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Essential Computer Books for collectors

M

Micom 2000

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In reading Vlads post regarding the Mueller Upgrading and Repairing Computers book, it occurred to me that I've never seen a thread on this most important subject. There have been many on books about a particular computer or system but none on the overall essential books.

So..... What are the Ten most essential books when collecting and getting working an old computer ?

The Mueller book is obviously in the top ten for Dos systems. I'll have to ponder my other choices and likely the Collectible Microcomputers by Mike Nadeau the founder of the newsletter now so ably continued by our own Even Koblentz is up there, altho I don't have one.

I'll have to cogitate on the others altho I must admit the comp sys newsgroups were my major source of support when I was on the point of taking a sledgehammer to this blasted machine which wouldn't work no matter what my blandishments and coaxings were.

I've spent too long in the belly of an electronic beast !

Lawrence
 
I've got my top three in mind:

Bowker's Source Book (1985 edition)

CP/M Bible

Soul of CP/M

I'll have to do some thinking (prioritizing) on the other eight.

--T
 
Larry Pina

Larry Pina

"Macintosh Repair & Upgrade Secrets" by Larry Pina is my vote at least when working with classic Macs. ;)
 
Terry Yager wrote:

> Do hard/software manuals count? If so, nearly every
> 'Technical Reference Manual' I've ever seen belongs
> on the list.

If so the Turbo Pascal - The Ultimate Pascal Development
Environment (Version 3) from Borland is pretty good.

The Personal Computer Handbook - Peter Rodwell which had a
little bit of everything has been good in it's use. But no, it
hasn't lead me into getting another computer (which is has a
guide to).

Usbourne Electronics books are usually good (depending on the
category they targeted at - I particulartly like their book on
Computer Graphics & their books with BASIC game programs in -
cause they simply tell you how they work, some of those
samples are the building blocks to programs done by commercial
companies).

Another good reference I like is this Assembly Language for
the Amstrad CPC464, 664 & 6128 - it's still valuable today for
when I want some Assembly code in my program. Examples used
are quite practical. Others in the CPC have recommended other
references - but this ain't too bad. I brought it at a time
when I was learning some Assembly & this seemed to focus on
Assembly using the first Assembler I got. In more recent times
I've perhaps used it a little bit more.

Cheers,
CP/M User.
 
Well with all the books available perhaps there should be a Hardware and a software list. Possibly an ongoing poll if someone wants to set that up where we could vote for top ten Hardware and Software books. Enlightening and fun.

Lawrence
 
This is reputably the best source book on Macs. While I have around 10 thick tomes on the Mac including "The Mac Bible", and several 2nd editions of other big sellers, unfortunately I don't have this one. Just on heresay I'd have to vote for this book.

mryon said:
"Macintosh Repair & Upgrade Secrets" by Larry Pina is my vote at least when working with classic Macs. ;)
Click to expand...

While checking and preparing a C-64 for shipping I realised I had forgotten much of my Commodore lore.
Partly because I've used GEOS when I do get back to it.

On refreshing my memory with some of my C-64 books,
including "Computes" books, "Anatomy of the 1541 Disk Drive", and others, the most useful one I found was "Using the Commodore 64" by Len Lyons(1984).

Now I'm getting an Apple IIe ready. Again, the memory banks are empty. The IIGS with Apple Works has been my
last usage of A-IIs.

After that comes preparing some Atari 8-bits and possibly some CPM Kaypros. This is becoming fun !
It's so much less frustrating when the machine is working.

Lawrence
 
My interest is mostly in S-100 buss computers, and especially Altairs. As such, I think two good reference books are Frieberger's "Fire in the Valley" (on which the TV series "Pirates of Silicon Valley" was based) and Stan Veit's "History of the Personal Computer". Cringely's book "Accidental Empires" is good, but doesn't say much about S-100s, but the PBS TV series ("Triumph of the Nerds") based on the book had some good info.

