Who collects vintage computers?

[mr_rye89]

Add a 386DX33 tower with 4 mb of ram, 30 mb hard drive, sound blaster 16.........

[Dubis7]

Oh, I can contribute here!

Cut my teeth replacing the power supply and bad video chip on my Dad's apple II plus. My collection has only grown since then.

Fully tricked out breadbin C64 with 1541 disk drive, 1702 monitor, datasette, two of the later style commodore joysticks, some commodore paddles, an MPS 801 printer, and a ton of manuals and the liked.

Vic-20 with the early atari style commodore joystick and an early datasette with games and carts and all that.

4K Level 1 TRS-80 with matching monitor and cassette drive.

TI-99/4A with Peripheral expansion box, voice synth, acoustic coupler, TI printer, joysticks, later style TI monitor, and some games.

Blue trim commodore PET 2001

Early style Atari 800 with 810 disk drive and 410 datasette

IBM 5150 with IBM 5151 monitor, IBM 5152 printer, and IBM 5153 CGA monitor and matching CGA card

Mattel Aquarius with matching datasette, printer, memory expansion, and expansion box

Coleco adam with original joysticks, two data drives and a coleco floppy drive

Bally Astrocade (if you consider it a computer) with the basic cartridge and two joysticks

I've just recently added an RCA COSMAC VIP with the original box and manual, which is pretty exciting.

I'm still on the hunt for an IBM 5100, Heathkit H8, Apple III, IBM PCjr, Apple Macintosh 128, MOS KIM-1, Xerox 820, TRS-80 Color Computer, CompuColor 1, Intertec Superbrain, and a TI-99/4. I'll probably decide I want something else the moment I complete my collection, though.

[MIPS]

I mainly work in the high-end but yes, I do have an extensive collection from the likes of Sun Microsystems, IBM, Silicon Graphics, NeXT, Apple, Tandy, Hewlett Packard, DEC, and LOTS of OEM branded PC's from people like NCR, Packard Bell, GRiD, Compaq and the likes.

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by Titan1a

.......Prefers tube radios from the '30's.

Ahhhhh those probably sound groegous!!

[Telecolor 3007]

I tryed to strart a collection, but dind't get anything that was very good, so I stoped doing it. Well, I had an 386 computer with 286 processor, but there wasn't too much that I could do with it so I gave it way (to a collector).
I have an "A.M.D." 1800+ computer on which I run the XP. Some stuff won't work on '7'. But I can't really consider it collectable, trough all that is obsolete tech. To be onest, I want something for the XP, but to te a better system. Probably in the future I will ask some one to make an system that can run '95' and '98' - in order that I can use some scanners that probably won't work on newer computers (I've seen some nice old scanners).
Oh, well, if I find an Romanian old desktop computer (we've assambled some) probably I will keep it.

[Yamamaya42]

I never want to see another Commodore 64 again as long as i live, I HATE them with a passion , my first job ever was in a small computer store , and I had to repair thousands of them, they failed all the time, they were awful.

my first pc was an IBM PC jr, which i modded the hell out of, then i upgraded to a 386DX clone, and i have been building my own pcs since, and i'm proud to say Im a AMD only slut now.

[lnx64]

I got a couple. Commodore 64, IBM PS/2 Model 25.. Used to have way more but I lost them in an eviction.

[Dude111]

Im so sorry Yamamaya


I love my C64 ..... My 1541 drive seems to be stuck. (When ya turn it on it doesnt stop running) -- I didnt use it for so long and when I finally used it again it did this.......... I hope I didnt spill anything in it!!! (I have since read those drives get stuck often)

[Mad-Mike]

Really late checking in....

I do, hang out at Vogons and VCFED a lot

What I've got?

1985 Tandy 1000A - 640K, 8088, 3GB HDD, XT-IDE, Deluxe Mouse, I use this one with my NEC Multisync II CRT a lot

1989 Apple Mac SE FDHD - 4MB, 68000/6, Original HDD, all original actually and working

1989 GEM 286/12 - 6MB, 286/12 w/ 80287, 3GB SCSI w/ 2X CD-ROM, SVGA, SB16

1994 NEC Versa 40EC Laptop - 486 DX2-40 SL, 8MB, 250MB, SVGA, Active Matrix TFT LCD (Which oddly is still easy to find and replace, NL6448AC30)

1994 NEC Versa M/75 Laptop - 486 DX4-75 SL, 24MB, 80GB, SVGA, Crystal Business Audio, Same Active Matrix TFT, 3M MicroTouch Digitizer (which I'm replacing, cracked), yes, it has capacitive touch and it's from the early 90's - it was a part of an AAC setup from Words+ whom I read was an early provider of augmentative speech equipment for Stephen Hawking. Still have the Words+ System 2000 Commpac unit that was attached to it too - I have plans to use it to "sing" into Autotune while recording I also put WiFi in it which I Tether to my phone.

