Recent finds...
Been adding to the Atari collection, last weekend snagged a 410 tape
recorder for 99 cents, noticed a bit of rattling and discovered a
plastic part had fallen off the rewind key mechanism (it triggers a reed
switch, probably to mute the signal when rewinding.) glue or tape
should fix it. Now all I have to do is find those games I have... I
think I have a Telengard tape that has atari on it, I wonder how it will
compare to the 64 version... And I also have an Automated Simulations
game somewhere (the science fiction one like apshai?), it could have an
Atari version on it as well...
I might have a possible candidate for a power supply for the growing
Atari collection (from a thrift store with a table full of various PSs,
and mention of boxes more in the back, gotta check there more often!),
it is a 9V AC 1.6 amp supply... so, how much difference is there
between 1.6 and 1.7 amps? The least rated supply (listed in the Atari
FAQ) to run on an 800/1200XL is a 1.7 amp, can the 1.6 cause problems?
(I have yet to try this as the plug is the too small and I will have to
solder on a more suitable one for it to work.)
Also got an 810 drive, did a power test tonite, the disk went through
a 'seek' of some sort (still one PS and no disks, so it's best I can do
for now) Now I have disk drives that match the 1200XL and 800!
Speaking of the 1200XL I mentioned earlier the keyboard was not
functional, a fellow user on the comp.sys.atari.8bit newsgroup suggested
checking the keyboard connector, and by-jimminy, it was loose! (Now who
would open a perfectly good computer...well..ok, who wouldn't open a
perfectly good computer. *grin*.)
Books,tapes,disks are nowhere to be found for the Atari (at thrift
shops/book stores/flea markets), so far (since a month or two ago) not a
one spotted, and I thought Commodore books were hard to find.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Monochrome monitors are pretty cheap out there, picked up a basic
Zenith green screen for someone for $2.95, saw a few more similarly
priced.
-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
My best find of the week: one thrift store had a 128D unit sans
keboard (a 128D is a Commodore C128 computer with built-in 1571 disk
drive, latest ROMs, and 64k video RAM) for $7.00. I figured it would be
a great 'parts source' for my flat C128 (which has only 16k VRAM and old
ROMs), I assumed the 128D was DOA, only to discover it is functional,
the drive seems ok too! (booted a CP/M system disk and Renegade, two
disks with 128 boot sectors I knew of). Now I'm gonna have to
scrounge/hack up a 128D keyboard. (dang it all!)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
RE: Laser Discs
>From: bm_pete(a)ix.netcom.com (Barry Peterson)
>Subject: Re: More p-code (was: Re: Another weekend haul story
> On Tue, 27 May 1997 20:06:29 -0700 (PDT), someone said:
>>Also, anyone remembers TI's videodisc controller card? I remember some of
>>the ads and catalogs saying something to the effect of "The Videodisc=20
>>controller is for industrial use only, it is not for use in the home"
>It's PHP 2300 "Video Controller", and listed in 1982 for $699.95! (I
>didn't buy one)
I got a couple LDs from thrift shops the first ($20) was the great
grandaddy Magnavox 8000, still has major tracking problems but it can't
interface to anything anyway.
The second ($9.95!) is a Poineer 6010? Anyway, it is an 'industrial
grade' LD player (had an Armstrong Flooring disc in it). I have some
articles for LD interfacing: one for the VIC-20 in a 1982 COMPUTE! and
one I think for RS-232 in a 1983 BYTE; but this LD player already has an
RS-232 inteface built-in so that point is moot... I am waiting to bail
it out of repairs (very minor ones fortunately). Anyone got a Dragon's
Lair LD lying around???
Larry Anderson
--
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Still no joy on the Apple II+ boot problem.
The machine appears to definitely have 48K RAM; at least the NEC chips
have "416" on them. Any way I can tell in BASIC?
I have 3 disk controllers and 3 drives. The disk controllers have 2
different ROM versions; one is half copyrighted 1979 and half 1981,
while the other is all 1981. The card model is 650-X104. There's
another ID number, one is 820-0006-02 and the other card is 820-0006-D.
Help!!!!
Kai
> ----------
> From: Eric Fischer[SMTP:eric@fudge.uchicago.edu]
> Reply To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
> Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 1997 10:02 AM
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
> Subject: Re: HELP with Apple II+ booting!
>
> kaikal(a)MICROSOFT.com says,
>
> > My Apple II+ will boot a diskette called the "Zardax Utilities" but
> it
> > won't boot anything else.
> ...
> > 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.
>
> My best guess is that maybe you have a 13-sector (DOS 3.2) disk
> controller and one 13-sector disk (the one that works), and the
> rest of your disks are 16-sector so the 13-sector controller
> doesn't know what to do with them. Unfortunately I can't remember
> where to peek to find out the DOS or controller version number,
> so I don't know how you could verify this.
