test-drb January 2003

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

388 participants
970 discussions

by kenziem＠sympatico.ca

I've finally purchased a digital camera! Any recommendations on photographing machines? resolution, size, positions - front, back, inside, screen shots? I was thinking of starting with the machines I'm currently working on (cromemco system 3, AS400 9404, and Commodore SP9000) and then move through the collection as time and web space permit.

23 years, 1 month

Phonemark "Quick Data Drive" - info?, also WTD Commodore 15xx drive, info.

by Joel.E.Bradley＠syntegra.com

Ahhh....I have one of those c64's, original monitor, drive, tape, etc. I also have the "Mach 5" fastloader cartridge..I often wondered if it was just full of RAM? I did like the shortcuts that were built in which saves on typing. I wonder..does anyone out there have a copy of the game "Airborne Ranger"? It was a superbly done game, and I remember how to play, but I have lost the manual. One problem is that the copy protection feature built-in was that you had to look up a medal ribbon that was located in the manual. Without that, it wouldn't let you play! Joel -----Original Message----- From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk [mailto:ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk] Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2003 4:33 PM To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Phonemark "Quick Data Drive" - info?, also WTD Commodore 15xx drive, info. > > Hi all, > A while ago I bought a rather unusual C64/VIC20 add-on - a "Quick Data A lot of them turned up in the UK about 10 years ago -- the usual surplus places (Grenweld, and whatever J Bull called themselves at the time) had them. Nobody had the wafers (tapes) though... > Drive", presumably made by a company called Phonemark. After thumbing > through the manual I found a few photos of the cartridges. From what I can > gather, it's an early "stringy floppy" device that uses a cartridge filled I think it's much later than the Stringy Floppy. IIRC, it connects between the cassette drive and the C64. I think QOS was loaded at the same speed as a normal cassette load, and that QOS was similar in concept to the cassette 'turbo loaders' that were popular with the C64. -tony

23 years, 1 month

Shark Update

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jan 12, 2:43, Adrian Vickers wrote: > If you found the above boring, then please don't read it. Thankyou. :-) > And now, some questions: > > 1) Is it actually possible to copy files from one unit (i.e. diskdrive) to > another (i.e. Shark)? The COPY command can't (it even says so in the > manual), and I guess it's understandable given that most people would have > had a dual drive unit, and maybe a tape deck, but little else with their PETs. I thought I'd done that, but possibly with some special program in the PET. > 2) Does anyone know anything about the "Interpod" IEEE-->Serial thing? I Dunno, sorry. > 3) Does *anyone* make DIN plugs which don't melt if you bring a soldering > iron within 5ft of them? A useful trick is to use a potato. First, strip and tin the wires, and trim to length (short). Stick the miniDIN in the potato, re-tin the pins if it looks like solder might not stick to them instantly. Apply the wires, one at a time, with just a touch of the soldering iron, using the solder already on the pins and wires to make the joint. The potato makes a good heatsink. If you don't have a potato, try a crisp apple, or a miniDIN socket (which will at least prevent the pins becoming seriously mis-aligned). > 4) Where's my coffee? In the cupboard above percolator, ready for the next time you visit, of course. > That's all folks! Now I've verified the Shark is in pretty sound condition, > I'll try taking some decent photos of it, inside & out. Sounds like a bit of a marathon! Well done for persevering, though. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

23 years, 1 month

DEC PDP-8 Paper Tapes?

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

I picked up a bunch of unknown paper tapes last week. I was sorting through them today and found several tapes that have "Digital Equipment Corporation Programmed Data Processor" printer along the length of them. The label on one of them also says "Memory CKR BRD (LOW)", "Memory CKR BRD (HIGH)", "Memory ADDR BRD (LOW)", "Memory ADDR BRD (HIGH)". That one also has "PDP-8" written on it in pencil. So I'm guessing that these are all for the PDP-8. The tapes are marked variously "DB3", "DB4 SIMAT #1 3 SW TEST", "PAL III", "Combined BB#51, INT #15, CORR #21 and Patches 1-11". Does anyone know what these titles mean? All of the tapes are on blue plastic spools that are 4 inches in diameter and 1 1/4 inch thick. Each spool has a removable blue plastic cylinder (with one end closed) that slips over it. In the center of the spools are white plastic inserts with a hole and three radial drive slots. The covers are marked "Reel-Dex Part No. 30" and "Numeridex Incorporated Wheeling, Illinois 60090". It's pretty obvious that the spools are made to be used directly in a PT reader. But does anyone know what kind? Joe

