26 May
1999
26 May
'99
7:41 p.m.
On Wed, 26 May 1999 allisonp(a)world.std.com wrote:
Ok, let me clear this up. I must admit I had to go back to the rule (8b)
myself to read it over again. The intent of this rule was not to disallow
any modifications to the computer, although it can certainly be
interpreted that way. The intent was to penalize entries that did not
have all the original (stock) parts. So say a computer suffered through a
lightning strike and had to have half its chips replaced. That machine
would not get full points because it would have been considerably rebuilt.
The specific question of whether to penalize modifications made to a
computer that were reasonable and desirable for the time was not (I don't
think) discussed. I will bring it up in committee and then report back
what our conclusion is, with a modification to rule 8b.
Yes, anything but typical but the presence of those particular terminals
would therefore make the exhibit extraordinary and would make it a
candidate for some of the special award categories in section 4 of the
rules (specifically, "Best Preservation - Obscurity").
However, as the rules in section 8b imply, a "typical" setup would be
likely to score higher in the judging. This needs to be made more
implicit, probably in the form of an additional subsection, which will be
discussed and a determination made by the committee.
A stock
computer is generally more representative of the original. However,
there are definitely some cases where a modification was required to the
original to fix a bug that came from the factory and was pretty much
mandatory if that machine was to be useful.
The question was clearly not understood. The CT1042 is a 16line by 32
character terminal board that can drive a TV or monitor. the single most
desireable mod for it was to get 64characters per line. That mod was
widely done and improved the usefulness. used with the
computer to make it a whole system would make for a better
exhibit. An Altair with an Altair VCT or Comter terminal would probably
That would be anything but typical as the average Altair in 1976 didn't
have mass storage. The rules for the machine in the gap between the
mark-8 and the trs80 (~1974 ->late 1977) really dont fit that pattern.
it was the days of a TTY was 1000$ and a used VT05 terminal easily 500$.
Software was typically casette tape or paper tape. Someone in 1978 that
showed upat a club with non-tty terminal and a disk system was usually the
subject of the entire meeting! That tended to persist through 1980 as
TRS80s an apples were off in their own groups. Also what about those that were using systems like the
KIM-1, IMP48, EVK68
and a bunch of other SBCs that were so typical before the advent of the
cheap single peice systems like the trs80s.
I don't see any particular points of conflict in the rules with regards to
single-boards. They would do fine in competition. Is there anything in
particular that you see in the rules that would go against single-board
entrants?
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
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