV gave you the chance to do something about it.
A full-screen image of a wood TV set; the wooden box is branded "MOTOROLA" There's a dial for volume and for channel, plus a logo plate of what looks like a boot; the box has a screen at right, ventilation for the electronics within. On the tube there is the MAD TV logo, a freckled white woman with messy blonde hair in a white shirt, cheerily talking about the graphic in the corner of the screen; she appears to be talking about a spleen. Unusually for a game of its era, there is an artists' signature in the bottom right: AND RAE, signature for Thomas Andrae.
November 11, 2025 at 6:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
The first personal computer for under $200.
A dense, dense ad. Top right, the ZX80 itself, with small body and integrated chiclit keyboard. Left, a spiral bound book, "A Course in BASIC Programming, also featuring the ZX80. Right, an adult teaching a child to use the ZX80. Bottom right, an order form to purchase the ZX80 with a mail-in coupon.
November 11, 2025 at 12:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
STAR TREK - a dialogue approach
The first page of an article from the July-August issue of Recreational Computing, laying out an approach by which a Star Trek adventure might be approximated through English dialogue instead of screens of the usual grids. In the bottom right, a still from "Star Trek - The Motion Picture" is displayed.
November 11, 2025 at 6:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
Captain Claw (Monolith; Windows, 1997) (Source.)
A video game screenshot of a jungle level. A feline pirate in blue outfit dashes at an orange canine, his sword knocking the dog off the screen. Below, another dog and crates lie in wait; to the top right, four coins and a chalice float waiting pickup; above, a coin and a lizard statuette float. The top left reads 105415 treasures, 1 tesla coil; the top right reads 52 hearts, 14 shots, 2 lives. There is a checkpoint with a cat-skull-and-crossbones flag on stage left.
November 11, 2025 at 12:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
Total Back Up Power Takes A Quantum Leap!
In this EXTREMELY text- and font-dense ad, a Commodore 64 is a computer flying to space, and the red Action Replay cartrige is a shuttlecraft about to dock with it. Headings include "WARP 25 BREAKS THE 5 SECOND BARRIER!!!" "PLUS UNIQUE CODE CRACKER MONITOR" and "POWERFUL DESIGN WITH ON BOARD L51 LOGIC PROCESSOR CHIP"
November 10, 2025 at 6:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
Rogue (DOS, 1984)
ROGUE: The Adventure Game. The game of Rogue was originated by: Michael C. Toy and Kenneth C.R.C. Arnold Adapted for the IBM PC by: John Lane. Significant design contributions by: Glenn Wichman and scores of others. Public Domain Software - 1984, not to be sold. Rogue's Name? Player
November 10, 2025 at 12:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
In the Internet Archive's stacks, I occasionally find obviously secondhand books, such as books with a card protector in the back, or handwritten notes. This is probably the first book I've found that was signed. A tiny act of kindness, now posterized. (Source.)
Up top, the title 'CREATING ADVENTURE GAMES ON YOUR DRAGON 32'. Below, 'By Clive Gifford'. Clive himself signed below, writing "Best Wishes, C. Gifford." Below that is the protracted font which reads "Interface Publication," and the graph-paper-book logo Interface was using at the time.
November 10, 2025 at 6:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
"you have so dishonored me" (Source.)
Up top, a two page comic. A samurai in plaid looks at his CRT, showing he has fired a rocket in a Quake-like FPS killing his foe, and says: "[HP] takagawa: GG". His foe in the next panel grey floral looks at his CRT, showing he has been exploded, and types: "[HP] hero-hito: FT! you have so dishonored me." Down below, the text reads: "Concentrate. Channel. Frag. Chill out. Happy puppy has thousands of playable demos, not to mention reviews, previews, and cheats--perfectly suited for your average samurai. (Other people like Happy Puppy too.) In the bottom right, the logo of Happy Puppy - indeed, a happy puppy, with red eyes, a smug grin, floppy ear, and a patch over one eye - is surrounded by the url happypuppy.com and the slogan, "it's all games". Far bottom right, the URL games.theglobe.com appears.
November 10, 2025 at 12:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
"Trade with 2,000 planets in eight galaxies"
Top, the "Elite" logo - a gold aguila with silver wings and helmet behind the word "ELITE." Left is a screenshot for the BBC Micro B and B+, and right is a screenshot for the BBC Master; both show the player, a first person spacehip, focusing on an enemy ship with stars flying in the background; gauges appear in the bottom left and right, and the now industry standard isomettric radar on the bottom of each screenshot shows the player is surrounded. Below is dense copy, describing the complex aspects of gameplay (exploration, combat, trade, and quests); below that, the Superior Software logo (a red and white interlinked pair of Ss), the Acornsoft logo (an egg), and an order address (mail and phone only) are listed below.
November 9, 2025 at 6:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
There were quite a lot of text adventures in the 80s. Some were fantasy. Some were mystery. Some were horror. Some were science fiction. But others, well... (Source.)
An article form the book "33 Adult Computer Games In BASIC for the IBM PC, Apple II/IIe & TRS-80." The program, "Where's the necessary room?", is about the player having had too much to drink and needing to fight the way to the restroom.
November 9, 2025 at 12:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
The Monorail
An all-in-one computer from 1996. It stands on its edge, somewhat like a clamshell computer, but using standard keyboard and mouse. It looks like a precursor for the POS machines of today.
November 9, 2025 at 6:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
Alter Ego (Mac, 1986)
An old System 6 status window reads: "That wraps up your status for the very first years of life. I hope you like yourself. If not, you can always try to improve in the years to come. There's plenty of time." Buttons are Continue and Escape.
