Ian Scott

Good on ya for putting in the effort!

I have no way to convey how strange it is for me to be able to see this from an FPGA.

The “Introduction to Computer Programming” book on the bottom there was what got me into programming when I got it from the library as a kid. Literally changed my life.

PicoIDE is a bit of a special case because the PCBAs are being made and the device is being assembled in the EU. So people there may actually get a better deal buying from a seller where the product doesn’t leave then return to the EU…

Yep, Crowd Supply will continue to sell it, and other sellers like JCM-1 in the US, Flamelily in the UK, and Serdashop in the EU will start carrying it!

$300k with 9 hours to go! 😵‍💫#PicoIDE www.crowdsupply.com/polpotronics...

hey Alice!

That's awesome to hear you'll be trying some out!

I'd like to offer that kind of kit in the future. When it could become available, I don't know. The demand would be pretty small, though - if you look at the "X claimed" numbers at the bottom of the Crowd Supply campaign page, you'll see not many people are buying the Base version!

YouTube thumbnail of a 90s PC on a desk running Quake with the text "O.D.E. for PC" overlaid and an obligatory Big Red Arrow.

New Video: The PicoIDE is a brand new IDE optical and hard drive emulator for classic computers. Based on the Raspberry Pi RP2350 and ESP32, it's easy to use, open source, low cost, fully featured, and set to be an absolute game changer for the vintage computing hobby.

youtu.be/MG_t0Ti3_rY

The $69 PicoIDE Is A Game Changer For Vintage Computing YouTube video by ctrl-alt-rees

As the #PicoIDE campaign on Crowd Supply enters its final hours (www.crowdsupply.com/polpotronics...), @ctrl-alt-rees.com has come out with a fantastic video all about the PicoIDE! And wow it looks good in that baby AT case. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG_t...

At last! New IDE Optical Drive Emulators for Retro PCs

LGR has a video out covering my #PicoIDE project and the ZuluIDE. We are officially in a awesome new era of drive emulators!
youtu.be/td6QdOnMvnk

At last! New IDE Optical Drive Emulators for Retro PCs YouTube video by LGR

Fresh new hardware for aging old computers on LGR!

youtu.be/td6QdOnMvnk

The ZuluIDE and PicoIDE optical drive emulators replace your old CD/DVD drive with a MicroSD card solution for loading ISOs, including support for Redbook CD digital audio! Among other features like virtual hard disks and more

I wish my cats would do this! They merely tolerate one another at best.

Someone is REALLY unhappy that I woke them up after too many years in storage for #MARCHintosh . 😬

Image of a board screwed to a metal plate showing a power line with a cord coming off it on stark black and white, there is a gold pattern lines across the image and the image is on a white painted background on the board

now seems like a good time to post my new piece

Binding Spell Against The Internet #1: Fiber To The Home

IR photograph, screen print of XY display, ink transfer onto acrylic

I literally said "wow" out loud

A Macintosh SE/30, a compact all in one Mac with 9” black and white screen. It’s running The Print Shop and a certificate design is on the screen

A printed out copy of the certificate, saying “Certificate of ImageScribbler ownership / presented to Eric’s Edge by Polpo” with a pixelly illustration of a ringed planet and shooting star

If you have an ImageScribbler and have it online on #GlobalTalk, let me know and I’ll print you an official certificate of ownership designed in The Print Shop from my Mac SE/30!

The insides of an InageWriter II dot matrix printer with a PCB inside - that’s the ImageScribbler card.

Want a hardware-y way to get your ImageWriter II up on #GlobalTalk in time for #MARCHintosh? Last year I reverse engineered Apple’s LocalTalk option card and made the design available, naming it ImageScribbler: github.com/polpo/images...
and pre-built ones are for sale: jcm-1.com/product/imag...

Instead of turning a clock into a vintage Mac, I turned a vintage Mac into a clock!, I though it would be fun given its #MARCHintosh The program can be downloaded here: github.com/retrotheory/...

It supports US/EU month day order AM/PM, Invert display, 'grey' background and alarm function

Yeah, that's the challenge. Do you match against a pristine unyellowed beige or shoot for average state of yellowing? It's hard to decide 😅

A beige PicoIDE sitting in front of a fanned out book of color swatches opened to various shades of gray/beige

FINALLY found my Pantone books. Now I can dial in the final color match for the #PicoIDE enclosure and buttons. I’m thinking of a darker beige for the buttons for some contrast, since a perfect match is basically impossible due to different materials.

A dot matrix printout of a WSJ dot style “hedcut” portrait of John Sculley

And here is a beautiful portrait of the man himself:

A Macintosh SE/30 showing the Finder with a number of different AppleTalk zones, with my zone “the polpo zone” selected, with a printer called ImageScribbler selected

A dot matrix printout on tractor feed paper. It’s a letter/memo. Contents: Apple Computer Inc., Adranced Technology Group News Dear Apple Evangelists, During the past several weeks, it has come to my attention an extraordinary amount of information and rumor about Apple has been appearing in local newspapers, trade and business publications and posted in on-line newsgroups. Although there's usually some truth in most everything that's printed about Apple, rumors both inside and outside of Apple are surfacing more frequently these days. I’d like to take a moment to clarify these zumors and set the record straight

One day before the start of #MARCHintosh and the polpo zone and its ImageWriter II are back on #GlobalTalk! About 5 minutes after getting online I got a letter from John Sculley himself. I’m honored

A piece of 1-bit pixel art on a simulated Macintosh screen. the piece of 512x342 pixels in size, and depicts a wacked-out bit of art showin the giant number "2026" floating in space over a piece of "Globaltalk" text with an Apple logo next to it. Various spacy shit is around the piece, like a nebula behind, a planet with rings, a small black hole, a whole bunch of stylised magnetar lines, clouds, rocks, and black bubbles of possibly vacuum decay. it's signed in the bottom right corner by me, 'nanoraptor'

For Globaltalk, in Marchintosh 2026.

18.5 hours, 1 bit, black and white only.

(Original .pict on a bunch of your globaltalk servers)

This is awesome! I hope you get a chance to drop a copy on the shares of those who haven’t connected yet!

I have a feeling that the OG Xbox requires UDMA which the PicoIDE does not support. I think this weekend I’ll finally hook a PicoIDE up to my Xbox and PS2 and see how they do

Screenshot of the PicoIDE Crowd Supply campaign, showing $224,772 and 643% in funding.

Whoops, I missed my chance to make the “640% should be enough for everybody” joke. But it’s obviously not enough because the PicoIDE campaign keeps going. 6 days left! I’m blown away by how far it’s come. BTW the last update I posted brought even more people with weird systems out of the woodwork!

Congrats!! Signed up immediately.

My pre launch page for the Build A Boy is live on @crowdsupply.bsky.social crowdsupply.com/natalie-the-nerd/build-a-boy

The only kit that will turn your Lego kit into a real working Game Boy - no emulation