>Hmm; I'm glad to hear that the N* isn't *too* fussy about the
memory
>cards it plays with - it makes the job of finding spares a
whole lot easier!
>
>Regards repairs to the existing boards, I may well end up
admitting
>defeat in the short term - if it's a duff 4027 chip, I'm
stuffed -
>there's 32 of 'em to choose from!
>
Now that's where an IMSAI front panel really paid off. You put
in the card, stored an FF in the first location, the panel
display show EF instead...bingo, the RAM on D4 is bad (or more
likely a bent pin or upside down in socket).
Jack Peacock
>Well, the mains transformer is wired OK; it happily takes the
240V in and
>spits out something (?) like 8VAC, 16VAC and respectively. The
16VAC then
>goes through what I assume is a bridge rectifier, and out comes
approx.
>+32VDC and -32VDC. The snag *is* that it's meant to be
supplying 16, not
>32v! The 8v rail, fortunately, is fine.
Are you sure you measured from the right ground? I have never
seen a bridge rectifier that would take 16VAC going in, then
provide +/-32VDC coming out the DC side. Connect your ground
lead to pin 50 on the S-100 bus (the rightmost side, pins 50 and
100 are signal/power ground). You should see +8VDC (roughly) on
bus pin 1/51, +16VDC on pin 2 (or 52, I forget which, don't have
a schematic in front of me), and -16Vdc on pin 52 (or pin 2).
If you still show +/-32VDC, look at the transformer, something's
wrong there (you would have a 120V xfrmr instead of a 240V one).
Jack Peacock
The list is, more or less, on topic, and I've taken this oppertuinity to ask
a question: My Apple ][ has a Language card called a "Pocket Rocket". Now,
what does this do? Does it let me write in such languages as Pascal, C, or,
on my ][+, Integer BASIC? Also, is RAM expansion avaible to increase RAM to
128K (As I've heard that it could go to...)
Thanks,
Tim D. Hotze
<Out of interest, what would a N* want with 256K anyway? Presumably,
<whatever OS it is running is pretty hefty stuff!
It ran NSdos which was pretty lightweight. and didn't care much about
how much ram there was. It was possible to run multiuser NSdos.
CP/M was commonly ported to it and 2.2 could be banked if you weren't
faint of hear and CPM-3 was designed for banked operation. MPM was a
multiuser cpm that also could use banked ram while running multiple
users.
Mine has 128k in it at current, running CP/M-2 banked.
Allison
"Richard A. Cini" <rcini(a)email.msn.com>
> Here's my idea. Why can't we contact those vendors that are still in
>{corporate} existence and who at one time produced interesting and useful
>hardware or software (examples would be MicroSolutions, or CentralPoint),
>and try to purchase, for nominal $$$, the rights to produce and distribute
>these goods in small quantities.
Because as soon as they think there's a buck to be made, the price
will become prohibitive. :-)
There's some hope for classic computers from the Catweasel people.
In their FAQ, they admit knowledge of eight-inch drives, and would
be willing to add support for them and their disk formats if someone
loaned them a drive and some disks. The problem? They're in Germany.
Andrew De Quincey <adq(a)tardis.ed.ac.uk> recently posted some messages
to various Usenet classic groups regarding a project where he's
capturing the bit-level signals from a drive, and using a Java
program to decode it to higher levels of representation.
I've been improving my ANSI C tools for getting directories and
bursting disk image files for UCSD Pascal and RT-11. Right now
they work on logical-order disk images, but I want to improve them to
read physical-sector-order images, as well as Anadisk's extra
eight-byte sector-header format. Sadly, Anadisk doesn't work under
a WinNT command shell, I have to boot back to DOS.
- John
Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>
Uncle Roger <sinasohn(a)ricochet.net> wrote:
>Sorry for the on-topic post, but, I just wanted to let folks know that
>there is a guy (Ward(?) Shrake) who is archiving Vic-20 cartridges.
>This sort of serious, practical preservation is definitely to be commended.
