3 Jun
1997
3 Jun
'97
9:18 a.m.
I'm going to be moving my collection a couple hundred miles from Austin,
TX to Tyler, TX. I'm wondering if anyone has any packing or moving
suggestions (packing material, special treatment of media, etc).
The stuff is going to be moved by a moving company (Atlas probably) but
I'm doing much of the packing ahead of time. I'm seriously considering
moving the oddball monitors and magnetic media myself. I don't trust them
with these easily harmed things and if they're damaged, they have little
or no reimbursement value, but are difficult to find again.
Anyone have any magical tips on packing and moving?
chris
3 Jun
3 Jun
12:34 a.m.
On 04-Jun-97, starling(a)umr.edu wrote:
I'm going to be moving my collection a couple
hundred miles from Austin,
TX to Tyler, TX. I'm wondering if anyone has any packing or moving
suggestions (packing material, special treatment of media, etc).
Anyone have any magical tips on packing and moving?
Chris,
North American moved my collection without any problems a few months ago,
but needless to say, I certainly was worried about it. If you're packing
things yourself, I'd suggest wrapping stuff in bubblewrap if you can. It
seems to do a great job at protecting things, even against the little nicks
and such. I tend to wrap it 4-5 times around the part to make a nice bundle,
well covered on all sides. It's also how I ship stuff..with the box filled
out with the styrofoam 'popcorn'.
Jeff
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sent from an Amiga 3000..the computer for the creative mind!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Collector of classic home computers:
Amiga 1000, Apple II+, Atari 800, 800XL, Mega-ST/2 and XE System,
Commodore 128D, 16, Plus/4 and VIC-20, IBM 5155, Kaypro 2X, Mattel
Aquarius, Osborne Executive, Radofin Aquarius, Sinclair ZX-81,
TI-99/4A, Timex-Sinclair 1000, TRS-80 Color Computer-3 and Model 4,
plus Atari Superpong and 2600VCS game consoles.
9:55 a.m.
Call a few shipping places and ask if they have a Sealed Air
foam packing machine. I used to work for ElectroRent (a big
computer rental company) and they shipped machines all over the
world with very little loss using the stuff. I personally had
boxes that had been absolutely destroyed during shipping (square
box was delivered more or less spherical) and the equipment was
just fine. Probably a little pricey, but also probably worth
it for the rarer stuff.
Bill
----------------------------------------------------
Bill Whitson - Classic Computers ListOp
bill(a)booster.u.washinton.edu or bcw(a)u.washington.edu
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~bcw
10:31 a.m.
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10:56 a.m.
On Tue, 3 Jun 1997 starling(a)umr.edu wrote:
I'm going to be moving my collection a couple
hundred miles from Austin,
TX to Tyler, TX. I'm wondering if anyone has any packing or moving
suggestions (packing material, special treatment of media, etc).
The stuff is going to be moved by a moving company (Atlas probably) but
I'm doing much of the packing ahead of time. I'm seriously considering
You've already covered one of my suggestions, which is start early. By
the time the REAL packing begins, you should be done with all your
computer stuff. This is what I did.
You might want to just move the monitors yourself on moving day, if the
drive is not too far.
I am fortunate in that where I work we are always shipping just to and
fro, so there was abundant free packing materials abound. I would
suggest that you go to the many hi-tech companies in Austin and raid
their dumpsters for boxes and foam popcorn. The foam popcorn is the most
important stuff. If you're lucky, you'll also find anti-static bags.
Try to stick your smaller consoles in the bags, then put some foam on the
bottom of a box, put in a unit, fill in some foam around and on top, put
in another unit, fill in some foam around and on top, etc. This is what
I did, and the best part is it made for permanent storage so that when I
moved I didn't need to worry about pulling my systems back out and
stacking them until I was good and ready. I just recently started
opening boxes and made a big mess of my garage, but for 8 months
everything was really organized.
