What 8bit / 16bit / workstation do You own?

desertfish · Post by **desertfish** » Wed Oct 14, 2020 3:51 pm

You must live in a Tardis to be able to store that many things ? Are they all connected/working?

panzerfaustnl · Post by **panzerfaustnl** » Wed Oct 14, 2020 3:53 pm

5 minutes ago, desertfish said:

You must live in a Tardis to be able to store that many things ? Are they all connected/working?

No, most of them are working, but some of my earlier mac's need recapping, same with 2 of my Atari ST's. The most are stored, but so that I can take them when I want.

desertfish · Post by **desertfish** » Wed Oct 14, 2020 4:22 pm

Nice man, impressive. I used to have a breadbin C64 then a C64-ii then an Amiga500 and finally an A4000 but these have all been sold off back in the day to get some money back for poor kid me to purchase the next upgrade

Kilian Hekhuis · Post by **Kilian Hekhuis** » Thu Oct 15, 2020 12:41 pm

None, can you imagine... I started on an XT clone, never had a home computer unfortunately. I still have the case, monitor and parts of that clone, but it hasn't been assembled in many, many years, unfortunately...

EMwhite · Post by **EMwhite** » Mon Oct 19, 2020 3:19 am

On 10/9/2020 at 8:12 AM, John Chow Seymour said:

Hahaha! That's too funny. Sorry, I'm the jerk who put it up from $125 to $150 at the last minute (and still lost). Many apologies, my friend. Please do let us know if it works.

Works = 'no'. It almost works but almost doesn't do it. Listing said something about 'no way to test it' so sold as non-working. Well, it powers up but has crap on the screen; F1 dumps the 'release the apps' sys into the kbd buffer but it just shifts case and locks when I try that. After reset, it sometimes dumps into monitor.

I pulled and reseated the socketed ICs / ROMs to find to somebody previously pulled the 8360 and dropped it back in with a bent pin. Of course, it was issues that caused it to fail in the first place, likely; not the bent pin. I managed to get it back in there in one piece, same issue.

Bought a pair of ICs supposedly tested/NOS from Europe just now. Will see if this brings any joy in a few weeks. It sure does look nice though, was impeccably packed, and clean, books and the RF modulator (hmmm)...

If only it was a Pet, I could get replacement ICs and burn new ROMs, if needed. Hence the custom chip dilemma. CBM wanted to cut costs to make it $99 for the consumer and bump off Emile Sinclair or whatever his name was; CBM post-Tramiel marketing thought $299 was the nice price. 36 years later -> "no user serviceable parts inside" rings true.

If the Plus/4 were beloved, somebody would [in the future] make an FPGA 8360 or CPU.

Instead, this might be the most attractive book end of all time, time will tell.

(if only I could go back in time; "back in '82"... I mean '84, my 18 yr. old white collar crime self would have bought 5 plus/4s from Toys 'R' Us; pulled all of the ICs and returned them as non-working to give to my future self. I know I know! ... I'm better now.)

markboston36 · Post by **markboston36** » Thu Oct 22, 2020 5:00 pm

i had both a NES, SNES and a genesis. i no longer have them though when i moved away from my childhood home we left that stuff there. however when i unpacked i found a zelda cart not sure why it got packed since i didn't bring the system.

gregtacular · Post by **gregtacular** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 6:52 pm

I have "complete" working setups for Commodore 64, and Apple IIe.

- Commodore 64 Breadbin I have on display in my living room with a Commodore 1702 monitor, Joysticks, and cartridges. I also have a 64C, C2N datasettes, 1541 and 1571 Disk drives, and a mountain of copied floppies I get thrown in with a used lot I bought a while ago.

- Apple IIe, 2 Disk Drive II drives (I couldnt find a better way to write that), a good variety of disks - many originals - number munchers anyone? Also a joystick that needs repair, and a printer I've never tested.

I have a TI-99/4A, and a sampling of DOS/Windows Laptops:

- IBM Thinkpad 350 (1993) - DOS/Windows 3.11

- Compaq LTE 286 (1989) - doesn't really work

- IBM Thinkpad 600E (1998) Windows 98/2000

An Apple PowerBook G3 (Pismo) that I turned into a digital picture frame like 10 years ago.

I also have old nintendo stuff, which I LOVE, but it's less interesting to me from a collecting standpoint, and a pile of early Macbooks that won't get interesting for a few more years.

I'm hoping to get into the Atari 8-bit line soon.

ashtons · Post by **ashtons** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 9:48 pm

I've got a C64, and a power supply and video cable for it, but that's it for retro stuff. Don't even have any storage for it yet :<

markboston36 · Post by **markboston36** » Fri Oct 30, 2020 3:56 am

On 10/18/2020 at 11:19 PM, EMwhite said:

Works = 'no'. It almost works but almost doesn't do it. Listing said something about 'no way to test it' so sold as non-working. Well, it powers up but has crap on the screen; F1 dumps the 'release the apps' sys into the kbd buffer but it just shifts case and locks when I try that. After reset, it sometimes dumps into monitor.

I pulled and reseated the socketed ICs / ROMs to find to somebody previously pulled the 8360 and dropped it back in with a bent pin. Of course, it was issues that caused it to fail in the first place, likely; not the bent pin. I managed to get it back in there in one piece, same issue.

Bought a pair of ICs supposedly tested/NOS from Europe just now. Will see if this brings any joy in a few weeks. It sure does look nice though, was impeccably packed, and clean, books and the RF modulator (hmmm)...

If only it was a Pet, I could get replacement ICs and burn new ROMs, if needed. Hence the custom chip dilemma. CBM wanted to cut costs to make it $99 for the consumer and bump off Emile Sinclair or whatever his name was; CBM post-Tramiel marketing thought $299 was the nice price. 36 years later -> "no user serviceable parts inside" rings true.

If the Plus/4 were beloved, somebody would [in the future] make an FPGA 8360 or CPU.

Instead, this might be the most attractive book end of all time, time will tell.

(if only I could go back in time; "back in '82"... I mean '84, my 18 yr. old white collar crime self would have bought 5 plus/4s from Toys 'R' Us; pulled all of the ICs and returned them as non-working to give to my future self. I know I know! ... I'm better now.)

the suspense is killing me. were you able to get it working?

EMwhite · Post by **EMwhite** » Fri Oct 30, 2020 5:03 am

1 hour ago, markboston36 said:

the suspense is killing me. were you able to get it working?

It's killing me too. Unreliable-tracking.com says it was transferred from Royal Mail to USPS. Guessing another week until I get them. Of course there is a chance that it's a RAM problem or something else but I rolled the dice on this pair of TEDs. I also just bought a C16 from Hungary board minus the TED and CPU. And I was wrong about my comment above, there are a few maniacs out there that retrofit a C16 (specifically) [Adrian's Basement] with a 6502 and other videos that address the TED problems. That's next.

I've got a Firepower Pinball machine (80's) that I'm restoring, working full time, and taking a Python class so this is just another project running in time-sliced fashion but I'm eager to get it working. The Plus 4 is a nice piece of history and I'm proud to own one despite it being a massive loss for Commodore back in the day.

Maybe another week or two. Will inform.