Thank you for watching I hope you're enjoying the series. In Episode 1 some of you pointed out that other computers were manufactured in Wales, I don't believe any others were designed, manufactured and supported from Wales end to end by a Welsh company so that's why I'm presenting it in this way but if you know of others to come out of Wales in any shape or form I'd love to hear about them. Neil - RMC

@RMCRetro

5 жыл бұрын

"Most Pis are made in a Sony factory in Pencoed, Wales and some are made in China or Japan" - Although you have a fair argument, some Dragons were made in Spain as we'll see in part 3

@kellerkind6169

5 жыл бұрын

About when will the live stream be live ?

@nigelbarrett4936

5 жыл бұрын

The BBC Micro was manufactured at AB Electronics in Wales

@adrianestela

5 жыл бұрын

@@RMCRetro Actually the whole company moved to Spain at that time. 8 bit micros were extremely popular in Spain back then.

@aw34565

5 жыл бұрын

SAM Coupé manufactured by Miles Gordon Technology (MGT), based in Swansea.

I especially liked the music on this episode. It was very relaxing and also trippy.

@nickwallette6201

5 жыл бұрын

Eagerly awaiting Retro Man Cave: The Soundtrack.

@randywatson8347

5 жыл бұрын

Very chill wave

@snooks5607

5 жыл бұрын

almost as if one might've been "chasing the dragon"

Your attention to detail and quality of production are second to none. Great work.

I love that you're breathing some fire into this old dragon.

@rickdeckard7098

5 жыл бұрын

He also slain some of the myths that hung over it.

@TheRetroShed

5 жыл бұрын

MontieMongoose ditto. It’s great to see the Dragon gaining the respect. Great underdog machine!

Watching soldering is calming for some reason. :)

So wonderful seeing this old machine come back to life.

ahh retro man cave sits back pours a cup of coffee and breaks out the rich tea biscuits

@bazza5699

5 жыл бұрын

great minds.. i've got a cuppa and a choccy bar :)

@aitchpea6011

5 жыл бұрын

Rich tea with coffee? We're going to have to revoke your Brit license for that! :-D

@namakudamono

5 жыл бұрын

stephen preece A cup of tea here too. I’ve just eaten my breakfast - a bowl of porridge and scrambled eggs on toast - and am enjoying my Saturday morning dose of RMC before getting on with the day.

I'd suggest getting an insulating washer and a nylon bolt to secure that negative voltage regulator to the heatsink. It'll last a lot longer and means that you're less likely to be one knock from a blown regulator should you have it open again.

@RMCRetro

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the tip David

I really feel blessed to have been a kid/teen in the early ages's of 8-bit home computers which were exciting times and there were so many models of computer when looking back and it would be nice to see a face value comparison of systems sold, tech comparison and potential debates/reasons why certain systems didn't match the expectations of them and value for money.

Thanks again for another great video. This is essential training for all of us who currently have working collections who have yet to tackle faulting parts.

Fascinating! I love this stuff. And the extended soldering b-roll is incredibly satisfying and relaxing.

The Dragon lives on. It's great seeing you bring these machines back to life and I'm also glad to see you trim your leads before you solder. A mistake I often see on KZread is people who solder first then cut which can cause micro fractures in the newly soldered joint. The mood music was also a nice addition, great video all round.

What a great couple of episodes - brings back so many memories :) Thanks for your time doing these, didn't know how much I wanted to see this until I saw it :)

I admire your soldering skills. I don't feel confident enough to solder yet. But i do want to learn so that i can preserve the machines i have :)

I'm very happy I found this channel!! Awesome work, well thought out and overall a great format :)

@RMCRetro

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks James and welcome to The Cave!

A friend Robert Palmer (no, not that one) was a programmer for Dragon. I remember seeing a prototype Dragon that he had.

Extremely high quality channel! Honestly right up there with 8-bit guy or perhaps exceeding, at a fraction of the subscriber count. Top notch analysis and entertainment.

