On Fri, 18 Jul 1997 10:09:19 -0500 (CDT) starling(a)umr.edu wrote:
>>Would this be for proffit or non-proffit purposes?
Well, if we have to pay real $ for the info, we should try to make a
reasonable return. I'm not really considering remanufacturing anything in any
quantities, but just in case we need to, we can.
>>I could see purchasing the rights to the C=64 and setting them free as
public domain. Perhaps raise the money to do it by selling "shares" of
ownership in the rights to C= enthusiasts. That way, emulators can use
original C= ROM code without copyright infringement, and "Build Your Own
Commie 64" kits could be a possibility. Since the rights would be
purchased by the computing community, they'd belong to the computing
community.<<
I don't necessarily have a problem with this. If this ever comes to pass (a
slim chance at best), we can make provisions for emulator licenses.
>>I don't see much of a point to owning the rights to such things in a
for-proffit mode. Except maybe just bragging rights...<<
Mmmmm. What's wrong with a little bragging?? <g>
>>"Hey, baby... I own the exclusive rights to manufacture the Commodore
Plus 4. Want to go back to my place for a drink?"<<
;-) Sounds like Austin Powers!
------------------------
Rich Cini/WUGNET
- ClubWin Charter Member (6)
- MCPS Windows 95/Networking
i enjoy reading what others have acquired over the weekends so i thought i
might add mine also.
there was a hamfest saturday morning so i went and picked up a 30meg rll
drive; a copy ][ pc option board which seems to copy just about anything. is
that correct? the laugh of the day was some guy selling an apple ][+ with two
drives, joystick and box of software for $300 <!> i think i had met this
guy before at a previous hamfest; claiming to have known steve wozniak
personally and did blue boxing with the steves! yea, right! i think that's
the same ][+ he was trying to sell then. i also picked up something called a
mattel aquarius for $10. the box was still sealed up, even the staples were
intact! i havent used it yet. any opinions on the copy option board or the
aquarius would be welcome.
david
At 11:51 PM 7/19/97 +0000, you wrote:
>A while back I picked up a TRS-80 Model 3 without disk drives. It
>works fine and I've been on the prowl for drives for it. Well, the
>other day while picking up some PDP-8 stuff (questions for another
>time), the guy gave me 2 Model 3s with drives. I've cleaned them up
>and checked them out and finally powered them on. Now this is the
>problem. They come on and the lower drive (drive 0?) lights up and
>then stops and the screen stays blank. I don't have a DOS for them
>so my question is, should these boot up without it as my cassette
>based 3 does, giving me the Cassette? and RAM? questions or do I have
>to get TRSDOS or one of the others. If these systems are bad, I'm
>thinking of moving the drives to my cassette system. Looks like a
>lot of boards to move, assuming the drives and controller are ok.
>Comments? Also, can someone help out with a copy of TRSDOS, NewDOS,
>LDOS or some other and a comm program?
>
>Thanks.
>
>-----
>David Williams - Computer Packrat
>dlw(a)neosoft.com
>http://www.neosoft.com/~dlw
>
>
CORRECTION..... Apparently I engaged my keyboard before my brain was in gear!
When I turn on my Model 4 without a disk installed I get "DISKETTE?"
on the screen. Sorry about that.
At 11:51 PM 7/19/97 +0000, you wrote:
>A while back I picked up a TRS-80 Model 3 without disk drives. It
>works fine and I've been on the prowl for drives for it. Well, the
>other day while picking up some PDP-8 stuff (questions for another
>time), the guy gave me 2 Model 3s with drives. I've cleaned them up
>and checked them out and finally powered them on. Now this is the
>problem. They come on and the lower drive (drive 0?) lights up and
>then stops and the screen stays blank. I don't have a DOS for them
>so my question is, should these boot up without it as my cassette
>based 3 does, giving me the Cassette? and RAM? questions or do I have
>to get TRSDOS or one of the others. If these systems are bad, I'm
>thinking of moving the drives to my cassette system. Looks like a
>lot of boards to move, assuming the drives and controller are ok.
>Comments? Also, can someone help out with a copy of TRSDOS, NewDOS,
>LDOS or some other and a comm program?
>
>Thanks.
>
>-----
>David Williams - Computer Packrat
>dlw(a)neosoft.com
>http://www.neosoft.com/~dlw
>
>
When I turned on my Model 4 with no disks I got "CASSETTE?"
on the screen. The lower drive light stays on. Have you checked to see if
brightness is turned up on the monitor?
Cheers
Charlie Fox
Message text written by INTERNET:classiccmp@u.washington.edu
>Does anyone know if Atari is still around? I remember years ago (really
not TOO long ago) I wrote to them and they sent me a pretty huge list of
old Atari 2600, etc., games still available, as well as old Atari 400/800
software they still had around. Does anyone know if there are still Atari
disutibutors that do this?<
Atari was purchased by someone else and dissolved as an independent
company.
No clue if the successors have any inventory, but I suspect I know where
their leftover cartridges went. An outfit called O'Shea, Ltd. has one
million, three hundred thousand atari video game cartridges (!), and is
selling them for 80 cents apiece. They claim they have 50 different
titles, but I only see about 40 listed; pretty evenly divided between 7800
series cartridges and 2600 cartridges.
