This Week's Haul

This'll seem insignificant to most Californians. :) I've hauled all this stuff home this week, even though I wasn't really looking for stuff (just lucky!): IBM PCjr (no power supply) Timex/Sinclair 1000 TS-1016 RAM cartridge TS-2040 Printer (no power supply) Dynalogic Hyperion VIC-1906 'Alien' game cartridge for VIC-20 'Tennis' cart for CoCo, with box and docs Carts for the Atari 2600 (yes, I know it's not a computer): Grand Prix, Gyruss, Jungle Hunt, Keystone Kapers, Mega Force, Skiing, Sky Jinks, Sorcerer, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Vanguard, Zaxxon. All from the same Salvation Army store I cursed a few weeks back for tossing out all their computer junk. Well, they keep doing it, but I'll take back my curses because I understand why they'd do such heinous things. With the way stuff has been pouring in in the past couple of months, they must get innundated with this stuff! I have a feeling that if I visited every day or two, instead of every week or two, I'd be hauling away a lot more stuff. I'm still pissed off about the potential Wang monitor tossing, but these folks are clueless about what's worth keeping. Anyway, some notes about the stuff mentioned above... The Dynalogic Hyperion isn't in nearly as good shape as the last one I hauled out of the very same store. This one is _very_ yellowed, like it's been sitting directly in the sun for a few years. Which is probably why someone installed a wire mesh in front of the display. I figure it must've been an anti-glare measure, though it's still quite shiny so maybe it was just to ease the fears of a radiation-scared employee. Anyway, whoever installed the mesh cracked chunks of the case off here and there. They also neglected to replace several screws. The internal screws they left out would've been hard to put back, though, with that mesh in front of the display. Anyway, the front panel is kind of loose. At least the ports are all labeled on this Hyperion, so I'll have to revise the poor guesses (ahem) on my web page. :) Also, there aren't any knock-out panels on this one. I did notice that there are two EPROMs in the machine. I'm definitely going to have to get an EPROMmer of some sort. One of the EPROMs in this Hyperion is soldered directly to the PCB, though, which makes things difficult. (I haven't checked the other Hyperion.) This 'new' Hyperion has some 'display issues'. :) The display on the monitor isn't square, and it jumps inward and back out frequently. Something I found interesting about the Hyperion is that the cover comes off identically to that of an old Macintosh. Undo the screws under the handle, pop the rest of the case from the front face, and pull the case off. I was scared to try popping the case on the other Hyperion, but this busted up one just begged to be looked into. On to the TS-1000. Or at least, what I assume to be a TS-1000. The label is missing, as are three of its four rubber feet, and some gummy tape had been affixed to its top. Anyway, it's got "Timex Computer Corporation" printed on its underside, and it has 2K of RAM (verified with a PRINT PEEK 16389). The motherboard says "ZX81" on it. The Sinclair ZX81 was the first computer I really wanted to buy. (Note that this is VERY different from wanting to OWN - I could actually almost afford a ZX81, I definitely could NOT afford the Northstar Advantage in one of the local shopping centres ;) ). So finally getting my hands on one is pretty special. And I was even introduced to its innards right away, because the damn thing had dead keys on the keyboard. :) It just turned out to be cracked plastic contact strip thingies. I just trimmed the contacts with scissors and shoved them back into the sockets. Hopefully I won't have to do that again or I'll run out of slack. :) It's kind of neat that I can actually SEE how the keyboard is wired, without opening the keyboard. :) The big metal ground thingy on the bottom of the board also broke off at one end. Bad solder job, I guess. :) I'm just using my Atari 2600 power supply at the moment, because the ZX81 supply wasn't there. Man is this thing slow! :) Up until now the (unexpanded) TI-99/4A was my slowest, crappiest system, but the Sinclair thing beats it for that title so easily it's not funny! But it's got nostalgic value the TI will never have for me. And besides, TIs are like earwigs around here. The Salvation Army has put at least 50 in the landfill that I know about. But this is the first Sinclair machine to turn up. The RAM cartridge has a broken, wobbly connector, and bent pins, and I can't get it to work reliably. The printer doesn't have a power supply (anyone know the specs?) or the roll of toiled paper, so I don't know if it works yet. I also don't know if the PCjr works. The external transformer was missing. I got the better keyboard with the thing, too, instead of the original button keyboard. I actually have the Tech Ref for the PCjr sitting around in a box somewhere, so it'll be cool to go poking around in it as soon as I know how. I haven't tested the VIC or CoCo carts yet, but the 2600 carts all work with the exception of Jungle Hunt, which I think just has dirty contacts. It's an Atari cartridge, though, so the contacts are 'protected' and I haven't bothered to find something to stick in those slots yet. Other recent acquisitions include an IBM-PC (5150) with 64-256K motherboard (damn!), an Atari 400 with several books, magazines, and cartridges, and some cool toys for my Amigas. The collecting has been pretty good this summer. Doug Spence ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca http://alcor.concordia.ca/~ds_spenc/