I love stories like this. Jerry
On Tue, May 18, 2021, 5:58 PM <lloydel...@comcast.net> wrote: > Guess that makes me a little older than you. > > I first encountered acoustical couplers in college in the early 70s (73 > 74?). Someone left a teletype in the dorm. One of my friends knew the > phone number to a PDP-8 at the school computer center. There were three us > that stayed up all night taking turns writing programs on it in BASIC. We > tied into the PDP-8 at 110 baud. At the end of my turn, I would turn > the paper punch on and type LIST. Not only did it print out a listing, > but it punched a tape. The next user typed NEW to clear my program. He > then loaded his paper tape and as it read the tape it would send lines of > BASIC to the PDP-8 the same as if he had typed it. A new listing was also > generated. My program was a nuclear war game which was pretty primitive, > but fun. > > Later, I worked for a company in Minneapolis that had a DEC LSI-11 with an > auto-answer modem connected. They also had a Lear Siegler dumb terminal > and an acoustical coupler modem. My boss would allow me to take the > terminal and modem home so I could tie into the DEC LSI-11. At least now > we were up to 300 baud. I wrote a BASIC game on it called, Space Maze. I > documented it and published it in the 1979 issue of Creative Computing. > > Now that I'm retired and have both a NEC PC-8201A (that I have had since > the early 80s) and a TRS-80 Model 100 (purchased this year from eBay), I'm > planning on rehosting this game as well as other games I had published in > Creative Computing to the these machines. > > I'll plan on sharing the results with this group (somehow) when I'm > successful. > > Lloyd > > -----Original Message----- > From: M100 <m100-boun...@lists.bitchin100.com> On Behalf Of Brian K. White > Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2021 5:02 PM > To: m...@bitchin100.com > Subject: Re: [M100] Good Times. Anyone have a Shilling? > > That's what I remembered too. But acoustic couplers were just going away > when I was in grade school so I only ever used them a few times. > > Maybe it could theoretically download at 1200, at the expense of going > half duplex or reducing upload to just 75, and assuming the software on the > 100 is optimized and does not update the screen while downloading. > > > https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Acoustic_coupler-IMG_7282-7283.jpg > > That even looks very similar to the one in the video. The cable is > different and one of the cups looks a little different, but that does still > look very similar. > > Maybe it was a case that, just because it says 1200 on the box does not > mean it can ever actually do it in real life, and maybe 300 was the > effective limit and it could only go faster in theory. > > Or maybe it was just the full duplex limit, since you're not going to > actually do anything else but full duplex in any normal situation. > > You can't go over 600 in a normal situation on a 100 anyway with screen > updates even via direct null-modem. And I bet the 1200 over acoustic > coupler over a phone line requires a perfect phone line, which I doubt a > moving train in the 80's had. > > But, the 100 can do 1200, in theory, with optimized software, and the > modem at least claims it can do it, in theory. > > -- > bkw > > > On 5/18/21 3:50 PM, lloydel...@comcast.net wrote: > > If memory serves me correct, I think the acoustical coupler modems were > limited to 300 baud? > > > > I also remember the old Model 33 teletypes were either 110 baud or 300 > baud and sometimes only 110 baud. > > > > I'm pretty sure he wasn't going for speed using an acoustical coupler > modem. Great video! Brings back great memories. > > > > Lloyd > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: M100 <m100-boun...@lists.bitchin100.com> On Behalf Of Josh Malone > > Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2021 2:42 PM > > To: m...@bitchin100.com > > Subject: Re: [M100] Good Times. Anyone have a Shilling? > > > > This was a U.K. model, presumably. Did those get released w/ internal > modems? I thought Tandy pulled the modem from the UK model cuz of BT certs. > > > > On Tue, May 18, 2021 at 3:24 PM you got me <ven...@hotmail.com> wrote: > >> > >> I think an external modem had a higher speed than the one built into > the m100. > >> ________________________________ > >> From: M100 <m100-boun...@lists.bitchin100.com> on behalf of Brian K. > >> White <b.kenyo...@gmail.com> > >> Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2021 7:13 PM > >> To: m...@bitchin100.com <m...@bitchin100.com> > >> Subject: Re: [M100] Good Times. Anyone have a Shilling? > >> > >> On 5/18/21 10:28 AM, ~Art wrote: > >>> > >>> Just saw this on the Tweeter... > >>> > >>> https://twitter.com/i/status/1394004961571352580 > >>> > >>> > >>> Art > >>> > >> > >> > >> ... using an external modem on the rs-232 port, wasting the one > >> already built right into the machine. Philistine! > >> > >> That neat all-one-piece one is more photogenic than the two loose > >> black rubber cups and wires though, even if they are smaller, lighter, > >> and don't unnecessarily consume a useful port. > >> > >> Or maybe the international model didn't have a modem? I think the > >> Olivetti is like that, only the NA model has a modem built-in. > >> > >> -- > >> bkw > > > > > -- > bkw > >
