Collecting Classic Computers 373
chriton writes "There's an interesting article at Reuters about collecting classic computers. There's mention in the story of an even more interesting website www.classiccmp.org Unfortunately, most of the website is still under construction. The mailing list has been around since Jan 1997, and they clearly have plans for more accessible resources, but that just hasn't happened yet. If you are like me and have a an old Osbourne 1 in the closet and Commodore 128D stored at your mother's house she's telling you to take home lest she chuck it, you might find the list archives none the less."
Not what was intended (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Not what was intended (Score:5, Funny)
I just threw away my 486 about 2 months ago... I guess that wouldn't have counted either.
Oh well.
Hey, is anyone selling an old IBM 370? My wife would love that in the basement. "But honey, it's a collectors item. Really."
Re:Not what was intended (Score:3, Interesting)
Hercules Project [conmicro.cx]
Emulates a 360/370/390 series system.
Re:Not what was intended (Score:2)
You never know where your career may take you. [slashdot.org].
That knowledge may be more valuable than you think.
Re:Not what was intended (Score:3, Interesting)
We don't have any IBM systems here, but my firm regularly makes EBCDIC tape archives every week for one of our customers, and distribute them to about 20-odd banks and insurance firms. Most go out on 3480 cartridges, plus one QIC Data Cartridge, and one person still receives theirs on a 2400FT 9-Track tape reel! Mind you, they now have to supply their own tapes, as 9-Track tape production ceased at the end of last year (too little demand to justify keeping the operation going, as I recall).
We used to have a MicroVAX in a corner, for the simple reason that it was the only way, at the time, to duplicate DEC DLT (TK50) tapes. Went to the scrapyard once we had DLT drives that could be connected to a SCSI-equiped PC. (We write our own duplication software)
How true... (Score:2, Informative)
it's hard to imagine anything made within the last 10 years or so really being collectible, with the possible exceptions of some Macs and maybe the neXt boxes.
While standard interchangeable parts are great for driving down costs, making repairs easier, making software, hardware and driver development easier, ect, it does reduce the collectibility of hardware. Then again, I guess old computers are considered collectible just because of the fact that they are rare.
Re:How true... (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Prototypes (reference Commodore 65)
2. Unusual design or implementation decisions (Pen Computing devices)
3. Firsts (Why not drop $10 on an original Palm Pilot in case it's worth something someday)
4. Lasts, conversely (the last entries in the Amiga and ST lines, for example)
5. Things with an undesirable reputation-- bet you wish you still had that P60 with the bad FPU!
6. Items that were rarities due to supply or marketing decisions (I bet that 1.2GHz Hammers they sent around for demonstration will be worth something, and did anyone ever get a 160MHz Am5x86?)
Re:How true... (Score:2)
No, but I did have a 133 5x86 and had the case's "turbo" button across a jumper block on the motherboard that would allow switching from 33 to 40 megahertz bus speed. The reason was that, on this MB at least, if you turned it on with a 40mhz speed it would indeed have the CPU at 160, but would put the PCI bus at 20mhz. By turning it on and then pressing the button to go from 133->160 it would put the PCI bus at 40mhz, and that resulted in a pretty big difference.
This has been slightly-related comment story time with Dan
My 23 year old Atari, still going strong! (Score:4, Funny)
Hmm... (Score:2)
All I got is some old 286 thats completely de-assembled.... Any takers? Willing to trade for a Amiga 500||2000... Also willing to give my own mother away for said Amiga
Re:Hmm... (Score:4, Funny)
Although I would need something more valuable than your mother for it. Do you have any sisters?
Re:Hmm... (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, but you'll have to pay the shipping, and I cover shiping for the A3000.
Re:Hmm... (Score:2)
Does she prefer a window or an aisle seat?
Re:Hmm... (Score:2)
Extremely classic computers (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Extremely classic computers (Score:2)
Re:Extremely classic computers (Score:2)
Uhm (Score:4, Funny)
So...tell me again...why is this site even more interesting?
Re:Uhm (Score:2, Funny)
Because it's still up roughly 10 mintues after a link to it on Slashdot?
Scrap heap somewhere (Score:5, Funny)
Figured one day I was going to make a lobby museum or something in my office building while on my road to global domination.
