> Not a clone, but similar. Max RAM was 768K, came with a Floppy Drive as
> standard (IIRC). Was the first computer to use variable speed disk drive
> (as the early Mac's did as well.) Ran an early version of MS-DOS, I think
>
> And, IIRC, it pre-dated the IBM PC.
Ok, some herstory. There were many machines that ran CP/M-86 before in IBM
PC, one in particular was the Seattle Computer co, running Q-dos which after
a deal with MS would be come MSDOS-1.0 aka PCdos to run on the first PC.
I was running a 8086 system in 1980 that clearly blow the doors off a PC.
It was 8086 not 8088 at 5.0mhz and 16bit wide memory using standard
multibuss cards. By late 81 that machine was 8mhz, and 82 brought a copy of
PC dos to it. Early MSdos could be configured like CP/M. The PC was slow,
clunky, closed and expensive! By time the XT arrived still slow, clunky and
expensive there are several S100 and other systems that were very fast
6/8/10 mhz 8088 or 8086 systems.
At 03:49 PM 6/15/97 -0700, you wrote:
>1979? The Victor 9000 came out in 1985/86 according to previous
>discussions. Indeed it would have been the "technological cutting edge"
>in 1979, and for quite some time as it would have pre-dated the computer
>it was supposed to be semi-compatible with.
My (admittedly faulty) memory puts the Victor 9000 pre-IBM. I remember my
parents considering purchasing one, and being horrified at the specs on the
IBM PC when it came out. I couldn't understand why anyone would buy one
when they could have the Victor 9000 instead.
Maybe I should check some of the docs I've got and see what they say.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
Was the Aquarius II compatible with the old Aquarius programs?
Can anyone give me a lead on an Aquarius II?
--
Andy Brobston brobstona(a)wartburg.edu ***NEW URL BELOW***
http://www.wartburg.edu/people/docs/personalPages/BrobstonA/home.html
My opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Wartburg College
as a whole.
I finally got a chance to play with my Osborne 1 and must say it is a
nice little system. For its time it was a great product. The software
is very user-friendly and overall the system runs quite nicely. The disk
drives are rather fast. I was making backups of my system disks and it
reads almost 5 tracks per second (but writes at about a rate of 5 seconds
per track).
Hey, my Osborne 1 has serial number A01284. Can anyone beat that?
Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
I found these while looking for the docs for my SWTP CT1024 terminal board
that I'm resurecting (it works)
These are available for sale or trade:
SWTP PR40 schematic and wiring drawing (D size sheet two sided)
SWTP MP-S serial interface (SS50, 6800) assembly, schematic
and board views.
Ohiso Scientific sams photofact service manual complete for:
Superboard-II
Model C1P
Model C1PMF
Allison
Well, not a bad weekend for Apple stuff. I visited two swap meets and a
dozen thrifts, and came up with the following stuff (the weird thing is,
all of my traditional good spots were dry, and all the dry ones had good
stuff -- and not only that, these systems weren't complete but instead
all the parts came from different locations!)
- An Apple II
- An Apple II with RAM expansion card, Grappler card, 80 column card
- An Apple /// with ProFile hard disk, second floppy and Monitor ///
- An Apple ///+ with ProFile hard disk, second floppy, serial card, and
a "///+//" Apple II emulation card (!)
- Another ProFile hard disk (that makes 3!)
- Apple /// JOYSTICK !!!!! (egads)
- Two Apple II series joysticks
- Apple II series game paddle set
Plus:
- Three Central Point Copy II Option Boards (copy Apple, Mac, TRS-80,
CP/M formats on PCs)
- Two 8-bit Plus Hard Card 20's
- Silicon Valley ADP50 (run IDE hard drives in an IBM PC)
Kai
Ok, the weekend's not even over, and here's how I did:
101 Online - A neat little terminal with a 9" screen. The keyboard
covers the screen and flips down with the push of a button. It has a
built-in 4800bps modem. It was used to connect to some online service in
California at some time or another. The whole thing is in this cute
10"x10"x10" package - $5
Laser 50 with manuals - $4 (Hi Bill!)
