Looking forward to an orderly introduction, so as to eliminate a violent bloodbath.

[legendre]

Howdy folks,

Met a nice gent on the eBase who couln't stop suggesting this forum.

I've been collecting the vintage compy goods since 1995 or so. Quite a few pieces have passed through my pile over time, but as of recent, I've mostly focused on pre-PC laptops, hand-helds, portables and so forth. More about the CP/M than the MS/DOS - you know the drill.

My main enthusing is directed at Commodore stuff these days - VIC-20, C=64, C-128, etc etc. Just finished setting up what might be my 'dream' Commie system - a C-128, 2x 1541, 1702 Monitor, IBM Color VGA monitor, Straddleprint (aka ParallAx CD) interface to the Panasonic KX-P2123 line printer - all that good stuff.

Looking forward to meeting, discussing and swapping gear with you good folks! Drop me a line to say 'hi' if you like, your messages / comments are always welcome.

-Leg

 

[barythrin]

Welcome to our newest hosta^H^H^H^H^Hmember. There's a pretty huge wealth of knowledge here and variety of collections so hope it's worth the time. Have you tried (or desired) to get your 128 on the net? I keep eying it but haven't dedicated myself to the cost yet since it'd be more of a sideshow act than something I'd really use. Although I do really like those virtual floppy drives (minus cost).. guess I come off pretty stingy lol. Is the C= interest replacing the previous collection interest or just a new leaf? To make it match have you acquired a z80 cart Then you can run cp/m on your Commie.

Hand-helds are awesome too. I'd love to find a Commodore laptop some day too. They crop up once and a while when I'm not paying attention but aren't that common (they're x86 anyway) so not a huge deal just something interesting. The sx-64 is pretty sweet though. I definitely appreciate taking that to a show instead of having to haul a system, drives, cables, monitor, etc.

If you're considering sticking around you might update your location and perhaps you'll find some other localish collectors or museums depending on your area/country.

 

[legendre]

Howdy,

It kind of depends what you mean by "on the net". If I were in the mood, I'll bet I could be EMAILing, IRCing and text-browsing on the 128 in about fifteen minutes, using nothing more than standard period hardware.. it would go something like this:

C-128 -> 1670 Modem -> Viking DLE-300 -> Hayes 2400 -> Linux machine -> LAN -> Internet.

But I suppose that would be considered cheating as I didn't spend a bunch of money. ;-) The Viking box is cool, it's a two-way high speed analog line simulator. Think of it as your own little desktop Central Office, serving only two "customers" (i.e. two analog telephones, or a pair of modems). If you like to play with modems, you might want to look into it - I think they're good to 128Kbps or better.

 

[barythrin]

Not cheating at all That's the biggest reason I don't have that setup, the c64 cartridge NICs have a large price tag (larger than what I'd ever use it for). That's cool though, you could technically emulate a Commodore BBS and enjoy that heh.. or I suppose even host one via telnet. Interesting piece of technology. I always wondered about those. I had a PBX at some point in time but couldn't find it last time I looked (could be buried at the bottom of a shelf somewhere) but I never did get it to do anything useful.

The other hack that used to be somewhat popular was modding a Palm Pilot Ethernet cradle although you then needed something that supported SLIP or PPP (can't remember these days). Hey you know what's even more pathetic? I didn't hit send (halfway completed that last sentence and was going to link to the palmpilot cradle pinouts) but then found myself looking at a Commodore 64 emulator and Atari ST emulator for the palmpilot but found they need the "newer" Palms for the most part. I have such a great attent..

 

[legendre]

LoL!

The Viking box is pricey new (like $300 IIRC) but if you find one on the secondary market, they can go for $20 or so. Unless you know what it is, and why you'd need it, it's a very narrowly-targeted product. They also make a DLE-200B which is like the 300, but it doesn't have nearly as much functionality, and the data rates are limited to 14,4K FAX IIRC - but I could be wrong. Docs are available free from their website at www.vikingelectronics.com.

 

[legendre]

Err... does anyone know how long a newb is on moderation?? What's this all about? My details are verified, and I've got 13 posts without even a hit of the old goatse or V1@Gr@ whatnot.. ;-)