The 28C256 EEPROM, which holds the BIOS, has been our go-to choice since the early breadboard days. Before that, we relied on EPROMs, which required UV erasure before every upgrade—a time-consuming and inconvenient process. Switching to an EEPROM significantly improved our workflow, reducing turnaround time. However, the 28C256 has a couple of drawbacks: It cannot be written in-circuit since it requires a 12V programming voltage, which the Steckschwein does not provide.

After introducing BASIC and Forth as interpreted languages on the Steckschwein, it’s time to add another unique and productive language—Brainf*ck. For those unfamiliar, Brainf*ck (or Brainf**k) is an “esoteric” programming language created in 1993 by Urban Müller, the founder of Aminet. You can read more about it on Wikipedia. A compact Brainfck interpreter can be found here, originally developed for the Apple ][. This version served as the foundation for the Steckschwein adaptation.

We are reflecting on a very special VCFe, as it marked the 10th (or 10 1/2th) birthday of the Steckschwein. Reconnecting with old friends, making new friends, and celebrating and eating our 12 cycle muffin NOPslide together were all incredibly enjoyable experiences. Additionally, Marko allowed an exciting sneak peek into his nearly complete Pacman implementation, the first ever on a 6502 that closely replicates the behavior of the original Namco Pacman Arcade.

VCFe 23.0 - The wait is finally over The 23th annual European Vintage Computer Festival will take place on 7./8. September 2024! The special focus of this year’s VCFe is _50 years of 8080 and 6800 with a lot of exhibitions and talks around those CPUs. Also, the Steckschwein will celebrate it’s 10 year anniversary (more like 10 1/2 now) with you! We will be showing all Steckschwein incarnations from its humble and nameless beginnings on a breadboard to the current 512k SBC version!

In order to generate our own QR codes natively on the Steckschwein, we drew a lot of inspiration from this article https://8bitworkshop.com/docs/posts/2022/8bit-qr-code.html It even points to an adapted version of the qrtiny library, that has been made to compile with cc65, including a demo for the Apple ][, using cc65’s own Tiny Graphics Interface (TGI). Which is very nice, because all the hard work has already been done. We have not implemented TGI (yet?

Update VCFe 23.0 has been postponed until September 7th due to issues with the building. Save the date! The 23th annual European Vintage Computer Festival will take place on 7./8. September 2024 ! And of course there can be no VCFe without Steckschwein. This time is special, as we first presented the humble beginnings of our (then nameless) favourite homebrew computer at VCF 15.0 in 2014. So this year not only marks the 10th anniversary of the Steckschwein, but also the 10th anniversary of the VCFe being “home” of the Steckschwein.