"Vintage" computing hardware collectors, anyone?

[sehsuan]

Just saw this marvellous card from yesteryear, the Diamond FireGL 4000 32MB PCI on sale for not the princely sum it would have commanded, probably $3000+ five years ago, but only $52 dollars yesterday while sieveing through the backalleys of Sim Lim Square. Nostalgic, isn't it? Rather... DEPRECIATION... haha. All those cards were brand new, untouched, unopened.

are there any "vintage" computing hardware collectors around? Just pop in and share with us what vintage "power" hardware you have of the past...

 

[otnaicus]

Vintage??? Hmmz... I still have a working Intel XT PC... Not even the 8088 generation yet one... Top speed?? Clocks at 10MHz... RAM?? 1MB (pretty good in those days)... Graphics card?? 16 colour EGA adaptor... HDD?? Wat HDD??? Onli got 2 5.25" low density drives...

Got this thing since I was in primary 4... It's a miracle that it's still working today... Hahaha...

 

[hwchoy]

the XT uses Intel 8086, think the original IBM PC uses 8088.

The oldest I ever used, an IBM 3031 "mainframe" and a DECsystem 10 "also mainframe" :what:

Then I had a few "newer" PDP-11 and VAX-11 :lovegrin:

 

[Harlequin]

the XT uses Intel 8086, think the original IBM PC uses 8088.

The oldest I ever used, an IBM 3031 "mainframe" and a DECsystem 10 "also mainframe" :what:

Then I had a few "newer" PDP-11 and VAX-11 :lovegrin:

Yeah...i had that too...plus the Rainbow PC.

You sounded like one of my old colleague back in DEC.

 

[hwchoy]

well not strictly a PC but I had a VT100 at home for years :heart: later upgraded to VT340. Yah, DEC 1988-1998. Who's you? :sweat:

ps: Philip Tang, yes, rings a bell

 

[Zerstorer]

8bit XTs are 8088 and they started at 4.77Mhz I had one back in 1985. 8086 refers to the 16bit variant of the XT.

 

[StreetShooter]

I threw away my working Atari 800 (6502 chip) and Atari 1040ST computers, since nobody wanted them and I was not using them. Did not make sense to keep them, since there was no way they were going to run games like Unreal Tournament, and the old games can be played on emulators on the PC (which load up a lot faster - it's amazing how quickly floppies grow fungus). I remember many pleasant nights with Llamatron, Star Raiders and Defender. Psychedelic. Not recommended if you're prone to epilepsy.

Anyone here was into 6502 assembly language?

 

[hwchoy]

8bit XTs are 8088 and they started at 4.77Mhz I had one back in 1985. 8086 refers to the 16bit variant of the XT.

Wasn't the 8088 in the Original IBM PC, while the 8086 is used in the XT (I remember both having the same casing)? Then the AT came along with 80286. I had loads of fun on the AT playing digdug with its hypnotic soundtrack.

Anyone know about the 80186

 

[tsdh]

Anyone here was into 6502 assembly language?

I wrote 6502 and Z80 assembly using Apple II computer more than 20 years ago.

 

[hwchoy]

did some minor assembly for fun on the 6800.

 

[Jay]

I wrote 6502 and Z80 assembly using Apple II computer more than 20 years ago.

Did some Apple II Basic on the Apple II for my bank then while looking after IBM System 3, WANG 2000, NCR8250s. Now I understand why my languages got chewed up!

 

[Zerstorer]

Wasn't the 8088 in the Original IBM PC, while the 8086 is used in the XT (I remember both having the same casing)? Then the AT came along with 80286. I had loads of fun on the AT playing digdug with its hypnotic soundtrack.

The 8088 was also known as a XT. I had the same PC as the link below and it came with Digdug, Moonbugs, Tapper...etc.

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=286

The 80186 was another one that wasn't successful in market.

 

[otnaicus]

Hmmz.... If the 6800 is considered old, I wonder about the 68000... We learn it in school so have done some assembly for it... Those in NTU CE can attest to that... Remember SC206???

 

[hwchoy]

what about 68000? it is the follow-on from the 6800.

OK, just in case I'm confusing you, the MC6800 was introduced 1974, and the MC68000 followed in 1979.

 

[hwchoy]

The 8088 was also known as a XT. I had the same PC as the link below and it came with Digdug, Moonbugs, Tapper...etc.

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=286

The 80186 was another one that wasn't successful in market.

Ohhh, those pics bring back memories

the 80186 was not used in the IBM PC line, and I don't think it was ever used in any computers. I do know that it was used on the Ungermann-Bass range of intelligent network interface units (i.e. Ethernet card) which in those days was USD600 EACH! :bigeyes: :bigeyes: :bigeyes:

 

[roygoh]

My first experience with a personal computer is the Sinclair ZX81, back in the early 80s.

 

[darkspade]

my first experience in a PC was a NEC Apple-clone (My brother won it in a competition). Monochrome monitor. The CPU and keyboard was built into 1. No harddisk and diskette. Had to use tape-recorder to store the programs!

 

[laokayu]

Commodore 64 with cassette tape as the only storage medium. Loads the simplest games quickly in 10mins.

8080 machine language programming.

Apple ][ and clones (Pineapple, Cubic CT), 48KB RAM, Shugart drive, 360KB 5.25" floppy with additional notch at opposite edge to double capacity.

 

[Sausage]

I've got a 48k ZX Spectrum. Programs were stored in cassette tapes that had to be played back at the correct volume or they wouldn't load!

 

[StreetShooter]

Commodore 64 with cassette tape as the only storage medium. Loads the simplest games quickly in 10mins.

8080 machine language programming.

Apple ][ and clones (Pineapple, Cubic CT), 48KB RAM, Shugart drive, 360KB 5.25" floppy with additional notch at opposite edge to double capacity.

Cubic CT. Now that was a cutting edge machine. First PC with sound input and output. Remember that talking parrot and the sound waves? It also had Chinese language input with the dictionary on an onboard ROM. It was the predecessor to the Creative Soundblaster add-on for other PC's.