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Ask HN: Which vintage computers do you find interesting?

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

#71

Post by gnufx »

renewedrebecca wrote: post #51
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.

Good point, that we've mostly gone backwards in that respect. Sites did used to have source for all the software and hack on it, and detailed docs on the hardware that wasn't self-built.

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

#73

Post by DrSiemer »

pan69 wrote: post #60

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…

Nice, that was our first as well! Fortunately my dad kept it, so in theory it should still work.

One of my oldest memories is hearing that digitized guitar intro of Mach 3 for the first time. I've played so many hours of Digger on that machine.

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

#74

Post by pan69 »

DrSiemer wrote: post #73
pan69 wrote: post #60

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…

Nice, that was our first as well! Fortunately my dad kept it, so in theory it should still work. One of my oldest memories is hearing that digitized guitar intro of Mach 3 for the first time. I've played so many hours of Digger on that machine.

Same here! Hearing that coming out of a pc speaker was mesmerizing.

Our M24 broke down at some point. My dad took it away to get repaired and just left it there, he said "it couldn't be fixed, they said" :(

Another game that made a similar impression was Mean Streets [1], but this was on my 286 with VGA.

Years after I had moved out of the house I was horrified to find out that my Mom had tossed out all my old computer stuff without telling me (I had two Olivetti 286's, a 16 and 25 Mhz).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_Streets_(video_game)

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

#75

Post by mitchbob »

mikewarot wrote: post #63

Long ago, I had an interview with a startup in Chicago called US Robotics. They had a Kaypro 2, a complete computer, with a built-in display... and it was portable! So much less stuff than the S-100 systems I was used to. I was in awe. It turned out they made modems, quite successfully for a while. I'm sad I botched the interview, I would have been doing destructive testing, so much fun! 8) I still feel nostalgia for…

I had a Kaypro when I was a technical writer at Amiga. Quite an amazing machine for its time. With it and WordStar, I got a lot of writing done!

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

#76

Post by kolleykibber »

agent008t wrote: post #37
kolleykibber wrote: post #31

I pulled an Amstrad cpc464 out of the loft at the beginning of the year and headed deep down the rabbit hole. For me the most interesting thing is interfacing with modern microcontrollers. Pics, stm32, esp(s) etc. There's something about telneting to BBS over the internet from a machine from 1985. The wargames effect maybe. Standouts for the CPC include the M4 board, the dandanator and the USIFAC. I have a lot of res…

Are there any active BBS that you can still telnet to?

There quite a lot out there, few getting much use though.

List here: https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/ Other interesting telnet servers include JPL: telnet horizons.jpl.nasa.gov 6775 and telehack.com.

There's even a telnet WOPR emulator: https://github.com/abs0/wargames

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

#79

Post by ChainOfFools »

mitchbob wrote: post #75
mikewarot wrote: post #63

Long ago, I had an interview with a startup in Chicago called US Robotics. They had a Kaypro 2, a complete computer, with a built-in display... and it was portable! So much less stuff than the S-100 systems I was used to. I was in awe. It turned out they made modems, quite successfully for a while. I'm sad I botched the interview, I would have been doing destructive testing, so much fun! 8) I still feel nostalgia for…

I had a Kaypro when I was a technical writer at Amiga. Quite an amazing machine for its time. With it and WordStar, I got a lot of writing done!

wait, you were actually at 'Amiga' Los Gatos (pre atari/commodore acquisition battle) or at Commodore-Amiga?
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