What is he doing to address the question of copyright? Might not some
of these titles be owned by someone?
- John
Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>
First, you should appeal to these thrift shops to use a pencil. Some
thrift shops I haunt will pencil in the price on the inside cover,
then to thwart repricers, pencil it in again on a different page.
I've never had any luck removing grease pencil and have ended up
smearing it. I suggest you look up the Library of Congress on the web
and email them for advice if they have nothing listed for book
preservation.
Marty Mintzell
______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: Cleaning up classic books
Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet
Date: 3/19/98 7:42 PM
Many of the old computer books I get from thrift stores have the price of
the book written in grease pencil on the inside cover of the book. I'd
like to remove this safely. Can someone point me to the right place to
find this sort of information? Thanks.
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!
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From: Sam Ismail <dastar(a)wco.com>
To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers"
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Cleaning up classic books
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<One guy had list of stuff for sale or trades recently within last
<week or so and was asking for those 8228 chips.
<1 x AMD 8284A
<1 x Fujitsu 8284A
<3 x Nec 8284AD
8284 .NEQ 8228. The 8284/A is specific to 8088/v20 and 8228 is specific
to 8080.
<MC857P, dated '71 of 18th week.
uRTL or DTL (utilogic) , real slow and real old. Generally simple gates or
maybe a dual flipflop.
Allison
I am a student in Trinity college Dublin,Ireland.I have been assigned a project on "videotext" but there is little to no information available on the net about "Videotext" or in the libraries.I would greatly appreciate it if you could send me some informatin on the subject.
Yours sincerly
Turlough O'Brien.
turloughobrien(a)tinet.ie
I second Uncle Roger's comments. Ward is a great guy and is doing the
Vic-20 community a great service. I have also contributed to the archiving
and CD project. BTW, the URL is http://members.aol.com/wshrake/index.htm
Cliff Gregory
cgregory(a)lrbcg.com
-----Original Message-----
From: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
To: Cgregory <Cgregory>
Date: Friday, March 20, 1998 1:55 AM
Subject: Vic-20 heads-up
>
>Sorry for the on-topic post, but, I just wanted to let folks know that
>there is a guy (Ward(?) Shrake) who is archiving Vic-20 cartridges. He has
>a list posted on the web (and of course, I don't have URL here on the
>train) and is actually taking images of the cartridge ROM's for a CD-ROM
>(as well as scanning pictures of the labels and such.)
>
>If anyone is really interested, e-mail me and I'll dig up the URL where
>he's got a list of all the cartridges that were available. (If you have
>one that's not on the list, please let him know!)
>
>I'm proud to say that I did have one that wasn't on the list (Fun with
>Music, by Epyx) and am sending it, along with another (apparently
>incredibly rare) cart (Dot Gobbler) for him to take images of.
>
>This sort of serious, practical preservation is definitely to be commended.
>
>(I remember staying up late and playing one of the text adventures on a
>Vic-20 with a friend of mine. His first introduction to computers. I was
>happy to be able to offer him a new experience, since he had provided me
>with so many.)
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
>
>Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
>roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
>Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
>San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/
>
>
Sorry for the on-topic post, but, I just wanted to let folks know that
there is a guy (Ward(?) Shrake) who is archiving Vic-20 cartridges. He has
a list posted on the web (and of course, I don't have URL here on the
train) and is actually taking images of the cartridge ROM's for a CD-ROM
(as well as scanning pictures of the labels and such.)
If anyone is really interested, e-mail me and I'll dig up the URL where
he's got a list of all the cartridges that were available. (If you have
one that's not on the list, please let him know!)
I'm proud to say that I did have one that wasn't on the list (Fun with
Music, by Epyx) and am sending it, along with another (apparently
incredibly rare) cart (Dot Gobbler) for him to take images of.
This sort of serious, practical preservation is definitely to be commended.
