How PCs Became Cheaper 40 Years Ago - This Week In Retro 285

It's the big four-oh for the Amstrad PC1512, an aggressively cost-reduced PC clone for the UK market. There's also a fascinating time capsule of Atari user group newsletters from August 1987, and Nelumbo, a new engine for classic Lotus racing action, plus Tron references, Kickstarter updates for Spectrum Next and Vectrex Mini, a unique phone booth memorial, and more!

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00:00 - Show Opening

04:00 - Cheap PCs, Cheaper PCs and Even Cheaper PCs Story Link: https://x.com/Lord_Sugar/status/2095098703992250874

18:38 - Exploring A 1987 Time Capsule Story Link: https://blog.archive.org/2026/08/27/a-computer-history-time-capsule/ Newsletters: https://archive.org/details/antc_Atari_newsletter_time_capsule_1987-08

38:20 - Housekeeping - News links found below

45:15 - Lotus Is Back Story Link: https://almost-there-games.itch.io/nelumbo Launch Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYZk2k6AOA8

55:32 - Community Question of the Week

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News In Brief Links CEX Retro Shop: https://metro.co.uk/2026/08/31/cex-confirms-existence-first-retro-store-birmingham-29501398/

Vectrex Update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1852390947/vectrex-mini/posts/4787697

Bletchley Park Redundancies: https://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/heritage/bletchley-park-in-milton-keynes-announces-redundancies-due-to-dwindling-visitor-numbers-8958108

Space Paranoids: https://landonjsmith.com/projects/spaceparanoids/

Defrag Simulator: https://defrag98.com/

PlayStation 2 Emulator: https://www.timeextension.com/news/2026/08/pcsx2-has-just-been-updated-bringing-serious-performance-gains-and-more-to-the-ps2-emulator

Nick Weerts Memorial Phone Booth: http://nickweertsmemorial.com

Mario On The Master System: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRrioabZZwM