Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Pete Turnbull]

On 19/05/2016 15:25, Swift Griggs wrote:

On Thu, 19 May 2016, Pete Turnbull wrote:

- my first Exidy Sorcerer, with 48K, every ROM PAC and every manual I
could buy, and a lot of mods,


Those look really cool. I remember seeing them in computer mags when I was
uhhh, 7 or 8 years old. Drooled.


- an SGI Indy which I sold for little more than the cost of shipping,


I still have 2 Indys. One R4600/200 and one R5000/180. I also have a
Challenge S with an R4600 in it. These are easy to warehouse, but I
probably need to hoard up some Dallas clock modules for them, since they
often go bad and lose their MAC.


I have two R5000 Indys, four R3000 Indigos with various graphics, four 
O2s (3 x R5K and 1 x R10K) and a 16-processor Origin 2000 so I can't 
really complain about that sold Indy, except that there was some 
personal history to it.



- a big collection of SCSI and IEEE-488 cables,


Oh man, I threw away a bunch of serial and SCSI cables at one point only
to have to buy the same ones again years later. Ugh.


Exactly.  I had to scrounge three from a friend last weekend.  And then 
discovered I'd also given away the only SCSI enclosure that would fit 
the intended desk space without a lot omore work.  Doh!


--
Pete
Pete Turnbull

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Swift Griggs]

On Thu, 19 May 2016, Pete Lancashire wrote:
> Took home a couple of the exterior panels, put one on top of the bar-b-q 
> and using a propane torch got it to burn, pure magnesium did what one 
> would expect.

Being born and raised in Texas (and Alaska, too a bit) I have friends and 
family who really live for shooting holes in things and/or setting them on 
fire. I'm not as bad off as them, I only do such things once a year or so. 

Last year, I had the opportunity for a bit of a reunion. Of course, being 
a special occasion, one of my more colorful (and frankly fun) uncles 
wanted to take me out and celebrate my being in town and also his own 
divorce. He told me he'd sued his ex-wife to get her to give her car back 
to him (he bought it for her right after the divorce... long story). It 
was a gaudy Honda Del Sol with a bunch of fru-fru including  mag 
wheels (and thus my hand is revealed). He wanted to put it back to stock 
and re-paint it. So, he pulled the ghetto-style magnesium wheels off.

We took two of them (still in good condition, but he didn't care) out to 
the part of the local landfill where people do the needful with firearms. 
After his divorce, he got himself a Barrett .50 and he wanted to show it 
off (at $6 a round, ouch). So, we first shot an old toilet. Me with a 
22/250 and him with The Fifty. Uhh, he "won" for sure (the thing just 
exploded).  Then we started shooting up the wheels. It was awesome. One 
shot sends a wheel up about 8' in the air and then it bursts into 
blinding-bright flame. Of course, then the other folks shooting out there 
wanted to come over and take shots. Eventually, they were blackened 
shredded blobs.

The moral of the story is, magnesium is cool and rednecks with guns *can* 
be fun in the right setting.

-Swift

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Pete Lancashire]

Took home a couple of the exterior panels, put one on top of the
bar-b-q and using a propane torch got it to burn, pure magnesium did
what one would expect. Gave the other panel to a friend near Philly
who was a rocket nut.

On Wed, May 18, 2016 at 11:50 PM, jwsmobile  wrote:
> I may have access to one.  I do have the disk drive for sure. Actually on
> D-17, and a I think a spare set of boards. Not eyeballed it though.
>
>
> On 5/18/2016 3:32 PM, Pete Lancashire wrote:
>>
>> Brand new "NIB" Minuteman I D-17 computer section, the whole thing in
>> a wooden crate.
>>
>> Even had the white exterior panels, remember them each had  "Warning
>> Magnesium" stamped on the inside. Was around 1985.
>
>
>

RE: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Robert Jarratt]

> -Original Message-
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Adrian
> Graham
> Sent: 19 May 2016 19:12
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
> <cctalk@classiccmp.org>
> Subject: Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly
> 
> On 19/05/2016 18:07, "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.di...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, May 19, 2016 at 12:31 PM, Sean Caron <sca...@diablonet.net>
> wrote:
> >> ...I've never seen another microVAX I around... Ah, well, the KA655
> >> is more functional ;)
> >
> > I have a MicroVAX I... it's more of a curiosity than anything.  Quite
> > limited.  We bought two when they first came out and upgraded one
> > (full price, $17K ISTR) to a MicroVAX II.  The enhanced one was used
> > for product development and a few other things.  The unenhanced one
> > was our hardware test box so if one of our boards under test was so
> > broken that it damaged the host (that did happen once or twice), it
> > was cheaper to get back into service.  I should go fire that box up
> > and see if the hard drive has stiction (odds are good).
> 
> I have a MicroVAX I too, it's the only machine I've got with an RQDX2
> controller and I think it doesn't work. Last time I powered up I just got
an @
> prompt.
> 


Wouldn't mind finding a MicroVAX I, although I am seriously short of space
now

Regards

Rob

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Adrian Graham]

One thing I still get a pang of regret about was throwing away a working
VT180 back in '97 or so. Work didn't want it and I just didn't have the room
for it so in a skip it went.

Countless VAX4000s also went skip-bound. I priced one of them up before it
went, when it was new it cost £95k. That still stings a bit too.

-- 
Adrian/Witchy
Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator
Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Adrian Graham]

On 19/05/2016 18:07, "Ethan Dicks"  wrote:

> On Thu, May 19, 2016 at 12:31 PM, Sean Caron  wrote:
>> ...I've never seen another microVAX I around... Ah, well, the KA655 is more
>> functional ;)
> 
> I have a MicroVAX I... it's more of a curiosity than anything.  Quite
> limited.  We bought two when they first came out and upgraded one
> (full price, $17K ISTR) to a MicroVAX II.  The enhanced one was used
> for product development and a few other things.  The unenhanced one
> was our hardware test box so if one of our boards under test was so
> broken that it damaged the host (that did happen once or twice), it
> was cheaper to get back into service.  I should go fire that box up
> and see if the hard drive has stiction (odds are good).

