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Historic Microcomputer Restoration?
Pojodojo asks: "I am doing an independent study next semester with my computer science professor which we decided to call Historic Microcomputer Repair and Restoration. I will be working with such classics as the Altair 8080 and the Apple II. After I have repaired and or restored these machines, I will put them in a display for others to see. I have the opportunity for a modest budget to get equipment to put in the display, and would like to know is, what sort of things would you as fellow comp sci geeks like to see in a Historic Computer exhibit?"
Ascii pr0n, obviously.
*sheesh*
The opposite of progress is congress
I'm not kidding. I remember having a disk of porn for the BBC Micro. That computer only had 32k of ram, and the porn I had was for a mode that used about 5k..perhaps 10, something like that. It was animated too - two frames of it. Amusing.
I am a REALLY old geek, but I cut my teeth on the Z80 processor running in a TRS80 model III. You can pick them up on EBay for next to nothing compared to the original asking price of $1999. You could even step up the the model 4 with 64K of RAM for about the same price. Don't know if you can still find it, but back in the day, you could get a version of MS-DOS that would run on these beasts. I personally coded a nice BBS on one of these. It was faster at processing information than most of the Apples and C64s of the time. Worth a look Idol
After all, it was one of the first calculating devices.
.. I don't know the extent to which it fits your definition, but if I was to think of a bitchin' computer (insomuch as it could do some level of computing). It would be an Amiga 500, god I loved that... if you want something a little more in the line of "computer" I would say collosus, the original bletchly park beast... it could still out perform a P4....
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
this thing is mroe important seeing as it was used for years for video editing.
But who am I to judge.....
perpetually dwelling in the -1 pits
There was an amazing variety of 8-bit platforms manufactured between 1976-1985, the more you have the better. But take my advice, having refurbished a number of these machines: Plan on buying 3 for every one you get working, Ebay is your friend, no single machine is worth more than $5. You should be able to pick up core cpu/keyboards for $15 following these rules. Use a modern audio cable switch box and a single composite monitor to switch between them- Composite monitors are hard to find and expensive, but many modern cheap 15" TV sets have the correct RCA inputs.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
what sort of things would you as fellow comp sci geeks like to see in a Historic Computer exhibit?
Booth babes, of course.
Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
I realize that you're doing this as an independent study project for which the repair aspect is certainly a valuable learning tool. However, is repairing these machines particularly necessary? Will you power them up and leave them running in the display? I mean, unless you've got some decent demos running (and maybe I'm missing the point and that's exactly what you're asking for here), the machines will be sitting idle behind some plexi. In which case all you really need to do is clean them up to be presentable.
This guy's the limit!
So you wouldn't remember the Motorola 6800 (no - not the 68000), or the Cosmac VIP, or the 8080, or all the real precursor computers.
:-)
Heaven's forbid you had used a PDP7 where you had to toggle the bootloader in via the front panel so you could pull the monitor in off paper tape.
You're not that old
is to stick with well documented hardware. The two you've picked so far ought to more than fit the bill, but considering you've added "repair" to the title of the class, I assume you'll be doing pcb level hardware repair. This is a LOT of fun and frustration at the same time, but if you start digging into machines that nobody's thought of, cared about, or kept track of over the past 30+ years you probably will start getting into headaches of trying to diagnose some seriously weird bugs. Not to discourage you from this course of action, in fact far from it, it sounds like something I would have enjoyed in my public schooling days (or at least getting credit for it). Find clubs that support the machines and can give you advice, don't try to go it alone, after all, the machines were built by teams, teams should help you rebuild them. Most of all remember to have fun!
Next week's big festivities involve a restored PDP-1.
Their collection of hardware is pretty much unmatched, and is open to the public. What's on display is the tip of their collection's iceberg. Who knows what might be kicking around in the background, just waiting for a small team of geeks to restore?
And conversely, who knows what might be kicking around in your classmates' basements that's on CHM's wish list?
a Kpro, and a II GS running "Tunnels of Armageddon" or "Journey"
TRS80 FTW!!!!11
While most people don't think of them as "historic", displaying a 5 to 10 year-old computer and comparing it with a modern computer highlights the rapid pace of change in the industry and is interesting to see.
It's simple: I demand prosecution for torture.
Here's some computers I'd recommend you try to get. Each represents one or more milestones to what we now consider commonplace. (I've left out some of the more obvious ones; please forgive me if I've named some you consider obvious.)
