Sorry for the on-topic post, but, I just wanted to let folks know that
there is a guy (Ward(?) Shrake) who is archiving Vic-20 cartridges. He has
a list posted on the web (and of course, I don't have URL here on the
train) and is actually taking images of the cartridge ROM's for a CD-ROM
(as well as scanning pictures of the labels and such.)
If anyone is really interested, e-mail me and I'll dig up the URL where
he's got a list of all the cartridges that were available. (If you have
one that's not on the list, please let him know!)
I'm proud to say that I did have one that wasn't on the list (Fun with
Music, by Epyx) and am sending it, along with another (apparently
incredibly rare) cart (Dot Gobbler) for him to take images of.
This sort of serious, practical preservation is definitely to be commended.
(I remember staying up late and playing one of the text adventures on a
Vic-20 with a friend of mine. His first introduction to computers. I was
happy to be able to offer him a new experience, since he had provided me
with so many.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/
<Guys, everyone should have this book by Scott Mueller, "Upgrading and
<Repairing PCs". Tis' have good INFO on most PS/2, PS/1 and some late
<IBM boxens including the PC, XT and AT in all types, convertible,
<5155 portable.
I have that book and it's leaving me guessing on some of this.
<Not in this sense. Correctly stated, in IBM's words: for this 50
<series uses either MFM/RLL card that plugs into that MCA bus or the
<IDE MCA hd and pass thru card called IDE (MCA IDE) on Interposer
<Card.
It must be the mfm/rll as the card in the MCA bus is fairly busy and the
drive is sparse.
<BTW, got a spare working 1.44 FDD for that 50 series? All I have is
<this battle damaged naked 50Z board with CPU and rom with stand up
<floppy adaper. Or better yet, any luck finding a spare PS/2 with
<386 or better boxen?
I have no desire to get into MCA bus or for that fact PS/2 or machines of
that era. Older ISA I have but that's it other than the more current 386
and 486 box to run mail, linux and gcadd. I may trade off these ps/2s.
Allison
Turlough O'Brien wrote:
"videotext" but there is little to no information available on the net about "Videotext" or in the libraries.I would greatly appreciate it if you could send me some informatin on the subject.
(This is from memory and unreliable) There was a proposed standard for North America called NAPLPS, for videotext presentation. I believe it was sponsored by Philips. If someone has a complete collection of BYTE magazines, I recall there was an issue devoted to videotext, circa 1981. The one clever feature of NAPLPS was that the graphics were based on floating point coordinates. Because screen sizes and resolutions would vary, positioning and sizing graphics was a problem. NAPLPS used a coordinate system where the width and height of the screen ranged from 0 to 1. For instance, to place a pixel in the center, you referenced coordinates (0.5, 0.5).
Videotext never really caught on in the US except on cable TV as a non-interactive display. I believe there are still a few videotext services piggybacking on satellite channels. They transmit on one of the unused scan lines at the top of the picture, similar to closed captioning for the deaf.
To my knowledge the only truly successful videotext implementation was the french minitel telephone directory.
Hope this gives you a place to start.
Jack Peacock
Well all the last couple weeks have 50/50 as my sources stsrt to have less
and less computer items. But I did some of the following Mac IIfx, Mac
IIsi, Mac IIci (all for $15 each); all were loaded with software and worked
fine no kb's or mice with them just the boxes. A couple of servers one Dell
and the Compaq but not 10 years old yet for $10 each with no memory or hard
drives. A NeXt black laser printer for $15, NEC MultiSpeed EL with power
brick and manuals $20 at Goodwill. COMQuest PC for .80, IIc mono monitor
and stand .80, Apple IIc free no power supply with it. Atari newstyle 2600
.80,Mac 512k model M0001E will not power on .80, IBM 6156-003 Portable Disk
Drive unit,Pitney Bowes in AT style case with black 3.5 FD $10 not tested
yet, and todays finds have not been listed yet in the computer so I can't
tell you what all I got but my pickup was full. Yes I got 2 IBM 5494's
anyone know something about them ?? Thanks and keep computing John
Simon, how timely of you. I just acquired a NorthStar Horizon
yesterday which uses four 64KB memory boards (parity). Each board has
four 9 chip rows of 16KB dram. I haven't got the documentation for
this machine yet, the previous owner has it in storage with software
as well (he claims) and said he might have it for me by next week.
