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

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Chris from 005 AGIMA, Jason from The Retro Adventurers, Dave and Duncan Styles

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

1 hour 1 minutes Posted Sep 12, 2026 at 9:00 am.

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Cheap PCs, Cheaper PCs and Even Cheaper PCsStory Link: https://x.com/Lord_Sugar/status/2095098703992250874

Exploring A 1987 Time CapsuleStory 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

Housekeeping - News links found below

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

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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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This Week in Retro is a weekly roundup of the hottest stories from the world of retro gaming and computing, voted on by you, the listener! Hosted by Chris from 005 AGIMA, Jason from The Retro Adventurers and Dave. Edited by Duncan Styles.

News In Brief LinksCEX 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

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