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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?

#81

Post by brightsize »

The IBM CS 9000. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System_9000 When I interned @IBM in the mid-80s we had a (computer) lab full of these things. Each had a 68K CPU with (I think) 128K of RAM, a little mono green monitor, and external 8" floppies for storage. All of them running the multi-tasking CSOS operating system.

I never hear them mentioned these days which strikes me as odd though it may be just that I'm not really plugged into the vintage community. It could also be that there are simply none to be had anywhere now. I never hacked on them myself - we already had quite a few 1st-gen PCs in the lab and I worked on those. I seem to recall that our CS9000 app devs were coding in some version of Pascal (possibly cross-compiled from a mainframe) and that there was some form of proprietary connectivity with the site's local System/370.

At some point the lab also obtained a "portable" PC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Portable_Personal_Computer) which was a god-awful, big, heavy beast. However I can't say that I find those "interesting" and IIRC most of the devs even then were mainly interested in avoiding having to use it.

I used to think it was strange that, considering it was already selling CS9000s, IBM didn't base its entry into the general-purpose PC market on a stripped-down version of the hardware and on CSOS.

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

#82

Post by albertkoz »

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…

I used to live in the UK for couple of years and I never heard of BBC before I living there. Right now I am hunting for Acorn and BBC and I am planning on flying to the UK just to pick them up. It's funny how these systems were so big, however only on the domestic market.

I would love to get SGI but in the country I live in, it's almost imposible, same as SUN and NeXT.

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

#83

Post by juangacovas »

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…

Same here about Olivetti. In case you didn't know, last year I learnt about PCem, an emulator to bring back to life those XT 8086 8088, 286, 386, 486... Take a look at my page about it ;) https://juangacovas.info/doku.php/windows/howtos/pcemu-page

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

#84

Post by albertkoz »

drewzero1 wrote: post #48
albertkoz wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got classic Mac, unfortunately I find it quite boring. I would love to get NeXt but these are really expensive nowadays.

Yeah old Macs on their own are very dull computers. Once you start to get into third-party tweaks and games that push the hardware to its limits are where it really starts to get interesting. My favorite classic Macs are the ones with color screens and CD-ROM drives. The multimedia possibilities really start to open up! I have a Performa 575[1] that was just about perfect for this, but it suffered a fall in storage t…

Thanks! I acquired my first vintage Mac couple months ago (two Macintosh Classic) and I was very surprised with the machines. I think I need to look more into what was possible. Thank you for the ideas, I will definitely look into getting another early Mac computer.

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

#85

Post by quickthrower2 »

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 remember US Robotics being a big modem brand, considered a good brand if I recall correctly

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

#87

Post by quickthrower2 »

albertkoz wrote: post #82
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…

I used to live in the UK for couple of years and I never heard of BBC before I living there. Right now I am hunting for Acorn and BBC and I am planning on flying to the UK just to pick them up. It's funny how these systems were so big, however only on the domestic market. I would love to get SGI but in the country I live in, it's almost imposible, same as SUN and NeXT.

Acorn Electron is effectively a small BBC micro. Lots of fun!

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

#88

Post by technofiend »

the_only_law wrote: post #8

I’m into a weird part of retrocomputing where I mess with things other than just general purpose computers. Most of my equipment is old network/telecom stuff (mostly ISDN and general T1/E1 stuff rn, but I want to get into ATM) and network analyzers. Notably my Agilent J2300E which is a massive Windows 98 machine that look like a laptop but contains all sorts of sync and async serial interfaces too expensive to put on…

Have you see the VT-103? PDP-11 in a VT-100 chassis!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/124816498894

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

#89

Post by browningstreet »

kolleykibber wrote: post #76
agent008t wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Do any of them give you a busy signal and make you re-telnet?

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

#90

Post by smackeyacky »

albertkoz wrote: post #84
drewzero1 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah old Macs on their own are very dull computers. Once you start to get into third-party tweaks and games that push the hardware to its limits are where it really starts to get interesting. My favorite classic Macs are the ones with color screens and CD-ROM drives. The multimedia possibilities really start to open up! I have a Performa 575[1] that was just about perfect for this, but it suffered a fall in storage t…

Thanks! I acquired my first vintage Mac couple months ago (two Macintosh Classic) and I was very surprised with the machines. I think I need to look more into what was possible. Thank you for the ideas, I will definitely look into getting another early Mac computer.

Maybe look for a macintosh ii, big desktop case and some were able to run a unix variant. Otherwise the SE30 was the ducks nuts of the classic macs.
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