I have a MicroVAX I too, it's the only machine I've got with an RQDX2
controller and I think it doesn't work. Last time I powered up I just got an
@ prompt.

-- 
Adrian/Witchy
Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator
Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Ethan Dicks]

On Thu, May 19, 2016 at 12:31 PM, Sean Caron  wrote:
> ...I've never seen another microVAX I around... Ah, well, the KA655 is more 
> functional ;)

I have a MicroVAX I... it's more of a curiosity than anything.  Quite
limited.  We bought two when they first came out and upgraded one
(full price, $17K ISTR) to a MicroVAX II.  The enhanced one was used
for product development and a few other things.  The unenhanced one
was our hardware test box so if one of our boards under test was so
broken that it damaged the host (that did happen once or twice), it
was cheaper to get back into service.  I should go fire that box up
and see if the hard drive has stiction (odds are good).

-ethan

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Sean Caron]

On Thu, 19 May 2016, Swift Griggs wrote:




DEC microVAX III BA23 (w/ SCSI)
DEC microVAX I BA23


I think thre is a DEC microVAX II still sitting powered down in a corner
here at my office.



I got lucky on the list maybe a year ago and Bob Rosenbloom helped me get 
my Q-bus VAX itch scratched again ... I've got a microVAX III+ now and a 
microVAX III as well. I've done a pretty good job of rebuilding my stash 
of Q-bus spares ... but I'm still down a SCSI board and I've never seen 
another microVAX I around... Ah, well, the KA655 is more functional ;)





IBM PS/2 Mod 95


Ugh. That thing is yge. There is only so much PS/2 I can take. I
prefer the small/cute workstations.



I loved this box and it was the only desktop PS/2 (really, the only Intel 
x86-based machine) I had ever intended to really preserve as an exhibit. 
It had the P60 processor complex (with FDIV bug!) and I had just totally 
loaded it down with all my best MCA finds accrued over the years. XGA-2, 
dual SCSI buses, dual Ethernet, Token Ring, etc. I even found a MCA FDDI 
card I had intended to install in the machine, but never got round to it. 
OS/2 would drive the little front panel LCD in a cool way. Probably won't 
have the chance to get another one without paying mad money these days.


Now, huge was the PC Server 500! ;)




IBM PS/2 L40 SX


Whoa. A PS/2 laptop. I never even knew there was such a beast. Plus it's
got an interesting shape and keyboard. Huh.



It was a neat little thing and it had probably the best laptop keyboard I 
have ever used. Just awesome. It sat in the trunk of my car for years and 
got carelessly chucked out during a clean-out. I miss it now ... it was 
just about the perfect vintage for a DOS box for a number of applications 
and it was rock-solid, too. Arg.





PM 6100 AV DOS Compatible (for real!)


Bizzare. Did it have some kind of PC card inside?



Yeah, this one was a custom build using a PM6100av as a base, with the 486 
DOS card out of a 6100 DOS Compatible that I scrapped out. It was a tight 
fit, but it all worked! Fun little novelty for the time ;)


I still have a (plain) PM6100 DOS Compatible (with dead PSU) and also a 
PDS Reply 486 DOS card for the Quadra 800 ... I haven't been able to get 
either one of them working again, to my chagrin ... I'm still working on 
it. It's tricky to line up just the right version of the System with the

right version of the DOS card software.




Intergraph Series 2400 (x2)


I always wanted to play with an Intergraph box. I was too busy obsessing
over SGI's boxes, though.



The primary value in these to me was that they were built on the rather 
obscure Clipper CPU. I never was able to use them because I didn't have a 
monitor, keyboard and mouse and there wasn't enough documentation around 
to even figure out if and how to use a serial console with them ... my 
recollection is that Intergraph was not very hobbyist-frendly. I never had 
any CLIX media and no other OS ever supported them. I do wish I still had 
an example of a Clipper CPU (and I pop up and look for them occasionally) 
but to make up for it, karma gave me a cheap MVME181 a few years back so I 
suppose my collection is down one strange RISC chip and up another ;)





a BA123 cabinet once (what was I thinking?)


What in the world is this thing? You call it a cabinet but it looks just
like the MicroVAX II I just mentioned. Is it some kind of fancy case
upgrade for a VAX ?



Oh, just an empty BA123 enclosure ... no boards or drives but otherwise 
complete with Q-bus backplane, PSU, console bulkhead ... pic here:


http://www.netbsd.org/images/machines/vax/microvax2-ba123.jpg

The guts were the aforementioned lost microVAX III ... I had moved the 
cards and disk into a smaller BA23 cabinet so it took up less space and

used less power ... I was running it fairly regularly at the time ;)

Best,

Sean

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Geoffrey Oltmans]

On Thu, May 19, 2016 at 11:10 AM, Geoffrey Oltmans 
wrote:

>
>
> That's a pretty good list. I agree with you on the Atari Lynx. I miss mine
> as well...bought it brand new and ended up buying about 21 games for it for
> dirt cheap when they started clearancing them off (most games I paid $2-6
> for brand-new at Kay Bee Toy Store). Other than that:
>
> 1. Amiga 3000
> 2. Tandy 1000HX
>
> Most everything else I remember fondly but don't have any particular
> feeling I need to go back.
>

Gah! Spoke too soon, I'd also like to have one of the few Amiga 1000s back
and also a DEC Pro/350 that my Uncle gave me when it became obsolete for
him.

