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101090 discussions

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

Last week (while running around trying do recover from a disk crash) I picked up a TI 99/4a Expansion Box. Has a couple of cards and a (loose) disk drive, but to be honest, I haven't even had a chance to take it out of my girlfriend's trunk (too much sh*t going down lately). Anything interesting that might be in there? Did I do good at $15 (with some elec. screwdriver bits thrown in)? Any info is appreciated! --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.crl.com/~sinasohn/

28 years, 2 months

Future Services & Events from the Vintage Technology Cooperative

by dastar＠wco.com

I just thought I'd give yous guys a sneak peek of some of the things I am working on... The Vintage Computer Festival v2.0 - the continuation of the legacy! ;) This year's show will be bigger and better than the first. More vendors, a bigger exhibition, more great speakers and workshops, more more more! Tentatively scheduled for late summer. Keep your eyes open for further announcements. The First Vintage Computer Festival Auction - you won't want to miss this. There will be a bunch of incredible stuff auctioned off this spring to help fund VCF 2.0. Check the VCF web page (www.siconic.com/vcf) this May for details. A new & improved VCF web-site. Thanks to TCI's cable modem service, I'll be hosting my own internet services. Among other things, I will launch a vintage computer software archive. Online history, trivia, interviews with industry legends, a comprehensive vintage computer gallery, and a comprehensive list of links to other vintage computer sites on the web. This will become the one-stop shop for vintage computing. The Vintage Computer Collector & Trader Web BBS. This will be a BBS as was discussed a couple weeks ago in the discussion. It will provide two services. First, it will offer free advertising for those wanting to buy/sell/trade vintage computer hardware, software, literature, etc. Second, it will provide a registry for those wanting to network with other collectors around the country. Post a message describing what you want and how much you're willing to pay. Other collectors around the country scour their local flea markets, thrift stores and salvage yards looking for your requests. You work out the final details with each other. Automatic database management insures that requests stay current. Stale requests get removed automatically. The Vintage Computer Software Archives - the plan is for an FTP site with all manner of software archives for all platforms: CP/M, DOS, Unix, microcomputers (Apple, Atari, Commodore, TI, Radio Shack, etc.), mini-computers (DEC, Data General, Sun, IBM, etc.), mainframes...whatever is legal to archive and make publicly available will be there. The archived equivalents of disks, magnetic tapes, paper tapes, punch cards, whatever, will be made available for download. ALL THIS AND SO MUCH MORE! A VERITABLE NERD EXTRAVAGANZA TO SATISFY YOUR VINTAGE COMPUTER HUNGER! 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!

28 years, 2 months

Fairchild Channel F

by francois.auradon＠worldnet.att.net

Hi, I found a Channel F on saturday. I'm having some problem with it: The horizontal lines are dashed. Could someone point me to a good hardware ref or help me out in troubleshooting it? Also it doesn't read the carts, I can select the internal game but the carts are not seen. Thank you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Francois Auradon. Visit the SANCTUARY at http://home.att.net/~francois.auradon

28 years, 2 months

Interesting Find

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

At 08:14 PM 1/30/98 -0500, you wrote: >(Sharp PC-7100) > >> printer (I've only got one) that attaches to the back for portability. > >Didn't the IBM Portable (or convertible...whatever) do that? I seem to recall that the convertible (the laptop) had a printer available that attached to the rear, although iirc, right side up and ready to print. (It connected directly through an expansion port on the back of the computer.) The Sharp PC-7100's printer tips up* to attach for portability; to use it you have to detach it, set it down, and hook up a standard printer cable. *Tips up: take your standard mx-80 or what-have-you and grab the rear corners. Lift, rotating along the front bottom edge, and stand it on the front side. Now put your lunchbox in front of it. (Well, maybe Andre the Giant's lunchbox.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.crl.com/~sinasohn/

28 years, 2 months

Coleco Adam pricing

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

At 01:25 PM 1/30/98 -0800, you wrote: >No way! Maybe $50 at the top end, but $75 is way too much. These are not [...] >someone was trying to sell one at a swap meet? What would you expect to >pay for an old-assed, obsolete computer with no current support that some >guy had lying on the ground in a parking lot? For a Coleco Adam, I'd say >that number is between $25 - $30. Well, certainly, one can always hope to find a deal. I recently paid $750 for a non-running, 1959 Land Rover with no rear wheels and last registered in 1988. The seller told me that the next day someone showed up at his door with $2000 in cash. So, yes, if you want to wait 'til you find one at a flea market, then you should be able to get one for $25-30. (Heck, I've seen 'em (missed out on 'em) for free!) But, if you want one, and you know of one for sale, with some extra parts, I don't think $75 is an unreasonable asking price. Not everyone will pay it, of course; many will wait for the flea market, but there will be those who would just as soon pay a little more to have it now. For comparison purposes, I bought my main Land Rover ("Indy") 8 years ago for $10K. It's also a '59. (Though in better shape, a long-wheelbase model, and had a few extras.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.crl.com/~sinasohn/

