> Just curious (again!) if anyone is collecting the early modems used on
> computers and what might have been the earliest commercial phone modem.
I'm not doing it on purpose, but I find myself unable to let go of this
Novation CAT modem that I dredged up a few years ago...
Roger Ivie
ivie(a)cc.usu.edu
Ok Folks, here it is...the final count. Any last minute additions will
be accomodated up until tonight so act soon.
E-mail Name Qty
------------------------------ ----------------- ---
dastar(a)crl.com Sam Ismail 4
allisonp(a)world.std.com Allison Parent 3
jeff(a)unix.aardvarkol.com Jeff Hellige 2
KFergason(a)aol.com Kelly Fergason 3
tuck6(a)ibm.net Gary Tucker 2
sinasohn(a)crl.com Roger Sinasohn 5
gram(a)cnct.com Ward Griffiths 3
bcoakley(a)teleport.com Ben Coakley 1
pcoad(a)crl.com Paul Coad 2
jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com Jim Willing 3
rcini(a)msn.com Richard Cini 3
hans1(a)filan00.grenoble.hp.com Hans Pufal 5
ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca Doug Spence 3
jott(a)maddog.ee.nd.edu John Ott 1
bwit(a)pobox.com Bob Withers 4
frank(a)5points.com Frank Peseckis 2
zmerch(a)northernway.net Roger Merchberger 3
ursa(a)idir.net ursa 4
rws(a)ais.net Richard Schauer 2
stuart(a)colossus.mathcs.rhodes.edu Brian Stuart 3
jlodoen(a)mega.megamed.com Jeff Lodoen 1
s-ware(a)nwu.edu Scott Ware 3
SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com 1
jrice(a)texoma.net James Rice 3
bluesky6(a)netcom.com Benedict Chong 2
dynasoar(a)mindspring.com Kirk Scott 2
jolminkh(a)c2.telstra-mm.net.au Hans Olminkhof 2
mtapley(a)swri.edu Mark Tapley 1
scm(a)smorang.enm.maine.edu Stacy Morang 2
danjo(a)xnet.com Brett 2
haley(a)galstar.com Curtis Haley 1
george.lin(a)documentum.com George Lin 2
idavis(a)comland.com Isaac Davis 2
fmc(a)reanimators.org Frank McConnell 10
mpsayler(a)cs.utexas.edu Matthew Sayler 1
gpine(a)popmail.mcs.net Gerald Pine 2
kai(a)microsoft.com Kai Kaltenbach 2
jdgale(a)romulus.ncsc.mil Jeremiah Gale 1
tedbird(a)netcom.com Ted Birdsell 2
broswell(a)syssrc.com Bob Roswell 1
foxnhare(a)goldrush.com Larry Anderson 2
Current Total: 103
If you're not on here, better e-mail to me soon. If you tried e-mailing
me and your message bounced, send it to the group discussion and you will
be forgiven. If your e-mail address as shown is incorrect please send me
your correct address.
I also have gotten quite a bit of interest from my internet sale ad and
as a result the price per each for all of you will likely be pushed down.
If you don't know what the hell I'm blathering about, this is in regards
to the Panasonic HandHeld computers (about 400) that we are making a deal on.
It was a handheld unit which featured:
6502 processor
8K RAM (the "top-of-the-line" model)
3 slots for 8K program EPROM on-board
40-column thermal printer (paper can still be found allegedly)
26 character x 1 line display
Full "QWERTY" keyboard
FORTH-like language in ROM called "SNAP"
Measures 9" x 3.5"
These units also have:
Custom built tray to hold 10 additional 8K EPROMS
Tray also housed both computer and printer to make one compact unit
Some MCM 68674 8K EPROMs with programs on them
AC Adaptor
Current price will be < $10 per unit! If you would like to reserve one
(or two or three or ten), e-mail me.
Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
At 06:38 PM 7/11/97 -0700, you wrote:
>When I was in high school, there was a precursor to the Lynx/Gameboy/etc.
>crowd that was a football game. There were little red LED's(?) to represent
>players, and you had up, down, and run buttons to control the quarter back.
>It was very simplistic; you basically just ran the quarterback until you got
>a touchdown (but I think you could do a fieldgoal?) Anyway, I think Radio
>Shack sold one, but it may have been someone else.
Yes, I remember these quite well...they made the most annoying
'blips' and 'beeps'! I don't recall who made them or what they were called,
though I believe Coleco made something like it at one time. I remember they
were really popular when I was in junior high, about 1979-80 or so and that
the teachers must have had quite a collection of similar games the way they
were always confiscating them! I also had a fairly neat blackjack handheld
at about the same time.
Jeff jeffh(a)unix.aardvarkol.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
Amiga enthusiast and collector of early, classic microcomputers
http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lakes/6757
Neither - The first arcade videogame was Nutting & Associates Computer
Space, designed by Nolan Bushnell in 1971, who later designed Pong
(1972) with the profits, and founded Atari. The first home videogame
was the Magnavox Odyssey 100, in 1972. The first ROM cartridge-based
home video game title is co-owned by the Fairchild Channel F and the RCA
Studio II, which were introduced simultaneously in 1976. The first
vector graphic arcade game was Lunar Lander in 1979, followed by
Asteroids later that year. The first (and only) vector graphic home
video game was the GCE/Milton Bradley Vectrex in 1982.
Kai
> ----------
> From: PG Manney
> Reply To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
> Sent: Friday, July 11, 1997 6:59 AM
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
> Subject: Re: "Bally Astrocade"
>
> Speaking of video games, I have 2 different sources which say that the
> first video game was
>
> 1)Pong
> 2) Asteroids.
