Floppy Days 95 - The Epson HX-20 Part 2 With Earl Evans
The Epson HX-20, Part 2, With Earl Evans Hello everyone, and welcome to episode 95 of the Floppy Days Podcast for November, 2019, where once again this month (in Part 2) we will continue talking about one of the world’s first portable computers: The Epson HX-20. I’m extremely happy to again have my good friend, and vintage computer podcast legend, Mr. Earl Evans, as my co-host for this episode. It turned out we had so much material to cover that I ended up breaking this topic into 2 parts. Last month was part 1, where Earl and I covered HX-20 history, tech specs, and peripherals. This month will be part 2, in which Earl and I will continue coverage by discussing how to use the machine, emulators, software, ads and appearances, modern upgrades, Web sites and more. In addition, I will include an interview with a gentleman who has done recent work around the HX-20 in the area of emulation, Mr. Pontus Rodling. First, however, I will spend a few minutes talking about my recent acquisitions in the vintage computing space and what I’ve been up to, then I’ll cover upcoming shows. Links Mentioned in the Show: Commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnX7d0Ty9A4 New Acquisitions book "The BBC Micro an expert guide" by Mike James - https://www.amazon.com/B-C-Micro-Expert-Guide/dp/0003831175 SDrive Max from Vintage Computer Center (810) for Atari 8-bit - https://www.vintagecomputercenter.com/product/atari-810-sdrive-max Incognito for Atari 800 - https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=275 CPC 464 RGB-to-SCART cable - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Amstrad-CPC-464-6128-High-Quality-POWERED-RGB-Scart-Cable-TV-Video-Lead/261898189777 - Retro Computer Shack CPC M4 upgrade - http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/M4_Board Upcoming Shows Dec 7, 2019, World of Commodore 2019, hosted by the Toronto PET Users Group (TPUG) at the Admiral Inn Mississauga - https://www.tpug.ca/…/09/announcement-world-of-commodore-2…/ March 21-22, 2020, Vintage Computer Festival Pacific Northwest, Living Computers:Museum+Labs in Seattle,Washington - http://vcfed.org/…/vintage-computer-festival-pacific-north…/ April 18-19, 2020, CoCoFest, Elk Grove Village, IL - http://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/ April 24-26, 2020, Vintage Computer Festival East, InfoAge Science Center, Wall, NJ - http://vcfed.org/…/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/ October 30 - November 1, 2020, Tandy Assembly, Springfield, OH - http://www.tandyassembly.com Ads and Appearances http://starringthecomputer.com/computer.html?c=171 Epson announced the HX-20 to the world in this famous double page ad spread from 1982. Its compact size is obviously the big selling point here - http://www.ganjatron.net/retrocomputing/epson-hx20/creativecomp0183-2a.jpg another four page ad from Epson UK. Epson apparently wanted to make it clear that only they had the foresight to devise such a compact computing platform. As depicted in the ad, the HX-20 is equally at home in the office, on the plane, in a power station and at home. - http://www.ganjatron.net/retrocomputing/epson-hx20/practicalcomputing128202a.jpg Modern Upgrades MH-20 by Martin Hepperle - https://www.mh-aerotools.de/hp/hx-20/MH-20-Display-Controller.zip Flashx20 by Norbert Kehrer - http://members.aon.at/nkehrer/flashx20.html Emulators "eHC-20"-EPSON HC-20 / HX-20 emulator for Win32 (Toshiya Takeda) - http://takeda-toshiya.my.coocan.jp/ M.A.M.E. - Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator / MAME 0.184 ROMs - https://edgeemu.net/details-25542.htm HXEmu by Pontus Rodling - https://frigolit.net/projects/hxemu/ Community Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/405903130000150/ Forums AtariAge - https://atariage.com/forums/search/?q=epson%20hx-20 https://stardot.org.uk/forums/index.php Web Sites An HX-20 Enthusiast Site - Julian Ward - https://web.archive.org/web/20161023223930/http://classway.com/hx20/index.html - contains FAQ, memory map, description of utilities (on WayBackMachine) Epson HX-20 Programs - Courtney McFarren - http://www.geocities.ws/abcmcfarren/hx20/hx20.htm - software downloads (BASIC listings), memory map, memory dump, information on interfacing with the HX-20 Review in Byte Magazine Volume 8, Number 9 - https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1983-09/1983_09_BYTE_08-09_Portable_Computers_in_Depth#page/n201/mode/2up - compares HX-20 and TI CC-40 GanjaTron’s site - http://www.ganjatron.net/retrocomputing/epson-hx20/index.html - nice description of the HX-20 Epson HX-20 Review in Creative Computing by David Ahl - https://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v9n3/101_Epson_HX20_computer.php Epson HX-20 Tips and Tricks by Martin Hepperle - https://www.mh-aerotools.de/hp/hx-20/Epson%20HX-20%20-%20Tips-Tricks.pdf TV ad for the HX-20 (1982) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnX7d0Ty9A4 Wickensonline - information from sites now only on the Wayback Machine (archive.org) - https://web.archive.org/web/20160323052226/http://www.wickensonline.co.uk/hx-20/index.html Epson HX-20 Operations Manual (from the Epson support site) - https://files.support.epson.com/pdf/hx20__/hx20__u1.pdf HX-20 page at Epson - https://global.epson.com/company/corporate_history/milestone_products/13_hx20.html PDF documentation for the Epson HX-20 (Tech Ref, BASIC Ref, etc.) - http://electrickery.xs4all.nl/comp/hx20/doc/index.html HXTAPE software at SourceForge - http://hxtape.sourceforge.net/ - HXTape is a suite of small programs designed to read and write Epson HX-20 tapes using a sound card under Linux. Additionally, it can be used as a simple means of direct data transfer between a PC and an HX-20, by connecting the two using an ordinary audio cable. The Epson HX-20: As seen in Tezza's classic computer collection - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-Esopw_KK8&app=desktop The World's First Laptop - Epson HX-20 / HC-20 by RetroManCave - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-F_hL1bZsw “Japanese portable has real staying power” From: PRACTICAL COMPUTING October 1982 page 40 - http://electrickery.xs4all.nl/comp/hx20/pc198210.html Yet another computer museum - The Epson HX-20 - http://electrickery.xs4all.nl/comp/hx20/ References Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epson_HX-20