Retrology Computing: Beyond ReactiveMicro

[Conrad <conrad.russo@gmail.com>]

Hi guys,

I have been meaning to announce this here for a little while but I have been so tied up with the TransWarp clone I haven't gotten around to it until now. I have launched a new venture that aims to fill the hole left by ReactiveMicro, but also to go far beyond it. I first got the idea when ReactiveMicro shut its doors. I saw how lost the A2 community was, and it made me think that someone should take up the slack. At the time I was not in a place where I could do this. Fast forward a bit, I have had such a hard time finding work in my city due to the economy, and leaving my city is not an option. For those who don't know, I am not just an Apple II hobbyist, but a user of a wide variety of classic platforms. Since I was just a boy of 5 years old I have had a dream of opening a computer museum, and to that end I have collected, repaired, modified, and upgraded many different computers and game consoles from the dawn of computing and gaming to present. In doing this I have become intimately familiar with a vast variety of computer series. I have also amassed a huge collection of accessories and addons, which can be cloned as time goes on. I have started tooling up for small scale circuit board production to produce simple prototypes and simple hardware projects on demand, with more complicated boards being produced by PCB houses. I have got the tools for board assembly, and I am also tooling up production of sheet metal enclosures with professional labels. My first major development will be the TransWarpGS clone, although I am working on some other small reproductions and developments at the same time, such as a IIGS stereo card. As time goes on I will be producing more hardware clones and original hardware for a variety of platforms. I will also be offering many of the things ReactiveMicro offered, such as ROM upgrades for various cards, high spec IIGS power supplies and so on. I am going to try and get in touch with the various manufacturers of some of the other devices Henry offered, like the Mockingboard clone and the MicroDrive/Turbo, to see if we can't offer it all for sale under one roof again, as Henry did. Keep in mind that if anyone has any open source hardware projects they would like to see produced, or any devices they would like to see cloned, or even any ideas for new hardware, let me know and I will do my best to make it available. I will not go into the non-Apple related hardware here, but as it is announced you can read about it on the site. You can find the blog for Retrology at http://retrologycomputing.blogspot.ca so drop by and let me know what you think!