Places to buy 8-bit computer software?

[BydoEmpire73]

I got my Apple 2c hooked up (and the c64 a few months ago), but I only have a few working disks. Anyone know of good places to find 8-bit computer software cheap? There are tons of places for 8 bit carts, but computer game software seems pretty rare. I should probably bite the bullet and get a SD/CF card interface or something, but like the song says, ain't nothing like the real thing, baby.

[Duke.Togo]

I'm in the same boat with the C64. I'd like a flash cart if I could find one at a reasonable cost. I've also been reading up on hooking the 1541 up to a PC so I could create some fresh disks. It sounds reasonable enough to do though.

[Nate Nickels]

You would think those things would be so cheap. I would put an ad on craigslist and say you are doing a history report so you get them dirt cheap lol.

[BydoEmpire73]

Heh, good idea Nate. =) I saw some Atari ST software on Freecycle a couple weeks ago, but I sold my STs a few years ago. I have seen older VGA-era PC games at yard sales from time to time, but no disk-based software for 8-bit micros.

For now, I'll be playing Montezuma's Revenge and Might & Magic. If I pick up an Apple 2 joystick somewhere, I have Boulderdash as well.

[SubaruBrat]

Try this, you can use serial, audio or ethernet. http://adtpro.sourceforge.net/index.html

[BydoEmpire73]

Try this, you can use serial, audio or ethernet. http://adtpro.sourceforge.net/index.html

Nice! Scott - maybe a future HW Flashback should be dedicated to options for connecting classic computers to modern ones - SD card adapters, file servers, etc. There are a lot of cool solutions out there. I spent a while googling around the other night for Apple ][ options and didn't find ADT Pro. Looks great.

[chalksalad]

Up until now I've found such interfaces for C64, Apple II, ZX Spectrum, Sinclair QL and Atari 8bit. The were always quite expensive (towards the 100 USD mark) so I never bought one. There's a company in the UK, Retroclinic, that specializes in the BBC micro and they developed a whole kid that fits internally into your Beeb with a CF card and acts as a Hard disk.

The Amiga A1200 is the easiest to connect with current technology as it has a PCMCIA port on the side.

And then there's this guy in Poland that sells this SD Floppy emulator for multiple machines.

[BydoEmpire73]

D'oh, ADTPro uses the cassette (audio) port. The ][c doesn't have one...

[SubaruBrat]

You can still use serial or put in an ethernet card....

[BydoEmpire73]

It's nice to have the 2c on my computer desk, but over the last few days I've come to realize that I don't mind emulating classic computers nearly as much as consoles. I never really thought about the distinction before, but there are two big reasons why I like emulation for classic computers but not consoles:

1) For games that use the keyboard an mouse it's the same interface, and a lot of classic computer games I want to play were designed to play well with the keyboard. Playing emulated console games with keyboard arrow keys just kind of sucks. Yeah, there are adapters, but they're not easy to find for some systems and it's extra cost.
2) Computer games generally look great on a monitor. Old console games don't look right to me unless they're on a tube TV. Not so with classic computer games. The c64 and Apple 2 were really built to look great on a monitor.

With that in mind, I tried out the ][GS emulator Sweet16 and it rocks. I'm enjoying having the 2c out, and it's fun to use, but I think I'm going to get my retro computer fix largely through emulation... for now.