catching up...
Most of what has already been said here is pretty
much correct. I'll add:
B-series were regular low-profile micros.
CBM-series had integrated monitors. I've never seen one of the
CBM series machines.
IMO they're pretty nice machine which had some attractive options
when they came out. They didn't last long and very little seems to
have been written for them.
You can find schematics for the B-128-80 in the archive (Web/FTP).
If any of you need a drive for one of these CBM 4040's work fine
(8050 is a better but less common drive). I have a number of
4040s and could definitely part with a couple if you want to pay
the shipping costs (heavy, heavy drives).
As soon as I clear through the research I have several items for
this series that will go in the archive - the manual, a word
processor and a spreadsheet, and some technical notes.
Any of you hard core commodore folks know who might have ended up
owning the rights to this stuff?
Bill
----------
From: Sam Ismail[SMTP:dastar@crl.com]
Reply To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
Sent: Donnerstag, 17. Juli 1997 18:00
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Re: power supply/battery pack for ST Book?!
>> Hi,
>>
>> does anyone know where to get a power supply and/or a battery pack
>> for a ST Book???
>
> Are you referring to an Atari? As in an Atari ST Laptop, or rather a STacy?
Yes - sorry I forgett to mention Atari in my posting - it is a Atari ST Book - a real notebook
not one of the big Atari STacy
Hey, me again!
I'm the guy with the funny Commodore stuff....
Just got back from the sale... the drives were gone. :-(
The printer was still there (buried) -- it was a 4023 printer. No-one
mentioned interest in the printer, so there it sits. It is IEEE-interfaced.
Altho I did pick up a TI-59 calculator with 1 recording strip, says it
contains diagnostics, IIRC. $5. (was marked $10, talked 'er down). I also
got an *old* HP frequency counter, with cord & probe, $5. (Yea, it's not
computer, but it'll help me fix computers, so I hope a quick mention is
o.k. It should make a pretty good friend to Tex, my pet 'scope. ;-)
I found a set of dual IBM 8" drives, marked $10. It had a funky interface
(well, for micros) of a 25-pin female D _and_ a 15 pin (I think) female
D... it was a 60xx series number, and the Compugraphic box with dual 8"ers
is still there, no price. It had paper and a processor with it, tho.
Anyway, sorry the drives were gone, thanks for the help on the B-128, and
I'll try to reach my decision on keep/trade on the box over the weekend
(I'll be canoeing... and *no*, this is one of the few places I won't take
my Tandy 200!)
Is a Mac IIsi classic yet? Not sure when they were made... it's got a 68030
with a 40Meg SCSI and (if I counted correctly) 9Meg RAM. If someone's got a
color monitor (whatever it takes) mouse & keyboard for trade for it, that'd
be cool... lemme know. (I'd be much more willing to trade the B-128 for
this particular deal...)
As always: Stay cool, keep your 'puters that way too, and clean those
floppy drives every so often! ;^>
Thanks,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger Merchberger | Why does Hershey's put nutritional
Programmer, NorthernWay | information on their candy bar wrappers
zmerch(a)northernway.net | when there's no nutritional value within?
In a message dated 97-07-17 21:02:45 EDT, you write:
true, most everything has been done now. pnp and usb were/are trumpeted as
new, but IBM ps/2's and macintoshes have had similar things in that the ps2
was essentialy plug and play after running the reference disk, and macs have
the adb which allows things to be chained into the keyboard cable. i'd like
to hear of other examples also. i can't think of any more right now.
<< Somehow, it seems like most of the major breakthroughs/advances in the
use of computers took place early on, i.e. word processing,
spreadsheets, and databases, and what has been taking place over the
past 15 - 20 years would fall more into a refinement catagory. We are
getting faster hardware, more ability (also known as bells and
whistles), but no major breakthroughs that open up a whole new field for
the use of computers. Am I missing something? I've heard that one of
the early spreadsheets (Visicalc?) was responsible for selling more
Apples than any of their marketing efforts. Regardless, that is the
type of advance that I am talking about. >>
david
Message text written by INTERNET:classiccmp@u.washington.edu
>Any of you hard core commodore folks know who might have ended up
owning the rights to this stuff?<
No clue. Commodore, of course, went bankrupt. Originally, it looked like
ESCOM ended up with everything. I made several efforts to contact ESCOM
through e-mail to determine what their plans were for the old 8-bits items,
and never could get a reply. Then, ESCOM went bankrupt. I'm not clear if
the Commodore bankruptcy court sort of cancelled the deal retroactively, or
if the assets were moved again in the ESCOM bankruptcy. Anyway, another
party (Gateway?) ended up with the Amiga assets, but they don't have-- or
aren't acknowledging that they have-- the old 8-bit assets. Frankly, I
doubt this point will ever be clarified.
