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Vintage Computers Any vintage computer systems, calculators, video games etc., but with an emphasis on 1980s and earlier equipment.

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Old 1st Feb 2016, 2:11 pm   #41
Jeremy M0RVB
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

The strangest thing I had was a Litton 1231 (http://m.eet.com/media/1172372/1012_...rce_litton.jpg) and associated tape readers which filled my basement workshop. I'm guessing this was late '70's, can't remember now. It came with a programmers manual but no way to actually program it. Litton would not send me any info because it was apparently still in production, but quietly told me that by removing the console rear cover it releases a microswitch and one can then program it!
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Old 1st Feb 2016, 4:43 pm   #42
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

I had a very brief dalliance with a thing called a "BASIS 108" - a German Apple ][ clone. The project that intended using it was doing so because the genuine Apple was at the time on an export-restriction and the finished systen was going to be delivered to Cuba as part of some UN project or other.

I fortunately ducked out of the project on realising it could be a future-career-limiting move.

My other favourite was the "Elektor Junior Computer" I built in 1981 - which I got working as a RTTY terminal/protocol-converter/speed-changer with 5-bit ITA2 on one side and 7-bit-plus-parity ASCII on the other. It talked to a Newbury 7002 terminal over 20mA current-loop (once I'd wired up the 9-pin "D" connectors the right way round...)
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Old 1st Feb 2016, 6:50 pm   #43
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

I used to have a Compaq Portable 386 - a beautifully-built pre-laptop machine with a mono plasma display. The whole thing folded up into a package about the size and weight of a sewing machine, so was indeed portable, but was mains powered, so unusable on the move.
Checking the details today to refresh my memory, I was astonished to see that they sold new for $12 -14000! Needless to say, mine was second-hand.
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Old 2nd Feb 2016, 11:37 pm   #44
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

I have a 286 mono laptop running windows 3 or 3.11 not sure, still works just fine albeit with a home made power supply i cobbled together a few years ago .
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Old 3rd Feb 2016, 1:45 am   #45
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

Not particularly strange, I used to have an IBM PS1. It was a 286 running DOS4 using non-standard hard and floppy drives. The power supply was in the monitor.
I also once had an Osborne1 running CP/M.
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Old 3rd Feb 2016, 9:28 am   #46
Dave Moll
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

"Strange" is a rather subjective concept, but probably the strangest (and certainly the heaviest) member of my computer collection is a Cromemco System-3 (see the second image here), which has 8" disc drives and has an O/S called CDOS - apparently similar to CP/M.

As I also have various floppy disc sets for this, I hope one day to get it up and running, but I am somewhat hampered in that I'm no longer strong enough to lift it!

I acquired this in memory of one we used to have at work back in the 1970s.
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Old 3rd Feb 2016, 1:33 pm   #47
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

At a company I worked for in the 1980's, I used a computer called a TEF 10 - an early FFT analyser designed for acoustic measurements.

This had two 5-1/4" floppy drives, one for software and the other for data (no hard drive). Booting it up involved loading CP/M from a master disk, then loading the application software. Processing was, I think, by a couple of Z80's and it had 96k of RAM. The built-in display was a 7" (diagonal) green screen.
It ran off mains and an internal gel-cell and was considered "portable" although the weight meant nobody was at all keen on lugging it about.

It could also be used as a general purpose CP/M computer. I remember it came with a chess playing program, which, since I'm useless at the game, always beat me.

Importing it from the USA involved a special export licence as it was considered military-grade technology. We certainly wouldn't have been able to take it to Cuba, nor anywhere East of the Iron Curtain.
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Old 3rd Feb 2016, 5:25 pm   #48
Mike Phelan
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

Quote:
Originally Posted by dseymo1 View Post
I used to have a Compaq Portable 386 - a beautifully-built pre-laptop machine with a mono plasma display.
I had one of these at work as I used to travel to different offices in the UK.

Before that I had a Compaq 286 portable* whose orange screen was attached to the front of the unit and the keyboard was separate, if I remember. Ran DOS - cannot remember which version, and used 5.25 floppies as well as its hard disk.

*Purely because it had a handle!
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Old 3rd Feb 2016, 5:58 pm   #49
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AKA "Luggable"
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Old 4th Feb 2016, 3:21 pm   #50
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

I haven't owned anything especially strange but I have used some computers that I consider to be rather strange.

In the early 80s a friend's dad worked at ICL and they had an ICL PC at home. It ran CP/M which was all fine, but had a hard drive without auto parking heads. One had to be very careful when powering down the machine to wait a full minute for the drives to cease spinning before daring to restart or move the HDD unit otherwise the very expensive HDD would be damaged. I think it was all of 5Mb and was the size of a full size desktop PC in itself.