23 years, 1 month

Integrated Computer Systems Standard Prototype Microcomputer

by classiccmp＠vintage-computer.com

<< This is a re-sent message - slightly updated. The first two are probably queued and should be deleted. I'm sorry in advance if I end up with multiple posts >> Hello, I've just come into possession of an "Integrated Computer Systems Standard Prototype Microcomputer." The system, as I received it, consists of three parts: a power supply, a single board computer/trainer similar to a Kim-1 and an "interfacing" board. The "computer" part has an 8080a (AMD), 4 2708 EPROMS (one labeled MDS DEMO) and a bit of RAM (2114s) as well as a hex keypad surrounded by control keys (reset, step, run, etc.) There is an eight position LED display above the keypad. Sections of the board are labeled with their functions including clock, control logic, buffers and address decode as well as keyboard and display and tape i/o. There are two 50 pin connectors tagged as ITS and S-100 and two RCA plugs for, I assume, audio data in and out. I guessed that the ITS connector should connect to the "Interface System" mentioned above. The "Interface System" has a bunch of different connectors around the edges including ones labeled for Serial, TTY and RS232 interfacing. There is also a "thermistor experimental board that includes a cooling fan with opto-speed control and alarm circuitry" that will be coming under separate cover. For the price I paid I wasn't expecting this to work on arrival so I wasn't surprised to find that it's flakey at best. When powered up the LED display is random and pressing the reset button will usually clear it, but not without random stuff popping up from time to time. No other keypad keys seem to do anything. I've put pictures up at http://www.vintage-computer.com/ics.htm (sorry that they're a little bigger then usual) Has anyone ever seen one of these before? Does anyone have any manuals for it or any ideas what might be wrong with it from my brief description? Google turned up nothing. . . Thanks! Erik S. Klein www.vintage-computer.com

23 years, 1 month

CDC Cyber mainframe emulation

by vcf＠siconic.com

FYI. See below... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 14:04:24 +0800 From: Tom Hunter <tom-hunter(a)bigpond.com> To: vcf(a)vintage.org, archive(a)vintage.org Cc: cgd(a)theworld.com Subject: CDC Cyber mainframe emulation Hi, I have written a free emulator for a CDC Cyber mainframe and a set of typical peripherals. The software is written in plain C and currently runs on Win98/NT and various UNIX platforms. I have released both source and binary. If you think this is of interest, please visit my web site where you can download a ZIP archive of the sources, a Win32 binary and the Chippewa OS (handcoded in octal by Seymour Cray). My web site is: http://www.users.bigpond.com/tom-hunter If you have any CDC Cyber related software tapes, could you please send me a list of what you have. Top on my wanted list would be SMM sources matching and binaries. SMM is a system diagnostic which would help finding any remaining problems in the emulation. Best regards from Australia Tom Hunter -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *

23 years, 1 month

PDP-12 on eBay

by mbg＠TheWorld.com

>All I have to say is WOW! That was my reaction as well. If I weren't unemployed at this time and if I had someplace to put it, I might try for it. I think my partner would kill me, though... Megan Gentry Former RT-11 Developer +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | email: mbg at world.std.com | | | | | "this space | (s/ at /@/) | | unavoidably left blank" | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ | | | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler | | (DEC '77-'98) | required." - mbg KB1FCA | +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+

23 years, 1 month

IBM AT (5170) available

by vcf＠siconic.com

I don't know where it is. Please ask the original sender. Reply-to: <shawn.swango.hjd1(a)statefarm.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2003 07:52:30 -0600 From: Shawn Swango <shawn.swango.hjd1(a)statefarm.com> Subject: IBM I have an old IBM 5170 Personal Computer AT with an IBM 5151 Personal Computer Display. Worth anything? -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *

