And now, in the "the more things change, the more they stay the same" category,
By now most of you have probably heard of the Tiger Learning Computer. It's
an apple 2E clone that plugs into your tv and has rom carts for its programs.
Let's see. Color, plugs into a tv, can be cartrige driven, less than 200
bucks US. *sigh* I think Commodore died too soon. The 64 was all this and
more. Now if I could just find one of the little beasties... (the TLC,
not the C=64 - it wouldn't be the same as the one that was MINE.)
--
Jim Strickland
jim(a)calico.litterbox.com
--
"...It tells me that goose stepping morons like yourself should try reading
books instead of burning them."
-Dr. Henry Jones Sr.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
This past weekend, my aunt cleaned out her basement and presented me with
all the old computer stuff she had stored there. Not much but I did get
an old XT and a pretty complete IIe system. First, here's what I got:
About 5 feet of disks (apple II) of which about 25 or so were CP/M (?)
About 10 feet of books including (and I don't know why) users manuals and
tape software for an "Epson HX20 Notebook Computer" (didn't get the
computer tho :( looks neat no the cover)
Since I am new to Apple's and really don't know what I'm talking about I
will "attempt" to describe the system I got. Whomever had it before my
aunt really did a number on it; all the punch-out plates in the back are
gone and numerous ribbon cables are coming out every little crevice!
First the basics:
It came with 2 Disk II Disk Drives which I am still not sure even work.
OPening the iie up I find:
CPU has been replaced (?) with a ZIPCHIP 4 (?)
In slots:
AUX: This is probabl;y the most interesting board. It says Ramworks II
on it and has a piggyback board attached to it that I think is supposed to
be a RGB board.
1: is empty
2: has a Grappler + Parallel Printer INterface
3: Empty
4: Mouse Interface
5: Empty
6: Disk II Interface
7: (This one stumps me) Its a pretty long board and attaches by way of a
wire to a panel on the back that says "VIDEX" The panel has a toggle
switch and two RCA ports that say "M" and "A" Is this another Video
board?
OK, here's the problem!
When I turn it on......nothing happens!
The enhanced light comes on (?) and all I get on the screen is a sqaure
pattern of reversed @ sysmbols and such. What is this? Other than that,
the computer beeps once before this appears and the drives just blink
their lights real quick (no motor spins, etc.) What's wrong here guys?
Thanks,
Les
Hi chaps...
I just picked up an Apple ][e complete with DuoDisk box and orange
monitor. Great thing is it also has also the DOS 3.3 manuals and
disks and bits and pieces in their original packaging! All i paid for
was the petrol (yeah, i'm in England!) to go over and pick it up.
Opening up the case reveals that it has a number of cards plugged in
including a memory expansion card - does anyone know what size RAM
this gives me? how can i check (forgive me for i have not RTFM yet!).
It seems to work fine, so my big question is can i use any old 5 1/4"
disks in it? is it capable of formatting any old 5 1/4" disks? I ask
for two reasons: 1) so i can make back-up copies of the DOS 3.3 disks
and 2) so i can save stuff.
TIA...Nick.
--
Nick Challoner nickc(a)ladyland.demon.co.uk
Aviation photographs at: http://www.ladyland.demon.co.uk
"Bother" said Pooh, as he deleted his root directory.
This seems to be the weekend for Apple II series boot problems!
My Apple II+ will boot a diskette called the "Zardax Utilities" but it
won't boot anything else. When I boot with the Zardax Utilities
diskette, I get "APPLE II" on the screen, some disk activity, then the
Zardax menu comes up.
When I put in a different bootable diskette, I get "APPLE II" on the
screen, and then after a moment's pause, a bunch of garbage characters
are added. This happens with various bootable diskettes, including some
brand-new shrinkwrapped Atarisoft games (whose docs say they are
bootable).
With the garbage on the screen, if I hit Shift/Break or Ctrl/Break or
whatever, I can get to the ] BASIC prompt.
I've switched out the Drive 1 and the diskette adapter card.
Any idea what's wrong?
thanks
Kai
Greetings, I'm hoping for a little advice here:
While scanning an auction web page
(http://www2.ebay.com/aw/itemfast.cgi?item=hok055925)
I found an item I have in the garage. which sold there for $76.50.
This brings two questions to my mind:
1: Is it worth $76.50?
2: Would be unethical to email the non-winning bidders with an offer
to sell my computer to them?
_______________
Barry Peterson bm_pete(a)ix.netcom.com
Husband to Diane, Father to Doug,
Grandfather to Zoe and Tegan.
Hi,
I recieved the following email through my web site. I really don't have
the room for these so if anybody is interested then feel free to
contact him. (He does know I have forwarded this email.)
