19 Jan
1999
19 Jan
'99
10:44 a.m.
::Meanwhile, no one's ever heard of a Zorba, so I
don't know why the two I've
::heard about sold for over $100.
Okay, I'll bite: what's a Zorba?
OK... it's a slick Z80 box (basically similar to a Kapro).
It could read and write a number of disk formats and could run
software written for a lot of machines, since it was memory mapped video
and H19/Z19/VT52 compatible video you could actually hack it to
do Kaypro video instead with a few changes.
It was first made by Telcon, which made data test equipment.
Telcon got in over their heads and needed bigger $$$ to continue.
They were bought out by Modcomp (Modular Computers) who made mini's.
They created a Modular Micros group. They eventually were sold
to a suplus house called Gemini which sold off the remaining Zorba's in
a fire sale cheap. I paid about $1k for mine.
I still love it and have a lot of the user group (Zeus) software and
newsletters on 80 trk DSQD floppies (my Zorba had the NOMIS 96tpi drives).
Bill