In my opinion, the statement below is true when it all started with personal curiosity about using a computer. Once the computer became a means to make money, the utility of using computers got intermixed with money and business. Greed took over most of the tech world except for the few that embraced personal computers as personal computersand not to make money off the masses. - Tarek

No slur intended, My eyes are bad and mu typing worse. On Sun, Nov 23, 2025 at 11:47 PM Jim Davis <jim.p.davis(a)gmail.com> wrote:

there are two aspects to "ownership". hardware and software. 1. you can still run all the old software (e.g. pet basic", IMSAI) under an emulator on a modern computer running either windows (no control) or linux etc (open source). and now for free, not having to buy the hardware which with inflation would be $1000 to $5000 2. hardware: it depends: 2a. my greatest joy was upgrading the hardware (and software to support) my TRS-80 model 1. All I bought from radio shack was a m1 keyboard with level 1 basic 4k ($300), and level 2 basic as a spare part (iirc $80). many intermediate steps, but eventually 64k inside the keyboard, 3 speed, ctl key, tri color led, s-100 adapter, s-100 cards for disk controller, printer and modem (no expensive interface), and other enhancements (like a fix for cassette operations). I never got around to using the extra 16 k to run native CP/M, partly because I would have had to learn and customize the cp/m severely. The extra 16 k memory i programmed as a printer buffer (remember how slow dot matrix printers were). I was prepared to upgrade to 256K in the keyboard but when I got an IBM PC clone,.I did not have the time to program it as a virtual disk (the only reasonable use for it). I programmed in hex, writing an install program for the hex that included labels to automatically correct addresses and relative jumps when I added or deleted instructions. 2b. hardware: i could modify a modern computer's emulator to include my hardware changes, but that would be at least an order of magnitude more work than the hardware changes were. 2c. you can get a usb to printer port (parallel) adapter to do some things with your emulated IMSAI or Pet that you could have done then.. you can emulate floppy disks, and read/write 3.25" ones (if standard shugart). There have been adapters for 5.25 floppies, if enough demand, should become available again and maybe even for 8 inch (my wish list). 2d. you can use modern hard disks, sdc cards, etc with old computer software emulators 2e you can buy off the shelf hardware to adapt some old computers (real or emulated), including the trs-80 coco to internet access etc. btw, the RS coco has the largest base of current users I have seen. and hardware upgrades for old computers to give them more power. So you can get much of the historical feel of the first micros with modern computers. all with open source or at least included in the required hardware (e.g. for internet adapters) <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> Virus-free.www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

Pearl clutching and lamenting about what I don't know is sad.Unless TPM 2.0 cuts off any path but windows, Free O/S will flourish. On Mon, Nov 24, 2025 at 12:03 PM ben via cctalk &lt;cctalk(a)classiccmp.org&gt; wrote:

I have all the parts to assenble a TEK 6205, but I lack a breath-of-life bootstrap tape. On Sun, Nov 23, 2025 at 8:13 PM ben via cctalk &lt;cctalk(a)classiccmp.org&gt; wrote:

On 11/24/25 02:30, Jim Davis via cctalk wrote: I cloned a Logical Microcomputer Co. 16032 computer on wirewrap cards and interfaced to a memory unit from an MRI scanner.  It was GLACIALLY slow, like it took FIVE clock minutes to load emacs!  I sold the hardware at a VCF show a couple years ago.  Last VCF I sold a bunch of Nat Semi 16032 development boards in a Multibus card rack that was a multiprocessor accelerator for a VAX 780.  It took about 7 of these to roughly double the VAX's speed. Jon

Does it work? I have a p2p ALU / register file that didn't see daylight. 74181/89 and lots 0f glue regs. On Mon, Nov 24, 2025 at 1:00 AM Henk Stegeman via cctalk < cctalk(a)classiccmp.org&gt; wrote:

That looks like bubble memory, Or a weird clock chip, #3 CPU is a??? see a lot of 8 bit i/o On Mon, Nov 24, 2025 at 1:16 AM Adrian Stoness via cctalk < cctalk(a)classiccmp.org&gt; wrote:

that helps as i know nothing about this machine On Mon, Nov 24, 2025 at 3:41 AM Henk Stegeman via cctalk < cctalk(a)classiccmp.org&gt; wrote:

