A Commodore 64 Walkabout
Robinson Mason. 2011
Open the door to your retro computing adventure! The Commodore 64 is alive and well in a thriving community of enthusiasts. Updated for 2012 with additional content including a new chapter introducing programming, the second edition of this book is your gateway to understanding and enjoying the C64 scene today whether it be through emulation or original hardware. With tutorials, reviews, personal stories, interviews, and links galore, the wide world of the C64 is at your fingertips! Have you ever wanted to know more about the Commodore 64 and how you can enjoy the thousands of programs developed for it, or perhaps create your own? Whether you are a newcomer to the still active Commodore scene, or someone who owned a C64 back in the 80s or 90s who would simply like to play an old game once again, this book will set you on the right path. Squarely targeted at the C64 novice, but with plenty for veterans as well, A C64 Walkabout discusses the old and the new, with reviews of great old games and information on new products still being developed for the C64 and VIC-20 home computers of the 1980s.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11836577-a-commodore-64-walkabout

Apple I Replica Creation: Back to the Garage
Tom Owad, Steve Wozniak. Syngress, 2005
The perfect book for computer hobbyists, Apple I Replica Creation: Back to the Garage is sure to equally appeal both to kids with gift certificates looking for fun on a snowy January day as well as to adults eager to learn the basics of simple microcomputer design. The book will begin by teaching readers the basics of computer processing by discussing the functionality of the 9 chip on the Apple I motherboard. From there, readers will be taught the basics of memory access and video input and output. Readers then learn how to assemble the various hardware components into a fully functioning Apple I replica. Finally, readers will learn how to write their own applications to take run on their new/old computer.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5765.Apple_I_Replica_Creation

Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines
Raiford Guins. Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020
Drawing from deep archival research and extensive interviews, Atari Design is a rich, historical study of how Atari's industrial and graphic designers contributed to the development of the video game machine. Innovative game design played a key role in the growth of Atari – from Pong to Asteroids and beyond – but fun, challenging and exciting game play was not unique to the famous Silicon Valley company. What set it apart from its competitors was innovation in the coin-op machine's cabinet. Atari did not just make games, it designed products for environments. With “tasteful packaging”, Atari exceeded traditional locations like bars, amusement parks and arcades, developing the look and feel of their game cabinets for new locations such as fast food restaurants, department stores, country clubs, university unions, and airports, making game-play a ubiquitous social and cultural experience. By actively shaping the interaction between user and machine, overcoming styling limitations and generating a distinct corporate identity, Atari designed products that impacted the everyday visual and material culture of the late 20th century. Design was never an afterthought at Atari.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56485825-atari-design

Classic 80's Home Video Games: Identification and Value Guide
Robert P. Wicker, Jason W. Brassard. Collector Books, 2007
The early 80s was a pioneering time for home video games. Consoles from Atari, Mattel, Coleco, and others dominated many American living rooms. This guide takes an in-depth look at the classic consoles, games, accessories, and related merchandise manufactured between the introduction of the Atari VCS in 1977 and the great video game crash of 1984. The great consoles from Atari–the 2600 VCS, 5200 SuperSystem, and 7800 ProSystem are all covered in depth, as well as the amazing Coleco Vision, Intellivision, Odyssey-2-, and Vectrex gaming systems. More than 2,000 full-color photographs complement detailed listings for loose and boxed items. Consoles, cartridges, manuals, accessories, and related merchandise are listed and priced in an easy-to-use, checklist format. Products are listed by console and manufacturer for easy reference. See Donkey Kong, Frogger, Asteroids, Centipede, Pac-Man, and many other famous stars from the 1980s systems in this must-have title on classic video games. 2008 values.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3180077-classic-80-s-home-video-games

Collectible Microcomputers
Michael Nadeau. Schiffer Publishing, 2002
This comprehensive field guide is invaluable for identifying and pricing more than 700 microcomputers made worldwide between 1971 and 1993. It's filled with over 340 photos and up-to-date information for collectors who want to fully enjoy this rapidly emerging hobby. Featured are early hobbyist computers, desktop business/professional computers, home computers, PC-compatibles, transportable computers, laptops, and notebook computers. They're all arranged alphabetically by manufacturer to aid in quick identification. Fascinating historical notes and anecdotes make this book a great read! Collectors will find advice for locating and evaluating micros, a glossary of computing terms, and a great list of resources. A must-have for everyone interested in vintage computers!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7166362-collectible-microcomputers