November 9, 2025 at 12:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
Antikythera mechanism (2nd century BC; reconstruction 2012, Tony Freeth)
A simple mechanism for predicting the Callipic cycle, a technique for estimating the time, solstice, and lunar state, used by Greek navigators. The dial on the left shows the state of six heavenly bodies, a crank, and the instructions for use inscribed on the front; the middle shows the mechanism itself, with various step gears used to multiply or divide the main gear into smaller or larger periods; the spring spirals on the back act as a kind of 'checksum', alerting the operator to the end of a calendar month or year.
November 8, 2025 at 6:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
Neopets (2003) (Source.)
A screenshot of IE6, open to Neopets' Explore page. The browser is branded with a red Q logo of some ISP, since browsers back then would let ISPs brand them to imply it was the ISP's legitimate software. Below menus and clearly labelled buttons, we have a labelled address bar, a links toolbar, a Google toolbar (with search and adblock built in!), a Yahoo toolbar (with search and common Yahoo links built in). The page shows a yellow sidebar with googie font (Pet Central, Create a Pet, Neomail, World, Explore, Chat, Games, Shops, News, Help, Login, Logout); a banner in the same googie font for Explore Neopia; an event ("Something has happened:" - image of a green brutish Neopet - "GRUNDO MUST EAT NEOPETS!!! GRUNDO FETCH NEOPETS FOR MASTER!"); and a map of Neopia, each having its own games and lore to explore. The taskbar shows 12 fast-start icons, three Internet Explorer windows, a notepad window, and a MSPaint window; the system tray shows 5 resident programs beside the clock.
November 8, 2025 at 12:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
"BASIC COMPUTER ELEMENTS: comparison between manual computation and Whirlwind I computation" (Source.)
Up top, the title "BASIC COMPUTER ELEMENTS: comparision between manual composition..." The top half illustrates manual composition: a whistling man carries loose paper marked 'incoming problem' to a desk, and leaves it at a 'Notebook'; the operator, with a 'Desk Calculating Machine' to his left, works with pen and paper; the man leaves, printed folios of answers in hand. Below a horizontal rule, page bottom, the title continues: "...and Whirlwind I Computation." An arrow pointing in states "problems to be done," leading to a box labeled Input Devices; Input Devices points to a broad system bus line. Next is Storage, which reads from and writes to the system bus. Next is Control; control reads from the system bus, and writes to all boxes in this diagram. Next is Arithmetic Element; it reads from and writes to the system bus. Last is Output Devices; it reads from the system bus and writes out "Results in Desired Form."
November 8, 2025 at 6:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
Leprechaun (Original Mac, 1989)
A black-and-white top-down block pusher, in the original System 6 black-and-white. Up top, a leprechaun is walking, with pots of gold to collect nearby. Down below, a troll is trapped by boulders; if the boulders are moved to retreive gold it will be free to chase the leprechaun. On the right, birds are moving around a fence to chanse the leprechaun.
November 8, 2025 at 12:05 AM
retrocomps.bsky.social
The Game.com Pocket Pro. There's not a lot out there about it, but it came in Atomic Purple, so it can't be all that bad.
A landscape format handheld playing a Sonic game. The left has a D-pad; the right has action buttons (A, B, C, D), power, pause, and menu buttons.
November 7, 2025 at 6:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
Friendship ended with glass and LEDs

now woodgrain and brass with bare or finished steel or aluminum is my friend
The nMediaPC HTPC8000, a pizzabox case made of red-finished wood with faux brass details and faceplate. The console design is taken from vintage radios (including an analog volume knob next to the standard set of USB ports); the motherboard lies down on the bottom, the drive enclosures are up top, the two huge vertical grills allow deep airflow, and it looks like it was meant to go on top of your grandma's 35" CRT The Kanto mATX case, a wooden computer tower case with steel endcaps. The top and front have circular airvents that seem to 'radiate' out from a point near the top. Jeffrey Stephenson's Aerodyne case, a mini-ITX case in which the board is mounted to a vertical mahogany panel, with aluminum siding used as both heat sink and guard; the actual computer cage is locked off with a wooden panel that features an aluminum circle with three lines extending from it, evoking the art deco style used in mid-70s airports. The Paramount 2, a Raspberri Pi case with two vertical wooden panels, strips of aluminum on the outside, a deocrative "flying wing" up top, a massive fan about 60% of the width of the case, and about 18 silver screws holding it all together.
November 7, 2025 at 4:24 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
One of the first picutres to use now-routine techniques like surface shaders, the 'Road to Point Reyes' (1983) took a team of Lucasfilms engineers an entire month to render.
A scene of a road facing away from the viewer, viewing a bay that shows Point Reyes. The road is rained over; puddles reflect the wrought iron fence and the fractal bushes, while grass is blooming to either side of the road; translucent rainbows guide the viewer's eye to the distant landscape. A sheer cliff blocks line of sight to the left.
November 7, 2025 at 12:05 PM
retrocomps.bsky.social
THE HULK HAS GONE SOFT
In an ad that was printed on special flourescent paper to give it a "radioactive" green gradient (meaning, it scans very poorly), Commodore advertises a first party adventure game: "QUESTPROBE: THe Hulk: A Marvel Adventure." Screenshots show Bruce Banner looking in the mirror, the Hulk looking in a morror, and a transformation scene.
November 7, 2025 at 6:05 AM