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Geoffrey Oltmans]

On Wed, May 18, 2016 at 3:50 PM, Swift Griggs  wrote:

>
> I've stack-ranked all the classic items that I, to my everlasting shame,
> let go of at some point and now I feel like it was a mistake:
>
> 1. Amiga 2500. I ditched it thinking I'd pick up a 3000 then never did.
> Ugh. It was free. They were using at some radio station where I helped
> them fix their PCs but then decided I wanted their Amiga (stashed in a
> closet) to subsidize my fee.
>
> 2. SGI Indigo R4400 with pristine KB + mouse, Maxxed RAM, and Elan. Ugh.
> /me bangs head against wall
>
> 3. Mac IIci with 060' accelerator. I put the accelerator in and paid $$$
>   for it. Darn it. That was a cool system.
>
> 4. Sun Voyager. These go for a fortune now on Ebay. I *gave* mine away.
> Not this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sun_Voyager
> This one: http://tinyurl.com/lhzjfks
>
> 5. NeXTStation Color Turbo. I got tired of the proprietary-everything and
> the space it was taking to keep it working and pristine. Still. I wish I
> hadn't sold it.
>
> 6. Mac Quadra 660AV. This was a pizzabox M68k classic mac with a video
> frame capture (a crappy one but still...) capability. I notice you can't
> really even buy classic macs on ebay anymore. There used to be scads of
> them. Damn... does that mean I'm old now?
>
> 7. SGI Origin 200 dual R12k 270Mhz. It's the top model Origin 200 and it
> had good skins etc... If I had it today it'd be running in my garage with
> the rest of the zoo. I had to ditch some gear to move way back when, and
> this box was a casualty.
>
> 8. Sharp Wizard OZ-8000 organizer. This thing rocked. I'd probably be
> tempted to *use* it. I got a lot of mileage out of it "back in the day". It
> ran on a Z80 and took AAA batteries (yes!). Plus I had (and maybe I still
> do) a DB9 serial interface for it. You could use it as a vt220 terminal,
> IIRC.
>
> 9. Atari Lynx. I had all the cool games. Like a fool I sold mine for some
> quick money in college to help fund a silly trip with some chick who is
> long gone long ago. Ugh. I'd rather have the Lynx back...
>
> 10. TRS-80 model 100. I didn't really like it that much, but nowadays it'd
> look cool in my collection and I have more nostalgic love for the
> trasheighty. Plus it takes AA batteries (I love that!).
>
> -Swift
>

That's a pretty good list. I agree with you on the Atari Lynx. I miss mine
as well...bought it brand new and ended up buying about 21 games for it for
dirt cheap when they started clearancing them off (most games I paid $2-6
for brand-new at Kay Bee Toy Store). Other than that:

1. Amiga 3000
2. Tandy 1000HX

Most everything else I remember fondly but don't have any particular
feeling I need to go back.

RE: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Swift Griggs]

On Wed, 18 May 2016, N0body H0me wrote:
> 1. Apple Quadra 840av. The sweetest Mac I've ever owned.
>Sorely missed.  LIkely stolen.

Yes, this was the king daddy M68k classic-mac, IMHO.

> 3. NCR Tower 1632.  Ran an early SYSV, I had the install tapes
>too.

I wanted one of those. I saw them at several customer sites in the 90's 
and I thought they were a bit bean-counterish, but still cool.

> 5. SwTPc 6800's - Both machines lost in the above flood


Whoa. Bizarre. That thing has a huge power supply for a machine that size. 
There is also massive capacitor in there (I think that's what that is). 
I'm pro/for/cheerleader for any kind of computer that looks like stereo 
equipment. I've always wanted a machine with Vue meters for CPU and RAM 
capacity :-)

http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/MP_P/M6809/6809_side.jpg

> 6. Smoke Signal Broadcasting 9512 - This was a 6809 running OS/9.
>Sold it because "I have enough SS-50 boxes already".

Another 70's "made outta wood" box. Shame I wasn't old enough to 
appreciate all those.
 
> 9. Commodore 128D - complete with keyboard, built like a tank.
>By the time they drained the basement, it was likely a rusted
>pile of junk.

Those were awesome. I was so jealous of friends/cousins who had them. My 
cousin had some C64 game that had enhancements for the 128. It was little 
wizards running around teleporting through pentagrams and shooting 
fireballs at little devil dogs. I can't remember the name, but it rocked 
on the 128. I remember playing that and being in awe of the 128 (hey, I 
was probably 10 or so).

-Swift

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Swift Griggs]

On Thu, 19 May 2016, Pete Turnbull wrote:
> - my first Exidy Sorcerer, with 48K, every ROM PAC and every manual I 
> could buy, and a lot of mods,

Those look really cool. I remember seeing them in computer mags when I was 
uhhh, 7 or 8 years old. Drooled.

> - an SGI Indy which I sold for little more than the cost of shipping,

I still have 2 Indys. One R4600/200 and one R5000/180. I also have a 
Challenge S with an R4600 in it. These are easy to warehouse, but I 
probably need to hoard up some Dallas clock modules for them, since they 
often go bad and lose their MAC.

> - a nice VT131, a VT102, and a couple of VT220s,

Hmm, I always thought the "paper white" terminals were the neatest of the 
monochrome terminal ilk, but I'm not sure if any DEC VTs were ever made 
that way. 

> - a big collection of SCSI and IEEE-488 cables,

Oh man, I threw away a bunch of serial and SCSI cables at one point only 
to have to buy the same ones again years later. Ugh. 

> OTOH, I don't really have enough space for the stuff I still do have, 
> nor enough time and energy to make it all work!

Agreed. I have some dream of building a nice man-cave with individual 2-3 
workstations setup at any given time for me to tinker on and a full bench 
off to the side to work-on/fix stuff. However, then I wake up in suburbia 
and remember how much the price per sq/ft is, now that real estate is back 
in the stratosphere. 

-Swift

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Swift Griggs]

On Wed, 18 May 2016, Sean Caron wrote:
> Ah, man. I lost a Q660AV myself and I do miss it. That said, I'm lucky 
> to still have my PM8500 (held together with epoxy, LOL) to salve the 
> wound a little ...

I would have probably kept it if it was a 840AV. I liked that machine a 
bit more, but now I'd probably get something capable of running A/UX. Of 
course, since classic macs have a big cult following and they aren't on 
Ebay anymore, I'll probably just keep my memories and call it good.