I moved everything myself, so when it came time to move the computers I
did it all in one load of a pickup, and had the luxury of making sure
they were treated right. I say as long as you pack everything in
popcorn, you're fine.
Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
2:37 p.m.
On Tue, 3 Jun 1997, Sam Ismail wrote:
Try to stick your smaller consoles in the bags, then
put some foam on the
bottom of a box, put in a unit, fill in some foam around and on top, put
in another unit, fill in some foam around and on top, etc. This is what
I did, and the best part is it made for permanent storage so that when I
moved I didn't need to worry about pulling my systems back out and
stacking them until I was good and ready. I just recently started
opening boxes and made a big mess of my garage, but for 8 months
everything was really organized.
For the love of God, Montressor, _don't forget to label the boxes!_ And I
do mean a _full catalog_. As a bibliophile who has moved books in large
quantities on several occasions (and Ben Franklin had it right: three
moves equals one fire) I know that it can be a hassle when you _really
need_ just that one item, and it's in one of the boxes filling _that half_
of the room. All the same size, color, label (front room).
--
Ward Griffiths
"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within
the system, but too early to shoot the bastards." --Claire Wolfe
5:16 p.m.
On Tue, 3 Jun 1997, Ward Griffiths and/or Lisa Rogers wrote:
For the love of God, Montressor, _don't forget to
label the boxes!_ And I
do mean a _full catalog_. As a bibliophile who has moved books in large
Right! I almost forgot. On each box I listed the contents. Like:
Apple //e
Commodore 64
TI 99/4a
etc.
On a scarcely related note, has anyone ever seen (or does anyone have) a
TI-99/4 (no "a")? I was reading an old issue of Creative Computing and
they mentioned the 99/4 in an article about the 4a. They also mentioned
a system called the 99/8 (I think it was that) that was built but never
released because TI decided to get out of the home computer market. It
was a great article about the price wars between TI and Commodore. It
talked about how the TI 99/4a started at $1395 and eventually wound its
way down to $49 over the course of 2 years in competition with the
VIC-20. I'm amazed the 99/4a still has such a following. It was like
the Hyundai of the 80s home computer market.
Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
4 Jun
4 Jun
2:37 a.m.
On Tue, 3 Jun 1997, Sam Ismail wrote:
On a scarcely related note, has anyone ever seen (or
does anyone have) a
TI-99/4 (no "a")? I was reading an old issue of Creative Computing and
I played with one briefly at a computer store in Las Vegas back about
1980. As I recall, it has little rectangular chicklet keys. When I
typed in a simple loop to count and display the numbers from one to
one hundred and I was able to get there first by counting out loud I
gave up on the machine and never looked at one again until I moved in
with a TI-99/5A fan five years ago -- and I still don't look at them
much, they're Lisa's machines.
they mentioned the 99/4 in an article about the 4a.
They also mentioned
a system called the 99/8 (I think it was that) that was built but never
There's a description and some pictures of the 99/8 on:
<http://w3.gwis.com/~polivka/998.html>
released because TI decided to get out of the home
computer market. It
TI didn't exactly "decide" to do this. There's a semi-accurate
article in the current (June '97) Computer Shopper on the history of
the TI-99. I have my own memories of what effect had on the stock
prices of companies in the small computer business back when the word
got out that TI was losing money on every machine sold hoping to make
up the difference in overpriced peripherals (which of course, third
parties were able to provide cheaper).
was a great article about the price wars between TI
and Commodore. It
talked about how the TI 99/4a started at $1395 and eventually wound its
way down to $49 over the course of 2 years in competition with the
VIC-20. I'm amazed the 99/4a still has such a following. It was like
the Hyundai of the 80s home computer market.
That last year or so, it was more like the Yugo.
--
Ward Griffiths
"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within
the system, but too early to shoot the bastards." --Claire Wolfe
3:03 a.m.