>
> I personally believe asteroids, as the game (in my recollectopn, at
> least)
> used vector graphics, which should be faster and simpler than Pong's
> raster
> image.
>
> ...Or am I all wet? Anyone know?
>
> (Trivia -- What does "Pac" in Pac-man stand for? answer on request.)
>
A couple people have asked about shipping costs. I hadn't quite thought
about it until last night. Everyone should be aware that they will be
paying the shipping costs both to and from me (or whoever is a
distributor). Here's the current plan: I will have all the units either
sent to me or get some volunteers around the country to have a bunch of
units sent to them. I am assuming Mike will not want to handle shipping
to each person. I will ask but I seriously doubt it. So anyway, he's in
Jersey and I'm in California, and shipping will be a maximum if all are
sent to me. Therefore, I would like all the units with a west coast
destination sent to me, all with a mid-west destination sent to ???,
southwest destination sent to ???, east coast sent to ???, etc. From
there they will be individually packed and shipped out. So therefore we
get hit with double shipping charges. Shitty I know.
I figure total shipping costs will be $4 for a single unit, $5 for a
couple, etc. Not sure exactly.
I realize the shipping costs may not be what some people bargained for so
at this point I would ask that if you want to or need to back out, please
do it soon.
I am going to try and negotiate a lump sum for the total units that will
hopefully bring the cost per unit to $7. That's what I'm shooting for.
Stay tuned.
Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Jim:
>>Sadly it gets a bit more contorted than that... Ed Roberts sold MITS to
>>Pertec (who proceeded to largely run it into the ground B^{ ), who was
>>then purchased by Triumph-Adler of Germany.
>>So, it can be assumed that TA now owns all of the rights to things
>>MITS/Altair. I've tried to contact them on occasion on related matters
>>and have gotten no response of any kind to date.
Thanks for the history. One could probably claim that since the platform is
no longer supported and that efforts to contact the rightful owner have
failed, so long as we don't get "stupid" about it, we should be able to
archive the docs...I hope. I'd hate to lose this important piece of
information (although I will hold onto it and provide pages to members upon
request).
What a pain this copyright law is!
Jim, re: the Hero 1000/2000 robots, where can I find Mobile Ed. Productions??
-------------------------------------------------
Rich Cini/WUGNET
- ClubWin Charter Member (6)
- MCPS Windows 95/Netowrking
Whilst in a self-induced trance, thedm (and others) happened to blather:
>Sounds like Mattel Electronic Football. My friends and I were the reason
>they stopped letting us take to school! damn...that was ages ago.
[big snip]
Coleco was mentioned... My brother had a Coleco back in the Jr / H.S.
daze... which was pretty eazy to win. From what I remember, the LED's could
be controlled with two brightness levels, the brighter ones were you, and
the dimmer ones were the badguys.
I stumbled across it about a year ago or so, while moving... Not sure if my
brother or I ended up with it (---Still unpacking--- :-( ) but it still
worked at last check.
This is one of those things that I took apart as well... but it actually
got back together and still worked! ;-)
Trivia: On the Coleco, there was a 6-tone "good sound" -- touchdown,
methinks. It went something like this (bad replica of staff to follow :)
--------o-----o--
-----------------
-----o-----o-----
---o-------------
-o---------------
Anyway, there was an episode of Hart to Hart (Robert Wagner & Stephanie
Powers... remember?) that used those sounds for automatic door openers /
security system at a millionaire/billionaires house... I remember hearing
that, and saying so. No-one believed me until I went and got the game and
started playing it... then the family was mad that I was making noise
during the show! But at least I proved my point. ;^>
Have fun, and get ready for my next post! See ya,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger Merchberger | If at first you don't succeed,
Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should *not*
zmerch(a)northernway.net | be your first career choice.
Well I forked it up! My ISP was working on an upgade and I was editing
*someones* entry for the Explorer 85 on the Encyclopedia web page.
Suddenly, when I saved it, Error - no free pace on device! So I thought
Ok, I will just :q! OOPS it's gone! Now normally I save a copy for
reference - pp back to pine - Error - OOps that's gone too!
Who ever placed the page - huh - you want to email me the particulars
and I will enter them???
BC
> From: Brett <danjo(a)xnet.com>
> Well, that's true. I always wondered why DEC couldn't sell PDP-11's - b
> then with that lousy chip set and poor software 8-) I still get pissed
> thinking about how DEC Marketing has messed up every attempt to get int
> the *home* market!
You're pissed! I lost my job with them because they couldn't make money
>from a dimond mine!
> You mean the the 7440 I have on the desk next to me?
Never remembered the model number but likely, yes!
> Not if you tell people about it!
Drat you caught me.
> You must have been - what - 8 years old 8-) Great story! I think we al
I wish, I'm old enough. I finished college before the 8080 was
introduced.
> have one of those - where everybody kinda stares at you - wondering -
> What the Hell is THAT? What are you doing with that - THING?
Never happend to me. ;-) I get you have those, in there, and they all
work?
Allison
At 11:58 AM 7/11/97 -0600, you wrote:
>>playing a vector graphic arcade version of Space War when we were fresh
>five buttons, 'rotate left', 'rotate right', 'thrust', 'fire',
>'hyperspace'. The interesting thing was you didn't play against the
Perhaps you're thinking of a later game wherein you could have two players
at the same time with either separate ships, or linked ships. Sorta like
asteroids in that you had to avoid/shoot various things on the screen. It
had the rotate left/right buttons.
There was another that used a rotating knob to control rotation; the story
was it was a combat training simulation, but I can't remember the name.
That was a fun one.
(But I always was, and always will be, a Robotron man...)
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