But sadly last month I found out my mom said that it had been sitting in her garage for the last 10 years so she figured it was safe to toss and she did so to make room for her Xmas decoration boxes which consist of Jingle Bell Rock dancing Santa, Fish on the wall with SAnta hat, X-Mas decorations, outside lights, and other festive crap...
TRS80 Model 100 (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:TRS80 Model 100 (Score:5, Informative)
Hmmm. Let me verify this.
< google... >
Confirmed [tcp.com]. I knew it. The last useful thing MS did. Definitely one for the archives.
Here's the google search [google.com].
Re:TRS80 Model 100 (Score:2)
That explains why Microsoft keeps turning out Grandiose Bloatware. Grandiose Bloatware is a clueless person's idea of great software.
I'll bet Bill Gates can't even look at present day Microsoft source code without gagging.
That is the price of selling one's programming soul for great wealth;
my guess is Bill's solution to that problem is to never look at current source code.
Re:TRS80 Model 100 (Score:2)
Agreed. I also hear that he was (is?) an awesome tester.
I didn't intend to poke fun at Bill himself. It's just a stab at M$ for the
More useful things to do than collecting (Score:5, Funny)
Re:More useful things to do than collecting (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't find the link to the Wired article. I do remember reading this jsut before Ep1 came out.
In any event, drunken artists and such may explain something about how that movie turned out.
Re:More useful things to do than collecting (Score:2)
There's a guy who turned a vax into a whole minibar [arizona.edu], too :)
Message archives (Score:2)
In a way the january 2003 archives [classiccmp.org] are kinda scary
>>>>
other wise it would be rather disappointing.
Apple (Score:2)
Re:Apple (Score:2)
Re:Apple (Score:2)
ebay (Score:2)
NeXT WorkStation (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:NeXT WorkStation (Score:5, Informative)
For one, it was not uncommon for the Cubes to have two motherboards - there was an upgrade to put a 68030 CPU in the NeXT Cube, but it came in the form of a whole motherboard. It was possible to plug two mobos into the backplane and use the old one for all sorts of fun tricks. Unfortunately, you couldn't use this trick for multiprocessing. .
Another neat (but stupid) trick is that the keyboard, mouse, speakers, and microphone all plugged into the monitor - and the monitor had no power cord! Instead, everything ran through a DB19 cable. Of course, the only place where a DB19 cable was ever used was on the original NeXT monitor, and nobody other than NeXT ever made them, so the monitor cables are rare enough to make them more expensive than the monitors themselves. Luckily, it is simple enough to take some DB25 connectors and fashion your own monitor cable.
Re:NeXT WorkStation (Score:2, Informative)
NeXT Computer w17" Sony 8/105 NS3 COMPLETE Item # 2085722019
I would go for this if I had the space but now it would just sit in the garage.
Re:NeXT WorkStation (Score:2)
Apple used a DB-19 for their floppy drive port. I wonder if this was a form of revenge by Steve Jobs? :-)
Re:NeXT WorkStation (Score:2)
If you really want to talk about rare Dsub connectors, the Amiga's db23 video port is the truly horrid one to find...
Re:NeXT WorkStation (Score:2)
How classic is classic? (Score:2)
I've probably still got 2 or maybe 3 old Sinclair Spectrums (I think they were sold as Timex TMS1000 or something in the US, I don't know- I mean the colour ones, not the mono ones that were known as ZX81s here), with the rubber keyboards that wore out after a while, and the edge connectors that would kill the machine dead if you tried to plug in or unplug peripherals into them whilst the machines were switched on (that'd be why I had more than 1- some got broken). They're prolly too common to be classic tho. I also still have somewhere the "Sam Coupe", which was a fairly large machine by MGT, that was supposed to be a souped up Spectrum that was a bit more like an Amiga or something. I quite liked that machine, but put it away when I got my first PC.
