While I am waiting for a fix for my poorly Tatung Einstein, I thought I would get some emulation configured so I have refreshed myself for the actual hardware.

Here is how I did it.

• My OS of choice is Windows 10 – Your OS mileage may vary!!!
• Go to http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/misc/mess.html scroll to the bottom of the page and download the preferred flavour of MESS. I am using the 64 bit version
• Install it. I chose c:\software\mess as the installation directory
• Go to http://messui.1emulation.com/ find the MESSUI download section (About half way down) and find the matching version for the MESS you downloaded in step 1
• Extract this 7Z file over the top of your mess install folder and overwrite when asked
• Open a command prompt (I did this as administrator)
• Navigate to the MESS install folder c:\software\mess
• Type mess -cc then press enter/return
  1. This will create a default configuration file (mess.ini)
  2. Using your favourite text editor, edit this file and change the file paths by adding the MESS install locations in front of the folder names IE: rompath c:\software\mess\roms
  3. Save the new configuration over the existing file and exit from the text editor
• Go to http://www.tatungeinstein.co.uk/front/messmame.htm scroll to the middle of the web page and follow the instructions for downloading and saving the 3 files needed for the emulator
• Run MESSUI64.EXE from the installation folder and you should be presented with the GUI to launch your system
• In the top right search bar, type Einstein and you should have 3 systems listed in the middle of the screen
• Ignore the no entry icon – this appears to be a bogus warning and is infact working!

• Highlight Einstein TC-01, right click and select properties
• In the Audit tab you will receive an error about the rom not being found, but this is a bogus error as the emulator will run fine. Check the settings for this machine an when you are satisfied, close the properties box
• In the 3rd column of the main screen you have the option of inserting a disk image into the virtual floppy drive on the einstein. Click on the ‘Assist Edit’ button to the right of FloppyDisk1 and select Mount File
• Choose a zipped Einstein disk file. I chose XBAS.ZIP
• Double click on the Einstein TC-01 entry in the machine list and you should get the emulated machine booting
• If the window is too small, maximize it like a normal window and it will scale properly to the correct aspect/zoom level. Be warned, the original Einstein screen was 280×216 pixels so the zoom will be excessive!

• Press OK to access the emulated Tatung Einstein
• To reboot the machine, use CTRL & left ALT keys – This performs a CTRL & Break sequence from the original machine

And thats your lot! – You should now be able to properly emulate a Tatung Einstein TC-01. The same instructions should work with the Einstein 256, but I do not own the rom file for this version so haven’t tried it.

Doing the google 2 step recently for Tatung Einstein related sites (There are not that many available now) I came across an article in The Centre for Computing History’s pages .. Written by ME! – I had completely forgotten I had written it .. Happy days.

There is no indication when I wrote it but it must be at least 5 years now, if not much longer ago!!!

http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/articles/31.htm

Here is the page transcript;

Tatung Einstein

By MikeHalliday.

Ah, this brings back some memories. – I got one of these babies from an electronics outlet in Manchester in 1988. (I think they had been heavily discounted by then) – It came with XTal basic, CPM and a few games on 3″ disk 🙂 – These were a joy to use after the cassette trauma’s of the Speccy, but were riddiculously expensive at the time. Something like £15.00 for a box of 5. 🙁 – Imagine if blank DVDs were that price today, there would be an outcry!

Touted as being a BBC Micro beater for school work and business, its a shame it never caught on. By this time I think that Z80 cpus were becoming dinosaurs destined for the charity shop or car boot.

I remember the keyboard. It was the best keyboard I had ever used (Up until then, I had used the rubbery Spectrum keyboard and a data general terminal keyboard connected to a huge mainframe at college) – it had excellent travel and a re-assuring click. (I still use an original DELL 104 key UK PS2 ‘clicky’ keyboard from the early 90s connected via USB – the oldies are the best!)

Games on the Einstein were simple, but that was the era – no alpha mapping, voxels or texel engines, no realtime raytracing or internet multi player modes, just games that made you think and had you hooked for hours.

It wasn’t the fastest machine in the world either – 4mhz and I can’t remember if it had the same colour clash issues as the ZX Spectrum, but it certainly had the same tinny sound as the good ‘ole speccy.

What made it special for me was the external hardware spectrum emulator. A huge white box that dangled out the back of Einy and allowed me to load in some of my favourite spectrum games and play them. They ran at full speed because the little white box was an almost complete spectrum! 🙂

I also remember the 80 column card. An even bigger grey/off yellow box that allowed you to connect a ‘High res’ green screen monitor to the Einstein and run business apps (like a true professional). Then there was the printer!!! OH BOY. 132 column Epson parallel port DOT MATRIX monster that made such a racket that I never really used it – Ha ha.

Memories, memories! 🙂 – I’m getting old.

If you had an Einstein, you can (legally I think) re-live those memories at http://www.tatungeinstein.co.uk/ – I have tried the emulator and it is uber accurate. I was able to play all the old games from my late teens…

(Preservation of our history in any shape or form is essential for future generations to understand the stages of progress that have brought us to here and now)

Give it a go.. Re-live the late 80s, then go and see the real thing at the The Centre for Computing History, or on one of their many uk tours/exhibitions.

Thanks for all the work you do preserving our great I.T history. Without this museum British treasures would be lost for ever.

