Who collects vintage computers?
 

I'm sitting here this evening enjoying some sparkling wine and browsing Videokarma with a vintage 2001 iMac and am happy to report that the site works perfectly well with this old hardware. I know there are a handful of Videokarma members who are into vintage Macintosh computers, but is anyone into collecting/restoring/using any other vintage platforms? My collection consists mostly of Apple II and Macintosh. However, I'm interested in knowing who out there is into collecting other platforms such as Atari, Apple II, CP/M, Commodore, IBM PC/jr, TRS-80, TI 99/4a, and so forth.

I've seen a TRS 80 at a good will once, and I know someone who has one. But I hate old computers. My folks always had the crummyest ancient junkers growing up, and just looking at the pre GUI interface bored me to tears, and killed all interest in any digital equipment for many many years(for a five year old who could barely read and hated doing so, a pre GUI device will kill any interest in computers).

Just my 0.02$
Tom C.

I have a few......
Bell & Howell (rebadged Apple II)
Commodore 64
Amiga 2000
Amiga 4000
Mac Intosh (1st model from early 80's)
TI99
several oddball custom-built machines
early 80's IBM (don't remember which model)
and the machine on my desk which sees regular use is a Gateway 2000 from '98 which is running Windows 98 SE.
They all work fine and I still play games on them occaisionally.

I keep all my computers:
TI99/4 and TI99/4A with TI expansion box for game development
Commodore 64 with original Sequencial Circuits MIDI cartridge for Synthesyzers
IBM AT 6 Mhz which I bought in 1984 as IBM employee

I have several special video cards for doing Chroma key (Blue background) etc which I bought new in late 1980s and cost 2-3 times the price of the computer.

I have core memory from a couple of 1960s computers
I have maintenance console from IBM 360 mainframe

I found a 1984 "Bondwell" portable, model 14 a while back.
Orange CRT, two 5.5" drives.
It powers on but the obscure operating system is loaded from a floppy disc that I don't have and don't know how to get.

Looks like this one.
http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/stuurmn/bw1214.htm

I have a Compaq DeskPro from about 1985 I would love to sell. I even have an extra monitor. It was upgraded with two 30 MB hard drives and a math coprocessor. I suspect the clock battery has corroded some nearby circuitry but I haven't looked.

I bought this thing new and got a few years out of it. MS-DOS 6.1 or something. Two floppy drives 5.25". It's been in the garage without being plugged in for at least 15 years.

Eric,

You could probably email the owner of the bondwell on the link you posted and ask if he could make you a copy of the CPM OS on a 5 1/2 diskette. It may boot an early version of IBM or Microsoft DOS since Z80 and 8080 are inthe same family of CPU chips. IBM was going to use CPM as their OS for the first IBM PC but the owner didn't show up for the scheduled meeting. So IBM decided to use DOS from Microsoft instead. IBM did use CPM on their POS cash registers until they brought out OS2 ver. 1.

Does your B&H have that power strip attachment on the back of it or is it the model that didn't come with that?

I'd love to get an Amiga 2000 or 4000 with NewTek Video Toaster again, those were fun!

I have had so many over time. I buy them, play with them and sell them. Now I can't find much of anything to buy :(

I currently have a TRS-80 model 4 that was smashed in shipping. The case is fine but the crt broke in shipping and flopped around and smashed most of the boards inside...

I also have a TRS-80 Color Computer that will go to ebay eventually.

Some highlights of Vintage Computers I have had-
Commodore 64 (tons of c64 accessories too)
Commodore Vic-20
Commodore SX-64 (wish I kept this one, very cool)
Commodore Colt
Commodore Amiga A500
Magnavox Odyssey
Nintendo Famicom Family Basic Computer
TRS-80 Color Computer 1
TRS-80 Color Computer 2
TRS-80 Color Computer 3 (tons of CoCo accessories too)
TRS-80 MC-10
TRS-80 Model 1
TRS-80 Model 100
TRS-80 Model 4 (tons of model 3/4 accessories too)
TRS-80 DT-1 Data Terminal
TRS-80 PC-2 Pocket Computer
Tandy 1000 (several varieties, SX, TX, HX)
Atari 1040ST
Atari 800XL
Atari 1200XL (tons of XL accessories too)
Atari 130SE
Amstrad 1512DD
Apple IIc
Texas Instruments TI-99

Those are just the ones I can think of, off the top of my head. I have sold all of these, and I probably still have pictures of them if you guys wanna see 'em. I used to find this stuff local all the time. Not so much anymore...