These people seem to sell mostly in bulk (most of their different items are
available only by the case), but there's no such notation with respect to
the Atari cartridges. I've never done business with them, and I frankly
don't know what they'd do if you asked for (say) one copy each of ten
different titles. But might be worth a try if you want to round out your
Atari cartridge collection.
One the internet, they're at http://www.oshealtd.com/
E-mail is billh(a)oshealtd.com
Phone is 816-531-1177
Address is on West 47th Street in Kansas City.
and I'm at
Gil Parrish
107765.1161(a)compuserve.com
My friend's apple /// has the same problem. i had to have a chip replaced
several times. now it broke again but it's been so long that no tech will
touch it.
dave
On Fri, 18 Jul 1997 01:56:33 Mr. Self Destruct <more(a)camlaw.rutgers.edu>
wrote:
>>Me too! On a sidenote, I once saw an ad for some old shares (worthless of
>>course) in Commodore (for people to hang on their wall, etc.)
If you come across this ad again, I'd be interested.
Also, to those who have expressed a passing interest in the remote idea of
acquiring any leftover Commodore intangible assets {assuming that (1) we can
find out who has them and (2) they want only peanuts for them}, I'll be
contacting my attorney today to have him get an update from the US Bankruptcy
Court. Maybe we can trace what happened after ESCOM went bankrupt last July.
My idea would be to acquire the rights to the source code for the ROMs, the
schematics for their machines, IC masks for any custom chips, PC board
artwork, engineering diagrams, manuals, and service/technical information.
That's it. I don't want any inventory (which by now, I'm sure, has been
dumped) or tooling. I'm up in the air about trademarks, though (I know that
"Commodore" is gone, but the others like VIC, C-64, and PET may still be
available).
As far as any licenses that Commodore may have had (for games written by
third-parties and sold under the Commodore name, for example), I don't
necessarily care. Commodore's machines were developed in-house with MOS/CSG
parts, so they were owned by the same company ultimately. At worst, we'd need
the IC masks for any custom chips (VIC, VIC-II, SID).
Sounds like the beginnings of a business case...
-------------------------------------------------
Rich Cini/WUGNET
- ClubWin Charter Member (6)
- MCPS Windows 95/Networking
Would anyone have any ideas as to what might be causing a problem
with my Apple ///...it does the following:
1) the only disks it will boot are the disks for the Apple ][+ emulation,
the CP/M 2.2 diskette for the Softcard ///, and the 'Apple /// Dealer
Diagnostic' diskette. All other diskettes give a blank screen, though I
have two full sets of the Apple /// systems disks.
2) The diagnostic diskette keeps reporting a RAM Map failure when I try to
run a RAM test, on either the 5V or 12V settings, and it then asks me for
the amount of RAM in the machine. No matter which choice I've given, it
just goes back to the same error. As far as I know, it is a 128k machine
with the RAM daughtercard below the keyboard. The amount of RAM was gotten
>from the factory sticker next to the PSU on the bottom of the machine.
3) Of the diskettes that will boot, once booted, the machine runs fine,
including being able to boot Apple ][ DOS 3.3 and being able to run Wordstar
under CP/M 2.2.
Any help someone can provide as to trouble shooting this would be
greatly appreciated since my experience with Apple machines is quite
limited. The machine has a Monitor ///, Disk II for the Apple ///, Softcard
///, and a Silentype printer. It would appear that Apple at least did some
kind of work on the machine at one point as it has an extended warranty
sticker on the bottom from Apple, with the additional 1 year ending on
08/06/83. Thanks.
Jeff jeffh(a)unix.aardvarkol.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
Amiga enthusiast and collector of early, classic microcomputers
http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lakes/6757
Spring having arrived here in the wilds of Canada, I moved some
stuff and got close enough to that thing I was given last fall to read the
labels on it. The box is a little bigger than a legal two drawer filing
cabinet, and weighs a couple of hundred pounds. There are three tags with
"M.A.I. Basic 4 Information Systems, each with a different model number...
#9152 upgrade, # 610, and #1321. There is also a tag saying that in event of
power failure the batteries are good for four hours!
The cabinet contains a backplane and several plug-in boards.
Does annyone have any idea of what this is?
Cheers
Charlie Fox
At 11:22 AM 7/19/97 -0800, you wrote:
>> Spring having arrived here in the wilds of Canada, I moved some
>> stuff and got close enough to that thing I was given last fall to read the
>> labels on it. The box is a little bigger than a legal two drawer filing
>> cabinet, and weighs a couple of hundred pounds. There are three tags with
>> "M.A.I. Basic 4 Information Systems, each with a different model number...
>> #9152 upgrade, # 610, and #1321. There is also a tag saying that in event of
>> power failure the batteries are good for four hours!
>> The cabinet contains a backplane and several plug-in boards.
>> Does annyone have any idea of what this is?
>
>It sounds like you've got the main hunk of a Basic 4 system there.
>These are minicomputers that were sold with special-purpose software
>- accounting, doctor's office, etc. - for small business environments.
>
>Is it possible that there's a hard drive (likely 8" or 10.5") somewhere
>in the box? Any tape drive? How many DB-25's on the back for terminals?
>
>Tim.
>
>
There are 16 db-25's on the back, also two drives about the same
size as the computer, the only one with a manufacturers label is Century
Data Systems, Model T-80A.
