Retrocomputing

PS/2 Keyboard to Parallel Adapter Older machines and single-board computers, particularly ones from the mid-to-late ’70s through the very early ’80s often used a parallel keyboard input. It was very common during this time for a hobbyist to ‘roll their own’ system with parts from different sources. Keyboards with a 7 or 8 bit parallel ASCII output were available from several sources, but are no longer manufactured. Occasionally you will see one on eBay, but usually for an exorbitant price.

Motivation I enjoy collecting older computers, particularly ones from the mid-to-late 1970s through the early 1980s that run CP/M. Machines from this period commonly have 8" or 5.25" floppy drives. Finding working 8" or 5.25" floppy drives is becoming increasingly difficult. So is finding media. To address this problem for his Atari ST, Jean-Fancois Del Niro created HxC2001, which is a hardware-based floppy drive emulator. Over time support for different drive types and floppy image formats has been added.