Retro Computers

R3PLAY (pronounced “Replay”) is a brand new show celebrating four decades of gaming history. Presented in association with Retro Gamer and gamesTM magazines, this unique event will offer gamers of all ages the chance to experience gaming systems from the 1970s to present day. Hosted by TV personality and videogame fanatic Gail Porter, the R3PLAY Expo will take place at The Norbreck Castle Exhibition Centre in Blackpool on 6/7 November 2010 – the final weekend of this year’s famous Illuminations.

More than 300 systems will be available at R3PLAY comprising the finest possible selection of consoles, coin-ops and computers from all over the globe (with all machines set to free-play). Visitors will have the opportunity to take part in prize gaming competitions, listen to Q&A sessions with guest speakers, participate in workshops, view galleries of video game artwork, win fantastic raffle prizes, tender bids in a special auction and much, much more! Ticket holders will also be able to purchase games, systems, accessories and memorabilia via a number of specialist seller stands.

R3PLAY is dedicated to the celebration and preservation of the “3 C’s”:

• CONSOLES
  Ranging from the humble Atari 2600, through the SEGA vs Nintendo console wars of the 1990s, to the all-conquering behemoths that are the PS3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. Video game consoles from all corners of the world will be showcased at R3PLAY allowing visitors to play on rare and obscure machines they may never see again!
• COIN-OPS
  Arcade and Pinball Machines have captured the nation’s imagination since the first mass-produced classics of the 70s and 80s. R3PLAY not only looks at the retro classics, but thanks to the support of leading arcade communities, there will be plenty on offer for the new generation of arcade gamers, too.
• COMPUTERS
  The UK was a world leader in 80s computing and R3PLAY will celebrate the diverse history of Acorn, Amstrad and Sinclair, as well as their international competitors such as Commodore and Atari. Furthermore, fans of PC-based gaming will be able to enjoy both the very latest releases, in addition to classics such as Commander Keen, Descent and the original network version of Doom (Deathmatch anyone?). The National Museum of Computing will also be on hand, raising awareness of computing history in the UK.

Adult ticket prices are £12 for single-day entry and £20 for a weekend ticket, with reductions for children and families. It is expected that the full allocation of tickets will be sold in advance through the dedicated website:

http://www.R3PLAY.info

Organisers, the Computing & Gaming Events Union (CGEU) have already staged a number of arcade/video gaming and computing events, raising thousand of pounds for charitable causes in the process. At R3PLAY, the CGEU will be raising funds for Macmillan Cancer Support and The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park.

R3PLAY presents a fantastic social networking environment for gamers, a perfect location for casual play as well as intense competition.

Further announcements regarding activities, sponsors/partners, lists of systems and special guests will be made over the coming weeks.

The classic arcade game Pac-Man, that was originally released 30 years ago on May 22nd 1980, was designed to attract women and couples to the male dominated arcades of the time, while the character himself was inspired by pizza, according to excerpts of an interview with the game’s creator, Toru Iwatani.

In the excerpts from the upcoming book “Replay – The History of Video Games” by Tristian Donovan, which was recently published by EuroGamer, the creator begins by explaining how he joined Namco. Iwatana joined Namco, who at the time only made “electric and mechanical games like flipper pinball”, in 1977 to make pinball machines. However, the Japanese video game designer ended up creating the company’s very first video game – a pinball-style game called “Gee Bee”.

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Micro Men will be repeated on the 22/05/10 at 10:30 on BBC Four. All computer hardware and most props were supplied by The Centre for Computing History who are a computer museum based in Haverhill, Suffolk. Jason Fitzpatrick, the curator of the museum played a small part in the film as David Johnson David. See if you can see him dancing in the background!

The BBC website says the following about the show…

Affectionately comic drama about the British home computer boom of the early 1980s.

Legendary inventor Clive Sinclair battles it out with ex-employee Chris Curry, founder of Acorn Computers, for dominance in the fledgling market.

The rivalry comes to a head when the BBC announce their Computer Literacy Project, with the stated aim of putting a micro in every school in Britain. When Acorn wins the contract, Sinclair is furious, and determines to outsell the BBC Micro with his ZX Spectrum computer.

Home computing arrives in Britain in a big way, but is the country big enough for both men?

If you missed the program, you can catch it on the BBC iPlayer.

Old-Computers.com says the following about this machine.

The HX-10 was a classic MSX 1 computer with no special feature… But it was one of the first MSX computers to be exported outside Japan. It met a good success in UK where it can still be found in flea markets and boot sales…

Apparently there were several models of the HX-10 (D, DP, DPN, F, E and S) depending on the country they were sold, but it’s not clear what’s the difference between them so far… The HX-10 DPN and F had a Scart video output instead of RF/composite outputs, and the HX-10S had only 16 kb RAM.

In its native country, the HX-10 was also named Pasopia IQ to fit in the Pasopia family developped by Toshiba.

• CPU : Z80A at 3.6Mhz
• RAM : 64Kb
• VRAM : 16Kb
• Sound : General Instruments AY-3-8910 Programmable Sound Generator
• IO Ports : 2 joystick sockets,1 cardridge slot,Tape-recorder plug (1200/2400 bauds),Composite video output,Centronics interface,RF video output, 1 expansion bus

Ive owned my HX-10 for about a year now, and I think its a good little machine. Sadly, I only have 3 games on tape, and no cartridges.

Do you or did you have one of these MSXs? What games would you reccomend – please let me know using the comment box below.

You can contact me using the following…

• Twitter : @andytuk
• email : andy@retrocomputers.eu

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