We used to have a real archaic machine, I think it was called an "ADAM II", that was sort of like a minicomputer or something, y'know, a big floor-standing thing the size of a small fridge or something. We kept it on the landing outside my room. Took big disks that were at least a foot across, with plastic shells with big handles on top. Seriously, not making this up. In fact, one of the James Bond films from the 80s was on TV the other day, they showed them using disks like that. My Dad got it from work when they upgraded... I'm still not quite sure why. Apparently he liked the language it used (might have been Forth, I'm really not sure). I forget when we got rid of that, but I expect that'd be the sort of thing that collectors and computer museums could be interested in (apart from the size and the weight!).
Not sure what other sort of things we have about, not counting the PCs there must be a fair few oddities in our house.
Digibarn (Score:3, Interesting)
I rescued my Ataris! (Score:2)
I finially rescued my ataris, minus the 1050 that was hit by lightening. (Likely repairable, the modem got hit and took out the SIO bus of everything on the chain, but it looks like the rest of the parts functioned) I've got Ms PacMan set up beside me. I'd play other games too, but those old disks seem to only old up to one reading, so I'm not touching them until I get a way to copy them. SIO2PC perhaps.
Please folks, if you know of a clasic computer not being used, grab it. If you don't want it someone will. Even broken ones, if there are any parts are worth it. Remember they don't make most of those chips anymore so repairs require a parts computer.
Re:I rescued my Ataris! (Score:2)
Some I wish I kept (Score:5, Funny)
Also used to have a Commodore PET with a CBM 4040 years ago. But I got it from someone who stored it in a basement, and it smelled like mouse poop, which my family didn't appreciate.
On a side note, found this gem when searching eBay for "Amiga 500":
Commodore AMIGA 500 computer system in original box with Keyboard, Power Adapter, Video Cable, and Mouse. Very clean and box in great shape with some wear but has all inserts and packing material. Untested due to unfamiliarity, could not find ON button.
Why is old hardware a mans thing? (Score:5, Interesting)
That's a very true comment...
Since I've been married, my wife CONSTANTLY tried to throw out my old atari stuff. I had an awesome 800xl setup with happy810 drives, toggle switch to switch between O/S's, the works.
I would try to explain to her, this is what I started out on when I was like 10. Didn't matter, week later I would find it all packed up. I tried explaining that it was a collectors item, didn't matter, if I had it out on display she would haphazzardly pack it all up, sans a few cable that went into the trash. I tried explaining to her you just cannot get that vintage POKEY sound with an emulator. She'd point at my SBLive wavetable card.
We must have gone through the whole my unpacking / her packing things about 10 times before I gave up. Finally I just said fuck it, i'm going to make sure it went to a good home. I packed it all up, and went to the nullsoft offices in San Francisco, since I had read that those cats were once atarians.
They were pretty stoked on what I gave them, I think Brennen said he was going to use the drives to dig up some old code he did back in the day just so he could see how much it had changed. Justin made a crack about how he missed the simple flow of line numbering in atari basic, and Christophe ran off with a trackball.
Geek guys like this sort of stuff and geek girls don't. So ladies, my question is, what gives?
--toq
Use an Emulator Instead (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah these things are great for a hobby hardware geek. Practical value, assuming emulator exists, is very limited though - maybe to extract data from some legacy storage media. But even people who want to just play around with an old computer are usually better off sticking with an emulator.
Re:Use an Emulator Instead (Score:3, Insightful)
Dude, i'm not trying to knock your logic, technically your points are good, but unless you ever heard the differences between an emulated atari (atari800win) and a real one you wouldn't know any better.
Let me break it into musical terms. Have you ever played around with rebirth? It's a emulator for the roland 808. Sure it has all the features of an 808, but if you ever got to play with a real 808, you can very easily distinguish the difference in sound.
I'm not a sound expert, but I know that there is a difference between sound coming out of the original machines circuitry and sound coming out of an emulation process. There's just never any chance of emulating the original hardwares sound without building it. Just ask any commodore sid chip junkie.
Re:Use an Emulator Instead (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Why is old hardware a mans thing? (Score:3, Interesting)
People occasionally try to convince me that I should convert it to a Macquarium, but I point at them and hiss "Convert a working Mac to a Macquarium? Sacrelige!"
(Don't even get me started on my late, lamented Kaypro 2! I beat Zork on that baby. Oh, the times we had!)
