Vintage computers

[ricky5050]

Hello there !

I'm having a clear out , does anyone here collect vintage computers? I have an amstrad pc with monitor from the late 80s or 90s , it has large floppy drive with mouse and books etc, seems a shame to bin it

I can post more info if anyone interested

Thanks Richard

 

[whirlcool]

I remember those things, wasn't it more like the mid 80's when they were popular?
I remember some models had the power supply in the monitor, so the PC had to plug into the monitor in order for the computer to work. And if I remember they were only about 95% IBM compatible.

 

[sudsmaster]

If it's got a mouse...

It ain't that vintage

 

[kb0nes]

Is this vintage?

No Mouse, no GUI.

Heathkit H89, I built it in 1882

Dual Zilog Z-80's 2Mhz clock, 64Kb (yes K) memory and a 100Kb single sided single density 5-1/4" floppy.

It sucks since I spent about 100 hours soldering it together, darned tough to hand it to a scrapper!

Runs fine, but my Honeywell programmable thermostat has more processor power!

 

[hotpointfan]

Hello

Any Mac stuff? Please let me know if you have any, my email is in my profile

 

[firedome]

yeah...

that Heathkit would be vintage... like the Heathkit tube amp I built in 1964, it's desirable to some folks.

 

[kb0nes]

Heath Tube Amp

Firedome, which Heath amp did you build?

I have a pair of W4AM's. I also have a slew of Dyanco stuff, mostly vacuum state but some solid state too.

The vintage stuff is cool, much like the joy one gets driving an antique car on a Sunday. Mostly happy not to use the old stuff as a "daily driver" though. Quality modern gear is simply better and with less hassles. I will admit the heat generated by a big tube amp is welcome in a Minnesota winter!

 

[danemodsandy]

Phil:

"Heathkit H89, I built it in 1882"

My, my - you were ahead of your time, weren't you? ;-)

* ducks and runs *

 

[kb0nes]

Well I have this Delorean

and one night I hit 88 Mph in a thunderstorm...

Sorry, damn late night typo! Why do they have to put the "8" & "9" keys right next to one another

 

[cfz2882]

vintage conputers

i have a few vintage PCs:
-1981 TRS-80
-1982 IBM pc(5150?)
-1984 kaypro
-1994 gateway
many more from around that era i got in incomplete or damaged condition i have junked for parts.
For "big"systems got these and mostly junked for (awesome)parts and materials:
-1981 DEC computer system from local bank-grabbed this in '93 and still using parts from it,had two huge hard drives and big printer.
-1975 burrouhs mainframe,was taken out of service in '95-had a long run!
-1983 DEC dual 8"floppy drive-about the size of a home trash compactor,i still have this intact so far
-1977 DEC big printer-parts have been taken and used,but still partly intact so far.

 

[whirlcool]

I have an Apple Airport box that someone gave us. It's not the current version, but one back from current. It's the one that has a hard disk in it so you can Time Machine with it.
Anyone interested let me know. It works too.

 

[kb0nes]

cfz2882

That's quite a list there! Although I couldn't help but notice you are lacking a nice working Heath H89 with two additional outboard 5-1/4" drives! How I wish I could find a home for them.

I also have an old 1995 Dell (old not vintage) Pentium 1 90Mhz that is close to the door to go to Best Buy for recycling. I still have the original divide-by-zero error processor that Intel replaced at part of their recall. It was a solid $3500 machine that ran 24/7 for better then 12 years. Other then a few fan failures it is all original! Are there any PC's sold today that will do that??

 

[cfz2882]

a heath H89 would fit into the vintage lineup nicely-i have some heathkit audio and radio related gear,including a 14w mono tube amp someone built in '69.Just got a heathkit VTVM for $5,took the cover off to try and date it(was from '72)and found a long-dead"c"battery badly corroded into it's holder.Like the 14w amp,the VTVM had mullard tubes in it.Besides semiconductors,capacitors, switches,etc.that i have salvaged and repurposed from "big"70s/80s era computers and medical electronics,lots of really nice motors and fans including a lot of those 3-blade rotron fans with the distinctive sound you used to hear at video game arcades,offices,and stores(IBM registers)in the early 1980s

 

[imperial70]

speaking of vintage computers

Anyone hear of an Infotecs IMP or CC2 system based on the Intersil 6100 chip?

The 6100 was a "PDP-8 on a chip." 

 

I used to repair those machines back in the early 80's....

