Looking for suggestions for the best late 80s vintage computer

[TRS80Ninja]

I have been in the process of building a new business known as an 80s themed Airbnb house in the Greater Philadelphia Area of NJ. Although there are a few others out there around the country, nothing is going to be like the experience I'm going to offer. My overall focus is accuracy and realism, which means I have to constantly work on ways to include as much 80s tech as possible.

This brings me to the subject of an office in the home, which must of course include a good retro computer from that era. Obviously, I want people to be able to experience this part of retro tech for themselves, but I also want to focus on something that is easy for them to use as well.

Some concerns are disk based systems where the renters would have to be required to insert disks. As we all remember, those large floppies were very touchy and you could ruin one just by looking at it wrong. The smaller 3.5" disks are better since they have their own spring loaded covers, and I'm sure I could stock backup blanks and recopy ones that got damaged. However, I would if possible want to try to get something that has a hard drive. I do understand that a system that old is most likely going to have a hard drive that is already fried or is about to give up. So I understand that there will most likely be some leg work on my end getting things replaced and working well.

Another concern are CRT monitors. I do not intend on faking it, the house will have both CRT televisions as well as a CRT monitor. In my own office I have gone through 3 of them in the past 5 years since they're so old. My friend who has been a television repairman for 40+ years told me that it's really going to be hit or miss with anything CRT since so many components have potentially degraded over time. After being quoted close to $300 to fix my vintage console tv, without a guarantee it would work, I ended up retrofitting the tube and boards from a 2001 JVC tv instead. I don't think such a task would be as easy with a computer monitor. So I'm interested in any feedback on how well the CRTs hold up in some of these vintage Mac computers as well.

A big part of me is leaning towards a vintage Mac. I know that I have seen devices that allow you to replace hard drives in older machines with brand new hard drives via special adapters, and I have tons of PC repair experience so that's not an issue for me.

So I'm basically looking for some input and possible suggestions. My dream office will have a computer that is hard drive based, or uses the smaller 3.5" disks, a working printer, game controllers, etc.

On the flip side, if I find that going this route would be too expensive or prohibitive, I've also considered getting an old Tandy Color Computer 2 and a bunch of cartridges, knowing I can connect it to any old CRT tv I pick out of the trash. This is my backup plan, although I really prefer a more extensive system.

I've lastly thought of seeking out an old PC system running DOS and me creating a simple boot up menu using Qbasic run from autoexec.bat giving guests simple choices of programs to use on the computer. I am even considering maybe building a newer custom built PC but putting it into a classic case and running DOS on it, but then there may be some compatibility issues (I don't know if modern processors are backwards compatible with older DOS versions.)

 

[Caluser2000]

Interesting idea.What is the best PC of that are would depend on were you lived and what was available at that time.For me personalty I,d definitionally going down the Acorn risc system route.

 

[Eudimorphodon]

A Macintosh Plus or SE seems like the no-brainer choice to me. It can be easily equipped with a SCSI-to-SD or similar solid-state hard drive substitute so floppies aren't really needed, the monochrome CRT in those machines is reliable and ages more gracefully than color CRTs, and their shape is iconic 1980's: everybody knows what they're looking at when they see one. They're also machines that most people today can figure out how to at least launch a game on without a lot of instruction, unlike most every other contemporary machine from the mid-late 80's, even if they weren't really there at the time. Obviously these machines aren't known as gaming powerhouses but they do have plenty of decent "casual" games that, again, most people will be able to figure out easily enough. Slap a few solitaire games and Dark Castle on the SSD and you're going to be good to go; if you really want to offer games with "game controllers" buy an Atari 2600 to put in the living room.

(And so far as it goes, if you really want to have a printer to go with it the Apple Imagewriter II is also rock-solid, dirt common, and you can still buy brand new ribbons for it. This plus a copy of the original Broderbund "The Print Shop" will let the particularly ambitious houseguest waste a bunch of paper on a banner and some lousy greeting cards to celebrate their stay.)