Hi !

I have a IMSAI 8080 with a Z-80 cpu card, and video terminal. 4k static ram, 2Mhz processor, 8K EPROM Burner card, 50lb power transformer!
Commodore 64 HS-MON cartridge (assembler programing) Original box.
Mac SE, SE-2, LC-2, 7600/200 I still use to do websites and graphics print work, Performa 6200/cd (All around "worst comuputer apple ever made"), a slew of windoze boxes Win95 on up.

I got the LC-2 NEW paid over $3,000. I think it has a 10Mhz 6810, 8meg ram, and I paid extra for the larger 100MB HD, and a Sony screen. System 7.1 graphical user interface. and a HP DeskWriter C first color printer inkjet, and they still sell ink for it too. At the time my windoze choice was a 286? and DOS 3.1 - 3.6? around that time period. Yah I still got it. Funny except for the screen, the LC-2 was a pizza box computer, almost like my newer flat screen white plastic imac 17" lcd 2.0ghz G-5. The computer I use the most though, is my Win 98 ASUS p2b something 600mhz. Also for websites and graphics. I still have all of these. And all the early apples SE's have small 40MB HD's and the inside of the cabinets have the signatures of the people who worked on them, Pretty cool!

Got an iMac G3 in ruby. Nice old machine. It doesn't really like the internet.
At one time I liked vintage computing but nowadays I like the newest and best. :-(

I had an old IBM 5150 machine 2 months ago before I threw it out. Had a black and green zenith monitor with it. It needed a new HDD and I just had nothing to use it for beside taking up room I don't have. But currently have one of the first colored iMacs,(purple), an authentic Hotwheels computer, (needs some peripherals since origs. got wore out.) 3 other mid '90's machines, and a 2003 gateway which still works.

1999 G3 iMac... Bought it new and was frustrated by how fast it became obsolete after OS X came out. Sits in storage closet unloved. Replaced it in 2003 with sony vaio desktop which i use to today.

used a 1991 powerbook 140 for internet and email till 2001 on business travel... Still fire it up sometimes

I didn't get a computer until 1995 when Microsoft introduced Windows 95. That's about the time my dad starting using a personal computer for his work as well. Only the big banking companies on Wall Street and those massive c-corporations provided personal computers to their employees in the late-1970's to early-1980's. Computers weren't commonly found in the typical workplace until the mid- to late-1980's. Like I said before, my dad used electric typewriters at his jobs until the mid-1990's.

I have an full-up Imsai 8080 with a Soroc video teletype teminal, wide carriage daisy-wheel teletype terminal, and all kinds of other stuff.

I also have a Dec PDP 1103 & a Heath Z89 computer...all kinds of vintage computing stuff.

Enjoy,
Rich P

I have a lot of vintage computers and am working on getting them set up where they can be used. I already have one of the Apple IIe's set up to be able to access the internet.
I have:
Apple II+
Apple IIe
Apple IIc
Apple IIGS
Several black and white Macintoshes
Macintosh IILC
2 Osborne portables with very small screen
Eagle metal cased portable
Compaq portable
DEC terminals, VT-220 to 320 (soon to get VT-100)
Tandy Color Computers
TRS-80 (can't remember model but it has built-in monitor)
Commodore 64
Texas Instruments Home computer
DEC Microvax

I've collected vintage computer equipment for a long time. Right now the "jewl" of my collection is an Apple Lisa 2/10. You can see pictures I've taken of it here: http://compu85.homeip.net/stuff/lisa/

I've always liked the IBM PS/2 line of computers, but I've been slowly getting rid of my stockpile of them. If anyone here is interested in PS/2s let me know, I just don't have the space to store them. Most of my collection is still at my parent's house back in Michigan :eek:

-J

Nice Lisa....yum! I only have a few :

Tektronix 4051
Mac plus
Mac Color Classic
TRS 80 pocket computer, type 1
Indigo iBook G-3

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6199/...39d3da83_z.jpg

jr

I just picked up a Compaq Portable from eBay. Sold as non working, some quick detective work found a paperclip floating around inside the machine, a bad cap on the floppy disk board, and a bad cap on the motherboard.

