There were 11,088 views and 69 comments made on the video prior to the refresh on 20th October, 2023. Those comments appear below...
@tezzaNZ
9 years ago
I was so impressed by my recently acquired 1982 CP/M-based Panasonic JD-850M business computer, I had to add it to my YouTube video collection.
@rooneye
9 years ago
Terry Stewart you are a legend, sir.
@monolalia
6 years ago
"Big disks make your hands look smaller"
@vwestlife
9 years ago
I recently acquired a Panasonic JR-200U, which was the complete opposite of the spectrum: a small, cheap, rubber chiclet keyboard home computer with color graphics and sound, which was sold here in the USA but got totally lost among all the other inexpensive home computers that were flooding the market around 1982-1984. But we shouldn't feel sorry that the Japanese never managed to take over the personal computer market, since they did conquer the home electronics and video game console markets instead!
@jaykay18
9 years ago
Will you have a review of the JR-200U?
@vwestlife
9 years ago
jaykay18 Yes, eventually.
@bukster1
7 years ago
+vwestlife My brother bought one of those. He was warned there wouldn't be a lot of software for it. As always he didn't listen and got a machine he could do nothing with
@QuasarRedshift
5 years ago
There is always programming . . .
@christianhorton6962
4 years ago
What about Canada and Mexico, I have those on my Pinterest boards, see: https://www.pinterest.ca/UsagiPretzels/retro-electronics-suggested-in-mexico/computers/ https://www.pinterest.ca/UsagiPretzels/retro-electronics-suggested-in-canada/computers/
@TheFlyingScotsman
9 years ago
Fantastic! A new machine! Thanks a lot for the Video, Tezzza!
@tezzaNZ
9 years ago
You're welcome. Thanks for the kind words.
@mszymcza
6 years ago
Terry, your videos are tremendously engaging and helpful. I wish you were still producing these videos. Thank you for your hard work bringing this information to the Community.
@ualaelinlive
6 years ago
Same, can't get enough, I think I've watched all of them 2 or 3 times! I am curious how would you go about saving your work. Do you save to the same disk as the accounting software itself, or do you need to insert another disk into the other drive? These old computers are strange to me when they don't have a hard disk. Some of them would have been connected to a server or mainframe that you could save to maybe? But those computers are referred to as terminals I imagine.
@mszymcza
6 years ago (edited)
I couldn't say for the Panasonic but I can tell you that the TRS80 has a ton of ways to get that task done. My TRS 80 Model 4 uses two single sided 5 1/4" floppy drives, cassette CCR-81 and a serial port. All that said, I still rely heavily upon a 386DX40 fitted with a full height 5 1/4 " original XT drive to create media. For that platform, I save to a data floppy and not directly to the boot or application floppies. I'm not much of a fan of the USB floppy drive replacements for these vintage systems but I everyone should feel free to use their system any way that makes them smile. For most people, running an emulator is enough for them to satisfy their trip down memory lane but you simply can't replace the fun of conquering mechanical media, the sounds of drives spinning up and the smell of blown caps. ;-) As a final word of caution, a lot of Terry's TRS80 catalogue is double side disk images so you'll definitely need to get used to using emulators and TRSTools to shuttle files onto single sided format. While the catwheasel is nice, you'll be looking a very very very long time on Ebay to find that rainbow unicorn.
@tezzaNZ
6 years ago
Thanks for those kind words Martin!
@jaykay18
9 years ago
That was great to see a machine with 8" drives. The only other machine I remember with them was not really a computer at all, it was a 1970's era IBM mainframe laser printer, it actually would IPL off an 8" floppy drive to ready itself, there was no console display although you could connect to it. It would IPL in much the same fashion of the IBM PC that came out years later--it would do a RAM test, seek the floppy drive, then emit 1 beep stating POST was successful. Then, of course, it would boot.
I would have thought the 8" stepper motors would have been even louder and more obnoxious than the 5¼" drives, but it was sure great to hear it go.
I would have LOVED to see that printer go, perhaps you might branch out your videos to various peripheral devices you have for the machines.
@douro20
1 year ago
Colossal Cave Adventure is based on a trip through a cave system of the same name in Arizona.
@miked4377
1 year ago
love the machine terry! love you and your show!!
@MichaelRusso
2 years ago
Impressive machine. I have picking up 8 inch drives for fun but having a integrated machine with 8 inch drives attached is pretty cool.
@IkarusKommt
2 years ago
What the dark ages it was that you had to spend hundreds of $$ for somebody's BASIC script and the manual in binder...
@masterbit2459
3 years ago
Hi Terry I've got my panasonic jd850m working again and would love to have a system disk for it. Are you able to help?
@masterbit2459
3 years ago
I just acquired one of these... Can I ask you to send a system disk to Australia? I'll pay of course
@Kenny-bw2cz
3 years ago
Wow.... Of course you should have kept it. This is a very interesting computer.
