test-drb July 1997

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

111 participants
442 discussions

by HamiJohn＠aol.com

Hi, Had one at work in the late 70's/early 80's. What specifically would you like to know? John Hamilton hamijohn(a)aol.com

26 years, 11 months

What exactly, is an IBM System 36?

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

> I have the oportunity to aquire an IBM System 36 model 5364 with manuals > and operating disks, all in working condition. My question is, I have never > heard of this system (the 360/370, yes). What can I expect? The S/36 is a minicomputer from the early 1980s (?). It replaced the system/34, although I still had to work on one of the latter as a student in 1985-6. I don't think I have much documentation on the S/36, but I have some on the S/34, including an OCL (operation control language - rather like JCL) reference which might help you. The 5364 was a late S/36, the Desktop model. It comes in a box that looks remarkably like a PC/AT (the only external difference being the disk drive bays I think). Unfortunately its floppy drive is 5 1/4 inch, where all other S/36s at that date had 8 inch. Trivia information: The largest S/36, together with the S/34 and a word processing system of which I can no longer remember the number, all had the nicest floppy drive I have ever seen. It took twenty-three disks - three singly and two cassettes of ten each - on a moving carriage (tautology??). It moved the carriage until the appropriate disk was opposite the hole, then sucked it in and read/wrote it. Fast. :-) Philip.

26 years, 11 months

History of Video Games (RE: "Bally Astrocade")

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

Uncle Roger wrote: > (But I always was, and always will be, a Robotron man...) What!?!?! Do you mean the East German Robotron Elektronik, or is this another company with the same name? If the former, do you know what the Robotron 7022 is/was? I think it is a micro of early '80s vintage. I have a Robotron 7622 - a large (5U rack mount) box that appears to be the console for it (lamps and switches and four 7-segment hex digits). I am trying to reverse engineer but am having problems with Russian chip numbers. Sometime soon I shall make a longer posting on this subject... Philip.

26 years, 11 months

Video Brain

by ccm＠sentex.net

>Sam Ismail wrote: > One of the >> systems he mentioned he had was a Video Brain. Apparently this is a >> video game system. I *think* I vaguely remember hearing about this >> system. At any rate I'm curious about it and was wondering if anybody >> knew what it was as we both had too much tequila for him to describe and >> for me to comprehend it. >Video brain was made by a firm called UMTECH, used a microprocessor >called F8 and had 1 to 4K of RAM memory. It was possible to store the >data on cassette and, you are right there, it had many plug-in >cartridges with games on them. It was sold mainly through departments >stores and specialty electronic stores (at least that is what "A >Collector's guide to personal computers" book has to say about it) > >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> > > > This is a case of two computers and one name. The Video Brain is also a desktop, CP/M microcomputer built in the early 1980's. It physically resembles an Applied Digital Data Systems ADDS 70 intelligent terminal with dual 5 1/4" floppies mounted beside the monitor. Now you must investigate further and tell us which one it is. Yours in good faith.

26 years, 11 months

Classic Video Games

by sinasohn＠crl.com

At 07:48 PM 7/11/97 -0600, you wrote: >I think that was RS. I had one of those too. Got pretty boring pretty >quick, cause you could fake down, go up three times and spaz on the >forward button for a guaranteed first down every time. (or was it a >guaranteed TD? I can't remember.) guaranteed TD. Yep, that's it. 8^) It may have been boring, but it was better than studying! --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/

26 years, 11 months

Some Commie questions

by george.lin＠documentum.com

Zane, Are you trying to connect the 1702 monitor to the C128 RF port? It won't work. The 1702 monitor should be connected to the C128 VIDEO port via a special cable. The VIDEO port outputs composite video signal. The RF port outputs VHS Channel 3 or 4 and is used for TV connection. George -- George Lin Documentum, Inc. (Nasdaq: DCTM) Manager, Data/Voice Communi- Phone/Fax: 510-463-6800/6850 cation & End-User Computing http://www.documentum.com Email Fax mailto:remote-printer.George_Lin@4.3.8.6.3.6.4.0.1.5.1.tpc.int My PGP Public Key for encryption is at http://george.home.ml.org/pgp.htm -----Original Message----- From: Zane H. Healy [SMTP:healyzh@ix.netcom.com] Sent: Sunday, July 13, 1997 3:11 PM To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers Subject: Some Commie questions Hi, I gather this rates as a classic at least :^) Been working on my Weekend haul, and having only ever had a Vic 20 (which sadly I gave away years ago), I'm somewhat out of my depth. My main question is on the C= 128, along with all the other stuff I picked up, I got a Commodore 1702 monitor, and a couple 1541 drives. I've got the drive attached, and the monitor hooked up via a RF cable (I guess that's what it's called) through the front connection (This works for the Amiga 500 I also got yesterday). Anyway, I power the thing on, it "buzzes" the drive like it's expecting to find something, and I don't get anything on the display. I remember that the C64's like the VIC-20 would drop you at the prompt even if you had nothing attached, and didn't need any kind of boot floppies. Do I need some kind of boot disk for this beast? I gather a CGA monitor will work, so I guess I should dig out one of the old Mono-CGA monitors I've got in storage. The next question would be, is it worth trying to repair a C64's power supply? I got two of them yesterday, both powersupplies are dead. It looks like the 5V line is shorted to ground. I did get a copy of the Old & New style users manuals, and a copy of "Troubleshooting and Repairing your Commodore 64" yesterday (I love Powells Technical Books!) so I've got some documentation. It's been too many years since I worked as an Electrician, so my skill level is pretty low (wasn't very high to begin with, which is why I switched to computers). Then there is the Amiga 500. About a month ago, I'd picked up a copy of "Bards Tale" for the Amiga, so I know it works. Problem is I don't have a copy of the two floppies that came with the computer originally (also got the manual for this at Powells). I think I've got the Kickstart 1.2 ROMs (it has a 1.2 on the screen when asking for the Workbench disk). Where can I get the disks? I don't suppose it's like the Apple IIgs software that you can now download. The second Amiga question would be, is it possible to hook up Apple IIgs, or Macintosh 3 1/2" external floppy drive with a Amiga? I somehow doubt it, but... Thanks, Zane | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator | | healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast | | healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Mac Programmer | +----------------------------------+---------------------------+ | For Empire of the Petal Throne, and Traveller Role Playing | | see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |

