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MITS Altair 680by billdeg Total messages in this thread: 3 Updated: [ Not IC 74L12 ] 03/05/2007 directory of MITS Altair 680 pictures: http://www.vintagecomput...tures.html top/front corner view, main board - 680 MAIN BOARD REV 1-6X same, closeup same, another closeup of board ID same, another closeup front panel of MITS Altair 680. Compare colors with Byte back cover July 1976 another front panel picture of MITS Altair 680. front panel of MITS Altair 680 (grainy pic). MITS Altair 680 Main board view. Altair 680 rear view. Apparently there once was a serial card installed in this unit. MITS Altair 680 Main board view. MITS Altair 680 serial number E11952. View of 6800 and 6850 main board chips Steve/Grant/Jack/Dan Thanks for your replies. In response to all replies... I agree that the system has been made from a kit, the pictures indicate this. I purchased a ACIA Monitor ROM from Steve today. I hope to find a KCACR card, RA">... [ read more ] |
1973 Williams Paddle Ball (PONG)by billdeg Total messages in this thread: 3 Updated: [ 1973 Williams Paddle Ball (PONG) ] 02/28/2007 Here's an interesting one. An original 1973 PONG arcade clone by Williams, the future makers of Defender, Joust, etc. in the 80's. Paddle Ball according to web sources, was their first video game. I am told that Williams desired to compete with Atari's PONG arcade game with a version of their own. Here are some pics: http://www.vintag...l/motherboard.jpg At first my system did not work, but I used a multi-meter to track down a little kink in the power cable to restore it to functional condition. There is a tilt mechanism (they borrowed from a Williams pinball game). The system is rigged to take dimes it's so old! There is">... [ read more ] |
SWTPc to Altair 680 program transferby billdeg Total messages in this thread: 3 Updated: [ SWTP 4K BASIC on 680b ] 02/16/2007 Are the programs from the SWTPc 6800 interchangeable with the Altair 680? Is there a good web reference that compares these two? I have a working SWTPc 6800 and "SWTPc/Motorola" teletapes (programs for assembler, editor, etc). My plan is to load the tapes into memory of the SWTPc, perform whatever edits I need to apply while the program is in memory and then re-save to a new teletape for the Altair 680. I would then in theory load the tape on the 680 and viola it will work and the heavens will sing. There are a number of missing pieces to my plan (my teletype has a power problem to be fixed, I have never actually used a teletype before, I need an S I/O card for the Altair 680)...minor issues, ha ha Stay tuned...">... [ read more ] |
MFM hard drive formats only 10/20 MB...wby billdeg Total messages in this thread: 1 USing an IBM XT 640K with an IBM 1816101 hard drive controller and a Rodime RO204 hard drive. I "low level" formatted the drive using the IBM XT reference disk and fdisk'd with DOS 3.3. I then ran the format command /s. There were no errors, the correct number of cylinders were counted off (320cyl, 8heads) appeared. For some reason it formatted to ~10MB not ~20MB. Do you know why that happens? More on the Rodime RO204: http://www.4driv...VESPECS/RODIME/3704.txt">... [ read more ] |
Grumman C-8573 / ASA-79 Jet Computerby billdeg Total messages in this thread: 1 I was given a Grumman C-8573 / ASA-79 Jet Computer a few months ago, and I decided to open it up to see what was inside. I was told...that this was the computer from an F14, but I was unsure exactly which generation. After a good hour I finally opened up the box to reveal mid-80's components, not late 60's early 70's. See http://microcomputerhistory.com/f14chipset.htm for what I was hoping to find. oh well. Here are the raw images: http://vintagecomputer.net/Grumman/ Note that it's an IBM card cage. The chips are from the early to mid 80's. The historical equivalent to an early pentium/late 486 ... I will come back to this. If anyone wants this unit, let me know. It's not really in my area of interest.">... [ read more ] |
Messing with External Disk Drivesby billdeg Total messages in this thread: 1 Me? I am working on some old disk drives, basically taking each one and testing on a RadioShack Coco II with a 502 FD cart/adapter. I have about 10 external (self powered) DD 5 1/4" disk drives that I nurse along. They are used for TRS 80 Model 1's with the expansion interface and a DD controller, plus anything newer from RadioShack. It's good to pull them out and test every year to keep them limber. The reason I was using the Coco II and 502 FD cart is to take advantage of the enhanced basic command set disk commands. The most prized drives of this group is a set of ancient Percom drives (drive 0 and 1). I am glad to report that I was able to revive the previously dead Percom drive 0 tonight. Ah simple pleasures. Here are some commands that I used, if anyone is interested: dskini0 (format a disk in drive 0) copy "test.bas:0" to "test.bas:1" (copy a file from drive 0 t">... [ read more ] |