Desktops:
Commodore PET 2001 (color chicklet keyboard).
Sinclair ZX-80/81.
Coleco Adam.
DEC Rainbow 100.
Amiga 2000.
Portables:
TRS-80 Model 100/102.
Osborne 1.
Compaq suitcase PC.
HP 200LX.
Apple Newton.
Toshiba T1000.
A DEC PDP-11/73, my personal favorite.
Probably the easiest computer to rebuild from the classic era as there is only one bus (Unibus), and nothing but traces and some very simple electronics on the backplane. Well that and you could hit them with a hammer.
The PDP-11 series, along with the PDP-8's were some of the first nodes on the ARPANET and you can still get working Ethernet adapters for them.
Hell, I still miss mine (Viper tape drive, RSX/11, RSTS/E 10, BASIC Plus2, 512MB EDSI drive).
(You can still find these things running if you look hard enough... (Try asking old medical/dental offices, most of them ran PDP/11's))
The Geek in Black
I know my BCD's (when I'm Sober)
And a Xerox Star.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Seriously.
You haven't really lived until you've run a multiplication (by repetitive addition) manually on a cardboard computer simulator.
i've actually been getting back into it, and i'm writing a BASIC interpreter in my new language of choice, and i've been picking up old applesoft BASIC manuals on ebay... really fun
once you've got them looking pretty, you should let users play with them via some fun BASIC program you've written
Good luck on this. I expect this won't be an easy chore. I hope you have LEET soldering skills - you will need them
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
... then you should try to get your hands on a KIM-1, the original testbed for the 6502 CPU. A mid-1970s kit built around Chuck Peddle's baby... now that's historic!
This isn't something one could easily acquire or build, but I recently saw a demo of an 8-bit relay computer built by one of the professors at my school. It is constructed from 415 relays (electrically actuated mechanical switches) wired together, and is capable of addition, and, or, xor, not, conditional jumps, shift left and a few other misclaneous instructions I can't recall.
I got a Tandy 1000 off my brother-in-law when I was a kid after my Commodore 64 went to the dogs. Maybe not as antique as you're looking for, but I could still own any one of you at King's Quest. . . if there was a way to own someone at King's Quest that is.
Damn straight he's not that old. I don't even want to hear about "old computers" unless they have core memory or better yet, a drum.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
Core memory? Drums? If your first computer's name didn't end in "iac" I don't want to hear from you.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
I think I speak for many of us when I say that the most historically significant computers are whatever ones I happened to have access to.
Also, thundercats rule.
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Mr. Lee worked out the server methodology for serving up the web and it was the forerunner of the operating system and dev-tools of the current OSX environ. Plus you don't see many working cubes these days - at least with working Magneto-Optical drives. Another triva note - the engine for the first iteration of Doom was sussed out on NeXTstep. I have the binaries around somewhere...
Why doesn't the c64 get more kudos as a historically important system? At the time of its release it had unbeatable specs and value and was the driver of much innovation in the 80s. It is also eclipsed the competition becoming the best selling computer system and introduced more people to computing than any other.
POKE 36879,8
Perhaps to help draw interest from the non comp-sci crowd, you could set up one "recreation" of a nerd's setup from pop culture, i.e. David Lightman's setup in wargames with the IMSAI 8080 computer, modem, etc. Of course, empty cans of soda, bags of chips, and Playboy magazines scattered around the desk would be necessary for the full effect as well.
"Every time a bell rings, a Dell laptop bursts into flame."
A Tandy Color Computer running OS-9 would be of historic interest, I think.
All of those old machines had one flaw or another, something that came up even when brand new as a result of bad design -- having to lift and drop the LISA on occasion, for instance, or having to reseat the memory cards in Atari 800s every few days to keep 'em running.
Given the premise of your work, I'd want to know what you fixed on each machine that was due to age and neglect, versus what you did (or didn't) fix because it was a side-effect of a known design flaw (such as impact damage to the bottom of the LISA over time, or whatnot.)
Used to have a TI-99/4A. Pretty fun stuff.
I have a fair amount of, shall we say, junk.
The stuff that amuses folks the most?
Hand modified "rev b" boards.. Every major manufacturer had em. So thick with a spiders web of enamelled wire patching flaws you were amazed they functioned.
Drive platters. I have a few the size of small car tires. People always get wowed when I explain they hold far less data than a floppy disc.