Mike Halliday

Finally …

I have acquired a Tatung Einstein TC-01. 🙂

I have bought one with dodgy/faulty video output off eBay for, more than I wanted to pay but still, a cheap price.

It has corrupted video output, but does power on without smoking!

It won’t be received here until second week of the new year, so I am preparing all the tools I need to get it up and running again.

There will be a teardown and refurbish/retrobrite video on my YouTube Channel very soon so you can all see what steps I took to get it up and running again.

These machines deserve to be rescued and saved for the future. They are old, rareish and excellent machines.

As you can see from the images below, the machine itself is in fairly good nick. Other than the video not working, it appears to be 90% working. I should be able to fix this very easily and at very little expense. I have also purchased a 6 pin din plug so I can make up a vga/rgb monitor cable to hopefully connect to a 15khz compatible vga screen that I have.

I have a spreadsheet to log serial numbers as I would like to compile a history of this amazing machine, as there is no indication anywhere of how many are still alive and kicking around.

If any of you have a real Tatung Einstein, please leave me a comment on this site with the following information (Serial number, condition and what extras you have [twin drive, external drives, hardware etc]) and I will update the Spreadsheet on a regular basis and may even post the results here;

So .. black friday/cyber monday/tuesday deals have enabled me to finally get a proper domain set up.

www.mikesretrotech.co.uk is now live and points to this web site.

Next step … full blown SSL cert and n upgrade to WordPress to remove the dreaded adverts!

So … The SSL Certificate is up and running and we have https:// 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWtO-nqRxCEOu9js9UAqexg

My YouTube channel is being updated …

I am trying to upload a video every week if I can .. bringing you new retro content.

As of 26/11/18 – there are 3 video uploaded for Mikes Retro Tech .. The remaining videos are ones that I have uploaded over the last 8 years or so .. Silly videos, timelapse and 3D rendering videos etc etc.

Keep watching for more content.

Who remembers this?

Well I certainly do, and I have had the opportunity to acquire all but 2 of the versions that were released.

So far I have;

BBC Model A/B
ZX Spectrum
ZX 81
Dragon 32
Oric 1
Oric Atmos
Amstrad CPC 464
Commodore 64
Vic-20
Apple II
Atari 8-Bit
Acorn Electron

I am missing only 2, these being Atari 8Bit and Acorn Electron.

Update: 26/10/19 – I have finally acquired the Atari 8Bit Cassette 50, so only 1 to go! – I know where to get it, just can’t quite reach it!!! 🙁

Update: 05/11/19 – Now I have sourced a really cheap copy of the Electron version.. – My life is complete. Watch out for a youtube review of the cassette boxes and inlays – I will not be doing a game review, as there are 600 individual games in the whole set, and they all sort of the same.

I am constantly on the look out for these, and better quality versions of the ones I already have. The Amstrad CPC version has a busted cassette sleeve (It looks like its been through the washer, after its been through the dog!!!)

I have an additional copy of the ZX Spectrum cassette and the BBC micro A/B cassette. Both of these new items have different cassette labels and are what I assume to be different revisions?

So, its been a while since I updated these pages.

I have been busy with work and life!

Recently, I acquired another external SCSI hard drive unit. This time for an apple MAC, but an older style.

Supposedly it has an HDD in it (It does – Its a 9GB LVD Drive), and LVD/SE SCSI connectors. This is of no use to me, so I also ordered a SCSI to Centronics 50 pin cable, that is an exact fit in the case. This should allow me to connect it up to my Atari STE and use it as an additional storage case for my yet to be installed SCSI ZIP drive. Once this has been completed, I will be able to copy loads of good stuff from my PC/usb drive to the Atari HDD.

The ZIP drive needs a parity generator attaching between the drive and the atari scsi adapter, but I have the schematics for this, and with enough will power, I will get the thing up and running. The parity generator chip is so small, I may need to use a needle instead of the soldering iron tip!!!!

Success or failure results will be posted here, as and when I get round to doing the mod!!!

We finally moved house on 26th April 2018

The home office is almost set up now, and ready for more retro computer exploits!

Its been a while since I posted anything.

The reason? Buying a new house.

New house found in October 2017 and sale of our existing house began.

<Sigh>

5 months later and we still haven’t moved house. – We are so close, but no cigar.

We hope to move this coming Wednesday (7th March 2018) – But I am not holding my breath.

So many delays while paper work was requested, then items got lost, then surveys expired and had to be re-done…

Aaarrgghh!

So .. I bought an Atari STfm case and keyboard off Facebook, with the sole purpose of creating a frankenSTEin machine!

Raspberry Pi 3
Atari ST keyboard and case
Internal 128GB SSD Hard Drive
Port extenders to reach the edge of the case
Atari Mouse converted to USB and optical

The project is coming along nicely .. I have all the components secured to the bottom of the case and its all working lovely with Pixel OS and Hatari emulator

I am thinking of using this machine as my main system as I currently only do Amazon Echo Skill development, Facebook and web browsing so it should be good enough

There is a Windows 10 laptop at my disposal for when I want to do YOUTUBE video editing and REASON music creation, so all is not lost! 🙂

The Windows 10 laptop is not good enough for video editing 1080p video for my youtube channel so I have bought something not so retro. A new Acer Predator PC. This is my go-to video editor machine now and the frankenSTEin will be used for Atari emulation.