@mspenrice
5 years ago (edited)
Wow, that really is a beast, particularly with that massive cheese wedge keyboard... it distorts the perspective of the entire room and makes you look like a child sat next to it :-o
Curious display specs, looks like it's only 23 rows of text, but with more than the typical 8 scanlines per row? Maybe a hangover from it being originally made for japanese script maybe, and a precursor to IBM's MDA doing 25 rows but a much higher than normal 350 lines...? Perhaps it's not the normal 72 or 80 columns either (looks like more than 64 but I lost count after that because they're mostly only filled with header-line asterisks)... after all why be weird in just one dimension when you can be weird in two?
@tezzaNZ
5 years ago
Yea. It is 80 columns across.
@mspenrice
5 years ago
So, 80x23? Still a bit strange :) Though at least it more justifies the size of the thing.
@SiggyPony
5 years ago
I really like these JB Panasonic systems. This one is like a small version of my JB-3000 system :) But my one runs a version of MS-DOS not c/PM and has 128kb of ram.
@douro20
1 year ago (edited)
128kB is not much for an 8088 system, but then the 5150 had only 64kB as its base memory option.
@QuasarRedshift
5 years ago
The Japanese take their computers seriously! - cheers
@furrball
6 years ago
This one must be a rarity. Google doesn’t know much more about the exact model, out of a quick search (your site pops up immediately). Personally, I remember eight-inch drives: I played with them a few times when I was like 10 years old, and they used them in large (washing-machine-sized) drives taking two disks each and sitting below benchs. It was in offices where my dad used to work back then, around 1986. They were connected to dumb terminals mostly produced by Olivetti (possibly models M-24). They were huge, but never, ever I saw those drives fitted in a desktop machine. As I mentioned, they appeared to be usually desk... bottom systems. Lol.
@stonent
7 years ago
It reminds me of one of the Tandy "Model" series.
@tezzaNZ
7 years ago
It look a little like a Model II or 16
@SpringDivers
7 years ago
Nice computer. I could use something like that for a CP/M port that I'm working on. Thanks for the video, Terry.
@tezzaNZ
7 years ago
+Wayne Bjorken You're welcome.
@garyburchgb
7 years ago
It looks to be a really well built machine, your summery of it matches what i would think if I had one!.
@JohnnyBareToes1
8 years ago
Hi Terry. I've been a long time watcher of your videos but I don't think I've taken the time to comment until now (I'm lazy like that). I love your classic computer collection, I have learned a lot from your videos. So many systems I had not heard of before. Thanks to you I now know who Dick Smith is LOL. Anyway, just thought it was about time I said hello. Keep up the great work mate.
@tezzaNZ
8 years ago
+StigsWorld Thanks for the comment and support. Cheers!
@mister35mmuk
8 years ago
pf5 = escape according to your boot menu!!
@CommandLineCowboy
8 years ago
"The Charter Series" rings serious bells with me. At the time I was learning programming (COBOL) at Carrington Tech in 1983. I remember a presentation from the chap that was porting the charter series to MSDOS. By that time the Software was compiled but the machine code was reasonably easy to port. The 8086 instructions largely being a super set of the 8085 so it was a matter of changing the CP/M function calls to BIOS interrupt calls. I've been searching the web for more details on "The Charter Series", do you have any more information? The software house that wrote it?
@tezzaNZ
8 years ago
CommandLineCowboy No nothing else. According to the splash screen is was written by Interactive Applications Ltd. in 1981...using some routines written by FairCom, Columbia, Missouri, USA.
@RonJohn63
7 years ago
+Terry Stewart FairCom develops database components for applications like this. They're still in Columbia MO, in fact. http://www.faircom.com/company
FAIRCOM HEADQUARTERS 6300 W. Sugar Creek Drive Columbia, MO 65203-9052
@yaboimaxwell9031
8 years ago
How much do you think these would sell for in the US?
@WindowsMECustomBuilt
8 years ago
After seeing this video the first time this has automatically became my ideal computer! Hope they sold them in North America!
PS: PF11 is RESET, according to the boot screen.
@tommasopetrella4856
9 years ago
I remember my fathers Plating Factory called X-pert Metal here in Hamilton Ontario used a computer system called Wang Computers. These also used 8 inch floppies and I remember when I was a kid they looked so freakishly large, more so than normal since I was much smaller back then lol. I think that was around 1981 or 1982. Does anyone know anything about these Wang computers? I looked on line a while back but couldn't find any info on them. Great video's by the way, keep it up!
@tezzaNZ
9 years ago
Thanks Tommaso, Yes, I do remember Wang computers. I think someone on our New Zealand Vintage Computer forums (Spidersweb) actually owns one!
@tommasopetrella4856
9 years ago
Cool! I'll have to have another look. Last time I checked was quite a few years ago. Thanks!
@seanzappulla71
9 years ago
The phosphor on the screen looks very slow. The dot metrax printers sound like a band saw and the printer head is air-cooled.
@uselessDM
9 years ago
The machine is huge. It looks it isn't in the right scale, especially at the beginning when you are sitting next to it.