If the old entities have been disolved, and no new entities obtained the
rights before the dissolution, it would seem to me this stuff is now public
domain. Of course, the simplest way to find out would be to start treating
this stuff as public domain. If any entity out there believes it has the
copyrights, it will then make itself known.
Gil Parrish
107765.1161(a)compuserve.com
>>> What should be on display considering:
>>> 1) space limitation
>>> 2) Mainframes, minis, micros
>>> 3) What would most attract visitors
>>> 4) What would most attract funding :)
>5- Location, Location, Location!!!
>
Well, I had an idea, and it's just so crazy, it just might work. How about
contacting an art gallery, and see if they will lend you a couple of rooms,
or however they do their shows. You could get together with a couple of
other collectors and have a "display". We consider these a form of art, and
I'm sure you could pull in a very diverse crowd. Who knows, you might turn
into a travelling museum/art show.
Isaac Davis | Don't throw out that old computer,
idavis(a)comland.com | check out the Classic Computer Rescue List -
indavis(a)juno.com | http://www.comland.com/~idavis/classic/classic.html
At 01:07 PM 7/16/97 -0700, you wrote:
>Charles E. Fox wrote:
>>
>> At 03:09 PM 7/15/97 -0700, you wrote:
>> >I have been thinking, probably along with most everyone here, for the
>> >past couple of years about how to open a computer museum. The major
>
>> We have a fellow in my area, Windsor Ontario, who has been trying to
>> start a science museum for years. You might consider broadening your area of
>> interest to get more public support.
>
>Has he been actively trying to get one started, and if so, what has been
>the major problem? One thing that has been suggested by a couple people
>I have talked to is to have displays that include technology developed
>by local companies. My feeling so far is that the funding sources will
>have a large impact on what is covered. I saw an interesting web site a
>couple of days ago, http://www.mysticseaport.org, that has what appears
>to be a somewhat self supporting museum going, i.e. no state or federal
>monies involved. I find THAT to be most admirable!!!
>
>
The fellow working on the Windsor Ontario science museum is Tom
Toth, a retired teacher with political experience.
There is also a group trying to promote an aviation museum, (I am a
member of that one) and another fellow trying to bring a Canadian navy
destroyer to town for a navy museum. The reason for all this interest is
that a Windsor resident died and left one million dollars to the city for
the establishment of a museum, the only requirement is that it should be
named after him. The city finds reasons why all the proposals are
unsatisfactory, and collects the interest on the million dollars.
I hope someone gets something going soon, because I am not getting
any younger and if I fizzle out all my stuff will be going to the dump!
Cheers
Charlie Fox
Message text written by INTERNET:classiccmp@u.washington.edu
>And I found a Commie B-128. I've heard of the C-128... are these similar,
or is this actually the same thing, or what? I'm not big on Commie stuff
(goofiest basic I've ever played with... and slooooo disk drives) but I
collect for uniqueness, and this seemed rather unique.
It has a card-edge IEEE-488 port, card-edge cassette, cartridge, "normal"
RS-232 and other ports (that I don't remember... I just got a quick look at
it), the Serial number is 0025xx (don't remember last two digits, but it
seems early) and IIRC (but I haven't seen a C-128 in nearly a decade -- and
that was only at K-mart) it looks different from a C-128.
Did I do good?
Also, they had a PET-style CBM-8050 (or was that 5080...) dual garage-door
style disk drives, and a printer that hooked up thru a funky
Centronics-like cable. Interested in those? I could go back tomorrow.<
The C-128 and B-128 are completely different. The B-128 was one of the
last/best members of the Commodore PET/CBM line; the C-128 was one of the
last/best members of the VIC/64 line. Both had 128K. The PET/CBM units
use an IEEE-488 interface for adding drives, printers, etc., and this
parallel approach is fairly fast; the VIC/64 line use a proprietary serial
connection that is fairly slow.
In other words, you'd better get back and pick up that 8050 if you want a
disk drive that attaches to the B-128; there are other PET/CBM drives that
would also work (e.g., 4040, 8250), but the 8050 would probably provide the
greatest compatibility if you ever want to pick up software. Drives from
the 15xx series (1541, 1571, 1581) won't help you here.
Did you do good? Only you can answer that. The unit isn't extremely
common, but isn't extremely rare either. If you're not into Commodore, you
might want to find someone who is and see if you can work a swap of some
kind. (I already have a B-128, thanks.)