Commodore 64, Commodore 64C (two of 'em, one seems to be this weird clone
since the plastic looks different from the other one and it has no
markings), two 1541 drives, two Star NX-1000C dot matrix printers - All free
Data General One (Model 2) laptop. Two questions: How did the model 2
differ from the model 1? And I didn't get a power supply with this, but
was told by a couple people all it requires is a special three-prong
power cord. The receptacle is an oval with three conductors. Anyone
know about this? - $15
2 Commodore 1541 drives, 2 Commodore 1571 drives - $8
DEC Rainbow 100 with all the trimmings (extra cards, all software and
manuals) - $10
VIC-20 Modem - $1
Commodore 64 user's guide, VIC-20 User's Guide - $1
(the guy I bought this stuff from claims to have 7 PDP-11s and "several"
PDP-8s that he's been hording. Needless to say I threatened him with
great bodily harm if he didn't give me some. We agreed to meet to discuss
the "free taking" of one of each system. He also has lots of other DEC
stuff for sale and for give-away to those who would give it good homes. I
will keep us posted on any late-breaking developments. He also said he
has a Cyber hard drive unit which sounds like the size of a dishwasher as
he described it. I think the model number was 690s or something. I know
I'm way off. If anyone wants this its in California. Apparently he has
tons of mostly DEC stuff he's been collecting from local colleges and
universtities. Again, I'll keep us posted).
And let's see, oh yeah, I'm not done!
ZX-81 with manuals/power supply and...
Victor 9000 and...
IMSAI 8080!
IMSAI MPU-A (Rev 4) 8080A CPU card
IMSAI SIO (Rev 3) Serial card
DCHayes Modem (I am assuming 300baud...S100!)
Disk Jockey 2D/B 8" drive card (and some 8" drive...I forget the
manufacturer)
(4) Digital Research Company Memory Boards (I think each one is 16K)
All manuals/schematics/notes plus some extra IMSAI fron panel overlays
All this from the original owner for $100. What a bargain.
Ok, this guy is cool. First of all, to you guys complaining that you
never get anything good, here's the message I posted on my local forsale
newsgroup which brought about this acquisition:
---BEGIN USENET MESSAGE---
> First edition K&R
I ahve stapled version with bell labs technical report #31 "the C
programming language" by D.M. Richie, and M.E. lesk. october 1975
it has hand scribbles re: tiny C as it was part of communication with
Jon Gibson.
Got it back around 79 while visiting Bell labs homdel on a business call.
No offers acepted as it's my working copy for C and my bible!
Allison
Thought this may be of interest to some of you. His email address should be
Mikeooo1(a)aol.com
Lou
Subj: Aim 65 single board micro
Date: 97-06-16 16:20:52 EDT
From: Mikeooo1
I have several Aim 65's in new condition,a hot item in the 80's it was the
precursor to the pc.Features a single board microprocessor complete with
display,printer,keyboard,power supply,with a 6502 cpu.Fully functional but
also a nice collector's item.
(Embedded
image moved dastar @ crl.com
to file: 06/15/97 03:49 PM
PIC18303.PCX)
Please respond to classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
To: classiccmp @ u.washington.edu
cc: (bcc: Clark Geisler/NORTEL-NSM)
Subject: Re: Victor 9000
Sam wrote:
>1979? The Victor 9000 came out in 1985/86 according to previous
>discussions. Indeed it would have been the "technological cutting edge"
>in 1979, and for quite some time as it would have pre-dated the computer
>it was supposed to be semi-compatible with.
I recall seeing Victor 9000's newly installed in a computer lab at the
University of British Columbia in 1983.
(Embedded
image moved ard12 @ eng.cam.ac.uk
to file: 06/15/97 02:14 PM
PIC24988.PCX)
Please respond to classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
To: classiccmp @ u.washington.edu
cc: (bcc: Clark Geisler/NORTEL-NSM)
Subject: Re: Terak 8510a
>Talking of obscure PDP11-related machines, has anyone else ever come
>across the Tektronix 8530 etc systems. These machines were sold as micro
>development systems and lived in 2 racks - one contained an LSI11 (or
>PDP11/23) CPU card + RAM + disk controller + I/O + drives (either a couple
>of 8" floppies or one floppy and a Micropolis 1200 hard disk), while the
>other contained the development options -- in-circuit emulators, logic
>analyser, EPROM programmer, etc. They ran either a much-hacked RT11 or a
>much-hacked Unix.