> as well as a few other boxes you list. I do confess I tossed a TRS-80 
> Model 100 a few years back and I feel no guilt :O

hehehe. They were cool looking (and they took AA's!) but they had a clunky 
interface. There are a lot of sites out there with model 100 info 
nowadays, though.

> AFAIK an '060 accelerator was never sold for the Mac platform. Was that 
> a real thing?

It's been a while now, I can't remember. If you say so, I believe it. It 
musta been a 040 or something. I think it was from Presto.

> I know a PPC 601 upgrade was available for the IIci as well as many nice 
> '040 accelerators ... the Radius Rocket ... etc.

It was definitely still a M68k based card, I remember that. I also 
remember it didn't have any kind of extra RAM or SCSI controller (which I 
kinda wanted but could not afford).

> DEC microVAX III BA23 (w/ SCSI)
> DEC microVAX I BA23

I think thre is a DEC microVAX II still sitting powered down in a corner 
here at my office.

> IBM PS/2 Mod 95

Ugh. That thing is yge. There is only so much PS/2 I can take. I 
prefer the small/cute workstations. 

> IBM PS/2 L40 SX

Whoa. A PS/2 laptop. I never even knew there was such a beast. Plus it's 
got an interesting shape and keyboard. Huh. 

> PM 6100 AV DOS Compatible (for real!)

Bizzare. Did it have some kind of PC card inside?

> Intergraph Series 2400 (x2)

I always wanted to play with an Intergraph box. I was too busy obsessing 
over SGI's boxes, though.

> a BA123 cabinet once (what was I thinking?)

What in the world is this thing? You call it a cabinet but it looks just 
like the MicroVAX II I just mentioned. Is it some kind of fancy case 
upgrade for a VAX ?

-Swift

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[jwsmobile]

I may have access to one.  I do have the disk drive for sure. Actually 
on D-17, and a I think a spare set of boards. Not eyeballed it though.


On 5/18/2016 3:32 PM, Pete Lancashire wrote:

Brand new "NIB" Minuteman I D-17 computer section, the whole thing in
a wooden crate.

Even had the white exterior panels, remember them each had  "Warning
Magnesium" stamped on the inside. Was around 1985.

RE: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[N0body H0me]

> -Original Message-
> From: swiftgri...@gmail.com
> Sent: Wed, 18 May 2016 14:50:17 -0600 (MDT)
> To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
> Subject: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly
> 
> 
> I've stack-ranked all the classic items that I, to my everlasting shame,
> let go of at some point and now I feel like it was a mistake:

I also have led a life of Classic Computer Regret & Sorrow:

1. Apple Quadra 840av. The sweetest Mac I've ever owned.
   Sorely missed.  LIkely stolen.

2. VaxStation 4000/90.  Had two. These were probably thrown away.

3. NCR Tower 1632.  Ran an early SYSV, I had the install tapes
   too.

4. HP Intergral - Lost when the basement flooded

5. SwTPc 6800's - Both machines lost in the above flood

6. Smoke Signal Broadcasting 9512 - This was a 6809 running OS/9.
   Sold it because "I have enough SS-50 boxes already".

7. PDP-11/73 - Another one likely thrown away.

8. PDP-11/23+ - Hardware test bed, I was using it to work on my
   RL02 drive.  Flood victim.

9. Commodore 128D - complete with keyboard, built like a tank.
   By the time they drained the basement, it was likely a rusted
   pile of junk.

Most of these I either got free, or for very little money.
I see the prices fetched for these systems today, and I can
do little but shake my head and be glad for what I still
have


FREE 3D EARTH SCREENSAVER - Watch the Earth right on your desktop!
Check it out at http://www.inbox.com/earth

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Randy Dawson]

About 10 ISC (Intecolor) 19" color computers, set them on the curb for the 
trash.
These were 2MHz 8080 computers, wit a modified MS Basic in them.

MY company (USDATA) sold these as realtime industrial control terminals for use 
with Programmable Logic Controllers.

We modified the Basic, trapping 'syntax error' and jumped to our code that 
would parse new statements we added for PLC communications, reading and or 
writing to PLC memory. 

Most were working, I got tired of hauling them around.  I should have kept one 
or two.

Randy


From: cctalk <cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org> on behalf of Eric Christopherson 
<echristopher...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2016 8:54 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

On Wed, May 18, 2016, Swift Griggs wrote:
>
> I've stack-ranked all the classic items that I, to my everlasting shame,
> let go of at some point and now I feel like it was a mistake:

I guess I don't have too much to regret yet. The things I regret getting
rid of:
1. My family's first Commodore PET 8032, back in 1988 or so. Strangely I
miss the books more than the system, though, perhaps because I have
another system like it now. It was great to see one of the books I
missed most from that set a few years ago at a friend's house; I gave
him $5 for it. It was available on Bombjack, but I had no idea what it
was called or how to find it. Anyway, the 8032 thrown on the curb was
working except for some keyboard keys, and had a nice LQ daisywheel
printer and an 8050 dual floppy drive. Both worked AFAIK, except that
one time I apparently sent a control code to the printer that switched
it to real ASCII, and I could never get it back to PETSCII even with a
power cycle. My new 8032 worked perfectly, including the keys, in the
late 1990s when I got it, but has stopped powering on now.
2. My NES and SNES with a fairly good number of games, plus a Super
Advantage. I don't know what specific revisions the consoles were, but
they didn't look like the later redesigns. I reasoned that emulating
games was not only good enough but better, because I could pause,
rewind, and fast-forward them.
3. My first Intel PC, a GHC EasyData 486SX/25. If I had known EasyData
was so uncommon I probably would have kept it. It was no speed demon,
even after I put the OverDrive and 24 MB (I think it was) in it, but it
was a big step up from 8-bits.
4. Various systems I got to see only a few times at my dad's work, when
they liquidated the company a few years after he died. I was interested
in the Sun workstations and to a lesser extent the Harris mini (not sure
what kind). But I would have been even less equipped to deal with them
(especially the big metal) than I am now.