It came from a municipal office. When the fellow said he had got a
new computer and asked if I wanted the old one, I thought he meant something
like an XT! Next time I will ask. There was also a Calcomp 1041 plotter,
which runs the test plot, but so far refuses to talk to my 386.
Cheers
Charlie Fox
> When I first got onto the net, the first thing I found out was that it is
> most useful for e-mail.
That's about all I use it for, except looking for people who sell oddball
parts.
I tried IRC, I tried Usenet,
Usenet I use, for classified ads.
I tried a couple
> other things, and eventually I found myself paying $19.95 a month for
> e-mail.
btw, My ISP will sell time (so many hours) which will carry over from month
to month. $30 will buy 30 hours, which lasts a *long* time with an offline
e-mail reader. Some charge, say $7/month for e-mail only. Ask.
> But all in all I find the Internet to be EXTREMELY valuable. Where else
> can I go to find 200 zealots who collect classic computers to get
> information about a particularly obscure piece of hardware and get an
> answer to my questions usually within 24 hours?
>
I can e-mail a diatribe to the President of the United States of America.
...and get put on the FBI's secret list.
> Basically, it is truly information at your fingertips (almost) instantly.
> Constantly updated, constantly growing, alive.
Sure. For me, too. But how many newbies want -- or need -- all that info,
or want to acquire the necessary skills?
I think, after visiting the Lego page, nakedgirls.com and looking at
trucks, many users cast the internet aside with the rest of their toys (and
that was my point). Businesses, however -- such as mine -- find a real use
for the communications / information.
Most of my customers are interested in solitaire, Internet and
scanners...and you know? I may be wrong, but I see a *lot* of people trying
the interned for a couple of months, then letting the subscription lapse.
We have millions of potential newbies to work through, but what's it gonna
be like in 10 years? How many dust-covered chess-playing machines do you
see around? Electronic keyboards? Cuisinarts? I think we're seeing a fad.
Killer app? There hasn't been one since multimedia stuff for IBM I mean..)
You're right -- we've been refining (and good refinements the've been, some
of them! -- I'll take Corel 7 over DOS MS Paint any day).
Next killer app? Dunno. Voice recognition?
At 08:54 PM 7/18/97 -0500, you wrote:
>I recently picked up an Atari 400 computer... and have the version of
>Sega's Frogger for it. It's on cassette tape, and I am having some
>problems loading it. I know some loading commands from a quick look at the
>manual, but am still not able to get the tape loaded. I eventually get
>errors using three different load types: CLOAD, ENTER "C:", and LOAD "C:"
>-- I think these are the three common types of loading procedures. I am
>sure this tape is machine language, and am wondering if there are some
Cord,
Take the Basic cartridge out, and hold the Start button down when
turning the machine on. This will give the beep to hit play on the cassette
player, then hit enter and it will load. This is how you load a machine
language program on the atari from cassette. Hope this helps.
Isaac Davis | Don't throw away that old computer, check out the
idavis(a)comland.com | Classic Computer Rescue List
indavis(a)juno.com | http://www.comland.com/~idavis/classic/classic.html
On Thu, 17 Jul 1997 21:35:17 GMT ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote:
>>Have you tried Tandy/Radio Shack National Parts? At one time they sold
service
>>manuals for all their computer stuff, and such manuals almost always
contained
>>schematics/data on the 'bought-in' parts -- things like PSUs, drives,
monitors,
>>
They still have lots of parts/info. Last week, I ordered the service manual
for the Tandy Model 1 Expansion Interface. In 3 days, I got the *original*
manual, not a copy of one that was used in a R/S repair center. In the past,
I've ordered system diskettes for my Model 100 from the National Parts
Software group (Tandy Software, I think, and a different telephone number,
too). So, it's clear that they are continuing to support these old machines.
Message text written by INTERNET:classiccmp@u.washington.edu
> The bulk of the information regarding the B-128 was 'loaned' to the
Chicago B-128 Users Group by Commodore (wow, that's a change, eh?) a few
years back, I have no idea what had ever happened to the group or where
the B-128 info now resides.<
Yes, that was quite a deal. The Chicago group seems to have showed up on
Commodore's doorstep just as Commodore was getting ready to trash all the B
series stuff, and the user group ended up with it all. I wasn't aware it
was a "loan", but I guess at this point, nobody is going to show up on
their doorstep and ask for it back. If only the rest of the Commodore user
group community had showed such drive; we might not KNOW where the rights
to the 8-bit stuff ended up, but also we might collectively have owned
them!
I don't know what happened to the group either. In 1990, before I got a
B-128, I wrote and got info, and directed to them everyone I ran across
that had a B-series question. Then I wrote in early 1993 to check in on
the progress of the group for a newsletter article, and got nothing-- no
returned letter, no response. I wrote a second letter a few months later
(in case the Chicago post office had lost the first) and still got nothing.
I tried again after I got my B-128, and again, nothing. I think basically
the "group" was one guy in Chicago and a number of out of town members,
domestically and internationally. I suspect as interest in the B series
waned, the guy got tired of it and just quit. Still, upon receiving
inquiries he might at least have sent out
thanks-for-your-letter-but-the-group-doesn't-exist-any-more responses.
Postage couldn't have been THAT much. Course, he may have gotten hit by a
beer truck, for all I know. (Address was 4102 N. Odell, Norridge, IL.
60635; I probably have the head guy's name somewhere.)
