I have a question about the value of an IMSAI 8080.
Say someone had a nice, working IMSAI 8080 in decent condition. How
much, realistically, could one expect to sell this for?
Say someone had an IMSAI 8080, in pieces, the working condition being
unknown. How much, realistically, could one expect to sell this for?
Now I have a question about a Victor-9000.
Victor 9000, working...how much?
Victor 9000, bad floppy controller...how much?
Thanks!
Sam
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Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Well... this may not beat Sam's weekend haul, (and if he finds a
'Straight' 8 from this mysterious person I'm *really* gonna be jealous) but
I think it's significant.
A note to begin: I'm announcing this here initially as a sort of place
holder before I proceed as will be noted below. A bit of a CYA action you
might say...
--- we begin ---
I was doing some *long* overdue cleaning in the Computer Garage this
weekend, and finally located some items that I knew were there but had not
mentioned since I could not locate them. Even now, I have not located
*all* of them, but enough to make their presence known.
Somewhere between probably 5-8 years ago, I purchased some equipment,
documentation, and supplies from a sale being held by some Digital
Research, Inc. staff. Little did I know just what I was coming into.
In addition to some S-100 hardware that been used for development, I
purchased a series of disks and original DRI binders. To be specific to
what I have (re-)located so far, the binders contain complete source
listings for MP/M versions 1.1 and 2.0, and CP/M Plus version 3.0 and all
supporting utilities and programs.
If I recall correctly from when I originally received the materials, I
should also have the sources for CP/M version 2.2 and the associated disks.
(don't hold me to this until I locate the other boxes tho. B^} )
To be fair, I will be contacting Caldera on Monday and will not be
accepting requests for access to these documents until such time as I have
verified their standing with Caldera.
--- why this message? ---
Basically, so that the existance of this material is known in the unlikely
event that I should recieve an unfavourable reaction from Caldera.
I try to avoid entanglements with those in the legal profession, but past
experience has shown that a 'document trail' never hurts...
More news as it becomes available...
-jim
---
jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com
The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw
Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174
Heh... I should probably have done this just after I subscribed. Oh well...
Yes, it's me. Some of you may already have at least gotten an E-mail from
me, or spoken to me on the phone. I have a whole garage full of DEC stuff,
including several MicroVAX II's, MicroPDP-11/23 and 11/73, appropriate
monster hard drives, a couple of Cipher front-loading tape units, various
parts and racks, etc.
DEC stuff is my current Big Thing, though I regret that I don't have the
space nor the power facilities to handle the full-size machines (like the
11/70 or the VAX-11 series). Still, MicroVAXen and the PDP's make for
interesting diversions.
I've been working with electronics since I was old enough to start tearing
things apart (not that I got them back together that often!), have been a
ham radio op since 1977, and working with computers on and off since 1978.
I currently work at Boeing Defense & Space group, operations, computing
support (been there since November).
I am happily married, and my mate knew darn well what she was getting into
when she married a techie. I'm not a Washington native, though I do live in
Kent at the moment (I think of myself as an 'unrepentant Californian'). For
those that are curious beyond this post, I invite you to have a look at
http://www.wizards.net/technoid.
Among other things, I have a listing of both Washington and California
electronics-oriented swap meets and surplus stores on the link 'The
Wonderful World of Scrounging.' I gladly invite corrections and updates to
said list!
Let's see, what else...? I try to make at least two trips a year to the
Bay Area for scrounging purposes (Sam? Want to get together sometime and
introduce me to some of the other local collectors?<g>), and to meet up
with a friend of mine in San Jose who shares my interests. We've often done
selling or buying trips to the Bay Area swap meets together, having known
each other since about 1980.
That's about all I can think of at the moment. Caveat emptor!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272)
(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)wizards.net)
http://www.wizards.net/technoid
"Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own
human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."
Hi guys, my collection is still on the small side (25 or so) and lately
I've just been trying to cover "all the bases." I'm mainly interested in
80's micros (since that's what I grew up with) and have a few holes to
fill. OK, enough filler, here's what I need:
- I *still* don't have an Atari!
- I'd like a MSX machine as well (never even seen one in anything other
than magazine articles)
- and maybe a Timex just for the hell of it.
If anyone has any duplicates that they'd like to sell/trade etc. than
PLEASE let me know! I live in the (relatively) Philadelphia area.
BTW, someone on this mailing list mentioned that they needed the TI Speech
box. If by this you mean the Speech Synthesizer that plugged into the
side than I have 2 (and only 1 TI) so....
However, if you mean the Terminal Emulator II cartridge than, sorry, I
only have 1 of those! :(
Les
more(a)crazy.rutgers.edu
With the current thread on Osborne's machines (he was a great writer
about computer concepts, a fair engineer, and a _lousy_ businessman --
level of incompetence at work ala the Peter Principle), I realise that
besides Kaypro, there is another line of pre-laptops I'm interested in.
If anybody gets a line on an available Otrona CP/M system, I am very
interested. I thought it was the prettiest luggable around, even though I
continue very loyal to my TRS-80 4P. What ever happened to Otrona,
anyway? Did they get absorbed by Olivetti and forced to make pathetic PC
semi-compatibles for AT&T? (The Olivetti/AT&T PC 6300 had a video
connector that carried 70vdc to the monitor from a connector that looked
like a PC parallel port [female DB-25] until a customer mistook which
connector was which, I thought that _nothing_ could kill a TRS-80 Daisy
Wheel Printer II -- the aroma of semiconductors reverting to rocks in both
printer and CPU demonstrated that something indeed could).