Another friend's dad somehow had several computers in the loft in the early 80s and I got to use the Osborne 1 luggable machine. My recollection is that it was very heavy, took an age to boot and made lots of disk drive click noises...and then couldn't do much! Seemed a great idea but I was told the computer was not used much as it didn't have enough RAM to run most of the CP/M programs the owner had. In the same attic was at least one other CP/M machine which had a word processor, database and several text based games.

The Mattell Aquarius was probably the most disastrous attempt at a big company trying to ride the 8-bit wave. It came out too late, had a very low spec compared to even the Spectrum and could never complete with the Commodore or Amstrad machines. At the time, things were moving very fast in the home computer world and the Aquarius was at last 18 months to two years out of date. If I remember correctly it had just 4K of RAM at a time when everything else had 16K or 32K as a minimum. The graphics were ZX81 style but with a few colours. It was very user unfriendly and required expansion packs to do anything meaningful - whereas at least the Spectrum was very user friendly and actually quite versatile. It wasn't even cheap. The most awkward machine I've never used...it belonged to my cousin who's parents were convinced by a shop that it was the next thing and "far better than a Sinclair or Commodore"....he eventually persuaded them to take it back and exchange it for a C64. Strange due to the fact that it seemed to be an utterly pointless exercise in manufacturing the machine.
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Old 4th Feb 2016, 8:19 pm   #51
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

I have a Mattel Aquarius myself. but i quite like it,
Ive got quite a bit of software and add on hardware for it .its not too bad in all honesty.
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Old 4th Feb 2016, 8:33 pm   #52
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

Self-parking HDD heads are relatively recent.
There used to be DOS programs which returned the heads on command, speeding-up the shutdown routine somewhat.
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Old 4th Feb 2016, 9:49 pm   #53
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

My first computer was an Oric Atmos. I was very impressed at the time. I do currently have a Vic 20 which I bought very cheaply from the Coop as they wanted rid. I haven't used it recently but it is useful as there is ready access to the 6522 VIA. As such it is quicker to program than my Hex keypad home made (college project) system (6802 plus 6522 VIA).
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Old 5th Feb 2016, 12:33 am   #54
Dave Moll
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

Quote:
Originally Posted by dseymo1 View Post
Self-parking HDD heads are relatively recent.
There used to be DOS programs which returned the heads on command, speeding-up the shutdown routine somewhat.
I have these installed on my XTs and ATs - and could make them available if anyone else wants them - after all, they are single DOS programs (unlike today's applications that require modules and settings plugged into the operating system all over the place!)
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Old 5th Feb 2016, 11:50 am   #55
Gulliver
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dseymo1 View Post
Self-parking HDD heads are relatively recent.
There used to be DOS programs which returned the heads on command, speeding-up the shutdown routine somewhat.

I do remember having these programs installed on my fist PC, though I never needed to use them. At the time (early 90s) there was still talk of ensuring you knew if your HDD had auto parking heads or not.
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Old 5th Feb 2016, 2:05 pm   #56
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One had to be very careful when powering down the machine to wait a full minute for the drives to cease spinning before daring to restart or move the HDD unit otherwise the very expensive HDD would be damaged. I think it was all of 5Mb and was the size of a full size desktop PC in itself.
I had one of those, yes a 5Mb 8-inch form hard disk. It made a noise like a jet engine starting up and the lights in my rural house dimmed until it reached operating speed...
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Old 5th Feb 2016, 7:18 pm   #57
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

Quote:
Originally Posted by dseymo1 View Post
Checking the details today to refresh my memory, I was astonished to see that they sold new for $12 -14000! Needless to say, mine was second-hand.
I picked up a working one for £2 at a vintage radio rally, and several years later, it still works like a charm.

One of my favourite machines.
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Old 5th Feb 2016, 7:39 pm   #58
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

Does this count?

EAL TR48, discrete transistor 10V analogue computer with 48 op-amps, c. 1962
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Old 6th Feb 2016, 1:08 am   #59
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

At today's new prices, there's over £600 worth of turns counting knobs there, just for starters.

Are the opamps discrete?... Just answered my own question here, they must be. uA702 was 1963 apparently.

Germanium or silicon?
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Old 6th Feb 2016, 12:22 pm   #60
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Default Re: Strangest computer you have had?

A futuristic looking Intertec Superbrain computer with, if I remember correctly, twin Zilog Z80 processors. CP/M operating system and had twin 5.25" floppy drives. It was mainly used for running test programs written in Basic. Communication to the test harness was via RS232 interface.

While on CP/M computers, also has a Philips "portable" with similar screen and floppy drive configuration to the Superbrain except it had GPIB interface together with Philips GPIB Basic. This was aimed at industrial test and measurement systems.

Unfortunately none them survived as they were soon replaced with higher spec MS-DOS computers.

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