It's been years since I fiddled with a PCjr. It has a self test, to
activate press Control-Alternate-Insert. Can't remember the specifics of
the self test though.
I don't know if Lotus for the jr required a disk, but I have been told it
came on two separate cartridges.
At 02:35 PM 6/23/97 +0000, you wrote:
>As such, right now I have 1 complete Jr with floppy drive, sidecar, and
>128K mem expansion (I believe... hafta look at the chips & calculate the
>storage) with an extra internal floppy drive, an extra motherboard, an
>extra keyboard (neither are chicklet, and one has a few stuck keys) I think
>there was a Lotus 123 cartridge with it (but I heard rumors that it needed
>a disk as well?) and a basic cartridge. There may be more stuff, but I
>haven't looked at it since the move...
>
>Are you interested in it?
>
>HTH,
>Roger "Merch" Merchberger
James
jscarter(a)worldnet.att.net
In the process of getting ready to upgrade my RQD11 QBus/SCSI adapter to
near-current level, I discovered that I need a source for a hard-to-get
PROM. Specifically, one of two parts should do it.
Signetics 82HS189
AMD AM27S281A
I've already checked with the manufacturers and a couple of local
distributors. Yes, I'll be looking for these on my upcoming scrounging
trip, but it would be a Really Cool Thing if someone could point me at a
source for them.
Thanks in advance.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272)
(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)wizards.net)
http://www.wizards.net/technoid
"Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own
human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."
Yes, that's correct. Over in the UK you had the Dragon, a neat little machine.
Regards,
Bob
----------
From: e.tedeschi[SMTP:e.tedeschi@ndirect.co.uk]
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 1997 3:22 AM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Cocos
Just to help me understand better...when you refer to Cocos, do you
refer to the Tandy TRS-80 COlour COmputers?
Thanks
enrico
--
================================================================
Enrico Tedeschi, 54, Easthill Drive, BRIGHTON BN41 2FD, U.K.
tel/fax +(0)1273 701650 (24 hours) or 0850 104725 mobile
website <http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~e.tedeschi>
================================================================
visit Brighton: <http://www.brighton.co.uk/tourist/welcome.htm>
--------------------
Wanted:
--------------------
Apple I *
Altair 680 *
Altair 8800a ("a" only) *
Altair disk system *
Compucolor II or 8051
Apple Lisa
Exidy Sorcerer
IBM 5100
KIM-1
RCA COSMAC (ELF/VIP)
Commodore PET dual floppy system model 2040
Commodore SX-64 Portable (only if cheap or local)
TRS-80 Model III (only if cheap or local)
* Will trade Altair 8800b up/down/across for Apple I, or Altair
equipment. Will also make substantial cash offers for these items and
will reward leads.
--------------------
For Trade:
--------------------
North Star Horizon (wood case model)
Apple ///+
Mattel Aquarius
C64 in original color display box
Kaypro II (wonky keyboard; FREE if you pick up, Seattle area)
(Must sell/trade! Need space! Especially good deals available for
LOCALS with reasonably interesting trades and/or cash offers, since that
saves me so much time and effort with shipping!)
Kai
A friend of mine has the following systems available for sale (he's not
a collector). Neither of us could really come up with a price, since
these systems are a little out of my line. The Sanyo is a Z80 (not to be
confused with the later MBC-550 which was an early 8088 MS-DOS clone).
Both are in full operating condition.
Altos 586
- 8086/512K
- Xenix 3.0b
- With 2 terminals (supports 8-9 users)
- Hard drive
- Floppy
- Xenix Multiplan, etc.
Sanyo MBC-1000
- Z80A
- Built-in monitor
- Single floppy
- External 10MB HD
- Keyboard
- CP/M, WordStar, CalcStar, etc.
email thadh(a)microsoft.com with offers (local preferred due to the size
of this stuff)
You are correct about the slowness of the 1541, and I was not saying the 64
was 100% perfect, but for the money, the 64 still gives more bang in the
video and sound department. and recently, CMD (Creative Micro Designs) wrote
a new OS called JiffyDOS. it was comaptible with the original ROM, but used
better timing loops that increased the serial bus performance! you just
replace the ROM in the motherboard, and the rom in the 1541 with jiffydos,
and the results were fantastic, just by rewriting the firmware, the 1541 was
now FASTER than a 486 running MS-Hoss with a 5.25 drive. but no matter what
8 bit cpu you use, it is amazing what you can do with 1 MHZ by proper
software design.
I also timed the performace with a stopwatch, and I loaded a large music
editor from the same disk, 1541 drive, with and without jiffyDOS
stock 1541 1541 with Jdos
1 minute 20 sec 10 SECONDS!!!
pretty spiffy eh?
Phew. Well I've pruned through my mail and made it to the bottom.
To all of you who sent me personal e-mail over the last week - I'll
get back to you in the next couple days. I'll also work on processing
all the unsubs.
On topic - this weekend I picked up some stuff:
Need info on:
Acorn monitor with strange connector, switch selects modes I, II, III
5 1/4" floppy drive for Atari ST (no brand)
Just gloating:
Apple IIgs with monitor and 5.25" drive (ROM 1) for $15
Stack of needed manuals at 0.39$ ea. (I'll post duplicates)
Apple Disk III drive
Franklin Ace 1000
An interesting one - I already have a 1000 and unforch. I think this
one is too damaged to save (crushed case - cracked board). The thing
is it has a strange disk controller which the Disk III (as in Apple
II disk drive) was attached to. It also has a video board of some
kind. No part numbers but I'll play around with it some more later.