(I remember staying up late and playing one of the text adventures on a
Vic-20 with a friend of mine. His first introduction to computers. I was
happy to be able to offer him a new experience, since he had provided me
with so many.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/
<Guys, everyone should have this book by Scott Mueller, "Upgrading and
<Repairing PCs". Tis' have good INFO on most PS/2, PS/1 and some late
<IBM boxens including the PC, XT and AT in all types, convertible,
<5155 portable.
I have that book and it's leaving me guessing on some of this.
<Not in this sense. Correctly stated, in IBM's words: for this 50
<series uses either MFM/RLL card that plugs into that MCA bus or the
<IDE MCA hd and pass thru card called IDE (MCA IDE) on Interposer
<Card.
It must be the mfm/rll as the card in the MCA bus is fairly busy and the
drive is sparse.
<BTW, got a spare working 1.44 FDD for that 50 series? All I have is
<this battle damaged naked 50Z board with CPU and rom with stand up
<floppy adaper. Or better yet, any luck finding a spare PS/2 with
<386 or better boxen?
I have no desire to get into MCA bus or for that fact PS/2 or machines of
that era. Older ISA I have but that's it other than the more current 386
and 486 box to run mail, linux and gcadd. I may trade off these ps/2s.
Allison
Turlough O'Brien wrote:
"videotext" but there is little to no information available on the net about "Videotext" or in the libraries.I would greatly appreciate it if you could send me some informatin on the subject.
(This is from memory and unreliable) There was a proposed standard for North America called NAPLPS, for videotext presentation. I believe it was sponsored by Philips. If someone has a complete collection of BYTE magazines, I recall there was an issue devoted to videotext, circa 1981. The one clever feature of NAPLPS was that the graphics were based on floating point coordinates. Because screen sizes and resolutions would vary, positioning and sizing graphics was a problem. NAPLPS used a coordinate system where the width and height of the screen ranged from 0 to 1. For instance, to place a pixel in the center, you referenced coordinates (0.5, 0.5).
Videotext never really caught on in the US except on cable TV as a non-interactive display. I believe there are still a few videotext services piggybacking on satellite channels. They transmit on one of the unused scan lines at the top of the picture, similar to closed captioning for the deaf.
To my knowledge the only truly successful videotext implementation was the french minitel telephone directory.
Hope this gives you a place to start.
Jack Peacock
Well all the last couple weeks have 50/50 as my sources stsrt to have less
and less computer items. But I did some of the following Mac IIfx, Mac
IIsi, Mac IIci (all for $15 each); all were loaded with software and worked
fine no kb's or mice with them just the boxes. A couple of servers one Dell
and the Compaq but not 10 years old yet for $10 each with no memory or hard
drives. A NeXt black laser printer for $15, NEC MultiSpeed EL with power
brick and manuals $20 at Goodwill. COMQuest PC for .80, IIc mono monitor
and stand .80, Apple IIc free no power supply with it. Atari newstyle 2600
.80,Mac 512k model M0001E will not power on .80, IBM 6156-003 Portable Disk
Drive unit,Pitney Bowes in AT style case with black 3.5 FD $10 not tested
yet, and todays finds have not been listed yet in the computer so I can't
tell you what all I got but my pickup was full. Yes I got 2 IBM 5494's
anyone know something about them ?? Thanks and keep computing John
Simon, how timely of you. I just acquired a NorthStar Horizon
yesterday which uses four 64KB memory boards (parity). Each board has
four 9 chip rows of 16KB dram. I haven't got the documentation for
this machine yet, the previous owner has it in storage with software
as well (he claims) and said he might have it for me by next week.
I'll let you know more details when I get the docs.
Marty Mintzell
marty(a)itgonline.com
______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: Northstar S100 compatability
Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet
Date: 3/19/98 3:50 PM
Hi there, guys. I've been lurking on this list for a good long while now,
and some of the recent talk of Northstar crates actually prompted me to
dig one out that I had aquired a good few years ago and promptly forgotten
about...!