Memory boards. I have a Hewlett Packard board that holds 128 megabytes of memory. At 18x12x2 and a couple pounds, setting it next to a DRAM chip stripped from a modern DIMM usually elicits a 'WHOA'.
.sig: Now legally binding!
People start talking about "historic" computers, and I look around and see I have most the ones they mention still plugged in and running on various tables in my home office.
It makes me feel old.
my old sig is obsolete, and I haven't come up with a stupid enough new one yet
Is that you, Charles Babbage? :-D
A good exhibit mentions Multics... and not just as the father of unix.
--TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
Also, for the love of God, don't put them behind glass. These things were meant to be hacked with.
I'd like to see a PDP-11.
RS 6000 desktop under a desk at my job at IBM. Don't know much more about it, but it was good for a "woa...um, I don't support those" comment.
My old roommate used to cart around some huge spark box from apartment to apartment...had like 8 processor boards. He never got it running, but it would boot. We almost had a computer museum in our 3rd bedroom "NOC"...thank god for all-bills paid apartments with a good net connection. I think he had some Amiga box, maybe even a commodore 64. I remember him playing Leather Goddesses of Phobos on the amiga.
Maybe we DID take the blue pill. You wouldn't remember anyway.
y'all NEED to have an acoustic coupler.
Allright bitches, you've forced me to put the smack down.
I started with a Mark 0 Abacus. No, we didn't have pr0n for it, but if you rub it on your personal bits just right you do get an acute case of "my pants are tight!!"...
I'm surprised no one's mentioned this. No 'historical computer' collection is complete without an original Macintosh. The amount of things that we take for granted in modern computers (especially in terms of interface) which were introduced to the general market with the Macintosh is astounding. It may not have been the first to do a lot of those things, but it was the first to really bring them to light. Additionally you're far more likely to be able to find an old Mac for cheap than an old Lisa or similar.
Yes I am ;-)
Or typing in your code into the keyboard of an Ollevetti Programma 101. Then there was "Gotran" for the 1620 - or the ORIGINAL Fortran IV for the IBM 1130.
Experience with a Papertape is required also to really qualify here. We ASSUME you can program an 029! If you tell me you can't program an 029 - you don't qualify!
To answer the guy's original question. Certainly an Apple II, IBM-PC Version 1 with the tape cassette, and the Altair 8080 are all good things to display. They were mainstream stuff. The TRS-80 someone mentioned would also be a definate addition to the collection.
If you can locate a SWTPC TV TTY - well - that would also be a major find.
Have you compiled your kernel today??
Find a TI Explorer or one of the MIT Lisp Machines. Those are something I'd love to see restored!
TI Explorer Brochure
what the hell is a 'junk character', anyway?
Over the last 28 years I've worked at several railroad museums (as a volunteer), and one was extremely anal about the "originality" of the rolling stock.
For example, about 40 years ago they were given a functionning 100 year old steam locomotive, but they totally neglected it because over it's century of service, it was rebuilt several times, so they deemed it to be "not original".
Likewise, I was once involved in repairing a streetcar that was carrying passengers. We were redoing the air-brake system, and whenever we wanted to replace a part (down to a goddammed frigging bolt), some jerk would complain that it made the streetcar "less authentic".
The kicker was a secondary (but vital) air pipe that was totally rotten. We were told that it had to stay as is, even though the proper functionning of brakes depended on it.
Sadly, though, when I was working on the adjoining union, my pipe wrench slipped and totally shatted the "historic" pipe in a thousand crumbs of rust, and we had to replace the pipe itself...
Dot matrix and daisywheel printers.
Paddle wheels and joysticks (good lord they were so primitive!)
Green phosphor and amber phosphor CRTs
Cassette tape
Acoustic coupler modem
Mockingboard sound card
External keyboard (with lowercase letters!) that attached via an umbilical.
CP/M Card
80-column card
Oh, and a box of 5 1/4" floppy disks, and a flippy-notcher to use the back, and a Beagle Bros poster to complete the scene.
This make me nostalgic for the CP/M card and the Videx 80-column conversion that let me run WordStar on my Apple ][+. I knew one guy that even had an 8" floppy on his CP/M-enabled Apple...
Oh, and I'd love to see a collection of Apple clones, too... I actually owned such a bootleg... I had a friend with a Franklin, and there were others that I read about over the years.
I feel like the altair / apple / C= stuff has all been done over many times....
