Not likely!
Sphere back then was the sloppy introduction and viewed as a
grab the money and run, ship nothing operation. I'd say it was
one of the first in the Vaproware realm. Many that ordered got
skunked as Sphere hit with a splash and really did disappear
pretty fast. They were the bad guys right up until the
World Power Scam, thats another story.
Allison
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Nadeau <menadeau_at_mediaone.net>
To: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Date: Monday, December 17, 2001 7:52 AM
Subject: Re: Hardest to Find Classic Computers
>Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer has a detailed account of the
>Sphere's design flaws and other issues, including kits being sent out
>incomplete. Veit was a retailer who sold the Sphere when new. Veit stopped
>selling the Sphere and admits that the company might have fixed some of the
>problems after that.
>
>Do you remember the issue in which the review that the former owner refers
>to appeared? The earliest Sphere coverage in BYTE is positive, almost
>fawning.
>
>Maybe if the Sphere had been on the cover of Popular Electronics instead of
>the Altair people would have been more forgiving of its flaws.
>
>--Mike
>
>Michael Nadeau
>Editorial Services
>603-893-2379
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Loboyko Steve" <sloboyko_at_yahoo.com>
>To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
>Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2001 9:22 PM
>Subject: Re: Hardest to Find Classic Computers
>
>
>> I stumbled upon a link some time ago belonging to a
>> very bitter former owner of Sphere. The gist of his
>> article was that Byte Magazine destroyed Sphere with a
>> very bad review, and, that most computers of that era
>> took some hacking to work anyway (example: the "clock"
>> - and I use the term clock charitably - of the
>> original Altair 8800).
>>
>> --- William Donzelli <aw288_at_osfn.org> wrote:
>> > > Ah yeah. Good pick. That is definitely a rare
>> > beast. I've only ever
>> > > known one person who had one (I forgot his name,
>> > he used to be on the list
>> > > a few years ago). He sold it off to someone else
>> > and then got out of
>> > > collecting computers.
>> >
>> > Was that me? I have/had three, but they are promised
>> > to go out West. One of
>> > those deals that seems to be taking a very long
>> > time, mostly due to me
>> > trying to unearth it all and boxing the stuff up.
>> >
>> > Anyway, Sphere aparently was one of the early bad
>> > guys. The computers they
>> > sold (many as kits, I think) basically did not work.
>> > Unlike Altair, Sphere
>> > was trying to break into the business sector, so
>> > there really was not much
>> > of an excuse for the crapiness. They all needed a
>> > huge number of hacks to
>> > get them to function (my favorite is a a few-mH coil
>> > made of telephone
>> > wire kludged onto one of the oscillators, in order
>> > to keep the thing
>> > going. Basically, wrap some wire around a pencil,
>> > and tack solder it into
>> > place, and adjust accordingly).
>> >
>> > William Donzelli
>> > aw288_at_osfn.org
>>
>>
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>
>
Received on Mon Dec 17 2001 - 07:59:20 GMT