Articles by Big Mess o' Wires

The BMOW Wombat ADB-USB input converter and the Internal/External Drive Switcher for Apple IIc are now back in stock at the BMOW Store. Head there to get yours now. Wombat what? The Wombat is a bidirectional ADB-to-USB and USB-to-ADB converter for keyboards and mice, and was developed by Steve …

Remember the Yellowstone disk controller card that I designed back in 2018? It was an FPGA-based clone of the Apple II Liron controller, with aspirations to eventually become a universal reconfigurable disk controller. And it worked nicely when it was the only card installed in the computer, but things …

Recently I’ve been toying with the idea of building an Apple II video card. Like many of you, I’ve grown tired of searching for the dwindling supply of monitors with a native composite video input, and frustrated with available solutions for composite-to-VGA and composite-to-HDMI conversion. This card would fit …

Yesterday’s post contained lots of details about Apple II copy-protection and the minutiae of 5.25 inch floppy disk data recording. It mentions that bits are recorded on the disk at a rate of 4 microseconds per bit. This is well-known, and 4 us/bit appears all over the web in …

Good news for Apple II fans: there’s a new Apple II firmware update for the BMOW Floppy Emu Disk Emulator. This update introduces substantial emulation enhancements for copy-protected Apple II software on 5.25 inch floppy disk images. Though Floppy Emu is designed for standard non-protected disks, most copy-protected games …

The Mac ROM-inator II is back in stock – get yours now at the BMOW Store. The ROM-inator II is a replacement ROM SIMM for Macintosh II series computers and the Mac SE/30, adding a bootable ROM disk, 32-bit cleanliness, HD20 hard disk support, and more. Read more about …

The acrylic case for BMOW’s Floppy Emu disk emulator is back in stock, along with the deluxe bundle of Floppy Emu with the case and SD card. Get them now at the BMOW store. This is a new version of the laser-cut acrylic case that I’m excited to introduce …

On Monday I posted a retro puzzle contest for vintage computing fans. Starting with only a confusing image of jumbled 8-bit characters, I promised that players would proceed through a tricky series of nested challenges, ultimately leading to the name of a person. If you’ve read the book (or …

The BMOW Floppy Emu disk emulator is back in stock and shipping now. Get yours and other BMOW hardware goodies at the store. But before you place your order, you might wish to try your hand at a special challenge. Are you ready to test your nerd skills and …

International package shipments through the US Post Office have seen major disruptions in the past months thanks to COVID-19. It’s slower than a sad mule hauling a sack of letters. The delays have caused lots of headaches for BMOW customers and for me. To be candid, it’s a mess. …