Podcast
Floppy Days Vintage Computing Podcast
Hosted by Randy Kindig · EN
Floppy Days Vintage Computing Podcast
12episodes
Episodes
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Floppy Days 155 - Interview with Karl Hornell, C64 Developer, cartoonist, author
Sep 2401:15:00Tap to summarizeFloppy Days 155 - Interview with Karl Hornell - C64 Game Developer, Cartoonist, Author Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays Sponsors: 8-Bit Classics Arcade Shopper FutureVision Research Hello, and welcome to episode 155 of the Floppy Days Podcast for September, 2025! I'm Randy Kindig, your host for this podcast, where we talk about the computers that got many of us started in our careers and which still hold a lot of interest for us today. This month, I'm bringing you another interesting interview with someone who at an early age started developing commercial-grade software for the Commodore 64, which started him on an amazing trajectory with his career in software development, cartoonist, and more. His latest efforts include branching out into writing science fiction, which we will also discuss today. The person I'm referring to is Karl Hornell (Her-NELL). It's also an interesting story around how this interview opportunity came to me. I'm not used to getting contacted by an ad agency. This one indicated that their client, Karl, had just recently published a book and was looking for ways to advertise the book. They suggested that Floppy Days would be a great fit based on Karl's background and could be beneficial for both. I was skeptical at first, as I always am when I receive unsolicited, possibly spam email. However, once I researched Karl's background it became clear that he was an accomplished Swedish developer for the C64 back in the day, with some notariety. I felt his background might indeed be of interest to you, the listeners, and so happily agreed to interviewing Karl for the podcast. I hope you enjoy Karl's story and will consider taking a look at his new book. New Acquisitions and What I've Been Up To Atari Bit Byter User Club (ABBUC) - https://www.abbuc.de VCFMW - https://vcfmw.org/ Atari TT030 at Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_TT030 David Anderson's Timex Sinclair sites: https://andertone.com/ https://www.timexsinclair.com/ News Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer - https://archive.org/details/stan-veits-history-of-the-personal-computer/mode/2up David Greelish's YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@TheComputerHistorian Early chapters (1-9) of Stan Veit's book via audio - https://www.classiccomputing.com/CCPodcasts/Stan_Veit/Stan_Veit.html Floppy Days YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@floppydayspodcast Upcoming Vintage Computer Shows Tandy Assembly - September 26-28 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - http://www.tandyassembly.com/ Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 17-19 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - https://retrogamingexpo.com/ Chicago TI International World Faire - October 25 - Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - https://www.chicagotiug.org/home Ami West - November 1-2, Sacramento, CA - https://www.amiwest.net World of Commodore 2025 - December 6-7 - Admiral Inn, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada - https://www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodore/world-of-commodore-2025/ Vintage Computer Festival Montreal - Jan. 24-25, 2026 - Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC - https://vcfed.org/vcf-montreal/ Vintage Computer Festival SoCal - February 14-15, 2025 - Hotel Fera Events Center, Orange, CA - vcfsocal.com Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - March 20-22 - Wyndham Indianapolis Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - https://indyclassic.org/ Schedule Published on Floppy Days Website - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSeLsg4hf5KZKtpxwUdQgacCIsqeIdQeZniq3yE881wOCCYskpLVs5OO1PZLqRRF2t5fUUiaKByqQrgA/pub Interview Links Karl at Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_H%C3%B6rnell Vic-Rapport Magazine (Wikipedia) - https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/VIC-rapport "Generation 64 - How the Commodore 64 Inspired a Generation of Swedish Gamers" by Bitmap Books - https://amzn.to/3YUUlQ5 (affiliate link) Karl Hornell's Applet Center - http://www.javaonthebrain.com/ Retro Gamer Magazine #130 with Karl interview - https://archive.org/details/retro-gamer-raspberry-pi-buenos-aires/Retro%20Gamer%20130/page/92/mode/2up "Singularity Minus Twelve" book - https://amzn.to/3S8Yr3r (affiliate link) Savage Dragonbert - https://wiki.savagedragon.com/comics/savage_dragonbert_full_frontal_nerdity_01/
Transcribe →Floppy Days 42 - TRS-80 Model III & 4, Michael Nadeau
Jul 28, 2015Tap to summarizeThe TRS-80 Model III and 4 On the personal computer timeline, we’re currently in the 1979 to 1980 time frame. I do apologize that this month’s topic, the TRS-80 Model III and 4, is being presented slightly out of order in that there were a couple of machines introduced a little prior to this that I plan to cover. However, as I already had this one recorded I decided to present it now rather than hold up publishing an episode just to maintain a precise order. As usual, I have a short preamble before we get into this month’s topic, covering new acquisitions, upcoming shows, and a little bit of feedback. I was lucky enough to get author and vintage computer collector Michael Nadeau to agree to co-host this episode with me, so this should be a fun and interesting episode. Links Mentioned in the Show: News New book from Evan Koblentz "Abacus to smartphone, The evolution of mobile and portable computers” - http://www.amazon.com/dp/1514810301/?tag=flodaypod-20, https://www.createspace.com/5596053 Retro Computing News, Stuart Williams, Editor & Publisher - http://retrocomputingnews.com VCF Midwest 10 - http://vcfmw.org/ August 29-30, 2015, Elk Grove Village, IL Chicago TI International World Faire - http://www.chicagotiug.com/tiki-index.php?page=Faire October 31, 2015, Evanston, IL Interview with Co-Host - Michael Nadeau Michael’s Classic Tech Site - https://classictech.wordpress.com/ Collectible Microcomputers” by Michael Nadeau -http://www.amazon.com/dp/0764316001/?tag=flodaypod-20 Magazines/Newsletters TRS8BIT - http://trs-80.org.uk/Tandy_Page_2x.html - current magazine produced today 80-U.S. Journal - http://www.trs-80.org/80-us-journal/ TRS-80 Microcomputer News - http://www.trs-80.org/trs-80-microcomputer-news/ 80 Microcomputing/80 Micro - https://archive.org/details/80-microcomputing-magazine Books “Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution” by Welsh, Theresa; Welsh, David (2011-02-23). The Seeker Books - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P8JNIS/?tag=flodaypod-20 Modern Upgrades FreHD TRS-80 Hard Drive Emulator - http://www.vecoven.com/trs80/trs80.html Ian Mavric’s TRS-80 Store - http://ianmav.customer.netspace.net.au/trs80/emulator Hi-Res Graphics Board (HRG) - Improved Grafyx HRG board - Ian Mavric (Australia) - http://ianmav.customer.netspa...
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