This sounds a lot like a system I saw installed new at my alma mater
(University of British Columbia) my graduation year (1983). It was a
Tektronix
development system with LSI11 CPU running UNIX. There were a number
of terminals attached, and it was used to teach computer process control
concepts to non-computer eng. types. I remember seeing various pumps and
tanks connected to it.
I never used it seriously myself, but just logged on to play with it: this
was the
first Unix system I had seen. I wasn't very impressed with it at the time:
whenever I used the 'man' program, the pages would just scroll up the
screen
(no pause), then it cleared the screen, leaving the prompt.
Clark Geisler
'just have an Amiga 1000 and a VAX 11/730'
I'm so excited...this is my first post to this great group.
In 1981 I left NCR to work for Victor (Canada) Limited to organize a tech
support team and assist a calculator saleforce become successful sellers of
microcomputers - namely the Victor 9000 or Vickie as it came to be called.
The Victor 9000 came out in 1982. It was produced by a company called Sirius
Computer Corp. Mr. Chuck Peddle designed the 9000 and ran Sirius. Peddle had
preivously worked for Commodre and designed the PET. By golly, before that
he worked on the 6502 chip (the CPU in early Apples).
Now here's more corporate geneology stuff. Victor used to be called Victor
Comptometer. It was owned by the Victor family of Chicago and was bought-out
by the Kidde Corp a conglomerate. Kidde also invested in Sirius.
The 9000 was a machine designed for people. It came with a non-glare
monochrome monitor on a tilt and swivel-base - hey we're talking 1981 here!
It had an ergonomically-considerate keyboard, small footprint, and oh yah,
it had a voice chip on the motherboard. The last step of POST (power-on,
self-test) was the 9000 telling you "Hello, I am a Victor 9000." I get a
kick out of listening to the Comdex 1990 keynote speech by Bill Gates (the
one when he announced the Information at Your Fingertips campaign), because
he declared that someday computers will have voice-digitization on the
motherboard. Did you hear that Chuck?
Unforunately the 9000 didn't last long. Sirius had grand plans to become the
next IBM, they absorbed Victor, sold lots of machines (a single order of
4000 to Ford Motors), then promptly went bankrupt. Victor Canada was closed
down in the mid-1980s.
The 9000 came in two cases. Early (first) models housed the processor in a
rectangular case. Later models used a niffty angular case. I don't know if
voice digitization made it into the angular case.
My 9000 occupies a place in my subcollection of Unique Systems - systems
that were, well let's say they were ahead of their times. Other machines
here include the Lisa, Workslate, Hyperion, Star, Apple III, DG/One, etc.
Hope this helps you, I know it sure was fun for me.
Yours in good faith.
>Hello!
>
>I have a Victor 9000, cheap to good home. The technological cutting edge in
>1979, it has a keyboard that includes a 1/2 and 1/4 key, a wonderfully
>massive dot matrix printer, and a version of Wordstar that is truly hideous.
> Plus other software. The thing seems to run on DOS 1.25. It has been in my
>garage for years, and I hate to see such a monstrosity go without victims.
> Is there someone out there who would like to have it? Please respond to
>MoeHoward1(a)aol.com or David.Stevens(a)pgw.com.
>
>
At 06:21 AM 6/16/97 +0000, you wrote:
>Aaaah! That's more like it! What I meant was the home video game
>console. Now back to the original question: does anybody know where I
>can get a photo of it or at least a description). Thank you
>
>enrico
Enrico,
Try this site. It has a picture of an atari pong machine:
http://members.aol.com/cvendel/vaporware.html
Hope this helps.
Isaac Davis | Don't throw out that old computer,
idavis(a)comland.com | check out the Classic Computer Rescue List -
indavis(a)juno.com | http://www.comland.com/~idavis/classic/classic.html
>
> I don't know if I have any of the Pong advertisements or not, but I most
> likely have something close. It is pretty easy to recognize as the
> cabinet was about 27" or so wide, about 30" deep, and stood somewhere
> around 6 feet high.
Pong had a monitor?!? I didn't know that.
I have Atari's Pong here which is just the console.
First video game we ever got. I plan to pull it out of retirement for
a 1970's party being planned.
Hmm, I'd like to find a pic of that 6ft beast myself.