23 years, 1 month

DOS 3.20

by Edward.Tillman＠valero.com

I'm looking for the MS-DOS version, (preferably with the disks intact, but not essential...). It was paperback, nearly 2" thick, had a two-tone cover (white over gray), and was somewhere over 300 pages in length. It had all the instructions in the world for using a DOS system - from setting up the autoexec/config, to working in the AT console (e.g.: modem command strings), to all the various switches for all the internal and external DOS commands, to programming in GWBasic. I really miss my book (I lost it in a house fire a week before 9/11...) That info is nearly murder to come by now days, and yet there are still legacy systems out there in everyday business use. That's one of the reasons I want the book. The other is that I want to setup a current day system (AMD 1.6Ghz or higher) as a straight DOS machine for experimentation, games and taking others back through history. DOS 6.22 would actually work, but I really liked the older DOS better, and the "newer" versions' texts weren't quite so insightful. Ed Tillman Store Automation Tech Support Specialist Valero Energy Corporation San Antonio, TX; USA Phone (210) 592-3110, Fax (210) 592-2048 edward.tillman(a)valero.com <mailto:edward.tillman@valero.com> > -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk-admin@classiccmp.org@PEUSA On Behalf Of "John > Willis" <jwillis(a)arielusa.com> > Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2003 11:43 PM > To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: RE: DOS 3.20 > > IBM PC-DOS or Micro$oft MS-DOS? I have the PC-DOS 3.20 manual. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ed Tillman > Sent: Sat 1/11/2003 8:36 PM > To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > Cc: > Subject: DOS 3.20 > > I believe DOS 3.20 is what I was looking for. It came as original > software > for a Packard Bell 386/12T (don't remember the specific model name), and > I > used the accompanying book to teach myself DOS programming -- back in > 1991... The system had dual floppies (both sizes), a small hard drive, > no > sound except for the system speaker, and one of the first mass > production > .25 dpi monitors. I paid through the nose for the system at the time, > but > I'd likely give an arm and a leg for that old DOS manual... > > Cheers! > > Ed > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> > To: <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Sent: Friday, January 10, 2003 08:55 PM > Subject: Re: Old (5.25") PC software > > > > On Fri, 10 Jan 2003, Ed Tillman wrote: > > > I dunno about these, but would anyone happen to have a copy of DOS > 2.x > or > > > 3.x (2.3 and/or 3.2 maybe) on 3.5 disks, nd with the accompanying > user > text > > > book? Some of the information in those old texts is still > applicable, > but > > > can't be found anywhere... > > > > There ain't no sech thing as 2.3 > > > > 2.xx was only available with 3.5" support in specially modified > versions > > for certain specific brands of machines (usually in version 2.11). > Even > > the disk format isn't standardized on those. > > > > 3.20 (internally it thinks that it is three point twenty, NOT two), is > the > > first version that includes 3.5" support (720K) without special > machine > > specific modifications. > > > > 2.11 and 3.31 are only available in versions that were intended for > > specific machines. 'Course in most cases, the only thing that is > > different is the code in MODE.COM, and sometimes FORMAT. > > > > If you have a machine with specific peculiarities, 3.31 is the hot > setup. > > > > > > > > > > - C.DTF << File: C.DTF >>

23 years, 1 month

DOS 3.20

by jwillis＠arielusa.com

IBM PC-DOS or Micro$oft MS-DOS? I have the PC-DOS 3.20 manual. -----Original Message----- From: Ed Tillman Sent: Sat 1/11/2003 8:36 PM To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Cc: Subject: DOS 3.20 I believe DOS 3.20 is what I was looking for. It came as original software for a Packard Bell 386/12T (don't remember the specific model name), and I used the accompanying book to teach myself DOS programming -- back in 1991... The system had dual floppies (both sizes), a small hard drive, no sound except for the system speaker, and one of the first mass production .25 dpi monitors. I paid through the nose for the system at the time, but I'd likely give an arm and a leg for that old DOS manual... Cheers! Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: "Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> To: <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Sent: Friday, January 10, 2003 08:55 PM Subject: Re: Old (5.25") PC software > On Fri, 10 Jan 2003, Ed Tillman wrote: > > I dunno about these, but would anyone happen to have a copy of DOS 2.x or > > 3.x (2.3 and/or 3.2 maybe) on 3.5 disks, nd with the accompanying user text > > book? Some of the information in those old texts is still applicable, but > > can't be found anywhere... > > There ain't no sech thing as 2.3 > > 2.xx was only available with 3.5" support in specially modified versions > for certain specific brands of machines (usually in version 2.11). Even > the disk format isn't standardized on those. > > 3.20 (internally it thinks that it is three point twenty, NOT two), is the > first version that includes 3.5" support (720K) without special machine > specific modifications. > > 2.11 and 3.31 are only available in versions that were intended for > specific machines. 'Course in most cases, the only thing that is > different is the code in MODE.COM, and sometimes FORMAT. > > If you have a machine with specific peculiarities, 3.31 is the hot setup. > >

23 years, 1 month

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test-drb January 2003