Retro Newb

[southbird]

I'm pretty young to be thinking about "retro" technology; being born in '83, the IBM PC 5150 I own is older than me! But I had an interesting upbringing. Computers were hard to come by when I was a kid, and for most of my pre-teen years, there was only one computer for the whole family. But then a period I call "The Great Dumping" occurred, sometime when Pentium and the clones took off and flooded the market with relatively cheap new systems. This caused anything from an 8088 to old Pentiums to show up in Thrift Stores for cheap. My dad began a really bad habit of picking up any system he found unique in some way. Since the first family computer was a 386, I got the pleasure of going backward to see 286 and, of course, XTs and clones. Forward was there too, but none were TOO distinguished ... maybe the PS/2s.

Anyway, my dad has spent the last few years trying to clean out and prep the house for perhaps selling it in his older age, and out went all those old PCs, some of which I now know would be worth a lot. At some point I felt nostalgic for my strange upbringing, and bought a disrespected 5150 on eBay, plus have a Tandy 1000 RL a friend found in the trash. They are both hooked to the Tandy CM-5 that came with the Tandy via a switchbox. I'll probably desire a proper 286 AT at some point, but that's for later.

My goal is basically to have a definitive "sample" of hardware that you "could" have put in these machines (not necessarily era specific.) Like the Tandy itself has the 3-voice + DAC, plus an Ethernet card. (Yes, I have used Internet stuff -- Arachne, a text browser, an IRC client, FTP / HTGET.)

The 5150 currently has two MFM hard drives, the original full height floppy, a SoundBlaster, a CGA, and a SIXPAKPLUS I/O card to upgrade the memory and provide ports. Maybe someday I'll get my hands on one of those ultra-rare floppy / HDD combined controllers and be able to fit another NIC.

Anyway, that's my story...

 

[kishy]

Certainly not meaning to call you 'old', but 1983? Really? Too young?

Try late 1989...haha.

Never too young to get into a hobby.
It occurred to me that (approximately) half the reason I enjoy this hobby is that the people I deal with while discussing and pursuing my interests are generally rather smart. I've wondered then if other people share that same thought or if it's exclusively interest in the topic itself that brings people to it.

I'm quite jealous of your 5150, and will probably steal it when you're not looking (jokes, of course)

 

[southbird]

Certainly not meaning to call you 'old', but 1983? Really? Too young?

Try late 1989...haha.

Yeah, I guess that's true. I just sort of meant I'm into machines "post-mortem" for my timeline, versus say someone born in the early 1970s that may have actually owned or worked with one "new." These have never been new for me.

It occurred to me that (approximately) half the reason I enjoy this hobby is that the people I deal with while discussing and pursuing my interests are generally rather smart. I've wondered then if other people share that same thought or if it's exclusively interest in the topic itself that brings people to it.

I've actually never thought about it before ... in all honesty, I can't bring myself to describe it to people outside the circle. They might not see the "smart" in someone investing money in dead technology. But I do think a certain understanding of technology is required to truly appreciate what old computers are and where they came from. We only have these fantastic machines now because of the stepping stones of the old. Even today, any "IBM-compatible" (hardly a term anymore) can be traced back in some way to the first...

In my case, I also have a desire to do some retro programming. I think if I can make a game that runs on an IBM CGA-powered 5150 at decent speed with at least average sound effects present ... then I have achieved the ultimate level of programming.

I'm quite jealous of your 5150, and will probably steal it when you're not looking (jokes, of course)

All I can say is, check eBay regularly. Get in your head what you want and how much you're willing to pay for it, and just keep hoping. (Of course, there's a balance between the sanity of the purchase and your desire to "must have" it, so you may end up spending more than you mean to, but sometimes you win anyway because it'll never even be THAT cheap again.) If someone's kind enough to put up the "Make An Offer" button, give it a shot... you never know.

 

[cgrape2]

[/QUOTE]All I can say is, check eBay regularly. Get in your head what you want and how much you're willing to pay for it, and just keep hoping. (Of course, there's a balance between the sanity of the purchase and your desire to "must have" it, so you may end up spending more than you mean to, but sometimes you win anyway because it'll never even be THAT cheap again.) If someone's kind enough to put up the "Make An Offer" button, give it a shot... you never know.[/QUOTE]

Welcome!I'm pretty new here myself,but I absolutely agree with the quote.I got almost all of my Zeniths from making offers.(At really good prices!)
Learning programing is an exercise in an "Art Form",that most folks just would NOT understand.
cgrape2