As the retro craze has gone mainstream, we’ve grown used to seeing “mini” versions of classic hardware, preloaded with a selection of games and ready for a wallow in nostalgia. Unfortunately for fans of the less well known platforms, the only devices to get the mini treatment so far are popular ones such as the Nintendo consoles, or the Commodore 64. This is something [Svofski] is aiming to change for one classic micro, by producing a mini version of the Soviet Vector-06c. And unlike the Commodore with its fake keyboard, this one will work in its entirety and have a fully-functional keyboard.
It’s a build that’s not finished yet. But in this case that’s no bad thing, because such is the extreme attention to detail that you’ll want to stick around and watch it unfold. The electronics will come courtesy of an FPGA recreation of the hardware, while the Vector’s unique keyboard is being recreated in miniature, with keycaps designed to fit a particular Alps switch. These are 3D-printed, painted, and then marked with their decals using stencils carefully etched from copper sheet. Even if you have no interest in the Vector-06c, these techniques could find a place in so many other projects.
The wonderfully ingenious and diverse world of Soviet technology has found its way onto these pages many times over the years, including at least one other microcomputer, and even a supercomputer. If your interests extend behind the Iron Curtain though, you might wish to read our colleague [Voja Antonic]’s account of hacking in Communist Yugoslavia.
Jenny – I’m a big fan of your articles but your two today are riddled with typos. Detracts from your otherwise excellent writing.
She’s twitching to go to a non-virtual event :-D
Couldn’t find a single one in this article
well-know, classig
“but your two today are riddled with typos” regarding riddles… if your comment is intended to help, then please mention the problem that needs to be fixed, so that it can be solved. Because maybe there isn’t a problem at all or maybe it some really important spelling error that needs to be fixed without any delay in order to save the world from falling into chaos. And in the case of the latter, it doesn’t help to state that there is something wrong WITHOUT stating WHAT is wrong.
oops… I just read RW’s comment (can’t see how I missed it, but I can see it now). So the problems are: “well-know” and “classig”. Gee… hmmm, what would be meant to be written there… I guess (just a shot in the dark) “well known” and “classic”, just guessing here, I might be completely wrong. Ohhh… this is so confusing, I hope I can sleep tonight.
It’s good to know that even the world is in full chaos, that there will always people who you can count on to point out your mistakes. People who don’t care about the content or don’t get the content or aren’t even willing to grasp the concept of the idea behind the content or the motivations of the content… I amazes me that no matter how many thing you do right, there will always be people who zoom in onto the mistakes.
Is this because they are perfect themselves or is this because they are insecure about themselves and it makes them feel better because they can spot the problem in the work of others. Or actually they think they can, because they didn’t actually did the work, they only read the words that mentioned the work.
Every time in hand in a report at work, and I give it to a colleague for proofreading (with the intent of finding error in my technical conclusions or solutions) they mention that there should be a comma here and a colon there, but not a word about the actual content… why is that… why… why…
Please make the hurting stop!
Reguarding tea artic all, tanks four post thing, inter resting matery all.
Jan – I’m a big fan of your comments but your comment today is riddled with typos. Detracts from your otherwise excellent comment. ;)
+1 though….
Mocking critiques does not help.
Is that on Jenny, or did it slip past the editor (s)?
She must have turned off spell check on the browser because it flags too many UK spelling.
I’m going with the editors. Will fix.
(Also the 64 mini (and full sized one) have only a 32 bit ARM. Sheesh.)