Re:Why is old hardware a mans thing? (Score:2, Insightful)
You must be single.. no female only has 20 pairs of shoes!
Don't waste your money (Score:2, Funny)
The value of something is only related to supply and demand. More supply causes less demand often times since the item is easier to get. More demand means less supply and in turn yields a higher price per item.
So, try collecting classic automobiles, baseball cards, or even Garbage Pail cards, but don't waste your time and energy on stockpiles of old Commodore 64s.
The classics (Score:2)
I went to a Smithsonian exhibit a dozen years ago with a very impressive array of vintage (aka "classic" or "old" or "junk") computers. They do collect almost anything after all, and can display only about 5% at any one time. The computers weren't on; I'd be interested in how many years we'll be able to save working Commodore and the like. After all, computers were never meant to be just looked at.
A computer part I'd really like to see old-fashioned magnetic core memory -- that still works! It just sounds so improbable.
I saw a lecture years ago by an MIT professor who worked on the Apollo mission designing an on-board guidance computer (AGC) described here [ed-thelen.org] (they planned to used ground-based telemetry but worried the Soviets might jam their signals out of pique or something -- nothing happened). He commented that when they delivered the unbelievably expensive core memory with its delicate wound wiring, they handled it with the utmost caution -- it was 2K (RAM) after all!
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
price index (Score:2)
Re:price index (Score:2)
My history (Score:2, Interesting)
Well, that and I like to play Paradroid still.
Re:My history (Score:2)
BTW--I have a C4P! Perhaps we each have some software the other doesn't. Do you have disk drives?
(email addresses below are for harvesting by bots)
Classic Computers (Score:3, Informative)
The main things to fail in old machines are electrolytic capacitors.
One of the best sites (Score:5, Informative)
Re:One of the best sites (Score:2)
When dinosaurs ruled the machine room.
BeBox (Score:4, Funny)
-adnans
old-computers.com (Score:3, Informative)
My Inventory (Score:2)
A Timex Sinclair 1000
An Atari 1200
An Atari 520ST
An atari 400
A Star Trek Stratigic Operations Simulator (opps... I just can't help but mention that one sometimes...
IBM XT
A Mac SE
Re:My Inventory (Score:2)
Apple ][ Plus //c //c+
Apple
Apple
Apple IIgs
Atari 400
Atari 800
Atari 600XL
Atari 800XL
Atari 1200XL
Atari 130XE
Atari XEGS
Atari 1040ST
Commodore PET 4016
Commodore SuperPet SP9000
Commodore VIC-20
Commodore 64
Commodore 16
Commodore Plus-4
Commodore Amiga 500
DEC Micro PDP 11/23
DEC VT-220
Heathkit H19 terminal
IBM PC XT 5160
Interact Model One (can anyone help with software?)
Mattel Aquarius
Ohio Scientific Challenger 1P
Ohio Scientific Challenger 4P
Timex-Sinclair 1000
TRS-80 Color Computer
TRS-80 Color Computer 2
TRS-80 Color Computer 3
TRS-80 Model 4
TRS-80 Model 4P
TI 99/4A
Visual Commuter
Wang PC compatible (BIOS level) unknown model
(email addresses below for bot consumption only)
Re:My Inventory (Score:2)
However, my brother recently asked to collect the machine and the tapes, even if it didn't work, for sentimental value, so I won't have access to them anymore. Otherwise I might have been able to dig it up and hook it to an old TV and try to copy a few tapes for you. Other than that, I think you will have to go with emulation, if there is an interact emulator that is...
Re:My Inventory (Score:2)
AFAIK, the Interact isn't emulated.
Re:My Inventory (Score:4, Interesting)
Apple IIgs (networked to my linux server via localtalk)
Mac Plus (networked to my linux server via localtalk)
Mac SE (networked via ethernet)
A slew of 9" black&white macs
Mac LC (networked to my linux server via token ring)
Apple Pippin (set top box)
NeXT Colorstation
Amiga 500
Amiga 2000 (networked to my linux server via arcnet)
Amiga 3000
Amiga 4000
Commodore Vic20
Commodore 64
Commodore 128
DECstation 5000/133
PDP11/04 (with dual board unibus etherneton the way, and in my 42U rack)
Vaxstation 3000
Vaxstation 4000
DEC Multia (alpha chip, though a horribly crippled one)
Atari ST 520 (networked with homebrew ACSI-ethernet)
Atari ST 1024STFM
Atari 600XL
Sparcstation 2 (with a dual slot HIPPI card, still need hippi for my linux server!)
