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Anyone here collects old computers?

No, they were the latest and greatest double density soft sectored drives. The original floppy drives were single sided, single density and were either 100K or 200K if my memory (Ha! I made a pun) serves me correctly - but it may not.

I remember the first hard drive that RS sold. It was an 18" X 18" X 7" brick that had to be placed on a very heavy and sturdy surface like a solid oak workbench all by itself. It sold for $2,995 and was for use with the Model II, 12 and 16 systems. The platter was made in India and it took about 4 months to get one when they were first released. It was initially supposed to be 2 Meg but when we received the first one it was a whopping 5 Meg. We thought that no one would ever be able to fill that thing.
 
We have an original IBM luggable downstairs that needs a new mfm hard drive. My sone was cleaning out his closet and cam across a box of 5.25" IBM apps including the DOS system and the complete systems manual plus other apps such as Writing Assistant and Filing Assistant plus some others. I'm not sure if they came with the luggable or not.

Also, in the pile was WordPerfect 6.0a, Windows 3.1 and the upgrade graphical discs and a number of other programs including GEM City, the original GUI interface before MS Windows.
 
Let's see... I have a ZX Spectrum, an old XT PC, and about fourty Macs ranging from a 512k to a couple of G4s. And two of the original Mac Portable(...). And I was one of the fifty or so people who bought a Newton.
 
Ultra-Hog said:
No, they were the latest and greatest double density soft sectored drives. The original floppy drives were single sided, single density and were either 100K or 200K if my memory (Ha! I made a pun) serves me correctly - but it may not.
Click to expand...

It depends what PC, for IBM PC 5¼" SS SD = 160K. :sigh:
 
I got me today the promised computers + 1 black and wthie monitor + 2 x 486 mother boards (no chip installed). The 286 computer (the one that is working) is an "Olivetti" M290S with an awsome looking "Olivetti" keyboard. The computer haves installed Windows 3.1 (an version made especeally for Eastern Europe).
The monitor is an "Taxana" KX-445 12" (30 cm) Made in Korea; on the monitor is also written "Kaga Electronics Co. Ltd. (Tokyo Japan)".

Many people in Romania are collecting some Spectrum ZX clones, called H.C.
H.C.-85: http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=629
H.C.-91: http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=632
H.C.-2000 (this model is rare): http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=911

I'm dreaming of something like this: http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=1020
When I was in high-school at the pshilogy cabinet there was an "I.C.E." Felix P.C. (not the one from link, it was a newer model since it had Windows 95) ... man, I sayed back then what is with that old thing - it moved really slow and throu all it was't me the person that I used I really hate it; now I want one.
 
That felix is nice ! I wonder who's processor they actually used. You are off to a good start !!
 

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Partially off-topic:
1) How do you command the shut down of the computer. In MS-DOS I have somtehing like that C:/> What I writte next?
2) I play an old game called "Major Stryker". When I want to quyt the game I am asked "Quyt game 9277?". What I have to press in order to quyt the game?
 
there is no shutdown. hit the power switch. I think I used to "PARK" the drive with a batch file, but don't recall what era for sure.

Usually you hit Y for yes, and N for no.
 
I'm sure we can get you some more DOS games, when you tire of Stryker. There were those text games like Adventure and the Infocom games. I have kept around on all my DOS machines a Sea Battle game called Frigate.
 
I have a Dell laptop from 98 that came with Windows 98 is the oldest one I have.

Still holds a charge for about 20 minutes.... I like it because it has a nice sized screen.
 
I forgot about the hard - sectored disks. I upgraded my Poly to a disk and it used hard sectored 5 1/4", 150K, single sided. I remember buying some IBM drives and needing to tweek the photosensor so it could detect the sector holes properly (IBM used soft sectored stuff so they didn't bother setting their drives up for hard sector - why should they?) I eventually upgraded to a hard disk - I think it's 2 Meg. Now, I run an emulator for the system on the PC and still sometimes play with it. It's more convenient than setting up the original stuff.

I can still do a reasonable job hacking software for the 8080/Z80 and assembling or writing machine language. To me - that was the fun of the early stuff, trying to fit applications into limited memory and hacking in hardware and software mods. It's not as fun with today's stuff. You can program sloppy and still get a reasonable result. (Although I have hacked the Toyota Prius a little and that's been fun).