Gil Parrish
107765.1161(a)compuserve.com
"Jeff Kaneko" <jeff.kaneko(a)ifrsys.com> wrote:
> > Halted in Santa Clara
> Funny you should mention these guys. I don't uderstand how they've
> managed to stay in business! I *really* needed a couple of 8" floppy
> drives a couple of years ago when I lived in San Jose. They had a
> pile of them -- for $75.00 a whack! I didn't bite.
I think Weird Stuff pulled something like this around December 1995,
not too long before they vacated their Kern Avenue storefront. Yeah,
right, like I am going to pay $75 for used-and-abused 8" drives when
the dealer hasn't even taken the time to sort out single/double sided
let alone single/double density.
Halted has a decent store of small parts. They are good for that, if
like me you are not real good at organization and planning your
component needs with enough lead time to deal with mail-order. And
they keep their selection of connectors better organized than some
other nearby outfits (Haltek in Mountain View just has no concept of
how to do this -- well, actually I haven't been there in a while, and
have been avoiding the connector aisles there for quite a while
longer).
Sometimes they have hard-to-find small parts. E.g. three or four
years ago they had sourced some of those funky SCSI connectors like
Sun used to use: the female D connectors with 50 pins arranged as
three rows. Specifically these were the IDC flavor designed to crimp
onto flat cable -- just the ticket if you were setting up a disk box
for a Sun! Pricey at $11, but the thought of the amount of time I
would spend soldering 50 little wires from a flat cable into 50 little
cups was a good motivating factor. So I bought a few, and I gather
other folks did too because one time I found myself waiting for them
to get new stock in.
> They were gone a couple of weeks later, I asked what became of them,
> and they said that nobody wanted them, so they were scrapped!
>
> Have you ever seen a grown man cry?
Yeah, I have seen them perpetrate other crocks, like the HP 2100 mini
that they were selling for $100? $200? I can't remember. What I do
remember is that someone had thoughtfully removed all the cards from
the CPU, and with my naturally cynical outlook I expect that means
they were easy pickings for gold recovery. To be fair there were some
other peripherals there, but the hassle involved in moving the lot
(all set in a 19" rack) and finding some place to put it was
additional discouragement -- besides which I did not have as much
experience with the other bits and so was not able to determine on the
spot whether they had already been gutted (though it looked like some
cabling had been removed as well).
It's not entirely clear to me how the surplus-electronics business
works here in Sillycon Valley, but one thing is obvious: the primary
moneymaker is in the movement of large lots, probably from auctions
and companies seeking to be rid of obsolete hardware, through the
surplus business and I am guessing on the way to precious-metals
recovery operations. If the surplus businesses see little bits that
they think will work better being sold as onesies-and-twosies to
people looking for upgrades/spares for their trailing-edge PCs (or to
people looking for deals on test equipment), then those will come out
to the showroom floor. And that can be a profitable niche too, so
they try to price accordingly (i.e. cheap enough to make it look like
a better deal than upgrading, but not so cheap as to lose much of the
profit they could make -- gotta pay for that showroom floor somehow).
This has a side effect, too: some of the surplus dealers have a bad
attitude toward walk-ins. They know you're not likely a moneymaker,
so they are apt to blow off simple questions like "got any more of
these?" I got this from the guys at Sharon Industries in San Jose one
day a few months ago -- I had wandered in to pick up one or two dinky
Unisys PCs that I had seen there and thought would make nice little
routers if configured with a small hard disk. The place was messier
than usual -- maybe they were reorganizing or maybe they were trying
to look like Mike Quinn's, I dunno; they certainly hadn't bothered to
close the door or hang a sign up ("closed for remodeling"?). The
display was still out, though, so I inquired. First he was asking me
if I wanted them today, and when I said "yeah, I could take one or two
today" (thinking I should leave the door open for him to say "I can't
get to them right now, how about tomorrow?") he changed his tune to
"oh, I sold 'em all to Halted." The thought that crossed my mind was:
except the one you keep on the shelf for people to look at, right? I
haven't been back -- maybe I am a pain in the hindquarters but I
really prefer dealing with folks I think are capable of being honest.
Speaking of pains in the hindquarters, there is another surplus dealer
(RA Electronics) who just plain got out of the computer business, and
the rumor is that this is because they got fed up with people coming
back asking for support for whatever PC junk they had purchased there.
So I'm sure that there are some pains worse than I out there -- I at
least am working from the assumption that I am buying someone else's
junk as-is.
-Frank McConnell
At 08:45 AM 7/16/97 -0700, you wrote:
>> for a ST Book???
>
>Are you referring to an Atari? As in an Atari ST Laptop, or rather a STacy?
The ST Book was an actual laptop with an ST inside. As far as I know few if
any were ever produced. (Perhaps they made it to Europe, which is where
Tramiel always concentrated.)
Different from the STacy which was also portable, but required a much bigger
lap.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know."
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San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
