The Computer in Monochrome - Practical Advice for Using for a Macintosh SE

The Graphical User Interface is something computer users have taken for granted for twenty-five years since Windows 95 computers became ubiquitous.  Of course, to owners of any Macintosh computer, the GUI was something they had experienced since day one.  The original Macintosh was designed to be a low-cost productivity computer.  It eventually evolved into a fully general purpose computer, but the systems were sufficiently popular even in the earliest days to enjoy a wide variety of software, including games.  I recently acquired an earlier example of the line, a Macintosh SE, and decided it was worth getting it up and running.  In that process I will be sharing some of the issues I have encountered and solutions.

RetroUSB AVS : The Affordable NES FPGA Console

RetroUSB AVS, courtesy of RetroUSB.com

The NES is undoubtedly the most cloned video game system ever, and in the 2010s FPGA technology had decreased in price to the point where it was affordable to implement retro video game systems on an FPGA.  The RetroUSB AVS was the first NES FPGA console made available to the public, and while I have discussed it before on this blog, I have not done a full review of the AVS because I never had one in my possession before.  That changed recently thanks to a friend of mine who let me borrow his for testing and review.  As this console is almost five years old at this point and is the only NES FPGA console you can currently pre-order, I think it is time to see where it has progressed and how well it has held up over the years compared to more recent competition.