I stumbled across Terry's website and the forum while (perhaps sadly, but needs must raise funds!) in the process of getting a few vintage computer items out of storage, and checking, cleaning, preparing for potential sale... on TradeMe.
(I don't usually - this is the first time I ever have, in fact! - do "introductions" on forums - I usually plunge right in to posting (other interests include audio, valves, amateur radio, & more) - but some sense of nostalgia has gripped me tonight & over the last few days, as I contemplate penury, lentils, empty cupboards, and reflect on the vintage computer items stashed on shelves which reflect part of my modest journey... and which I should probably start clearing out, bachelor kipple & all...) ;=}))
I started, after a Christmas social conversation in the late 80's ("I'd love a computer, but I couldn't possibly afford one") the next day, with a Corona XT desktop, green screen, two floppies ("When you get used to directory structures I'll bring around a hard drive" - and he did, a week or two later, a giant 10MB brick...). Meanwhile I read up all I could...
(I remember browsing impossibly expensive books in Tech Books or Dymocks etc. to learn what I didn't know!
He was like a Johnny Appleseed of computing!
I still have that, maybe two of them, and the luggable version; learned some BASIC and remeber writing a small speaker cabinet design program (not TS parameters, just a variable truncated pyramid shape that gave volume for variable dimensions) and went to other hard drives (still probably have - what was it, ST-504? Winchester? - I'd have to look! - some), and then the plug in ISA card hard drives; I think I had an IBM XT too, but gone now; then a couple of IBM 286's, also I suspect gone now, although a few parts & lots of cards remain; CGA, EGA; should have some mono too; serial IO, parallel, clock, early VGA, etc. Absurd...
Used to love WordPerfect 5.1, when I picked up a 286... also have a 286 expansion card for an XT machine.
One day in the early 90's I bought a (the slowest possible!) 386 SX-25 motherboard from the Trade & Exchange, and wow! Windows 3.1, then 3.11! Laplink! Networks!
Always surfing frugally well behind the current wave, in relative poverty, self taught, picking up scrap or salvage & etc!
A further period with a bunch of Compaq 486 DX-66's, even a couple of 4-100's, then a big spend on a PII 266 (some $600 at the time!) which still gets use... amazingly!
But between times, a cute little Zenith SuperSport XT laptop, two floppies, no HD - which, with a pocket 14.4k modem (better than its built in 1200 baud!) actually got used in the '87 Auckland power blackouts (I had a Unix shell account with iconz at the time, IIRC). which I am intending to sell, shortly.
(Also an XT Sharp PC-7000 - but this is an intro, so maybe those can go in the trade area later ... ! ;=}))
(Along with an IBM monochrome monitor, & an IBM "Color Display", Model 8513(003) that I've cleaned & restored today!)
I've realised though that I'd quite like to ressurect the Corona(s) and see if I can retrieve my early data from them!
This post is coming from an IBM NetVista 1.6G Celeron - but normally the PII 266 has also been in almost daily use.
And recently, I've managed to ressurect two working laptops out of a bunch of 5 dead ones, NEC M400, 2.8GHz & 3.0GHz, that were headed for scrap... amazing!! (I can hardly believe my luck! - and the success in working them out!)
But browsing these and other linked forums has reminded me how much I enjoyed my starting period, and (although it doesn't reach back as far as some here!) that there will be quite some enjoyment in resurrecting those Corona's & etc!
I still have the original install disks & manuals for the Sharp & Coronas, & manuals for the Zenith.
So cheers, folks!
Maybe you'll see me posting a bit more, & possibly a few items on TradeMe or the Available/Wanted forums here.
~ Ross
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