TRS-80 Coco 1, 2 & 3
TRS-80 Model 4 (soon to be networked via Omninet, assuming I can find a ISA omninet card)
TRS-80 Model II (soon to be networked via Omninet, assuming I can find a ISA omninet card)
TRS-80 Model 6000 (68k cpu, I need an arcnet board for this baby... ran xenix, and billed as a multi-user system by Tandy. Also in *MINT* condition)
Altos Bidmaster (ran xenix on a 186...blech)
Timex Sinclair
TI994a
HP Netserver (running Banyan Vines 6)
Several 386/486/pentiums (running Netware 2-6)
Several PS/2's(running OS/2 v1.3 - Warp 4)
My home lan consists of:
Localtalk, Token Ring (4/16/100mps)
Ethernet (10baseT/2/5/100/802.11)
VG Anylan, Arcnet (2.5/100mps)
FDDI, ATM (155mps, need to find the 622mps optional module for my Cabletron ZX-250)
DOCSIS (are there any direct DOCSIS PCI cards? My ifconfig output is only 3 pages or so...)
To be implemented:
HIPPI (pending, need PCI card and switch)
Omninet (have the multiplexer and vintage cards, need card for linux server)
Econet (have cards for Archimedes, would need the incredibly rare Ecolink ISA card for the linux server, and some Acorn machines)
Starlan (have a 6300, need the boards, switches.. will be done eventually)
By my count, that means I have these CPU families...
65xx, 68xx, Z80, x86, alpha, 68k, PPC, TMS9900, Sparc, MIPS, Super Hitachi
(ok, so its a sega saturn, still counts)
?? (whatever the PDP has, know the board number, but what do you call the cpu family?)
??? (same, for the Vax)
I've lost count of OS's, but it's something like 40+.
I'm obviously missing the Bebox, and Apple Lisa. The Bebox though, I'm holding out for the Lucent Hobbit CPU prototype... no lame PPC here
I suppose I also need an HP-UX machine, for another OS and the PA-Risc chip. Wouldn't hurt to pick up a cheap SGI Indy either, or for that matter an earlier RS6000. But I really want a Xerox Alto or Star... anyone selling? Oh, and definitely must have a Falcon (Atari ST, last of the line).
You see, it is a lifetime goal of mine, to have the most evil, bastardized localtalk network ever. That means having
Apple II (already done)
x86 PC (The most NICed linux box in history)
Macs (easy, of course)
NeXT (harder, pretty sure I will have to write the drivers myself)
SGI (their RS-422 ports seem to be agreeable with netatalk)
Atari (Falcon or TT030, has the rs-422, even in miniDIN8, but never any drivers)
Amiga (had a chance at the Zorro2 localtalk board, but was broke... guy wouldn't hold it for me:( )
And if that isn't bad enough, my newly bought 19" rack (for $1 no less!) is already half full. Bay Networks and a a Cisco router (2514), and my lovely PDP11 (oldest computer I own)
But the worst part is, by far, I'm just getting started.
Re:My Inventory (Score:2)
I hope that at some point you don't mind if I pick your brain about the Localtalk connections if I get around to giving a try and have trouble.
I think the PDP-11 CPUs are just called "PDP-11/nn," save for the LSI-11's used in Heathkit's and other micros.
Jupiter Ace - World's Only FORTH-Based Micro (Score:4, Informative)
Preserving Docmentation and Software is more Imp.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Manuals get lost. Tapes and Floppy Disks wear out. And then capacitors and other components go bad and without technical info, you're often left with an interesting doorstop.
With that imformation, emulators can get developed, software can be archived into modern formats, and new floppy disks containing software for these systems can be custom created so we don't have to worry (too much) about the originals wearing out.