Marc
--
>> ANIME SENSHI <<
Marc D. Williams
marcw(a)lightside.com
marc.williams(a)mb.fidonet.org
IRC Nick: Senshi Channel: #dos
http://www.agate.net/~tvdog/internet.html -- DOS Internet Tools
Doeas anybody have a photograph of "PONG" the first video game ever? Or
where I can find one? I have never seen it and I don't know how it looks
like so I will not be able to recognize it if I ever bump into one.
Thanks
enrico
--
================================================================
Enrico Tedeschi, 54, Easthill Drive, BRIGHTON BN41 2FD, U.K.
tel/fax +(0)1273 701650 (24 hours) or 0850 104725 mobile
website <http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~e.tedeschi>
================================================================
visit Brighton: <http://www.brighton.co.uk/tourist/welcome.htm>
In a message dated 97-06-12 22:38:21 EDT, marvin(a)rain.org (Marvin) wrote:
> Back when the Atari 400 was introduced, I got hooked on Space Invaders.
> I found the Atari and other Joysticks to be a complete waste when it
> came to playing Space Invaders .....
Why didn't you use the Atari paddles?
Well I'm back from the flea...
I did sell two of the COCOs and a few other odds and ends. The bulk of the
pile remains as "it wasn't VGA or PC".
Of the more interesting things I'd like to sell for nominal fee or trade:
TRS80 docs and tapes...
moto6800D1 pristine with docs
MDS800 mostly complete
The s100 memory cards, s100 crate,
Anadex DP-8000 printer working and docs.
In the process I aquired a real fine PDP11/23+ with RX02. It's excess and
has V4 and v5 DOCs and install kits along with apparently two sets of X11
diags. Also there is a MiniMINC LSI11 kit with mincBaisc. There is an
unopened (shrink intact) box of 8" media. The 11/23 is has 512k of ram 4
serial ports and a RX02 disk system that looks operational.
This is also excess... don't ask, call it a rescue.
Anyone interested let me know as I'm trying to make room for a PDP-8/e/m/f!
Allison
Oh yes! I finally own a little bit of a PDP. The Department of AI at the
university here just disposed of some of its old hardware and I ended up
with a Terak 8510a with extra floppy (8512) and monitor, keyboard (8532).
Lovely!!!
It's a really neat and fast machine. FYI, it has a four-slot backplane
with an LSI-11 board (with FPU), 28kw of MOS RAM, a brilliant framebuffer
card (640x240 text and 320x240 graphics at the same time -- the card mixes
both modes on the same screen and allows hardware panning, smooth scrolling
and other effects), Shugart floppy interface, RS-232/current loop and some
other strange card (probably for controlling some robotic device of sorts --
useful).
It came with all of its documentation (disgustingly complete, including
business reply card with `READ THIS NOW' written at the back, brochures,
reference cards, RT-11 manuals, Shugart tech ref (so you want to take apart
your Shugart 8" drive's head assembly?), etc). Also a set of original
red-and-purple(?) PDP-11 manuals for RT-11. And to top it off, there were a
few 1978-1979 DEC PDP manuals for various architectures. They're in almost
mint condition, but the paper is really showing its age. GOOD documentation,
though.
Software-wise, there are both of the common OSs for the Terak: RT-11 and
UCSD P-System/Pascal (haven't worked with this in ten years, but my fingers
still remember how to press 'F','L',':' really fast). Lots of languages,
including Logo, BASIC and Prolog (it *was* a DAI machine, you see).
The 12" monitor is rock steady and displays a clear image in P3 phosphor
(sort-of paper white) and the keyboard is refreshingly 70s with nice clunky
keys that, however, are really comfortable for touch typing once you get
used to them.
Oh yes, I also got a boxed TI-99/4A with all its manuals and a memory
expansion box, but that is probably too common for you folks in the States
and certainly too mundane in comparison to the Terak.
I'm a happy man. :-)
PS: Oh, the department has quite a nice collection of old stuff, including a
PERQ that just seemed to attract a lot of drool. They're keeping it,
though -- it's going to a real museum (not computer related, though).
All in all, I think I must have looked too much like a kiddie in a sweet
shop.
--------------------------- ,o88,o888o,,o888o. -------------------------------
Alexios Chouchoulas '88 ,88' ,88' alexios(a)vennea.demon.co.uk
The Unpronounceable One ,o88oooo88ooooo88oo, axc(a)dcs.ed.ac.uk
Hello!