Someone mentioned the sinclair, that might be interesting, especially if you could find one of the color ones. PDPs and the like fall in with one of my favorites, the Pr1me, as being mini-computers.
How about an Alpha-Micro? It dates to about 1982, so while not _super_ old, it's no spring chicken. The company still exisits in some form, so you might be able to get docs, schematics, etc. And that whole 'write your backups to a VHS tape' trick still raises eyebrows today.
John Soward...University of Kentucky
If I remember right there were a lot of cool GRiD laptops from around that time... I never actually saw the 80's since I was born in 1990 but I've got a GRiD 1720 – one of the last models they made after being bought out by Tandy, it's about the same age as me – truly amazing machine, still runs beautifully too. Probably a bit too new for your project but one of their older ones like the Compass would be worth looking into...?
Creative misinterpretation is your friend.
I would argue a NeXT computer should be part of any display, only because you can show it to people familar with MacOS X and then tell them that this machine has been around since *1990*.
It seems like just yesterday I was using one. I hear historic computing, I think at least pre-diskette. For this to be "historic"... Makes me feel old...
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
I'm not sure whether this can be easily retrofitted into other computer designs, but one of the coolest things on the LINC--sometimes billed as "the first personal computer"--was the adjustable speed.
The LINC had a pair of dials on it: one was a (continuous) potentiometer, like a volume control, the other was a four-position "decade" switch. The pair of dials joint produced a signal that could be used to make any of a number of front-panel functions auto-repeat at a variable rate. In particular, you could make the "single-step" function auto-repeat. The pot adjusted the repeat rate continously over about a ten-to-one range. Each switch position was a factor of ten faster than the last. The slowest speed was about two per second.
This means that you could make the LINC single-step through its programs at an rate from about 2 to 200,000 steps per second... the later being about half of its full speed.
So, you could take a program... run it at 2 steps per second and watch the lights flash... then gradually speed it up over a five decades to 200,000 steps per second. At 2 steps per second if you watched closely from time to time you'd see one dot on the screen flash momentarily. As you sped it up the, the flashes would occur more rapidly... then you could see it was forming characters... then lines of text appearing at about the speed of a dot matrix printer... then finally a whole screen of flicker-free text.
Meanwhile, the LINC's speaker, attached to bit 6 of the accumulator, would gradually change from ticks to a buzzes to beeps.
I never saw anything that gave you such a feeling for just how incredibly goddam fast a computer was. Even one running at about 0.5 megahertz clock rate.
You actually could build a LINC from scratch, I suppose, since it was discrete components and the design was public domain. But it would be equally interesting to take a "stock" computer of almost any vintage and give it a continuously variable clock, a la the LINC.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
You need to check your facts sir, you're out by several orders of magnitude. Also spelled "Colossus".
you had me at #!
Program an 029? Correct me if I'm wrong, but since an 029 is a keypunch, you must have meant 'write a program on an 029'. Either that or you're a poser. And yes, I did.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
In Some respects, this may seem a little too new for what you're trying to do, but I'm going to throw it out anyway: A 286 with Wing Commander with an original Sound Blaster. I think a lot of people here would agree that WC was a major milestone in PC Gaming. For a while, Wing Commander was the game you built your machine around.
Erm, this would appeal to *ME*, but I don't know how well it'd work for you. The pre-Wolfenstein days are pretty interesting.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
If you did your repairs and also worked up some rudimentary troubleshooting guide (or better set up a Wiki) for others I think you would be doing a bigger service to the classic computer communtity than just some me-too restorations.
If you want a challenge for a restoration I would go and get a classic system restored and running, then gather a bunch of choice apps for the system and code up some easy front end (on that system or use a virtual drive, something friendlier) to demonstrate the actual programs in an "exhibit environment" (easy reset/reload, nice menu, etc.), a computer that successfully lights READY. is one thing, but one that also presents a menu of some of the popular games or programs of the time to experience is something way better.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
There are other commendable historic computer that are worth being restored:
PET Computer
MultiVac
Radio Shack Model I
Commodore 64
ENIAC
DEC 2060 w/ TOPS20
PDP-11/70
C/30
C/70
VAX-11/780 (and 750)
H-316
H-516
DEC-1090T
ALTO
PERQ
IBM-360/67
IBM-370/145
CDC Cyber 7600
Gould 9000
Cray 2
Me? I'm partial to the PDP-11/70 where one can actually WATCH the HUGE magnetic drum spin EVER SO SLOWLY. I'm still amazed that the capacity of these drum was an impressive 32 MegaBYTES in 1979!