Although now pretty dated, Haddock's "Collector's Guide to Personal Computers and Pocket Calculators" has much good reference info, too.
 
I forgot about the early books. I sold a while back in times of need, a DEC PC-8-m(?) manual. It included the best description of the "fetch" sequence and other processes of a CPU that I have ever seen. It mirrored but in more detail the course I was taking in Digital Electronics. Truly a primer on computers.

The second book I sold was on S-100 cards. Again I can't remember the name or the author, likely on one of my boxes which are no longer available. Apparently it is a classic to all S-100 people, the name "Brown" rings a bell.
It had pics of about 50 S-100 boards and their specs as well as other S-100 functionings. I'll search some of my older hard-drives for the auction pics and data but it is fairly well-known.

That raises the qualifier for "essential". For most hackers it is not essential to know the functioning of a CPU or even the FIFO, memory, or BUS relationship. Usually it is more
essential knowing how the software uses this hardware. I do think an understanding of the whole process can enable you to troubleshoot and get this hardware working because you know the processes.

And the best books keep this in mind when leading you thru the processes of the machine and the software commands.

Lawrence
 
I'm not familiar with that book. Please let us know if you find the title.

Micom 2000 said:
The second book I sold was on S-100 cards. Again I can't remember the name or the author, likely on one of my boxes which are no longer available. Apparently it is a classic to all S-100 people, the name "Brown" rings a bell.
It had pics of about 50 S-100 boards and their specs as well as other S-100 functionings. I'll search some of my older hard-drives for the auction pics and data but it is fairly well-known.
Lawrence
Click to expand...
 
If we're counting e-books, there's a guy on eBay who has compiled a series of CDs, filled with massive amounts of vintage computer information. So far, all I've done is drool over them, but those who have invested in the set recomend them highly. I'd have to include those CDs in the category of 'Essential' for people beginning to collect, just because of the sheer volume of books that are not available anywhere else.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZdynacompsoftwareQQssPageNameZSTRKQ3aMEFSQ3aMESOI

<insert standard disclaimers here>

--T
 
Terry Yager said:
If we're counting e-books, there's a guy on eBay who has compiled a series of CDs, filled with massive amounts of vintage computer information.
Click to expand...

I've asked him to put that stuff on DVD so I can buy it all at once! :)

I have the first three or four disks (I can't remember anymore!) but stopped buying them at that point.

I'll probably fill out the collection sometime and burn it to DVD myself! :D

I do admire the effort that went into scanning all of that material. I hope the investment is paying off.
 
Erik said:
... I do admire the effort that went into scanning all of that material. I hope the investment is paying off.
Click to expand...

It might be paying off for him, but it's not doing me any good. In the case of the Altair manuals, many of them appear to be second-generation scans of the manuals that I have been selling for the past 10 years or so.
I can't blame anyone for buying a cheap CD instead of a printed manual, but it makes me wonder why I bothered to invest so much time and effort (copying, scanning, cleaning up, 25 years of physical storage and archiving) into something that was so easily appropriated by others.
 
alltare said:
It might be paying off for him, but it's not doing me any good. In the case of the Altair manuals, many of them appear to be second-generation scans of the manuals that I have been selling for the past 10 years or so.
I can't blame anyone for buying a cheap CD instead of a printed manual, but it makes me wonder why I bothered to invest so much time and effort (copying, scanning, cleaning up, 25 years of physical storage and archiving) into something that was so easily appropriated by others.
Click to expand...

I'm sure Herb Johnson feels the same way.

But, by the same token, nothing on these CDs is the property of this eBay seller. . . anyone else could sell what he's selling, couldn't they? :rolleyes:
 
Erik said:
I'm sure Herb Johnson feels the same way.

But, by the same token, nothing on these CDs is the property of this eBay seller. . . anyone else could sell what he's selling, couldn't they? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Sure, anyone who's willing to defy whatever copyright laws he's already breaking.

BTW, let us know when you have the DVD ready for distribution.

--T
 
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