Downsides: these machines are getting old enough to need new capacitors and other such bits (the Macintosh Plus in particular ran pretty hot), and you need to be aware of the fact that if you or your houseguests leave it on all the time screen burn could be a problem. (Although, let's face it, unless you pay for a particularly low-mileage specimen it'll probably already have some screen burn, and realistically it doesn't really affect using the machine much.) But overall I can't think of a better option for this. Even if they never turn it on (which, let's face it, most people won't) the looks will carry it as a great 1980's vintage paperweight while leaving enough room on the desk for the modern laptop they brought with them.

 

[TRS80Ninja]

A Macintosh Plus or SE seems like the no-brainer choice to me. It can be easily equipped with a SCSI-to-SD or similar solid-state hard drive substitute so floppies aren't really needed, the monochrome CRT in those machines is reliable and ages more gracefully than color CRTs, and their shape is iconic 1980's: everybody knows what they're looking at when they see one. They're also machines that most people today can figure out how to at least launch a game on without a lot of instruction, unlike most every other contemporary machine from the mid-late 80's, even if they weren't really there at the time. Obviously these machines aren't known as gaming powerhouses but they do have plenty of decent "casual" games that, again, most people will be able to figure out easily enough. Slap a few solitaire games and Dark Castle on the SSD and you're going to be good to go; if you really want to offer games with "game controllers" buy an Atari 2600 to put in the living room.

(And so far as it goes, if you really want to have a printer to go with it the Apple Imagewriter II is also rock-solid, dirt common, and you can still buy brand new ribbons for it. This plus a copy of the original Broderbund "The Print Shop" will let the particularly ambitious houseguest waste a bunch of paper on a banner and some lousy greeting cards to celebrate their stay.)

Downsides: these machines are getting old enough to need new capacitors and other such bits (the Macintosh Plus in particular ran pretty hot), and you need to be aware of the fact that if you or your houseguests leave it on all the time screen burn could be a problem. (Although, let's face it, unless you pay for a particularly low-mileage specimen it'll probably already have some screen burn, and realistically it doesn't really affect using the machine much.) But overall I can't think of a better option for this. Even if they never turn it on (which, let's face it, most people won't) the looks will carry it as a great 1980's vintage paperweight while leaving enough room on the desk for the modern laptop they brought with them.

I think I can still get old screensavers for the classic macs online if I search hard enough, I would definitely try to put that into some sort of practice. It feels good knowing there is a known device to connect more modern hard drives as well. I agree with the familiarity, even though it's a classic the OS is still fairly familiar to its newest counterparts. I would even be open to a newer late 80s mac that was color, even if it costs me. I'm sure I'm going to end up blowing $1000+ on an eBay dream listing, which is fine with me. I also agree on the Imagewriter II, those things are tanks!

I still own a PC copy of The Print Shop and I recently started playing with it on a Parallels virtual machine on my Mac. This was definitely already on my list of apps to get no matter if it was PC or Mac. I hope they do things like that and relive those moments, they'll even be able to capture vintage photos on the mint Polaroid 600 camera as well.

 

[TRS80Ninja]

Interesting idea.What is the best PC of that are would depend on were you lived and what was available at that time.For me personalty I,d definitionally going down the Acorn risc system route.

I was born in 79. From very little I had a Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer. I went from banging on the keys randomly to learning to type in the sample programs from the book. I toyed with that thing for years until my Dad bought an "Apex by Epson" PC, which ran Dos. That's when I discovered the greatness of The Print Shop. I had a few friends who had Macs and I always felt jealous at how easy and intuitive their systems were. Other than going the Mac route, I am thinking of doing a PC as well. I did dig up old MS-Dos 6.22 with Qbasic and I even have a compiler to make EXE files. If I went the PC route I would most likely build a basic menu system that loads on startup giving the renters easy options to select instead of turning them loose in the world of DOS.

