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Inherited a Sphere 1 with all the parts and manuals

H

heirtothesphere

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May 24, 2022
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Full disclaimer: this machine was inherited from my father who just passed, and I don't know anything about the history before he acquired it.

I want to sell this, and have taken a ton of photos of every item I believe is associated with it. Pics are posted in a google drive here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-VRXgG6HzDPoKlBq-Ad86pIakV08KEGC?usp=sharing

If anyone has an estimate on perceived value, I'd love to hear your input.

Thanks,
Mike
 
There is someone working on a history of Mel Norell/Programma and Sphere right now
Before selling this off, you should really talk to him, I think he's on here.
Did you find any Sphere/Programma cassette tapes?
Finding this much documentation from Programma is quite unusual.
I have a lot of material from Mel, who has now passed, which is up on

I just finished looking through your pictures, and it appears you have a couple of keyboards,
some parts for the sim board, a monitor and case. You don't actually have any of the computer
boards
 
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Al Kossow said:
There is someone working on a history of Mel Norell/Programma and Sphere right now
Before selling this off, you should really talk to him, I think he's on here.
Did you find any Sphere/Programma cassette tapes?
Finding this much documentation from Programma is quite unusual.
I have a lot of material from Mel, who has now passed, which is up on

I just finished looking through your pictures, and it appears you have a couple of keyboards,
some parts for the sim board, a monitor and case. You don't actually have any of the computer
boards
Click to expand...
If you know the person's name, I can try to contact them.

What would the cassette tapes look like? In that google drive I shared, that's pics of everything.
 
Hi, that's me-- I'm the one Al is talking about. I've been working for a year on a book about Sphere computers and the company and people behind them, and I would very much like to speak with you before you make any further moves. I'm going to send you a PM-- if that doesn't work because you're a new member, I'll give you my contact info directly here. Thanks!

Edit: Re cassette tapes: The software for this computer was distributed (mostly) on cassette tapes-- they look, unfortunately, basically the same as normal audio tapes. Labels would have some of the same wording as the matching manuals: "Programma", "FBX BASIC", maybe "Forth", version numbers and copyright dates. Attached here is an image of what a Programma tape from this era probably looked like.
 

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Al Kossow said:
I just finished looking through your pictures, and it appears you have a couple of keyboards,
some parts for the sim board, a monitor and case. You don't actually have any of the computer
boards
Click to expand...

The lack of the actual computer boards is really unfortunate.

Not quite off-topic, I guess: I'm curious, is there anyone on this forum that actually has a Sphere computer? It's remarkable how little there is out there about them, and a casual Youtube search later I can't find any live demonstrations of a working unit.
 
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bzotto said:
Hi, that's me-- I'm the one Al is talking about. I've been working for a year on a book about Sphere computers and the company and people behind them, and I would very much like to speak with you before you make any further moves. I'm going to send you a PM-- if that doesn't work because you're a new member, I'll give you my contact info directly here. Thanks!

Edit: Re cassette tapes: The software for this computer was distributed (mostly) on cassette tapes-- they look, unfortunately, basically the same as normal audio tapes. Labels would have some of the same wording as the matching manuals: "Programma", "FBX BASIC", maybe "Forth", version numbers and copyright dates. Attached here is an image of what a Programma tape from this era probably looked like.
Click to expand...
He is also trying to find the documentation for the MSI floppy disk
There is some information in the Sphere users group on interfacing it. A manual just sold on eBay and it would be nice to try to get a copy of it
and copies of the program documentation that you have that isn't already on bitsavers. I know I don't have a greenbar FORTH listing
 
I have a Total Systems 4000. I believe it's the last of the Sphere's as Inex, Inc produced this system and it's not at all branded "Sphere" but it's unmistakable. Sadly, I don't have manuals, software or peripherals but it works to the system monitor. It needs some CRT work (probably caps) but it runs.

@bzotto maybe it's best to create another thread?

Here are a couple of pics.
Total_4000.JPG Total_4000_internals.JPG Total_4000_CPU.jpg
 
snuci said:
I have a Total Systems 4000. I believe it's the last of the Sphere's as Inex, Inc produced this system and it's not at all branded "Sphere" but it's unmistakable. Sadly, I don't have manuals, software or peripherals but it works to the system monitor. It needs some CRT work (probably caps) but it runs.

@bzotto maybe it's best to create another thread?

