Is anyone into "retro-computing"?

[nanette1985]

I'm using an array of vacuum tubes myself.

for what? pics . . .

 

[IceBergSLiM]

I have one of these osborne laptops:

http://www.feodorgeorgiev.com/blog/...7/05/osborne-1-%201981 commercialized.jpg

I wouldn't say I'm into it though as I'm looking for a buyer while its collecting dust.

 

[ElFenix]

I have a Powerbook G3 that someone from my company gave me as a joke. I assume it is pretty old judging from its looks.

the 180 features that same screaming 68030 processor in your amiga upgrade card ^_^

 

[Leros]

I enjoy working with lower powered processors (microcontrollers) in my designs. Think 16MHz or 20MHz, 1KB or less RAM, etc.

 

[Linflas]

I'm using an array of vacuum tubes myself.

I have one of those arranged into a Superheterodyne array to process RF data between 560kHz - 30.0 MHz. 😉

 

[JeepinEd]

I still have my Amiga 2000, Amiga 500, C-64, Vic-20 and a Timex Synclair.
IMHO Amigas were the best computers around at the time and wish Commodore would have survived.

I recently fired up my C-64 and was amazed that the 1541 drive still worked. that thing was a beast with it's own CPU and power supply. I still remember being amazed at how fast things loaded with that drive....compared to my tape drive. Instead of taking 15 minutes to load a 50K program, it only took a mere 4 minutes!!!

The good old days...

 

[KMFJD]

All my old c64/Amiga 500/1200 have been sold...using frodo64 on my android phone though....

 

[BurnItDwn]

Ehhh ... oldest box I have nowadays is a p4 laptop and a p4 server
laptop gets daily use, but not by me, server is mostly a file server, but I have a small ventrilo server runinng as well as a few other little things.... It usually only gets traffic within my own internal network.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Used to have a bunch of old Macs. A "pizza box" LC with a cute little matching 12" CRT monitor (yes 12"), a huge Quadra 950 tower, some G3 and pre-G3 Power Macs, a PowerBook G3, some even older PowerBooks (a 520c and a 1400c). Slowly got rid of them over the years and now I have no older computers. They're a waste of space.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I've kept my TRS-80 model 1, Atari 800, and C=64 for nostalgia's sake since I did my first programming on them for Adventure International and Simulations Canada long, long ago.

I don't run them though, I copied the floppies to PC images to use with emulators.

I've had problems getting Amiga emulators to work properly. Plus, I'm a hardware guy and I love tinkering with the hardware. I was a poor college kid back when the Amiga was my main machine, so I couldn't really afford to expand it. I'm doing that now. 🙂

It was pretty interesting to boot it up and find some old circuit designs I made for RAM expansion boards, etc.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I had a TRS-80 Model 1 myself. The one with the seperate monitor and the tape drive. I remember doing some programming in BASIC but never really took it anywhere. Assembly Language was the shit everyone seemed to be using back then.

I remember the TRS-80 -- I used to do some programming on it in Jr. High. A couple of teachers had COCOs and even though I thought Radio Shack sucked, I have to admit, I thought they were kind of neat.

By the time I got to high school, they replaced the TRS80s with Atari STs. Interesting machines, but far less capable than my beloved Amiga. 😀

 

[IndyColtsFan]

My C64, A500 and A1200 are in a closet over at my parents place. Haven't used them in at least ten years, though I've been running the CCS64 and WinUAE emulators a few times to check out some old games or just mess around with AmigaOS.

Old PC's are not as interesting. They're just like our current PC's, only slower. Amigas, Ataris, Macs etc. ran completely different hardware, different OS's etc.

:thumbsup:

Computers back then had "personality."

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I have my old Atari 520 ST boxed up in the basement, I guess I should see if it still works someday.

Hmmm....you wouldn't want to sell it, would you? 😀 Nah, my wife would kill me. I am seriously thinking about redoing the man cave with long tables against one wall so I could bring up a bunch of old machines.