28 years, 2 months

AT&T 6300

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

If anyone's desperate for an AT&T 6300, I saw one for $30. Dunno if it works, or if it's complete, but it's there. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.crl.com/~sinasohn/

28 years, 2 months

GRiDCase 3 EPROM Programmer

by higginbo＠netpath.net

At 01:39 PM 2/2/98, you wrote: > Does it say anything about what it's looking for or what port it expects >to find it on? Well, there's only one 25-pin RS232 port on the GRiD, the other serial port is taken up by a 1200 baud modem (state of the art in 1985). I'm gonna try to find a cheap one at the next hamfest to tinker with it. Who knows? Maybe it'll work on the first try. (yeah, right) -John Higginbotham- -limbo.netpath.net-

28 years, 2 months

TRW Acquisitions, VCF

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< I had forgotten that I have a pile of VT 320s, will they work? ANY vtXXX. A VT320 is ok too. It only has to be RS232 or 20ms interface and not blockmode. Most of the latter terminals only do rs232/rs423 and 20ma was TTY or DECwriters. < Sounds like just picking up old software is a waste of time and money. <It's to be exactly right for the system that it's going on. Pretty much the case back then or you had to know it was hackable. < I wondered about using the drives out of an old Osborne model OCC 1 th <I have. They may work muost just pull the 360k drives from an XT. < You're right. I have manuals for NS* CPM, CPM assembler, CPM <interface, etc. I haven't had time to read all this stuff yet. I'm gla <you told me that CPM will run on an 8080. I've seen some very old CPM <stuff but I didn't think I could use it. But there is a chance. It was never a question. I've been running CPM for 21 years and also have a NS* horizon thats now 20 years old. < Actually now that I know what I'm looking for, my NS* CPM manual says <16K of Ram with an origin of 2000 Hex. I have a bunch of NS* manuals, I V2.x and later it had to be 20k so that is v1.4 (likely from lifeboat associates). <like to find the NS* software that goes with them. BTW the NS* CPM book <says that the NS* board is supposed to have a PROM on it that contains th <IPL. I did say it had a minimal boot. Allison

28 years, 2 months

Stupid bus tricks

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Could I attach two PC motherboards (ISA? PS/2? PCI? EISA? NuBUS? <Others?) together via a ribbon cable by the bus connectors and then <transfer data among them, of course having written the approporiate <drivers? Only if you want to kill both of them. Use the parallel port via laplink or other software. Technically it can be done via the bus if you created an interface card to resolve the bus conflicts that would result from a direct connection. Allison

28 years, 2 months

TRW Acquisitions, VCF

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< I'd like to get away from having to use a terminal. The only terminal <I have are big HP things and I don't know if they would work with the <Altair (too fast?, block mode instead of character mode?) The hp thing would not work. Try and scrounge up a vt100 or other more commonplace terminal vt100, vt220, heath/zenith h19, PC running Procomm or other term program. < I'm aware to the addresssing problems. Sounds like you have to <re-address everything to match the program or else hack the programs to <change all the device adresses, program loation etc. That's putting it mildly. Some of the CUTS and tarbell format tapes assumed you were using their monitor programs in rom. If you weren't, zap, a whole lot of IO code was missing. < I have a NS disk controller. I don't know if it has a IPL or how that <has to be done. The manual I have doesn't say. I also need to find a <Shugart SA 400 to go with NS controller. I know other drives are <electrically compatable with the SA 400 but I don't know if the track <spacing and other physical parameters are the same or not. If the physic <parameters aren't the same then the media would not be compatable. First you don't have the software manual or the hardware manuals as they do explain that. The NS* controller has a minimal boot as part of the hardware. If it's the single density controller it will work with an 8080, however if it's the later double density controller a z80 at 4mhz is a must. The NS* OS has an area that must be configured to match the IO in your system if it is not it will boot and hang. As to the disk your not locked to the sa400 there are hundres of different drives that will work. Sa400 was 35 tracks 48tpi single sided, any single sided drive other than a few oddballs will be 48tpi. Most older 360k full or half height drives will work as well despite being two sided. < This is an 8080 machine. Will it run CPM? I thought that was for Z80s Go back and read up on history. CP/M-80 ran on all 8080 systems with a miimum of 20k ram starting at 0000h, a floopy disk system and some kind ot terminal. < Yes, I know. Bill Gates first commercial product. First commercial hack done using borrowed time on his employers cpu. Oh, he wan't that good it was Gates and Allen. Allison

28 years, 2 months

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