@RMCRetro

5 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the kind words

Nice to see it lives, This certainly makes me wonder whatever became of my old Dragon 32 from when I was a kid.

it' unbelievable to think that we made many successful computers here in England let alone Wales, I owned a Beeb back in the day, I am also half Welsh, thanks for the videos and the memories :)

I never had one of these, so it's great to see it coming back to life and finding out what it was all about.

Great stuff and I can't wait to see this one all done and playing some games. Keep em coming, a world without RMC is not a world I want to live in!

Great video Neil. Love you restoration videos. Keep'em coming.

Been checking nearly every day for part 2 of this. I'm not sure WHY I'm so enamored by this series in particular...

@RMCRetro

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks Daniel I'm glad you're enjoying it. I'm trying to weave more history into the T2T series rather than it just being a repair. Hopefully the balance is good for you and others

Brilliant work there! Yes it’s an underdog computer but we love underdogs in the shed. Loved the vid and kudos for rescuing the Dragon!

Never played on of those systems. Copyright was 1982 which was the year I was born. Great fix and another great video. Very well done.

I could feel the frustration when fixing one thing resulted in more failures, particularly when it seemed so simple. Well done another memory saved from land fill.

@RMCRetro

5 жыл бұрын

The most useful tool is patience. And a cold beer at the end of the day but mostly patience! Thanks Richard pt3 just being finished now

@a500

5 жыл бұрын

@@RMCRetro Oh I look forward to that. I remember the first game I saw on a Dragon 32 was chucky egg. I thought it was amazing at the time (Both game and computer).

NEW RMC VIDEO! *grabs cat* *pours drink* *gets comfortable* *tells girlfriend not to call* Oh hell yes.

This new lab setup is fantastic! Well worth you shifting your storage area to upstairs :)

Your content is just amazing, so professional and a pleasure to watch, as a 45 year old I remember all the old systems :-)

I was proud owner of a CoCo and a CoCo 3 back in the day. The very early CoCo did have an upside down board to provide the PAL output. We jealous of the pseudo colour displays that could be done on the NTSC version but there were attempts to do it on PAL versions. Basically the difference was that where the NTSC version used one pattern the PAL version used two, one on the left side and one on the right side. The Dragons parallel printer port was something CoCo users wanted and I suspect someone did make a Centronics port cart. At least Tandy did make the RS232 Pak.

Love this series keep up the great work

The D32 was my first computer. I went to (all?) 6809 shows at the Royal Hortical halls in London. Years later in college I used a 6809 embedded board to create an alarm system. Mine spoke! Yes, it was Beavis.

Great episode Neil! Nice debut from the new vice too!

That PSU board was a big problem in the design. I worked as a kid in a shop selling the Dragon 32, and we had lots of returns. All of them were caused by breaks on the PSU board. I was only 18 at the time, but I worked out that the delivery process, with packages being dropped hard, caused the PCB to flex. A quick repair, but yet another nail in the coffin for the product. Shame, I loved it!

Love watching these types of videos! Well done sir! Nice trippy music!

@RMCRetro

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Gorf, glad you're enjoying them

@GORF_EMPIRE

4 жыл бұрын

@@RMCRetro I have a Garage load of these classic machines that I wish I had more time to get to. So these videos give me great instruction on what to do once I find that time.

Great to see the ol’ Dragon 32 getting some love, was our first family computer

You should get one of those cheap transistor tester, because there is something satisfying about knowing the condition of the old parts. Mine does value and ESR.

I had a Dragon 32 back in the early 80's.. It had the RAM daughterboard which enabled me and my dad to upgrade it to more ram. Iirc, it was around 52kb. My dad made the tape-drive cable and we had lots of fun programming on it.

As a crazy Coco fan, I really find this fascinating. I always heard about the Dragon 32 and saw it featured in Coco based magazines like Rainbow, but I really never saw what one looked like. I can tell you the keyboard is a step up from the "melted keyboard" that the Coco shipped with. Having just picked up a Coco 2 last year and getting it up and running, I can tell you the innards are quite different, as you pointed out. Fascinating stuff Neil..i'm loving the coverage!

