Floppy Days Vintage Computing Podcast

• Floppy Days 155 - Interview with Karl Hornell, C64 Developer, cartoonist, author

  Interview with Karl Hornell - C64 Game Developer, Cartoonist, Author Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors: 8-Bit Classics  Arcade Shopper  FutureVision Research   Hello, and welcome to episode 155 of the Floppy Days Podcast for September, 2025!  I’m Randy Kindig, your host for this podcast, where we talk about the computers that got many of us started in our careers and which still hold a lot of interest for us today. This month, I’m bringing you another interesting interview with someone who at an early age started developing commercial-grade software for the Commodore 64, which started him on an amazing trajectory with his career in software development, cartoonist, and more.  His latest efforts include branching out into writing science fiction, which we will also discuss today. The person I’m referring to is Karl Hornell (Her-NELL). It’s also an interesting story around how this interview opportunity came to me.  I’m not used to getting contacted by an ad agency.  This one indicated that their client, Karl, had just recently published a book and was looking for ways to advertise the book.  They suggested that Floppy Days would be a great fit based on Karl’s background and could be beneficial for both.  I was skeptical at first, as I always am when I receive unsolicited, possibly spam email.  However, once I researched Karl’s background it became clear that he was an accomplished Swedish developer for the C64 back in the day, with some notariety.  I felt his background might indeed be of interest to you, the listeners, and so happily agreed to interviewing Karl for the podcast.  I hope you enjoy Karl’s story and will consider taking a look at his new book. New Acquisitions and What I’ve Been Up To Atari Bit Byter User Club (ABBUC) - https://www.abbuc.de  VCFMW - https://vcfmw.org/  Atari TT030 at Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_TT030  David Anderson’s Timex Sinclair sites: https://andertone.com/  https://www.timexsinclair.com/  News Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer - https://archive.org/details/stan-veits-history-of-the-personal-computer/mode/2up  David Greelish’s YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@TheComputerHistorian  Early chapters (1-9) of Stan Veit’s book via audio - https://www.classiccomputing.com/CCPodcasts/Stan_Veit/Stan_Veit.html  Floppy Days YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@floppydayspodcast  Upcoming Vintage Computer Shows Tandy Assembly - September 26-28 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - http://www.tandyassembly.com/  Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 17-19 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - https://retrogamingexpo.com/  Chicago TI International World Faire - October 25 - Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - https://www.chicagotiug.org/home  Ami West - November 1-2, Sacramento, CA - https://www.amiwest.net  World of Commodore 2025 - December 6-7 - Admiral Inn, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada - https://www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodore/world-of-commodore-2025/  Vintage Computer Festival Montreal - Jan. 24-25, 2026 - Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC - https://vcfed.org/vcf-montreal/  Vintage Computer Festival SoCal - February 14-15, 2025 - Hotel Fera Events Center, Orange, CA - vcfsocal.com  Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - March 20-22 - Wyndham Indianapolis Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - https://indyclassic.org/  Schedule Published on Floppy Days Website - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSeLsg4hf5KZKtpxwUdQgacCIsqeIdQeZniq3yE881wOCCYskpLVs5OO1PZLqRRF2t5fUUiaKByqQrgA/pub  Interview Links Karl at Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_H%C3%B6rnell  Vic-Rapport Magazine (Wikipedia) - https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/VIC-rapport  “Generation 64 - How the Commodore 64 Inspired a Generation of Swedish Gamers” by Bitmap Books - https://amzn.to/3YUUlQ5 (affiliate link) Karl Hornell’s Applet Center - http://www.javaonthebrain.com/  Retro Gamer Magazine #130 with Karl interview - https://archive.org/details/retro-gamer-raspberry-pi-buenos-aires/Retro%20Gamer%20130/page/92/mode/2up  “Singularity Minus Twelve” book - https://amzn.to/3S8Yr3r (affiliate link) Savage Dragonbert - https://wiki.savagedragon.com/comics/savage_dragonbert_full_frontal_nerdity_01/   

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• Floppy Days 154 - Interview with Chuck Mauro Part 2

