ADAM’74, a retro display for 8-bit computers #VintageComputers #Retrocomputers
The Adam74 is a little project that tries to act as a little terminal that a hobbyist might enjoy using for a small 8-bit computer they’re experimenting with.
It relies on 7 pins to represent a 7-bit ASCII character and another pin that the connected device strobes in order to tell the Adam74 that there is a character waiting on the input pins to buffer and display. The prevalence of easy-to-interface small LCD displays and inexpensive microcontrollers to drive them made this project a no-brainer.
Like a terminal, the Adam74 handles wrapping of text, scrolling. It also handles many control codes like carriage return and bell. Other control codes are re-interpreted to give a simple cursor control interface, etc.
In doing research on the early terminals it was no surprise that I would stumble upon the ADM-3A terminal. And it will not surprise you that I drew inspiration from this machine for both the general shape of the acrylic stand I designed for it as well as the name itself.
The “74” in Adam74 is meant to suggest the era: sometime around 1974.
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Real shame the display is only 320×240. With a 640×480 one it’d be able to display a full 80×24 characters, just like a *real* ADM-3A.