I have an Atari 800xl and a couple of 1050 disk drives. I also have
two copies of the M.U.L.E. game on disk. Unfortunately, I can't get
either to boot on the 800xl. I suspect that these are older games that
were written for the 400/800 and may need the "translator disk" that
allowed the 800xl to run games written for the older machines. Does
anyone know where I could obtain a copy of this translator disk?
Thanks!
David Betz
I have a fine old Stag PPZ modular EPROM programmer:
http://www.gifford.co.uk/~coredump/inst.htm#PPZ
It takes plug-in EPROM (model Zm2000) and PAL (Zm2200) modules, called
Z-modules by Stag. I've recently acquired a new module, Zm3000, which
looks like a more recent EPROM module. The chips in the Zm3000 are
date coded in 1993, whereas the Zm2000 is nearer 1988. The PPZ main
unit contains a 6809 CPU and a small CRT display.
Does anyone know anything about this system? What about other Z-module
types? In particular, should the Zm3000 work with the PPZ, because I
currently get an error message "Incorrect Mainframe"?
Thanks in advance for any clues! (Virtually all I get from Google is a
link back to my own web page!)
--
John Honniball
coredump(a)gifford.co.uk
Yesterday my girlfriend and I returned from a hastily-scheduled road
trip to Maryland; we went to see a friend who is gravely ill. While we
were in town, we took the opportunity to visit a few other people.
Another friend up there is preparing to move, and he dropped a few
things in my lap since I was there with a mostly-empty car.
The first was a Data General Aviion AV300 workstation. This is one
of the few machines built around the Motorola 88K CPU. It came with its
original keyboard, mouse, monitor, and a full set of DG-UX manuals. I
don't yet know if it's functional, but according to my friend it was
running a few years ago.
The second is something I'm REALLY excited about. We went to his
garage and he pointed me at two dusty card-cages full of boards, and
told me that he picked them up from a college loading dock twenty years
ago, and that he had no idea of what they were, but there were core
memory boards in them. Oh, and there's this lights-and-switches front
panel that goes with them. (!)
Upon getting them home and digging around, it appears to be a nearly
complete Microdata 1600 CPU. I have the two backplanes with card cages
and boards, and the front panel, along with some cables. I lack the
power supply, but I can build one of those...with that, I think I have
enough to resurrect the basic CPU.
Neat stuff!
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
Anyone here have the speech module for an IBM PC Convertible
they want to get rid of?
I just got one of these laptops & was hoping to score one.
David M. Vohs
Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian
Computer Collection:
"Triumph": Commodore 64, 1802, 1541, Indus GT, FDD-1, GeoRAM 512, MPS-801.
"Leela": Original Apple Macintosh, Imagewriter II.
"Delorean": TI-99/4A, TI Speech Synthesizer.
"Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer III.
"Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable.
"Boombox": Sharp PC-7000.
"Butterfly": Tandy 200, PDD-2.
"Shapeshifter": Epson QX-10, Comrex HDD, Titan graphics/MS-DOS board.
"Scout": Otrona Attache.
(prospective) "Pioneer": Apple LISA II.
"TMA-1": Atari Portfolio, Memory Expander +
"Centaur": Commodore Amiga 2000.
"Neon": Zenith Minisport.
I rescued one of these ancient Bernoulli boxes today. It uses the large
(8") cartridges at 20MB each, and it has two slots for the cartridges.
Other than for hearing some of the folklore about the drives, I don't
know much about it. I'd like to see it run and be usable, but I need
some help.
- Is it SCSI? If so, what's the pinout on the back? It has a 37 pin
female connector that I'm not familiar with if it is SCSI.
- Where is the head mechanism? Is it fairly robust and protected if
there are no cartridges inserted? This one has no major dents, but it
has not been babied either. I don't want to waste time on it if it's
just going to be a heartache. (I have enough of that already.)
- Cartridges look like they are on eBay. They are cheap enough for me
to experiment with.
- Is there anything I should know about these beasts before I attempt
powering on and working with it?
Thanks,
Mike
Date: Tue, 25 May 2010 19:50:02 -0400
From: William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Anyone off to VCF-UK
>> And I'm telling you that in all my VCF experience, including as the *
>> organizer * of four very successful editions, I've found that people
>> (attendees and exhibitors alike) go because they relish the community
>> aspects. ?Sure it's fun to show off your exhibit, but most people get the
>> most kicks from meeting their fellow collectors, etc.