  Floppy Days 154 - Interview with Chuck Mauro, Part 2 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors: 8-Bit Classics  Arcade Shopper  FutureVision Research   New Acquisitions and What I’ve Been Up To TI-55 9-Volt Battery Mod  9V Battery Clip Connectors from Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Clip-Hard-Electronics-I-Type/dp/B0DRZWN3BN  YouTube video that talks about and shows the modification - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G-OucjNgTk  New Compute’s Gazette - https://www.computesgazette.com/  C64 Ultimate - https://www.commodore.net/  Chroma81 - http://www.fruitcake.plus.com/Sinclair/ZX81/Chroma/ChromaInterface_Availability.htm  Upcoming Vintage Computer Shows VCF Midwest - September 13-14, 2025 - Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - http://vcfmw.org/  Tandy Assembly - September 26-28 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - http://www.tandyassembly.com/  Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 17-19 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - https://retrogamingexpo.com/  Chicago TI International World Faire - October 25 - Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - https://www.chicagotiug.org/home  Ami West - November 1-2, Sacramento, CA - https://www.amiwest.net  World of Commodore 2025 - December 6-7 - Admiral Inn, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada - https://www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodore/world-of-commodore-2025/  Schedule Published on Floppy Days Website - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSeLsg4hf5KZKtpxwUQgacCIsqeIdQeZniq3yE881wOCCYskpLVs5OO1PZLqRRF2t5fUUiaKByqQrgA/pub  Order Chuck’s book - https://books.by/Chuck-Mauro   

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• Floppy Days 153 - Interview with Chuck Mauro, Apple Employee 57, Entrepreneur and Author

  Floppy Days 153 - Interview with Chuck Mauro, Part 1 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors: 8-Bit Classics  Arcade Shopper  FutureVision Research   New Acquisitions and What I’ve Been Up To KFest - https://www.kansasfest.org  CoCo 5V USB adapter - Tim Halloran: Tryout Cable at GitHub - https://github.com/hallorant/bigmit/tree/master/coco2usb#trying-out-the-usb-mod-with-the-tryout-cable  Tim did a talk at Tandy Assembly 2021. You can find the slides here - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19PG-rJjY0_h8iO4LEgI_-lZHJsW6ekmSQ-hHDLxJ2CU/edit?usp=sharing  Video of USB Conversion by Tim - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfa4Db2OwE8  Upcoming Vintage Computer Shows VCF West - August 1-2 - Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA - https://vcfed.org/2025/03/05/vcf-west-2025-save-the-date/  VCF Midwest - September 13-14, 2025 - Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - http://vcfmw.org/  Tandy Assembly - September 26-28 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - http://www.tandyassembly.com/  Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 17-19 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - https://retrogamingexpo.com/  Chicago TI International World Faire - October 25 - Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - https://www.chicagotiug.org/home  Schedule Published on Floppy Days Website - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSeLsg4hf5KZKtpxwUQgacCIsqeIdQeZniq3yE881wOCCYskpLVs5OO1PZLqRRF2t5fUUiaKByqQrgA/pub  Order Chuck’s book - https://books.by/Chuck-Mauro   

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• Floppy Days 152 - The HP97 Programmable Calculator - Part 3 - With Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz

