Old Computers

jboatno4

jboatno4

 
Supporting Member 1
Among other things one of my hobbies is old Timex Sinclair computers. Yep, although most people don't remember, Timex made computers in the early 80s. I have the one of the largest collections on the planet and have a web site to document the history.

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/timex/

Jack
 
RCE1962

RCE1962

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 4
That is really interesting jack! Part of the "beginnings" of the personal computer era.

Thanks for the link and thanks for posting that.

Ron
 
models916

models916

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 7
Jeezzz

I thought I was bad. I had a Coleco Adam computer, went out of business just as I bought it. Switched to Commadore, same thing. All Mac now days.
 
jboatno4

jboatno4

 
Supporting Member 1
models916 said:
I thought I was bad. I had a Coleco Adam computer, went out of business just as I bought it. Switched to Commadore, same thing. All Mac now days.
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There is a huge hobby and collector interest world-wide in old computers (late 70s, early 80s) and video games. All over the internet are sites like mine regarding anything one can imagine. Do an internet search on "Coleco Adam" to see what it brings you and re-live the early days. Be careful searching on "Commodore 64", or "Atari 2600", though, as you will find more hits than you can deal with.

Jack
 
wrench

wrench

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 15
TI-99/4a User here. Part of the the local user group.....Newsletter editor, VP for one year, SysOp of the TI BBS in Fort Worth for several years. Wrote a column in our local paper called TICHAT. I did a lot of hardware mods on many old TI 99's.

Sure was a lot of fun back in those days. Here's link ya'll might like to surf to:

http://oldcomputers.net/

Covers almost all of them. And they have links to more if ya don't find it there.
 
jboatno4

jboatno4

 
Supporting Member 1
dq409 said:
I think Wrench is still using one of them !!!:roll
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If he was he'd be able to see the site, I believe. And probably upload/download messages. Of course with the limited computer memory you wouldn't be able to "see" the same thing on the screen. The biggest drawback would be connection (modem) speed.

I did an experiment about 5 years ago with a friend in Florida. We connected to each other's computer, over the internet, using only "stock" computer equipment and peripherals, i.e., Timex Sinclair 1000 computers (16K RAM), and 300 baud modems. The outcome was to be a magazine article (but didn't happen). Our biggest problem was convincing our respective isp's to allow us to connect that slow (there is a slight difference between 56K and 300 bps modems, not to mention DSL/broadband). It was fun setting everything up again. We did connect, sent a couple messages back and forth, patted each other on the back, and that was the end of it.

Jack
 
Tom Kochtanek

Tom Kochtanek

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 13
Old computer stuff

Jack:

Nice collection!

I've been doing stuff (professionally) with computing systems since the late 60s, mostly IBM iron from the old centralized proprietary days. I remember buying a book by Ted Nelson in an LA computer bookstorre back in 1972-3? that predicted the future of PCs. Back then I think you could order the MITS and wire it yourself (sort of like the homebuilt radio lines). When PCs came along (1977 Apple and then 1981? IBM?) I played with them a bit but wasn't excited since RAM was soo low and very few peripeherals were available for mass storage (I do store and retrieve database stuff). I did purchase a TIMEX (used) and hooked it up to my TV and cassette tape recorder. Not much to do, program it in BASIC to play hang man, stuff like that. I think I gave it away. Wish I had it back.

I did save some of the more interesting older mini/main frame stuff. Did the first online database search (DIALOG) in a classroom early 70s, kept the terminal and printer. Modem was a Bell 212A cranking out 300 Baud (30 characters per second). Felt like 30 characters per MINUTE!.

Enjoy your treasures!

Cheers,
TomK
 
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