Getting a Classic PC Working After 25 Years? 533
tunersedge writes "Yesterday I dug out of my parents' basement a PC they had bought brand new in 1984: Epson Equity I personal computer; 512K RAM; 82-key keyboard; 2 (count 'em!, 2) 5.25" floppy disk drives; 13' RGB monitor (with contrast/brightness knobs); handy on/off switch; healthy 25-year-old yellowed plastic; absolutely no software. (My mom ran a pre-school, and they used it to keep records and payroll. I cut my programming teeth on this thing. GW-Basic was my friend. Kings Quest screens took 2 minutes to load when you walked into a new one.) When I resurrected this machine I pulled the case off, dusted out a little, and plugged it in. It actually fired up! I'm stoked, except the disks we had are missing. What I'm looking to do is either buy some old working disks with whatever I can find (MS-DOS 3.22, GW-Basic, whatever), or try and recreate some using a USB-based floppy drive and some modern software. Has anyone tried to resurrect a PC this old before?"
512k! (Score:5, Funny)
Just admit it... (Score:5, Funny)
Yesterday I dug out of my parents' basement a PC they had bought brand new in 1984: Epson Equity I personal computer
Just admit it, it was under your bed wasn't it? At least now it's on that thing you call a table.
Re:FreeDOS (Score:1, Funny)
"except I had a HDD"
Rich brat! I had to walk twenty miles to school, up hill, both ways!
Microsoft (Score:5, Funny)
Easy (Score:2, Funny)
Slap Vista on that baby and it'll run like a champ.
Amstrad PC1512 (Score:4, Funny)
My parents dug up an Amstrad PC1512 while tidying their house and called me up asking me what to do with it. I said throw it away. They said isn't it worth something? I laughed.
Impressive (Score:5, Funny)
Personally, I'm more impressed with the 13 foot monitor. I'm assuming its some sort of front projection device. Wonder what the resolution is? :)
Re:512k! (Score:2, Funny)
It stopped being funny about 24 years ago.
Well then I guess it's not quite as old as the computer then, is it?
Re:FreeDOS (Score:5, Funny)
Re:You already know where to go for disks.... (Score:5, Funny)
I think the Epson Equity was the one that had a typo in the BIOS when you inserted a floppy disk. The typo was in the word disk, and exhorted the user to insert a system dick when they booted with a non-boot floppy.
What are you guys talking about? (Score:2, Funny)
I went to school for programming, and I've only been out for a year, so I'm still pretty new to all this. But what on Earth does "Cut your teeth" mean?
Re:Easy (Score:4, Funny)
Re:A 13' monitor? (Score:2, Funny)
Hundreds of years before the dawn of history
Lived a strange race of people... the Druids
No one knows who they were or what they were doing
But their legacy remains
Hewn into the living rock... Of Stonehenge
Re:Impressive (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Contact Customer Support? (Score:5, Funny)
imagine the tech receiving this tech support call. "hi, i'd like to get the original software that came with my system. ... 1984. ... hello?"
Re:512k! (Score:5, Funny)
No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
Re:You already know where to go for disks.... (Score:5, Funny)
I think that Windows 7 will have lower hardware requirements than Vista. Why not give it a try?
Re:Maybe RTFM? (Score:3, Funny)
Some admin at Epson is watching the logs as a 1984 manual gets slashdotted, and wonders WTF?!
Re:Easy (Score:3, Funny)
However as there is no hdd, and less than 1MB of ram your drive will likey be worn out from swapping the floppies around before you manage to open IE.
You're worried about the computer? The poor bastard swapping the floppies will have snapped long before the computer wears out.
Re:512k! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:FreeDOS (Score:4, Funny)
It's "feign indignation at the high quality of life of the previous poster" + "state your childhood desires to have such luxury" + "state how much worse you had it" so that the next poster can follow up. Get with the program!
Re:OT: sig (Score:5, Funny)
I'd like my operating system to have more than two possible settings.
1) ON
2) OFF
3) NEITHER ON NOR OFF
4) SOMEWHAT ON
5) ROOTED
6) FROZEN
7) DEAD
8) JUST MOSTLY DEAD
Re:FreeDOS (Score:4, Funny)
You had a hill? We had to go up a 20 mile vertical cliff
Re:FreeDOS (Score:3, Funny)
FreeDOS probably would boot on this machine.
I actually know the machine you're talking about - except I had a HDD. I know for a fact the thing will run MS-DOS 5.0.x
Heh. I had the same Equity I also, but since my dad was something of a computer geek himself, he sprang for a 20MB hardcard for it. At the time, 20MB seemed like it would be enough space to last me the rest of my life :/
Re:512k! (Score:5, Funny)
"Indeed, on Slashdot it is traditional to make the same retarded jokes over and over again."
In Soviet Russia, the same joke over and over again makes you retarded!
Re:FreeDOS (Score:3, Funny)
You had schools? In my day, we had to build our own schools, out of sticks and stones (bullies were readily available).
-dZ.
Re:FreeDOS (Score:3, Funny)
I'm a pilot and had to fly around your 105,600-foot cliff, you insensitive clod!
Re:FreeDOS (Score:3, Funny)
Getting home was much quicker, wasn't it?
You don't seem to have grasped the concept of "...uphill, both ways". : - )
Re:OT: sig (Score:1, Funny)
9) PINING FOR THE FJORD
Re:512k! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:You already know where to go for disks.... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:512k! (Score:3, Funny)
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods?!
Yes, but do they run Linux?
Tell them you've been on hold the entire time... (Score:2, Funny)
What, like it doesn't FEEL like an eternity?
=)P