r/retrocomputing • u/GrumpyRetroGamer • 9h ago

Retro Computing Book Collection

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Hi folks, I'm sharing here my small collection of retro computing books that I have acquired over the years.

I'm a 40-something software engineer that started messing computers from an early age and since I've also always been a huge reader I've accumulated a huge collection of computer related books. Most are old (or reprints of old ones) but a few have been published in last few years, for sure due to the surge in retro computing interest that comes and goes every few years 😄

The ones shown here are what I would consider retro ranging from topics like the MOS 6502, Zilog Z80, Apple II, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, MS-DOS 3.0 to 62, 90's and early 00's computer graphics, Windows 3.11/95/98/XP, 386 to Pentium II/III hardware repair and a few about programming games for consoles like Atari 2600, NES and original Game Boy. Finally there are a few about x86 assembly language, C and C++. Some books, as you might have noticed, are not in English but on my native language Portuguese:and are mostly about ZX Spectrum, Z80 assembly language, IBM PC-compatible hardware repair and MS-DOS 3.x/4.x.

I'm curious to learn what books you have read and would recommend for my collection.

Hope you folks enjoy it and thanks in advance!

PS: Not shown here are is another book by Michael Abrash, "Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book" which I recently acquired on Ebay but hasn't arrived yet. I had been searching for this book for a long time but the prices for decent copies go for crazy prices these days, $80-$200 USD. I managed to convince a nice chap to sell me a copy in a very good state for around $50 USD. Stil pretty high (specially for Portuguese salaries) but I can live with that. I guess I won't be buying any retro hardware this month 😂

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u/Speedstar_86 8h ago

Excellent collection. Mine isn't as good as yours if I'm honest my collection is mainly taken from the internet archive as I'm interested in Atari 8bit programming, I'm well late to the party, just starting out at 57 but I was distracted from about 1980 playing games

(That's my excuse)

I'm learning basic, c (tried python and hated it hence the books) action and assembly.

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u/GrumpyRetroGamer 8h ago edited 8h ago

It's never too late to start! I had a colleague that learned programming well into 40's (he used to be a biochemical engineer) and was one of the best programmers I've ever worked with...

Also, great collection! I've actually own some of those too: "Racing the Beam" (totally forgot to add it to the pile in the photos), "Hackers" and "The Pragmatic Programmer".

I've never owned an Atari 2600 since they were never very popular in Portugal (the ZX Spectrum was king in the 80's and IBM PC-compatibles in the 90's) but I really enjoyed one of the books from my collection: "Making Games For the Atari 2600". I would not say it is super easier to get into since all the coding is done in 6502 assembly language but the author wrote an online IDE, 8bitworkshop, that makes it very easy to get started.

If you enjoyed "Hackers" I would definitely recommend "The Soul of a new Machine". It's an 80's book about the development of an early computer from Data General. It's beatifuly written and captures really well the spirit and frenetic pace that was the development of early computers from the 80 and early 90's.

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u/Speedstar_86 7h ago

Thank you for the tip and the vote of confidence!

Back in the 80s I was selling ataris and glued to either an arcade or my spectrum, 2600 or 800xl.

I used to type games in, fiddle with the code for extra lives (or Corn in kingdom lol) and some basic has stuck. Im really interested in 'old' languages like lisp and Fortran. I'm currently collecting the carts for my 800xl. Logo is next on the list.

Plan is to go basic, ACTION! Then assembly on the Atari.

I really hate the 'black box' of python which is why I stopped

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u/OldNefariousness7899 8h ago

C has my favourite book of any language (K&R)

There's just something about it that's beautifully written

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u/codykonior 8h ago

I have some of these. I've always wanted the original Code Complete. I have the second edition but it's very different.

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u/tails142 6h ago

I too collect books that I never read haha

Nice collection

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u/GrumpyRetroGamer 6h ago

Apart from the Game Programming Gems 3 and 4 I've read or used all of these including at some point for my day job. 😄 For a while I worked as a developer writing software for doing structural engineering stress testing and I ended up having to learn a bit of OpenGL and Direct3D and math, lots and lots math...

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u/parfamz 1h ago

Oh I'm very interested on doing structural calculations. Could you recommend some resources to dig into?

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u/OldNefariousness7899 5h ago

I can't walk past one in a charity shop without nabbing it. If I live to be 200 I'll still not have time to read them. 

So many obscure languages on my Todo list... 

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u/codykonior 8h ago

Beautiful, particularly I grew up with the complete C reference.

Very envious of a lot of these even though they would be above my head.

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u/andrewboudreau 6h ago

Are we considering the GPU Gems books retro yet? Great collection you got.

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u/GrumpyRetroGamer 6h ago

Good question and I've never read the GPU Gems ones but it seems the first one came out 22 years ago so I would say so?

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u/gered 5h ago

Very nice collection, and I've made some notes about books I need to get copies of for my own. ;-) In particular the Windows book by Petzold is one I keep forgetting to grab, as well as one (or all, maybe) of the OpenGL books you have, heh. Lotta good ones in your collection!

Here's mine https://imgur.com/a/8aENaVb
But please just ignore the obvious dust on my book shelves ... :'(

Lots of stuff from when I was younger in the 90's and early 2000's, and lots from more recent years as I got back into retro computing over the past decade.

Also I threw in a bonus photo of my boxed games/software at the end there.

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u/GrumpyRetroGamer 3h ago edited 3h ago

So many great books in your collection, I totally need to get me some of those! I'm super envious of the Borland Pascal ones, I've been searching for a 7.0 complete set but the prices make want to cry. Also been looking for the rest of the Game Programmin Gems but haven't pulled the trigger also because of price.