--
Eric Christopherson

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Marc Howard]

I'd love to get one of those (PXM9XX).  I designed the video card and the
active backplane.  I had to route all the ECL data paths by hand as there
were no automated tools for that at the time.

That beast was built in an amazingly short period of time, about 8-9 months
as I recall.  The DSP32 processors  in there had gold plated pins on the
bottom as well as gold plated pads on the topside of each PGA.  You could
probe signals from the top of the board which was really handy.

Marc


On Wed, May 18, 2016 at 2:43 PM, George Currie  wrote:

> On Wed, 18 May 2016 14:50:17 -0600 (MDT), Swift Griggs <
> swiftgri...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I've stack-ranked all the classic items that I, to my everlasting shame,
>> let go of at some point and now I feel like it was a mistake:
>>
>
> It wasn't one I ever really possessed so technically it wasn't a
> throw/sell away, but it was one that got away.
>
> That as an AT Pixel Machines PXM900.  It was at an university auction, I
> had already gone way over budget and I would have had to bid on the entire
> pallet of stuff in order to get it.  I anguished, bid anyway, got outbid
> and declined to bid further.  I immediately regretted the decision,
> contacted the buyer right after the auction, he told me he'd get back to me
> on Monday (yeah, you can see it coming).  When I called on Monday, he was
> glowing about how much gold was in the thing and he had already scrapped it
> :(
>
> I still regret that decision to this day (if it wasn't already obvious).
>
> Sigh.
>

RE: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Craig Solomonson]

My regret list is quite long but at the top are:

1. Three Apple 1 computers including one in the box with all the extras
and a personal letter from Steve Jobs telling what keyboard to use with
it.
2. A working Bendix G-15 that was in my classroom in the early 1970's.
3. A working Burroughs B-3300
4. A Univac Short Code manual from 1952

And soon I can add to the list my entire collection as it is moving to a
new home next month.

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Pete Lancashire]

AH yea.. the gold scrappers don't get me going 

Brand new "NIB" Minuteman I D-17 computer section, the whole thing in
a wooden crate.

Even had the white exterior panels, remember them each had  "Warning
Magnesium" stamped on the inside. Was around 1985.

Offered $100 about 2 x scrap, he said he would think about it.. came
back a couple days later, yep .. scrapped for the $20 of gold it may
of had in it

I was able to salvage the disk memory .. still have it, can be seen in
the Wikipedia picture Everytime I see it I get pissed. It would have
made a cool living room table !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-17B#/media/File:Autonetics_D-17.JPG

On Wed, May 18, 2016 at 2:43 PM, George Currie  wrote:
> On Wed, 18 May 2016 14:50:17 -0600 (MDT), Swift Griggs
>  wrote:
>>
>> I've stack-ranked all the classic items that I, to my everlasting shame,
>> let go of at some point and now I feel like it was a mistake:
>
>
> It wasn't one I ever really possessed so technically it wasn't a throw/sell
> away, but it was one that got away.
>
> That as an AT Pixel Machines PXM900.  It was at an university auction, I
> had already gone way over budget and I would have had to bid on the entire
> pallet of stuff in order to get it.  I anguished, bid anyway, got outbid and
> declined to bid further.  I immediately regretted the decision, contacted
> the buyer right after the auction, he told me he'd get back to me on Monday
> (yeah, you can see it coming).  When I called on Monday, he was glowing
> about how much gold was in the thing and he had already scrapped it :(
>
> I still regret that decision to this day (if it wasn't already obvious).
>
> Sigh.
>

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Pete Lancashire]

>4. Sun Voyager.

Friend who retired from Sun had a couple of them. Offered me one.
*bash* *bash* *bash*

At least I kept the prototype Sun 1

-pete

On Wed, May 18, 2016 at 1:50 PM, Swift Griggs  wrote:
>
> I've stack-ranked all the classic items that I, to my everlasting shame,
> let go of at some point and now I feel like it was a mistake:
>
> 1. Amiga 2500. I ditched it thinking I'd pick up a 3000 then never did.
> Ugh. It was free. They were using at some radio station where I helped
> them fix their PCs but then decided I wanted their Amiga (stashed in a
> closet) to subsidize my fee.
>
> 2. SGI Indigo R4400 with pristine KB + mouse, Maxxed RAM, and Elan. Ugh.
> /me bangs head against wall
>
> 3. Mac IIci with 060' accelerator. I put the accelerator in and paid $$$
>   for it. Darn it. That was a cool system.
>
> 4. Sun Voyager. These go for a fortune now on Ebay. I *gave* mine away.
> Not this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sun_Voyager
> This one: http://tinyurl.com/lhzjfks
>
> 5. NeXTStation Color Turbo. I got tired of the proprietary-everything and
> the space it was taking to keep it working and pristine. Still. I wish I
> hadn't sold it.
>
> 6. Mac Quadra 660AV. This was a pizzabox M68k classic mac with a video
> frame capture (a crappy one but still...) capability. I notice you can't
> really even buy classic macs on ebay anymore. There used to be scads of
> them. Damn... does that mean I'm old now?
>
> 7. SGI Origin 200 dual R12k 270Mhz. It's the top model Origin 200 and it
> had good skins etc... If I had it today it'd be running in my garage with
> the rest of the zoo. I had to ditch some gear to move way back when, and
> this box was a casualty.
>
> 8. Sharp Wizard OZ-8000 organizer. This thing rocked. I'd probably be
> tempted to *use* it. I got a lot of mileage out of it "back in the day". It
> ran on a Z80 and took AAA batteries (yes!). Plus I had (and maybe I still
> do) a DB9 serial interface for it. You could use it as a vt220 terminal,
> IIRC.
>
> 9. Atari Lynx. I had all the cool games. Like a fool I sold mine for some
> quick money in college to help fund a silly trip with some chick who is
> long gone long ago. Ugh. I'd rather have the Lynx back...
>
> 10. TRS-80 model 100. I didn't really like it that much, but nowadays it'd
> look cool in my collection and I have more nostalgic love for the
> trasheighty. Plus it takes AA batteries (I love that!).
>
> -Swift
>

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Jos Dreesen]

- Gave away a PDP 8/F for free
- Sold a Tektronix 31 which I now regret.
- Did not take a free Apollo DN1 and an also free PDP11/44, both because of 
space constraints.
- Had to leave around 7 Philips P856/P857 minis in the trash, only kept one and 
the core memories of the others

But then we all have our stories..

