Where are the unusual systems?

[Chuck(G)]

I've seen lots of major-brand systems mentioned here but very few off-brands. Where are the Tiki-100s, the IBS Ultraframes, the NEC Bungos, the Preis-es, the People's Worlds?

Someone have something obscure?

 

[pontus]

I've seen lots of major-brand systems mentioned here but very few off-brands. Where are the Tiki-100s, the IBS Ultraframes, the NEC Bungos, the Preis-es, the People's Worlds?

Someone have something obscure?

I have a Norsk Data ND-110/CX. An fairly odd mini made in Norway. Today it's pretty much me, a few swedes and the North Korean air force who uses them

The company where I work has a few oddballs as well, such as the swedish unixmachine called "Diab" and I _think_ there is a Bull (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupe_Bull) in the attic.

I've never heard about the ones you listed, the commodores and apples get all the attention

 

[Chuck(G)]

I've never heard about the ones you listed, the commodores and apples get all the attention

My Tiki-100 samples came from a customer in Sweden who, I believe said it was a Swedish-made system.

Here's a NEC Bungo Mini5. The Bungo was actually a line of machines, from a fairly clunky desktop system to color laptops. Mostly intended for word processing (Japanese and Roman character sets), the early ones ran CP/M. Very cool stuff.

The IBS Ultraframe was a mid 1980's S-100 system using multiple 80186 boards for up to 32 users. Iit ran CP/M-86.

The Preis was a luggable CP/M Z-80 system and one of the first ones that I'm aware of to use the new Sony 3.5" format (single-sided, 40 cylinders, 600 RPM).

The People's World (not to be confused with the Olympia "People") would be a real find today. A 1970's system coming out of Berkeley, it had a wooden case with engraved brass nameplate.

Whatever happened to these old systems?

People know about the KIM-1, but how about a NEC TK-80 (1976):

 

[carlsson]

I believe Tiki was Norwegian, but I could be wrong. Regarding less common CP/M computers, how do the Danish RC series count? There was a forum member a couple of years ago who owned a RC Piccolo or if it was RC Partner, but he's not active any more.

 

[barythrin]

Hm.. not sure what my unusual systems would be, I guess I have lots of the common collectibles. I have a Panasonic Electronic Typing Station (cp/m desktop system) that's interesting. I also have the portable Columbia Data Products PC http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=889.

Don't think I have anything too uncommon, I started collecting systems that were known as firsts to minimize my spending although it still doesn't work that well.

 

[pontus]

If trainers counts I have swedish kit called "Mickey" its an 8085-based kit made by "NTI-skolan" for learning about electronics and computing. hmm.. I should probably dump those roms before they go bad.

Never seen or heard about this kit before I found it in my fathers attic.

 

[per]

I believe Tiki was Norwegian, but I could be wrong.

Yes, they where. Named after one of the expeditions [Kon-Tiki ekspedisjonen] of the (in)famous norwegian explorer "Thor Heyerdahl".

In fact, my school might have a pile of them (along with a pile of Tandberg computers). At least, they had a pile of them until pretty recently. I've asked a teacher (several times) if he can check if they're still there, but he never get the time.

Want one of them

 

[ahm]

The Preis was a luggable CP/M Z-80 system and one of the first ones that I'm aware of to use the new Sony 3.5" format (single-sided, 40 cylinders, 600 RPM).

Very interesting. Any idea what year that came out? Got any photos?

Thanks,
Andy

 

[Chuck(G)]

Very interesting. Any idea what year that came out? Got any photos?

About 1982. No photos, but I still have a boot diskette and BIOS listing. I remember it mostly because I was asked to code up hard disk support for it. When the project was over, I returned the system to the customer. ISTR that the hard drive was an Evotek (fairly large for the time, but flakey as all get out), but never did get to see it actually put in the box--the unit I used was spread out on my bench, as was the controller.

 

[Terry Yager]

All I ever get around here is the proverbial (virtual) blank stare whenever I mention the PMC MicroMate, which is one of my favorite computers. I didn't think they were that obscure, anyone else remember them? No pix yet, but I'll try and post some tomorrow (I'm in no condition to dig it out tonight).

--T

EDIT: Never mind, google produced this:

http://www.computercloset.org/PMCMicroMate.htm

Close enough, except mine has a white-faced TEAC drive installed instead, just cause it looked better with the terminal I used to couple it with. I'll prob'ly switch it back to black now, since I'll be using it with an all-black terminal, soon's I get it running again.

--T

 

[Chuck(G)]

You know, Terry, I've got a FH 5.25" drive mounted in the spitting image of that box. I can't recall where I bought the case, but I was looking for an external floppy box and found this particular one (surplus maybe, I don't recall). Does yours also have ventilation slots in the rear panel?

 

[nige the hippy]

Wasn't it Andrew Lynch that picked one of those up too?

I've a few oddments, perhaps the oddest is the Burroughs Ofiswriter, which Al Kossow was wanting a look at 12 months ago, and I still haven't managed to dig out from the corner of the garage, even to photograph (lay the dining room floor, move the furniture out, build the bottom 3 stairs, move the pdp11 to the loft, re-arrange the harmoniums, then I have access!).

The most odd recently acquired machine is the Cifer 2683 (http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=1061) which is a hybrid between a terminal and a CP/M machine) it was on ebay minus keyboard, but with the (ridiculously heavy) twin 8" floppy drives. the company still exists, so I rang them about spare keyboards and documentation, and found that they had given all their spares away a week before.
Tried contacting the museum that had taken the stuff but didn't even get replies to my emails (so much for the spirit of co-operation). Anyway, purely by chance, I decided I would take the 12 or so boxes of terminals offered along with the system disks for the pdp11/systime/PC-RT (thanks again Terry!) and it included a couple of badged Cifer teminals of similar vintage, with a spare compatible keyboard! Hurray!

