Well, here's this weekend's take:
Among several computer's, I also brought in quite a few books. Here are
the titles in case anyone's counting:
PET Personal Computer Guide (1982)
TRS-80 Color Computer and MC-10 Programs (1983)
CP/M Handbook with MP/M (1980)
How to Get Started with CP/M (1981)
Mastering CP/M (1983)
Using CP/M (1980)
Color Computer Basic09 Programming Language Reference (with software)
Osborne CP/M User's Guide [not Osbourne computer] (1981)
The Elementary Commodore 64 (1983)
Programming Techniques for Level II Basic (1980)
Color Computer Playground (1983)
Sams ToolKit Series VIC20 Edition (1984)
Graphics Guide to the Commodore 64 (1984)
TRS-80 Color Computer Programs (1982)
I also got these manuals/software:
TRS-80 Model II Operations Manual
TRS-80 Scripsit Manual
TRS-80 Videotex
Commodore 64 Bonus Cassette Pack (this is 5 cassettes still in the
original shrinkwrap of all things)
I'm finding that I am more interested now in the accessories, like
cables, manuals, modems, datasettes, etc. than in the computers I find
now because I pretty much have all the common systems. What I really
need to get a lot of my systems running are power supplies or, in most
cases, the original video cable. A lot of these lame-o manufacturers of
yester year (namely Commodore) used cables with ridiculous pin-outs for
the video.
Now onto the hardware...first some accessories:
TRS-80 Modem I (very cool)
(2) C64 1541 drives
VIC 1541 drive
Commodore 1531 Datasette
And these systems:
Commodore Plus4
Commodore 64 (for parts to fix my broken one)
Atari 5200 (have 5 of these but none with the funky video/power
adapter...this one had one so I bought it).
Odyssey 3000 [!] (stand-alone unit with 4 built-in games...Pong-type
games...by Magnavox)
Laser 50 PC [!] (cool little "portable computer"...has a one-line 20
character LCD display with built-in BASIC...it is about half the width
and thickness of a typical laptop...it is not a serious computer, more
like a toy; manufactured by Vtech, which is the company that makes all
those kids computer toys; circa 1985)
Between the Odyssey 3000 and the Laser 50, I can't decide what I should
choose as my catch of the weekend. Both are systems I had never even
heard of or seen, so its always a nice surprise to pick up something like
these out of the blue.
Last but not least, I got this luggable that I need some help identifying.
It is a portable that looks very much like an Osbourne (which is what I
thought it was at first but realized it wasn't). It has a built in 7"
screen and two 5.25" floppies. It has one knob on the front for contrast,
and next to that is an RJ-14 (6-conductor) jack for the keyboard. There
is no identifying mark on it anywhere. The front cover pops off revealing
the screen/floppies and contains the keyboard. When it boots up, it just
shows a flashing "K" with an underscore beneath it located at the upper
left-hand corner of the screen. It doesn't do anything beyond that, which
is making the identification process all the more difficult. The back has
two DB25's, one male labelled SERIAL and the other female labelled
PARALLEL. There are also some peripheral card openings. Cracking it opens
reveals that it has what looks to be an XT bus with 4 slots. There are 2
cards and a hard drive inside. One card is labelled "Hyper CLOCK" and is
obviously a clock card. The other is a Racal-Vadic modem. Then the 3rd &
4th slots are taken up by a hard-card (hard drive on a card) which plugs
into one slot. It is manufactured by Tandon. The only chip of
significance inside is a Motorola labelled MC6845P. I'm speculating that
this is the CPU. There is a label on the motherboard (which is huge,
measuring almost 2 feet square) which says "Corona Data Systems" and then
"200290-512" which I am guessing means it has 512K. There are 4 rows of
16 each RAM chips...half are soldered in and half are plugged into
sockets. Lastly, a label on the back of the outside say "Model M18P-2"
and the keyboard is made by Keytronics. I didn't write it down but I
believe I saw a date somewhere of 1981. Any help figuring this behemoth
out would be appreciated. After figuring it wasn't an osbourne 1, I was
going to pass on it but I offered $5 and for the hell of it and got it.