You know, I completely forgot the Radio Shack lines. The TRS-80 series were very popular, but let's not forget about the Color Computer series (CoCo) - which actually ran arguably the most sophisticated OS of the day - OS9. This system is still being developed for today (both new hardware and OS updates), amazingly enough. Very impressive.
The Atari 800 design seems to be quite advanced in concept, but lackluster in execution. If you look at it, it's basically a badly-done Amiga. Custom chips, etc. The insistence on cartridges, the memory limitations, etc., all helped to consign this machine to quick obsolescence. Jay Miner went on to work on the Amiga.
Hey, the model III is. like MODERN. I still have a Model I, serial number in the low 2000's. Also a Wang VS Mini.
This space available.
Be sure to include a photo gallery of "famous" then-large machines, including Crays, early IBM mainframes, Eniac, Univac, and the like. Also photos of computers that were designed but never built at the time, such as the Babbage Engine.
If they are available, include emulators for those machines. If they are not available, write one, or get a CS friend to write one for school credit.
An online gallery of emulators for "classic" machines is also a good add-on. Most "home" computers of the '80s have emulators and software repositories available.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
The x86 won the desktop war, but what about embedded systems? In this arena, there are more choices. Sure there are three major architectures: MIPS, ARM, PowerPC, but there are some lesser used systems, such as the Z80 and Motorola {6,8}800 (some), SPARC (a few). Most of these systems are nanos, and the moniker 'personal computer' may not apply to them, but computer geeks can still tinker with them. The lament, 'x86 is the only processor line left', is SO 1990's. Also, I think that most of the 'micro' computers were based on either the z80, 8080, or 6800, so you have approximately the same number of choices you had in 1977.
---- "XML is like violence. If it doesn't fix the problem, you aren't using enough."
And my challenge to you... Most of these computers had at least a serial port. I don't believe the ZX80 did, though it may have had a tape port. Find a way of building a gigantic network using these random archaic technologies. The difficulty in building something that can convert between the myriad of formats and speeds would be a nightmare. So why do it? Partly to get a better appreciation for the internals, partly because many who were familiar with the machines would tell you it's impossible, but mostly because running a gigantically networked fishtank program across an impossibly diverse set of machines never built for parallel activity would completely f with the minds of computer historians.
(This idea is not unlike the person who, for the 50th anniversary of the Manchester Mk. 1, wrote a program to turn the status registers, which were displayed, into a scrolling banner. Totally sick and inappropriate usage of such a machine - so much so it was brilliant!)
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
These were all the rage in the late '70s and early 80s:
In the mid 80s, tennis balls with strings attached were added to the Compleat Geek's toolkit. These were used when installing cheapernet cable in false ceilings.
another home-made tool of the times was a keycap popper, so you could clean the dang keyboard and get the frickin "S" key to work again.
I actually went to some trouble to find one of those a few years ago to keep my venerable IBM Model M keyboards going. Works like a charm.
Classic software, historically important like Visicalc, demos of what you could do on tiny hardware (like any Apple ][ game), or conceptually important like the late Jef Raskin's Swyftcard.
[nt]
The BBC Micro was quite popular in the UK and in India. "The BBC Lives" has extensive information about this microcomputer.
rmathew.com
Hell, I still miss mine (Viper tape drive, RSX/11, RSTS/E 10, BASIC Plus2, 512MB EDSI drive).
It would also be very good if, as a part of your exibit you had for sale a CDROM with various emulators. You might have to get permission for a for sale CD..
If you miss PDP11 with RSTS/E.. try simh.
I have one, and the memory/disk expansion unit and it's yours for $10 + postage.
A couple of catches: I'm in Australia so the postage won't be cheap, and it's not currently working. However I can supply circuit diagrams and documentation that should enable you to get it going. I still have some diskettes for it but I don't know whether they're readable.
The Magnum was released in 1983 with an 8-line display, mine is a 1985 model with a 16-line display. 6MHz 80186 CPU; DOS, wordprocessor, terminal and spreadsheet programs in ROM. I think they eventually released an 8MHz model with a 40-line display. Interestingly, the BIOS was written in C. Some big manufacturers (Toshiba and Hewlett Packard) came into the market with their 80286 models and took away market share and they (Dulmont or Time Office Computers) stopped development on the Magnum (Kookaburra) and it died.