Jos

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Eric Christopherson]

On Wed, May 18, 2016, Swift Griggs wrote:
> 
> I've stack-ranked all the classic items that I, to my everlasting shame, 
> let go of at some point and now I feel like it was a mistake:

I guess I don't have too much to regret yet. The things I regret getting
rid of:
1. My family's first Commodore PET 8032, back in 1988 or so. Strangely I
miss the books more than the system, though, perhaps because I have
another system like it now. It was great to see one of the books I
missed most from that set a few years ago at a friend's house; I gave
him $5 for it. It was available on Bombjack, but I had no idea what it
was called or how to find it. Anyway, the 8032 thrown on the curb was
working except for some keyboard keys, and had a nice LQ daisywheel
printer and an 8050 dual floppy drive. Both worked AFAIK, except that
one time I apparently sent a control code to the printer that switched
it to real ASCII, and I could never get it back to PETSCII even with a
power cycle. My new 8032 worked perfectly, including the keys, in the
late 1990s when I got it, but has stopped powering on now.
2. My NES and SNES with a fairly good number of games, plus a Super
Advantage. I don't know what specific revisions the consoles were, but
they didn't look like the later redesigns. I reasoned that emulating
games was not only good enough but better, because I could pause,
rewind, and fast-forward them.
3. My first Intel PC, a GHC EasyData 486SX/25. If I had known EasyData
was so uncommon I probably would have kept it. It was no speed demon,
even after I put the OverDrive and 24 MB (I think it was) in it, but it
was a big step up from 8-bits.
4. Various systems I got to see only a few times at my dad's work, when
they liquidated the company a few years after he died. I was interested
in the Sun workstations and to a lesser extent the Harris mini (not sure
what kind). But I would have been even less equipped to deal with them
(especially the big metal) than I am now.

-- 
Eric Christopherson

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Terry Stewart]

Yes, sometimes these things are thrown away in ignorance.  Before I got
into the hobby I junked a 40 track, SS Tandon drive because I figured
something had broken.  Now I know more, I'm sure it was just dirty heads
from using degraded disks.  Something a minute or two with a wet q-tip
would have fixed!

Terry (Tez)

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Jerry Weiss]

I am not sure I should read any more of this thread just before I head out to 
the Dayton Hamvention (http://hamvention.org).  

I no longer want to bring anything to put up for sale.  I may need to have the 
spouse take away my wallet.
Thought the amount and quality of vintage computers has been on the decline 
over the years, you still never know what “I really deserve that”  item will 
show up in the flea market.

Jerry


> On May 18, 2016, at 5:05 PM, Benjamin Huntsman 
>  wrote:
> 
> Among my regret list are:
> 
> 1. HP 150 and 9121D, which I traded for:
> 2. Macintosh Plus in perfect condition
> 3. 6x NeXT Cubes which I profited on heavily, but liquidated the last three 
> at fire-sale prices.  However, I at least managed to trade for a Color Turbo 
> NeXTStation and a few peripherals
> 4. VAX 4000-500, which was way too big, but very fun
> 5. VAXstation 4000/VLC in perfect condition
> 
> Of all of those, I think I'd take the HP 150 back first.  That touch screen 
> was just so fun.

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Pete Turnbull]

On 18/05/2016 21:50, Swift Griggs wrote:


I've stack-ranked all the classic items that I, to my everlasting shame,
let go of at some point and now I feel like it was a mistake:


I can sympathise.  I regret selling or giving away (or in one case 
lending, never to recover) these:


- my first Exidy Sorcerer, with 48K, every ROM PAC and every manual I 
could buy, and a lot of mods,


- a PDP-11/40, missing power supplies, but with a full complement of 
CPU cards and memory, and several interfaces,


- a BBC Microcomputer, Issue 1, serial no 671; not a great machine 
compared to later ones I still have, but historic,


- an SGI Indy which I sold for little more than the cost of shipping,

- a Commodore PET 4032 (though I still have an early 2001 8K with MOS 
Technology RAM and ROM),


- a nice VT131, a VT102, and a couple of VT220s,

- a big collection of SCSI and IEEE-488 cables,

and more.  OTOH, I don't really have enough space for the stuff I still 
do have, nor enough time and energy to make it all work!


--
Pete

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[jwsmobile]

I freely admit I should have engaged in larceny at my university, as a 
very nice working 8/S was trashed shortly after I didn't try to leave 
with it.


At the next school, they had two fully working IBM 1620's and a GT40 
which were working and of course would have been a problem too, but they 
were also not saved.  Though not knowing the source of the GT40 at the 
CHM that may in fact be it.


The Microdata 3200 at the CHM came from USL, however and was saved.

thanks
Jim

On 5/18/2016 5:01 PM, Peter C. Wallace wrote:


Convex computer 

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[TeoZ]

I must be luck in that I never sold or gave away anything I regret. My 
problem is passing on things I should have snagged. 



---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Peter C. Wallace]

Things I wish I had not gotten rid of...