This one on the floppy board was easy to spot:

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1316878076

Which I think damaged this one on the motherboard:

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1316878076

That cap sits between the -12v rail and ground. It was short. One question though... how do you read the value on these caps? Is that one 10mf at 16 volts?

Thanks,

-J

Yup!
jr

I have a MITS Altair from 1976 and several Imsai. All running CPM on 8 inch floppies (clunk, clunk).

Working in a thrift store allowed me to tinker with many old computers, which I would try to fix up and get ready to sell.

I don't really have much of a collection, but I do have a NOS, still in the box Packard Bell computer from c. 1996, and a c. 1993 Gateway computer that was made in the USA and built like a tank. I put a maxed out 486 motherboard in it, and it runs 3.1/95. I use it for vintage gaming or when I want that early Windows experience.

My main computer, when I'm home on break, is one I built new in 2005 and has Windows 98SE on it. I haven't upgraded it, since it's lightning fast and there are patches out there that allow me to run the latest version of most software. Plus viruses/spyware are no longer an issue as nobody makes them for 98 anymore, lol.

my collection is all macintosh stuff. mostly. I have some older PC stuff as well, like a compaq LTE 150mhz with 80mb RAM module, and an old NEC versa V/75.

But 95% of what I have are all old macs. Powerbook Duos, a PB180/145/etc and a color classic, SE, SE/30, a 512K, 2 pluses, and a plus with a HyperDrive 20 upgrade that the HDD was removed (BOOOO) but the 030 accelerator is still in place inside the plus.

macintosh LCIII, a powermac 5260 and 6400/250. a powerbook lombard, titanium 500mhz, 2 ibook G3s, and 1 ibook G4. busticated powerbook 1400, PB3400.

iMac G5 with fuxored LCD panel. PB 520c with PPC upgrade, and a macintosh portable that still needs recapped.

Yea.. and thats not including the ones i forgot to mention.

What am I going to do with all these? I have no friggen idea. I only have a 14' by 30' room, and thats my living quarters. (bad economy, no house). I might keep a couple things, mostly the rarer stuff like the hyperdrive mac, the mac portable and 520c PPC card. rest of it i need to do something with.

http://ascii24.ascii.jp/2006/04/07/i...ages804704.jpgonkyoHDC-7Windows XP Media Center Edition:thmbsp:http://www.phileweb.com/news/photo/2...-FRONT_big.jpg

I dragged home another TRS-80 today. It's really dirty as it's been sitting in a shed for years. Tomorrow I'm gonna start cleaning it up and eventually I'll test it to see if it still works.

Whats the differemce between a /4 and 4A??

A 4A was my FIRST COMPUTER and it was OK i guess.... Then i got a C64 and i still love it now :)

I have a collection of just a few "vintage" computers:

two or three Timex Sinclair Z81...and one about half done as a kit (I should get on that)

One Commodore VIC20....still works, but I don't really have it out
One Commodore SX64 (REALLY love to play with that one sometimes)

Now I am currently playing with an Atari800 (the big one..not the XL). I got it at a swap meet about a month ago, but it had a dead keyboard (typical for these). Got a replacement mobo and power board (didn't need the power board..but got one anyway). This fixed the keyboard problem I had tracked to the POKEY and two demux chips. Now I play with it on an RCA "prison TV" and with it's original 1010 datacassette unit (changed two belts). Got the original BASIC cartridge and the thing had a Pac-Man cartridge in it already. Lots of fun poking in stupid BASIC proggies and saving them on tapes. Really just for fun.

