weekend additions

From: Sam Ismail <dastar_at_crl.com>
Date: Sun Apr 27 13:07:33 1997

On Sat, 26 Apr 1997, Paul E Coad wrote:

> I picked up some good stuff today. Here is the haul:
>
> One nearly mint copy of "More BASIC Computer Games" by David Ahl.

I have this one too.

> One "The Best of Creative Computing V.3" by Ahl and Green.
> One boxed copy of Adventure for HP 150 and HP 110. (yes, THAT adventure).
> One boxed Commodore Plus/4.
> One Sun type 4 keyboard and mouse (not yet classic, but good none the less).
>
> Total: $11.00

That's pretty good.

Here's my catch:

Epson HX-20 "Notebook Computer" - this was an auction web purchase ($47)
and is supposed to be the first "notebook". This is an awesome little
gem. It has a built-in thermal printer and micro-cassette port for data
storage. It has a 20 character by 4 line screen and a 16K expansion
module. I was fortunate enough to be near enough to the seller to go
pick it up. When I got to his place, he was about to throw out a bunch
of other stuff, so I told him to use my trunk as the garbage can. This
is what else I came away with:

MacintoshPlus with external harddrive (now I've got two).
Canon "Cat" V777 Work Processor (a standalone 68000 based, GUI-based,
 word processor with a 3.5" drive, parallel port, RS232C port and built-in
 modem...not quite a classic computer but it is circa 1987 and is neat-o).
Morrow Pivot Portable - haven't had a chance to play with it yet but it
 is an early portable (about 12" high by 14" wide by 7" deep) with an LCD
 screen, built-in modem, 2 5.25" disk drives, parallel/serial ports and
 an expansion bus connector. Don't know what processor it has or how
 much RAM, but I was told it was an 8088 based system. Its actually a
 "personal digital assistant" with a phone dialer, calendar, calculator
 (all available from a front button panel) and I think it boots into
 DOS, although I haven't played with it long enough to know. Very Neat.

Also, thanks to Jeff Hellige I was re-united with my boyhood computer
(well, not THEE one but it will do) an Aquarius. Thanks Jeff! Its such
a cool little machine. Now I just need to find all the different
components I had for it, like the expander module, 4K memory carthridge,
Utopia and some other game, the paddles and the thermal printer.

I also got a couple TI/994a's for spare parts/trade and a CoCo2 (which is
a variant from the one I have) off of auction web.

I also scored the original IBM Personal Computer Operations Guide in mint
condition from a thrift shop.


Sam
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Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Received on Sun Apr 27 1997 - 13:07:33 BST