Parts Mutt XT 486 - New Old Stock Case I bought in 04 (XT), Socket 3 FIC board, Drive caddies so it has 8-80GB HDDs for it running everything a 486 can run pretty much. AMD DX4-100, 64MB of RAM, S3 805 2MB VESA video, SoundBlaster AWE64, DVD-RW drive (!!), it actually eats the Pentium below for lunch by virtue of the video card and lighter OSes (95 OSR 2.5, FreeDOS, and WFW 311)

NEC Ready 9522 - Pentium 100, 128MB RAM, 80GB HDD, Win98SE, 52x CD-RW, Alliance Video, Crystal audio. I use this for later games that don't run on anything else.

Lately I've had a really big taste for NEC Stuff.....while my 486 desktop is probably my favorite of the desktops, the NEC M/75 has been growing to be my favorite computer of the lot.....I hammer on that one almost daily more like it's a "tweener" than a full blown vintage-only device by virtue of various modernized DOS apps (Links browser, mTCP).

[KentTeffeteller]

Originally Posted by Mad-Mike

Really late checking in....

I do, hang out at Vogons and VCFED a lot

What I've got?

1985 Tandy 1000A - 640K, 8088, 3GB HDD, XT-IDE, Deluxe Mouse, I use this one with my NEC Multisync II CRT a lot

1989 Apple Mac SE FDHD - 4MB, 68000/6, Original HDD, all original actually and working

1989 GEM 286/12 - 6MB, 286/12 w/ 80287, 3GB SCSI w/ 2X CD-ROM, SVGA, SB16

1994 NEC Versa 40EC Laptop - 486 DX2-40 SL, 8MB, 250MB, SVGA, Active Matrix TFT LCD (Which oddly is still easy to find and replace, NL6448AC30)

1994 NEC Versa M/75 Laptop - 486 DX4-75 SL, 24MB, 80GB, SVGA, Crystal Business Audio, Same Active Matrix TFT, 3M MicroTouch Digitizer (which I'm replacing, cracked), yes, it has capacitive touch and it's from the early 90's - it was a part of an AAC setup from Words+ whom I read was an early provider of augmentative speech equipment for Stephen Hawking. Still have the Words+ System 2000 Commpac unit that was attached to it too - I have plans to use it to "sing" into Autotune while recording I also put WiFi in it which I Tether to my phone.

Parts Mutt XT 486 - New Old Stock Case I bought in 04 (XT), Socket 3 FIC board, Drive caddies so it has 8-80GB HDDs for it running everything a 486 can run pretty much. AMD DX4-100, 64MB of RAM, S3 805 2MB VESA video, SoundBlaster AWE64, DVD-RW drive (!!), it actually eats the Pentium below for lunch by virtue of the video card and lighter OSes (95 OSR 2.5, FreeDOS, and WFW 311)

NEC Ready 9522 - Pentium 100, 128MB RAM, 80GB HDD, Win98SE, 52x CD-RW, Alliance Video, Crystal audio. I use this for later games that don't run on anything else.

Lately I've had a really big taste for NEC Stuff.....while my 486 desktop is probably my favorite of the desktops, the NEC M/75 has been growing to be my favorite computer of the lot.....I hammer on that one almost daily more like it's a "tweener" than a full blown vintage-only device by virtue of various modernized DOS apps (Links browser, mTCP).

My first new laptop was a NEC Versa 6230 which was purchased for me to use in technical school, which ran Dragon Naturally Speaking 1.1. Lasted 8 years of heavy road warrior duty, a reliable PC, the worst issue was CCFL backlights dying (which today I could fix easily).

[Telecolor 3007]

@ Mad-Mike : I think you wanted to write that the "Tandy" haves a 3 MB, not a 3 GB hard disc.

[Mad-Mike]

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

@ Mad-Mike : I think you wanted to write that the "Tandy" haves a 3 MB, not a 3 GB hard disc.