On the back of the unit there are 2 serial ports, 1 parallel port, RCA for external mono monitor and a bus for the external memory and disk expansion unit. Battery was 5 D cells, originally NiCd (now dead), but NiMH should be fine.
If you're interested, reply to this and let me know how I can get in touch with you, perhaps by editing your slashdot profile to show an email address.
Regards, RGC.
Sadly not rare. Some admins live in fear of them, since they are impossible to keep secure on the open internet due to an outdated patch management system - that and in many labs 'we don't support AIX' implies that they don't *get to* - ie: some RA has root rather than the admins. :)
They might be running some bizarre research service for some knob Phd who's been in Greece for the last two years, but will be dammed if he's gonna give up one of his expensive 'grant perimeter' machines.
Politics keep them in place - the office might be re-used several times over by different researchers, but those boxen stay put. Ultimately staff turnover exceeds peoples ability to track them and they end up getting accidentally plastered into walls.
Me? I just steal their keyboards whenever I find one. Reliable, clicky, tough and heavy enough to stun a moose.
Get everything you can find that remotely resembles a classic computer. You can sort it out later. If space is a problem, split the collection across the basements/closets of several people in your group. I got a lot of stuff (mostly broken) that is sitting in storage, waiting for my retirement so that I may fix them in about 25 years.
Whatever you do, think about it as saving the stuff from going to a landfill overseas, which is where this stuff is heading. You'd be surprised as to who may want to buy some of your leftover "junk". You may not get much for it, but the proceeds can be useful to buy displays and shelves for your collection. You may also make some 'ol "geezer" (my next evolution in this life) happy to have found something for sale for their collection. Something they grew up with, but forgot about.
You might want to contact MARCH, The Mid-Atlantic Retro Computer Hobbyist group. They've only been around for a very short time, but they're gathering a lot of informative members. They are running an exhibit this weekend (May 13) in Wall, NJ. Their website is still just basic info, but they have a discussion forum on Yahoo as linked on their main page.
Be sure to have the classic black and silver with real keys not those chiclet, flat keys. It should also have the 13" RGB monitor, the expansion box with a floppy drive, the speech synthesizer, the twin joysticks, the tape data drive and the accoustic coupler modem.
I'd also suggest having the original IBM PC. Should have a green monochrome monitor, two floppy drives, no hard drive and a wide carriage, 9 pin dot matrix printer.
How about an Atari 800?
I'm still waiting for these to become valuable antiques since I have one of each in my attic. I just wish I had all the TI accessories I listed here. Think I'll go play Tunnels of Doom. :-)
Please do more than just have the machines sitting there, or just let people play games on them. The importance of these machines is obvious to you, because you know them and the communities that sprouted around them. But to an outsider, they're just computers, and outdated ones at that. You can post their specs to show how quaint they are by today's standards, but that doesn't give a sense of what they meant to the people of the time, or what they mean today.
Check sites like The Commodore Billboard for ads showing how these computers were sold to people. You might also want to look for Computer Chronicles episodes or training videos on archive.org or Google Video.
And when you're done, be sure to let the Commodore community know about it. We'd love to see it if we're local, or even just look at pics over the net. Best of luck, it sounds like a fun project!
Wow. Back in the day, I knew ONE person with an Exidy Sorcerer. No one else had even heard of the damn thing back then, and they're certainly not the first name that comes to mind these days either! :)
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Nice observation.
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO
But that's how you loaded your cards. I don't know what other reference he's after.
Other than that, some of us have actually laid hands and been paid while working on binary front panels, core, paper tape, cards, disk packs, 9-track tape, 300 baud modems!
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO
A Pascal MicroEngine running the UCSD p-System is definitely a historical curiosity.
Multics running on an Apple ][, now that would be something to brag about!
I learned to program in BASIC on a North Star Horizon. It was a Z-80 box. The hi-lite was North Star Basic, which the machine booted into directly. Possibly the first built-in support for 5 1/4" floppy disks, at a time when Apple was limited to audio cassette tape.
IMSAI had some nice looking equipment, with lots of toggle switches. Always wanted one of those, because it LOOKED like a computer. But that beautiful hardwood case on the Horizon, nothing like it today unless you build it yourself.
Gary Dunn
Open Slate Project