I've had an "unintentional" collection of "really tiny laptops" for many years....starting with me buying a real small Hitachi palmtop back in the very early 90s....and then kept buying all the Toshiba Libretto machines from around 1995 until around 2006...and still have all those machines:

CT50 (Win95)....and at least one parts machine
CT70 (Win98)....and a couple parts machines
CT101 (98SE)....(still play with sometimes
U105 (XPproSP3)....is a Centrino, so is actually SLOW but still useful

A couple of those little tiny VIA "Artigo" pico-ITX kits.....one is actually inside of an old 5" Craig LCD TV set as a mini portable HTPC.

Asus 900HA (XPproSP3/Win7 Ultimate/Ubuntu)"netbook"....not really vintage, but it IS like five years old now....daily driver for work as my "away team" work on old Novell Netware 4.11 servers that only run IPX/SPX.

It's a very odd collection...of which maybe half would be "vintage".....but the term is a bit loose for computers. Even a "new" laptop...is OLD after like a year these days.

Good lunk finding one cheap nowadays. Most Amigas died from battery acid death! I did manage to pick up an Amiga 4000 with Toaster 4000 card though. Motherboard needs a recapping as the audio output is weak. I have a whole bunch of other vintage stuff too.

Overview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j579s5cS4CA
Cheesy Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n7GoNmgHGI

Check out: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/forum.php

That looks like a nice site,its too bad they are on VB4 which is ugly crap :(

I use an old IBM Model 8525.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maceach...in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maceach...in/photostream

Mine is "upgraded" to a 2GB SSD, instead of the original 20MB MFM drive it had. 8-bit ISA IDE card.

I have owned several computers; however, all but two are long gone. Here is the list.

________________________________________

1. Commodore 64, DOS operating system, with external 5.25" floppy drive and Commodore MPS-803 dot-matrix printer; used an old TV as a monitor. No modem. Got rid of the entire system when I moved in 1999 (space constraints in my then-new apartment).

2. "Explorer" (off brand, don't know who actually made it) with integrated keyboard and Emerson b&w VGA monitor. 3.25" floppy drive, operating system (DOS 3.1) built in, probably on the internal hard drive. No modem. This computer was given to me by an old friend in the early '90s. No printer.

3. AST "Adventure!" 200 (off brand, again I don't know the actual manufacturer), with an off-brand monitor. OS was Windows 95. I added a printer shortly after getting the computer, but cannot recall the make or model. This computer was my first Windows system, and it got a lot of use -- on the Internet, with e-mail (I began e-mailing a couple of old friends whom I had lost contact with by now, shortly after getting the system) and also as a word processor, although the Explorer system I mentioned above also had WP software and was used in the same capacity. This system had only 8mb of RAM and was constantly crashing due to the sheer number of programs besides the word processor and Internet software I was using with it, but it was the best I had at the time, so I made the best of it.

I gave the AST system away when I moved, again due to space limitations in the apartment I moved to. I don't know what became of it after that.

4. IBM "Aptiva" desktop tower. My second Windows computer, this one had Windows 98 (I later upgraded it to Win98SE), a 600 MHz CPU, 128mb of RAM, a Hewlett-Packard DeskJet 832c printer, and was TOTL at the time (late 1999). Kept it 11 years, used it to death, and still have it, although it is now in storage in my bedroom closet and has a dead CMOS backup battery.

5. My current system. It is a "PowerSpec" (house brand of MicroCenter, Columbus, Ohio) model 8736 desktop tower running Windows XP, 2.23 GHz CPU, just under 1GB (991 MB) of RAM, with an HP flat-panel monitor and an HP LaserJet 4+ lasser printer. The FP monitor and laser printer were later addons to the system; the laser printer was given to me by my friend who had given me the Explorer system I mentioned above. He has an accounting business and was upgrading his entire office to Windows 7 at the time, so, knowing that I had been running Windows 98 (by this time becoming obsolete), he decided to give me one of his old Windows XP systems for Christmas two years ago, followed by the LaserJet 4+ laser printer last year.

BTW: For now, the Windows XP system does well for what I need it to do, but I'm wondering just how much longer I will be able to run that operating system before being forced to upgrade to Windows 8 (old software refusing to run on Win8, etc). I'm sure this system will run Win7, but eight....I don't know.

