Ask HN: Which vintage computers do you find interesting? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Which vintage computers do you find interesting?

#51

Post by renewedrebecca » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 3:21 PM UTC

gnufx wrote: post #10

I'd suggest more interesting systems, but probably interesting in inverse proportion to how you could get hold of one :-/. Not wanting to dampen enthusiasm for old systems, but was there anything radically different about things like C64 and Acorn products? If you don't need hardware, there might be more interest in programming on simulators for various old systems.

For the C64 at least, the cool thing is the absolute lack of abstractions. The entire memory map is known. The entire Kernal is documented. The hardware, totally explained. You can actually know everything there is to know about the whole machine. Totally different than modern computing / coding.

Re: Ask HN: Which vintage computers do you find interesting?

#52

Post by cyberge99 » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 3:29 PM UTC

lormayna wrote: post #39

I am looking for a Cobalt Qube since long time. Unfortunately, they are very difficult to find.

I may have a blue one in my storage unit, along with a Raq. If I ever discover it, I’ll ping you.

Re: Ask HN: Which vintage computers do you find interesting?

#53

Post by cyberge99 » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 3:32 PM UTC

I guess I’m alone that I enjoyed the Trash 80. It’s what I grew up on, so perhaps my fondness stems from that.

Re: Ask HN: Which vintage computers do you find interesting?

#54

Post by TheMog » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 4:08 PM UTC

TheMog wrote: post #49

I grew up in the 8-bit era, so that's mostly what I'm interested in from a retro computing perspective. Pretty much the whole Acorn lineup starting with the BBC and then going to the early ARMs is interesting, plus a bunch of the other early UK-built weird machines like home computers using Forth (I think that was the ORIC). Early UNIX workstations are also pretty interesting, like the early SUN stuff, SGI, early NeX…

Looks like my memory isn't what it used to be, the ORIC machines used Basic, what I was thinking of was the Jupiter Ace: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_Ace

Re: Ask HN: Which vintage computers do you find interesting?

#55

Post by drewzero1 » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 4:21 PM UTC

bediger4000 wrote: post #4

Radio Shack Color Computer III - they had a multi-tasking OS, OS-9, that worked via memory bank switching. It had a windowing system that worked via in-band signalling, which is quite different than any windowing system today.

I have a CoCo 1 that I picked up at a thrift store while missing my childhood Apple ][e. While learning about the CoCo I discovered that it had its own rich ecosystem, and I've come to really love this black sheep of the TRS-80 family.

Someday I'd like to pick up a CoCo 3 and disk drive(s), it really seems like a leap forward from the capabilities of my original CoCo.

Re: Ask HN: Which vintage computers do you find interesting?

#56

Post by univacboy » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 5:03 PM UTC

jazzyjackson wrote: post #30

While the hardware for the ILLIAC is out of my league as a collector, I’d like to figure out a way to emulate the PLATO software that would run on the amber-colored terminals. I read about it in “computer lib/dream machines” alongside lots of other early timesharing systems. I always wanted to play with HyperCard too, shouldn’t be too tough to get an old G4 mac booted into it, right?

For a modern PLATO experience, try:

https://irata.online/

Re: Ask HN: Which vintage computers do you find interesting?

#57

Post by mikew42 » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 5:21 PM UTC

I would like to have an inmos transputer hypercube with an PC interface card.

I recently bought an SUN E5500 with 8 CPUs for 200E. The big advantage (and disadvantage) of big machines that they tend to be too big to forget somewhere in an attic and sometimes can be had for little money.

Re: Ask HN: Which vintage computers do you find interesting?

#58

Post by clifdweller » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 5:42 PM UTC

I am a fan of the commodore 128 as it has c64 mode as well as ability to be a bit more powerful. the trs series also has some fun quirks, zx spectrum is a good starter machine readily available still. The one thing i am currently looking forward to is the commander x16 is a in progress "new" retro computer made by a group of enthusiasts to try to use as many legacy components as possible. they already have an emulator set up so can play around with writing assembly for a retro pc on modern infrastructure with hope of soon having real new manufacturable hardware for it.

Re: Ask HN: Which vintage computers do you find interesting?

#59

Post by kgwxd » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 5:54 PM UTC

Atari 2600 programming is really fun and has a super active community. I suspect it's one of the most active retro communities out there right now.

Also, it's kind of fake retro, but I'm pretty excited for the Commander X16, again, mostly because the community is so cool.

Re: Ask HN: Which vintage computers do you find interesting?

#60

Post by pan69 » Thu, Jul 22, 2021, 6:58 PM UTC

The first PC we had in our home was an Olivetti M24, an 8086 running at 8Mhz. This was around 1987 (I think). Then I got my own 286 (also Olivetti) so naturally I have an affinity with early PC's.

In the past two years I rebuild, from parts I sourced in various places, a fully working; 286/16, 386SX/20, 386DX/40, 486DX/100. I also have the parts for a Pentium 100 except for the CPU.

It was fun collecting and sourcing the parts and building the machines up. In my opinion the PC industry in the 90's was most interesting, not because it was "my" time but because technology was advancing leaps and bounds during that period.