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What's your vintage computer wishlist like?

Two years ago I imported three (3) COMX-35 new in box from Finland. There is a guy who found a whole pile of them a couple of years ago. Nobody would believe him when he posted on Old-Computers about it, but it is true - they exist! It is possible he still has a few to sell, and last time I checked his pricing was very fair for being such a hard to find computer. Zeela by the way bought one of the three NIB COMX'es.

As for wish list, I think I'm mostly done by now. Certainly there are a number of odd machines one could look for, and even more peripherals for the ones I already got. I even went as far as getting machines NOT on my wish list, but I'm starting to clear them now.

Oh well, I'll try anyway:

Oric Atmos - very sleek looking. I got an Oric-1 but I find the Atmos looking better and has fewer bugs in ROM. I wouldn't mind an Oric Telestrat neither, but those are among those really hard to get machines, usually fetching $$$ on eBay.

VIC-1001 - perhaps. Since I'm a big fan of the VIC-20 it would be natural for me to keep looking for the Japanese version but I'm torn between it not being unique enough and a bit too pricy for me.

Mattel Aquarius - I used to want one, but am not so sure anymore. I already have enough of inferior home computers that turned out to be commercial failures (see the COMX above, among others). It should not be hard to get a loose one, but only if I can find one really cheap. Yeah, right.

Acorn Atom - since I already own two BBC B, one Master 128, one Master Compact and one Electron, one would assume I'm also looking for the Atom. Again it may be a bit too expensive for me, but we'll see. However I have no interest in the Archimedes RISC PC / ARM machines from the 1990s. Those are barely vintage anyway.

Atari 400 - perhaps, if it is cheap. I just sold my 800XL so my Atari collection is down to a 130XE. I may expand it to another machine but I have no major itch for one at the moment being.

IBM RS/6000 desktop (e.g. model 250) - not sure about this one. We used to have a few in the computer club and sometimes I regret not picking one up when we cleared out the storage room. We mostly used Sun SPARC which I don't have much of an urge for even if I have been seen bidding on Ultra's recently. However the RS/6000 appeared to me as a solid system both for desktop and small server use. The model 250 is equipped with a ~60 MHz PPC601 like a first generation Power Macintosh, but I don't want an ugly Mac in my home. :twisted:

Interested parties who has an idea about my collection can observe I left out a number of significant home computers like Texas TI-99/4A, Dragon 32, Spectravideo SVI-318, all Sharp MZ series and others even I have forgotten. It is on purpose, neither of those systems have been on my wish list. Some have even been on my despise list, if one can have a such one... ;-)
 
A CP/M machine, because I have never owned one. And it must be small, space is limited. :)
An ATW, because it is an Atari machine (I never owned one) and have a Transputer chip in it.
 
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My vintage wishlist:

Symbolics LISP Machine
Xerox Alto or Star
Cray Y-MP EL
Sun/3 workstation with tapes
NeXT Cube or Slab with original OS
SGI Onyx or Onyx 2
DEC PDP-8 or 11
An Acorn RISC OS machine
IMSAI 8080 (I loved WarGames)

As you can see, my interest runs more towards the workstation world for the most part. On the true vintage side, I have most of what I want or let simple curiosity and my pocketbook guide me.

The first four on the list are "holy grails". I've read enough about the Symbolics machines to know they were very advanced and interesting systems. The Cray simply because I could actually have a chance of bringing it up and a Sun/3 "just because".

An Alto or Star is mostly wishful dreaming. The odds of my ever landing one of those for a private collection range between slim and none. But in my opinion, having one would be having ownership of the great ancestor of modern computing. Much of what we take for granted today in computer interaction we owe to those machines. Ethernet, WIMP interface, personal computing and so on.

There are others but these are the wants.

Matt
 
My want list has become rather small. I have a lot of really nice vintage computers. I am trying to spend time working on the ones that need repair, learning about the ones I'm not familiar with and in general just appreciating and having fun with them. If I never acquired another machine in my lifetime, I still have plenty to keep me entertained.

The machines I would still like I put in 2 lists. Ones that are attainable and ones that are not(mainly because they are too expensive).

The too expensive ones:

Heathkit H8
Heathkit H11
Teletype machine
Exidy Sorceror


The attainable ones:

IBM PS/2e (9533)
IBM PS/2 Model 95's
HP 1000 "A" series
HP 1000 21MX
Heath/Zenith Model 148
Misc. DEC Equipment
 
Chuckster_in_Jax said:
The too expensive ones:

Heathkit H8
Heathkit H11
Teletype machine
Exidy Sorceror
Click to expand...

Yes, of those on my remaining wishlist (see sig) I think the Model III or IV is the only one I have any hope of obtaining (and even that's a long shot in NZ). The others are simply too rare and/or expensive.

Tez
 
carlsson said:
Two years ago I imported three (3) COMX-35 new in box from Finland. There is a guy who found a whole pile of them a couple of years ago. Nobody would believe him when he posted on Old-Computers about it, but it is true - they exist! It is possible he still has a few to sell, and last time I checked his pricing was very fair for being such a hard to find computer. Zeela by the way bought one of the three NIB COMX'es.
Click to expand...

Like a lot of Asian machines the COMX-35 was sold in New Zealand Anders, although I must confess I've never seen one. There is a review in this issue of New Zealand Bits and Bytes.