  HP-97/67 Programmable Calculator, Part 3 With Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors: 8-Bit Classics  Arcade Shopper   FutureVision Research  Videos of this and other episodes at the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6DQ3cyp8h373H0lXSJ8yqQ  Hello, and welcome to episode 152 of the Floppy Days Podcast for June, 2025.  My name is Randy Kindig and I’m the host for this lovefest for vintage computers and programmable calculators from the late 70’s thru the 80’s.  If you love old computers, you’ve found the right place! This month, I’m completing the ongoing series of episodes about the HP 97/67 programmable calculators.  This is the third and final in the series that provides us with a terrific co-host who is able to provide a lot of color about these machines: that being HP calculator historian Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz (“Vwahdek Meer-Yeng SHAY of itch”).  No one knows more about HP calculators than Wlodek and all of us are honored to get his insight into these HP calculator gems. New Acquisitions HP History Book by Wlodek - “A Guide to HP Handheld Calculators and Computers” - https://amzn.to/4hl1Yq1 (affiliate link)  PalmPilot Personal - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PalmPilot  Upcoming Shows KansasFest - July 18-20 - Virtual only - https://www.kansasfest.org/  INIT HELLO Apple II Conference - July 26-27 - System Source Computer Museum in Hunt Valley, MD - https://init-hello.org/  VCF West - August 1-2 - Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA - https://vcfed.org/2025/03/05/vcf-west-2025-save-the-date/  Fujiama - August 11-17 - Lengenfeld, Germany - http://atarixle.ddns.net/fuji/2025/  VCF Midwest - September 13-14, 2025 - Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - http://vcfmw.org/  Tandy Assembly - September 26-28 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - http://www.tandyassembly.com/  Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 17-19 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - https://retrogamingexpo.com/  Chicago TI International World Faire - October 25 - Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - https://www.chicagotiug.org/home  Schedule Published on Floppy Days Website - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSeLsg4hf5KZKtpxwUQgacCIsqeIdQeZniq3yE881wOCCYskpLVs5OO1PZLqRRF2t5fUUiaKByqQrgA/pub  Feedback (videos) “A 67 or 97 is a good deal” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z8UiZz2Bm0  “Coca cola” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FN5eCvkoPM  Season's greetings - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=libGuLCyikY  Some examples of words you could show - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jXGb-CR1Tg  HP Poem expressing sadness the early HP's had been discontinued - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMuMz623ub4  Books manuals - Can purchase document set on USB stick - https://www.hpmuseum.org/cd/cddesc.htm  Better Programming on the HP-67 & 97 by Richard Nelson, Kolb, Kennedy - http://www.hp41.org/LibView.cfm?Command=Image&ItemID=94&FileID=2325  Wlodek’s book - A Guide to HP Handheld Calculators and Computers - https://amzn.to/4hl1Yq1 (affiliate link)  RCL40: Recollection, Reinvention and HP Calculators - RCL40: Recollection, Reinvention and HP Calculators  Software Software available from collection at Museum of HP Calculators  - https://www.hpmuseum.org/cd/cddesc.htm  Emulators HP Calculator Simulators - https://www.cuveesoft.ch/  RPN-67/97 Pro - Apple App Store - (iOS) itms://itunes.apple.com/app/rpn-97-pro/id816249055  HP-97 Emulator by Michael O’Shea (Windows): HP-97 - https://www.limpidfox.com/hp97.htm  HP-67 - https://www.limpidfox.com/hp67.htm  HP-97 Emulator by Michael O’Shea (Android, iOS) - https://www.limpidfox.com  Buying One Today Getting one repaired: waterhosko (Mark Hoskins) - https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?item=324196333178&rt=nc&_trksid=p4429486.m3561.l161211&_ssn=waterhosko  Mainely Calculators (Adam Jones) - https://www.ebay.com/str/mainelycalculator?_trksid=p4429486.m145687.l149267  Modern Upgrades Replacement CPU Boards for HP-67 and HP-97 - https://www.Teenix.org  Community Facebook HP Calculator Fan Club - https://www.facebook.com/groups/hpcalculatorclub  Real Engineers Use HP Handheld Calculators - https://www.facebook.com/groups/hpcalc  Forums The Museum of HP Calculators - https://hpmuseum.org/forum/index.php  Reddit HPCalc - https://www.reddit.com/r/hpcalc/  Current Web Sites and Videos Article in Byte Magazine, Vol. 3 No. 6 - https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1978-06/page/n113/mode/1up  Article in HP Journal on the HP-67/97 - http://hparchive.com/Journals/HPJ-1976-11.pdf  HHC 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee, showing off RPN-97 Pro - https://www.cuveesoft.ch/rpn67/img/RPN-97HHC.mp4  HP - https://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/histnfacts/museum/personalsystems/0041/index.html   Eric Rechlin's hpcalc.org - http://www.hpcalc.org  Craig Finseth's HPDATABase - http://www.finseth.com/hpdata/  The Hewlett Packard Calculator Page by Rick Furr - http://www.vcalc.net/hp.htm  The Calculators of HP poster - https://www.vcalc.net/poster.htm#hp  series of articles by Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz. They were published in DATAFILE - https://www.vcalc.net/hp-jhi.htm  Old HP and TI Calculators by Gene Wright - http://www.rskey.org/gene/hpgene/  HP Calculator Internals - http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/hpcalc/  HP-97 at rskey.org - https://www.rskey.org/hp97  References Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-67/97#67  Museum of HP Calculators (David Hicks) - https://www.hpmuseum.org/hp6797.htm   

