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I'm carrying a surprise exhibit for #PaCommEx... can you tell what it is?

That's right! It's the Sam440ep, a rare PowerPC Amiga made by the Italian company ACube Systems!

https://www.acube-systems.biz/index.php?page=hardware&pid=2

It still works perfectly, and boots into AmigaOS 4.1.

Compared to a classic m68k Amiga, it feels blazingly fast: windows with soft shadows move smoothly on a high-resolution, true-color screen.

Arrived in the middle of the #MEGA65 keynote
#c64 #retrocomputing

The #MEGA65 is truly the 8-bit home computer of the future!
#c64 #retrocomputing

More pics from the first day of Commodore Pacific Expo.

Robert Bernardo kindly provided a monitor and desk space to exhibit my 600 MHz PPC AmigaOS 4.1 running on the Sam440ex.

A 9 year old was typing BASIC commands on the Plus 4 next to me. I introduced him to the one-liner maze generator published in the original user manual of the Commodore 64:

10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10

Afterwards, he started modifying the code, trying different values to see what would happen... much like I did when I was about the same age

His older brother, 12, was a more advanced BASIC programmer. He apparently discovered the C64 through the 8-bit Guy and other YouTube channels.

Now this young programmer has his own YouTube channel, and he's coding an adventure game called High Honor:
https://youtu.be/eG9Rp45BepA

The hand-written program listing of High Honor is impressive.

I also scribbled BASIC programs while in school, and I also used squared paper to draw sprites or PETSCII art, but this work is *neat*!

It's also remarkable that the parents don't know anything about programming. They told me that their elder son asked for a Commodore 64, and they bought it without being too sure what he'd be doing with it.

This is pretty much how I started learning the fun and rewarding profession I'm still doing today.

So I wish both these kids to reach their potential and enjoy their careers

Next, I run AmiUpdate, which self-updates and then shows several years worth of updates for various apps, including the web browser and AmiSSL. I need this update for compatibility with websites which have disabled older TLS versions.

Unfortunately, most updates failed because I didn't have LHA, the de-facto standard archiver for Amiga software.

So I download LHA for PPC from Aminet, but... it's an lha archive too!

The C64 Mini (left) and its new sister, The A500 Mini (right). Both super cute.

This particular C64 Mini had a functional keyboard, which must have required a crazy amount of work