@electricadventures
9 years ago
Really good to find out about this machine and it's place in history. The majority of these would have gone straight to land fill so it is good you saved one (even if it does weight a ton!). It would have been an interesting world had Digital Research won over Microsoft, there is a bit of a hidden chapter with all of the CPM machines.
@MrMasopat
9 years ago
Thanks a lot Terry for this amazing vidéo !!!! This sort of computers are very hard to find in France...
@tezzaNZ
9 years ago
You are welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
@MarkTheMorose
9 years ago
This is an unknown system to me. At first glance, I thought you'd shrunk, sitting next that behemoth. 22kgs? About 50lbs then! Was there provision in the Panasonic for expansion: RAM or particularly a hard drive? That keyboard sound was exactly like that on my first computer, a Sharp MZ80A (also Japanese). I'd seen 8" disks on an IBM Displaywriter, a WP system.
@tezzaNZ
9 years ago
There is a port labelled "expansion". I think it's an IEEE-488 compatible interface. I know you could get 8.4 MB hard drives for them. Some of the software on the CP/M disk is for parking heads and the like. I don't think you could expand the RAM easily.
@wisteela
9 years ago
Really nice interesting beast
@tezzaNZ
9 years ago
Thanks. "Beast" is the right word for this machine, although in the day it was still a micro-computer. These machines were compared to mainframes and minis. Not a "micro-computer" compared to my smartphone though (-: We have come a long way since the late 70's/early 80s.
@wisteela
9 years ago
I love really well built CP/M machines.
@wisteela
9 years ago
Really nice interesting beast
@tezzaNZ
9 years ago
Today I got it off the bench and packed it away. That was a mission. Man, that thing is heavy. I didn't take it down the stairs though. It's upstairs in the shack. Now I'm worried about the total weight on that floor, and how it might hold up in an earthquake. 50 vintage machines plunging through the roof to the garage floor would not be a pretty sight (-:
@appsofint
9 years ago
Top video again Tezza, many thanks. Mark.
@tezzaNZ
9 years ago
You're welcome Mark.
@chairuser4
9 years ago
nice machine
@tribalmasters
9 years ago
That looks very sturdy and comfortable to use! The drives are making that clicking sound is that because the motors are so big they need a relay to turn them on or because the disks are so large they pull all the slop in the mechanism trying to start and stop if that makes sense lol!
@jaykay18
9 years ago
You may be right on those 8" drives, but I remember a lot of 5¼" drives made that noise as well (think IBM AT 1.2MB drives, though some later 360KB drives did as well), but the sound was caused by the heads retracting from the disk surface. They only came into contact while the drive was doing a read or write operation, they were retracted when the light shut off. This was done to save wear on the media.
Interestingly enough 3.5" drives did not do this; perhaps they started making things cheaper at that time!
@paul3100
9 years ago
Great video as usual , never new you got floppy disks that big!
@tezzaNZ
9 years ago
Thanks. Increasingly there will be people around that have never seen a floppy disk, 8 inch or otherwise!
@paul3100
9 years ago
lol so true and its a shame but with videos like yours to keep the memory alive great.
@monotonehell
9 years ago
Hey Tezza, if you think doing account ledgers are unglamourous, then you're doing it wrong. ;)
Nice video, as always, well researched and fact filled.
Interesting coincidence - the printer's model number is 1541, same as the old faithfull C64 disk drives.
@tezzaNZ
9 years ago
LOL! Thanks for the support! Yes, I must boot up that printer sometime in the future.
@lactobacillusprime
9 years ago
That is a machine that was build to last. Very high quality.
https://www.pinterest.ca/UsagiPretzels/retro-electronics-suggested-in-mexico/computers/
https://www.pinterest.ca/UsagiPretzels/retro-electronics-suggested-in-canada/computers/
I would have thought the 8" stepper motors would have been even louder and more obnoxious than the 5¼" drives, but it was sure great to hear it go.
I would have LOVED to see that printer go, perhaps you might branch out your videos to various peripheral devices you have for the machines.
Curious display specs, looks like it's only 23 rows of text, but with more than the typical 8 scanlines per row? Maybe a hangover from it being originally made for japanese script maybe, and a precursor to IBM's MDA doing 25 rows but a much higher than normal 350 lines...? Perhaps it's not the normal 72 or 80 columns either (looks like more than 64 but I lost count after that because they're mostly only filled with header-line asterisks)... after all why be weird in just one dimension when you can be weird in two?
FAIRCOM HEADQUARTERS
6300 W. Sugar Creek Drive
Columbia, MO 65203-9052
PS: PF11 is RESET, according to the boot screen.
It would have been an interesting world had Digital Research won over Microsoft, there is a bit of a hidden chapter with all of the CPM machines.
Interestingly enough 3.5" drives did not do this; perhaps they started making things cheaper at that time!
Nice video, as always, well researched and fact filled.
Interesting coincidence - the printer's model number is 1541, same as the old faithfull C64 disk drives.