Convex computer

PDP-8S

Perq 1

Xerox 8010 (x5)

Singer system 11 proto boards

Singer 1654 calculator prototype

Friden 7102 ascii terminal

Intel iPSC


Peter Wallace
Mesa Electronics

RE: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Benjamin Huntsman]

>Whoa. That's a really "cute" machine. What are those drives in the front,
>flopticals or just cool looking 3.5" floppies ? I'm looking at this:
>
>http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/photos/hp_hp150_1.jpg
>
>-Swift

No, it's just a sort-of ordinary, though thick floppy drive.  The one I had 
contained two floppy drives, and had a blue power button.  I think I remember 
the drives being single sided.
The floppy drives attached to the system unit over HP-IB, and the cable I had 
connected at a strange angle and was barely long enough to stack the system as 
depicted in the picture you linked.
There were several expansion slots in the back of the system unit, and there 
was space in the top for a thermal printer, though I never had any cards or the 
printer.  I got the thing from my grandmother, who had two at one time and the 
second one had the printer and all the software, but she had pitched it before 
I thought to acquire the other one.  It was too bad, because the other one had 
a chess game that could use the touch screen that was tons of fun to play as a 
kid.  However, the keyboard on it was one of the worst I ever experienced.  The 
keycaps were all rectangular, and the kickstand put it up at such a steep angle 
that if you didn't make sure to press each key perfectly straight down, you'd 
accidentally push the key toward the back of the keyboard a bit and it'd get 
pinched and not go down far enough to register a keypress.  The whole system 
isn't quite 100% MS-DOS compatible, so you can't boot it from any old DOS boot 
disk.  I never had the original disks once it was actually "mine".

Anyway, fun times.

-Ben

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Sean Caron]

On Wed, 18 May 2016, Swift Griggs wrote:



I've stack-ranked all the classic items that I, to my everlasting shame,
let go of at some point and now I feel like it was a mistake:

1. Amiga 2500. I ditched it thinking I'd pick up a 3000 then never did.
Ugh. It was free. They were using at some radio station where I helped
them fix their PCs but then decided I wanted their Amiga (stashed in a
closet) to subsidize my fee.

2. SGI Indigo R4400 with pristine KB + mouse, Maxxed RAM, and Elan. Ugh.
/me bangs head against wall

3. Mac IIci with 060' accelerator. I put the accelerator in and paid $$$
 for it. Darn it. That was a cool system.

4. Sun Voyager. These go for a fortune now on Ebay. I *gave* mine away.
Not this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sun_Voyager
This one: http://tinyurl.com/lhzjfks

5. NeXTStation Color Turbo. I got tired of the proprietary-everything and
the space it was taking to keep it working and pristine. Still. I wish I
hadn't sold it.

6. Mac Quadra 660AV. This was a pizzabox M68k classic mac with a video
frame capture (a crappy one but still...) capability. I notice you can't
really even buy classic macs on ebay anymore. There used to be scads of
them. Damn... does that mean I'm old now?

7. SGI Origin 200 dual R12k 270Mhz. It's the top model Origin 200 and it
had good skins etc... If I had it today it'd be running in my garage with
the rest of the zoo. I had to ditch some gear to move way back when, and
this box was a casualty.

8. Sharp Wizard OZ-8000 organizer. This thing rocked. I'd probably be
tempted to *use* it. I got a lot of mileage out of it "back in the day". It
ran on a Z80 and took AAA batteries (yes!). Plus I had (and maybe I still
do) a DB9 serial interface for it. You could use it as a vt220 terminal,
IIRC.

9. Atari Lynx. I had all the cool games. Like a fool I sold mine for some
quick money in college to help fund a silly trip with some chick who is
long gone long ago. Ugh. I'd rather have the Lynx back...

10. TRS-80 model 100. I didn't really like it that much, but nowadays it'd
look cool in my collection and I have more nostalgic love for the
trasheighty. Plus it takes AA batteries (I love that!).

-Swift



Ah, man. I lost a Q660AV myself and I do miss it. That said, I'm lucky to 
still have my PM8500 (held together with epoxy, LOL) to salve the wound a 
little ... as well as a few other boxes you list. I do confess I tossed a 
TRS-80 Model 100 a few years back and I feel no guilt :O


AFAIK an '060 accelerator was never sold for the Mac platform. Was that a 
real thing? I know a PPC 601 upgrade was available for the IIci as well as 
many nice '040 accelerators ... the Radius Rocket ... etc.


Here's mine:

DEC microVAX III BA23 (w/ SCSI)
DEC microVAX I BA23
IBM PS/2 Mod 95
IBM PS/2 L40 SX
DECpc AXP 150
PDP 11/03
Q660 AV
PM 6100 AV DOS Compatible (for real!)
Intergraph Series 2400 (x2)
Sun Ultra 1 200e

Not to mention still "interesting" stuff I cared less about ... microVAX 
2000s, DECstation 5000s ... I maybe should have appreciated the Sun 3/60 
more; the DECstation 2100 and 3100 ... I lost a really nice pile of spare
Q-bus boards. A pile of RA72s. My RRD40. Two VR290s ... I actually traded 
away a BA123 cabinet once (what was I thinking?)


And then all the 8-bit Apple II and Commodore 64 stuff, common PS/2 boxes, 
PC clones and boxes of supporting boards, cables, etc. I wish I still had

it all :O

Best,

Sean

RE: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Fred Cisin]

On Wed, 18 May 2016, Jarratt RMA wrote:

1. HP 150 and 9121D, [...]

I have one of these. It it a pretty ordinary 3.5" floppy as I recall. Really
pleased with my example! It is just missing the printer in the top of the
monitor.


There have been a few minor changes in the disks, mostly the shutters, 
over the years.


1) The first one that I saw did not have a shutter.  I don't know whether 
that was intended, or merely a shortcut to try to get the first 
engineering samples out the door.


2) The next ones had a manual shutter.  Manually slide it to open, 
manually slide it to close.


3) The first ones that I saw on an HP150 I think may have been "pinch" 
disks. If you slid the shutter open, it latched.  Or, if you banged the 
disk on the table (which couldn't have been good for the life of the 
shutter latch)  Some computers opened it automatically.  When you took the 
disk out, the shutter was still open.  There was a spot on the corner of 
the disk to "pinch" that released the shutter, and it closed.  Some were 
labelled, "PINCH", some just had an arrow pointing to the pinch spot.


