VALDOCS is an early example of a "works" type program for CP/M although its
most noteable module was the spreadsheet. My wife liked it much better than
Lotus 123. I have both a QX-10 and a QX-16. They are both quality boxes.
The QX-16 is especially fun because one can boot it in either CP/M or MSDOS.
I would encourage anyone to rescue examples of these fine machines. If I
didn't already have one, I would be tripping all over myself to obtain a
fully documented QX-10 for $65.00. In fact, if you decide to pass, let me
know who to contact; I wouldn't mind having a spare.
Cliff Gregory
cgregory(a)lrbcg.com
-----Original Message-----
From: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
To: Cgregory <Cgregory>
Date: Sunday, March 01, 1998 2:56 AM
Subject: Re: Epson QX-10 / AT&T 3B1
>On Sun, 1 Mar 1998, Andrew Davie wrote:
>
>> I've spotted one, owner has original boxes, packaging.
>> And the technical manuals - condition excellent.
>> Is this a computer worth salvaging? I'd likely have to pay around US$65
>
>A quick "power search" of Deja News will tell you that this machine has
>sold recently in a range from $0 to $100 (my cursory look yielded 2 for
>free, 2 at $50, and one at $100).
>
>It sounds like a nice little CP/M box with bank-switched memory that can
>also run VALDOCS (whatever that is).
>
>-- Doug
>
>
My turn. :)
I'm a collector in Adelaide, South Australia - not the only one here, but
one of a very small number. I'm 28, and until very recently I was a
student, doin a Masters in Philosophy. (In case anyone cares, my thesis
concerns the ethical status of hypothetical artificial minds - basically
I'm looking at the criteria for ethical value employed with people and in
animal ethics, and working out whether that criteria can be met by an
artificial intelligence). As far as occupations go, I have a few (being
a typical long-term student) - I'm a welder, do some web page design,
some internet consultancy, Perl coding, teach ethics and critical
thinking to nurses, actually get paid to MOO, work occasionally as a
human guinea pig in medical tests and I am a professional Teddy Bear
artist. :) I've worked in a few other areas, but they'e the most
recent/current ones. Anything to pay for more computers.
I started collecting late last year, although I had wanted to for ages.
My first computer that I used was my uncle's Microbee - an Australian Z80
kit computer - but I rapidly moved to the TRS-80 Model 1 and Vic-20.
Last year I was offered a Lisa 2/5 to save it from being scrapped, so I
figured it was about time I went and picked up all the old computers I
wanted when I was younger. Mostly I only get Micros, but I do branch out
- it seems that I'm getting my first supercomputer soon. :)
My current collection consists of (from memory - I'll probably miss a
few):
Amstrad CPC6128 (x2) and Notepad NC100
Apple ][+, ][e enhanced, ][e platinum, ][c (x6), ][gs, ///+, Lisa 2/5,
Mac 512k
Atari VCS, 400, 800, 800xl (x2), Portfolio
Commodore VIC-20 (x3), 64c (x2), SX-64, 128, PC-10
DEC Microvax II
Dick Smith Electronics Wizard, Dick Smith System 80 (x2), VZ-300
Exidy Sorcerer
Honeywell Microsystem 6 (I'm still hunting for any information about this
one).
IBM PC/XT
Mattel Intelvision
Memotech MTX-500
Microbee 64k
Sharp MZ-721
Surwave Amigo
Tandy TRS-80 Model 4P, CoCo 1, CoCo 2
Wang 286
And today an OSI Challenger 4P arrived. :) Keen.
My bigest wishes at the moment are for a NeXT Cube, and Apple ][c+ and a
Spectravideo 318/328.
Adam.
A seach of the Web yields numerous hits on "NEC APC", many of which are
>from cable companies. You should have no difficulty in finding cables for
the computer.
I can tell you that the APC indeed belongs in your museum! If there ever
was a machine which stood out as before its time, that is the NEC APC. The
monitor was high resolution color (I hope you got the color version) at
about 640x480 if I recall. It had a dedicated graphics chip which could do
line drawing, curves, etc. It had about a 102 key keyboard. It had a 1MB
floppy (8", of course). It had a sound chip and integrated speaker capable
of reasonable music. Does yours have a hard drive? The early hard drives
were 10MB externals, by the way, so you no doubt have some kind of external
connector for that as well.
Many of these advanced features later (or much later) were added to the PC.
IBM eventually came out with EGA, which nearly matched the APC. With the
AT they nearly matched the APC's keyboard (though they still neglected
putting an "ENTER" key on the keypad), and surpassed the APC's floppy
capacity. It took many years though before the PC added sound cards with
better capability than the APC, or graphic accelerators with dedicated
graphics chips.
Too bad that your APC didn't come with documentation. The APC shipped with
the best documentation I have ever seen, including internal schematics, a
decription of all internal logical features, and a even a full listing of
the BIOS on a disk. The documentation allowed me to write for example an
interrupt driven print routine to replace the timing based BIOS print
routine. Using my print driver the APC was capable of fully driving a
300LPM printer, or capable of driving a 100cps printer while simultaneously
doing a program edit. Try that on an early PC!
I hope you got some software. The original disk included a program "BACH",
which demonstrated its musical prowess. Later machines shipped with a
simple program I gave to NEC called "PLAY" which allowed the machine to
play music coded into a text file which listed the notes to be played and
the duration of each note. Usage was "PLAY filename". Banjo music worked
particularly well. There was also an impressive program that demonstated
its color graphics potential.
Carl
Reply directly to the author (zzyzx97(a)earthlink.net). Buyer beware.
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0
See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Path: news.ncal.verio.com!vncnews!HSNX.wco.com!nntp.csuchico.edu!newshub.csu.net!pln-w!extra.newsguy.com!lotsanews.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news-backup-west.sprintlink.net!news-in-west.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!206.250.118.17!nntp.earthlink.net!usenet
From: zzyzx97(a)earthlink.net (zzyzx)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2.marketplace
Subject: FS: APPLE LISA
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 07:11:36 GMT
this one is missing the power supply so I don't know if it works. It
also has some corrosion on one of the boards, but maybe it can be
cleaned....it looks like it can. The plastic has yellowed from being
in the sun, but there are no cracks. The keyboard is nice. The mouse
is missing the roller ball and the cap that keeps it in place.
Sold as-is, please send me your offers.
ZZyzx
"Me, indecisive? I'm not so sure about that."
-- end of forwarded message --
--
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0
See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
While I am making this program in Visual Basic 5, this problem is
way over 10 years old, and the program will be old computer-related.
How do I alphabetically sort an array?
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
Closer... I installed the DH11 along with that ACT thing in the 44.
Now HARDWR LIST says I have 2 DHes, and a DM. But hanging a terminal
off the ACT thing yields absolutely-fscking-NOTHING. I don't have the origional
DH11 distribution panel. But I have the wires that are supposed to attach
to it... Can I modify a DZ11 distrib panel to use in it's place?
Do I need to modify CSRs or something? Oh, and I already tried all possible
combinations of cabling 'tween the ACT board and it's panel.
On a sidenote: Anyone know how to break into an IBM System/34?
-------
I just killed 2 hours playing wump under V7 Unix on my 11/83.
Just so everyone knows, it runs, but I ave to boot RT-11 and say
boot/foreign dl0: to start it...
Now, once SCO makes a source liense available, I'm set! It's single user for now...
Z
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