I'll let you know more details when I get the docs.
Marty Mintzell
marty(a)itgonline.com
______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: Northstar S100 compatability
Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet
Date: 3/19/98 3:50 PM
Hi there, guys. I've been lurking on this list for a good long while now,
and some of the recent talk of Northstar crates actually prompted me to
dig one out that I had aquired a good few years ago and promptly forgotten
about...!
Does anyone have any idea what sort of RAM cards the Horizon likes to
play with? My system already has an (albeit flakey) RAM-16 card, and I
have the remains of an old Godbout Econoram-II card, sans about half its
chips. I have *no* idea whether this card was ever used with the N*.
The machine is not in great condition, bless it; it seems to have been
robbed of a couple of voltage regulators at some point in the past, and
the full-height 5.25 drives are, I fear, past their best, and shall be
retired gracefully. I think that the PSU could do with some adjustment,
too; if anyone in the UK has schematics for any of these bits, and would
be willing to make copies in exchange for money or eternal gratitude,
please let me know!
Still, despite it's problems, I suppose I should at least be grateful
that I have at least found a manufacturer of hard-sectored diskettes! [1]
Thanks.
Simon.
--
Simon Coombs simon(a)nenevr.demon.co.uk
Don't stand on ceremony; just bow low. CP/M - The once and future O/S!
[1] Or, at least, they still were as of Jul 97.
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From: Simon Coombs <simon(a)nenevr.demon.co.uk>
To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers"
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Northstar S100 compatability
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I have 2 EAX6GPSC-499R cards and a FT-60 tape drive. I have just cleaned
up the tape drive (the interior tape mechanism is marked Archive model
#9050B) and have yet to try it as I need a tape.
I also have the software to run the board and drive and they appear to work.
Thanks for the info on the type of tape needed.
I have three sets fo jumpers
{kk(on), hh(off), ff(off), jj(off), q24(on), 45mb(on)}
{3(on), 4(on), 5(on), 6(on), 7(on), 8(on), 9(off), 10(on)}
{RR(off), IRQ 1thru3(3 on), DRQ 1thru3(1 on), DACK(?) 1thru3(1 on)}
Doug Rea
----------
From: Max Eskin[SMTP:maxeskin@hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, March 16, 1998 9:40 AM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Re: Arrrgh! Micro$h*t again...
>What's wrong with COBOL?
The OBOL part.
<Well, the mains transformer is wired OK; it happily takes the 240V in and
<spits out something (?) like 8VAC, 16VAC and respectively. The 16VAC then
<goes through what I assume is a bridge rectifier, and out comes approx.
<+32VDC and -32VDC. The snag *is* that it's meant to be supplying 16, not
<32v! The 8v rail, fortunately, is fine.
Fix that! That 32v is way to high and will snuff the regulators used
for +/-12v. I would expact something closer to 22v DC. Also the caps
used would be stressed if subjected to that for an extended time. It
sounds like the power is wired wrong.
<Methinks that the previous owner may have been a little naughty with the
<wiring; but I'm not confidant enough with electronics to play with it
<too much. This is one machine I don't want to risk blowing up! :)
Sounds that way. Get help from someone on your side of the pond if your
in over your head as that's a fine machine. With 64k of ram and software
it's still pretty useful. At least mine still earns it's keep.
Allison
Jeesh folks,
I'm really sorry about this. It may take some time for your local
DNS servers to update their cache. Until that time the Admin at my remote
ISP (the guys maintaining my DNS records), have set up a sendmail
virtusertable to forward mail from their local mail server (see
www.sendmail.org if this is greek to you). OK, so if any bounce messages
wound up on the mailing list it should stop now....
J. Maynard Gelinas
Folks,
I'm in an mx record tangle with my primary nameserver (which of
course, I don't admin). If you can get your nameserver to kill the TTL on
it's cache you'll get me, otherwise it's going to bounce until the TTL
ends. I've unsub'd from classiccmp to prevent any bounces (I assume there
were bounces <*cringe*>?). Will subscribe back once this is straightened
out....
J. Maynard Gelinas
