Nitemare Cafe

A day in the life of a computer geek

Compaq Portable Tube Swap

June 19, 2025 — Wintermute

After watching a video of someone doing the same to their IBM portabe, I decided to swap the tube in my Compaq Portable, which had a green CRT, to a white one from a Mac Plus. You have to swap the yoke because the wiring is different, but the pinout for the neck board is the same, so it went pretty well and only required minor adjustments when I was done. A white screen on this machine is absolutely beautiful.

Tags: retro-computing, compaq, crt

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https

July 04, 2024 — Wintermute

While there are many advantages to using https for websites, one major drawback is that it breaks old browsers, making the web mostly useless for vintage computers. While github allows you to view my website via https, it allows me to not force users to use it, which means that users with old browsers can still load the site. And since the css separates the design of the site from the content, and I have kept the design pretty simple, it renders well even in text-only. Because retro-computing is one of my passions, I see this as a major win. :) (And if you ask me, the theme I "borrowed" from elsewhere looks absolutely amazing on a modern browser, and still has a nice retro feel to it, so... bonus.)

Tags: retro-computing

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Area5150

August 10, 2022 — Wintermute

Here is an amazing video of the audience reaction of a demo running on an original IBM PC with CGA graphics:

And because I just recently acquired and restored an original IBM 5150 PC, here it is running on mine:

Tags: retro-computing, 8088, PC, IBM, demo, demoscene, 5150

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