Maybe it'll turn out be something cool.
Oh yeah, total bill was $44.00.
Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
> Hi All,
>
> Right on. The Victor 9000 was quite a system. Monochrome hi res
> video. Way ahead of its time IMHO. If I remember right, it was an
> 8086 based PC that was designed by the same fellow who designed the
> 6502 chip. Unfortunatly, his name escapes me.
Chuck Peddle.
On Tue, 6 May 1997, Roger Merchberger wrote:
>
> And the 64,000 byte question: If Scotty had *never* seen a QWERTY keyboard
> before in his life... how the *he!!* can he type so fast!?!
>
> Inquiring minds want to know!
>
Not to mention that he was able to quickly sketch out the formula for
"transparent aluminum" using ghod knows what software.
--Dav
david_a._vandenbroucke(a)hud.gov
>I have read many letters here and I hope this is NOT what we are going
>to continually hear - Microsoft reps patting themselves on the back
>because they and the company can NEVER BE WRONG. Let's keep company
>reps out if they only want to glorify the company (that basically has
>the computer world in turmoil with poor quality non-innovative
>software).
I don't work for Microsoft, but I have had a similar run-in with Dr.
Pournelle. I am a professional economist (a "Dr." too, as it happens), and
in some discussion forum or other on GEnie I once quoted Milton Friedman's
well-known (among economists) remark that "we're all Keynesians now." If you
know the way that macroeconomic theory has converged over the past few
decades, the remark makes perfect sense and doesn't detract from Friedman's
status as the leader of the believers in the unfettered market. However,
Pournelle was on me like a ton of bricks. He clearly _didn't_ understand
what Keynesian theory was all about and thought that it just stood for
government policies that he didn't like. He didn't care about references,
because he "knew" that Friedman just _couldn't_ have said that, sort of like
those guys who didn't bother to look into Galileo's telescope because they
_knew_ the sun couldn't have spots. Eventually I just gave up on the
conversation, and I suppose Pournelle thinks that he won the argument.
--Dav
david_a._vandenbroucke(a)hud.gov
Hi Again,
<snip>
> I remember playing around with some Victors at the neighborhood computer
> store in 1981 or so. . .did they run CP/M?
The original lot we used ran CPM/86. As the IBM continued to grow in
market share a version of MS/DOS modified specifically for the Victor
was released.
> I also remember reading that they had a wierd disk format, and Victor
> wanted to control all of the software available for the machine.
The wierd disk format came from the multi speed floppy drive and the
zones. 600K on one side of a 5-1/4" disk. Not bad for it's time.
> The
> article said "You couldn't even get a copy of Dbase II unless you got it
> through Victor". Any truth to that?
Yep, due mainly to the disk format. Can't remember if there were
problems with the video driver portion also. The system had a very
high resolution. I once saw video being played on the screen. Looked
every bit as good as a black and white TV except it was green and
black. In any event, you just couldn't bring programs straight over.
As far as applications went, they had Victor versions of Lotus,
Supercalc, MultiPlan, Multimate, dBase II, Crosstalk, Wordstar and
others. It even had a 3D spreadsheet called Victor Calc.
There was talk of Victor releasing a disk drive that would read and
write IBM format and an emulation board that would allow it to run
IBM software. As I remember it, this board was giving them all kinds
of headaches. Never really got it to work bug free or at least free
enough so that users wouldn't complain. Shortly after this the
company went belly up. Seems that they were will established over seas
and had a good share of the market. In an attempt to migrate the
system to this side of the pond they overextended themselves in the
marketing department and opened up too many sales locations all over
the country but the sales didn't materialze. I remember them
shutting down location after location. That's about all I can
remember.
Hope that helps.
Tom
I'm sorry but I can't recall a scene in any movie that resembles a real
use of a computer. Face it computers on film are boring. That's why
every movie computer has animated graphics and makes noises every time
you do something.
