Computer for sale - $5,995

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  • Banned
    Yeah, I remember the days of 400-800 baud modems and learning to program simple stuff in BASIC.

    Cheers
  • Those were the days that my college curriculum counselor told me that I didn't need to worry about computer classes because I'd never need them - only my secretary would have to know how to use them.
    • [2] replies
    • hahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. I remember in the early days people at work pretending they were too cool by saying, "Me? I don't even know how to turn a computer on."

      Better learn!
    • While working my way through college, I had a co-worker was an aspiring sports writer.
      He could not write well at all. He said he would have a secretary for that.
      I lost touch with him and do not know how he did it, but he is now a very, very well
      known sports columnist.
  • Banned
    Yeah 256 K RAM was an upgrade. My first computer had a whole 20 MB hard drive and I thought I'd never fill it up.
  • FG, You had 400-800baud modems? What standard were THEY? I used 110, 300, and 1200(202 and 212). There is a 600baud, and a couple even slower than 110 used for like TTD. Of course I used faster ones, but they really weren't available until quite a bit later.

    Well, I kind of built MY computer the opposite way, and it was like 1981-1982, and it didn't have the S-100 bus. And I didn't have the 132 column dot matrix printer, I only had a 80 column in normal print. I only had a 5MB drive BUT, if it had a 10MB drive, and a 132 column printer, the whole system would have cost about $3300! But it was 6502, 8080, z80 compatible. It had a 6502 and a z80, and the z80 was 8080compatible. Operating systems were Apple Dos 3.3 and CPM (I think it was the version JUST before v3.0).

    Maybe I'm lucky I never got that IMSAI. The idea of a standard bus IS neat though.

    Steve
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      Good question! I took a computer programming class in 8th grade (which would be like like 1978) and that is where we had terminals that connected to the largest mainframe/data center in the city. The acoustic coupler modem that we used was 400/800 baud...we had a couple of them and they looked sorta similar to these below.



      I had a great time back then as I actually got a key to the computer room (actually a big closet) and was allowed to come into school in the evening hours, by myself, and logon to the system. Instead of of writing simple code I basically played the old star trek game, a drag racing game, and a couple of others tearing through reams of paper like they were going out of style.

      I quickly tried looking up the 400/800 baud standard but did not find much information.

      https://www.americanbar.org/newslett...adwarrior.html

      How fast was your first modem? [Archive] - DVD Talk Forum

      I did find this guy "overclocking" his 300 baud modem.

      https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...ms/BoO9DrPlmgg

      Anyway, I think the days are long past when a teacher gives the key to the computer room to an eighth grader that gets unfettered access until the janitor locks the school doors at about 9PM.

      Cheers

      -don
      • [2] replies
  • Banned
    My first PC cost $1,200 & came with a free VCR (no joke).

    The day I went in to buy the PC was the last day of the promotion. The sales guy said they were out of free VCRs. I told him I'm leaving, I'll spend my money at another store. Less than 5 min. later I had a free VCR, lmao.

    I say free but I did end up spending over $1,200. I'm sure that PC was marked up to more than compensate for the VCR. I still got my free VCR, ha!
    • [2] replies
    • Which PC and VCR were THEY? And WHEN? When I first looked for a VCR, non really looked cheap, and what one might call a PC didn't either! I wanted a cosmac elf when they came out. HEY, computers were expensive, and this was GREAT for hobbyists, and I was YOUNG! But a cosmac elf isn't what I would call a PC in the sense often understood.



      Steve
    • Which PC and VCR were THEY? And WHEN? When I first looked for a VCR, non really looked cheap, and what one might call a PC didn't either! I wanted a cosmac elf when they came out. HEY, computers were expensive, and this was GREAT for hobbyists! But a cosmac elf isn't what I would calla PC in the sense often understood.

      http://www.sparetimegizmos.com/Hardw...LF2K_small.jpg

      The again, I know the apple II dropped a good deal below $1000 around the 70s-80s. I only watched it around the time I was hoping to get one. I finally did, but not before it skyrocketed to about $1200. That was just the CPU UNIT! NO MONITOR! NO RF adapter! NO DISK DRIVE! NO TAPE DRIVE! NO PRINTER! It DID have 48K though!

      Steve
  • Those kinds of prices aren't surprising. When I bought my Amiga 3000, back in 1990, it was close to $4,000. Had a whopping 6 megs of ram, a 25 mhz CPU, and a 50 meg hard drive. And 2 floppy drives. Woot!

