Author Archives: robohara

YDKF Episode 123: The CFFA 3000

Leaping from moderately mainstream to moderately obscure, this week’s episode of You Don’t Know Flack is dedicated to the CFFA 3000, a relatively new card that plugs into vintage Apple II computers and allows retro hobbyists to load virtual disk images and convert physical disks to virtual disk images (and back). I also coin the word “floppycentric” in this episode.

[Links]

The CFFA 3000 homepage
Get yer Apple II DIsk Images here!
What the heck. Here’s a play through of Karateka for the Apple II

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YDKF Episode 122: MAME Cabinets

Episode 122 of You Don’t Know Flack covers the often requested topic of MAME Cabinets. In this episode I talk a little bit about what MAME is and a lot about the parts of a MAME cabinet and how to build your own.

[Sponsor Link!]

Classic Home Video Games at BrettWeissWords.com

[Links]

The MAME homepage
Get started with the KnoppixMAME Image
Links to lots of cabinet plans
Check out this rotating control panel
Here’s the Arcade Controls Wiki (Invaluable)
Hope that whatever you build stays off the CrapMAME Page

Don’t forgeta bout my book Invading Spaces: A Beginner’s Guide to Collecting Arcade Games, which contains an entire chapter dedicated to building MAME cabinets!

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YDKF Episode 121: Thrifting

In Episode 121 of You Don’t Know Flack I talk about thrifting — this includes shopping at thrift stores, garage sales, antique malls and pawn shops. Throughout this episode I’ll tell you some of the best things I’ve found at these places along with some of the worst. I also talk a bit about what has replaced them (spoiler: online auctions).

[Links]

The Goodwill Auction Site: ShopGoodwill.com

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YDKF Episode 120: Radio Scanners

Episode 120 of You Don’t Know Flack is about radio scanners, those little devices that allow you to eavesdrop on all the little conversations floating around us. In this episode I talk about my experiences with scanners and some of the things you can listen to with scanners. I also talk a little bit about how you can now listen to these frequencies using your computer and/or smartphone!

[Links]

AFN.org’s collection of mobile scanner laws.
5-0 Radio Police Scanner for iOS.
You can listen to many scanners on the web.
Here’s Wikipedia’s entry on Number Stations. Creepy!

YDKF Episode 119: Hohocon ’94

Episode 119 is about Hohocon — specifically, Hohocon ’94, the last Hohocon (and the only one I attended).

[Links]

The Milwaukee 414’s (Wikipedia and in Enter Magazine
The Hohocon ’94 Invite
Review of Hohocon ’94 by Netta Gilboa
Review of Hohocon ’94 by Count Zero/cDc
Review of Hohocon ’94 by Phrack Magazine
A zip file of my scans from Hohocon
Pixel8/Peachy’s 8-bit Music Files
Robb Sherwin’s latest game, Cyberganked

YDKF Episode 118: The iCade

Episode 118 is about a new piece of hardware used to play old video and arcade games — the iCade. Yes, it was designed to work with Apple’s iPad, but did you know it works with Android tablets as well? In this episode of You Don’t Know Flack I give a complete review of the iCade, including a list of several games that are compatible with the iCade including iMAME!

[Links]

The No Quarter Podcast.
Ion’s list of iCade compatible games.

YDKF Episode 115: Text Adventures

Episode 115 of You Don’t Know Flack is all about text adventures. This episode is unique in multiple ways. Not only does it feature the infamous Interactive Fiction author Robb Sherwin via Skype … but it features him for approximately two hours. What can I say? Robb and I got carried away talking about text adventures!

[Links]

Hangar 22 (My first full-length text adventure)
Caltrops.com – Robb Sherwin’s Game-related Website
Cryptozookeeper – Buy (or download) Robb Sherwin’s award winning game!
Inform – The language I used to write Hangar 22
Hugo – The language Robb Sherwin used to write Cryptozookeeper

YDKF Episode 114: Arcade Auctions

Episode 114 of You Don’t Know Flack is all about Arcade Auctions. In this episode I talk about my experiences of buying arcade games at auctions. I share some tips and tricks of the trade, including what to bring, what to look for, and what to expect. I have been attending arcade auctions for almost 20 years, and have purchased around 70 arcade games from auctions during that time.

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