Ah, part 2 eventually, what a great Easter gift! 😇

The first game I ever played on the Dragon 32 was this one called "Quest"...anyone else remember it? I still think that the keyboard on that machine absolutely kicks the crap out of anything in this day and age...ah, the good ol' days.

Geeee my first computer, just found it in my uncle garage in it’s original box....plan to try it soon.....rétro nostalgia....

Great episode as usual and I'm a huge fan off Nihoni Road 105

The Dragon feels more like a sibling to the Tandy than a clone, part of the same family, not a direct copy.

Komodo dragons are great swimmers. They can swim from one island to another.

Great video Neil. I always find it a great shame when components have to be replaced with modern alternatives rather than repaired. I can see why, but it makes me sad in a way. Great to see it working. A shame you had to replace the power port with a new one and that it could not be repaired, especially considering the new one was different.

Great channel !!! Thank you for your correct pronunciation of 'composite'.

My first colour computer and me and my mother took a trip by train from Yeovil to Portsmouth to the Boots store there to collect it, they were the first to have stock at the time. I'd been waiting to get a Spectrum but gave up and got the Dragon instead. Probably a mistake but someone I knew who did wait for his Spectrum had to wait 1 or 2 months later to get his and when he did he had to return it something like 3 times due to faults. The good thing about the Dragon was it's lack of software meant I was forced to create my own so did conversions of games written in basic listed in magazines for other computers. I seem to remember I converted games from the Sharp MZ-80k, Atari 400, ZX81 etc that used to be listed in Computer and Videogames. It was reliable and the keyboard felt very good but the display was not great and had a huge border. I actually used a black and white tv and had adjusted it to eliminate most of the border with the Dragon. Like many Dragon 32's the sticker on the case was a bit crinkled, whoever was responsible for that part of assembly was truly rubbish. I loved the time with the computer it seemed exciting somehow to own a computer and explore using it. Surprisingly some of the games were really good and the sound came through the tv if I remember rightly so was a world away from the pathetic beeper of the spectrum.

@RMCRetro

5 жыл бұрын

Great memories, and I know Yeovil well, I grew up over the hill in Dorchester

i was 16 in 1982 and i had four part time jobs and i still wanted one of these desperately ...i worked like a Trojan to get one and as i got nearer the total everyone stopped stocking them and stocked c64 or spectrum !!!

Awesome job as always Neil. Good to see a computer that only one friend of mine BITD had (we were all otherwise Speccy and Commodore kids) saved and working. I'm now off to cook a Dragon, 350C sounds a bit on the warm side for my oven but I reckon a nice slow cook at 160C will do the job over the next few weeks...

@RMCRetro

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks Vicky, currently enjoying your DPaint episode

@vix_in_japan

5 жыл бұрын

Aww thanks@@RMCRetro hope you enjoy the DPaint stuff :)

"The only computer ever to come out of the country of Wales"- The Sam Coupe was entirely a Welsh product.

This is such a great channel.

@RMCRetro

5 жыл бұрын

Thank you Steve

I really love the case and keyboard on that machine. IMO, as compared to the CoCo, it seems to be the superior build.

Dragon where the only UK computer manufacturer to support the Japanese MSX system

Nice job!

If it was a true clone of the Tandy CoCo, hardware and software would be exchangeable between the two computers. But for the most part, they aren't, not unless you make several hardware modifications, including swapping out the ROM chip. Opinions may differ, depending one what the word 'clone' means to you individually. But if in 1982 I had been sold a Dragon 32 on the premise that it was a Tandy CoCo clone, only for me to find out that all my Tandy CoCo applications, games and catridges didn't actually run on it, I would have been pretty annoyed. So by my definition, the Dragon is not a CoCo clone, they just share the same reference design.

@RacerX-

5 жыл бұрын

Completely agree. If it is a clone it should be compatible with hardware and software and it is clearly not.