4) When automatic shutters (as used now) appeared, many of the disks still 
had the arrow pointing to the pinch spot.  'Course now that was "to show 
you which side of the disk goes into the drive".



Some of the early disks had a breakout tab for write-protect, before they 
went to the slider.

RE: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Jarratt RMA]

> On 18 May 2016 at 23:31 Swift Griggs  wrote:
>
>
> On Wed, 18 May 2016, Benjamin Huntsman wrote:
> > 1. HP 150 and 9121D, [...]
>
> Whoa. That's a really "cute" machine. What are those drives in the front,
> flopticals or just cool looking 3.5" floppies ? I'm looking at this:
>
> http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/photos/hp_hp150_1.jpg
>


I have one of these. It it a pretty ordinary 3.5" floppy as I recall. Really
pleased with my example! It is just missing the printer in the top of the
monitor.

Regards

Rob

RE: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Swift Griggs]

On Wed, 18 May 2016, Benjamin Huntsman wrote:
> 1. HP 150 and 9121D, [...] 

Whoa. That's a really "cute" machine. What are those drives in the front, 
flopticals or just cool looking 3.5" floppies ? I'm looking at this:

http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/photos/hp_hp150_1.jpg

-Swift

RE: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Benjamin Huntsman]

Among my regret list are:

1. HP 150 and 9121D, which I traded for:
2. Macintosh Plus in perfect condition
3. 6x NeXT Cubes which I profited on heavily, but liquidated the last three at 
fire-sale prices.  However, I at least managed to trade for a Color Turbo 
NeXTStation and a few peripherals
4. VAX 4000-500, which was way too big, but very fun
5. VAXstation 4000/VLC in perfect condition

Of all of those, I think I'd take the HP 150 back first.  That touch screen was 
just so fun.

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Swift Griggs]

On Wed, 18 May 2016, George Currie wrote:
> When I called on Monday, he was glowing about how much gold was in the 
> thing and he had already scrapped it :(

Grrr! I hate when folks do that! I don't really know why, but anytime 
someone talks about scrapping old kit for the gold, I get irritated. I 
know, it's their stuff, and they can dispose of it how they want. To me 
it's like buying a Stradivarius violin and scrapping it for the 
sprucewood.

-Swift

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[George Currie]

On Wed, 18 May 2016 14:50:17 -0600 (MDT), Swift Griggs 
 wrote:
I've stack-ranked all the classic items that I, to my everlasting 
shame,

let go of at some point and now I feel like it was a mistake:


It wasn't one I ever really possessed so technically it wasn't a 
throw/sell away, but it was one that got away.


That as an AT Pixel Machines PXM900.  It was at an university 
auction, I had already gone way over budget and I would have had to bid 
on the entire pallet of stuff in order to get it.  I anguished, bid 
anyway, got outbid and declined to bid further.  I immediately regretted 
the decision, contacted the buyer right after the auction, he told me 
he'd get back to me on Monday (yeah, you can see it coming).  When I 
called on Monday, he was glowing about how much gold was in the thing 
and he had already scrapped it :(


I still regret that decision to this day (if it wasn't already 
obvious).


Sigh.

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Jarratt RMA]

> On 18 May 2016 at 22:11 Swift Griggs  wrote:
>
>
> On Wed, 18 May 2016, Ben Sinclair wrote:
> > That's a fun and depressing exercise...
>
> Hee hee. I thought so, or perhaps I was just looking for company in my
> mock-misery :-)
>


In my case nothing too spectacular, but I do rather wish I had kept the MIPS
DECstation 5000/240.

Regards

Rob

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Ben Sinclair]

On Wed, May 18, 2016 at 4:11 PM, Swift Griggs  wrote:

> On Wed, 18 May 2016, Ben Sinclair wrote:
> > 5. Next slab... But I just got another!
>
> Hehe, right on. Are you going to run NeXTStep or something else on it? Did
> you get a color framebuffer by chance?
>

It's a mono turbo, so no color! I'm not that into NeXT hardware right now.
I'm mainly interested in SGI and PDP-11 stuff at the moment. If I ever saw
a bargain cube, I'd grab it though.

I do actually have a Voyager running NeXT! I plan to install something else
on it though, since I have a real NeXT machine now. That's a fun machine. I
have a SCSI2SD adapter that I want to try in it, which would make it free
of moving parts. I don't believe it has a fan at all.

I did just sell a Macintosh Portable, so hopefully that doesn't end up on
my regret list someday. I'm not too interested in old Macs, though I do
have a 128k.

-- 
Ben Sinclair
b...@bensinclair.com

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[william degnan]

My mom threw away my Amiga 300 when I went to college "no one was using
it"

But I will always kick myself for not taking a Xerox 386 workstation when I
was offered to take it from work, I used it to compile form processing
applications for a salesforce of reps using GRiD laptops in doctors'
offices.  It had an optical mouse and hi-res for the time.  Along with it I
was also offered a car load of GRiD systems (8088 PLUS' I believe).

Other than that I don't regret giving away or selling things, computers
have a way of leaving you when they're ready to go.

I kind of wish I bought a Apple 1 when I had the offer to get one cheap,
before the prices went ballistic.
-- 
@ BillDeg:
Web: vintagecomputer.net
Twitter: @billdeg 
Youtube: @billdeg 
Unauthorized Bio 

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

[Swift Griggs]

On Wed, 18 May 2016, Ben Sinclair wrote:
> That's a fun and depressing exercise...

Hee hee. I thought so, or perhaps I was just looking for company in my 
mock-misery :-)

> 2. Polymorphic 8813

That thing looks rad. It's partially made from wood. Bonus. 

> 4. Apple ///

Aww man! 

> 5. Next slab... But I just got another!

Hehe, right on. Are you going to run NeXTStep or something else on it? Did 
you get a color framebuffer by chance?

> I had a Wizard OZ-7000 when they were new. It was fun, but the 8000 was 
> much better, mainly because of the keyboard layout.

True, but the 7000 had an interesting form factor and shape. I loved by 
8000, though. 

-Swift