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Hi There

djkrex

Experienced Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2003
Messages
52
Location
Oronoco, Minnesota
I just found this place recently. Now that I've seen what's going on here, I'll have to get my rear in gear and contribute.

I bought my first vintage computer back in the early 60's although I didn't know that the Altiar 8800 would ever be collectible. Back then all this hard to find stuff was easy to come by. I should of stocked up.

I got my first taste of computers in the Army. When I got out, I wanted to build a computer in the worst way. My first shot at it was ordering the plans for the TV Typewriter I from Radio Electronics. It seemed like a lot of work for what it did. Hardly enough to get me to put down that beer bottle and get to work. Later, I ordered the plans for the Mark-8. I almost got started on that one. I called Intel about the 8008 chip. It was $125.00. I declined, but accepted the free 8008 ref. manual. Sold that on Ebay 2 years ago for $70 bucks. (ironic?)
When the Altair showed up, I snapped one up. It was kinda cute, but
what a slug. 256 bytes of mem and no I/O. Everything had to be fat fingered in through the front panel switches. I broke down and bought a TVT II kit just to get this thing to do something. Now the money was flowing out like water.
2- 4K static memory cards $200.
1- serial I/O card $150.
TV Typewriter II with optional power supp and parallel board $240
junk composite monitor with flaky power supp. $10.00
Scelbi's 8080 4K basic book $ I forgot. ( hard copy only, fat fingered it all in.)
I was kinda nuts (almost as nuts as paying over 2,000. for a IBM PC1)
which I did later. I needed something that would do something!!

Anyway I still have most of this stuff. I tossed the RE magazines in the 80's.
Cried about it a couple years ago. (The Altair issue > $100.)

I signed up for a BYTE subscription before the first issue hit the stands.
( I was a Charter Subscriber) Quit buying them in the early 80's.
They got to big to handle.
I still have a good collection of stuff although, I threw away or thumbed my nose at few things that I wish a hadn't. I might talk about that later when I can control my emoticons. (I start typing in upper case!)

I would like to post my collection later on. I need to drag all this stuff out and write down what it is. My memory about this stuff is getting fuzzy.
I'm now starting a new policy. If I cant display this stuff somewhere, it's
going to Ebay. As to where I've been getting most of my stuff?
The Salvation Army has been very very good to me.
 
Hello Old Dog and welcome to the VC Forum! Hopefully you'll be able to replace your flip-flops here! :)

It sounds like you've got some fun machines. I'm sure you'll be able to find new homes for the ones you can't display. Hopefully, though, you'll be able to keep and display them!

Enjoy!

Erik[/u]
 
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