--
Ward Griffiths
"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within
the system, but too early to shoot the bastards." --Claire Wolfe
Here's a message I recieved last year after the aquisition of my Osborne
Executive that I thought some of you might find interesting:
*** Forwarded message, originally written by Arthur N. Borg on 14-Aug-96 ***
Dear Jeff,
At the time that the Osbourne was being designed, I worked for the company
that made the display. I remember clearly asking one of the Osbourne engineers
what
he thought about the IBM PC that had recently been introduced. He said, that
computer has a color display, It is just a toy or video game. Ours is a
business
computer.
The Osbourne executive ran CP/M 3.0 as the operating system. If you have an
operating system disk and a format and modem disk. You should have access to
everything that you need. Walnut Creek has a CD-ROM with more CP/M material
than
you could imagine.
I (think) that I have a set of manuals but I also (think) that they are in
storage in the United States. One caveat. In the manual there is a drawing
showing
how to connect the parallel port to a Centronics printer. The drawing is
totally
incorrect. I spent a week re-wiring the dongle so that the printer would work.
The
Osbourne Executive has two unusual features. First, the printer port is alsso
a
bi-directional IEE-488 interface and so the machine could control and monitor
lab
equipment and so on. Also, the type face is loaded into ram at start up and
so, you
can devise your own type face or use Greek or whatever.
We also made some of the displays for the Osbourne 1 and having a 63
character display was very limiting. Fitting 80 characters on a 7 inch display
was
not easy. You will note if you have a full screen of characters, as you turn
the
machine around, the earth's magnetic field tends to make the outer characters
slip
out of view. Osbourne was roundly condemned for announcing this machine too
early
and killing sales for the Osbourne 1 and thus killing the company. I think
that
this is a harsh judgement. This was the time that FCC radiation rules were
just
getting started and everyone was having a hard time meeting them. In plain
fact, I
think that they didn't realize how big a task they had to pass this test. I
saw
some figures after the company died. There was no week that they were in
business
that the company had a positive cash flow. You could see from the curves that
somewhere out in the future, they would have a positive cash flow. I think
that the
investors just felt that there was too much going for IBM and pulled the plug
on
Osbourne.
Best regards,
Art Borg
***End of forwarded message
Jeff jeffh(a)unix.aardvarkol.com
--
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Amiga enthusiast and collector of early, classic microcomputers
> On Wed, 11 Jun 1997, Marvin wrote:
>
> > Along the lines of saving stuff, does anyone collect the old printers?
A topic I've given a lot of thought. The original MX-80 and the Paper Tiger
immediately spring to mind as classic printers worthy of incorporating into a
museum but I can't think of much else I'd have to own (aside from maybe an
original laserjet). Given the space limitations that most of us have
collecting printers in the manner that we collect computers is impractical.
But if you are inclined to collect them they are certainly plentiful and
cheap.
Lou
> I bought a TI-99/4A for $2, in its original box. As far as I can tell,
> it's a complete system, but there's no software. All of you have one
> of these machines, right? :)
If I remember it didn't come with software other than the embedded basic.
Allison
Tomorrow I will be at the MIT flea market. I have to thin my excesses.
Of interest will be:
memory and some other parts in tubes with old (pre81) date codes. Stuff
like TMS4060, upd411, upd410, 2012...
Motorola 6800D1 board, with docs and extras.
Some s100 boards SEALS, IMS and PT 8k 2102 memory and others. Some Altair
memory S4k and 88-4MCD, altair front pannel logic and 8080 cpu. Many with
docs available. DUAL inc, 68k s100 cpu. compupro s100 motherboard.
S100 box, industrial strength.
Some extra CPM docs and misc books.
Intel MDS800 nearly complete, no disks. I have a non intel multibus disk
controller for it.
Silver reed LQP, complete with docs, daisy wheels, ribbons. Working.
Anadex printer working, with docs. Both serial and parallel.
2 cocos condition unknown.
MISC qbus PDP11 modules including some core planes(operational!). A couple
of BDV11va. Wire wrap modules. H962 diode rom boot board with docs.
Assortment of power supplies. Very complete TRS80 DOCS, CPU, EI, tapes
extras. Including some z80 and trs-80 books.
Floppy drives, St506 drives, external single floppy boxes (al la TRS80).
Fans for use in s100 or other boxes.
Allison
I decided to go to garage sales this morning.
I passed up an IBM 5150 with some sort of monitor for $15 or offer. It
had a single 5.25" drive. I suspect it had been picked over for parts,
since there was another PC there for sale, and the seller said that he
"wanted to upgrade the other PC's memory with chips from this one." I
didn't really want the machine, and I didn't figure it would be worth
shipping.
I bought a TI-99/4A for $2, in its original box. As far as I can tell,
it's a complete system, but there's no software. All of you have one
of these machines, right? :)
--
Andy Brobston brobstona(a)wartburg.edu ***NEW URL BELOW***
http://www.wartburg.edu/people/docs/personalPages/BrobstonA/home.html
My opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Wartburg College
as a whole.