Commodore Tape Recorders
Giacomo Vernoni. Self pulished, 2019
Commodore Tape Recorders shows all the cassette drives that were used with the Commodore 8-bit line of computers: from the first one in the PET 2001 case to the model 1530 that many of us used to load games on the Commodore 64. The models are presented in the most probable chronological order, with an image of the device and scans of the manual covers. Known variations and technical specifications are shown for each model.
https://www.oldcomputr.com/product/commodore-tape-recorders/

Commodore VIC 20: A Visual History
Giacomo Vernoni. Self pulished, 2017
A book about the computer that made Commodore enter the home market. Many pictures of the VIC 20 revisions and peripherals, plus restored box art images of all the cartridges sold by Commodore for the system. Includes a full set of all the Commodore game and utilities cartridge covers printed on heavy paper, postcard size, with a sleeve box.
https://www.oldcomputr.com/product/commodore-vic-20-a-visual-history-cartridge-cards-set/

Computer engineering: A DEC view of hardware systems design C. Gordon Bell, J. Craig Mudge, John McNamara. John Wiley & Sons, 1978
The selection first elaborates on the seven views of computer systems, technology progress in logic and memories, and packaging and manufacturing. Concerns cover power supplies, DEC computer packaging generations, general packaging, semiconductor logic technology, memory technology, measuring (and creating) technology progress, structural levels of a computer system, and packaging levels-of -integration. The manuscript then examines transistor circuitry in the Lincoln TX-2, digital modules, PDP-1 and other 18-bit computers, PDP-8 and other 12-bit computers, and structural levels of the PDP-8. The text takes a look at cache memories for PDP-11 family computers, buses, DEC LSI-11, and design decisions for the PDP-11/60 mid-range minicomputer. Topics include reliability and maintainability, price/performance balance, advances in memory technology, synchronization of data transfers, error control strategies, PDP-11/45, PDP-11/20, and cache organization. The selection is a fine reference for practicing computer designers, users, programmers, designers of peripherals and memories, and students of computer engineering and computer science.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30734340-computer-engineering

Computer Structures: Principles and Examples
Daniel P. Siewiorek, C. Gordon Bell, Allen Newell. McGraw-Hill, 1971
This highly practical and realistic book enables readers to understand design principles applicable to many computers, despite a rapidly increasing number of computer types, configurations, and ap- plications. It accomplishes this by offering a systematized presentation of the principles governing the design of a wide variety of computer systems. Included is a large selection of articles on actual computer systems, many written specifically for this book. Often the authors of these articles are the designers of the systems under discussion, and they provide information not previously available to the general public.
https://archive.org/details/computerstructures00siew
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1414121.Computer_Structures

Home Computers: 100 Icons That Defined a Digital Generation
Alex Wiltshire, John Short. MIT Press, 2020
A celebration of the early years of the digital revolution, when computing power was deployed in a beige box on your desk. Today, people carry powerful computers in our pockets and call them “phones.” A generation ago, people were amazed that the processing power of a mainframe computer could be contained in a beige box on a desk. This book is a celebration of those early home computers, with specially commissioned new photographs of 100 vintage computers and a generous selection of print advertising, product packaging, and instruction manuals. Readers can recapture the glory days of fondly remembered (or happily forgotten) machines including the Commodore 64, TRS-80, Apple Lisa, and Mattel Aquarius–traces of the techno-utopianism of the not-so-distant past. Home Computers showcases mass-market success stories, rarities, prototypes, one-offs, and never-before-seen specimens. The heart of the book is a series of artful photographs that capture idiosyncratic details of switches and plugs, early user-interface designs, logos, and labels. After a general scene-setting retrospective, the book proceeds computer by computer, with images of each device accompanied by a short history of the machine, its inventors, its innovations, and its influence. Readers who inhabit today's always-on, networked, inescapably connected world will be charmed by this visit to an era when the digital revolution could be powered down every evening.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51777554-home-computers