Gil Parrish
107765.1161(a)compuserve.com
At 12:48 PM 7/18/97 -0500, Cord Coslor wrote:
>Does anyone know if Atari is still around? I remember years ago (really
>not TOO long ago) I wrote to them and they sent me a pretty huge list of
>old Atari 2600, etc., games still available, as well as old Atari 400/800
>software they still had around. Does anyone know if there are still Atari
>disutibutors that do this?
>
>Thanks,
>
>CORD
>
There are a number of businesses still selling atari stuff. As far as the
company is concerned, only the coin-op still remains under the Atari name.
Check out www.myatari.com or email Rick Detlefsen
(74766.1561(a)CompuServe.COM). They both have a pretty good selection, and I
know Rick is pretty cheap. I work about 5 mins from his place, and it makes
a wonderful lunch to go over there and browse through all of his stuff, and
pick up goodies. The atari vendor and developer faq is at
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/atari-8-bit/vendev/ If you can't get to it, I
might be able to round up a copy and email it. Hope this helps.
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
Message text written by INTERNET:classiccmp@u.washington.edu
>I have the low-profile version of the machine, with no monitor or drives.
I
plan on getting the 8050 drives today at noon, if they're still there.
There was also an IEEE-488 printer to go with it.<
That's what it sounded like; this seems to be the most common machine in
the P/B line, at least in the U.S. It's the same as what I have.
>[[ BTW, I'm still on the fence as to whether I'll keep this one or not...
It seems rather unique, which I like, but I'm not sure if I'd actually use
it, which is something I like to do as well... ]]<
"Using it" is somewhat problematic. While there is a fair chunk of
software out there for the PET/CBM line, a lot of that won't run on the B
series, at least without modification. As a "for instance", the typical
way to find out how much memory you have on a Commodore machine is the
check FRE(0). The "0" is a dummy variable on most C= units-- checking
FRE(0) will give you the same answer as FRE(1) or FRE(10), etc.-- but "0"
is the one typically used. However, on the B series, the variable makes a
difference; since it is bank-switched, the different variables let you
check different banks. As I recall, a PRINT FRE(0) command on a B-128
yields-- 0. So any software that checks for free memory-- and a lot of
PET/CBM software did, since there were 8K machines, 16 K machines and 32K
machines-- asks a B-128 that question, gets "0" in response, and crashes.
I note the TPUG newsletter seems to indicate the group has some B-128
software, so you could try that route if you wanted. Or, trade the unit
off, since it sounds like other folks might be interested.
>Anyway, again -- I love this list! :-)<
I'm finding it interesting too, at least when it covers the home 8-bits
(which I know something about) and not mini-mainframes (which mean nothing
to me personally).
>-- and thanks one and all for the
help you've given me for the help on this little beastie!<
Hopefully, that's what we're here for!
>I'll let y'all know if the 8050 was still there.<
If you want to trade it off, you might not want the drives. Those 8050 and
4040 units are VERY heavy, and a true Commodore enthusiast may already have
a compatible drive with his PET/CBM equipment. And there ARE other CBM
drives that will work; you might run across them elsewhere. (Actually, one
of the nicest drives to own is a third party dual drive called an MSD-SD2.
It is a smaller and quite rugged drive, which uses the 4040/1541 format.
It has both an IEEE port and a Commodore serial port, so it will work with
virtually any C= unit ever made (not counting Amiga and PC-clones).
Further, another party came up with a "mass duplicator rom" for it, that
allows quick copying from one drive to the other. In fact, it will copy a
standard Commodore disk in 15 seconds, or 22 seconds for copy with verify--
and it doesn't even have to be hooked to a computer to do so!)
Gil Parrish
107765.1161(a)compuserve.com
Yes there are still distributors around! I will put a list together.
Atari merged with JTS, a make of PC hardrives, owned by the person who
used to put out Tandem harddrives. Atari is now known as ATARI
INTERACTIVE, a maker of game software for all platforms!
Mike
----------
From: Cord Coslor
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Atari still around?
Date: Friday, July 18, 1997 1:48PM
Does anyone know if Atari is still around? I remember years ago (really
not TOO long ago) I wrote to them and they sent me a pretty huge list of
old Atari 2600, etc., games still available, as well as old Atari
400/800
software they still had around. Does anyone know if there are still
Atari
disutibutors that do this?
Thanks,
CORD
//*=====================================================================
++
|| Cord G. Coslor P.O. Box 308 - 1300 3rd St. Apt "M1" -- Peru, NE
||
|| (402) 872- 3272 coslor(a)bobcat.peru.edu 68421-0308
||
|| Classic computer software and hardware collector
||
|| Autograph collector
||
++=====================================================================*
//
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems, nospam(a)see.below.for.real.email
(Vacler) wrote:
>All this stuff is used unless otherwise noted. I have noted all problems
>that I am aware of, but I haven't turned on a lot of this stuff in a
>while. So everything is being sold as is. All prices are negotiable(so
>make an offer), and don't include shipping. Items marked "---" are
>included with the above item, and items marked "T.O." are ones that I'd
>rather trade, but if you really want something marked "T.O." make an
>offer. I prefer trades to sales. A list of things I'm looking for is at
>the bottom. My real email address's are also at the bottom. Feel free to
>ask questions.