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• Floppy Days 151 - Interview with James Nagle, Reboot of Computes Gazette

  Interview with James Nagle, Reboot of Compute’s Gazette Magazine Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors: 8-Bit Classics  Arcade Shopper  FutureVision Research   Hello, and welcome to episode 151 of the Floppy Days Podcast for May, 2025.  My name is Randy Kindig and I’m the host for this ode to computers that only survive in our memories and our collections. This month, I’m continuing to step aside from the ongoing series of episodes about the HP 97/67 programmable calculators to bring you a timely interview that basically constitutes current news.  I don’t often do this, but this news was so exciting to me that I wanted to bring this to all my listeners as soon as possible.  The interviewee is James Nagle and the topic is the sudden and welcome news that James is planning to revive the iconic Compute! magazine under the equally-iconic name Compute’s Gazette.  I hope you’ll stick around to hear about James’ plans and are as excited as I am to find out where this goes. For upcoming shows, we do have one more episode in the series on the HP97 with HP calculator historian Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz (“Vwahdek Meer-Yeng SHAY of itch”).  I will air that episode very soon. New Acquisitions and What I’ve Been Up To C64OS - https://c64os.com/  PiStorm: https://www.hackster.io/news/hands-on-with-the-pistorm-the-ultimate-raspberry-pi-powered-accelerator-for-your-commodore-amiga-449ef0634f3e  https://www.amigastore.com/pistorm-edition-amiga-p-91328.html  Quick Reference Book - https://floppydaysqr.my.canva.site/  Upcoming Vintage Computer Shows Retrofest 2025 - May 31-June1 - Steam Museum of the Great Western Railway, Swindon, UK - https://retrofest.uk/  Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo - June 14 - New Westminster, BC, Canada - https://www.vancouvergamingexpo.com/index.html  VCF Southwest - June 20-22, 2025 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at UT Dallas - https://www.vcfsw.org/  Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - June 20-22, 2025 - Atlanta, GA - https://gameatl.com/  Pacific Commodore Expo NW v4 - June 21-22 - Old Rainier Brewery Intraspace, Seattle, WA - https://www.portcommodore.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=pacommex:start  KansasFest - July 18-20 - Virtual only - https://www.kansasfest.org/  INIT HELLO Apple II Conference - July 26-27 - System Source Computer Museum in Hunt Valley, MD - https://init-hello.org/  Silly Venture SE (Summer Edition) - July 31-Aug. 3 - Gdansk, Poland - https://www.demoparty.net/silly-venture/silly-venture-2025-se  VCF West - August 1-2 - Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA - https://vcfed.org/2025/03/05/vcf-west-2025-save-the-date/  Fujiama - August 11-17 - Lengenfeld, Germany - http://atarixle.ddns.net/fuji/2025/  VCF Midwest - September 13-14, 2025 - Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - http://vcfmw.org/  Tandy Assembly - September 26-28 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - http://www.tandyassembly.com/  Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 17-19 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - https://retrogamingexpo.com/  Chicago TI International World Faire - October 25 - Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - https://www.chicagotiug.org/home  Schedule Published on Floppy Days Website - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSeLsg4hf5KZKtpxwUQgacCIsqeIdQeZniq3yE881wOCCYskpLVs5OO1PZLqRRF2t5fUUiaKByqQrgA/pub  Feedback HP-97S: https://www.hpmuseum.org/hp97s.htm https://www.johnwolff.id.au/calculators/laboratory/laboratory.htm Interview Links New Compute’s Gazette Website - https://www.computesgazette.com/ Compute’s Gazette collection at archive.org - https://archive.org/details/computes.gazette

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