I bought this Japanese Altair clone <https://deramp.com/downloads/mfe_archive/010-S100%20Computers%20and%20Boards/00-Mac8/20-Mac%20Systems/Mac8%20EMIC%20Alpha%20S-100/Photos/> some years ago. According to the seller, it never worked right. He suspected that the problem was the 100VAC versus 120VAC that's in some parts of Japan. I found that it did work a little better with reduced AC voltage, but it never worked right at all. When I dug into it, I found that Vcc on the front panel was about 7V! Looking closely at the front panel's regulator, I noticed that the outline on the silkscreen was drawn with dotted lines. As I suspected, this indicated that the regulator and its heatsink were meant to be mounted on the solder side of the board. But they were mounted on the component side! Turns out that a 7805 kinda-sorta works if its output and input are swapped :-) I removed it and mounted it on the solder side, and the machine now works like a champ. 100VAC, 120VAC, either way. All of the front panel components survived this overvoltage, and the 7805 was fine. I can understand how the seller got this wrong - the manual and schematic are entirely in Japanese. He told me that he bought the machine around 1980 as a kit in Japan, and assembled the boards (not including soldering) on the plane ride home. Imagine that in today's high-security environment! Martin E. On Mon, Nov 24, 2025 at 11:51 AM Santo Nucifora via cctalk < cctalk(a)classiccmp.org&gt; wrote:

Here's one: Cramer Intel 8080A Microcomputer https://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=819 Wire-wrapped 8080 system built to compete in the Altair market, and flopped. " Cramer Electronics Incorporated started advertising this 8080 kit microcomputer, the "Cramerkit", in late 1975 for $495 (or was it $1495?) but none were delivered until the spring of 1976. The Cramerkit was designed by Microcomputer Technique Inc. and was shipped partially assembled. " On Mon, Nov 24, 2025 at 10:04 PM Jon Elson via cctalk &lt;cctalk(a)classiccmp.org&gt; wrote:

Jon Elson wrote: “Was just too daunting and I gave up on it.” I think this tells us why the ‘ownership’ of computers is the way it is now! As another writer wrote recently, and I apologize for not remembering his name, says: “Rights to your own machine are hobbled by legal restrictions” and I’ll add security concerns. We live in a much different world than what was in the 70’s and 80’s. Firmware plays an equal role as access to root system isn’t possible; booting a computer was possible at root level-not now; BIOS/UEFI are paramount these days and access to TPM isn’t possible for average computer users. One’s computer must not be susceptible to unauthorized individuals or even now it seems the owner. Murray 🙂 On Mon, Nov 24, 2025 at 10:38 PM Bill Degnan via cctalk < cctalk(a)classiccmp.org&gt; wrote:

I have a Tek 8002a machine, ran before I stored it, Mouse piss damage to the backplane repaired, but I want to replace the old linear supply. It's been setting for 20 years. I have 200 disks, meta compilers and crazy stuff. Not your moms computer, I think it was used at building 50, considering all the well knoiwn local engineers names on the 8" disks. I love the 14 seg hex leds and switch panel, blimking lights, The Alpha micro supermini is cuter. On Mon, Nov 24, 2025 at 8:45 PM Wayne S via cctalk &lt;cctalk(a)classiccmp.org&gt; wrote:

On 2025-11-25 1:16 a.m., Jim Davis via cctalk wrote: I run my hex leds, in octal, makes for a very simple PCB layout for the front panel. Ben.

On 2025-11-24 2:32 a.m., Johan Helsingius via cctalk wrote: Not quite true, Minix almost never made it out the door because IBM had undocumented logic with memory parity or something like that. The IBM emulation ran fine, not the PC. And is UNIX Comparable a good thing? What about all the lost USA and UK and USSR computers and operating systems. I have lots of operating system books. but they speed the first 325 pages on multi-tasking and the last 20 pages on a file system. Ben.

On 2025-11-24 6:11 a.m., Johan Helsingius via cctalk wrote: I am not impressed with Sun. JAVA runs only on Sun or windows hardware, the last time I looked. (1995?) I guess Unix is important, if that is your job. I used a IBM-1130 in 1982, here in CANADA. That computer any student could use if it was free. The next year they got a VAX. Only computer science students could use that. Ben.

On 2025-11-24 1:57 a.m., Tony Duell via cctalk wrote: No it is marketing. Amazing how 10 years after all the old machines hit the dumpsters, retro products are selling again. Ben.