>---------------------------------------
>FOR SALE / TRADE
>---------------------------------------
>APPLE
>---------------------------------------
>Hardware:
>Apple IIe Platinum $60
>Apple IIe Platinum(bad motherboard) $20
>Apple II+ $30
>Beltron(Apple II clone) $30
>Bell & Howell Apple II(Darth Vader) $60
>Laser 128EX T.O.
>Apple II Mouse ---
>Laser Power Supply ---
>Laser Manuel ---
>Apple IIgs(rom 3) T.O.
>Apple IIgs Mouse ---
>Apple IIgs Keyboard ---
>Apple Lisa II w/keyboard(bad power supply) $170
>Macintosh 512K $50
>Mac 128/512 Plus Mouse ---
>Macintosh Plus(4meg ram) T.O.
>Mac 128/512 Plus Mouse ---
>Mac 128/512 Plus keyboard ---
>Macintosh Plus(4meg ram) T.O.
>Mac 128/512 Plus Mouse ---
>Mac 128/512 Plus keyboard ---
>Macintosh Portable w/carry case T.O.
>Macintosh SE(bad analog board) $40
>Apple II Joy Stick $10
>Apple ImageWriter I Printer $45
>Apple ImageWriter II Printer $60
>Apple Monochrome Monitor $30
>Apple II 51/4 disk drive $20
>Apple II 51/4 disk drive $20
>Apple II 31/2 disk drive $30
>Apple II 31/2 disk drive $30
>Mac 128/512 Plus 31/2 Disk Drive $30
>SSB-Apple Voice Synthesis Board $20
>Several unknown Apple II cards $15
>Software:
>Apple II Calmpute Biofeedback Stress Reduction Program (NEW) $6
>Apple II Calmpute Biofeedback Stress Reduction Program (NEW) $6
>Apple II Calmpute Biofeedback Stress Reduction Program $5
>---------------------------------------
>ATARI
>---------------------------------------
>Hardware:
>Atari Video Pinball model C-380 $25
>Atari Video Computer System 2600 black w/fake wood trim $25
>Atari Joy Stick X2 $10
>Atari Game Paddles X2 $10
>Software:
>Atari Space Invaders $5
>Atari Star Raiders $5
>Atari Warlords $5
>Atari Donkey Kong $5
>Atari ET $5
>Atari Street Racer $5
>Atari Qbert $5
>Atari Sea Quest $5
>Atari Breakout $5
>Atari Cosmic Ark $5
>Atari Raiders of the Lost Ark $5
>Atari Pac Man $5
>Atari Football $5
>Atari Telegames $5
>Atari Brain Games $5
>Atari Donkey Kong $5
>Atari Bridge $5
>Atari Qbert $5
>---------------------------------------
>COMMODORE
>---------------------------------------
>Hardware:
>Commodore SuperPET SP9000 T.O.
>Commodore Plus/4 in original box w/power supply and manual $40
>Commodore 64 (for parts) $15
>Commodore 64 (for parts) $15
>Commodore 64C w/power supply $35
>Commodore SX64 T.O.
>Commodore 128 w/power supply T.O.
>Commodore VIC-20 w/power supply
>T.O.
>VIC-1541 Disk Drive $20
>C64 1541 Disk Drive $20
>Commodore 1571 Disk Drive $30
>Commodore 1571 Disk Drive $30
>Amiga 31/2 Disk Drive $35
>Amiga 1000 (w/signatures in case) T.O.
>Amiga Keyboard ---
>Amiga Mouse ---
>Amiga 31/2 Disk Drive $35
>Amiga Pin $5
>C64 Modem $10
>C64 HesModem II $15
>C64 Joy Stick $15
>Commodore 1701 Monitor $35
>Commodore Cassette player $10
>Commodore MPS 803 Printer $30
>VIC-20 ram cartridge $10
>Software:
>C64 Business Systems $5
>C128 Swift Calc $5
>C128 Word Writer $5
>C128 Data Management $5
>C64 Omniwriter & Omnispell (NEW) $7
>C64 Project Space Station (NEW) $7
>C64 Project Space Station $7
>C64 Graphics Basic (NEW) $7
>C64 Graphics Basic (NEW) $7
>C128 Ghost Writer $5
>C64 Forth $5
>C64 Rootin Tootin $5
>C64 Rootin Tootin $5
>C64 Rootin Tootin $5
>C64 Rootin Tootin $5
>---------------------------------------
>Tandy / Radio Shack
>---------------------------------------
>Hardware:
>TRS-80 I w/monitor and printer $45
>TRS-80 Color Computer I T.O.