    Last time I even saw an acoustic coupler was on a college campus in the 70s. If you remember those, you're a dinosaur.
    • [2] replies
    • Banned
      Dinosaur, eh? At least I was in college in the early 80's! While I very badly wanted a Heathkit in the 70's my pops would not spend the money.

      Once I was out on my own and got married the first machines I actually owned were the IBM 5155 Model 68 (4.77Mhz CPU)...



      IBM 5155 portable computer

      ...and a Tandy 1000HX (7.16 MHz CPU).



      Tandy 1000 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
      No Windows and not many crashes back then... ---> it seems the versions after 3.1, specifically 95,98 and XP did me no favors!

      -don
      • [1] reply
    • grrr you had to remind me, didn't you?
      lmao
      • [1] reply
  • Wow, did I ever get ripped off. I bought exactly the same system last week and it cost me $7000. Next time I'll shop around a bit more.
    • [1] reply
    • I remember when a mouse was a rock and the "VDU" was just a box with a fire in it.

      It used to run on Windows BC.
      • [ 4 ] Thanks
  • Lol, Guess that makes me a dinob!tch!
  • The first parts store I worked in changed over to a computerized inventory and invoicing system in 1979, it ran on an IBM System 3. The CPU was the size of a two-drawer filing cabinet, with the top taken up by a 12-inch Winchester disk drive. We rotated 7 disks that were labeled by day, taking home the current day's disk and replacing it with the next day's so we always had a week's worth of data. My boss destroyed the disk drive one night by not waiting till the drive had spooled down before lifting the disk up. There was supposed to be some kind of interlock to prevent that happening, but it didn't work.

    In the late 80s, at the car dealership I worked at I had a meeting with the owner, the general manager, and the office manager. The subject was whether to buy a 10MB hard disk for our utility IBM XT computer, or spring the extra $600 for a 20MB drive. It was an executive decision. I was just thrilled to have an amber monochrome display instead of green to go along with my cutting-edge Hercules VGA Graphics Card.

    My kids don't even know what a 160K 5-1/4" SSD floppy disk looks like. They don't believe me when I tell them that one disk would barely store just one of the hundreds of photos that they have on their phones, or that we actually had to load the operating system from floppies before the computer was even usable.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • I learned to program in basic. Great fun!

      Went through a load of 8 bit/16 bit UK machines.

      8 bit

      Sinclair ZX 81
      Sinclair Spectrum
      Dragon 32
      Acorn Electron
      Sinclair QL, bought a twin 3.5 inch floppy drive for this to bypass the unreliable microdrives (100k endless loops of tape) and a serial printer and did Astrological profile printouts for cash in a small store I owned. First one that earned me money!

      16 bit

      Amiga 500 (Great 16 bit machine, had my first color 24 pin dot matrix printer with this) Attached it to a music keyboard and Yamaha synth and composed with it (16 track midi) using Octamed software. Sold 100 cassettes of my instrumental music.

      I enjoyed those machines!
    • Where do they think computers come from? I mean close to 99% of humanity would probably be dumbstruck, even if they had all the technology in 1980 to build a computer from scratch.

      PLEASE NOTE, I MEAN SCRATCH using standard devices like transistors, capacitors, etc.... NO ICs, and had to design it themselves.

      I read about Steve Wozniak's attempt to build a floppy disk interface! THAT was daunting! His goal was to have it done in time for the fast approaching christmas holiday. He got DESPERATE, and actually looked at an IBM controller to see how THEY did it. Surprisingly, he found he was doing too much, at least too much in hardware. He was probably trying to do hard sectored disks. MOST floppy systems at the time did soft sectored. While the hardware is simpler, the software is more complicated. And he had to do THAT ALSO!

      Computers are so relatively easy today because the CPUs are built almost in modules, and motherboard companies use so many ICs. Assemblers don't even have to wire the rear interface block as they used to, because on ATX and related form factor boards, it is on the BOARD!

      Steve
  • I remember those days! 5.75" floppy drives, programming in BASIC, the years before hard drives were invented and you were lucky to get a color monitor(instead of just a green screen).
    • [1] reply
    • The first commercial disk drive was apparently released in March 1973! Just saying! They used to be called winchester disk drives since the first one, made by IBM, came in paired units.

      Steve
  • Banned
    Anyone watching the new AMC series Halt and Catch Fire? I caught the first two episodes and I'm hooked.

    If you have an interest in computers and/or the industry then this fictional story set in the early 80's may keep you entertained.

    Cheers!

    -don
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