25 Random Facts About Old Computers:

oldcomputers.net ^

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The Apple Lisa (1983) was the first successful computer with a graphical user interface (GUI) and a mouse. It cost $10,000.

• The GRiD 1101 is the grand-daddy of all modern-day laptops. It cost over $8000 in 1982.
  
  
• Their new VIC-20 (1980) was so embarrassing to parent company Commodore, that they considered giving them away. Instead, it sold over 1,000,000 units within just a few years, making Commodore hundreds of millions of dollars.
  
  
• The first portable Macintosh computer, the Macintosh Portable (1989) weighs 16 pounds and had a 16MHz processor.
  
  

• The first-ever handheld/palmtop MS-DOS "PC" was the Portfolio, sold by --- Atari, in 1989.
  
  
• The first "IBM" computer to run on batteries was the IBM Convertible PC from 1986.

[IronJack]

I actually plugged it in and tried to start it a few years ago. It rattled as it tried to boot the ProDOS system disk but alas, the floppy drive couldn’t read it. But with a little work, I could have a 0.7MHz machine with 128K of bank-switched RAM!

[chris_bdba]

We have a #25 sitting here.,It worked until last year.I think it needs a new battery but we haven’t tried to look for one.Pretty remarkable for a computer that old.

[ßuddaßudd]

░

[Snickering Hound]

That is painful to watch....typing in those node numbers ....what was Contiki?

Contiki is a shareware browser for the Apple II.

The trick is getting your hands on an Apple II ethernet card. The Apple IIe continued in production until the end of 93' so some were made, but sell at a healthy premium to vintage computing hobbyists that like to show their ubergeekness by getting out on the web with an Apple II.

[ßuddaßudd]

I have an ‘86 Compaq Portable II similar to that . .

[Pecos]

Heathkit H-89, 48K RAM, single hard-sector 5.25 floppy drive, running HDOS. Upgraded it to CP/M on 64K RAM. All OK. Upgraded the character ROM. All OK. Doubled the clock speed, and one of the power transitors exploded. Replaced the transistor, and this time it died slowly, taking friends with it. Bought a KayPro.

[DanMiller]

I'm disappointed not to have seen the Radio Shack Model 100, a great little laptop computer from back sometime in the early 1980s. I bought one of the first for only $1,000 and loved it. True, it came with only 16 K RAM and (I think) 32 K ROM, but the RAM could be upgraded to 32 K. The screen was 8 lines by 40 characters and stuff could, at first, only be stored to a cassette player. Then came a 128 K floppy device and a bunch of other goodies.

I also had a thermal printer to go with it and it worked pretty well. When I retired in 1996 and moved to a sailboat and headed to the Caribbean, they still worked very well. The printer got full of salt water once; I poured the stuff out and the printer worked fine. Eventually, after years of salt air and abuse, the Model 100 died. I seem to recall having buried it at sea.

[chris_bdba]

I didn’t know that.I know we also have a IIc here that was given to us and were told it was iternet ready?Have to let hubby knw the card is worth somethig.

[dangerdoc]

bump.

Thanks.

[Joe Brower]

I still have a Motorola flip-phone I bought brand-new in 1994. It's gathering dust on my "museum shelf". I think the battery alone weighs a pound, and even when new it wouldn't last a day on a full charge.

[Snickering Hound]

I didn’t know that.I know we also have a IIc here that was given to us and were told it was iternet ready?Have to let hubby knw the card is worth somethig.

The Apple IIc isn't worth as much as a IIe or the Holy Grail, a ROM 3 IIGS.

It lacks the expansion slots that let you put more modern cards (ie Ethernet card) that make using those ancient devices much easier in the modern age.

There are still cards being manufactured for the Apple II series, for example Reactivemicro.com makes a card that uses flash memory that you can put in your modern computer and copy old Apple II programs to it and use it in your Apple II since it will see it as a very, very large hard drive.

You can also check on Ebay, under computers there is a vintage computing section and the Apple II section has pages and pages of systems, software and hardware.

[Joe Brower]

And then there was the

[Skepolitic]

I used to get quite a workout lugging the old Compaq Portable to and from work.

Say what you will about the primitive nature of the old, it never gave a blue screen of death, and seldom freezed-up for no apparent reason.

[jwparkerjr]

I worked for Computerland in the early 80’s and this was one of the machines we handled. As I recall the power supply was a bit anemic and every time the disk system was accessed the image on the screen would shrink a bit. Ah, the good ol’ days!

[lwoodham]

I bought the first TRS80 Model 1 that I saw. I expanded it to a full blown system with expansion interface, 48K ram, and 4 floppy drives later on as the prices came down. I self taught myself Z80 assembly language programming on this system. I hand assembled my first program and it worked to light a specific pixal on the screen. Later on i bought the $29.95 assmebler and to this day I am amazed that my first assembly program worked on the first try. The system was a great learning tool. I do mainly assembly programming today and never took it in college, so I am proud of the fact that I am self taught.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Apple IIC bump.

My father-in-law still uses one for some of his business purposes.

[Dubya-M-Dees]

SYS 62738

Don’t ask me how I remember that.. i have no clue.

[Louis Foxwell]

I bought a REXXON computer in the late 70’s. Cost was 30K. It had 2 20” disks that held about .1K. Top of the line. Had to write all of the code. Still have some of the printouts. About 6’ of them.

[DManA]

Those things really were mechanical marvels. I’d love to have one to take apart and see what made them tick (literally tick).

[Slings and Arrows]

Tunnels of Doom forever!