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Collecting Classic Computers
chriton writes "There's an interesting article at Reuters about collecting classic computers. There's mention in the story of an even more interesting website www.classiccmp.org Unfortunately, most of the website is still under construction. The mailing list has been around since Jan 1997, and they clearly have plans for more accessible resources, but that just hasn't happened yet. If you are like me and have a an old Osbourne 1 in the closet and Commodore 128D stored at your mother's house she's telling you to take home lest she chuck it, you might find the list archives none the less."
Commodore 128D stored at your mother's house she's telling you to take home lest she chuck it
That's a very true comment...
Since I've been married, my wife CONSTANTLY tried to throw out my old atari stuff. I had an awesome 800xl setup with happy810 drives, toggle switch to switch between O/S's, the works.
I would try to explain to her, this is what I started out on when I was like 10. Didn't matter, week later I would find it all packed up. I tried explaining that it was a collectors item, didn't matter, if I had it out on display she would haphazzardly pack it all up, sans a few cable that went into the trash. I tried explaining to her you just cannot get that vintage POKEY sound with an emulator. She'd point at my SBLive wavetable card.
We must have gone through the whole my unpacking / her packing things about 10 times before I gave up. Finally I just said fuck it, i'm going to make sure it went to a good home. I packed it all up, and went to the nullsoft offices in San Francisco, since I had read that those cats were once atarians.
They were pretty stoked on what I gave them, I think Brennen said he was going to use the drives to dig up some old code he did back in the day just so he could see how much it had changed. Justin made a crack about how he missed the simple flow of line numbering in atari basic, and Christophe ran off with a trackball.
Geek guys like this sort of stuff and geek girls don't. So ladies, my question is, what gives?
--toq
I think the guys over at Lucasfilm turned an SGI box into a beer tap during the production of Episode 1. It was big enough to keep a keg in, so they hollowed it out, and put a spout on it.
I can't find the link to the Wired article. I do remember reading this jsut before Ep1 came out.
In any event, drunken artists and such may explain something about how that movie turned out.
Huh?
...is more important sometimes than preserving the actual machine itself.
Manuals get lost. Tapes and Floppy Disks wear out. And then capacitors and other components go bad and without technical info, you're often left with an interesting doorstop.
With that imformation, emulators can get developed, software can be archived into modern formats, and new floppy disks containing software for these systems can be custom created so we don't have to worry (too much) about the originals wearing out.
I like to collect early 8-bit/Pre-PC computers. At the moment I have the following machines (among many others):
* Exidy Sorcerer (1979-1983-ish)
* APF Imagination Machine (1980-ish)
* Compucolor II (1978-1979 ish)
Of those three, I have the technical service manuals and schematics for the first two. I can fire them up and amuse myself by making them do things. I also have some software for them. I've made it a point to freely provide copies of all my technical documentation to other people interested in these old machines, in order to spread the knowledge and lower the chances of it getting lost.
For the Compucolor II though, I acquired a unit that had been converted to 240 volts (Australia). I have it because it was one of the very first computers I ever used, and a cool machine (8080, 48K RAM, 8 Color Display: 80x25 text, 160x100 graphics). I had no idea how rare it was even back then (1978), so decided I wanted to acquire one to add to my collection.
So far, I have no schematics or technical information, and no software (it had a single floppy drive built into the monitor), and have been unable to use it given my limited hardware reverse-engineering skills. The company that made it disappeared over 20 years ago. Thus, with out information and software, it's likely that in time no one will even remember it existed.
-Mp
Here's a link to a site where a guy describes his plans to restore one of these classic machines.
It's a short read, but it's nice to see someone trying to restore one of thse boxes.
Ken Thompson used to have a link on his page to someone who was restoring one of these. But since he's retired, it's not there now.
Huh?