Cottonwood BBSby billdeg Total messages in this thread: 1 http://hometown.aol.com/cottonwoodbbs/ +1 (951)242-3593 Located in Moreno Valley, California, USA. Operating 24 hours a day, at 300/1200/2400 baud. Running on a Commodore 64 with All American BBS The only remaining dial-up BBS run on a Commodore 64 in the world! Using the following I was able to connect to Cottonwood: C 128 w/ Jiffy DOS C 1541/1571/1581's Terminal suite: "EAGLETERM" (in C 64 Mode) Commodore 1670 1200b modem I am user #6, "billdeg" ">... [ read more ] |
Who is maintaining a boot disk archive?by billdeg Total messages in this thread: 1 This topic came up in my local vintage computer club (see: http://www.marchclub.org/ ) and I thought that I would expand the conversation to this forum too... Who is maintaining a boot disk archive currently? I have read about the lack of these resources in various circles, although there are some limited sources spread around. Here is my definition of a boot disk archive: 1) A person goes to a central location to review a comprehensive list of all boot disks available in the archive 2) The person scans the list and then contacts the library/archivist to request a copy of the diskette(s) 3) The archivist acts as a go-between for the requestor, and contacts the person(s) who have agreed to burn a copy of the requested boot disk 4) In one form or another the requestor gets confirmation and an address to send a SASE containing a blank diskette of the required media. 5">... [ read more ] |
Dbase II on Commodore BX700by billdeg Total messages in this thread: 1 I have a prototype Commodore BX700 with a 8088 co-processor card. This gives me the ability to run CP/M and early MS DOS 1.25-compatible applications. They are ported over to the B using Move It, a communications program. You also need a Fast Bus cartridge. I will write more about this soon, but for now, here is a pic of Dbase II for CP/M 86. http://www.vintag.../bx700/B700_dbaseII.JPG">... [ read more ] |
California Technology Internationalby billdeg Total messages in this thread: 7 Updated: [ MR 2000 Found ] 07/11/2020  The California Technology International 1008-A. Click image for larger view.
A California Technology International 1108-A with built-in Micro Communications Corp. stringy floppy drive arrived today. I don't know how to use it, and it appears semi-functional. It powers on and eventually a "1" blinks weakly on the left LED. I was not able to load a program from tape. When I press the key labeled "FROM TAPE" the built-in stringy floppy motor activates and a "2" appears on the display in one of the left center LED's. It does not appear to load (or rewind) the tape, and I am unsure how to rewind a tape, etc.
When I press a keyboard key (it's a membrane keyboard with qwerty keys plus a lot of specialized keys) the system beeps in response.
I ope">... [ read more ]
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Commodore B Series Availableby Drtire Total messages in this thread: 1 I have 2 sets of B-128's with external dual drives, numerous programs from C-bug as well as Supercalc, Superbase, etc., manuals for all, many programs for the units. These units are the keyboard/cpu set up with external monitor and drives. I believe I have at least one of the monitors however I haven’t been able too locate it. These were used for a number of years in my business and was stored away when I upgraded to PCs. I would like to sell them but have no Idea what to charge for them. They were operating perfectly when I took them out of service approximately 10-15 years ago. Please contact me if anyone has any interest in these items as I would like to find them a good home before I toss them in the recylce bin at the Landfill. I cut my teeth with these computers and they deserve to be saved. They were something else for their time. Don Correia, Drtir">... [ read more ] |
Northstar Horizon S-100 Computerby billdeg Total messages in this thread: 3 Updated: [ Northstar Horizon Games Wanted ] 11/29/2006 Picked up this system, plenty of manuals and Teleray monitor. As yet untested">... [ read more ] |
Did Robots Take Over?by billdeg Total messages in this thread: 1 On my way to the Vintage Computer Festival 9.0 I stopped into a small antique store and found a copy of Science and Mechanics Magazine February 1963 with a post-war sci-fi-looking robot on the cover. In an era where computer-controlled robots was still science fiction, this article provides a glimpse of one author's view about the future of robot technology. Did robots take over? I don't think so.">... [ read more ] |
Tandy 1000 HXby billdeg Total messages in this thread: 1 Dual drive model. Boots to internal ROM: MS DOS 2.11 and "Personal DeskMate" application. Picture of Tanday 1000 HX">... [ read more ] |
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I have posted scans for the Hewlett Packard "A quick reference to HP Time-Shared BASIC" The guide was printed in 1969 for users of the HP 2000A. http://www.vintagecomputer.net/hp/2000A/">... [ read more ]