>TRS-80 Color Computer II $20
>TRS-80 Joystick $10
>Software:
>TRS-80 Color Script $5
>TRS-80 Color Baseball $5
>TRS-80 Pooyan $5
>TRS-80 Mega-Bug $5
>TRS-80 Dungeons of Daggorath $5
>---------------------------------------
>Other
>---------------------------------------
>Hardware:
>Texas Instruments TI-99/4A CPU(Silver & Black) $20
>Super Nintendo System w/2 controllers $40
>Sega Genesis w/3 controllers $40
>Kaypro I $35
>Kaypro II $45
>Software:
>Genesis Shining Force $15
>Genesis Shining in the Darkness $10
>Genesis Game Genie $10
>SNES Secret of Mana $17
>SNES Secret of Evermore $17
>SNES Game Genie $10
>SNES Super Mario World $10
>SNES Mario All Stars $15
>---------------------------------------
>WANTED
>---------------------------------------
>Hardware:
>IBM 5100
>TRS-80 Model 100
>Acorn Archimedes 3xx-4xx
>Atari 520STm or 520STfm
>Apple Macintosh 128k
>VGA Monitor
>Mac IIfx Memory
>External Macintosh CD-Rom Drive
>---------------------------------------
>Loren Everly
>everly(a)interpac.net
>vacler(a)hotmail.com
>http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/7533/
>---------------------------------------
On Thu, 17 Jul 1997, Les wrote:
>>Last I checked/remembered, ESCOM held the rights to the Commodore name and
>>to many of their patents/literature/etc. They are at
>>http://www.commodore.net. Lately, Gateway purchased all the Amiga stuff
>>and if I remember correctly started licensing clone makers.
True, ESCOM, AG owned all of the rights to the Commodore name, intellectual
property, etc., but it mid-96, filed for the German equivalent of bankruptcy
(receivership, I think). This put the Commodore assets in play again. GW2K
bought the Amiga stuff, but the other stuff is still in limbo (I think).
In January, with advice of counsel, I made two attempts to contact
Commodore's US bankruptcy counsel (Commodore had manufacturing operations in
West Chester and Norristown, PA) to inquire about purchasing Commodore's
remaining intellectual property (i.e., the rights to the schematics,
technology, source code, etc.). I never got a response from them. Anyone
interested in buying Commodore assets??
I only have several VICs, a 64, and a lonely PET. I'm in need of "rounding
out" my CBM collection. So many models, so little time...
-------------------------------------------------
Rich Cini/WUGNET
- ClubWin Charter Member (6)
- MCPS Windows 95/Networking
The B-128 did come in a few models, they have been defined by case
design (low profile and high profile) some models came with integrated
monitors (looked like really advanced PETs, especially with the detached
keyboard).
The bulk of the information regarding the B-128 was 'loaned' to the
Chicago B-128 Users Group by Commodore (wow, that's a change, eh?) a few
years back, I have no idea what had ever happened to the group or where
the B-128 info now resides.
When Amiga Technologies was sold by ESCOM, ESCOM kept the Commodore
trademark and name, as the remaining profitable division was the IBM
clone division which used the Commodore name and logo to enhance their
image (Commodore is a 'good thing' in parts of europe.) It is still
under debate exactly where the technology for the 8-bits have ended up,
some say ESCOM, some say partly Amiga Technologies... Dunno.
Get the 8050 drive, Commodore IEEE-488 dual drives drives were very
expansive and are not as abundant as the later serial models. If you
need a cable for it (computer to IEEE-488 device or IEEE-488 to
IEEE-488), E-mail me, I currently have a source for a few...
Larry Anderson
P.S. I started work on the PET FAQ, I outlined it and I have quite a bit
of stuff to write!
--
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Visit our web page at: http://www.goldrush.com/~foxnhare/
Call our BBS (Silicon Realms BBS 300-2400 baud) at: (209) 754-1363
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Message text written by INTERNET:classiccmp@u.washington.edu
>> The C-128 and B-128 are completely different. The B-128 was one of
the<<
>OK, I think we need some clarification here. What does your "B-128" look
like?<
You'll have to ask the guy that left the original message. I was replying
to him. However, his brief description made me assume it was a low-profile
B128.
>1. C128-40 "Advanced Personal Computer"
Basically this is a B128-80 with a 40 column screen (sounds like a VIC
chip to me) and comes in a low profile case (sorta like an amiga or 64)
Not to be confused with the more common C128.<
This one is also known as a P-500, and seems to have been the equivalent of
a super-duper C64. It had the C64's 40 column color display (the rest of
the line was monochrome) but had the faster IEEE drives, etc.
>2. and 3. B128-80 "Advanced Business Computer"
the manula says there were two versions of a B128. A low-profile model
and, of course, a high profile one. The low-profile model is like the
C128-40 but the high profile model has integral disk drive(s) and display<
Presumably, if it was paired with an 8050 drive unit, it didn't have
integral disk drives, and was the low profile model.
>4. B256-80 "Advanced 16-bit Proffessional Computer"<
He said "B128", and I'm taking him at his word.
>Well, I'm "in" to Commodore and don't yet have one so if yer willing to
sell/trade, lemme know!<
Again, maybe the original poster will take you up on this. Also, I know
one store in Oklahoma City that's had a low-profile B128 sitting around for
some time. (I don't live in OKC, so I can't swear it's still there.) The
store has a bad habit of never putting a price on anything, so I don't know
if the guy wants a mint for it or just a few bucks. If you want to try
contacting him, I'll try to dig up the name/address, but please don't put
me to the effort unless this sounds like something you seriously want to
pursue.
>Also, if you want a copy of my "User's guide" that shouldn't be much of a
problem, it's a whole 120 pages.<
I have one, thanks, but the original poster might be in the market.
Gil Parrish
107765.1161(a)compuserve.com
In message <150A878A7B7E(a)ifrsys.com> classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu writes:
> Guys:
>
> Thanks to everyone who submitted information on my *controller*
> cards. I got pretty much everything I need to know on the -05 cards,
> but the -TB1 is still a problem. WD implied over the phone that this
> was custom made. OK. It is currently mounted in a Radio Shack
> cabinet with a Tandon 15Mb drive. Any Ideas?