 

[alfa147x]

I have a ti-83 😉

 

[IndyColtsFan]

the 180 features that same screaming 68030 processor in your amiga upgrade card ^_^

The card I have coming has the 68030, the 68882 FPU, a SCSI card, a hard drive, and RAM sockets. Unfortunately, the RAM sockets are proprietary GVP SIMM sockets -- 64 pins! :| They are fully populated from the pictures, but if I ever wanted to switch them out, it will be a PITA finding them!

I would've preferred a 68040 or 68060 card, but those are too expensive.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I still have my Amiga 2000, Amiga 500, C-64, Vic-20 and a Timex Synclair.
IMHO Amigas were the best computers around at the time and wish Commodore would have survived.

I recently fired up my C-64 and was amazed that the 1541 drive still worked. that thing was a beast with it's own CPU and power supply. I still remember being amazed at how fast things loaded with that drive....compared to my tape drive. Instead of taking 15 minutes to load a 50K program, it only took a mere 4 minutes!!!

The good old days...

You sound like me. I lived with the 1530 Datassette for a couple of years before I got my first 1541 for my 14th birthday in 1984. I was AMAZED at the speed -- it was like going from a skateboard to a Porsche!

I was looking in my garage last night and found, boxed in the original box, my original 300 baud Vicmodem!

I am pretty sure I have another undiscovered box or two of hardware floating around in my garage or attic. I had faster modems (1200 baud!) and my Vic 20 and Datassette have to be somewhere.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Ehh, not into retro computing, but I do like a good solid keyboard..... It it doesn't have buckling springs, then I'm not gonna use it.

 

[edro]

I played Warcraft 2 the other day. Does that count?

 

[JoeBleed]

We have a few 486sx machines running at work still running an old vb script reading information from production machines and printing it out. Some time around 6 years ago i weeded out all of the 286s that were still out there.

I have a dual ppro box at home that i don't do anything with anymore. 🙁 Part of me wants to keep it, the other part wants to just find it a good home and get it out from under my desk.

That is about as old as i have experience with.

 

[Linflas]

Hmmm....you wouldn't want to sell it, would you? 😀 Nah, my wife would kill me. I am seriously thinking about redoing the man cave with long tables against one wall so I could bring up a bunch of old machines.

Actually you have me thinking with this thread that I am going to dig it out and see if I can hook up a hard drive to it. I could never afford to do that "back in the day".

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Actually you have me thinking with this thread that I am going to dig it out and see if I can hook up a hard drive to it. I could never afford to do that "back in the day".

That is what is so cool about this hobby. As a college kid, I could never afford to get the expansions I wanted but now, even though the components might seem expensive for what you get, they're still relatively cheap. This GVP accelerator board I got on eBay for $100 was a $1500 part 18 years ago.

The problem you find with most big box Amigas nowadays is motherboard damage from the NiCD batteries Commodore unwisely soldered to the board. You can fix that damage most of the time, but in my case, I just bought a new board that had not seen much leakage and removed the battery, soldered some wires with molex connectors on it, and connected a standard cordless phone NiCD battery with the same voltage instead. I can fix the old board later or just use it for spare parts since most of the important chips are socketed.

 

[KMFJD]

You sound like me. I lived with the 1530 Datassette for a couple of years before I got my first 1541 for my 14th birthday in 1984. I was AMAZED at the speed -- it was like going from a skateboard to a Porsche!

I was looking in my garage last night and found, boxed in the original box, my original 300 baud Vicmodem!

I am pretty sure I have another undiscovered box or two of hardware floating around in my garage or attic. I had faster modems (1200 baud!) and my Vic 20 and Datassette have to be somewhere.

lol that was my first modem for the c64 back in 1986

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I also found my Commodore 64 light pen in the garage. I remember doing tons of drawings with that thing.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

(also a jay miner design, so I can relate to your commodore amiga)

Jay Miner -- perhaps the greatest unknown figure in the history of computers. Too bad Commodore bungled his greatest invention (Amiga).

 

[Possessed Freak]

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This was a co-worker's machine that was found when his office changed. I got the thing to fire up and it still had word perfect 5.1 on it. I have taken it to meetings and plan to take it to the next big IT meeting at University Park.