Does anyone have any idea what sort of RAM cards the Horizon likes to
play with? My system already has an (albeit flakey) RAM-16 card, and I
have the remains of an old Godbout Econoram-II card, sans about half its
chips. I have *no* idea whether this card was ever used with the N*.
The machine is not in great condition, bless it; it seems to have been
robbed of a couple of voltage regulators at some point in the past, and
the full-height 5.25 drives are, I fear, past their best, and shall be
retired gracefully. I think that the PSU could do with some adjustment,
too; if anyone in the UK has schematics for any of these bits, and would
be willing to make copies in exchange for money or eternal gratitude,
please let me know!
Still, despite it's problems, I suppose I should at least be grateful
that I have at least found a manufacturer of hard-sectored diskettes! [1]
Thanks.
Simon.
--
Simon Coombs simon(a)nenevr.demon.co.uk
Don't stand on ceremony; just bow low. CP/M - The once and future O/S!
[1] Or, at least, they still were as of Jul 97.
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From: Simon Coombs <simon(a)nenevr.demon.co.uk>
To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers"
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Northstar S100 compatability
MIME-Version: 1.0
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I have 2 EAX6GPSC-499R cards and a FT-60 tape drive. I have just cleaned
up the tape drive (the interior tape mechanism is marked Archive model
#9050B) and have yet to try it as I need a tape.
I also have the software to run the board and drive and they appear to work.
Thanks for the info on the type of tape needed.
I have three sets fo jumpers
{kk(on), hh(off), ff(off), jj(off), q24(on), 45mb(on)}
{3(on), 4(on), 5(on), 6(on), 7(on), 8(on), 9(off), 10(on)}
{RR(off), IRQ 1thru3(3 on), DRQ 1thru3(1 on), DACK(?) 1thru3(1 on)}
Doug Rea
----------
From: Max Eskin[SMTP:maxeskin@hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, March 16, 1998 9:40 AM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Re: Arrrgh! Micro$h*t again...
>What's wrong with COBOL?
The OBOL part.
<Well, the mains transformer is wired OK; it happily takes the 240V in and
<spits out something (?) like 8VAC, 16VAC and respectively. The 16VAC then
<goes through what I assume is a bridge rectifier, and out comes approx.
<+32VDC and -32VDC. The snag *is* that it's meant to be supplying 16, not
<32v! The 8v rail, fortunately, is fine.
Fix that! That 32v is way to high and will snuff the regulators used
for +/-12v. I would expact something closer to 22v DC. Also the caps
used would be stressed if subjected to that for an extended time. It
sounds like the power is wired wrong.
<Methinks that the previous owner may have been a little naughty with the
<wiring; but I'm not confidant enough with electronics to play with it
<too much. This is one machine I don't want to risk blowing up! :)
Sounds that way. Get help from someone on your side of the pond if your
in over your head as that's a fine machine. With 64k of ram and software
it's still pretty useful. At least mine still earns it's keep.
Allison
Jeesh folks,
I'm really sorry about this. It may take some time for your local
DNS servers to update their cache. Until that time the Admin at my remote
ISP (the guys maintaining my DNS records), have set up a sendmail
virtusertable to forward mail from their local mail server (see
www.sendmail.org if this is greek to you). OK, so if any bounce messages
wound up on the mailing list it should stop now....
J. Maynard Gelinas
Folks,
I'm in an mx record tangle with my primary nameserver (which of
course, I don't admin). If you can get your nameserver to kill the TTL on
it's cache you'll get me, otherwise it's going to bounce until the TTL
ends. I've unsub'd from classiccmp to prevent any bounces (I assume there
were bounces <*cringe*>?). Will subscribe back once this is straightened
out....
J. Maynard Gelinas
On the list, Don was talking about the MicroSolutions MatchPoint card,
which, with its associated software, permitted reading and writing Apple
disks on a standard PC drive, and another hardware item I can 't remember at
this time.