>Like any show - computers, cars, dogs, model trains, stamps, sex toys
>- always far more social than stuff-oriented.
>Sure, the "stuff" is important, but I would bet you could hold a very
>good VCF with *nobody* bringing *any* machines.
>Just make sure you get enough pizzas and beer.
--
>Will
-------------------
Of course many people go to this sort of thing for the social aspect and
hang out on here for the same reason, but why are some people on here so
deeply offended when someone like Tony says that he wouldn't care to spend
time and money just to have some pizza and beer, especially considering the
way he's been treated here by some of the folks he'd be eating and drinking
with. Frankly, although I'm sure that most people on here are nice folks,
there's only a handful with whom I think I'd have much in common and would
spend time and money to hang out with and listen to if there weren't
something else that interested me (especially since I don't drink beer or
eat pizza).
Having read some of these comments and especially the sentiment that unless
you're a "celebrity" who cares what you have to contribute, I'm thinking the
same as Tony, namely why am I wasting my time here? I've got friends who
share my interests and there aren't any ignorant jerks like Evan among them
nor do they tell me to fuck off; maybe it really is time to rent a dumpster
and just toss in those Cromemcos, Vector Graphics, PETs, AIM65s and the
25-odd boxes of manuals and documentation that are taking up space just in
case someone might want or need something one day; with a couple of
exceptions they certainly aren't any use to me.
Something to think about for sure; I may end up actually thanking Evan one
day for finally showing me the light.
________________________________
On 12/24/10 5:40 PM, Gene Buckle wrote:
>>> I wouldn't mind a CP/M standalone if it was cheap. Most of the CP/M
>>> machines of the era are either recycled or need some repairs by now.
>>
>> N8VEM is a really nice machine..
>>
> Unfortunately, nobody is kitting them.
They're dead easy to assemble. The only "problem" components are the
unreasonably large EPROM and SRAM chips, and even they aren't too tough
to find.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
-----REPLY-----
Hi! Due to numerous builder requests, we fixed the RAM/ROM size issue with
SBC V2. SBC V2 accepts 28 and 32 pin ROMs (EPROM, PROM, EEPROM, or Flash)
which is pretty much anything from a 27256 to a 29C040 or 27C080. You could
probably go smaller if you want although I haven't tested it myself. Also
the RAM accepts 512KB or 128KB SRAMs. All set with config jumpers. There
are several other improvements which fixed several bugs from SBC V1.
Maybe what is needed for the C64 CP/M cart is a expansion port to ECB
interface board. Then plug in an N8VEM SBC, SBC-188, or whatever and use
the ECB peripheral boards along with your C64. We have a 6809/6802/6502 to
ECB bridge board that might be a basis. Make the C64 appear as an IO port
on the ECB and as a memory mapped IO on the C64. Plug in SBC V2 for your
CP/M-80 cartridge or SBC-188 V1 for the CP/M-86. Just an idea.
Back in the day, I used to have a C64 with a CP/M cartridge. It was great
-- Nevada FORTRAN rocks!
Thanks and have a nice day!
Andrew Lynch
OK, I've been studying the circuit diagrams and service manuals for
the Tektronix 4014 printer interface:
<http://bitsavers.org/pdf/tektronix/401x/070-2303-00_4014_4015_Service_Mar79…>
<http://bitsavers.org/pdf/tektronix/463x/070-1831-02_4631_Service_Nov79.pdf>
I'm starting a project to create a modern printer interface for the
terminal. This involves creating the optional target signal amplifier
board for the 4010/4014 and creating a microcontroller based board
that will drive the terminal like a 4631 printer and scan out the
image from the storage tube for digitizing as a digital image. The
amplifier board is what distinguishes a 4010/4014 from a 4010/4014-1
and provides the signals for the printer.
The original 4631 printer is a completely analog device that scans out
the storage tube and transfers the electrical signal to a dry silver
paper for printing. This design will treat the analog signal supplied
to the printer as a signal for digitizing into a raster image. I plan
on housing mine inside a 4632 video hardcopy shell with a modern printer
inside driven by the controller. Who knows, this project might make
those 4631/4632 printers useful again, considering that noone is going
to be getting a new supply of dry silver paper anytime soon.
I'm looking for other people that have hardware design experience to
join me on this project. All resulting EDA files will be made
available under a suitable open source style license.
Please reply to me off-list if you are interested in collaborating
with me on this project.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com/the-direct3d-graphics-pipeline/>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>
