Classic dumb terminals (was Re: VT-6 kit)

[Ethan Dicks]

On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 2:39 PM, Seth Morabito <sethm at loomcom.com> wrote:
> On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 5:23 AM, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote:
>> The cheapest solution at
>> the time was to get a real VT52 (about $50 to buy and $30 to ship).
>> That's what I did.
>
> Oh if only I could find a $50 VT52 in this day and age! :^)

This was nearly 25 years ago, FWIW (and, yes, I still have it)... the
VT220 was out, and those that bought new, bought that.  Those that
didn't, bought VT100s or some functional clone (CiTOH 101, Wyse-50,
etc).  It was the nadir of the VT52.  Nobody wanted them, nobody
wanted to support them (software or hardware).

It was a function of exactly how old they were - old enough, but not too old.

> Actually, I've never seen one for sale in all the time I've been
> interested in old computers (starting in 1993).  How common are they
> these days?  On a scale from "Hen's teeth" to  "unobtanium"?

Dunno.  I got one in a rescue a few years back, but I haven't tried to
buy one since about 1985 or so.  I don't need lots of them, but the
one I got looks really nice on my Datasystems Desk (the model on the
cover of the 1978/1979 Small Computer Handbook).

-ethan