IBM made a bunch of printer terminals based around the Selectric typewriter
- 1052, 2740, 2970 etc. Look in any old copy of BYTE, and you'll also find
several vendors were selling 3rd party terminals based around IBM
Selectrics, often converted for ASCII/RS-232c operation, as teletype
alternatives.
Where have they all gone? (I appreciate, from what I've heard, that many
folks who used them in anger would reply 'I don't know, I don't care, good
riddance!') Early DECwriters are not uncommon. Teletypes are (almost) ten a
penny, ASR33s show up frequently enough on ebay, I have several.
But the only Selectric based unit I've *seen* in over ten years of
collecting is a 2970 Reservation Termainal (see
http://www.corestore.org/2970-1.jpg ) which I was offered a year or so ago.
It needs a fair bit of TLC, and it's a print-only device; it can receive
data from a host and print it, but not send anything back from the keyboard.
I'd love to get a bidirectional equivalent to use as an 'authentic' terminal
for a 360 emulator I work with... any clues? Can anyone recommend a
Selectric repair shop? No way I want to try to fettle something THIS
mechanically-intimidating myself!
Mike
http://www.corestore.org
Received on Sat May 24 2003 - 17:31:00 BST
