15 Nov
2003
15 Nov
'03
6:38 a.m.
I just recently acquired a Cromemco Z-2D (don't yet have all the
necessary accessories and peripherals to test it)... and I'm curious as
to how many of these were made.
I know they were produced in 1977, but aside from the information from
old-computers.com, I know relatively little about it.
There doesn't seem to be much interest surrounding them, as I had
trouble finding much on the web.
Anything any of you could tell me about this (especially how many were
produced, how many are estimated to still be around, etc) would be
really cool.
Thanks!
~Donald Nova
Don at NovaNow.net
15 Nov
15 Nov
7:57 a.m.
On Sat, 15 Nov 2003, Donald Nova wrote:
I just recently acquired a Cromemco Z-2D (don't
yet have all the
necessary accessories and peripherals to test it)... and I'm curious as
to how many of these were made.
Thousands; more likely tens of thousands.
There doesn't seem to be much interest surrounding
them, as I had
trouble finding much on the web.
They're very nice machines, but they suffer (in terms of popularity) from
a lack of blinkenlights.
Anything any of you could tell me about this
(especially how many were
produced, how many are estimated to still be around, etc) would be
really cool.
It is a well-built S-100 chassis. Cromemco made all sorts of processor
boards, but the most common were Z-80 and 68000. The former would run
some form of CP/M, the latter most likely Cromix (Cromemco *nix). They
could be used anywhere from the office to the industrial plant to the home
hobbyists hamshack.
--
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7:58 a.m.
I worked with a Cromemco (model unknown) that was packaged as a LiveLine
I, an early television weather graphics computer supported by Accuweather.
I remember every time we had a lightning strike I'd buckshot the I/O board
with new UARTS, 1488/1489's, and any other plug-in chip, and get it
working again. The ultimate kicker was having to replace the 20 meg HD
with a proprietary drive for over $1000, and that was in the early 90's.
From the frying pan we jumped into the fire, having
purchased an Amiga
4000 and Video Toaster about a year before Commode Door went out
of biz.
Lightning would get into it and we had to buy a COMPLETE new box, as parts
were not available. Did that twice.
Soome management types would never learn.
Gary Hildebrand
St. Joseph, MO
I just recently acquired a Cromemco Z-2D (don't
yet have all the
necessary accessories and peripherals to test it)... and I'm curious as
to how many of these were made.
I know they were produced in 1977, but aside from the information from
old-computers.com, I know relatively little about it.
There doesn't seem to be much interest surrounding them, as I had
trouble finding much on the web.
Anything any of you could tell me about this (especially how many were
produced, how many are estimated to still be around, etc) would be
really cool.
Thanks!
~Donald Nova
Don at NovaNow.net
8:04 a.m.
Atari utilized Cromemco Z2's inhouse for development of everything from 2600
to 5200 to 800 software, they had hundreds of them, they were one of
Cromemco's largest buyers, I have one of the original Z2 developer stations
with all the custom S100 boards Atari designed for development, I plan to
display it at Phillyclassic 5 this coming March (www.phillyclassic.com) and
if there is ever another VCF East (2.0?) I will bring it there as well, I'm
trying to resurrect some old RSTS 7.1 code, but I am looking for an 11/73 or
11/83 with an RD54 or similar so I can hook up my RL02 to it and boot from
these RSTS RL02's I have, they have all the developer S/W on them and then I
can connect up the Z2 to it and resurrect an original Atari Cromemco
developers Station.
Curt
----- Original Message -----
From: <ghldbrd(a)ccp.com>
To: <Don(a)novanow.net>et>; "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 15, 2003 1:58 PM
Subject: Re: Cromemco Information
I worked with a Cromemco (model unknown) that was
packaged as a LiveLine
I, an early television weather graphics computer supported by Accuweather.
I remember every time we had a lightning strike I'd buckshot the I/O board
with new UARTS, 1488/1489's, and any other plug-in chip, and get it
working again. The ultimate kicker was having to replace the 20 meg HD
with a proprietary drive for over $1000, and that was in the early 90's.
From the frying pan we jumped into the fire,
having purchased an Amiga
4000 and Video Toaster about a year before Commode Door
went out of biz.
Lightning would get into it and we had to buy a COMPLETE new box, as parts
were not available. Did that twice.
Soome management types would never learn.
Gary Hildebrand
St. Joseph, MO
I just recently acquired a Cromemco Z-2D
(don't yet have all the
necessary accessories and peripherals to test it)... and I'm curious as
to how many of these were made.
I know they were produced in 1977, but aside from the information from
old-computers.com, I know relatively little about it.
There doesn't seem to be much interest surrounding them, as I had
trouble finding much on the web.
Anything any of you could tell me about this (especially how many were
produced, how many are estimated to still be around, etc) would be
really cool.
Thanks!
~Donald Nova
Don at NovaNow.net
7556
days inactive
7556
days old
3 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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curt＠atarimuseum.com -
Don＠novanow.net -
ghldbrd＠ccp.com -
vcf＠siconic.com