Tez
 
carlsson said:
Some have even been on my despise list, if one can have a such one... ;-)
Click to expand...

Hehehe. Yes, I have a similar despise list. Actually some of the ones I own are on it

The Spectravideo SVI-318? Aww..surely not. Chiclet keys I know, but quite cute!

Tez
 
Quite a short list, and none of it all that difficult to get:

Compaq Portable or Portable II
BBC Micro
Amstrad PCW 8256 or 8512
Amiga 1200 to replace my original which got damaged
Sam Coupe
 
tezza said:
Hi Tom,

An Apple /// was your first computer! Did you have any of the notorious issue with it like overheating etc.? Or was it the re-issued version?

Tez
Click to expand...

Hi Tezza,

I honestly can't tell you which one it was. I knew nothing about computers at the time and wouldn't have known the difference between overheating and proper operating temperature anyway. It certainly wasn't the most stable computer I've ever used, but that could have just been from dumb operator mistakes on my part. Abrupt keyboard failure was what put an end to its life. I do think it would be a really fun machine for me to re-learn all over again.

Tom
 
First-gen Apple, old PC, old alternate architecture

First-gen Apple, old PC, old alternate architecture

Well, I like 'first of' systems.

The ultra-rare ones are unlikely to happen, but you never know, first the Apples:

Apple I. (I'd like to make a chassis for it that looks like a modern Apple chassis; single-piece Aluminum, Apple II-style, with keyboard derived from Apple's current desktop keyboard, slightly tinted glass top so you can see the motherboard inside.)

Apple III, preferably the 'pre-fixes' model.

Original dual-5.25" "Twiggy" Lisa with external hard drive.

Original Macintosh (before it was named "Macintosh 128k", but was just plain "Macintosh".)

I already have the first Apple Portable, first 68020, first 68030, first 68040, first PowerBook, first PowerPC, first PowerPC PowerBook, first Intel Mac, etc; plus an Apple IIc, IIc+, IIgs (waiting for confirmation of shipping costs, it's even an original motherboard model, complete with Woz signature.)

Next come the IBMs:

An original stock PC 5150, PC/XT, and PC/XT-286 and PC Convertible. I have all the later IBMs that are of significance to me. To me, 'stock' video cards for the desktops would be an MDA for the 5150, CGA for the XT, and EGA (or possibly PGC,) for the XT-286.

Finally, the 'alternate architecture' systems:

I have an Indy and an HP PA-RISC Apollo system; but it would be nice to have a few of the other architectures, like a variety of SPARCs. (I just missed out on a collection of them a couple months ago!) I have a modern Itanium server, but I would like an original Itanium workstation. A few of the other late '80s/early '90s RISC workstations would be nice, too. (I do have a NeXT.)
 
I'm interested in early UNIX systems, and I have some pretty old ones running on older x86 systems and in the Simh emulator, but to get back to the older stuff on real hardware, I need something from DEC. So:

  • DEC MicroVax
  • DEC VaxStation
  • DEC MicroPDP-11
So I can run early BSDish systems like Ultrix or 2/3BSD, and Sixth/Seventh Edition UNIX.

I think it's really fascinating to watch the evolution of the UNIX system over 20 or 25 years. I really like looking at userland and API level improvements and reading the online documentation from one early system to the next.

These are the operating systems that provided the basics for virtually all modern OSs, save maybe VMS and the IBM mainframe OSs like MVS, VM and the like.

Is anybody else around here interested in this stuff? I'd enjoy talking to others interested in UNIX history and bringing it back alive.

-Tom
 
I own most of the systems I have ever wanted (the cube being one of them) but Other than wanting to find both an Apricot Portable (there was a complete one on ebay years ago I regret not buying for $120), Apricot Xen and a 68k IRIS, the computer that tops my list is a PDP-8. I dream of a nice rack filled with a PDP-8/e and wonderful bits of I/O like tape drives, disk drives and a paper tape reader. Topping something like this would be a PDP-12. *drool* Something like a 12 I would honestly sell my soul for, if not all my SGI gear (or just the Tezro ;D )
 
Anonymous Freak said:
An original stock PC 5150...
Click to expand...

And, speak of the devil... A 5150 with 5153 display just appeared on eBay, in my own city! It does get a "PARITY CHECK 1" on boot, but I can much around with the RAM. I placed the minimum bid (it's the seller's only no-reserve auction,) so let's see what happens. (The shipping is more than the bid, so I hope he lets me pick up locally.)

He also has a few other items, like a clear-case Macintosh Portable prototype, and a rare AppleColor 100 with motorized tilt - $295 to ship; and a Lisa 2/5 :)-( it had been a Lisa 1 that was converted!) complete with original packaging, documentation, etc.

So, is the seller on here, Jim Abeles of Portland, OR? (If so, he doesn't use his real name, or the same username as on eBay.)
 
Apricot portables seem to go for under £30 over here, we had a sudden rush recently They are superbly '80s. Actually I like most of the Apricot machines just because they're so unusual.

My personal wish list got shortened recently with my oddball asr-33 and the HP2100 (finally found the lost camera so pictures to follow) So what's left is a Newbury terminal, a decent SMD winchester disk drive (fujitsu eagle or similar), and a 7906 (or similar) disk drive for the HP.
(and some more space!!!)
 
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