DEC Rainbow 100 Site

[PrintStar]

Its been slow-going, but I finally have my Rainbow 100 site in usable form. The main goal of the site is to provide an easily navigable index of Rainbow 100 software. The site is at: http://rainbow-100.com/.

The layout currently leaves a bit to be desired. There are a few other oddities, such as poor sorting of archive names and categories, but things should be fixed moving forward. Currently the site contains somewhere around 50 or 60 Rainbow software packages for download, and I'm trying to add a few more each day.

I'd love to get some feedback on what users think. I'll try to keep adding features as time goes on.

 

[Lou - N2MIY]

Rainbow Software

Rainbow Software

Jeff,

The site looks pretty good and you have an excellent collection of software so far.

One piece of software which would be an amazing find would be Autocad V2.6 . Yes, there was a version for the Rainbow. When that machine was just slightly past its prime, my father borrowed one from work (he worked for dec) and we had it at home for a few years. It had an RD52 and on it was Autocad. It worked fine and looked just like the other dos/PC versions of Autocad (looked just like 7 to me.) We had all the docs and the install disks (a pile of RX50s). It used a Logitech C7 mouse connected to the comm port (ever see a mouse on a Rainbow??!!!). I had an LA50 printer and it even plotted nicely on my HP 7475 pen plotter.

The whole lot got returned to my father's work when I bought the student edition of V10 for dos (PC) for $25 in ~1990. I have no clue whatever happened to that machine afterward. (I kept the 7475, it was mine anyway and servred me well through undergrad)

If you can find that Autocad V2.6, it would be an amazing find.

Lou


Late Edit: Oh my, google found V2.18!!!! : http://www.os2site.com/dec/rainbow/msdos/autocad/index.html

For some reason the one bit I still have is a letter from Autodesk support explaining how to get the C7 mouse working. It describes a needed baud rate change, because the mouse defaults to a different baud rate than ACAD expects when it starts. I should scan it.

 

[PrintStar]

Lou,

I was unaware of an AutoCAD 2.6 for the Rainbow, although it doesn't surprise me in the least that it exists. I was aware of AutoCAD 2.18, which has been available for years thanks to the folks at Upsala's Update computer club. I think the letter would be pretty cool to see!

On another note, I have seen a mouse since Windows was ported to the Rainbow. Windows 1.03 was ported by DEC itself, although I've never gotten a mouse to work with it. I have used a mouse with Windows 3.0 on the Rainbow. Works like a charm! There are a few other packages that used a mouse on the Rainbow, but not too many.

Thanks for the feedback!

-Jeff

 

[pontus]

Nice site, I'm sure it will be helpful when I get far enough through the pile of computers to reach the rainbow.

I skimmed through the FAQ and found that the word "computer" is missing in the sentence below

"The Rainbow 100 was a personal introduced in May 1982 by Digital Equipment Corporation as part of its low-end computer line."

It is from the question "What is a Rainbow 100 anyway?" under the General FAQ.

 

[Micom 2000]

It's great Jeff. My focus is always on content not design, but the site is also looking good.
Now my problem is getting my newer boxes functioning well enough to be able to have time to play with my 'Bow and some other old machines. They never seemed to give one the problems I regularly run into on my comparably newer machines. I'm going to check out my old RB archives to see if I can find something interesting to you. I believe I have the FAQ from your original Site. I think I also have some usenet gleanings. I'll let you know.

Lawrence

 

[PrintStar]

Nice site, I'm sure it will be helpful when I get far enough through the pile of computers to reach the rainbow.

I skimmed through the FAQ and found that the word "computer" is missing in the sentence below

"The Rainbow 100 was a personal introduced in May 1982 by Digital Equipment Corporation as part of its low-end computer line."

It is from the question "What is a Rainbow 100 anyway?" under the General FAQ.

Haha, thanks for the catch! It's been fixed.

 

[PrintStar]

Lawrence, glad you like the site! I've been slowly adding software packages to the archives, but its been slow-going. Because I'm attempting to describe the packages as they're added, I've been trying almost everything on a real Rainbow prior to posting. Hence why I've been moving at the rate of maybe 4-5 per day.

I've been slowly going through the Glacier Peak Rainbow BBS archives to add them first as some of the archives might not be available from Upsala's Update Computer Club archives. I also want to focus on some of the commercial software packages as they're not generally available anywhere, and I have a reasonable collection of them.

Most important, though, is that the site turns out to be useful to others. I hope it will! And as time allows, I plan to add more features and content as well.

 

[Micom 2000]

I went thru the items in my RB archives and found most of them were from the up-date site. Some Fido posts with vituperous postings between RB fans, a few from classiccmp, one excellemt RBTecdoc.zip
and some excellent pics of the VR241 rear sockets and others I recognized in your present FAQ. The FAQ version was labelled vers.003 so it wasn't I believe your original FAQ. I believe I might have some stuff on one of my now unused PS/2s, but they wait unearthing.

Mark Tapley I noticed is credited on your FAQ. He encouraged me in my RB thrall when I was on the classiccmp list and is how I wound up acquiring my RB100+ and VR241, even tho it was 2000m or so away on Vancouver Island. It helped of course that I also wanted to visit my son and grandsons in Vancouver. I still want to taste San Antonio chili tho. It's reputably the best in the world.

Keep up your good work. Is the Glacier Peak Archives the only DECRBUG ones that survived ?
There were many other RB BBS's and unless the owners are now deceased, a lot of stuff is still available if one can find it. In that sense your site serves as a beacon, that could attract RB moths. I'm sure no surviving RB(or other) BBSer could bear to dump his creation which required so much work, tho they may deny it. Stuff to discover.

I feel the multi-OS offering by DEC was a high note in computer history, no matter that DEC in it's wisdom never really supported it and then abandoned it. The RB was a COOL computer.l

Lawrence

 

[thutch]

"The Photo"

"The Photo"

Wow, it's been over 25 years since this came out? How quickly time does fly. One thing I remember about the Rainbow 100 when if first came out was a brochure that DEC put out that showed a guy sitting on a deck, overlooking the ocean with his keyboard in his lap and the monitor sitting on the table. It was long before laptops were even began to come out but it was inspirational to think that an office computer could ever get to that ability.

I started looking to see if anyone has posted that picture or brochure online as a bit of nastalgia but don't seem to be able to put my finger on it anywhere. Does anyone else remember it or know where we might could run across it?