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Mindset computer m1001 "V" video production system Ebay

So, what the hell is the Mindset?
I never heard of this machine for years, then two or three years ago suddenly everyone is talking about them, the demand takes off and their prices explode.
 
It's a "failed" 80186 computer that I think some ex-Atari people built when they left Atari. It runs a version of DOS (not very compatible) and has extra graphic/sound features. It's sort of like a Tandy 1000/PC Jr kind of thing, but much rarer and not as compatible due to the unusual CPU. I've seen 2 in real life and neither worked anymore, so it seems they have a high failure rate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindset_(computer)
 
It's nothing like a 1000/Peanut. It is énhabced by it's graphics and sound asics, giving it abilities like animation on par with an amiga. In fact if you've éver seen the video of an eagle flapping it's wings on an Amiga, that was originally displayed on the Mindset. It was very advanced for it's day, and the lack of ibm compatibility, just like so many others, caused it to flop. It does seem to suffer quality issues, particularly the p/s.
 
Yeah they've really caught on fire since 8bitguy's video. I have two units myself but unfortunately neither of them seem to work. Also don't have the expansion unit with the disk drives which I keep hoping will show up on ebay at some point.
 
retro-pc_user said:
Even Tandy computers are fetching for an arm and a leg these days.
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Indeed. Used to be they were the bottom of the barrel in collecting circles and people couldn't give them away, but of course it would turn out right around the time I get a nostalgia itch to play with 80's DOS again they'd go through the roof.

Describing the Mindset as basically an Amiga with an 80186 CPU is probably about as apt a metaphor as any. It has a hardware bitter/sprites and a programmable sound generator, which puts it in a significantly different class from a PCjr or Tandy 1000, certainly. Also, coincidentally (or not) the Mindset was designed by a group of Atari engineers that went rogue, same as the Amiga. (It's a bizarre accident of history that the Amiga was released with a Commodore nameplate on it.)

The Mindset does manage, despite its weirdness, to be *slightly* more PC compatible than its 80186-based near contemporary Tandy 2000. The hardware interrupts and whatnot are mostly completely wrong but at least the video buffer is in the CGA location and it has BIOS support for CGA modes. (Anything that tries to program the CRTC directly will almost certainly go boom, though.)
 
retro-pc_user said:
Even Tandy computers are fetching for an arm and a leg these days.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I don't know what's going on but the 1000HX seems to be on fire right now. $200-300 is the norm, which seems insane to me for what it is. Tandy features prominently on youtube retro channels though so that could be part of it.
 
falter said:
Tandy features prominently on youtube retro channels though so that could be part of it.
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Both the 8-bit guy and LGR have done Tandy 1000 related videos pretty recently, that alone might explain it. The 1000 series is certainly a "worthwhile" purchase for a collector of DOS oddities but, honestly, until recently I would have laughed at the idea that there were enough of those out there to drive such a demand. I bought my 1000EX last... June or July? in a package deal with a Macintosh LC III and an Imagewriter printer for $100 and I was feeling like I'd probably overpaid. Certainly not anymore.
 
NeXT said:
Aw dammit, not that guy again.
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Hehe. Well, I'm glad I got to see one working, anyway. There's a lot of retro channels out there competing for eyeballs - gotta generate the content. I imagine we'll see more and more obscure/unusual machines making a public splash as they continue the chase, accompanied by (hopefully mild) price bumps afterwards.
 
Eudimorphodon said:
Both the 8-bit guy and LGR have done Tandy 1000 related videos pretty recently, that alone might explain it. The 1000 series is certainly a "worthwhile" purchase for a collector of DOS oddities but, honestly, until recently I would have laughed at the idea that there were enough of those out there to drive such a demand. I bought my 1000EX last... June or July? in a package deal with a Macintosh LC III and an Imagewriter printer for $100 and I was feeling like I'd probably overpaid. Certainly not anymore.
Click to expand...

For me it was just a connection to childhood - friends of mine had a 1000TX and I envied the 16 color graphics we'd lost when my Dad traded 'up' from a PCjr to a CGA AT. Another friend in our school dorm had a 1000SX and we used to play Kings Quest on it at lunch time. And then later my school allowed me to set up a bulletin board system for them, run out of my house no less, with a 1000TL. The dorm friend ended up loaning me his 1000SX for a couple years after the school needed the TL back.

I'm not sure what the attraction is for younger people who weren't alive when they were current. I know when I played with a Magnavox Odyssey recently I remember thinking 'my god, this is archaic, and lame'. I would have thought they'd have the same reaction about the Tandy.

The Mindset I kind of understand - I mean, how many computers made it into the Museum of Modern Art? Plus the Atari tie-in, etc. It's just really cool and rare.
 
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