Here's my idea. Why can't we contact those vendors that are still in
{corporate} existence and who at one time produced interesting and useful
hardware or software (examples would be MicroSolutions, or CentralPoint),
and try to purchase, for nominal $$$, the rights to produce and distribute
these goods in small quantities.
Although it would take some of the sport out of trying to locate a
MatchPoint card, for example, it would enable us to produce these tools for
ourselves, thus becoming self-sufficient in a way.
Rich Cini/WUGNET
<nospam_rcini(a)msn.com> (remove nospam_ to use)
ClubWin! Charter Member (6)
MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
============================================
At 02:55 PM 3/18/98 -0800, you wrote:
>> I encourage you to organize as you desire, by whatever
>> means you can agree on if you haven't already done so.
[...]
>Ok fine. Until I'm able to take over ClassicCmp completely, we can put a
>few issues to a vote. I thought we already decided a couple months back
[...]
>It's a mailing list for the discussion of classic computers. Topics center
>on collection, restoration, and operation. It is also an appropriate place
>for stories and reminiscences of classic computers. Lofty discussions
I actually stopped to notice how many e-mails I got yesterday. Over 300.
Here's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to ignore all the off-topic BS (including the off-topic stuff
about being off-topic and and the off-topic cat-fighting) and all the
suggested changes and alternates and so on.
I will continue reading whatever comes in from
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> and will (occassionally) post messages (maybe
even including the occasional off-topic one) to
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> as if none of this had ever happened.
Those that are unhappy are welcome to go off and start something new. Who
knows, somewhere down the road, I might subscribe to your
list/chatroom/website/whatever as well.
Those that want to keep on whining, are welcome to do so. I'll delete your
messages and somehow manage to go about my business without committing
suicide.
Those that want to talk about classic computers, great. I'll read your
messages (even the bloody cax ones! 8^) and might even have something to
contribute.
So, if you liked it the way it was (and don't let Bill fool you, he's been
doing a great job) just sit back, ignore it, and the nonsense will
eventually blow over.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/
This is old news. The ATARI newsgroups have been full of this
for the last couple of weeks, so I'm sure most folks here know about
it. However, Hasbro recently came out with an announcement stating
that they are going to re-release old games such as Centipede just
like they rereleased an updated 'Frogger.'
A core ATARI constituancy still exists who would like Hasbro
to update the ST hardware line. With clone European makers _still_
manufacturing ST compatible machines, and Gateway 2000's purchase of
the Amiga line, one might think this could be a profitable move for
Hasbro. Looks like they don't see it that way howver.
What a shame. Both *BSD and Linux run on this hardware line
and I _really_ want a decent alternative to PC hardware available
which is also designed with <*cough*> games in mind (hey, I may be an
adult but I still like videogames!) Maybe a letter writing campaign
to Hasbro could help change their mind? Anyone else here fond of the
old ATARI computer line and share my enthusiasm?
J. Maynard Gelinas
Found on usenet - I assume that 40 years old makes them on topic ;-)
(Sorry about the delay, message bounced twice because I couldn't type the
address properly)
On Tue, 17 Mar 1998 15:38:39 -0500, in comp.misc "John H. Lindsay"
<lindsay-j(a)rmc.ca> wrote:
>I'm in the process of trying to retire, and I have a collection
>of computer manuals that go back to the I.B.M. 650 and 1620
>in the mid-late 1950's and run to, say, 10 years ago. This
>stuff is History, and it shouldn't be thrown out. It needs a
>good home - a computer archive, library, or museum,
>Canadian preferred, but if one doesn't materialize, I'll consider
>other possibilities.
>
>Ideas, suggestions or recommendations, anyone ?
>
>--
>John H. Lindsay lindsay-j(a)rmc.ca
>Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
>ROYAL MILITARY COLLEGE OF CANADA
>P O BOX 17000 STN FORCES
>KINGSTON ON K7K 7B4 CANADA
>
>Phone: (613) 541-6000--1--6419
>Fax: (613) 541-6584