I used Windows 98 for 11 years (!) and got by, but I'm not so sure I'll be so lucky with WinXP. I use this WinXP computer for online banking and other tasks on the Internet, and am wondering how long I have before I start seeing warnings online or elsewhere that XP is not secure enough for such activities. I realize the end of XP's life cycle will be some time in 2014, but I wonder if the end is already in sight as far as some applications or secure Internet sites are concerned.

I am using the Lotus 1-2-3 office suite (presently, word processor only) and am wondering if I will need an entirely new WP system after XP is declared obsolete. :scratch2: I am concerned about the word processor because every file I have written using that processor, including a story 500+ pages long I've been writing since at least 25 years ago (until 1995 the story was typed using a standard typewriter), can only be read by that word processor and no other. I do have QuickView Plus, a file viewer which, according to its developers, can read most if not all text-based files written with any word processor, so I guess reading the old files won't be much of a problem -- unless QVP32 won't run under Windows 7 or 8. I'm wondering if WordPerfect 5.1, which I downloaded recently, would run on the newer OSs in DOS mode, or will there be such a thing as DOS mode in Win8? :scratch2: I'm thinking by the time Win8 goes mainstream in offices and such, there may be little or no need for DOS.

I don't have much anymore, I used to have a ton of stuff... mostly 90s early 00s stuff. I have a old IBM Eduquest 486 that I have DOS 6.22 on for a old gaming machine. I have some old Compaq "portable computer" in the basement though. I think it has a 6in green and black CRT, 2 low density disk drives, i think its a 8086 and a built in daisy wheel printer. the keyboard snaps to the face of it. Never been able to bring myself to get rid of it though.

[QUOTE=Jeffhs;3055880]I have owned several computers; however, all but two are long gone. Here is the list.

________________________________________

1. Commodore 64, DOS operating system, with external 5.25" floppy drive and Commodore MPS-803 dot-matrix printer; used an old TV as a monitor. No modem. Got rid of the entire system when I moved in 1999 (space constraints in my then-new apartment).

2. "Explorer" (off brand, don't know who actually made it) with integrated keyboard and Emerson b&w VGA monitor. 3.25" floppy drive, operating system (DOS 3.1) built in, probably on the internal hard drive. No modem. This computer was given to me by an old friend in the early '90s. No printer.

3. AST "Adventure!" 200 (off brand, again I don't know the actual manufacturer), with an off-brand monitor. OS was Windows 95. I added a printer shortly after getting the computer, but cannot recall the make or model. This computer was my first Windows system, and it got a lot of use -- on the Internet, with e-mail (I began e-mailing a couple of old friends whom I had lost contact with by now, shortly after getting the system) and also as a word processor, although the Explorer system I mentioned above also had WP software and was used in the same capacity. This system had only 8mb of RAM and was constantly crashing due to the sheer number of programs besides the word processor and Internet software I was using with it, but it was the best I had at the time, so I made the best of it.

I gave the AST system away when I moved, again due to space limitations in the apartment I moved to. I don't know what became of it after that.

4. IBM "Aptiva" desktop tower. My second Windows computer, this one had Windows 98 (I later upgraded it to Win98SE), a 600 MHz CPU, 128mb of RAM, a Hewlett-Packard DeskJet 832c printer, and was TOTL at the time (late 1999). Kept it 11 years, used it to death, and still have it, although it is now in storage in my bedroom closet and has a dead CMOS backup battery.

5. My current system. It is a "PowerSpec" (house brand of MicroCenter, Columbus, Ohio) model 8736 desktop tower running Windows XP, 2.23 GHz CPU, just under 1GB (991 MB) of RAM, with an HP flat-panel monitor and an HP LaserJet 4+ laser printer. The FP monitor and laser printer were later addons to the system; the laser printer was given to me by my friend who had given me the Explorer system I mentioned above. He has an accounting business and was upgrading his entire office to Windows 7 at the time, so, knowing that I had been running Windows 98 (by this time becoming obsolete), he decided to give me one of his old Windows XP systems for Christmas two years ago, followed by the LaserJet 4+ laser printer last year.