@spacedock873

5 жыл бұрын

Completely agree too. Part of producing a clone is the INTENT to produce a copy of the other machine. This was never the case. As was stated in the video, Dragon Data needed to get something to market quickly and Motorola provided the design and parts for a perfectly functional machine. The fact that this design was developed in conjunction with Radio Shack for use in their CoCo was purely incidental. This is also borne out by the fact that the Dragon differs from the CoCo in the areas not specified in the reference design - ie. they both have the same core but different "extras".

@RMCRetro

5 жыл бұрын

Good points raised. I understand some changes were necessary to avoid legal implications, so perhaps a clone as far as was legally possible. Interestingly Tandy visited Dragon with a view to buying out the company when it hit hard times, but didn't buy them. 10,000 units were part of the deal. I wonder if we would then have seen them rebranded as CoCo's with ROMs swapped and keyboards rewired, such is the similarity.

@julianjordan5171

5 жыл бұрын

I can remember going into Tandy and buying coco tapes which happily ran on my Dragon so software was compatible to some degree...

@RacerX-

5 жыл бұрын

@@RMCRetro now that would have been interesting. Living in the states I got to see Tandy computers all the time, especially in high school but was completely unaware of the Dragon back then. That would have given it some legs.

Fine work Mr Cave.

Great video, look forward to the next, are you gonna do any Dragon upgrades if any !!!!

Great to see you get it working again. Maybe worth running some sort of test program to test all the RAM. For viewers, does Neil visually remind any of you of James Richardson? I half-expect Neil to be looking through old computer magazines while an enormous dessert melts in the foreground. So that’s my headcanon for this channel.

Awesome as always

Awesome video!

Great video!!! There was was a Dragon MSX coming out of Wales... though you may have already known and in a way this is the only computer to ever come out of the country, as the MSX was unreleased and there are only a handful of prototypes around. Speaking of that... hopefully one of these days you'll do something on MSX computers!

@RMCRetro

5 жыл бұрын

This gets a mention in pt3. They made a couple of hundred Dragon MSX's and apparantly gave them to staff when made redundant. They never got a public release. Would love to find one. I have a couple of MSX's, one that needs a good refurb is a Yamaha CX5M which is geared towards music creation. Trying to source a power brick and then it will get some videos 👍

Well done.

Great stuff. I love my Dragon. The only computer to come out of Wales? Just gonna say "Sam Coupe" and leave it there. Also I have a spare copy of Cuthbert goes digging if you want it?.

Nice Vlog Neil great history and a great repair, the dragon lives once again. Why not upgrade the ram to 64k why....because you can mate😀see you in part 3 😁😁😁 Kim 😁😁😁

Great video!

Looking forward to part 3 !

I have a dragon 32 with a failed psu and daughter board. The ac psu is virtually impossible to find a replacement for. In the end I bypassed the daughter board and used a jama arcade psu which had all the correct dc outputs. Great video!

@RMCRetro

5 жыл бұрын

Great solution. There's plenty of room in the case to squeeze alternatives in.

I have a wobbly power socket on a MegaDrive II in the cupboard and I can now see what I need to do to fix it. Now I just need to buy some basic equipment. Any recommendations?

Good job!

Brilliant video/repair (as usual) can you tell me where you purchase your spares from please ?

Nice Video. It's interesting on the Dragon that the keyboard probably cost as much as the hardware which I think was a big downfall. I think having a simpler keyboard and more advanced hardware would have helped it sell much better.

A boxed dragon 32!!! There can't be many of those around :-O

Neil where did you get the gimble/clamp thing you used to hold the electronics whilst soldering? Clampy thing? Nice video mate thanks.

That is some nasty green on green lol

I'm steeling myself for increasing amounts of green as the series continues...

I had waited for Enter the Dragon part 2 since 1973...

@RMCRetro

5 жыл бұрын

Bruce Lee has let himself go

@SpearM3064

5 жыл бұрын

@@RMCRetro At least he's not gaining any weight. ;)

Bought a dragon 32 off ebay years ago. Seller said it worked but never did so been stuck in cupboard for years. No display when i power on. What should i look for first ? Can i still get these repaired if i can't do it myself. thanks

"A clean down with some ISO and an anti-static brush" .. I'm just going to assume you were wearing your ground strap on your ankle ;)

Why would you put that 7905 back in at an angle? Why not flat (with a mica insulator) to the heatsink?

