[Resource] Interactive Computer Museum

Hackerspace
#1

Thanks to everyone at the space for supporting the Interactive Computer Museum project.

This topic is here to help discuss events, day to day goings on with the Museum and general open forum for anything related to VCC, the Retro Computers on display, Publix(public unix), XM Core BBS, and Interactive Computer Museum.

It is our hope to have our own section on the forum but in the mean time since we’re being hosted by the Interactive Classroom committee then we’re creating this topic here.

We do have a wiki page for everyone to review. Support requests go through the usual help desk ticket system for members and can also be found at times on XM Core under the support message areas.

Post your comments, replies, and suggests below and lets enjoy the resources that are provided.

1 Like
#2

Ok guys, outside of the machines already listed on the wiki page. What would you like to see added to the collection?

#3

A real Apple IIe would be awesome. At one time, I had an Apple IIc and an Apple IIgs, but those have long since disappeared from my collection.

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Build your own 6502 BASIC
#4

i should have an apple][e in storage, along with monitor and drives. I will try to find it in the next week or so.

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#5

I should also have a fujitsu color dot matrix as well.

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#6

Sounds great John! Ping me when you get it in the space I would love to be there when we get it booted up.

#7

That one is on high priority. I’m also looking at the Quatras since their going for the price a RPi on ebay and being M68K with System 7 are backwards compatible.

Plus A/UX runs nicely on those while still supporting Macintosh applications. But A/UX is a beast to work with so that’s more of a pipe dream.

All in all, yes classic Apple II/III would be in the collection then either a sinclare or amiga to follow that.

#8

Now there’s a beauty we really should have on display.

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#9

Ah, the “WarGames” computer. I have a couple of them. One was working when I last turned it on before I moved in 1987. It will need to be checked and probably recapped before applying power. It is bare-bones with few additional S-100 cards.

The second I bought to restore. I have never powered it up and it has broken/missing switch paddles. I have spares but misplaced them. This one has a number of S-100 boards in it.

I do not have the factory 8" drives with either. My brother does with his, but it cannot format floppies - you have to either buy them preformatted or use in a different machine first.

I consider both to be too valuable to leave at The Space. The temptation would be too much.

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#10

True true… But would be a worthy project to get one of them up and running then connected into the Publix/BBS network.

What interfacing protocol do the drives use?

As for the switches, couldn’t one just 3d print those?

#11

Standard Shugart 8" floppy cable.

I could, but it may be difficult to match the exact colors and the surface texture.

#12

well now… just found the modern emulator for that which uses CompactFlash storage

http://www.datexdsm.com/emulator/docs/DTX200en.html

Drive documentation: http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/drive.html#shugart

#13

This one is also supposed to be really good too and uses sd cards instead.

http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/

#14

I have a color classic that would boot, up to a few years ago. Cherry bombs now.
I have a mac Quadra. one of the AV models. not sure switch, or if it functions.
An Atari 1040ST that I used and enjoyed so much.

I am going camping with the boys this weekend for 9 days, so need to prep for that. After, we can take a look at see what works. Cheers.

2 Likes
#15

I would love to see a DOS Osbourne or Compaq luggable in the collection.

#16

How about a CPM86 Osborne? So much better then that Microsoft junk.

1 Like
#17

@wandrson that will do, lol

#18


anyone have a NeXT machine? I was always jelly of them

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#19

If you’ve got a recent Mac, with Mac OS X, you have a bit of history from the software written for that historic machine. The “NS” prefix on the various Cocoa Foundation classes, when writing code in Objective C, comes from NeXTStep. :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#20

Most Osbornes were based on CP/M.