BTW: For now, the Windows XP system does well for what I need it to do, but I'm wondering just how much longer I will be able to run that operating system before being forced to upgrade to Windows 8 (old software refusing to run on Win8, etc). I'm sure this system will run Win7, but eight....I don't know.

I used Windows 98 for 11 years (!) and got by, but I'm not so sure I'll be so lucky with WinXP. I use this WinXP computer for online banking and other tasks on the Internet, and am wondering how long I have before I start seeing warnings online or elsewhere that XP is not secure enough for such activities. I realize the end of XP's life cycle will be some time in 2014, but I wonder if the end is already in sight as far as some applications or secure Internet sites are concerned.

I am using the Lotus 1-2-3 office suite (presently, word processor only) and am wondering if I will need an entirely new WP system after XP is declared obsolete. :scratch2: I am concerned about the word processor because every file I have written using that processor, including a story 500+ pages long I've been writing since at least 25 years ago (until 1995 the story was typed using a standard typewriter), can only be read by that word processor and no other. I do have QuickView Plus, a file viewer which, according to its developers, can read most if not all text-based files written with any word processor, so I guess reading the old files won't be much of a problem -- unless QVP32 won't run under Windows 7 or 8. I'm wondering if WordPerfect 5.1, which I downloaded recently, would run on the newer OSs in DOS mode, or will there be such a thing as DOS mode in Win8? :scratch2: I'm thinking by the time Win8 goes mainstream in offices and such, there may be little or no need for DOS.

Most word-processing programs, even older ones, have various options to save files in other formats. If you can skip italics or other text enhancements in your files, you should be able to save copies of each file in basic text format and/or other simple ones that any newer program can read easily. I have word-processor files from 1990-92 that I can still open in Microsoft Office 2010 just fine.

My word processor on my IBM is PFS First Choice and it has no other saving options. BUT! You can print to a file, which just becomes a regular ASCII text file.

I actually just picked up my first vintage computer. Its a new in the box DEC 486 with the floppy drive and windows 95 as the OS. Im definately going to need a lot of help from my techie gf, i know so very little about computers.

But a brand new desk top that was still in the box and shrink wrap for 40 bucks?! How could i turn it down.

Ah, I assume that must've been you that posted the thread over on the VCF. Pretty good deal you got there, considering pretty much any beat up 486 crap-box tends to fetch $40 these days.

Hi All;
I have an Altair 8800, with (2 each) 8" Floppies, (hard sectored).. I have many, many 8" floppies (soft sectored), a PDP 11/44 and a PDP 11/04.. Both have power supply issues.. the 11/44 is backplane with boards only.. A Data General Eclipse S130, Power supply issues.. The other DG, Digital Group (8080-Z-80) two machines.. my oldest is a Varian 620i.. Not functional..
THANK YOU Marty

I also collect vintage computers right now here is wht I have
IBM 5160 with two half height floppy drives a 22 MB RLL Hard disk, Ethernet card, 640k of RAM, v20 processor upgrade, and a EGA graphics adapter/monitor.
macintosh +
commodore 64
TRS-80 model 1
and a few 386'es and 486'es of no intrest

I have 3:
1) "Olivetti" M290S: an 386 computer with an 286 processor. Desktop style. I took it for free;
2) "I.B.M." <<ThinkPad>> Type 2610 486 laptop. I need more R.A.M. for it. I don't know what I did with the bottom cover :( . I get it on a exchange for a 386 server computer which I got it for the same person that gave me the 286 ;
3) An "Fujitsu" (P1 or P3) (this one I alsp got it from somebody);
I'm dreaming to get me an 486 laptop with monochrome display. There where any Pentium 1 or Pentium 2 laptops with monochrome display? Colours are wonderoful, but the color displays and the sun light aren't good friends!

Well, it's not a computer, but it have and "A.M.D." 486 processor and it's the world 4th smart-phone and the 3rd one to be salled (the 3rd smart-phone was an prototipe). Unfourtenley, I got it without the small door that covers the S.I.M. and memory cards, but I still use the phone!
http://oldmobil.hu/phones/nokia-9110i