I have a Victor 9000, cheap to good home. The technological cutting edge in
1979, it has a keyboard that includes a 1/2 and 1/4 key, a wonderfully
massive dot matrix printer, and a version of Wordstar that is truly hideous.
Plus other software. The thing seems to run on DOS 1.25. It has been in my
garage for years, and I hate to see such a monstrosity go without victims.
Is there someone out there who would like to have it? Please respond to
MoeHoward1(a)aol.com or David.Stevens(a)pgw.com.
Hello folks! I've received the following message from someone who needs to
find a good home for his Atari 800XL system (free):
If interested, please reply to him.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Greetings!
I have a fully functional working 800-XL with expanded memory, a
Smith-Corona printer, a good disk drive, a good monitor, a 300-baud
modem (whoopee!), enough books and manuals to stock a small library
(currently mine), all issues but the first 12 or or of ANTIC, ANALOG,
and COMPUTE magazines, and a whole lot of disks, some directly from
magazines, some from user groups, most from listings I've typed in.
Since I've upgraded to the PC, the Atari system has become expendable,
and needs to go -- I need the room.
Realizing that, by your email, you are not a hop, skip, OR jump away
>from me, here's hoping you can put me in touch with someone who'll be
able to give my 'baby' a good home.
Thanks,
Doug Rasmussen
1233 - 167th Ave. S.E.
Bellevue, WA 98008
Phone: (425) 747-3846
Fax: (425) 644-8912
email: pptdoug(a)aa.net
----------------------------------------
--------------------------- ,o88,o888o,,o888o. -------------------------------
Alexios Chouchoulas '88 ,88' ,88' alexios(a)vennea.demon.co.uk
The Unpronounceable One ,o88oooo88ooooo88oo, axc(a)dcs.ed.ac.uk
In looking through my garage last night, I found an old (about '84
vintage) NCR I-Tower computer system. 68020 based, this particular beastie
ran a variant of Unix customized for NCR.
I would far rather have the space for DEC stuff. With that in mind, anyone
who cares to visit Kent, WA (east hill) can haul this beast away for the
asking. Worst case, the main tower has an integral UPS; you could probably
adapt such to other systems.
Drop me an E-mail if interested, or give me a call at (253) 639-9555.
Thanks in advance.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272)
(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)wizards.net)
http://www.wizards.net/technoid
"Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own
human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."
I have a question about the value of an IMSAI 8080.
Say someone had a nice, working IMSAI 8080 in decent condition. How
much, realistically, could one expect to sell this for?
Say someone had an IMSAI 8080, in pieces, the working condition being
unknown. How much, realistically, could one expect to sell this for?
Now I have a question about a Victor-9000.
Victor 9000, working...how much?
Victor 9000, bad floppy controller...how much?
Thanks!
Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Well... this may not beat Sam's weekend haul, (and if he finds a
'Straight' 8 from this mysterious person I'm *really* gonna be jealous) but
I think it's significant.
A note to begin: I'm announcing this here initially as a sort of place
holder before I proceed as will be noted below. A bit of a CYA action you
might say...
--- we begin ---
I was doing some *long* overdue cleaning in the Computer Garage this
weekend, and finally located some items that I knew were there but had not
mentioned since I could not locate them. Even now, I have not located
*all* of them, but enough to make their presence known.
Somewhere between probably 5-8 years ago, I purchased some equipment,
documentation, and supplies from a sale being held by some Digital
Research, Inc. staff. Little did I know just what I was coming into.
In addition to some S-100 hardware that been used for development, I
purchased a series of disks and original DRI binders. To be specific to
what I have (re-)located so far, the binders contain complete source
listings for MP/M versions 1.1 and 2.0, and CP/M Plus version 3.0 and all
supporting utilities and programs.
If I recall correctly from when I originally received the materials, I
should also have the sources for CP/M version 2.2 and the associated disks.
(don't hold me to this until I locate the other boxes tho. B^} )
To be fair, I will be contacting Caldera on Monday and will not be
accepting requests for access to these documents until such time as I have
verified their standing with Caldera.
--- why this message? ---
Basically, so that the existance of this material is known in the unlikely
event that I should recieve an unfavourable reaction from Caldera.
I try to avoid entanglements with those in the legal profession, but past
experience has shown that a 'document trail' never hurts...
More news as it becomes available...
-jim
---
jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com
The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw
Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174
