I made some nice acquisitions to add to the old silicon heap today.
I found an ATR-8000 ($7). The ATR-8000 was an adjunct CP/M box for the
Atari 400/800/XL computers. To use it, you plugged a special cart into
the Atari which was really just a terminal program. The Atari then acted
as a terminal to the ATR-8000 (the connection from the ATR-8000 to the
Atari was via serial cable). The ATR-8000 had external connectors for
floppy drives (since you couldn't actually use the Atari drives on the
ATR) and a printer connector. The ATR-8000 could actually be used as a
stand-alone CP/M computer if you wanted to. You could just connect a
terminal and some disk drives to it and voila, instant CP/M machine.
Which is interesting to note because...
The next find was ANOTHER ATR-8000 (!) but this time with a TeleVideo 925
terminal and two half-height dual floppy drives attached to it.
Basically, an ATR-8000 in a stand-alone configuration! Cool. But this
was even a better deal...$5 for the whole lot.
My next nice find was an Intellec MDS chassis. The ship date on the back
shows 10/77 so I imagine it is a later model than what I've seen in
pictures. The front panel has 8 interrupt switches, and a momentary BOOT
switch and a RESET switch. There's also a HALT and RUN light. There were
two cards inside...one is a Monitor Module and the other is a wire-wrap
mess that I can't figure out. I also got a bare wire-wrap card. The
chassis was slightly beat up, as some parts of the face ridges were broken
off, so I talked the guy down to $10.
I got a Momenta pen-based computer. It's shaped like a wedge. I got it
in the box but it was in so-so shape. I got two battery packs but neither
is charged, and unfortunately I didn't get the charger or wall apadtor
with it. On the box it said "For technical service call 1-800-MOMENTA"
so I called but it rang and rang. A sort of good sign I guess. I'll try
during the week and see what I get. I'd be interested to know anything
that anyone possibly knows about this thing. Circa 1991. $15.
I found a real nice book: _Microcomputer Dictionary: (Second Edition)_ by
Charles J. Sippl (Howard Samms, 1981, ISBN: 0-672-21696-5). It has some
more excellent pictures of stuff I've never even heard of or seen before.
I'll be scanning these pictures in and posting them to the web page.
Of course it also has all sorts of definitions for computer terms and
such. $1.
Next find was a this kinky little Japanse 286 box, a Sharp MZ-6500 Model
50. All the markings were in Japanese (or is that more properly Kanji?).
It had a "100V" plug as well as a strange plug that I assume is for
outlets in Japan. It has two 3.5" floppies, an ST-125 HD, and a strange
motherboard layout. It was in superb shape. Not really a classic, but
cool looking. The guy wanted to get rid of it so I got it for $3.
Other finds: a DEC VT-100 terminal for $.50 (yes, cents), and a TI-99/4a
for laughs.
It was a good day.
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Sun Mar 01 1998 - 21:10:18 GMT