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.)