Have you tried Tandy/Radio Shack National Parts? At one time they sold service
manuals for all their computer stuff, and such manuals almost always contained
schematics/data on the 'bought-in' parts -- things like PSUs, drives, monitors,
etc.
IIRC if the stock number for the device was 26-abcd, then the service manual
was MS260-abcd. At least in the UK, they were available to the general public.
There may also have been a Technical Manual (which would have had a different
stock number), but I doubt it.
Talking of Tandy stuff, I bought a second-hand Model 4 last weekend. Does
anyone know where to get a Technical Manual for this machine? What I
really need is a list of Supervisor Calls, Docs on the I/O ports, and
a schematics of the CPU board. I believe I have a 'gate array' board - there's
a 40 pin chip with a Tandy custom number next to the Z80A.
I'd be quite happy to buy the entire technical manual if it's still available
anywhere, but I do already have the Model 3 manual, so I don't need any info
on the disk drives/controller, RS232 board, PSU, or monitor.
Anyway, with this machine I got a Cummana hard disk unit. Cummana were a UK
company who later went on to make disk drives for the Acorn BBC micro. This
unit contains a Shugart 612 disk (any ideas?) a Western Digital controller
(I can't remember the number, but it is a standard card), a PSU, and a little
address decoder/interface board.
Maybe you have an original Tandy version of that.
> Jeff
-tony
I'm trying to find diskettes and manuals for a release of iRMX that
runs on an Intel 310-3A box (8086 processor).
I have 2 of these running production electronics testing that have died.
We are getting them repaired by InBUS. But we've never used the
backups that were given to us when these machines transferred from another
plant.
We didn't get the original iRMX diskettes, and just a couple of manuals.
I suspect the backups may be for just the application software, and
not the entire hard disk (there are only 3 diskettes in the backup set).
As far as I can tell, we are using iRMX-86 release 6.
I've been trying to get someone at Radisys (who support the current
version of iRMX), but haven't been able to speak to anything
more than voice mail so far. I'm not very hopeful, though: this is pretty
old stuff.
Does anyone still have the diskettes and manuals for this release
that I could copy or purchase?
Thanks,
Clark Geisler
Test Engineer
At 02:03 PM 7/11/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Depends on your definition of "videogame" (coin-operated, home unit,
computer, commercial, etc.) One of these should fit what you're looking for:
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.
Anyone else remember this? Know what it was called? Got one you'd part with?
Thanks in advance!
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
<> And while we are at it, put one of the music programs on the PDP where
<> you put an AM radio near it as the output device!
<
<I thought that was the Altair.
<It was Dompier's altair, at some meeting. The TX-0 also played music, but
<that was through a speaker. And I'm pretty sure the 11s had some sound
<capabilities besides ^G...
I'd been done with many machines in many ways. FYI: I have a PDP-11 board
that does multivoice sound (gigilo was the name for it). It works too.
I've hard it via d/a converters on an 11, via the line printer on a -10.
The altair thing was via radio, but also there were not less that a dozen
different sound and music boards for altairs/s100 systems. Some I might add
were very good. At least one used the pinte line (shows the internal state
of the 8080 processor interrupt enable flag).
Allison
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."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
At 05:22 PM 7/17/97 +0200, you wrote:
>does anyone know where to get a power supply and/or a battery pack
>for a ST Book???
No, but if you give up searching, I'd love to take it off your hands!
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
<>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 ...
This is one I'd be interested in. Computers/terminals/printers etal
represent the art of engineering in many forms.
Mechanical, there were some inovative packages.
Conceptual, the packaged home computer like the PT SOL-20.
Electronics... afew were designwise ahead of the pack.
application... it wasn't the machine, it was it's useability.
Art both musical and visual. Some were interally well done and had order
and form like archectecture. Some like the cromemco dazzler were color
graphics back in 76! Or like the PIAA-8700 for music.
Ergonomics... the vt100 terminal was a standard for more than the terminal
operation it was an erogonomic advance over many with the seperate keyboard,
setup on screen and down to small things like the dull black bezel around
the crt!
Allison
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
>stumbling block is, of course, funding. But that aside, what type of
>things does this group think a computer museum should consist of and
>what should it offer? I am talking here about a physical location as
>opposed to an online web site.
>
>The type of things I am currently considering are:
>
>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 :)
>
>Other activities to make the museum more than just a display of
>computers:
>1) Computer certification classes
>2) Availability of documentation for those doing historical computer
>research
>3) Newsletter
>4) Information on promoting computer collecting
>5) Being able to provide docs and software (subject to copyright
>restrictions of course)
>
>I am thinking of quite a few other things but this will do for a start.
>
>
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.
Good luck
Charlie Fox
Rich Cini wrote:
> Thanks for the error codes. I have no manuals for the Datamaster, so I'm
> flying blind. The code "09" is inverse-blinking, so there is a real problem.
>
> I'll try to pull the chips and re-seat them. The machine worked last summer
> and wasn't used since then, so I can't imagine the chip going like that.
Yes. Definitely!
The diagram in my last post should tell you which chip it is.
Now I think of it, I had a problem with my Commodore PET in which chips
would ease their way out of the sockets on the motherboard. In the end
I bought some decent turned-pin sockets and soldered these in place of
the originals. Problem cured.