 

[QuantumII]

The Tiki machines was originally called KonTiki, but legal issues forced them to change it's name to Tiki.
They did a few CPM machines too.

Schools in Norway got good deals on the Tiki machines, that's why most schools here are(were) flooded with them.

 

[Chuck(G)]

The Tiki machines was originally called KonTiki, but legal issues forced them to change it's name to Tiki.
They did a few CPM machines too.

My samples are for the Tiki-100 CP/M version. My Swedish contact said he thought they were Swedish machines, so I'll update my notes.

I've got a sample disk for a Cifer something-or-the-other as well.

How about the hybrid 8/16 bit systems? I know that there are plenty of DEC Rainbows, Xerox 16/8 and Compupro 85/88 systems out there, but how about Vector VSX or Duets?

The systems that I find most interesting are the "last gasp" innovations, such as the Turboslave, offered before the PC buried everything else.

 

[MikeS]

<snip>
How about the hybrid 8/16 bit systems?
<snip>

Does that mean I can count my S-100 8/32 bit dual processor Cromemcos?
Other than those all I've got is fairly normal systems made by rarely-heard-about folks like Halikan, Ogivar, Seritech etc. and, being Canadian, my Dynalogic Hyperions (Hyperia?) of course. I think I did have bits of a Fairchild F8 system somewhere though.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Does that mean I can count my S-100 8/32 bit dual processor Cromemcos?

I'm disinclined to count S-100 systems as they could be mix-n-match. In particular, both Cromemco and Godbout/Compupro made boards for lots of processors.

Do you have the NS32016 board, perchance?

Other than those all I've got is fairly normal systems made by rarely-heard-about folks like Halikan, Ogivar, Seritech etc. and, being Canadian, my Dynalogic Hyperions (Hyperia?) of course. I think I did have bits of a Fairchild F8 system somewhere though.

I know about the Hyperions, but the Halikan, etc. are new to me. Got some specs and photos?

 

[Terry Yager]

You know, Terry, I've got a FH 5.25" drive mounted in the spitting image of that box. I can't recall where I bought the case, but I was looking for an external floppy box and found this particular one (surplus maybe, I don't recall). Does yours also have ventilation slots in the rear panel?

Ya, that's pretty much what it looks like, but it's slightly longer than most external enclosures (see the pictures). There are ventilation holes on the sides & top, but the only holes on the rear panel are for I/O cables (console, printer, RS-232, & disk drives).

--T

 

[Terry Yager]

I decided I would take the 12 or so boxes of terminals offered along with the system disks for the pdp11/systime/PC-RT (thanks again Terry!) and it included a couple of badged Cifer teminals of similar vintage, with a spare compatible keyboard! Hurray!

So, does this mean that you did manage to acquire the disk packs too?

--T

 

[nige the hippy]

Well I did manage to get the 4 disk packs with the system etc on, the "data" disks are still in the safe (and another safe that they have lost the key to!) awaiting me & a degausser or an aluminium chipper If I'd known about them, we could have fired the system up there & then & re-formatted the other disks.

I need to do some homework & find out which surface the servo track lives on & avoid degaussing that, otherwise I just have about 2 lb of aluminium scrap with a vague possibility of resurrection.

When "B"* day happens there's another bottle of nice whisky going to Bob (the furniture shop man) and you!

I now have the original AIX install disks of the PC-RT too, and all but half a volume of the IBM manuals (water damage), hopefully they're readable as I have an ESDI disk ready for that system.

I'm really tempted to have an orange-glowy day soon, as I have my less-interesting stuff nicely shelved-up in the loft now, and some work-space around it. Hmmmmm

*=Boot!

 

[MikeS]

I'm disinclined to count S-100 systems as they could be mix-n-match. In particular, both Cromemco and Godbout/Compupro made boards for lots of processors.

Do you have the NS32016 board, perchance?

I know about the Hyperions, but the Halikan, etc. are new to me. Got some specs and photos?

Yeah, the Cromemcos aren't really the kind of oddball systems you're looking for, but aside from the old 64K Z80 Z-2s and System 3s that everyone seems to associate with Cromemco, they were actually fairly proprietary despite using an extended S-100 bus.

Once you get into the systems with Z-80 and 680x0 CPUs on the same board, using ECC 32-bit memory, MMUs, SCSI and ESDI hard disks and tape drives running UNIX they weren't really compatible with any other hardware or operating systems. They gave DEC's comparable systems a pretty good run for the money, but alas, they didn't quite have the marketing. Like Vector and others they also had a PC-compatible in the final days, but that didn't go anywhere...

The Halikan is just a 286 large laptop, similar to a Toshiba 3100 but with an LCD screen.

The Ogivar is a clamshell 286 laptop, only noteworthy because it was one of the first and, like the Hyperion, it was Canadian.

The Seritech is just another clamshell; not sure but I think a 386sx.

Actually, the only really unusual system I have is a Sharp PC-5000 with its bubble memory cartridges and built-in thermal printer.

Depressing when I think of what I spent for some of the Cromemcos, the Halikan and the Sharp brand-new back then, not to mention the PETs, AIM-65s, M100, T3100, countless PC clones and the associated accessories... Waiting for them to get that value back as antique collectibles ;-)