What are the top 10 rarest vintage computer bits you own?

[RetroAND]

For me, it's a couple of Sinclair ZX80s and two JR-100U computers - None of them really that rare.

I have some cool stuff, but still can't find some of the pieces I want like an Issue 1 ZX Spectrum.

So nothing before 1980... Not even a Tandy or an original Apple II.

Though one zx80 has a very nice zx81 upgrade that looks factory installed and the other is original.

And I have an IBM that with an IBM asset sticker - so an IBM IBM... OK, that's not that rare I imagine, but I thought it was cool.

What IBM?

 

[thisisamigaspeaking]

From most to least rare:

IBM PGC 8-bit 3D accelerator
Sun ZX 24-bit 3D accelerator
SuperMac Tunder/24 24-bit 2D accelerator
Sun Elite3D-m6 24-bit 3D accelerator

 

[1ajs]

recently additions of my rarities

2x mimic spartins with boxs



zapsystems zapstar cpu board

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Two Spartans. Good grief.

 

[Timo W.]

My rarest item as of now is probably a Robotron SM1910 (aka A7150).

 

[famicomaster2]

Yesterday, I acquired something rather rare and unusual, a Canon GP200 digital copier from 1996. This machine is fully kitted out, but Canon didn't make these long. Only about a year before the imageRUNNER name came around and replaced it. Canon dropped parts support for the series (of which only 4 models ever existed). As a result, these machines and parts for them have become exceedingly rare after 30 years, especially with some of the unusual options this machine shipped with! Canon had a line on some of the first 28.8 fax modems for this thing, and it was, to my understanding, one of the first "small" 1200dpi laser printers. Inside is a gigantic formatter board which runs both PCL5 and PostScript with a whopping 40 megs of RAM installed, the maximum Canon advertised. It's run by a MIPS R4300 at 133MHz.
Sadly, the owner of this machine, a retired lawyer who ran his own practice and ordered this beast new, did not elect to have a network adapter installed. They were very much optional in 1996 as you might imagine, but Canon offered your choice of Token Ring, 10Base2, and 10BaseT!

Someday, I hope to get this machine fully working and eventually find one of those network adapters to get my machine to full spec. This thing was beyond hell to get out of it's tomb in their basement and drag uphill, and it involved a 6 hour round trip drive, but I think it was worth it.

Behold the beast below, and fear the 58 printed circuit boards within which make it operate:



As one last aside, if you ever heard the song "Weekend" by Michael Gray, a machine with this body style is the central figure in the music video. Only four machines share this body, the GP200, GP215 (same machine with factory duplexer), and the imageRUNNER 200/215 which came a year later.

 

[Jaut_76]

My rarest items have got to be my Research machines 380 blue case, which is serial number 203 and has what appears to be an early or prototype video card in it. It was also an early ROM cassette-only system, but I've upgraded it to disk, so it's more usable. As far as I can tell, there's less than 20 blue 380s today, and there were fewer than 690 blue ones made since my Black RM 380 is sn691

Following on from that is also my Brainwave 2000 logic analyser add-on peripheral for the BBC micro, which is a 1 of 1 prototype that never went into production. These are probably the 2 rarest items, although I have loads more stuff which could be rarer.

I also have one of the 2 known SJ Research Econet network cards for the Research machines 380, which I'm working with the original designer and another enthusiast to get the Econet server software rebuilt and working again. That is also something with probably only a few hundred ever made, but so far, only 2 are known

The brainwave 2000 I will be putting up on archive.org and Stardot forums, high-resolution board photos, and all the docs and software I have for it, so if someone wants to, it could be reverse-engineered

 

[HaHa I]

I had a lot of stupid rare stuff up until a few years ago. but as off today I own almost nothing. I have a quantum 3d dual voodoo 1 sli card with the retail box and massive mid 90s server case that's been tastefully modded to ATX for a sleeper pc. I modded it in such a way that it all looks factory and can be reverted back to AT.

 

[ChadSD]

1. Vector 1 - no boards ( long term project)
2. Apple II Rev 0 ( one owner and Reciept) working
3. TRS-80 in box original Reciept
4. Altair 8800 working
5. Altair 8800 b working
6. Ohio Scientific 1p working
7. Apple II Rev 1 working
8. Commodore 64 Silver label
9 TRS-80 rare un released version
10. Lere Siegler ADM 5 working

11. S-100 blue keyboard.
12. Mits 4K Ram board Rev 0
13. MITs 88-4 Rev 0

 

[R_a_n_d_y]

I only have one unknown/rare system. I call it Vector 4/8086 system. (One is better than none! Maybe some day I'll have ten!)

 

[ChadSD]

1. Vector 1 - no boards ( long term project)
2. Apple II Rev 0 ( one owner and Reciept) working
3. TRS-80 in box original Reciept
4. Altair 8800 working
5. Altair 8800 b working
6. Ohio Scientific 1p working
7. Apple II Rev 1 working
8. Commodore 64 Silver label
9 TRS-80 rare un released version
10. Lere Siegler ADM 5 working

11. S-100 blue keyboard.
12. Mits 4K Ram board Rev 0
13. MITs 88-4 Rev 0

I forgot about my byte Olsen and my Diviac Micro 68