One of the PET ROM chips lost a pin in the course of all this.
(AAARGH!). Solution here was to take a staple from my stapler, open it
flat, insert into socket in place of missing pin, and solder to the stub
on the side of the chip. Wire cutters then trimmed both ends, and chip
was as good as new!
> Thanks again for the help. I'll let you know what I find. My company has a UK
> office (Burdale-Holdings, a trade finance company). If I do need a new chip,
> maybe we could arrange it so that you could drop it off at our London office
> (if you're near it) and they could send it to me.
Why did I open my big keyboard?
Yes, should it come to that I shall be happy to do something of the
sort, but I don't (a) know what kind of chips they are or (b) possess an
EPROM programmer (shock horror!). There is at least one other
Datamaster owner on this list, so if someone out there is better
equipped than I am to help Rich, please speak up now!
Philip.
Here's more information that someone requested on the HHCs. I will be
compiling a list of people who have requested to be in on the deal so
that everyone will know that their request was received.
Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 1997 13:39:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: Mikeooo1(a)aol.com
To: dastar(a)crl.com
Subject: Re: HHC
Hi Sam,
I can include as many ROM chips as you like,the width of the printer is
40 characters and thermal paper is available.Incidentally do you know someone
named BROSWELL ? He made me an offer for one of the Aim computers which I
accepted and that was the last I heard from him.
Regards,Mike
Howdy, guys & Gals!
I just came back from our local [p]university's junk-sale and I did find a
couple of interesting things:
they had all their equipment for sale: $5 per item. I left all the 8088 /
monochrome clone junk (I remember when these were bought... most *were*
junk).. I found an Epson LQ-500 with tractor feed -- $5. I picked up a Mac
IIsi ?/40 (nice Quantum 40Megger in it :-) for -- $5.00
[Drum roll, please]
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.
Here's a question: Who's interested in typesetting equipment? They had a
Compugraphic machine with 8" drives there... dunno price. But it had
several font carts with it, and I do know this baby's classic. (The stuff I
used to work on was at least 10 years old, and this is older.)
Maybe I'll go back and get that tomorrow as well... if my wife doesn't kill
me first!
If anyone's interested in the other commie stuff lemme know today and I'll
snag it tomorrow. (E-mail's best... see below.)
Anywho, any info on the B-128 would be most appreciated!
Thanks one and all!
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?
<reliable, they are not, as I bought a Conner CFS-850A 850 meg, and it worke
<nicely for a year, then one day I am greeted with this error:
<
<BOOT DISK FAILURE, SYSTEM HALTED.
Never confuse reliability with quality. the 3.5" drive have inherant
reliability over the larger ones but crap is still crap.
<no tape drive). fortunately the drive did have a 3 year warrenty, and a
<replacement was shipped, a 1.2 gig seagate ST-31276A. and here is another
<question:
<Is this going to last me more than a year? If Seagate made good drives in
<the past, will this new one live up to this, or is this drive chock full o
<corner cutting?
Unknown ask others. I have a fujitsu with no complaints but I know others
that see nothing but failures of the next larger and smaller model. I will
say I've seen models where vendor xx is the one to have and two years later
that vendor is producing duds. The MTBF for these drives is so high that
they should last for many years of you believe specs and all the parts are
up to quality. However a head crash suggests a defect or handling problems
(dropped) maybe before you even got it. I cringe when people ship hard
disks without major padding.
FYI I have at least three 3.5" drives with good media and dead boards! if
anyone has a wd-AC160 or wd-caviar2340 that's dead I'd love the board from
them. I have stuff on those that should have been backed up.
Allison
Ok, just spoke to Mike. Here's the deal:
Haven't gotten a price yet. He's concerned about shipping since these
units will be coming from Canada. Each unit weighs a little over 5 pounds
with the cpu, printer, tray and power supply. This is a little more than
I expected. He's going to try to have the units shipped in bulk directly
to the volunteer distributors. (So far Kirk (dynasoar) has volunteered to
be an east coast distributor. We need a mid-west, southwest and possibly
southern distributor. Please e-mail me if you wish to volunteer.) Shipped
in bulk, the shipping per unit on the first leg will not be that
significant. Its when you only have 1 or 2 coming to you on the 2nd leg
of shipping that will be significant with relation to the price of each
unit. I would say expect to pay upwards of $15 per each unit after
shipping. Again, if you did not anticipate this and want to or need to
back out, please do so soon.
Mike said it will take him a week to coordinate everything with the
company that has the units, so no new news until late next week...sorry.
Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
At 08:49 AM 7/14/97 BST, you wrote:
>> (But I always was, and always will be, a Robotron man...)
>Do you mean the East German Robotron Elektronik, or is this another
Robotron 2084 was a video game (put out by Williams, I think). The story
was that robots had taken over and were killing off mankind. You were man's
last hope as a super-ized human, you could shoot the robots and save the
people. You ran around doing just that. There were various types of
naughty robots and a family (mom, dad, son, daughter) that you ran over
(picked up?) to save.
What made Robotron different from most games was that it used 2 joysticks,
one for movement and one for firing. To be any good at the game, you had to
be able to work them independently of each other. Spent a lot of quarters
on that game.
There were other 2-joystick games, including Sinistar (mine bombs to blow up
Sinistar before it's completely built) and a spiderweb game which I forget
the name of.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
