Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-24 Thread Eric Smith
On Sat, Dec 24, 2016 at 8:10 AM, Peter Corlett wrote: > On Fri, Dec 23, 2016 at 04:14:28AM -0700, Eric Smith wrote: > > The same trick works perfectly well with a 6502, and in fact was > invented by > > Don Lancaster using a 6502 years before the ZX80 was designed. That >

Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-24 Thread Peter Corlett
On Fri, Dec 23, 2016 at 04:14:28AM -0700, Eric Smith wrote: > On Fri, Dec 23, 2016 at 3:59 AM, Peter Corlett wrote: >> People who know Uncle Clive's unwillingness to spend a penny more than he >> has to on bulding computers may wonder why they selected the relatively >>

Re: BBC Micro - was Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-23 Thread Guy Dawson
and Snapper *IS* Pac Man On 23 December 2016 at 21:10, Adrian Graham wrote: > On 23/12/2016 17:00, "Liam Proven" wrote: > > >> The Acornsoft games were very high quality (hard to distinguish from > their > >> arcade inspirations). > >> > >> But

Re: BBC Micro - was Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-23 Thread Adrian Graham
On 23/12/2016 17:00, "Liam Proven" wrote: >> The Acornsoft games were very high quality (hard to distinguish from their >> arcade inspirations). >> >> But I was mostly interested in programming, so I loved our BBC Micro Model B >> to bits. A far superior machine to the Apple

Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-23 Thread Liam Proven
On 23 December 2016 at 19:56, Liam Proven wrote: > The Apple ][E was > £1390 in 1983 Sorry -- wrong currency sign. $1390. -- Liam Proven • Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • Google Mail/Talk/Plus: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/Flickr:

Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-23 Thread Liam Proven
On 23 December 2016 at 16:00, allison wrote: > When the timex/sinclair with membrane keys got her eit was around 99$ > and immensely unpopular the later chicklet keyboard version was better > accepted. > BY then people wanted printer and mass storage and that machine was 2-4

Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-23 Thread Liam Proven
On 23 December 2016 at 19:34, Michael Holley wrote: > I was in London in 1981 and happened upon a computer faire. Here is a > write-up published in Seattle's Northwest Computer Society newsletter. It is > an American's view of the English computer scene. >

RE: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-23 Thread Michael Holley
-Original Message- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Peter Corlett Sent: Friday, December 23, 2016 2:59 AM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards? >The "at least i

Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-23 Thread allison
On 12/23/2016 10:16 AM, Liam Proven wrote: > On 23 December 2016 at 10:59, Peter Corlett wrote: >> The "at least in the US" caveat is important :) > Absolutely. > >> Sinclair's Z80-based ZX Spectrum was outrageously successful in the UK. Every >> teenage bedroom seemed to have

Re: BBC Micro - was Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-23 Thread Tony Duell
>> But I was mostly interested in programming, so I loved our BBC Micro Model B >> to bits. A far superior machine to the Apple and Commodores. > > I agree that it was a far superior machine. It had its limitations -- > shortage of RAM, notably -- but it was a great design. My personal view is

Re: BBC Micro - was Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-23 Thread Toby Thain
On 2016-12-23 2:00 PM, Liam Proven wrote: On 23 December 2016 at 15:50, Toby Thain wrote: On 2016-12-23 12:16 PM, Liam Proven wrote: ... The BBC Micro, at another quarter or third over the price of a C-64 but with a superb BASIC instead of CBM's abomination, was

Re: BBC Micro - was Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-23 Thread Liam Proven
On 23 December 2016 at 15:50, Toby Thain wrote: > On 2016-12-23 12:16 PM, Liam Proven wrote: >> >> ... >> The BBC Micro, at another quarter or third over the price of a C-64 >> but with a superb BASIC instead of CBM's abomination, was what the >> unfortunate children of

BBC Micro - was Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-23 Thread Toby Thain
On 2016-12-23 12:16 PM, Liam Proven wrote: ... The BBC Micro, at another quarter or third over the price of a C-64 but with a superb BASIC instead of CBM's abomination, was what the unfortunate children of very serious, very wealthy people bought. Not nearly so many games and not very good.

Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-23 Thread Liam Proven
On 23 December 2016 at 10:59, Peter Corlett wrote: > The "at least in the US" caveat is important :) Absolutely. > Sinclair's Z80-based ZX Spectrum was outrageously successful in the UK. Every > teenage bedroom seemed to have one by the late 1980s. The various 6502-based >

Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-23 Thread Eric Smith
On Fri, Dec 23, 2016 at 3:59 AM, Peter Corlett wrote: > People who know Uncle Clive's unwillingness to spend a penny more than he > has > to on bulding computers may wonder why they selected the relatively > expensive > Z80 over the 6502, but it was because they managed to

Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-23 Thread Peter Corlett
On Thu, Dec 22, 2016 at 08:01:46PM -0600, drlegendre . wrote: > "The Z80 had more players and more names than all the rest" > And yet it was essentially a bit-player in the days of the 'home computer' > revolution - at least in the US. CBM, Apple, Atari - the three big names in > home computers,

Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-22 Thread Eric Smith
On Thu, Dec 22, 2016 at 7:01 PM, drlegendre . wrote: > The Z80 also showed up in the Osborne, Kaypro and TRS-80 models.. mostly > due to the fact that CP/M was written to it. > Use of the Z80 in the mainstream TRS-80 models (1 and III) had little or nothing to do with

Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-22 Thread drlegendre .
"The Z80 had more players and more names than all the rest" And yet it was essentially a bit-player in the days of the 'home computer' revolution - at least in the US. CBM, Apple, Atari - the three big names in home computers, all went with the 6502 family. And perhaps even more importantly, so

Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-22 Thread allison
On 12/21/2016 07:06 PM, Sam O'nella wrote: > On Wed, Dec 21, 2016 at 5:54 PM, j...@cimmeri.com wrote: > >> >> On 12/17/2016 1:23 PM, Stephen Pereira wrote: >> >>> I was (finally) lucky enough to acquire an Altair 680 back in November... >>> >> Is there any logic to the naming of

Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-21 Thread drlegendre .
Dammat. "were not limited" -> "were more limited" On Wed, Dec 21, 2016 at 9:15 PM, drlegendre . wrote: > I have my own ridiculous ad-hoc hypothesis on this.. > > Both names have a couple things in common - first, they do +not+ contain > the actual CPU model. This may have

Re: Altair 8800 name Was: Re: Altair 680 Expansion Boards?

2016-12-21 Thread drlegendre .
I have my own ridiculous ad-hoc hypothesis on this.. Both names have a couple things in common - first, they do +not+ contain the actual CPU model. This may have been to avoid marketplace confusion and potential legal action from a outfit much bigger than Altair (Now who makes the 8080 again?