 

[VERAULT]

I think I can still get old screensavers for the classic macs online if I search hard enough,

Afterdark 1.0 and 2.0 work fine on the oldest macs and can be found easily online. Long live the mighty flying toaster.

 

[Eudimorphodon]

would even be open to a newer late 80s mac that was color, even if it costs me.

Honestly, I'm not really sure what the point would be. Ultimately this is a prop, right? Color Macintoshes which qualify as "80's computers" would all be early Macintosh II models that look just like PCs, IE, they're not as useful from an atmospheric perspective, and you're going to have a *lot* of trouble at this point finding matching/authentic contemporary color monitors in working condition.

(* If you don't care about the monitor being strictly authentic then I guess you do get the advantage of being able to use newer multisync CRTs, but it's not like those are really thick on the ground anymore, and a monitor newer than the mid-90's is going to look obviously out of place.)

 

[TRS80Ninja]

Honestly, I'm not really sure what the point would be. Ultimately this is a prop, right? Color Macintoshes which qualify as "80's computers" would all be early Macintosh II models that look just like PCs, IE, they're not as useful from an atmospheric perspective, and you're going to have a *lot* of trouble at this point finding matching/authentic contemporary color monitors in working condition.

(* If you don't care about the monitor being strictly authentic then I guess you do get the advantage of being able to use newer multisync CRTs, but it's not like those are really thick on the ground anymore, and a monitor newer than the mid-90's is going to look obviously out of place.)

The Macintosh SE seems to be a good choice, and prices don't even look too bad on Ebay. This is probably the direction I'll go. I'll sit and wait for a real mint one to pop up and grab it in the next couple of months.

I'll most likely need to learn how to disassemble and remove the yellow tinge from the case since most of them I've seen are pretty discolored.

 

[TRS80Ninja]

I've seen some videos of Macintosh SEs being brought back to live using devices such as scsiToSD and FloppyEMU. This is way up my alley! It's kind of a trip to know that you can actually run an entire computer on a little sd card. Since I want to really keep as much of the nostalgiac effect as possible, I'm even going to buy a device I found on the net that simulates the sounds of physical hard drives through the drive LED indicator.

If anyone has any suggestions on games or other applications please let me know. I'm definitely gonna start with The Print Shop.

 

[NeXT]

One thing I have learned from taking computers to events and encouraging people to use them is that you MUST either have a resident file protection scheme such as DeepFreeze or FoolProof or be ready to re-image the system after each visit both to always have the system in a working state and configuration but also make sure the drive is in a "clean" state.

There was a client once who wanted something similar in a 486 machine and it was two DOM's on the IDE bus. The C: drive was the working volume but had an extra line in the autoexec.bat that called the D: volume on the other DOM and would wipe out the C: drive with a default image and reboot. An ISA blanking plate had a keyswitch put into it that turned on or off the power to the second DOM so under normal circumstances with the key removed the system would boot and skip the line in autoexec.bat because the other DOM wasn't detected.

 

[TRS80Ninja]

One thing I have learned from taking computers to events and encouraging people to use them is that you MUST either have a resident file protection scheme such as DeepFreeze or FoolProof or be ready to re-image the system after each visit both to always have the system in a working state and configuration but also make sure the drive is in a "clean" state.

There was a client once who wanted something similar in a 486 machine and it was two DOM's on the IDE bus. The C: drive was the working volume but had an extra line in the autoexec.bat that called the D: volume on the other DOM and would wipe out the C: drive with a default image and reboot. An ISA blanking plate had a keyswitch put into it that turned on or off the power to the second DOM so under normal circumstances with the key removed the system would boot and skip the line in autoexec.bat because the other DOM wasn't detected.

I'll definitely put some things into place to protect the system. I will at minimum have a copy of the disk image on my mac, I can even copy that image to multiple SD cards so that they're ready at a moment's notice. I'm sure there is probably a way to reimage a drive by booting from secondary media through FloppyEMU or something similar. On top of that, I have a feeling there might be some things I can do to set up restrictions on the system, something like a school would have used back when Apple packed them with their computers.