The Apollo Guidance Computer: Architecture And Operation
Frank O'Brien. Praxis, 2010
The technological marvel that facilitated the Apollo missions to the Moon was the on-board computer. In the 1960s most computers filled an entire room, but the spacecraft's computer was required to be compact and low power. Although people today find it difficult to accept that it was possible to control a spacecraft using such a 'primitive' computer, it nevertheless had capabilities that are advanced even by today's standards. This is the first book to fully describe the Apollo guidance computer's architecture, instruction format and programs used by the astronauts. As a comprehensive account, it will span the disciplines of computer science, electrical and aerospace engineering. However, it will also be accessible to the 'space enthusiast'. In short, the intention is for this to be the definitive account of the Apollo guidance computer. Frank O'Brien's interest in the Apollo program began as a serious amateur historian. About 12 years ago, he began performing research and writing essays for the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, and the Apollo Flight Journal. Much of this work centered on his primary interests, the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) and the Lunar Module. These Journals are generally considered the canonical online reference on the flights to the Moon. He was then asked to assist the curatorial staff in the creation of the Cradle of Aviation Museum, on Long Island, New York, where he helped prepare the Lunar Module simulator, a LM procedure trainer and an Apollo space suit for display. He regularly lectures on the Apollo computer and related topics to diverse groups, from NASA's computer engineering conferences, the IEEE/ACM, computer festivals and university student groups.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7754526-the-apollo-guidance-computer

The ZX Spectrum Ula: How to Design a Microcomputer Christopher David Smith. Zxdesign Technology and Media, 2010
This book takes the reader through the design and implementation of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum's custom chip, revealing for the first time the decisions behind its design and its hidden secrets. By using it as case study, the techniques required to design an 8-bit microcomputer are explained, along with comprehensive details of the Ferranti ULA manufacturing process. If you have ever wanted to design your own computer or wondered what was behind the most successful microcomputer of the 1980s, then this is the book for you. For the first time, the inner working of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum's custom chip and heart of the computer, the Ferranti ULA, is exposed in minute detail. Packed with over 140 illustrations and circuit diagrams, this book takes the reader through the cutting edge technology that was the Ferranti ULA and the design of the ZX Spectrum home computer, illustrating the principles and techniques involved in creating a cost effective computer that required nothing more than a television set and a cassette recorder. The ZX Spectrum ULA is an essential read for the electronics hobbyist, student or electronic engineer wishing to design their own retro-style microcomputer or anyone with an interest in historical micro-electronic and digital design. All topics are explained in simple yet precise terms, building on their careful introduction towards the full functionality presented by the Sinclair computer. Some of the topics covered are: The architecture of the standard microcomputer, Ferranti and their ULA, manufacturing process and structure, The functional layout of the ZX Spectrum ULA, Video display generation, Memory contention and timing, ZX Spectrum design bugs such as “The Snow Effect,” Hidden features, ULA version differences.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13818753-the-zx-spectrum-ula

TV Typewriter Cookbook
Don Lancaster. Sams Technical Publishing, 1976
This book shows you how to put your own words and pictures on ordinary tv sets. It's also a book on cheap things that can be connected to a microprocessor to get it to do genuinely useful tasks. If you are a computer hobbyist with a home-brew mashup, a serious professional data processor concerned with low-cost small machine systems, a video games freak, or a ham working with rtty, you will find in depth information on tv typewriter technology, which today represents the only truly low-cost ($30 to $150) microcomputer and small-systems display interface. If you are a software specialist, we will be showing you the hardware that makes your software work, giving you the depth of background you will need for effective and efficient small-systems coding. If you are teaching microprocessors, you will find this book useful as a primary or supplemental text on the high school through university levels. If you are into video recording, cable tv, or studio broadcasting, you will find techniques here for low-cost titling and annotation of existing program material, as well as the means for video art synthesis. And, if you are an electronics technician, herein lies the answers on the standard ASCII code; serial transmission formats; keyboards and encoders; Teletype, cassette, and modem techniques; along with many of the integrated circuits and systems concepts that back them up.
https://archive.org/details/tvtcb_doc/mode/2up
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2333989.TV_Typewriter_Cookbook

Vintage Commodore 128 Personal Computer Handbook: 2019 Survival Edition
Margaret Gorts Morabito. 2019
The Vintage Commodore 128 Personal Computer Handbook is written in easy to understand, non-technical language, to help answer your questions about the C-128. Aimed specifically at present day users, this book will teach you how to use and equip your vintage C-128, even if you don't have the original peripherals and software disks. Practical hands-on information is included, such as how to set up the computer, how to access and use the three operating systems, how to set up and use certain modern peripherals such as the SD2IEC, how to go online through Ethernet or by wireless or with a traditional modem. Also included are technical specifications, an introduction to BASIC 7.0, how to use CP/M, maintenance, troubleshooting, repair services, where to get modern day peripherals, where to look for sources of information on hardware, software, support, and communication with other Commodore computer users, among other topics of interest and need. This will be one of your main C-128 reference books, one that you will come back to again and again.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44542446-vintage-commodore-128-personal-computer-handbook