Vintage gear in Wellington: Must be gone by Saturday

[tezza]

I've just picked up some spare parts from an electronics collector (Ben) in Wellington. He is moving house and is willing to donate a lot of his computer and other electronic gear to fellow collectors. The alternative is the surplus goes to the dump on Saturday.

The condition of items varies from parts-only to quite good. There are no pics but I saw lots of monitors, a PS/2 model 30, an a P/S/2 model 70, a Visual 200 terminal and there is lots, lots more. There is also a 3B2-400 Computer and it's Unix OS Software Box Set. The latter is in BEAUTIFUL condition.

Some of the computer gear Ben is keeping, but a lot he needs to pass on. Anyway, best call him on Ph: 04-589-8150 or 022-167-3248, or email friendsforus2013(at)yandex(dot)com to discuss. If no-one takes the unwanted gear it's going to the tip on Saturday, so don't delay.

[SpidersWeb]

I'll polish off the station wagon!

I have all the original matching software/books for the PS/2 Model 30, but mine isn't running, and I'd love a 70.

Edit: sorted, picking up tomorrow

[tezza]

Edit: sorted, picking up tomorrow

Good one. I got the following parts-machines from Ben (thank you Ben)

Complete machines

Texas Instruments TI99/4a (this one is not a parts machine. I'll try to restore it for the collection)
Sinclair QL
C64 and C64c plus two drives

Incomplete or disassembled machines

Apple ii+ (Looks fine apart from missing a lid)
Apple II+ clone (also missing lid)
BBCb
Speccy
Amigia 500

[SpidersWeb]

Yes, big thanks to Ben, that was awesome Finally got to see a PDP8 in the flesh too.

I'm heading back on Saturday AM for a refill, I'll have to take photos/videos of what I got, but yesterday I collected:

- Dragon32
- IBM PS/2 Model 50Z - no start
- IBM PS/2 Model 30-286 - no start first four boots, now it does the floppy seek and beeps
- AT&T 3B2-400 with UNIX - all disks are there and manuals, epic, haven't powered up yet
- Visual 200 terminal and keyboard - power line is cut but I hope I can get it running
- Olivetti FileNet system (huge) and high resolution displays - although I seem to be missing the storage component
- Wang Professional Computer - no display/keyboard but the original floppies which I was unable to source on the interwebs
- Boxes of manuals, software, including two IBM boxed titles from the 5150 era.
- Syquest 44Mb SCSI

I was like a kid in a candy store. Was a bit too tired to go through things properly last night, just powered up the PS/2's.

Also Tez, I have two bits for you , Apple Disk ][ unit and an Apple 2 aftermarket memory card of some kind - it needs a RAM chip or two reinstalled but looks good.

[tezza]

Ah, it was a PS/2 Model 50 that I saw, not a 70.

Yea, that's the first time I'd seen a PDP8 for real too. I hope Ben has room in his new place to keep some of those real classics he's got. Did you note the TRS-80 Model 3 and the Pet dual disk drives too. I'm sure Ben wants to keep them but if they are in any danger of being dumped when you go there on Saturday please snag them for me.

If you see a lid to an Apple II+ on your Saturday visit snag that too!

I was mulling over the Visual 200 when I was there. If I ever get one of the those real old S100 systems (Northstar etc.), well they do need a terminal. Also there was a certain nostalgic factor as I used to use a Visual 200 hooked up to our PRIME minicomputer in my early Uni days. But....no more room at my place really. Sometimes you need to be pragmatic about these things. I'm glad it hasn't been chucked though. Same with the Dragon 32.

Thanks for snagging that extra Apple stuff. If you can find a place to tuck it, I can uplift it when I'm next in Wellington.

[Matt]

Incomplete or disassembled machines

Apple ii+ (Looks fine apart from missing a lid)
Apple II+ clone (also missing lid)
BBCb

I guess you'll be keeping all of these?

If not pls let me know. You're in palmy right? My sister can store stuff for me in lower hutt.

I said I wanted a //e but thinking about it the program I'm writing uses 40*24 chars and capitals only so that probably doesn't need a //e.

The cc65 toolchain can potentially target any 65xx machine inc the bbc - apple is best but the beebs were cool. Used to be one at the public library in Dunedin.

Chrs, Matt.

[RonTurner]

I said I wanted a //e but thinking about it the program I'm writing uses 40*24 chars and capitals only so that probably doesn't need a //e.

I'm looking for any apple 2 series computer or clone meeting these criteria:
Applesoft BASIC, lower case support, and 64KB of memory.

The //+ has 48K RAM and doesn't have the lower case font you where looking for

Apple Disk ][ unit and an Apple 2 aftermarket memory card of some kind - it needs a RAM chip or two reinstalled but looks good.

Because its an Apple II sounds like a *Language Card* http://apple2info.net/index.php?title=Apple_II_Language_Card

[Matt]

The //+ has 48K RAM and doesn't have the lower case font you where looking for

I changed my mind. Why do I need to run Michael Mahon's sudoku solver anyway?

I just payed a power bill and on Monday I buy 40kg of dog food.

I'm not the "earns a good living in the industry" kind of programmer. I'm some other kind of programmer. Which kind? Who the h*ll knows lol

So anyway I need to be flexible for $reasons. Anyway the goal is to learn and have fun and that can be achieved regardless of the specific machine within certain limits.

If it seems like I'm making things up as I go along that's only because I am

Matt.

[tezza]

I guess you'll be keeping all of these?

Yes, I'll be keeping them. I don't have any duplicate boards for my Apple II+, or any of the other machines mentioned. I like to have my machines working and it's good to have spares just in case a chip fails and you need to repair via substitution. A spare board provides a source of these.

Part of today will be spent looking more closely at these spare boards and ascertaining their exact condition. Apart from the Apple II+ and TI machine. their cases and keyboards are in poor/wrecked condition. The motherboards might be ok though.

Incidentally, the Apple II+ is far rarer than the Apple IIe so you're more likely to come across the latter at a lower price. I'd aim for that one.

[RonTurner]

Yup Apple II and II+ and Europlus are very hard to find ; as usual older translates into more $$$ value
since its more sort after by collectors so higher specs will be cheaper

As time goes on they wont get cheaper

[SpidersWeb]

No problem holding on to the gear Tez. Sorry didn't spot your Apple II case, they were in the middle of moving so I was outside collecting gear.
He assured me he was keeping the other gear - I'll just send him an email to see how he got on.