I like to collect early 8-bit/Pre-PC computers. At the moment I have the following machines (among many others):
* Exidy Sorcerer (1979-1983-ish)
* APF Imagination Machine (1980-ish)
* Compucolor II (1978-1979 ish)
Of those three, I have the technical service manuals and schematics for the first two. I can fire them up and amuse myself by making them do things. I also have some software for them. I've made it a point to freely provide copies of all my technical documentation to other people interested in these old machines, in order to spread the knowledge and lower the chances of it getting lost.
For the Compucolor II though, I acquired a unit that had been converted to 240 volts (Australia). I have it because it was one of the very first computers I ever used, and a cool machine (8080, 48K RAM, 8 Color Display: 80x25 text, 160x100 graphics). I had no idea how rare it was even back then (1978), so decided I wanted to acquire one to add to my collection.
So far, I have no schematics or technical information, and no software (it had a single floppy drive built into the monitor), and have been unable to use it given my limited hardware reverse-engineering skills. The company that made it disappeared over 20 years ago. Thus, with out information and software, it's likely that in time no one will even remember it existed.
-Mp
Re:Preserving Docmentation and Software is more Im (Score:2)
I remember seeing that machine at the home of an acquaintance back when I was lusting after an Apple ][ or a Commodore PET.
(email addresses for bot harvesting only)
I emailed him a couple years ago, no reply (Score:2)
-Mp
Re:I emailed him a couple years ago, no reply (Score:2)
Re:Preserving Docmentation and Software is more Im (Score:2)
I have a NextStation slab and monitor, but no cable. With documentation, I got a step closer to getting it turned on by building my own monitor cable, but still can't boot it because nobody seems to have copies of the OS anymore.
Capacitors go bad (Score:2)
In the old days (Score:2, Funny)
In the old days, we had three 8 bit registers, and we felt lucky to have them!
-Teckla
My piece of history – a 3/180 (Score:2)
The second year of our marriage, my bride looked at our one bedroom 'compartment' and strongly suggested I buy one system rather than have four or five boxes cluttered around my desk. As I dug through the cool scraps in the lockheed martin surplus store, I found my one box - a Sun 180 [slashdot.org] - complete with an eight foot tall 19" chassis for $25. The SCSI hard drives were stripped, but I paid cash and conned a coworker to help me lug the thing home. (oh, did I ever get into trouble for that one) I've racked all my gear since...
Today, it does actually house something with a sparc processor.... my sunblade's 500mhz UltraSPARC-IIe is a wee bit more useful than a 68020@16,67 Mhz is hidden in the bowels of the beast. Even my AMD workstations don't need a 1000 watt power supply. (grin) The look on peoples face is priceless when they walk into my office!
C64 (Score:2)
Classic computing isn't as easy as it sounds. (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh man, I am so close to getting my old Sol-20 running 100%. Then I have to see if I can get my 20+ year old data cassettes to read. I'm going to dump the audio straight into my Mac, since the tapes will probably shred on the first pass. One preservation capture, then burn to CD. I could probably just use my Mac as a big dumb cassette player like the Sol was originally built for.
Re:Classic computing isn't as easy as it sounds. (Score:3, Informative)
Yep, I've turned the thing on, the power supply only at first, it rates at precisely the same voltages as when I first built it, I wrote them in the margins of the manual. I ran it for an hour as a smoke test, seemed to work OK. Then I tested the motherboard and got a cursor, good video, seems to be 100% operational except for the kbd. The SOL power supply was a monster and the huge electrolytic caps all seem to be fine, but I don't know squat about power supplies, I don't know how I'd tell if it was bad or how I'd "reform" it. Any suggestions?
The only thing I haven't tested is my two 16KRA boards. Lots of little caps on that board, I'm afraid to power it up. I don't know how I'd test all those tiny caps, but they shouldn't be too hard to replace with modern equivalents (if I don't blow up anything else while testing).
They can have my old crap (Score:2)
Apologies from the (new) ClassicCmp webmaster (Score:5, Informative)
ClassicCmp was a mailing list first, and I guess that's about what it is today, but much more is planned. I really mean that! CC was started in 1997 by people other than me. There was a very simple web site up for a while, but the guy in charge of it never updated it, and nobody else cared to do it. It stagnated. I joined the list about two years ago, and I became the list administrator just a few months ago when Jay West decided to take a break. I would have liked to start working on a new, improved CC site right then, but I was also working very hard to finish college. When you factor out the time I spend (usually) every day moderating posts for the cctech list (OT posts are filtered there), I had zero time for any other CC-related work. I needed to get something up there quick to fix the very incorrect 1997 pages, so what you see there now is my 3AM coffee-induced hack.
