Looking for advice for first vintage computer

[WilliamTi]

I've recently gotten interested in older tech, from Walkmans to Atari, and I thought it would be interesting to own a vintage computer. However, I know these old machines can be expensive, requiring not only the computer itself but disk drives, tape drives, a monitor, and etc. to operate. I also don't have altogether that much room in my dorm room, so I started thinking about getting a portable PC. This led me to looking at the TRS-80 Model 100 from 1983. It has a good keyboard (something very important to me), a good battery life and, most importantly, doesn't require a monitor to use as it comes with a built-in LCD. Obviously there aren't a ton of games I could play on it, but the inclusion of basic on an authentic model intrigues me.

I don't know much about older computers, but it seems like this model would be good as a beginner's experience. Is there anything I should look out for when trying to buy a unit? I have my eyes on several, however they either cost hundreds of dollars and work or cost $50-$100 and might not work (untested or etc). Is there a good place other than E-Bay to find one?

TLDR: Looking to get TRS-80 Model 100 as first vintage computer. Any suggestions?

 

[191brian]

Hi
TRS-80 Model 100 would be a good start but can be a bit pricey. Ebay is the easiest place find one other option is to trawl around junk shops & car boot sales. Another option could be an early laptop like a Toshiba T3200 or Amstrad ALT 286.

Brian ...

 

[bob8086]

half the fun of the old machines is being able to tinker with the hardware, like trying different video cards, sound cards, cpu's, ram, rom, hard & floppy drives, etc...including tweaking memory configurations to the Max via the config and autoexec files by using all sorts of various memory utilities and other utilities like Norton and many others! After that playing with old compatible software is somewhat of a novelty although interesting as to how much you can jack up its running with said hardware and an OS tinkering.
Enjoy!

 

[blackepyon]

Personally I'd go for something more XT/AT compatible if this is your first machine. The TRS-80 model 100 certainly is portable, they do have RS-232/Parallel, and can use a modem/tape/disk drive, but they were meant as a portable computer for journalism. I'm not sure there's not a whole lot for a beginner to do with them unless you want to learn to program 80-BASIC. That's just me though.

Probably the biggest issue is going to be cost. If you can find a Commodore Vic-20/64, then you've got something more or less portable (or at least easy to pack away), will plug into a TV, and you can play games on.

 

[Chuckster_in_Jax]

IMO - IBM PC or XT or compatables. It has the most software, peripherals and add on boards available for it.

Some of the original hardware such as the original MFM hard drives are all dying but can easily be replaced with add on boards that allow you to use compact flash cards.
The original CGA or EGA video cards can be replaced with VGA boards that allow you to use almost all current monitors.

 

[holzon]

My first one was a C64 because it's pretty simple to fix and small enough to understand really well.

 

[T-R-A]

Yeah, the "fixability-factor" may be something you want to consider for a first purchase. I'd be willing to bet that most of the 100s that are still available probably have some issues with them and that's likely not the easiest machine to repair. Certainly one that you'd keep in mind once you got your feet wet ..

 

[ngtwolf]

So, personally I've never found PC's interesting, so i myself wouldn't recommend them. I use them on a daily basis, but i'm not sure you'll get any retro experience or feeling from using what is essentially a beige box and keyboard that is 30 years older then your current black box and keyboard. As well, since space is a consideration, desktops would be out and a lot of the interesting things about old PC's aren't really applicable to laptops. Early PC laptops were a pretty miserable experience, in my opinion.

That said, I would probably have to agree with the consensus about the Model 100 as well. It'll be a nice prop piece but how much you'll use it would be questionable. A few thoughts given your space considerations:

- Early PC Luggable. While not necessarily my thing, as folks mentioned, the PC line is pretty easy to get started with and the luggables give you the look and feel of an 80's system. The Compaq Portable is a great option and while definitely bigger than a Model 100, it's pretty easy to close up and put out of the way when not in use.

- Early Macintosh - Specifically the AIO units like the Macintosh Plus. Personally I'd consider something early enough to be classic but late enough to be sorta useful (you won't get much use out of a 128k or 512k mac). Mac Plus, Mac Classic, Mac SE or SE/30... Those are nice and compact, look great in a dorm, and you'll find plenty of software for them.

If you're willing to do something that needs a screen, then the best option would probably be a Commodore 64 as it's the most useful of the early 80's systems and lots of modern ways to use them. There are cheap ways to hook them up to modern LCD's (not optimal, but a composite to hdmi adapter would work well enough to start and cost about $15). All that said, given your situation, i'd look into the previous two options though.

 

[Eudimorphodon]

If you're willing to spend around $200 or so (that seems to be the going rate these days) an Apple IIc might be a good starter computer that fits the constraints of a dorm room. It's a very "vintage feeling" machine in terms of operation (down to the very satisfying clattering of the built-in floppy drive) but it's also quite compact, not requiring much more desk space than a large laptop. Being an Apple II it has a very large software base and it's relatively easy to get downloaded software transferred over to it using tools like ADTPro. (Just need an oddball serial cable which you can still buy.) Possible downside is the need for 5 1/4" disks... or maybe that's a plus, since nothing says vintage like an actually flexible floppy disk. There are very few other machines as compact as the IIc that use them.

(There are also several options for supplanting the internal drive with flash storage; the "Floppy Emu" is a little pricey but can also emulate a hard drive if you get a IIc with one of the later ROM revisions or upgrade the ROM of an original model.)

 

[ngtwolf]

I completely forgot about the Apple IIc, but agree that it's a great option as well. Technically a IIgs is pretty small so that with a CRT would be about the same size. Might be a little easier to track down as well and opens one up to even more software options as well as software with actually decent graphics. Won't have the classic look of the IIc though.

 

[Lawrence Woodman]

If you're really not sure, then it might me worth trying out a few possible machine via emulation. This would give you a feel for what it can do and then you can better decide how much more you want to get involved and whether you want to spend money on it. It also helps with with your space requirements for the time being.

Emulation varies but some such as Vice for the commodore range of computers also emulate the disk drives and other peripherals to the point that the speed of the tape drives and disk drives along with the sounds that they make in use is pretty accurate. Others such as z80pack try to emulate some of the physical aspects of an early front panel which can be fun to play with while emulating an IMSAI 8080 running CP/M for example.