I still have my dragon with the 6809 assembler cartridge :-)

Great entertaining video

Always looking smart and well presented in your videos Neil, much appreciated by the more discerning viewer. Great work on the Dragon

I've been wondering about the Dragon/TRS-80 "compatability" since they came out.. . It'd be great if you can solve my quandary after all these years. Can you get it to run FLEX or OS-9?

Input magazine. Wow!

What soldering station are you using? :)

Love your videos :-)

@RMCRetro

5 жыл бұрын

Thank you Leo!

Good job.

Great series Neil! I’m sure you’ve covered it previously, but what is the board holder you are using?

@RMCRetro

5 жыл бұрын

That's just a cheapy from Amazon. Search PCB holder and lots of those blue ones come up

Tape drives drove me nuts. Would almost never load. Those INPUT magazines behind you. I typed in many of it's programs multiple times because of the sodding tape drive. :) It's been ~38 years and I still hate tape drives.

@SpearM3064

5 жыл бұрын

Should've gone with a Commodore, then. Commodore had the slowest tape drives, but also the most reliable, because it was the only home computer with a *digital* tape format. The reason it was so slow was because they thought *reliability* was more important than speed. Also, because their earliest computers... the early-model PETs and the VIC-20... came off the shelf with only 4k of RAM, so a slow tape drive didn't make much difference. All those computers that let you use an off-the-shelf tape deck were vulnerable to changing the volume (causing distortion of the signal) or minor speed differences (stretching of the tape or a failing motor), so they were comparatively unreliable.

hello with this dragon 32 and the tandy coco - plus emulators like xroar and mess etc - are all the roms the same on the real thing just like the emulators or are they different ???? many thanks!!!! because i typed in a word processor (machine code) and on the real dragon 32 it came up with ?fs error and on xroar came up with ?sn error. thanks can some 1 please explain why this is???? thanks.

I still have my Dragon 32, havent run in it years. I had about 150 games for it and the majority were Coco games from a friend of a friend penpal in the States. They ran just fine . The key assignment was slightly different as i remember (ASCI?) - sort of 'a''would be 'n', 'b' would be 'o' , 'c' would be 'p' and so on and the screen/colour resolutions would be slightly weird. I know there were some fundamental differences in the resolution modes between the two machines

Well, if the delivery is global, the craftsmen are not really local any more, are they?

Does it have any Welsh characters in its font?

Re-watching this I noticed you put the screws in the wrong way around for the power port first time around at 7:25, but you seem to have realized this later. Why not replace the capacitor at C8?

8:17 So, how come you didn't put the -5V regulator onto the heat sink. It was the one that failed after all, connector shenanigans aside...

11:48 ... "4K Color Computer" ... well that means something entirely different these days :D

I've managed to fix my Dragon 32 power supply (Replacing a faulty thermal fuse) and worked out how to reconnect the wiring to the plug to give me the 5V and 12V supplies on all the relevant pins. When I power up I get a green screen with either columns of @ signs or random letters. I believe from some searching this is likely to be a faulty ROM. I'd like to know if anyone can supply a replacement please and likely cost ?

Interesting little machine! I was never a fan of the Coco computer here in the states - too spoiled with my VIC-20 and C64. I agree that this seems to be a clone with a different ROM. I am looking forward to seeing what this little machine can do!

@QunMang

5 жыл бұрын

My sole exposure to the CoCo was my occasional visits to Radio Shack and seeing/playing that Mega Bug game constantly on demo. I was more into Apple ][ (not that my family could afford one except a pretty bad clone called the Laser 3000) then later C64.

if you're gonna fix up a powersupply, at least with the power supply, just replace all caps doesn't matter if they're still good or not, they're old and won't last another 10 years anyway... then check the resistors are on value, replace the ones that aren't... but be careful there are no other components in parallel with the resistor or it could bring its value off...