Home Computer Remakes

A home computer remake is a re-creation or re-implementation of classic home computer hardware, usually using updated technology, such as FPGAs.

A remake is a hardware realization, in contrast to an emulator, which is a virtual realization. A remake can also be described as a hardware-based emulator. Some re-makes can function as more than one computer model or architecture.

Remakes and emulators are a way to keep old software, games, and operating systems alive without having to port them to newer computers or code them again from scratch. Remakes and emulators are methods of digital preservation.

Remakes are not to be confused with hardware clones. Hardware clones are made during a product's initial commercial run, intentionally competing with the original. Remakes are revivals of old, obsolete, or discontinued models. They fill a niche market for retrocomputing researchers, experimenters, hobbyists, gamers, and collectors. Demand for authentic antique hardware often exceeds supply.

Examples of home computer remakes include:

  • Multiple Classic Computer (MCC), (e.g. C64 and Amiga) remake, implemented as handheld TV game
  • Minimig and Natami, Amiga remakes
  • Replica 1, an Apple I remake
  • Atari Coldfire and Experiment-s, Atari ST remakes
  • C-One, Originally a Commodore 64 remake but now also supporting Amstrad CPC and Amiga 500
  • C64 Direct-to-TV, a Commodore 64 remake built inside a joystick
  • 1chipMSX, an MSX-2 remake
  • Sprinter, a Sinclair ZX Spectrum remake.
  • N8VEM home brew single board Z80 small computer.
  • Radica Games Limited under its Play TV collection remade the Sega Genesis as a handheld TV game
  • Micro-KIM a 6502 Single Board Computer (SBC). The KIM-1 is not really a home computer, but was often used as a basis for such.
  • Acorn Atom in an FPGA, much expanded.

Remakes of early minicomputer and supercomputers have been also made:

  • Several experimenters have re-implemented the PDP-8 using FPGAs:
    • DEC PDP-x FPGA Implementation
    • FPGA: PDP8 Hans Pufal
    • PDP-8 on an FPGA
  • FPGA Implementation of supercomputer CRAY 1a

Famous quotes containing the words home, computer and/or remakes:

    “The home is a woman’s natural background.... From the beginning I tried to have the policy of the store reflect as nearly as it was possible in the commercial world, those standards of comfort and grace which are apparent in a lovely home.”
    —Hortense Odlum (1892–?)

    “Family life is not a computer program that runs on its own; it needs continual input from everyone.”
    —Neil Kurshan (20th century)

    “With spring the father-sky remakes the world:
    The male shower has flowed into the bride,
    Earth’s body; then shifted through sky and sea and land
    To touch the quickening child in her deep side.”
    —Allen Tate (1899–1979)