I worked with a guy in 3-D modeling. He learned how to spin a shaded
object on the screen. Every time a (computer clueless) manager came by
he'd start spinning. They were really impressed! Then after they left,
he'd ask me how to make it do something else.
What I really enjoy is the blank screen where you type in "find Bob
Smith" and it comes back with everything about the guy including
pictures, tax returns, blueprints of his house, and always that little
piece of information that ties him to the crime. Where can I get one of
those?
I remember trying out a little accessory for my mac that caused the
thing to beep every time you hit a key. just like in the movies! Drove
me crazy after about 30 seconds.
Hi All,
I've been lurking for one day but had to reply to this one so I hope
I'm not breaking any rules.
<snip>
> That was an ACT Victor 9000, aka Sirius 9000 in Europe. It's a brilliant
> machine (by coincidence I saw a Sirius keyboard for sale last Sunday).
> 8088-based, but not PC compatible. Will run the usual OSs and the usual
> software. I can't remember specs of the top of my head. After the
> Victor/Sirius, ACT went on to design the Apricot series, with which you may
> be more familiar. If you need the full specs, I'll be happy to have a look
> for you!
Right on. The Victor 9000 was quite a system. Monochrome hi res
video. Way ahead of its time IMHO. If I remember right, it was an
8086 based PC that was designed by the same fellow who designed the
6502 chip. Unfortunatly, his name escapes me. It was not IBM
compatible in any way which is what really killed it. I had a
classroom with 12 of those systems in it. Very reliable. Also had a
variable speed 5-1/4 drive that stored more data on the outer tracks
by slowing the drive down. Had about 5 different speed zones on the
disk so it store 600k per disk. Quite a feat when IBM was still at
the 360K density.
On another note. The reason I'm here is that someone recommended I
drop a line to let you all know I have a Heath Z150 PC that I built
back in 1984. I also have all the manuals and schematics and two
binders of Remark mag. I no longer have room for it and would like to
find a good home for it. Aside from shipping charges, it's free for
the taking. I'm located on Long Island in New York. Anyone
interested. I'd hate to have to deep six it.
Let me know
Tom
> You can't forget about the PDP-8/E with DECTape drives that
> appeared in "Three Days of the Condor".
And wasn't there an IMSAI in War Games? (It's been a long time,
though.)
ttfn
srw
------------------------------------------------------------
Walde Techonology http://scott.cprompt.sk.ca
Box 7284 finger: scott(a)cprompt.sk.ca
Saskatoon, SK S7K 4J2 email: scott(a)saskatoon.com
CANADA email: scott(a)cprompt.sk.ca
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Two of my favorites:
ISTR (tho I haven't seen it since it came out) that the original Terminator
was programmed in:
1: Basic (Applesoft Basic, wasn't it?)
2: 8-bit Assembly (methinks 6800/6809, but it could have been 6502...
memory fuzzy)
3: Get this: COBOL!!!!! ;-O
There may have been others... but those are three I distinctly remember
>from the movie.
The other one (of course):
Scotty talking to a mouse on an original Macintosh (which, of course) had
the computational capabilities of a Cray it would seem...
And the 64,000 byte question: If Scotty had *never* seen a QWERTY keyboard
before in his life... how the *he!!* can he type so fast!?!
Inquiring minds want to know!
Prost,
"Merch"
--
Roger Merchberger | If at first you don't succeed,
Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should *not*
zmerch(a)northernway.net | be your first career choice.
> And the 64,000 byte question: If Scotty had *never* seen a QWERTY keyboard
> before in his life... how the *he!!* can he type so fast!?!
Shouldn't that actually be the 65,536 byte question?
ttfn
srw
------------------------------------------------------------
Walde Techonology http://scott.cprompt.sk.ca
Box 7284 finger: scott(a)cprompt.sk.ca
Saskatoon, SK S7K 4J2 email: scott(a)saskatoon.com
CANADA email: scott(a)cprompt.sk.ca
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