 

 

[Iowegian]

Umm...

What do you want to buy and how much do you want to pay?

HP 2000? HP 3000? DEC VAX/11-780? How much is a used VAX worth without the text editor and Fortran 77 complier?

"Symbolic stack dump follows..."

Any chance you have used Gandolf boxes available?

 

[cadman]

Let's see some pics of that Burroughs!

 

[cfz2882]

'75 burroughs

i stripped the burroughs for parts shortly after getting it back in 1995-had card after card with metal transistors and white ceramic IC chips with little metal covers over where the "chip"was on the ceramic package.the computer frame was kind of a blue-gray color.the "dumb terminals"hooked to the main unit were a little more grayish in color than the main unit.I still have parts of the burroughs-some repurposed to other uses-including one of the "imc boxer"fans i got from it,almost noiseless low speed type.If i was to get this computer today,i would surely keep it intact!amazing that it was in service at the driver's license center for 20 yrs!!

 

[cfz2882]

'70s computers

thinking back to the burroughs reminded me of another '70s computer "dumb terminal"i had for a while:1977 aspen systems; was a monochrome green screen of about 13" with door beside the screen to access 4-5 big slide-in circuit cards and multi-colored keyboard.this was stripped for parts after i had it a few years-still have the light blue steel housing and i figured out the power supply wiring and used it.

 

[whirlcool]

Speaking of dumb terminals, here is an early Incoterm airline reservations terminal.
These were very widely used in the 70's & early 80's. This one was used by United Airlines Apollo reservations system.

 

[davey7]

I was in college on the tail end of the "dumb" terminal (called the vax machine at my college) - they were so indestructible which was great in a dorm.

My office Manager worked at Eastern, I should ask her about their res system (she was at the res desk).

 

[whirlcool]

There is usually an interesting story behind airline reservation systems. Some airlines share them with others (like Sabre) and other airlines have their own.
When I was at North Central they wrote their own inhouse, it was called "ESCORT".
They took 13 station employees and sent them to upstate New York for a year to be trained by IBM. At the end of the year they all were familiar with using BAL to program the system with. Within 2 years ESCORT was up and running. It was the most advanced res system in the business for years.

After United & American were finished with their Incoterm terminals they went to Univac terminals which were much better. North Central ESCORT used them as well. Here is a good photo of one of them. What I thought was strange with these terminals is that the cursor on the Incoterms were a flashing ">". On the Univac systems it was a flashing "¬". I've never seen that on any other terminal.

But the ESCORT system had it all, I could look up flight loading info, destination airport information about Runway Length, weather conditions, etc. It truly "did it all".

 

[whirlcool]

And going back to the early 60's before CRT terminals they had IBM 2741 terminals that used printed I/O with the reservations system.
Here is a photo of a typical 1960 reservation office.

 

[cfz2882]

early computer setups in movies

a couple cool early computer setups i have seen in movies include the computer room in the '64 movie Dr Strangelove with all the big tape drives and their reels jerking and turning back and forth.Another is the computer room briefly seen in the"mad bomber"(1973)

 

[48bencix]

Model 100

I had a Radio Shack model 100 considered to be the first laptop. Software was written largely by Bill Gates. It had Basic, word processing, built in modem. I could log on to Compu-Serve back in 1983. I used it through the 1990's by connecting it to a Sears typewriter with a printer port! Also had a cassette tape drive (external).

I liked it because before I bought it I tried it and was able to use it immediately without looking in a manual.

A few years ago I donated it to a collector.

http://oldcomputers.net/trs100.html

 

[mathewhebailey0]

Found this on Infiltration,fouth pic down.

http://www.uer.ca/forum_showthread.asp?fid=3&threadid=105671

 

[whirlaway]

Great Pictures

Thats something else isnt it,my favorite computer movie is Desk Set,with Tracy and Hepburn made in 1957.

 

[whirlcool]

Speaking of Compu-Serve there also was a Reader's Digest affilliated online system called "The Source". A friend of ours who had an original Apple computer used it.
Lots of fun for the time. I guess it was an internet precursor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Source_(online_service)

 

[aladude]

Whirlcool how much for the apple airport?

 

[whirlcool]

Apple Airport

I sent you a private e-mail to your e-mail address listed.

 

[aladude]

Ah thanks for the quick reply but that email doesn't work anymore... I updated my profile so if you don't mind using that address instead, that'd be great. Sorry about the inconvenience.