Some really nice things are planned for classiccmp.org:
- Better post archiving with spamproofing. My spamproofing method is somewhat unique.
- An archive of data files (software, docs, images, etc.).
- A link farm, which we hope will become a start-here-first resource for vintage-computing-related surfing.
- A FAQ. There is an old FAQ which you can probably still find with Google somewhere out there, but it has some very incorrect things in it. I'm working on a new FAQ.
- More moderators for cctech. Right now it's just me, so there is a serious lag time for cctech subscribers. We just implemented the second, moderated list a few months ago, and it seems to be working fine. It just needs more moderators.
I graduated from college a week or two ago and have settled into a new job. I now have ample time to spend making something nice for ClassicCmp. You can expect to see something actually worthwile there in the next few days.If you even the slightest bit interested in classic computers, please goto the list information page [classiccmp.org] and subscribe to the list. At last count (a few days ago), we had 720 members. Average load is 50-100 messages per day. We'd love to add more people to the discussion.
Re:Apologies from the (new) ClassicCmp webmaster (Score:2)
Wait a minute - you mean you have more free time at your new job than you did in college? Boy, did I pick the wrong career ...
Good luck with the site ...
My brother has an Interact (Score:2)
It was a fun little machine with games like Goofy Golf and Mazes and Monsters. I kind of miss the musical quality of the games data as they loaded up through the tape deck, the sound of the raw data stream pouring through the speakers. Hell, you could even tell if a game was loading correctly by the pattern of the sound or if the tape deck needed an adjustement, or a good whack on the side.
Classic computer? (Score:2, Funny)
old-computer museum (Score:2, Informative)
days when the Mattel Aquarius, Oric Atmos Spectrums and MSXs were the pinnacle of home computing.
PDP-11 (Score:4, Interesting)
It's a short read, but it's nice to see someone trying to restore one of thse boxes.
Ken Thompson [bell-labs.com] used to have a link on his page to someone who was restoring one of these. But since he's retired, it's not there now.
Re:PDP-11 (Score:5, Interesting)
http://starfish.osfn.org/rcs/DECsystem/2065/2065-
The PDP-11 is over on the left on the top shelf. It has a row of blue and greenish-black toggle switches.
An even larger PDP-10 that uses four PDP-11's
http://starfish.osfn.org/rcs/DECsystem/1090/1090-
but the PDP-11's aren't pictured.
Visit your local college... (Score:2)
In addition to the Tandys, he had 2 QUME 109 terminals that were unopened, and two more that were not boxed. I took the liberty of hooking one up to my serial port to check it out, and it worked like a charm. Adjustable baud rate (240-9600, and 14,400 IIRC), with a serial port for printer, and plenty of features like offline mode, line-oriented mode, 15 minute screen shut-off, etc. I must say, amber is much easier on the eyes.
Coincidentally, I told him that those items must be collectibles. If anyone has any ideas, I'd be curious to know how much those items would really be worth.
A Good Excuse (Score:2)
Yeah that's it.
This count? (Score:2)
Does an Apple ][e in a *black* case count as a collectible computer classic?
They're from an educational series made back in the 80's.
This has already been done. (Score:2)
I just threw away my first computer... (Score:4, Funny)
As a bachelor, I kept it as it served as a really cool analog display alarm-clock. I had the voice synth module and programmed it to say "You should wake up now, Trent" for the first alarm, and then for each time I hit snooze (anykey) it would say ruder things. It also served as a dart score keeping gadget.
But alas, after 11 years of marriage, my wife got fed up and asked me to clear out its space so she coule use it for her computer. So I set about saying goodbye. I got really high first so that when my wife asked if I was crying, I could say, "Don't be silly -- I'm just really high". It was a sad moment. I will miss the green glow and the absolute silence of my old HP86A.
