At 07:52 AM 8/1/97 -0600, you wrote:
>That machine is an 80186! (Nope, that's not a typo.) It's really not
>'IBM' compatible, although it runs MS-DOS 2. That machine obviously must
>have the color card, if it comes with the CM-1 (I'd love one of those.)
>The 2k sported several big enhancements over the PC. The faster 186, 720k
>floppies (DSQD), 600x400x16colors, full 16 bit expansion slots. Overall
>it's a really cool machine. That's probably why it didn't survive.
As long as programmers used BIOS calls instead of writing directly
to the video hardware and such, the 2k would run a lot of PC software just
fine. I've got a list around here somewhere of what PC software was known
to work with it. I ran the basic PC versions of Wordstar and Norton
Utilities on mine for a long time, though things such as Framework required
special video drivers. Also, communications programs didn't like the
machine, unless they used a fossil driver to access the serial port, such as
GTPower. I enjoyed making new fonts for the machine to boot into, as it's
system font was loaded into RAM on startup, making it quite customizable.
As for the CM-1, that is one nice monitor. I never could find one though,
so I ended up using an early NEC Multisync on mine for a while.
>Some had a hard drive. If it was factory installed, the nameplate should
>read 'Model 2000HD.' You might also look for any labelling on the back.
>The HD controller might have some sort of stickers on it. (The cards are
>the long, 1/2" high metal strips on the back.)
My 2k started life as a dual-floppy model, and then I added a
Seagate ST-225 internally later. I was kind of a pain finding the piggyback
hard disk power supply and mounting bracket for the drive though! I also
had the color video board, 640k RAM, and a clock/mouse board.
Jeff jeffh_at_unix.aardvarkol.com
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Amiga enthusiast and collector of early, classic microcomputers
http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lakes/6757
Received on Sat Aug 02 1997 - 05:39:26 BST