When Geeks Go Collecting

[bjarvis]

I like collecting old personal computers. Yes, they're obsolete and slow as hell by comparison to current hardware, but they have a certain charm for me. Perhaps its because these were all built in the days before the kernels were multiple megabytes in size and were therefore comprehensible by mere mortals instead of exclusively by large corporate software development laboratories.

In any case, the father-in-law gave me two of his older machines yesterday. They had been sitting unloved in his office for years and he's finally clearing out the stuff he doesn't use or need any longer. Thus, I have inherited:

	Apple Macintosh SE/30 Motorola 68030 16 MHz CPU, 2 MB RAM, 40 MB hard drive, 1 floppy disk drive, MacOS 6.1.7, manufactured in 1988.
	Apple Macintosh Performa 6200CD 75 MHz PowerPC 603 CPU, 16 MB RAM, 1 GB IDE hard drive, MacOS 7.5.1, 1 floppy disk, 1 CD-ROM drive, manufactured 1995.

Some of my other happy children include the following machines. I still have a working original model Commodore 64 and Vic20 back in Canada with my parents, along with the Gemini 10x printer I bought with them back in 1984. I hope to bring those home to join my other machines some time soon.

	Commodore 64, circa 1985 64 KB RAM, Commodore BASIC, slow-as-hell external floppy drive (5.25", 170 KB single sided), 1 MHz 6510 CPU
	Commodore SX-64 portable, circa 1983 64 KB RAM, Commodore BASIC, built-in floppy drive (5.25", 170 KB single sided), 1 MHz 6510 CPU
	Apple Macintosh Classic, circa 1990 2 MB RAM, 10 GB hard drive, 16 MHZ Motorola 68000 CPU, System 6.0 MacOS
	Toshiba T1200XE, circa 1987 1 MB RAM, 20 MB hard drive, 12 MHZ Intel 80286 CPU, LCD screen, MS-DOS 5.0
	Radio Shack TRS 80 Model 100, circa 1983 32 KB RAM, 1 MHz 8085 CPU, LCD screen (8 lines by 40 chars, not backlit), 300 baud internal modem, built-in word processor, BASIC and telecom application.

All are in working condition, BTW.

I'd love to collect more and larger machines but our storage space is limited and kent4str was already bitching loud and long about the two I picked up last night. sigh

Comments

[stormecho.livejournal.com]

Do they have to still be working? We have some that probably have problems (slow, or other things wrong), but haven't yet parted with them. Let me know if you would want more.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Might be interested.... whatcha got?

[stormecho.livejournal.com]

Uh, you think I know this stuff offhand? Some of the pieces I think are boxed up either in the attic or garage. The Quantex on my desk hasn't been turned on in awhile. I'll have to go in and delete incriminating stuff first.

Tell you what - before they get trashed, and when I do the 'clean sweep', I'll get the specs to you for a decision. (Might not be till the summer, when I'm unemployed and have some time - when I'm not lying naked on a beach, that is.)

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

I would love to find an old Texas Instruments computer the 99-4A with the external drives and or cartridges. We just had the keyboard/processor unit and connected it to a 12" b/w TV from Sears and learned a smidgen of Basic and that was it since we had non of the storage drives for it. It was on closeout at the time, early 80's time frame.

Seeing these old dinosaurs is fun. Looking back at where we were with the PC technology as compared to what we have today is mind boggling.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

I see TI 99/4A machines on eBay regularly. I'd love to get my hands on a Commodore PET but the asking price on eBay is usually far outside of my range ($800+).

Many years ago, I had an Amiga 500 and a Commodore 128 but I sold them to pay down my credit cards back in the early 1990s. sigh

A Timex-Sinclair model or two would be nice additions too. :-)

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

Ah the Amigas, worked with them at Seattle Central Community College back in 1993-1995 time period when in a video program and one of them was the Toaster version that did titles and such for second year students, that is until the video card went bad and parts for them were hard to get.

Fun times. :-)

[urbear]

Gawd. I spent uncounted hours with all the machines described above and many more. Exidy Sorcerer, anyone? Cromemco? Fortune 32:16? You and I should talk about history sometime.

And I still think that the Model 100 is the best note-taking device ever built. I'd love to see a $50 modern equivalent.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Note taking is why I bought the Model 100 in the first place, back in 1987; even spent $100 extra to have the memory upgraded to an exciting 32KB. :-)

In 2003, when Hurricane Isabel tore through the DC area, I was finishing a degree online via the University of Maryland. Our power was out for five days but I still had papers due. Rather than drain the batteries of my office laptop, I got the Model 100 out of storage, popped in four AA batteries and prepared my papers on it. Alas, the screen wasn't backlit so I had to bring a number of candles in real close to let me read what I was preparing. Later, I used the serial cable to pipe the raw text to my office laptop for formatting in MS Word and emailing to the professor. Definitely one of my goofier computer experiences.

[excessor.livejournal.com]

My dad used to be an executive at MOS Technology, Inc.

After he left, he still had a lot of friends there and he got me a summer internship there, although by then it had become the Commodore Semiconductor Group. I worked in the design division and tested prototype wafers. In the lab, I used a Commodore computer (I don't remember the model) that had a cassette player interface onto which I loaded the first BASIC program I ever wrote.

Ah, good times.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Oh, the Commodore with the built-in cassette player would have been the PET 2001 model. I remember first playing on the PET 4032 models in high school, then the 8032. Never got to play with the "B" series though.

Ah, fond memories. :-)

[abqdan.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to get a working Commodore PET for several years now. They go fast on eBay, and for more than I want to pay. I'd really like the one with the Chicklet keyboard, but they are rarely available.

The SE30 is a classic. I started out writing course materials for Tandem Computers on one of those back in the 80s. I can't believe I did manual and slide design on that tiny screen! Maybe that's what caused my bad eyesight after all!

I do have a lovely portable Amstrad, with non-backlit LCD display; and my original Mac Powerbook, with a 20MB hard drive. :-)