On Tue, 3 Jun 1997, Sam Ismail wrote:
On a scarcely related note, has anyone ever seen (or
does anyone have) a
TI-99/4 (no "a")?
I haven't seen one, but I've heard a lot about it. Unfortunately, I can't
seem to find one single picture of the thing on-line. :-(
They also mentioned a system called the 99/8 (I think
it was that) that
was built but never released because TI decided to get out of the home
computer market.
Yup, seen photos of this beast. It could take up to 15 MB of RAM and had
built-in hardware to run P-code.
The Machine Room has entries for both the TI-99/4 and TI-99/8 (although
the /4 has no picture). The URL is:
http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~alexios/MACHINE-ROOM/
Rich Polivka's WWW page has information on both of these machines (I based
the TI-99/8 Machine Room entry on his respective page):
http://w3.gwis.com/~polivka/994apg.html
--------------------------- ,o88,o888o,,o888o. -------------------------------
Alexios Chouchoulas '88 ,88' ,88'
alexios(a)vennea.demon.co.uk
The Unpronounceable One ,o88oooo88ooooo88oo, axc(a)dcs.ed.ac.uk
2:57 p.m.
On Wed, 4 Jun 1997, Alexios Chouchoulas wrote:
On Tue, 3 Jun 1997, Sam Ismail wrote:
Back around 1982, the local computer store in my town was trying to
unload one of these (complete with monitor, disk drive and most of the
cartridges) for about $1000. (I already had a TI 99/4A, but with no
peripherals, except for the modulator and cassette recorder).
Those extras would have been nice, but, as an unprosperous high school
student at the time, not forthcoming . . .
On a scarcely related note, has anyone ever seen
(or does anyone have) a
TI-99/4 (no "a")?
I haven't seen one, but I've heard a lot about it. Unfortunately, I can't
seem to find one single picture of the thing on-line. :-( 
3:33 a.m.
Sam Ismail <dastar(a)crl.com> said,
On a scarcely related note, has anyone ever seen (or
does anyone have) a
TI-99/4 (no "a")? I was reading an old issue of Creative Computing and
they mentioned the 99/4 in an article about the 4a.
I saw (and used for a few minutes) one of these, years and years ago
(1984?) at a meeting of the TI Hoosier Users Group in Indianapolis.
The main differences from the 99/4A were:
* chicklet keys, and no lowercase -- the punctuation marks and
cursor motions that you get with the FCTN key on a 4A were
produced with the Shift key instead.
* older video chip -- the TMS9918 instead of 18A. I think the
difference here was that it didn't have the 256x192 bitmap mode,
only the character-cell modes.
* monitor required. Market pressures were part of the reason the
TI price dropped so much, but the major reason was that TI
couldn't get FCC approval for an RF modulator in time for the
release of the 99/4 so you had to buy it with a monitor. They
were approved by the time of the 99/4a so you could use it with
your TV and get by with a much cheaper system.
I think the Peripheral Expansion Box also came out at the time of
the 99/4A, ending the need to string endless piles of boxes off the
side of the keyboard if you wanted the disk drive, speech synthesizer,
or whatever.
They also mentioned a system called the 99/8 (I think
it was that)
that was built but never released because TI decided to get out of
the home computer market.
There was also a TI-99/2, with rubber keys and black-and-white video,
meant to compete with the Timex/Sinclair segment of the market. It
never got released because the prices of the higher-end machines
plummeted and squeezed it out of its price range.
eric
9846
days inactive
9847
days old
10 comments
10 participants
participants (10)
-
alexios＠vennea.demon.co.uk -
bill＠booster.bothell.washington.edu -
dastar＠crl.com -
eric＠fudge.uchicago.edu -
gram＠cnct.com -
gram＠terra.cnct.com -
jeffh＠unix.aardvarkol.com -
shoppa＠alph02.triumf.ca -
starling＠umr.edu -
transit＠primenet.com