Kevan
------- Forwarded Message
Here's an Email I recieved today, just in case any of you are
interested.
>To: JeffH
>From: dasarno(a)aol.com
>Date: 28 May 97 21:20:02 -0500
>Subject: Kaypro
>
>
>Jeff -
>I came across your name by reference the keyword Kaypro. I have a
>mint condition Kaypro 10, all manuals, back-up disks. It looks like
>it just came out of the box and works great. But, have absolutely no
>use for it. Do you have any ideas? Is there an aftermarket or should
>I donate it to some school computer lab. Thanks
>
>Don S.
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
Collector of Classic Computers: Amiga 1000, Atari 800, 800XL, MegaST-2,
Commodore C-128D, Plus/4, VIC-20, Kaypro 2X, Mattel Aquarius, Osbourne
Executive, Radofin Aquarius, Timex-Sinclair 1000, TRS-80 Color Computer 3,
and Model IV. Also Atari SuperPong and Atari 2600VCS game consoles
At 07:59 AM 5/30/97 -0400, Roger Merchberger wrote:
>> especially when the PS/2's came out. The PS/2's had *no* way to hook an
>> internal 5.25" floppy
>
>Does the PS/2 not have any 5.25" drive bays? Weird. :)
remember that at the time the PS/2 came out IBM was trying to re-assert
their lead in the industry (they largely failed). they decided to move to
a completely new architecture which they hoped would set a new standard
(e.g. 3.5" floppy; Microchannel; VGA graphics). the microchannel failed
because they tried to license the technology, but people found ways to
breathe life into the old ISA bus instead. the small floppy and VGA were
obviously successes, but IBM underestimated the need for backward
compatibility to the larger floppies (obvious in hindsight).
- glenn
In a message dated 97-05-29 21:36:06 EDT, shoppa(a)alph02.triumf.ca (Tim
Shoppa) writes:
> The chips aren't hard to find or replace, it's just that I've seen
> neophytes smoke a half-dozen drives in a matter of minutes while
> swapping cables around. (Yes, i've smoked a couple myself.)
I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one frying Disk II's although I only
seem to fry the 74LS125's on the drive.
Lou
The Commodore 1084 is a versatile, inexpensive monitor on the used
market. It has composite, Y/C, analog and digital RGB inputs with
front-panel switching, as well as built-in audio (the 1084S is stereo).
The Commodore 1702 is an older model that should be even cheaper. It
has composite and Y/C connections switchable only on the rear panel, and
monaural built-in audio.
I'm sure both of the above were available in PAL versions, probably with
the same features.
Many older systems can be wired to use Y/C connections (e.g. Atari 8bit,
C64) by using a custom cable on the video DIN connector instead of the
Ch3/4 TV output. Y/C connections (also known as S-video) will yield a
_much_ higher quality picture. The Commodore monitors use dual RCA
connectors instead of the mini-DIN4 connector more commonly associated
with S-video, but electrically it's the same. If you had a newer system
with S-video output (e.g. PlayStation/Saturn) it would be simple to make
a mini-DIN4-to-dual-RCA adapter cable.
I use a Commodore 1084S for my Amiga, Atari ST and IBM CGA/EGA
applications; a (ultra cool) Samsung GXTV (http://sosimple.com/gxtv.htm)
for various systems, including those that have only Ch3/4 output (e.g.
Mattel Aquarius, Timex-Sinclair ZX) and for watching TV in the computer
room :), and a Sony PVM-2030 broadcast stacking monitor for the modern
video game systems.
I'd like to find a Sony GVM-1311Q, which is a 13" monitor that accepts
composite, Y/C, digital and analog RGB, the latter at up to 1024x768.
That covers just about everything except Hercules Mono.
Kai
> ----------
> From: Pete Robinson[SMTP:Pete@madhippy.demon.co.uk]
> Reply To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
> Sent: Thursday, May 29, 1997 12:15 PM
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
> Subject: monitors for use with old computers.
>
> I'm fairly new to the collecting scene and I'm looking for a monitor I
> can use with some of my systems. I'm mainly interested in the 8bit
> home
> computers, spectrum, c64, atari, dragon, bbc etc
>
> I'd like to know if there is a particular type of monitor that can be
> used on the above machines. I'd like to buy, say one, I can use with
> all
> of the above.
>
> I know there seems to have been a few different methods used in
> producing the video signals and, from reading newsgroups, I get the
> impression that it is sometimes possible to select video
> outputs/monitor
> inputs such that, even if the monitor is not directly compatible, a
> reasonable result can be obtained.
>
> Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
> --
> Pete Robinson
> pete(a)madhippy.demon.co.uk
> http://www.madhippy.demon.co.uk - faqs, emulators, links, web
> utilities.
>