26 years, 11 months

Video game machine/Computer With 6800 Processor

by MPritchard＠ensemble.net

> Does anyone remember this machine : > > it's a video game console (like the atari VCS) but which could sit on > a box which then converts it to a home computer. > > The machine ran on a 6800 and had built-in basic. > > It came out approx at the same time as the Atari 400/800 series > (78-79?) > > I remember seeing an ad on it and the heading of the ad was > "imagination machine". > > > Ben > > Ahh, the "APF Imagination Machine" I believe. Somewhere I have a > single cartridge for it. > > -Mp

26 years, 11 months

Updates

by bill＠booster.bothell.washington.edu

Hi all. A lot of things have been significantly updated over the last few weeks. You may want to take a look. The web site (http://weber.u.washington.edu/~bcw/ccl.html) has been reworked somewhat. Brett's Classic Computer Encyclopedia (http://www.xnet.com/~danjo/classic/index.html) has grown quite a bit but could use some images (hint, hint, guys) Isaac's Classic Computer Rescue site (http://www.comland.com/~idavis/classic/classic.html) is looking good. The Links Section of the web site has nearly doubled (although I know you guys have more that you could cough up ;) Same with the FAQs section (once again - send me more) and the ClassicCmp FAQ has been HTMLized for your ease of reading. The document archive is online (although most listings are still being held under review). The Big List of Classic Computers now contains sections for Prototype and Limited-Run computers and for computers which more info is needed on. The FTP site has been indexed and divided up into sections for various computers - not a whole lot is there, a few faqs, articles, and pictures. Feel free to send more ;) (ftp://140.142.225.27/pub/classiccmp) Bill ---------------------------------------------------- Bill Whitson - Classic Computers ListOp bill(a)booster.u.washinton.edu or bcw(a)u.washington.edu http://weber.u.washington.edu/~bcw

26 years, 11 months

HP 9836, HP 86 ??

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

> > The HP86 is basically an HP85 without the built-in monitor,tape drive, > > or printer, but with GPIB as standard. The 9121 is a single-sided version of > > the 9122 if that's any help. > > Ok, you've lost me on that one. What is the GPIB? GPIB = General-Purpose Interface Bus. Aka IEEE-488, and very similar to HPIB (= Hewlett-Packard Interface bus). HP were the company who designed it, but it turns up on all sorts of machines. It's an 8-bit parallel interface using a 24 pin connector. 8 pins are ground, 8 are data, 3 are handshake, and 5 are bus control/management. It was originally designed to link up lab equipment (DVMs, counters, digital 'scopes, etc), but HP use it as a general peripheral bus (disk drives, plotters, printers, etc) on some of their micros. Commodore used it for much the same purpose (although with looser timing requirements) on the PETs > David Williams - Computer Packrat -tony

26 years, 11 months

HP 9836, HP 86 ??

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

> There are two flavors of HP 86, the 86A and the 86B. Thanks for the info - I've only used 86B's. > Re: the 9121: yep, single-sided Sony stiffy drives that hold about > 300KB I think. It's been too long and I have forgotten just about > everything except that the single-sided ones never seemed to hold > quite enough (this on HP 150s). Probalby 320 or 360K bytes (at least on the 150 - is the 9121 supported on the 150 - my manuals are silent on the subject...). It's 80 track single-sided, and thus the same size as a double-sided 40 track disk. > You know how 3.5" drives open the metal slider so they can get at the > medium? The very earliest drives didn't, and the stiffies didn't > spring-load the slider -- it was up to the user to slide the slider > before insertion into and after removal from the drive. I've also seen disks that open automatically, but stay open when ejected. You 'pinch' them to close them. They did not close automatically on ejection from any drive. > -Frank McConnell -tony

26 years, 11 months

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test-drb July 1997