Kvanderlaag's Junk Collection

[kvanderlaag]

One man's junk is another man's treasure, right?

I think the first post will be a list of the collection. Afterwards, I think each reply is going to be a more detailed explanation of the machine, its various upgrades, and how I came to possess it, as well as what it's being built/used for.

Not all of this stuff is 'vintage' per se, but there's a lot of it that is. For instance, I'll probably include a reply about the machines in my rack cabinet - none of them are 8086 - 486 machines, but I like to think they're reasonably interesting, and I would hope that the user base of this forum would agree with me!

In any case, I'll start with a list of older machines that I have.

Apple
- Macintosh SE/30
- Mac Plus
- Power Macintosh 5400/180 (All in One)
- Power Macintosh 7600/120 (Desktop)

PC
- Socket 7 Pentium MMX @ 200 MHz
-- Gigabyte GA-586VX Motherboard
-- Creative SoundBlaster 16 ISA
-- Gravis UltraSound

- Socket 7 Pentium @ 90 MHz
-- Motherboard unknown
-- Generic ISA VGA card

- IBM ThinkPad TP380ED
-- Pentium MMX @ 166 MHz
-- 80mb EDO RAM
-- 4gb Hard Drive

Now, I've also got a whole pile of parts on the way to me that I will later be assembling into full machines, more within the realm of 'vintage' computing. I have this silly urge to learn x86 assembler, and because I'm stupid (or crazy) I think I'd like to start on an 8086/8088 based machine.

I'm also looking to hunt down an Apple II system. There's one in Southern Alberta on the VCGM that looks pretty complete, but it's a hell of a drive. I think I'll be getting in touch with the guy, anyways.

I've also got two (non-retro, but still neat) projects on the go:

First, I'm building a PC around a 1929 Underwood Portable Typewriter. I haven't decided exactly how I'm going to go about it yet, but I do have a whole box of Keyswitches from Cherry sitting here, and I'm considering building a set of stepped PCBs and attaching pads to the top of the switches so that the regular old typewriter keys can trigger them. There's a page somewhere where a fellow attached conductive tape to the crossbar on a typewriter, sliced it off into sections, and soldered individual leads off of it for each key where it hit there - I think I'd like to try to come up with something a little neater than that.

The motherboard and other internals will be contained one of two ways:

1) In a custom aluminum case, painted with a black lacquer and trimmed in brass at the edges to match the typewriter. It may get some brass feet for support. This case will be the same width/length as the typewriter such that it could either be attached on top of it, or simply rested on top.

2) Alternatively, the internals of the system may be adapted to fit on the inside of a 20s or 30s vintage radio (that doesn't work, of course.) Bonus points if I can keep the tubes powered for that 'glow' instead of a power LED.

The intended display for this system is a ~14" monochrome display in either green or amber phosphor, and it will be driven by a VGA to composite or VGA to CGA adapter, depending on the monitor. This monitor will also be encased in what will probably turn out to be insulated aluminum, and painted/trimmed to match the rest of the unit.

The other project is similar, but I'll get into that later.

 

[kvanderlaag]

I didn't really intend for the first post about a specific computer to be an addition to what I'd already posted, but I quite by accident lucked into a full Commodore 64 kit. I'd posted an ad locally looking for vintage gear - I was expecting some junky old 486s and stuff that nobody wanted any more, but lo and behold, a local asked me if I was interested in a complete C64.

Of course I said yes.

So, for the princely sum of $80, I now have the following sitting in my basement:

- Commodore 64 system
- Commodore 1802 Color composite monitor (later revision, taller rather than deep)
- Commodore 1541 Single Floppy Drive
- A large box of floppies, mostly unlabeled and likely blank.
- Gemini II Commodore-compatible Dot-Matrix Printer
- A box of compatible printer paper
- 2x C64 Joystick

Most items have their original boxes and packaging, though they're a little beat from the better part of thirty years of being moved around and stored. The machine itself is in good condition, though some of the text has started to wear off above the controller ports and things. It's definitely not a collector's piece, and so I don't feel bad using it... and therein lies my problem.

I have no idea what I am going to use the C64 for. Demos? Vintage programming? I'd like to get it Ethernet compatible and do some wacky network application programming with it. Again, I have no idea why.

First, perhaps, I should track down some software for it. Any recommendations? Operating Systems? Neat applications?

Tomorrow I'm going to catalog everything and take some photos, then probably add them to this post.

 

[Unknown_K]

The only real operating system for a C64 is GEOS, and you pretty much need a special C64 mouse for that. Mostly the C64 is for games.

 

[Eriol]

There is also Craig Bruce's Ace OS, if you're not afraid of a little hacking.

There are some awesome demos for the C=64. I've been out of the demoscene for over a decade now, but Pouet seems like a good place to start.

As for programming: it's actually -not- a waste of time to learn to code on these things. Not only do C= coders have some neat tricks for wringing the most out of the hardware (some of which would transfer to more modern tasks like shader programming), but the 6510 shares an instruction set with the Motorola 6800, whose descendants are still in use today in embedded applications.

Enjoy your new toy.

 

[tingo]

Another one is Contiki.