A PERSONAL TECH WORKSHOP
Old tech.
New life.
A digital workshop and personal journal about vintage computing, electronics repair, and retro gaming.
BE FIXED
old machine to bring back. 01 — 15
FROM THE WORKBENCH
Projects & field notes.
Repairs, experiments, and investigations into machines that still have plenty of life left in them.
EV1869 PWA-00619-0A
A neglected board, a BIOS chip, and the search for a short. Restoration notes from first inspection onward.
OPEN PROJECT ↗ 02 ARCADE HARDWAREReviving an Area 51 Arcade Board
Repairing an arcade board, rebuilding its hard drive, and exploring an IR light-gun setup for LCD screens.
OPEN PROJECT ↗ 03 ELECTRONICSAT&T Dataphone II 2224B
Tracing an undocumented power input and identifying ground and connected pins.
OPEN PROJECT ↗ 04 CONSOLE REPAIRFamicom Disk System
Getting one working drive from three broken units, then coaxing an old disk system back to life.
OPEN PROJECT ↗ 05 GAME DEVELOPMENTFree Will NES Game
An original Nintendo game in progress.
OPEN PROJECT ↗ 06 VIDEO HARDWAREHDMI Graphics Gremlin
Testing HDMI graphics on ISA-era computers and documenting a correction to the MDA switch settings.
OPEN PROJECT ↗ 07 ADAPTER BUILDIBM P70 External Floppy Adapter
Building an HDI-30 to 34-pin adapter to connect an external floppy drive to an IBM P70.
OPEN PROJECT ↗ 08 DISPLAY HARDWARERetro Micro 4" CRT Black & White Monitor
Notes and specifications for a compact black-and-white, 12V CRT monitor.
OPEN PROJECT ↗ 09 INSTRUMENT REPAIRNicolet 2090 III Oscilloscope
Diagnosing a faulty floppy power supply and documenting the repair attempt, components, and connections.
OPEN PROJECT ↗ 10 COMPUTER DOCUMENTATIONVisual 1050
Photographic documentation of the main board and keyboard, including a keyboard EPROM dump.
OPEN PROJECT ↗ 11 CPU CARD RESEARCHVivaldi GDK-100 CPU Card
Researching an unfamiliar processor card, its MC680302, chips, and still-in-progress slot pinout.
OPEN PROJECT ↗ 12 SOFTWARE NOTESWindows 98 Software
A collection of useful software for an IBM Aptiva running Windows 98.
OPEN PROJECT ↗ 13 BOARD DOCUMENTATIONWyse 8088 ISA CPU Board
Photos and documentation of a vintage 8088 single-board computer.
OPEN PROJECT ↗ 14 COMPUTER RESTORATIONZenith Data Systems 8-bit ISA Backplane
Documenting the board and making an ATX power adapter with a 3D-printed connector.
OPEN PROJECT ↗ 15 OLD-SCHOOL BROWSER RPGFreewill
A new browser-based role-playing game in development. Step onto the old road and shape the adventure yourself.
PLAY THE PROTOTYPE ↗Project descriptions are adapted from the published project notes. Open a project to read the full entry and see its original images.
ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP
OLD TECH
ALIVE
A little curiosity.
A lot of old hardware.
I’m James Michael Stephens. StephensDev is my digital workshop and personal journal, where I share hands-on explorations into vintage computing, electronics repair, and retro gaming systems. I write about the challenges and triumphs of restoring and modifying classic technology, in the hope that it sparks your interest too.
Browse the project notesOld machines still
have stories to tell.
QUESTIONS, TIPS, OR OLD HARDWARE?
Let’s talk
about old tech.
Have a question or a project to share? Drop me a note.
Email James JAMES MICHAEL STEPHENS / STEPHENSDEV