Keeps them out of landfill... (Score:3, Interesting)
- Atari 800XL
- Two Atari XEGSes
- A C64
- A non-working Commodore 128D
- Amiga 500
- Amstrad PPC640 (getting PSU details)
- Another Amstrad PC compatible in a keyboard profile (like the Amiga 500)
- Does and Intellivision with a keyboard add-on count?
To compliment these computers I've been purchasing stuff like the SIO2PC cable adapter (connect a PC to an Atari 8-bit) and I've just ordered the Catweasel MK3 [jschoenfeld.com] (read/write pretty much any floppy format ever). I salvaged a nice supply of DD disks (including a lot of interesting-looking original software) a week or so ago.It's kind of silly..... (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, let me throw some URL where my mouth is.
http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/ [obsoleteco...museum.org]
http://www.computer-museum.org/ [computer-museum.org]
http://www.homecomputer.de/ [homecomputer.de]
http://www.thelegacy.de/ [thelegacy.de]
http://www.mobygames.com/ [mobygames.com]
And the list goes on, and on, and on.....
Re:Well, I have... (Score:2, Interesting)
I never set out to be an antique computer collector, but I do have an awful lot of old machines from the 1980's (most Atari, Commodore, TI, and Apple, but some weirdball ones too... remember the Mattell Aquarius?)
It's not much fun to just collect them & leave them sitting in a closet, to me you don't really own a machine unless you can write code for it. Unfortunately, a lot of those old boxes, I have no storage for.. No, they didn't come with hard drives, and the floppy drive was usually an expensive add-on, and made from lowest-bidder parts (therefore unlikely to still be working today, even if you have one).
My favorite weird old architecture to code for has got to be the Atari 2600. 1.2MHz 6502, 128 bytes of RAM total, to be split between variables and stack (most games use litle or no stack though), no OS or BIOS, no video memory, no I/O except the front panel switches, the joysticks, the paddles, and the cartridge slot.. no R/W line was routed to the cart slot, so you couldn't (easily) use it to add RAM, only ROM (usually 4K, but as much as you want via bankswitching).
Just lately (in the past couple of years), I've actively started collecting UNIX boxes (Sparc, Alpha, SGI, etc.)... these are still useful (a throw-away SparcStation 10 with a 40MHz CPU, 64M of RAM, 2G SCSI drive, and Solaris 2.6 makes a dandy DNS & dhcp server for your LAN, and will be a lot more reliable than a 486 PC from the same time period).
Anyone have or know where I can get an old version of DEC UNIX to run on my Alpha?
Re:macs (Score:2)
Apple /// (Score:2)
I have my Apple ][+ downstairs, and it may even still work.... Note the strange characters there, too. There was only so much creativity possible in the days of ASCII.
Re:Collecting old computers is all very well... (Score:2)
That was marketesse, yet they did put that in the manual when the second series came out. However Chuck Pedle stated that they named it the Pet after the Pet Rock craze swept the US, they thought it would be cute to have a pet computer.
Incidentally, great choice of story slashcrew a site that is completely devoid of any information whatsoever is posted. Either this thing is being done by a friend of theirs or it is a REALY slow news day and they don't have a girlfriend or anything to spend sunday night with.
Commodore PET 8096 For Sale (Score:3, Funny)
Hey, anyone want a Commodore PET 8096?
The cabinet is in excellent condition, even the PET label just under the monitor. Haven't fired it up to see if it works, but there's an aftermarket accelerator/RAM expansion board resting on top of the motherboard right now - it looks complete but the expansion board is just *resting* on the motherboard, like someone tried to fix or upgrade it once. I have a suspicion that the machine is fine but the attempt was along the lines of "what do you mean I can't put a PCI video card into that?". FOB Ottawa, Canada.
Schematics would be cool so that I can sell it (or give it away if there are no good offers) as a working unit.
My own collection of old TI-99/4A, Amiga 1000, Vectrex and Coleco Telstar Alpha machines already occupies quite enough room, thank you very much. And I must confess that I haven't fired up even one of my prized TI-99/4A machines in over a decade.
Long live the 6809 (Score:2)
6502 and Z80 junkies have no idea what they are missing...