>
> The other alternative is that if your Apple II+ has less than 48k
> of memory, the other disks may be expecting a 48k system and loading
> DOS into a part of memory that doesn't exist on your computer. The
> Zardax Utilities disk may be one with a relocatable DOS image on it
> (a "master" disk) created with "MASTER CREATE" and the rest are just
> plain fixed-address disks. This would certainly explain why random
> junk was getting loaded into video memory instead of where it belongs.
>
> eric
>
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.
Found these ads on the web, they might be of interest to some!
ANTIQUE DATA GENERAL LAPTOP FOR SALE
Data General MODEL NO. 2217A. I have a Data General One laptop (Model
No. 2217A) with full size Expansion Chassis, and several original
manuals and programs -- Lotus 1-2-3 Rel. 1A, Microsoft Multiplan,
DGBlast (communications), GW-Basic, Programmers Manual, Flight Simulator
II, and Ashton-Tate Framework. Laptop has 512 mg memory, dual 720
floppies (max available on machine at time; no internal hard drives in
this generation). Expansion chassis has 4 available slots and a bay for
a full-size hard drive. Purchased new in 1986. This is clearly an
antique, and might be of interest to DG freaks (if there are any) or
computer museums; this was one of first clam shell laptops. Interested?
Please reply directly to Al J. Daniel, Jr.by
e-mail.mailto:adnyc@ix.netcom.com
SEAGATE 8 INCH HDD FOR SALE
Used SEAGATE 8 inch HDD -- condition unknown. Any interest.E-mail.
ice8(a)eosinc.com
Well, thanks to a mobile GPS, I managed to visit 30 thrifts in one day
this weekend, and ended up with:
- Atari 400
- IBM Portable PC 5155
- Two more Osborne 1's (for trade)
- An Indus GT floppy drive for Atari 8bit (this is the best Atari 8bit
drive ever made!)
- Apple Disk II new in box
- Another TRS-80 Model I (system unit only)
- Atari 1040ST and SC124 mono monitor (floppy wasn't working but I fixed
it--I think)
- Another Mac 128 (with bad floppy, I have the parts to fix)
- Pile of diskettes for the TRS-80 Model 4/4P, including original
TRSDOS, SCRIPSIT, ZORK I, etc.
- Manuals for my TRS-80 Model 4P
- Some shrink wrapped games for the Apple II, Atari 8bit, and C64
- TI 99/4A "P-Code Module", whatever the heck that is (goes in the
expansion bay)
- Atari 65XE game computer
- Atari 7800 ProSystem with PS, RF adapter and 3 joysticks
- Colecovision driving expansion module
Kai
I am intrested in the macs, the 128 & 512. How much? I do have a few dos
3.3 master disks for the II series (the origional apple disks!).
Intrested? I'll try to dig them out!
Josh M. Nutzman
+----------------------------------------------+
|"Life is like a river, you go with the flow...|
| but in the end you usually end up dammed." |
| -The Red Green Show |
+----------------------------------------------+
> Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 10:04:36 -0700
> From: Kai Kaltenbach <kaikal(a)MICROSOFT.com>
> Almost forgot - I also picked up an Apricot F2. For those in the
> US, this is one bizarre machine. It's only about 7" wide, 4" tall
[...]
>
> Any additional information -- and pointers to a boot disk --
> appreciated!
If you (or anybody else) want, I can copy your message into the
Fidonet "APRICOT" support echo. There aren't all that many messages
in there at the moment, but I am sure that there are still folk with
working Apricot machines, that would be glad to help.
Let me know, and I'll post your messages in there for you, and
forward replies either to this list, or back to you personally.
Best wishes,
___ _ _ ___ _
_| (_)(\)(-) | (-)(-)(\)
In a message dated 97-05-27 23:56:45 EDT, you write:
> Should I take one of the video cards out? Are they supposed to BOTH be in
> there?
If when you boot the machine it comes up with Apple IIe then you have an
enhanced IIE. If it says Apple II then you have an unenhanced IIe. Part of
the enhancement upgrade involved replacing roms on the motherboard so perhaps
the upgrade was done improperly (unlikely). Pulling cards is the best way to
isolate the problem. First pull the videx card. If that doesn't solve the
problem then pull the AE card, the mouse card and finally the printer card.
If your still having problems then you may want to replace the Zip chip with
a stock 65C02 (an enhanced IIe uses a 65C02 rather than a 6502). If you still
have problems then you may want to try a different controller card or just
throw the thing out the window. :-)
Lou
Whilst in a self-induced trance, Charles P. Hobbs happened to blather:
>Hey, DOS *is* CP/M as far as I'm concerned (look how long it took to
>kick that 8.3 filename habit! :-)
It is not easy to calculate how long it took for them to kick the habit, as
the habit has not yet been kicked... think of it as still being on the
nicotine patch. The long filenames of Win95 are only a *bunch* of 8.3
filename placeholders conveniently disguised to the end user.
Wanna waste a whole weekend over nothing? Run MS-DOS 6.22's scandisk/defrag
on a Win95 volume and see how long it takes you to straighten that mess
out... it's easier to reformat and reinstall.
HTH,
"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.