Tech Tuesday – Happy DOS-cember! – The Big 94 – K2RHI

I will be the first to admit, when someone starts talking about retro computers, or retro games, I will go bananas. Why? Because I still have one foot firmly in the 80’s and early 90’s. Why? Because I am a Commodork!

Commodork /com-oh-dork/

noun

1. A person who is addicted to or a lover of 8 and 16 bit computers made by the Commodore Business Machines corporation in the 1980s and 1990s.

Oh yes, I love my Commodores. 64s, 128s, PETS, as well as and especially, The Commodore Amigas! The thing was they didn’t run MS-DOS like the PCs of the day. And they didn’t have Intel CPUs. They were running off of Motorola 68000 cpus and the Amiga OS was more akin to the old POSIX/UNIX OS.

But what about the title of this article? DOS-cember? Well that is an event going on now with a group of retro computing YouTube channels, where their videos focus mostly on the old PCs of the Day and MS-DOS. I guess DRDOS could be considered part of it too, but most focus on Microsoft’s version. So why am I talking Amigas during this event? Well be glad you hung in here for the pay off, because back in the day, around ’84 or so, Commodore introduced the A2288 and the A2286. These were called Bridgeboards. They were, for the most part, full PCs, that would plug into the Zorro card slot of an Amiga 2000, and if memory serves, even an expanded A500 with a breakout box, that was made by a company called California Systems, and that box was a Bodega Bay. I had one of those Bodega Bays for my A500, but sadly no Bridgeboard card. I was just a poor high school kid then.

But now, one of my favorite retro YouTubers, Jan Beta, has made a video of setting one up and using in his Amiga 2000 desktop! My jaw dropped as I watch him get the payoff after troubleshooting some issues with getting this 30+ year old card working. And I gotta say, it was well worth it. If you’ve never heard or seen of Amiga, I suggest you visit YouTube to find out more about this incredible machines! But in the mean while, here is Jan’s video. I hope you enjoy watching this card come to life running DOS on an emulated PC, from the 80’s! I mean, emulation 30+ years ago? Holy cow!