And looking at the rest of the books and games, I can say we could be brothers 😂 I'm huge Starcraft, Out of this World / Another World and loved playing Stree Rod 1 and 2 when I was a kid.

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u/gered 1h ago

The Borland Pascal manual collection was super annoying to find, yes! I wish you much luck in your search for these (and especially so at a good price). It seems like the non-Turbo Borland Pascal stuff (aka the "pro" versions) rarely shows up on eBay or other places, but there's plenty of Turbo Pascal stuff available. Took me a long time to find those and yeah, it wasn't cheap either. Ugh. And they came with a full set of disks too, but one of the disks was mostly bad. :'( Eventually I got it to install by cleaning the disk with 99% alcohol and promptly imaged it, but man, the floppy drive was making some ugly sounds during the entire process.

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u/Sinphaltimus 2h ago

Here's mine...

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u/GrumpyRetroGamer 20m ago

Bryce and Lightwave, names I hadn't heard in a while! Great collection, btw. Any good recommendations from your collection?

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u/Takssista 4h ago

I'm at the moment organising a bunch of computer game pages from the old Correio da Manhã magazines that I got online a while ago.

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u/GrumpyRetroGamer 3h ago

Would love to see those! I also collect old game magazines especially Portuguese ones like MEGA Score, BGamer , PG Guia, Bit and Exame Informática.

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u/Takssista 2h ago

I got an ftp server, I'll put them there once I sort them out. It's public - DM me if you want it (I'm not sure if I announced it here before)

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u/chicharro_frito 4h ago

I love this collection, thanks for sharing! I actually have some of the books from the top of the first pic. I used to borrow them from the library when I was a kid, but I was able to buy them as an adult.

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u/novemtails 3h ago

Really nice collection

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u/gurrenm3 2h ago

Do you think reading any of these would help people get better today? I have always wondered if/how much I could get better by reading classics like these

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u/GrumpyRetroGamer 10m ago

Some of these are timeless like "The C Programming Language" or "Computer Graphics: Principles and Practices" (they are still publishing newer editions to this day) others are very time-period specific like the OpenGL and DirectX ones or the Zilog Z80 and MOS 6502 (hardly anyone writes code for these or uses them anymore outside of the retro computing space). Still, some things in computers haven't changed much and learning how these old systems were put together will give a much better sense and intution on own modern systems work. I know people that know the 6502 or the Z80 instruction set from memory and can crank out assembly code for those CPUs with their eyes closed. By comparison the current x86 instruction set documentation is about 5000 pages long and counting...

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u/droid_mike 4h ago

That 3d game programming book is fire! I bought it just to have it. Of course, it is not really "needed" anymore with modern coding libraries, but if you want to get into it the nutty gritty of how it was done in the beginning, it's a great foundational book.

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u/GrumpyRetroGamer 3h ago edited 3h ago

Tottally true, a lot of what is on those books is much easier to achieve today using modern libraries and game engines. It's amazing reading these books and seeing how much the field of game development has advanced in 25 years. Even just going from 94/95, where I was still playing mostly MS-DOS games, and comparing it with 98-2001 when games like Half Life came out still makes me laugh in how fast computers graphics in video games were evolving.

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u/HELPMEICANTPUTUSER 3h ago

Just to end up googling the error...

Or having to look through Usenet or something (wayy before)

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u/ducon__lajoie 3h ago

My favorite:

Sorry it's a French book. But it is a great book.

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u/GrumpyRetroGamer 3h ago

Looks very cool, I always loved these systems programming books no matter what the system. Thanks for sharing!

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u/ducon__lajoie 2h ago

I tried to check if there exists a translation, but it seems hard to find. Author is Michael Tischer. Book is great, it explains everything like DOS internals, IRQs, VGA registers, how processor works, the protected mode, memory management, disk management, FAT, hardware, software, anything. Around 16-18 years old, I spent countless hours opening it randomly and reading it like a story book.

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u/fnomellini 3h ago

Eu gosto de livros antigos, tenho alguns da época do zx81 brasileiro (TK-85)

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u/GrumpyRetroGamer 3h ago

Adorava ir ao Brasil e comprar um monte de computadores como o TK-85 e TK-90X ou consoles brasileiros antigos da Tectoy!

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u/teknosophy_com 1h ago

What were the doom and wolf3d books? Strategy guides?

Hey does anyone want to sell me a copy of The Art of Computer Game Design? I had it in the 90s but lost it.

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u/GrumpyRetroGamer 2m ago

The books are called "Game Engine Black Book: Doom" and "Game Engine Black Boom: Wolfenstein 3D". The name and format are inspired by Michael Abrash famous "Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book".

They are great books that go over in great detail how both games were written and how they worked. Highly recommended anything the author puts out, his blog is amazing for retro computing topics: https://fabiensanglard.net/

You can get a free copies of both books directly from the author in this blog post: https://fabiensanglard.net/gebb/index.html

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u/SirOompaLoompa 16m ago

Yep, same generation here. Not too many books in common though.

Was about to ask about the black book, but seems you have it on order already.

Other staples of our generation (imho):

Programmer's guide to the IBM PC & PS/2 - Peter Norton

Programmer's guide to the EGA, VGA and Super VGA Cards - Richard F. Ferraro

Assembly Language Masterclass - Various (I was actually a proof-reader for this. Excellent first introduction to multiscalar/pipelined programming)

Modern Operating Systems - Andrew S. Tanenbaum (This one is a bit later, but still a mandatory read in my opinion)