Nope, it's a 3GB drive, I pulled it from the NEC Ready 9522 I listed (that one has an 80GB drive). It does not need a DDO because it has a XT-IDE card in it (rev 2.0, back when the VIntage Computer Forums were selling those cards). Almost all of my vintage computers have super-huge hard disks in them as I pretty much load them with everything I want to run on them so I never have to resort to Floppies. Actually, most data xfer is done via network or pulling the drives and connecting via USB. I use LianLi RH37 and RH17 "5.25" Mobile Racks" - aka, HDD caddies to make the majority of these tool-less (except the 286 which is traditionally setup, and the laptops.

Actually, right now I'm waiting on a 44pin IDE to mSATA converter because I'm slapping a mSATA 128GB HDD in my NEC Versa M/75 486 DX4 for FreeDOS (going to try some experiments in quasi-modern usage). Right now that one is using a Seagate 80GB ATA-133.

Originally Posted by KentTeffeteller

My first new laptop was a NEC Versa 6230 which was purchased for me to use in technical school, which ran Dragon Naturally Speaking 1.1. Lasted 8 years of heavy road warrior duty, a reliable PC, the worst issue was CCFL backlights dying (which today I could fix easily).

The Ultralite, V/E/M stuff don't seem to have that problem so much, I've found LED upgrade kits on e-bay for fairly cheap. Actually, an odd thing is finding new LCD panels, or at least good condition used ones, is fairly easy. Seems NEC continued selling the NL6440AC30 9.4" Active Matrix TFT Panels sometime at least into the early 00's. The M/75, a cool part with that is it came with a 3M MicroTouch Digitizer pre-attached, making it essentially an early convertible with a touch screen. the 40E/50E series was the first series to have that - the 40/50EP (pen/touch), and 40/50ECP (color, pen/touch) came with that feature from the factory in 1993-1994. It also appears the 800x600 version appeared on the AT&T Safari/Globalyst branded Pentium and 486 DX4 models.

My M/75 was actually a part of a WordsPlus AAC (Augmentative Speech) system that cost around $6000 new, and came from Louisiana University Hospital in Shreveport (still has the asset sticker on the Words + unit which is built like some kind of prototype thing made out of parts from Fry's save for the pro labeling). The touch screen is used with a program called "Talking Screen" which is aimed towards kids with speech disabilities to communicate, really cool. I heard Stephen Hawking had some involvement with WordsPlus in the early days. I'm planning to experiment with the WordsPlus through Autotune (I'm a musician as well).

Originally Posted by Chip Chester

NEC you say? Have I got a deal for you...

I have a boatload/plethora of NEC Versa Pentium I systems. Like maybe 4-5 laptops, accessories out the proverbial wazoo, and 6-8 of the VCR-style auto-eject docking stations, that let you add full-size PC cards, extra hard drives, extra floppies, etc. to the base laptop. Plus, I'm getting ready to move, so I'm somewhat motivated.

PM me if you decide life isn't complete without owning a few of these retro battlestations.

Plus, for the right deal, I'll throw in an authentic NEC Ultralite setup from the DAK buyout days. Pretty complete setup as I recall. Awful display, of course. Battery life measured in minutes. But nearly as slim as a current MacBook air.

I'll shoot you a PM

[ESigma25]

I've got loads of vintage computers, in fact, the majority of my CRTs are either in computers or computer monitors...

[Chip Chester]

NEC you say? Have I got a deal for you...

I have a boatload/plethora of NEC Versa Pentium I systems. Like maybe 4-5 laptops, accessories out the proverbial wazoo, and 6-8 of the VCR-style auto-eject docking stations, that let you add full-size PC cards, extra hard drives, extra floppies, etc. to the base laptop. Plus, I'm getting ready to move, so I'm somewhat motivated.

PM me if you decide life isn't complete without owning a few of these retro battlestations.

Plus, for the right deal, I'll throw in an authentic NEC Ultralite setup from the DAK buyout days. Pretty complete setup as I recall. Awful display, of course. Battery life measured in minutes. But nearly as slim as a current MacBook air.

[crt89]

I have an Atari 400 I got at a thrift store long ago. The only cartridge I have for it is Atari Basic, and some of the keys on it don't work. I never saw many old ones around here. Once I saw a TI- something at a garage sale but it didn't have any parts with it. There was one at a thrift store also years ago which again had nothing else with it.

I used to want to collect vintage computers but kind of lost interest in them. That said if I found one for cheap somewhere I'd get it. Much newer but wouldn't mind having a '90s era Macintosh or an iMac though to play the old games on. I wish we still had our '94 Performa, I loved that computer. Once I saw a tangerine iMac at the flea market for $30 and wanted to get it but next day the person wasn't set up and I never went back the next weekend to see if it was still there. That was about 10 years ago.