Bill
----------------------------------------------------
Bill Whitson - Classic Computers ListOp
bill(a)booster.u.washinton.edu or bcw(a)u.washington.edu
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~bcw
At 05:04 PM 6/22/97 -0700, you wrote:
>On Sun, 22 Jun 1997, A.R. Duell wrote:
>
>> > from, there are compnents of computers that are shear art as the disk
>> > controller in the apple II (from what I read the board was drawn 'not
>>
>> I'll have to disagree with you there. IMHO the Disk II controller is
>> nothing other than a kludge. It could certainly have done with a track 0
>> sensor (that would have stopped the heads from banging on start-up). And,
>> as a hardware designer, I don't like designs where most of the
>> functionality is handled in software.
>
>Blasphemer! No really though, if you must call the Disk ][ controller a
>kludge, at least qualify it by calling it a beautiful kludge, which it is.
>Also, having software control over the disk drive is not a bad thing at
>all. It allowed you to play directly with the bits on the disks and make
>your own disk formats. It provided years of fun and challenge during my
>teenage days trying to crack the ever-more-complicated disk copy
>protection schemes that the software houses kept creating by way of being
>able to control the disk circuitry from software.
>
>> > totally in the dark about). Case in point, Exidy Sorceror, I purchased
>> > one and sent it to Sam Ismael, he is now looking for information, not
>> > very many people ever seen one, much less an ad for one, sometimes the
>>
>> Somewhere I have a Techref for the Sorceror, and one for the S100 adapter
>> for it. I also have some user group newsletters, etc. Feel free to pester
>> me on this list if you want me to dig this stuff out.
>>
>> BTW, it's not up for grabs. I need it to maintain my Sorceror :-)
>
>Tony, any information you can e-mail me or send me concerning the
>Sorcerer would be appreciated. I need information about the power
>requirements, plus just general information such as how much RAM it came
>with, processor type, built-in languages, etc. Thanks.
>
>Sam
Hello there, I an fairly new here, but I am interested in all kinds of
hardware and software hacks.
Someone out there mentioned the 'sophistication' of the Apple ]['s video
addressing, saying that the
RAM refresh steals CPU cycles, Apples method is worse than a kludge, it was
simply a crufted idea. yes, the Disk II is an elegent kludge,as ALL of my
homebrewed electronic gear are kludges just to make them work!<G>. My first
computer was a Commodore 64, and comparing it to apples(not oranges :0) the
64 is WAY more advanced, and it too shares a medium populated motherboard. I
can do 90% of the multimedia stuff on the 64 as you can with a P-133! my
point being, the Apple and 64 both had 6502 compatible proccessors, but the
6510 used by the 64 has smarter memory mangament, and it is fast enough to
refresh the ram AND do sprite graphics AND use bit mapped memory. adding
perhiperals to the 64 via the serial bus worked NICE, and I can prove
history is repeating itself. Look at the new USB (Universal Serial Bus)
standard, where they want to run evrything from keyboards, mice, modems
etc... the Wintel croud calls it BRAND NEW IDEA, but we did this 10 years or
more ago. I got a good taste of Apple's machines in school, and they were
ok, but nothing I would ever try to own. the only drawback to the C=64 is
that it did not have an expansion bus built in, however it did have a
expansion connector which you can hook up a passive backplane to.
I dont have much classic stuff but here is what I have:
3 CoCo's, one with 1 floppy drive, all 16K machines. the floppy drive as
sold by radio shack is actually an IBM compatible 5.25 drive! the ONLY
difference is an attempt by radio shack to foil anyone trying to USE off the
shelf floppy drives by placing the ribbon connector on the opposite side,
and because of this, the data cable was too short to connect the normal
drive. But the controller card and pinouts are all the same IBM standard.
The reason was that radio scrap wanted to charge you $400 for adding a drive
that costed $50 max at the time. so IBM drives are not limited and can be
used in any way, it just takes more hacker skill to implement it.
3 Commodore 64's, one is souped up with JiffyDOS, 1 meg REU, and 1.6 MEG
floppy drive.
2 Commodore 128's both work and was extensively used, and because of this,
they are on the verge of expiring... the keyboards on the 128's were never
as durable as the 64's.
1 IBM XT works, but needs XT keyboard.
1 IBM 286-12, works too, and loaded with MORE TTL than the XT was....
Now the rest of the bunch are not classic, but I will place them here to
make the list complete.
1 Acer 386-33, used as a file server
1 home built AMD 586 machine which is what I am composing this message from.
I was looking through a book I had picked up a year or so ago called
"The Elementary Commodore 64". Towards the front amongst the
description of various types of peripherals available for the C64 under
the title "Other Gadgets" was this:
Z-80 CP/M -- This cartridge goes right into the cartridge slot to turn
your machine into a Z-80 base computer enabling you to access the vast
array of CP/M software. With over 2000 CP/M software programs
available, there is little you will not be able to access.
Dan Rector
