18 Sep
2014
18 Sep
'14
11:55 a.m.
Earl,
That is pretty cool. Did the NEC system run an 8" based MS-DOS? Or was it a different
variety of DOS (or straight CP/M)? I have heard rumors of MS-DOS natively available on
8" disks but I have never seen one. If it is MS-DOS how compatible is it with MS-DOS
versions of the same vintage? Thanks.
-Ali
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf
Of Earl Baugh
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2014 10:50 AM
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: "Smartcom II" package available
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:55:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa)
Subject: Re: "Smartcom II" package available
FYI , while not to disagree with the conclusion that this package is on
5.25 media,
there WERE MS-DOS machines that came with 8 inch floppies (as the only
floppies)
I have one of these : http://oldcomputers.net/nec-apc.html (which instead of APC it is
lovingly refereed to as the "hernia-ator" since it's ridiculously heavy....
:-) )
So, while I'm not sure there was Smartcom ever for this system, having it on 8 inch
floppies would be the way to get it loaded...
Earl
From: Fred Cisin
The fact that it was ... in a package of similar
size does NOT mean
that it contains 8" disks.
Argh! I looked at the package for like 12 msec, hefted it for 29 msec
to see what kind of noise it made / how the internal mass felt, and
_guessed_, based on 17 nsec of thinking about it, that 'I suspect ...
8" floppies'.
Had I stopped to think, I probably would have come to the same conclusion:
for original PC; original PC only had 5.25 inch floppies (which I had
to look up, I couldn't remember off the top of my head - my first was
a KayPro AT)
--> probably 5.25" media inside - but I didn't, I wasn't that
--> interested, I
just wanted to find a good home for it!
(And no doubt the seller made the same mistake, which was why it was
in with a bunch of 8" floppies...)