Hi all! I just discovered this mailing list a couple nights back.
Now I have a place to share my cool classic comp acquisitions. :)
Anyway, last weekend, when I reported to my squadron for our monthly
drill, I was informed that one of our officers had brought in a whole
bunch of old computer stuff that I might be interested in (he's
moving across country and isn't able to pack it with him.)
I had a great time sifting through the massive amount of classics
that were stacked at the back of the dining hall, and deciding what I
should claim. Since our little apartment here is short on storage
space at the moment, I just selected a Cromemco System Two and a
Cromemco System Three, as well as a box of various S-100 cards,
manuals, and disks (including a complete set of Cromix-Plus and Unix
System V floppies.) Had I realized that the thing that looked like a
jerry can, which I thought was most likely a power supply of some
sort was actually a Cromemco hard drive, I would have taken it along
with the Cromemco System One that was sitting in front of it as well.
Oh well, live and learn. :/
So the next day, after final roll call, I load up the stuff in the
truck of the guy who gave me a ride home, and me and my roommate that
afternoon start looking over everything. We were disappointed that
the System Three was totally stripped of all cards (though it does
have a pair of 8 inch floppy drives). The System Two on the other
hand, was a different story. Not only does it have a pair of
floppies, but it also has a 21MB hard drive, 3 256K RAM cards, and a
couple other cards I can't remember at the moment. Since we are in
need of some cash at the moment, we went ahead and put some of the
excess stuff (spare manuals, extra cards, and the Fortran 77 and
68000 C packages up for auction. We might also sell off one of the
256K cards that's in the System Two as well. But that isn't the
point of this post (not wanting to turn this into a FA posting,
y'know).
We are looking forward to one day having the room to set up the
System Two and actually making her a part of our little home LAN.
I'm predicting that this is going to be a long term project, much
like restoring a classic car. I suppose the most important thing I
need to get for her is some sort of terminal/control console.
Fortunately, dumb terminals show up at the thrift stores around here
every so often, as well as other interesting bits of old computer
parts (I have an IBM 3274 Terminal Controller set up as a TV stand in
my room. For only $10, it is a much cooler piece than the usual bits
of overpriced furniture Goodwill normally gets...)
I'm also wondering if this little honey could be used as a console
for the Cromemco system...
http://www.oz.net/~otter/gallery/Geek-Console.JPG
Sorry. Can't remember what model number it is at the moment. It is
way too heavy for me to move by myself so I can see the label on the
back. :p
As for the System Three; we haven't decided what to do with it yet.
It doesn't have enough stuff with it to make it worth the hassles of
auctioning (plus, without having an operational car at the moment,
shipping would be an enormous logistical challenge.) If someone can
come pick it up (Kitsap County, WA), I would be open to some sort of
reasonable buy or preferably trade offer; especially if I could trade
it for a Commodore PET (been wanting one of those ever since I saw
one back in the old days on an episode of Buck Rogers, and later in
the background
in Kirk's apartment in Star Trek II:
http://www.oz.net/~otter/images/scr-st2-1.JPG
Anyway, enough incoherent babbling from me for now. Time for me to
catch a bit of sleep.
Later!
-- Scarletdown
P.S. If anyone is interested, I can send off an email to someone at
my squadron Monday Morning to find out where that Cromemco System One
was donated to.
Received on Sat Oct 12 2002 - 04:04:01 BST