DH

mhardy6647 said:
Were those hard sector drives?

The H-89's original drives were hard sectored (there were 10 - or was it 11? - holes punched in the circumference of the disk adjacent to the spindle hub which were "read" by an optocoupler to index the sectors. Ahh, those were the days...
Click to expand...
 
Just turn it off or pull the plug.

At the C:/> prompt type in dir/p and you can see what's on your drive. Type any key to scroll.

To end the game, likely just type a y

DH

Telecolor 3007 said:
Partially off-topic:
1) How do you command the shut down of the computer. In MS-DOS I have somtehing like that C:/> What I writte next?
2) I play an old game called "Major Stryker". When I want to quyt the game I am asked "Quyt game 9277?". What I have to press in order to quyt the game?
Click to expand...
 
Not sure, but around that time you usually had a choice of monitor between green and amber. I very much doubt that a color monitor would be supported :scratch2:
 
I've got a KIM-1, it was the MOS Technology's demo board for the 6502 processor and so it was the first computer to use that chip. Mine has the Commodore name on it, which means it was made after Commodore bought MOS Technology, so mine isn't an earlier one (which I would think would be worth more).

It's in a box somewhere along with a KIMSI S-100 mothebboard and an S-100 8K RAM board.
garww said:
there is no shutdown. hit the power switch. I think I used to "PARK" the drive with a batch file, but don't recall what era for sure.

Usually you hit Y for yes, and N for no.
Click to expand...
If you were rich and lucky enough to have a hard drive, it would be good to run a command to park the head, but normally at the MSDOS prompt you would open any drives with floppies in them, then turn the power off. My first hard drive was for an XT clone, 20MB, bought used for $300.
Telecolor 3007 said:
There is any adaptore that will allow me to use a new monitor on a 286 computer?
Click to expand...
I doubt it, though I forget when VGA (with the 15-pin D video connector) came out. You may need a CGA monitor, maybe you could find one that hasn't made it to the landfill yet.
fmueller said:
Not sure, but around that time you usually had a choice of monitor between green and amber. I very much doubt that a color monitor would be supported :scratch2:
Click to expand...
For the original IBM PC there were both monochrome (ISTR text-only) and VGA (color, quite low resolution by today's standards) monitors and "adapters" (expansion cards). But yeah, color both cost more and was more painful on the eyes, so monocrhome was quite common. VGA (with the 15-pin D connector) changed that by giving half-decent resolution for a color screen.

While we're here, "Goodwill of North Georgia" meaning the Atlanta area stopped putting out computers and computer-related stuff a few months ago. I think I've gotten enough Logitech Mousman mice and Model M keyboards to last several more years if not the rest of my life, but it was disappointing to see it all just disappear. It was obvious they REMOVED it one day, as the shelves were only half-full of stereos and TV's and half-empty where the computer junk used to be. I wonder what they do with it now?
 
I still have a TRS-80 Coco II on the bench in my computer room and an 8088 Tandy 1000 4mhz, 256kb ram 20meg hardcard that has an 8 bit 3-Com 10 base-T Ethernet card, coupled with and RGB monitor, running DOS 3 and a Watt TCP-IP stack. It is networked to a W95 box to use the CD Drive. I have a very primitive web browser installed and can surf the net through my Comcast cable broadband connection. It's not practical but it was an interesting exercise to get it configured and running. I also have a DOS 6 box, W98 box, W2K and an XP box for various legacy gaming environments. Thanks to a KVM it’s all ported through a single monitor and key board. Though there is a lot of wire and boxes under the table.
 
Somebody talled me that is no adapter. He also talled me that if I will try to plug in a modern C.R.T. monitor I'll blow it up :sigh: , but it'll be no problem to put a modern L.C.D. monitor.
The computer is 286 and the "Olivetti" M290S was realesed into the '80's, but the one I own is manufactured around 1990-1992, so I think it haves a V.G.A. output (I have an black and white V.G.A. monitor with a 480 x 640 rezolution). Shees, about 3 yrs. ago, there where some guys collecting computers for poor kids (now they aren't doing it any more, because they argued); there they had an old "I.B.M." color monitor from the '80's... I should had grab it. The monitor was something like in this image: http://www.1000bit.it/scheda.asp?id=2142
 
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