Apple IIe (soon to be networked via localtalk, but the rom is ruined on the workstation card.. no wonder the ebayer sold it for $1)
;)
Apple IIgs (networked to my linux server via localtalk)
Mac Plus (networked to my linux server via localtalk)
Mac SE (networked via ethernet)
A slew of 9" black&white macs
Mac LC (networked to my linux server via token ring)
Apple Pippin (set top box)
NeXT Colorstation
Amiga 500
Amiga 2000 (networked to my linux server via arcnet)
Amiga 3000
Amiga 4000
Commodore Vic20
Commodore 64
Commodore 128
DECstation 5000/133
PDP11/04 (with dual board unibus etherneton the way, and in my 42U rack)
Vaxstation 3000
Vaxstation 4000
DEC Multia (alpha chip, though a horribly crippled one)
Atari ST 520 (networked with homebrew ACSI-ethernet)
Atari ST 1024STFM
Atari 600XL
Sparcstation 2 (with a dual slot HIPPI card, still need hippi for my linux server!)
TRS-80 Coco 1, 2 & 3
TRS-80 Model 4 (soon to be networked via Omninet, assuming I can find a ISA omninet card)
TRS-80 Model II (soon to be networked via Omninet, assuming I can find a ISA omninet card)
TRS-80 Model 6000 (68k cpu, I need an arcnet board for this baby... ran xenix, and billed as a multi-user system by Tandy. Also in *MINT* condition)
Altos Bidmaster (ran xenix on a 186...blech)
Timex Sinclair
TI994a
HP Netserver (running Banyan Vines 6)
Several 386/486/pentiums (running Netware 2-6)
Several PS/2's(running OS/2 v1.3 - Warp 4)
My home lan consists of:
Localtalk, Token Ring (4/16/100mps)
Ethernet (10baseT/2/5/100/802.11)
VG Anylan, Arcnet (2.5/100mps)
FDDI, ATM (155mps, need to find the 622mps optional module for my Cabletron ZX-250)
DOCSIS (are there any direct DOCSIS PCI cards? My ifconfig output is only 3 pages or so...)
To be implemented:
HIPPI (pending, need PCI card and switch)
Omninet (have the multiplexer and vintage cards, need card for linux server)
Econet (have cards for Archimedes, would need the incredibly rare Ecolink ISA card for the linux server, and some Acorn machines)
Starlan (have a 6300, need the boards, switches.. will be done eventually)
By my count, that means I have these CPU families...
65xx, 68xx, Z80, x86, alpha, 68k, PPC, TMS9900, Sparc, MIPS, Super Hitachi
(ok, so its a sega saturn, still counts)
?? (whatever the PDP has, know the board number, but what do you call the cpu family?)
??? (same, for the Vax)
I've lost count of OS's, but it's something like 40+.
I'm obviously missing the Bebox, and Apple Lisa. The Bebox though, I'm holding out for the Lucent Hobbit CPU prototype... no lame PPC here
I suppose I also need an HP-UX machine, for another OS and the PA-Risc chip. Wouldn't hurt to pick up a cheap SGI Indy either, or for that matter an earlier RS6000. But I really want a Xerox Alto or Star... anyone selling? Oh, and definitely must have a Falcon (Atari ST, last of the line).
You see, it is a lifetime goal of mine, to have the most evil, bastardized localtalk network ever. That means having
Apple II (already done)
x86 PC (The most NICed linux box in history)
Macs (easy, of course)
NeXT (harder, pretty sure I will have to write the drivers myself)
SGI (their RS-422 ports seem to be agreeable with netatalk)
Atari (Falcon or TT030, has the rs-422, even in miniDIN8, but never any drivers)
Amiga (had a chance at the Zorro2 localtalk board, but was broke... guy wouldn't hold it for me:( )
And if that isn't bad enough, my newly bought 19" rack (for $1 no less!) is already half full. Bay Networks and a a Cisco router (2514), and my lovely PDP11 (oldest computer I own)
But the worst part is, by far, I'm just getting started.