User supercat

114 votes

Accepted

Why did the Apple IIe make a hideous noise if you inserted the disk upside down?

answered Jun 27, 2019 at 15:34

75 votes

Why did C use the arrow (->) operator instead of reusing the dot (.) operator?

answered Apr 24, 2019 at 18:42

54 votes

What character is the MS-DOS cursor?

answered Jan 31, 2018 at 19:40

52 votes

Accepted

Why are old CPUs like MOS Technology 6502 and Motorola 68000 considered better for real time systems applications than modern x86 based CPUs?

answered Oct 16, 2020 at 18:23

51 votes

What does the "x" in "x86" represent?

answered Apr 15, 2019 at 17:13

45 votes

Accepted

Did any PC software floating point use non-IEEE format?

answered Mar 24, 2022 at 20:36

40 votes

Why couldn't early C compilers handle variable declarations between statements?

answered Oct 26, 2021 at 22:12

40 votes

Typical dpi of dot matrix printers available in the 1980s

answered Jun 8, 2020 at 19:11

38 votes

Accepted

Why did the Z80 break 8080 compatibility?

answered Nov 18, 2021 at 16:58

37 votes

Accepted

What was the first mainstream advanced debugger?

answered Dec 6, 2018 at 20:59

37 votes

Why was desktop CPU frequency so low in the late 1990s?

answered Apr 22, 2023 at 18:18

36 votes

Why did the monsters have "infinite invisible pillars" of hitboxes vertically in all versions of the DOOM engine?

answered Oct 14, 2021 at 19:05

34 votes

Accepted

In the ISO 1990 C standard library, what was the rationale for having memcpy return one of its inputs?

answered Jun 21, 2022 at 16:26

32 votes

Why do Game Boy games have explicit save functions, instead of using battery-backed non-volatile cartridge SRAM to store the game state?

answered Jul 11, 2021 at 20:58

32 votes

What languages are better fit for generating efficient code for popular 8-bit CPU's than C?

answered May 29, 2020 at 19:57

31 votes

Accepted

What order were files/directories output in dir?

answered Apr 19, 2019 at 2:40

30 votes

Why did some old MS-DOS games lack the ability to exit them?

answered Aug 26, 2021 at 18:25

30 votes

Status of brute forcing all possible memory states of a video game

answered Aug 28, 2022 at 21:24

29 votes

Did something like floppy disk jukeboxes for home computers exist in the 70s or 80s? Would that have been a feasible concept?

answered Aug 31, 2022 at 17:36

29 votes

How much did IBM save by limiting the PC to 4.77 MHz?

answered Mar 11, 2020 at 21:17

29 votes

Use of undocumented opcodes

answered Oct 21, 2016 at 16:08

26 votes

Accepted

Why was it possible to cause an Apple //e to shut down with SHIFT and paddle button 2?

answered May 30, 2019 at 16:35

26 votes

Intel CPU bug in the 90s

answered Oct 13, 2020 at 16:19

24 votes

Accepted

How can a Z80 assembly program find out its own memory address?

answered Feb 10, 2020 at 22:22

24 votes

Accepted

Building an 8080 based computer

answered Mar 12 at 15:42

23 votes

Accepted

What happens when I declare multiple register variables in C on older compilers?

answered Sep 19, 2024 at 15:01

23 votes

Could you see what you are typing in a Teletype?

answered Apr 19, 2017 at 15:59

22 votes

Reason for the Amiga clock speed

answered Jan 24, 2017 at 22:06

22 votes

Would a C compiler for the Apollo Guidance Computer be plausible?

answered Sep 3, 2018 at 18:26

22 votes

Accepted

Besides the VIC-20 did any other micros have fewer than 32 columns available for text mode?

answered Sep 29, 2020 at 17:11

Stack Exchange Network

443 Answers

Why did the Apple IIe make a hideous noise if you inserted the disk upside down?

Why did C use the arrow (->) operator instead of reusing the dot (.) operator?

What character is the MS-DOS cursor?

Why are old CPUs like MOS Technology 6502 and Motorola 68000 considered better for real time systems applications than modern x86 based CPUs?

What does the "x" in "x86" represent?

Did any PC software floating point use non-IEEE format?

Why couldn't early C compilers handle variable declarations between statements?

Typical dpi of dot matrix printers available in the 1980s

Why did the Z80 break 8080 compatibility?

What was the first mainstream advanced debugger?

Why was desktop CPU frequency so low in the late 1990s?

Why did the monsters have "infinite invisible pillars" of hitboxes vertically in all versions of the DOOM engine?

In the ISO 1990 C standard library, what was the rationale for having memcpy return one of its inputs?

Why do Game Boy games have explicit save functions, instead of using battery-backed non-volatile cartridge SRAM to store the game state?

What languages are better fit for generating efficient code for popular 8-bit CPU's than C?

What order were files/directories output in dir?

Why did some old MS-DOS games lack the ability to exit them?

Status of brute forcing all possible memory states of a video game

Did something like floppy disk jukeboxes for home computers exist in the 70s or 80s? Would that have been a feasible concept?

How much did IBM save by limiting the PC to 4.77 MHz?

Use of undocumented opcodes

Why was it possible to cause an Apple //e to shut down with SHIFT and paddle button 2?

Intel CPU bug in the 90s

How can a Z80 assembly program find out its own memory address?

Building an 8080 based computer

What happens when I declare multiple register variables in C on older compilers?

Could you see what you are typing in a Teletype?

Reason for the Amiga clock speed

Would a C compiler for the Apollo Guidance Computer be plausible?

Besides the VIC-20 did any other micros have fewer than 32 columns available for text mode?