Here are a couple of pics.
View attachment 1241584 View attachment 1241585 View attachment 1241586
Click to expand...
have you dumped the 1702's?
 
snuci said:
I have a Total Systems 4000. I believe it's the last of the Sphere's as Inex, Inc produced this system and it's not at all branded "Sphere" but it's unmistakable. Sadly, I don't have manuals, software or peripherals but it works to the system monitor. It needs some CRT work (probably caps) but it runs.
Click to expand...
Yes, this was definitely the twilight Sphere, an upgraded model (80-col display, designed for disk, improved interconnects...) produced elsewhere and to the best of my knowledge didn't even make it to market. One or two machines did escape landfill, so this may well be the only one. No manuals or "native" software likely existed for it unfortunately, although any contemporary 6800 stuff could be patched up to work.

Thank you for sharing the ROMs! :hands-up emoji:
 
heirtothesphere said:
If you know the person's name, I can try to contact them.

What would the cassette tapes look like? In that google drive I shared, that's pics of everything.
Click to expand...
heirtothesphere said:
If you know the person's name, I can try to contact them.

What would the cassette tapes look like? In that google drive I shared, that's pics of everythi
Al Kossow said:
There is someone working on a history of Mel Norell/Programma and Sphere right now
Before selling this off, you should really talk to him, I think he's on here.
Did you find any Sphere/Programma cassette tapes?
Finding this much documentation from Programma is quite unusual.
I have a lot of material from Mel, who has now passed, which is up on

I just finished looking through your pictures, and it appears you have a couple of keyboards,
some parts for the sim board, a monitor and case. You don't actually have any of the computer
boards
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Take a look at these other pics: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-MSpFR1Jy4eVa_zCKc7N5nVbmYbBiYce?usp=sharing

Are those the computer boards?
 
Eudimorphodon said:
The lack of the actual computer boards is really unfortunate.

Not quite off-topic, I guess: I'm curious, is there anyone on this forum that actually has a Sphere computer? It's remarkable how little there is out there about them, and a casual Youtube search later I can't find any live demonstrations of a working unit.
Click to expand...
Take a look at these other pics: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-MSpFR1Jy4eVa_zCKc7N5nVbmYbBiYce?usp=sharing

Are those the computer boards?
 
heirtothesphere said:
Take a look at these other pics: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-MSpFR1Jy4eVa_zCKc7N5nVbmYbBiYce?usp=sharing

Are those the computer boards?
Click to expand...

Not for the Sphere.

Googling the markings on one of them it looks like some of them are I/O boards for this machine, which might be interesting to someone in their own right, but, yeah, they don't go with the Sphere.

I'm going to tentatively identify the other boards, the ones with all the labeled holes and jumper wires, as programming cards for some kind of proto-computer tabulation machine, kind of like this, but I'm going to leave positive ID to someone who's beard/hair is even grayer than mine.

Edit: After finding this page I'm more sure of the ID for those plugboards.
 
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Eudimorphodon said:
Not for the Sphere.

Googling the markings on one of them it looks like some of them are I/O boards for this machine, which might be interesting to someone in their own right, but, yeah, they don't go with the Sphere.

I'm going to tentatively identify the other boards, the ones with all the labeled holes and jumper wires, as programming cards for some kind of proto-computer tabulation machine, kind of like this, but I'm going to leave positive ID to someone who's beard/hair is even grayer than mine.
Click to expand...
Ha! That would make sense b/c I have an Astral 2000 in possession as well. Was going to post about that separately at some point once we learned more about the Sphere.
 
On one of the boards you can see "astral computers" which is on the shipping label of the paper tape box
so it appears those paper tapes actually go with the astral boards and not sphere
The only thing related to sphere are the components in styrofoam in the first two pictures
 
Considering the condition of the case and the presence of those wrapped components it looks an awful lot like these are bits of a kit that was never fully assembled. Hopefully the rest of the kit (critically the PCBs for the actual computer) are still hidden in a box somewhere. What's there is certainly "historically interesting" enough that someone would pay a few bucks for the pieces you have (IE, the case), but most of what actually makes it a Sphere computer is gone.
 
I am putting together a simple 'browser based' emulator for the SPHERE if anyone is interested.

This is a 'butchered' version of my Tektronix 4051 emulator that I have stripped down and simplified. I have hand transcribed the code for the PDS-V3N and PDS-SYS2NF EPROMs.

I have been merrily debugging my keyboard and CRT emulations today to the point where I appear to have something actually running.

Of course, I keep falling over the odd transcription error (e.g. 8D transcribed as BD). That caused the EDITOR to crash as soon as it got entered! I am sure there are a few more of these somewhere to debug. The DEBUGGER is not behaving itself either...

If anyone is interested in 'playing' I will put it up on my Google Drive for you to download.

If anyone has ROM code dumps that you want me to include, happy to do that...

Dave
 
thanks for doing this. I was just about to transcribe them after just scanning the listings
i have a box of cassettes that bzotto has asked me to try recovering, and that sys2nf listing was the only surviving version that i know of with cassette i/o in prom

it really would be nice if the docs from the person who started this thread could be archived
 
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