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greenmeanie

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2006
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How come there isn't to many videos up on youtube of the Altair and Imsai running?
Are people afraid to use them or are most of the machines dead to the world now?
 
Most people are probably scared out of their mind to use them - I would be!
That's pretty much why I got rid of mine a few years ago - shame having something around, and always being terrified.

Of course, NOT powering it up, is just as bad, especially for the caps and xformers.

Danged if you do, danged if you don't!


T
 
I'm not saying it's not a good idea, but that would be pretty hardcore to put up more than a few switch programming and flashing lights videos (beyond what's already there). I'm very impressed at the speed with which some of these guys can program and I've also been impressed when these things have been hooked up to terminals, disk drives, etc., and made more usable, but again, I suppose it's more of a "have to be there live" type of activity and direct user experience than something that translates well to video. Just a thought...
 
Maybe Vince could upload a clip of one of his AltairKits running a game (yes, I know now he's gonna PM me and say "if you'd build the damn kit I sold you, you could do it too..<g>" but I'm just nervous about that project and my soldering skills right now).

If I can figure out how the hell to hook up my Kim-1 I could try video taping MicroChess or something, but the unit I bought has all sorts of weird cabling that makes me nervous also.

- John
 
barythrin said:
Maybe Vince could upload a clip of one of his AltairKits running a game (yes, I know now he's gonna PM me and say "if you'd build the damn kit I sold you, you could do it too..<g>" but I'm just nervous about that project and my soldering skills right now).

If I can figure out how the hell to hook up my Kim-1 I could try video taping MicroChess or something, but the unit I bought has all sorts of weird cabling that makes me nervous also.

- John
Click to expand...

I thought he wasn't selling the Altair PC yet, or is this something else?
 
Crap. My mistake.. I mean Grant not Vince.. (always get the two names mixed up in the awesome clone market).

I didn't know he finished his Kim-1 clone, cool if so :eek:) I like that kit just because the price is so affordable.. no I haven't built my replica-1 yet either but for the price I'm much more willing to have a mistake vs the altairkit which is also functionally identical but a tad more painfull to have me mess up.

- John

and they're both great guys, obviously Grant wouldn't actually say that, he just loves to ask and check if it's going ok.
 
barythrin said:
Crap. My mistake.. I mean Grant not Vince.. (always get the two names mixed up in the awesome clone market).

I didn't know he finished his Kim-1 clone, cool if so :eek:) I like that kit just because the price is so affordable.. no I haven't built my replica-1 yet either but for the price I'm much more willing to have a mistake vs the altairkit which is also functionally identical but a tad more painfull to have me mess up.

- John

and they're both great guys, obviously Grant wouldn't actually say that, he just loves to ask and check if it's going ok.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the KIM-1 has been done and been shipping for a few months now. It's been a pretty smooth roll-out, and he even just made a 32K memory expansion available.

I think all these kits are great, as it gives us a chance to work with original-style hardware without the great difficulty of tracking down originals that may or may not work (or even last under regular usage 30+ years later).
 
lol. Nice offer, but that's ok.. I bought them knowing my dream of ever finding a real kit and building them is never going to happen so these are as close as I can get, I just wanted to practice on something a little simpler first. I have a ZX-80 kit that I'll probably sacrifice to the soldering gods and test my talent on. I just need to take some time off to get the motivation to do it (the other catch).
 
greenmeanie said:
I was hoping to see a video of one hooked up to a terminal running a program.
Click to expand...

It's too bad you couldn't make it to VCF East 4.0, as that's where I took this photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/loguidice/599340787/in/set-72157600448428618/

599340787_1ca97ccaac_m.jpg


That was exactly the type of setup you describe. It was quite elaborate and required quite a bit of technical knowledge even to get going. I believe it was running 48K CP/M...

Of course you can also watch the movie "War Games" for a somewhat sensationalized, but still relatively accurate usage of the maxed out hardware...
 
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Well, I was doing that in real life in 1981. Had my Vector Graphic/1 with it's EXPENSIVE static ram and a ADM 3 that I had repaired, some kind of 8" drive and I was playing Zork 1. With just one drive, heaven help you if you wanted a backup copy of a diskette. Of course, I gave all that stuff away after the company I worked for got bought out in 1984. That stuff is HEAVY if you are moving around the country looking for jobs.

I did manage to bring along my dune buggy and trailer. That got sold rather quickly as jobs were hard to come by at the new location too.
 
Thrashbarg said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DRj_bDPuLg

This is my 8080 computer which I built from scratch running CP/M 2.2 and Zork 1. It also runs Microsoft products :)

Blinking lights also.
Click to expand...

Indeed, wonderful stuff, particularly the classic toggle switches and blinking lights. Really, just seeing CP/M do its thing is rather tame as a lot of us have CP/M systems coming out of our ears, but to see it on the "hardcore" hardware makes it extra special. Again, there's nothing quite like toggle switches and blinking lights that say hardcore...
 
Maybe that's what we need to start doing. Start making videos on how to connect several vintage systems and show them working to increase the interest as well as knowledge in the collecting world.

I know I could use a nice video of someone connecting power to their Kim-1 lol. Are people just soldering the raw power connectors to the expansion pins? Mine has a BUNCH of cables going from a protoboard to two interface slots and I guess the power is being transmitted through that board also. I haven't tried it like that since I'm a bit concerned about all the wires and hooking it up in that fashion.

Anyway, I'd like to see videos also of even that homebrew system (very cool btw) and some explanation of what it's doing during the light blinking process, etc.

- John
 
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